Calendar of Events

This four-day celebration is scheduled around World Sanskrit Day, celebrated on the full moon of the Indian month of Shrāvaṇa, which falls on August 31 this year. The event is organized in honor of the ancient language of Sanskrit by Shanta Bulkin, co-founder of the East-West Sanskrit Institute based in California, with support by the School of Sanskrit at Ananda Ashram (part of ISEWU / International Schools of East-West Unity).

It is also to honor the extraordinary teaching legacy of Ashram Founder Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati (Shri Ramamurti) as well as of Professor Ram Karan Sharma, world-renowned Sanskrit scholar and poet.

You may register for any part of the program.

Suggested Tuition for In-Person Attendance --
For the full four days: $200; for single days: Fri, Sat or Sun $55; Mon $30
Suggested Tuition for Online Attendance only --
For the full four days: $130; for single days: Fri, Sat or Sun $40; Mon $20

Streamed via Ananda Ashram Live on Facebook and Ananda Ashram NY on YouTube.

Traditional Ashram Daily Programs:
In addition to the special events listed below, the following programs are offered daily to all, by open donation:
9:00 AM Meditation Program with Fire Ceremony and Mantras;
7:00 PM Meditation Program with Fire Ceremony and a Reading or a Sanskrit Verse.

World Sanskrit Day Celebration Special Programs:

Thu, Aug 31, 7:00 PM
Welcoming of Guests; Meditation & Fire Ceremony for Healing and World Peace

Thu, Aug 31, 8:00 PM
Divine Music – Laraaji Nadananda & Arji OceAnanda
Vocal and multi-instrumental.

Fri, Sep 1, 9:45 - 10:10 AM
Hymn to Brahman - Karuna Devi
Please download the file below to follow along on your device:
Hymn to Brahman verses 1-3.pdf

Fri, Sep 1, 10:15 AM - 12:15 PM
Tour of Ashram Campus & Forest Walk – Karmananda
Led by Ashram elder in charge of Buildings & Grounds, starting at the Blue Sky Center and ending at the Lake House in time for lunch.

Fri, Sep 1, 2:15 - 3:30 PM
The Concept of Dharma in the Bhagavad Gita – Bob Gilbo & Manasvini Leslie Freyburg

Fri, Sep 1, 3:45 - 5:00 PM
The Bija Mantras of Paninian Grammar – Anne Vial & Shanta Bulkin
Please download the file below to follow along on your device:
The Bija Mantras of Paninian Grammar.pdf

Fri, Sep 1, 8:00 PM
Dharma, Artha, Kama & Moksha – M.A. Jayashree & M.A. Narasimhan, via prerecorded video
Please download the file below to follow along on your device:
DrJayashree-Purushartha-AnandaAshram2023.pdf

Sat, Sep 2, 10:15 AM - 12:15 PM
Dharma in Artha & Artha in Dharma – Deven Patel
Reading Sanskrit Verse in Complex Ways.

Sat, Sept 2, 2:00 - 5:00 PM
A Framework for the Study of Sanskrit Immersion – Ken Pugh
Current research on how the brain processes sound, music and language.

Sat, Sep 2, 7:40 PM
A Sanskrit Verse Composed by Bharati Devi

Sat, Sep 2, 8:00 PM
Dance Drama Sequence from Kalidasa's Sanskrit Play Shakuntala – Satya Narayana Charka & Deven Patel
With explanation by Deven Patel.

Sun, Sep 3, 10:15 - 11:15 AM
Stotra Literature – Indira Bulkin
Chanting, meaning, and meter.
Please download the file below to download Indira's presentation:
Stotra Literature.pdf

Sun, Sep 3, 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
From Zero to Infinity – Naren Budhakar

Sun, Sep 3, 2:15 - 3:30 PM
Mantra, Inquiry & Sound – Manorama
Three simple keys to developing a meditation practice.

Sun, Sep 3, 3:45 - 5:00 PM
Art & the Yoga Sutras – Melissa Townsend
Working with Book Three.
Please download the file below to follow along on your device:
Art & the Yoga Sutras.pdf

Sun, Sep 3, 8:00 PM
Mantras & Melodies – Naren Budhakar & Indrajit Roy-Chowdhury
Voice & Tabla: Naren. Sitar: Indrojit

Mon, Sep 4, 10:15 AM - 12:30 PM
Panel Discussion on Dharma, Artha, Kama & Moksha – Participants:
Ken (Paras) Pugh, Naren Budhakar & Shanta Bulkin
Includes Q & A.

