Doing yoga in the Himalayas

After their first trip to India, many have returned for a second and third time. Many begin to visit the ISKCON D.C. temple for festivals and kirtans. Some start to chant Hare Krishna regularly and associate with devotees.

“They’re addicted,” Gopi says. “Of course, not everyone’s going to come to Krishna consciousness. But the seed has been planted.”

Gopi’s next plan is to expand her yoga tourism by taking groups to spiritual sites of other traditions as well. This September, she and kirtan artist Gaura Vani will host a retreat in Assissi, Italy, and explore the teachings of St. Francis, whom Srila Prabhupada described as having “first-class God consciousness.”

“Every year or two we want to go to a different spiritual place in the world, where we’ll excavate the teachings or the spirituality of that particular land and how it applies to our lives,” Gopi says.

She’ll also stick to her regular India retreat. In March next year, she plans to take a group of yoga students to Mayapur, the birthplace of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, and Jagannath Puri, where its founder Chaitanya Mahaprabhu resided.

Gopi says she loves taking her yoga students on tour because she can give them ‘a fix’ of all five most potent devotional activities as described by Rupa Goswami—residing in a holy place, worshiping the Deity of the Lord, reciting the Srimad Bhagavatam, serving the devotees, and chanting the Hare Krishna mantra—in just two weeks.

Just as important, she feels, are the deep friendships that are established during the tours.

“I develop friendships with them, on a spiritual basis,” she says. “It’s a soul connection. And I think every human being is seeking that soul connection, based around Krishna, based around God.”