Satchidananda Ashram-Yogaville

Satchidananda Ashram-Yogaville^® is a vibrant spiritual center founded by Sri Swami Satchidananda. A unique Yoga community, it serves as an oasis for spiritual unfoldment, benefiting residents and guests alike. Situated on the banks of the James River in Buckingham, Virginia with the Blue Ridge Mountains as a backdrop, it encompasses over 600 acres of serene, wooded landscape. Five sacred sites, including LOTUS, provide a variety of options for meditation, prayer and spiritual gatherings. Our members have come together from a wide range of backgrounds and nationalities to live the simple yet profound teachings of Integral Yoga®, based on maintaining our natural condition of an easeful body, peaceful mind and useful life. Our mission is to practice, live, and impart the Integral Yoga teachings of Sri Swami Satchidananda to experience Supreme Peace and Joy, and to share that with one and all.

This beautiful setting provides a natural, healthy, and uplifting environment to the support the physical, mental, and spiritual well-being of all who come here. Guests are welcomed to get a taste of the yogic lifestyle and can join the residents as much as they would like in the group practices and vegetarian meals (with much of the food coming from our own garden). Those who particularly come for the purpose of restoring themselves and decompressing from the stresses of their daily lives can come for group or personal retreats. With the support of experienced yogis, retreatants are able to discover the inner resources to face life’s challenges with poise and balance.

The Integral Yoga Academy was founded to share the vast teaching of yoga with all those interested. Through this teaching arm of the Ashram, many excellent and renowned teachers offer weekend workshops and longer programs on all the various aspects of yoga. For more experienced practitioners of yoga, the Academy provides an ideal environment for training yoga teachers. People don’t just learn about yoga, but deeply immerse themselves in the yogic life, free from the distractions of their normal lives. Our trainers, many of them swamis (monks) and ministers, have decades of experience in their field of expertise. Our graduates don’t just leave as solid yoga teachers, but as living examples of the benefits of yoga.

We extend you a warm and hearty welcome to come and see what life at the Ashram is like, and how yoga can restore you to radiant health, calmness of mind, and vibrant energy!

If You Want to See Heaven...
By H. H. Sri Swami Satchidananda

It's impossible for us to transform the whole world overnight. We have to start building a better world somewhere. That is the purpose of Yogaville. Let one little village become a beautiful one, a heaven on earth. Of course, that doesn't mean that you should not do anything for other parts of the world. But remember, charity begins at home.

That is why in Yogaville we are trying to lead a life filled with caring and sharing—and a life with the recognition of our spiritual unity. We are trying to prove in Yogaville—in this one little miniature world—that people from various places come together and can live together harmoniously as one family. If we can't make this little world a happy place to live, a harmonious place to live, then there is no point in talking about global harmony or global peace.

Here, in Yogaville, all are in good company: the company of like-minded people seeking to live easeful, peaceful, and useful lives. If you are in this kind of good company, your mind is more calm. When your mind is more calm, you experience your own inner Self. It's as simple as that. Those who find it difficult to follow any spiritual practices will find an immediate benefit by living in such an environment. They will get great benefit just by leaving the bad company behind, just by changing the environment, and by finding the good company.

That is the purpose of Yogaville. Here we are as one family. We came from various places. We have various tastes, various temperaments, various faces, various beliefs, but we are living here as one family, helping each other. Everyone is growing and helps others to grow. It takes a lot of understanding, a lot of cooperation, and coordination. That's why, when I travel around the globe, I say, "If you want to see a heaven, come to Yogaville."

Om Shanthi, Shanthi, Shanthi