About the Presenters -- in order of appearance:

Laraaji Nadananda is an internationally recognized new-age visionary sound and recording artist. He performs New Music with modified electric zither/harp, voice, Kalimba and electronics. The uplifting music tends toward the celestial and is found to be trance-inducing. A regular and much appreciated contributor to Ananda Ashram programs since 1980, he received special initiation from Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati.

Arji OceAnanda Cakouros is a Sound Healer, musician, Usui Reiki Master, and a Dreamwork teacher with a private counseling/healing practice based in Niskayuna, NY. Her Hellenic background and deep interest in the ancient Asclepian and Pythagorean healing traditions have a strong presence in her work and life. She joins longtime collaborator Laraaji in sharing her heart space through a variety of gentle percussion and electronic instruments.

Karuna Devi met her Guru Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati in 1972 and has been a lover of Sanskrit and the practice and art of meditation since that time. She has also been deeply influenced by her study of Indian classical music with Acharya Roop Verma, and Zen Buddhist practice under the guidance of Eido Shimano Roshi. Karuna has served as a staff member and teacher at Ananda Ashram for many years. She specializes in Bhagavad Gita studies.

Karmananda studied Yoga and meditation with Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati from 1971 until 1992 and taught Yoga for many years. A long-time Ashram staff member, he is past President of the Board of Trustees of the Yoga Society of New York. Karmananda is also an experienced hiker who has been hiking local trails for 25 years.

Bob Gilbo studied Hindu philosophy with Ravi Ravindra under Satya Narayana Dasa of the Jiva Institute in Vrindavan, India, as well as with Edwin Bryant at Rutgers University. Bob edited Dr. Bryant's landmark translation and commentary on the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali (North Point Press, 2009). He has been studying Sanskrit since 2004.

Leslie Dillingham Freyberg, known at Ananda Ashram as Manasvini (the name bestowed upon her by Dr. R.K. Sharma), was drawn to the Sanskrit language while completing her certification as a teacher of Iyengar Yoga. She began her Sanskrit studies with Vyaas Houston of the American Sanskrit Institute and has taught Sanskrit in that method for fifteen years.

Anne Vial, from Nuremberg, Germany, works as a Literary Scout in Barcelona, Spain. She graduated from University College London (BA in Modern European Studies) and King's College, University of Cambridge (MPhil in Social and Economic History). She is blessed with wonderful Sanskrit teachers at Ananda Ashram and at East-West Sanskrit Institute. She also studies with Dr. M.A. Jayashree (Mysore, India), and with Dr. Elena Sierra (University of Barcelona). She loves chanting and metrics.

Shanta Bulkin met Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati at Ananda Ashram in the summer of 1972. Some 50 years later, it has become his passion to help promote the Sanskrit language as a Tool for Meditation, to support the concept of parampara, and to help continue this "Science of Vibration" for the next generation. He co-founded the East-West Sanskrit Institute in 2010, based in California, with his wife, Indira Bulkin.

Dr. M.A. Jayashree holds a Ph.D. in Sanskrit from Bangalore University (India) and has published books on Sanskrit, Ancient Sciences, Indian history, culture, and music. She produced several CDs on Veda, Yoga Sutra, and Bhagavad Gita as learning aids in Shrutiparampara, the traditional method of oral chanting. She is a co-founder of the Anantha Research Foundation, Mysore (India), whose purpose is to bring the wisdom of traditional Indian teachings to students worldwide.

Prof. M.A. Narasimhan is a research scholar specializing in the fields of ancient Indian culture, sciences, and philosophical systems. He is a yoga practitioner and teacher of Transcendental Meditation and is co-founder of the Anantha Research Foundation along with his sister, Dr M.A. Jayashree. Together they conduct workshops on chanting, and lecture on Yoga Philosophy and Sanskrit throughout Asia, America and Europe.

Prof. Deven M. Patel is a professor of Sanskrit and South Asian Culture in the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. He teaches courses in literature, philosophy, mythology, literary theory, and translation studies. Deven writes on the history and interpretation of literature and translates from Sanskrit to English. His published works include Text to Tradition: The Naiṣadhīyacarita and Literary Community in South Asia and Kavirājamārgam: The Way of the King of Poets (co-authored with R.V.S. Sundaram).

