Bhakti Yoga Shala

Bhakti Yoga Shala is a community built around kirtan, the Bhakti Yoga practice of devotional mantra chanting. It is directed by Govind Das, who has played harmonium for more than twenty years and teaches chants from the Bhakti tradition on it. The shala has no single address on the page. It gathers in other people's sacred places: a private retreat in Topanga Canyon, a residence in Palm Springs, Kripalu in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and above all India.

India is the spine of the story. The 2022 immersion, the first after a two-year pandemic pause, was the twelfth retreat Govind Das had led there, the first having begun in 2005. The October 2026 journey is his eighteenth, and his twenty-fourth trip to India since 1999. It moves from Rishikesh on the Ganges (October 16 to 22) to Kainchi Dham, home of Neem Karoli Baba's Kainchi Ashram (to October 26), and on to Vrindavan, which the pages call the kirtan capital of the world. The sample day starts with tea at 6:00, sunrise meditation, ninety minutes of sunrise kirtan and Bhakti Vinyasa flow. It ends with sunset kirtan, temple darshan and arati.

Closer to home, the New Year's Heart Medicine retreat in Topanga Canyon pairs Govind Das with Saul David Raye, a friend of more than 25 years. It is capped at about 24 people, with around 16 staying on the land in Mongolian yurts, rooms or the healing temple. Days hold yoga, meditation, and mantras such as the Hanuman Chalisa and Gayatri, with a sauna, pool, labyrinth and hiking trails nearby.

Jacqueline Michelle brings voice and live music to women's retreats, including Palm Springs with the Kara Love Project and Return to Self at Kripalu in September 2026. The shala also teaches online: a Zoom Kirtan Training Module 1, The Love Everyone Podcast, which takes the Hanuman Chalisa a line at a time, and a streaming library of classes and kirtan.