Dr. Ken Pugh has been the Director of Research at Haskins Laboratories since 2009. He holds faculty appointments at the University of Connecticut and at Yale University. Over the last two decades, his research program has employed integrated genetic, neuroimaging, and cognitive methods to explicate brain-based attention, memory and cognition. He has a special focus on typical and atypical language and on reading development in children. At the age of 16, Ken Pugh began seven years training as a Jain monk (living in the U.S. and in India). This early immersion in meditation practices and in the formal study of Jain philosophy (with its emphasis on non-violence, ethics, logic and epistemology) has shaped his approach to the study of the brain and mind.

Bharati Devi (Bharati E. Balmes) began her studies with Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati / Ramamurti S. Mishra, M.D. in 1968. She studied the Sanskrit language, Yoga-Vedanta philosophy, meditation and related subjects with him both in Europe and at his Ashrams in the U.S. Under his direction she began teaching in 1971. Bharati was named head of the School of Sanskrit at Ananda Ashram by Founder Shri Brahmananda. She also studied with renowned Sanskrit scholar and poet Dr. Ram Karan Sharma from 1997 to 2015.

Pandit Satya Narayana Charka is a distinguished Kathak dance performer, choreographer and teacher of international acclaim. His gurus include Pandit R.K. Shukla, Pandit Shambhu Maharaj, Shrimati Maya Rao and Pandit Birju Maharaj. Pandit S.N. Charka has won many prestigious awards, including first place in the All-India Dance Competition. Since the early 1970s, he has presented numerous traditional dance recitals as well as dance dramas, bringing myth to life for today's audiences. Since 1981, he has been the director of the East-West School of Dance, New York, based at Ananda Ashram, along with teaching activities in the wider New York metropolitan area and performing internationally.

Indira Bulkin met Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati in 1971 at Ananda Ashram in Monroe, NY. She immediately started studying and then teaching the Sanskrit language. In the early 1980s Guruji named her head of the Sanskrit Department at the Yoga Society of San Francisco, a position she held until 2010. She graduated from UC Berkeley in 1993 with a BA in the Sanskrit Language, before earning her Master’s Degree in Physical Therapy. She co-founded the East-West Sanskrit Institute in 2010 with her husband Shanta Bulkin.

Naren Budhakar was born in Pune city, a celebrated epicenter of Sanskrit in India, into a Brahmin family who valued knowledge above all endeavors. Naren’s grandfather was his very first Sanskrit teacher. Life has taken Naren in many directions, but clearly the sanskaras prevail: a science graduate by education and a musician by profession, he remains a student of Sanskrit with passion. Naren is co-director of the East-West School of Music at Ananda Ashram.

Manorama trained at Ananda Ashram with Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati. She furthered her studies in Sanskrit at Columbia University with Professor Ram Karan Sharma and then continued working with him at Ananda Ashram. She founded the Sanskrit Studies Method and Luminous Soul Method. Manorama shares Sanskrit and Yogic wisdom around the globe.

Melissa Townsend is an artist, writer, Sanskrit teacher, and internationally known psychic and astrologer. A Yoga practitioner since 1984, she teaches Yoga Philosophy and has translated, painted and published Books One and Two of The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A Visual Meditation, Samadhi Padah and Sadhana Padah. She is currently working on the translations and commentaries for Book Three, Vibhuti Padah, and Book Four, Kaivalya Padah.

Indrajit Roy-Chowdhury is a disciple of Sitar Maestro Pandit Subroto Roy-Chowdhury. Trained in the Senia Gharana, which maintains the Dhrupad origins of Indian Classical music, Indrajit strives to innovate while keeping a firm connection with the past. When completing his studies at Duke University, he received the Bennenson Award for the Arts to further his study of Indian Classical music. He has performed internationally including at Gyan Mancha (Kolkata), Hammerstein Ballroom (NYC) and Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.), and was featured on Indian National Television.

Nabin Koirala completed his Ph.D. in neuroscience at the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, in 2019. His focus was on neurological disorders, utilizing various non-invasive models of neuroimaging, and electrophysiological data, using different neuromodulation techniques. He joined Haskins Laboratories for his postdoctoral position and since 2023 has been working as a research scientist at the Yale Child Study Center. His current research focuses on the utilization and development of cutting-edge non-invasive techniques for understanding the neural basis of movement, speech, hearing, and reading related disorders.

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