Workshops
Uttiṣṭhata jāgrata prāpya varān nibodhata
“Arise. Awake. Approach the great and learn.”
- Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.3.14
Philosophy • Practice
Music • Tradition
Welcome to Aquamarine Yoga’s online workshops where students come into direct contact with the living traditions of ancient Indian wisdom in a contemporary global context.
Yoga, Music, Language, Chanting, Cooking, Ayurveda, Beauty, Vedic Ritual, and more.
Led by respected teachers, scholars, artists, and practitioners, each workshop invites yoga students worldwide to connect more deeply with their practice by learning from those who are devoted to studying, practicing, evolving, and transforming with India’s incredible spiritual heritage.
Early registration for all workshops is encouraged as spots are limited to ensure all students can receive an interactive learning experience with space for individual questions and personalized attention.
September
Learn to Sing: Bhaja Govindam by SRI Adi SHANKARACHARYA
with Vidushi Dr. Surabhi Pusthakam
September 25th & 26th
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Friday, September 25th - Saturday, September 26th
10:00am–12:00pm EDT (NYC)
4:00–6:00pm CEST (PARIS)
7:30-9:30pm IST (MYSURU) -
Indian philosophy has never lived only on the page. It lives through sound — through recitation, chanting, poetry, rāga, and song. Learning to sing a text brings its words into the breath, voice, memory, and body.
In this workshop, Mysuru-based Carnatic vocalist Vidushi Dr. Surabhi Pusthakam will guide students in learning selections from the famous composition: Bhaja Govindam, inspired by the beloved rendition of M. S. Subbulakshmi, while introducing the fundamentals of Carnatic vocal culture and musicality.
Bhaja Govindam is one of the most celebrated devotional compositions attributed to Ādi Śaṅkarācārya, the great philosopher and guru of Advaita Vedānta. Poetic, musical, and deeply philosophical, its verses invite us to look beyond the fleeting concerns of worldly life to remember what is most important.
Its famous refrain, “Bhaja Govindaṁ, Bhaja Govindaṁ, Govindaṁ Bhaja Mūḍhamate” calls to us: “Turn toward Govinda, turn toward Govinda, turn toward Govinda, O deluded mind!” Govinda, a name of Kṛṣṇa and Viṣṇu, evokes the Divine or ultimate reality. In the context of Śaṅkara’s Advaita Vedānta, this turning toward the Divine can ultimately point beyond intellectual knowledge or even an external deity toward recognition of the one reality underlying both seeker and sought. In this workshop, Mysuru-based Carnatic vocalist Vidushi Dr. Surabhi Pusthakam will guide students in learning selections from Bhaja Govindam, inspired by the celebrated rendition of M. S. Subbulakshmi, while introducing the fundamentals of Carnatic vocal culture and musicality.
Live Online • Open to All Levels
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Vidushi Dr. Surabhi Pusthakam is a Mysuru-based Carnatic vocalist and an ‘A’ Grade artist of All India Radio, deeply rooted in the spiritual and musical culture of Mysuru, from a family of longstanding temple tradition within the city.
As a performer and teacher, Dr. Pusthakam brings the richness and sophistication of Carnatic music into a friendly and accessible learning environment, inviting students to experience how music can transmit spiritual philosophy — transforming a text into something we can hear, remember, sing, enjoy, and embody.
Follow Vidushi Dr. Surabhi Pusthakam on her YouTube channel.
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Learn to sing selected verses of Bhaja Govindam
Explore their meaning and philosophical message
Learn introductory principles of Carnatic vocal music
Discover how chanting can become musical, devotional and embodied
Draw inspiration from M. S. Subbulakshmi’s celebrated rendition
Develop clearer Sanskrit pronunciation through song
Discover Ādi Śaṅkarācārya and the text’s connection with Advaita Vedānta
Experience singing as svādhyāya, spiritual study
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International Rate — $60 USD
For participants living and working in the USA, Europe, and comparable economies.India Rate — ₹3,000
For participants living and working in India.We offer location-based pricing to make these workshops more accessible across different economies. If you live elsewhere, or somewhere between these pricing contexts, please choose the rate that most closely reflects the economy where you live and work.
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2 Live Online Classes (Total 4 Hours) with personalized attention from the teacher
Digital Handouts (Musical Notation & Text Verses)
Recordings of Live Classes
October
Karma, PLace, And Possibility: Astrology & Astrocartography as tools for Conscious Living
with Rajat Khurana
October 23rd & 24th
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Friday and Saturday, October 23rd and 24th
6:00–7:30 PM IST
8:30–10:00 AM EDT
2:30–4:00 PM CEST -
What can our astrological birth chart tell us about the patterns we carry into this life? Why do certain places feel like home, while others challenge, energize, unsettle or transform us? And how can astrology help us explore these questions without reducing our lives to fate?
Join Rajat Khurana for a two-day conversational workshop exploring Vedic astrology, karma, and astrocartography. Rather than a formal lecture, these sessions are designed as an open and interactive inquiry, with space for questions, personal examples, discussion, and reflection.
DAY 1 · KARMA & THE BIRTH CHART
What is astrology actually mapping? We’ll explore the birth chart as a way of recognizing karmic patterns, tendencies, life lessons and possibilities, while asking an essential question: how can we work with astrology without becoming fatalistic or assuming everything is predetermined?
DAY 2 · PLACE & POSSIBILITY
Then we take the chart out into the world. What is astrocartography, and why might we experience ourselves so differently in different places? We’ll explore how particular locations can bring different planetary influences and aspects of ourselves to the foreground, and how place might relate to career, relationships, creativity, wellbeing, spiritual growth and the beginning of a new chapter.
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Rajat Khurana is a sustainability entrepreneur, hospitality professional, cafe founder, Vedic astrology practitioner, and one of the founding partners of Mud Story in Mysuru. Originally from Delhi, Rajat comes from a background in travel and aviation, where he worked as an airline manager before exchanging corporate life for a more hands-on exploration of sustainable living in South India.
Rajat’s work spans operations, hospitality, ecological systems, and hands-on sustainable woodworking, with an emphasis on creating spaces that are functional, durable, resource-conscious, and in harmony with the land. Through Mud Story, he works to advance alternative approaches to sustainable and off-grid living. He is also one of the people behind Gokulam’s beloved Organic Cafe & Bakehouse, where food, community, hospitality, and sustainability come together over wholesome meals.
At Mud Story Retreats, Rajat oversees operations, logistics, and on-the-ground hospitality, drawing on both his professional background in travel and his practical experience building and operating sustainable spaces.
Rajat is also a dedicated student and practitioner of Vedic astrology and astrocartography. Through personal consultations, he helps people explore their birth charts and the patterns reflected in relationships, work, health, and life direction. His work with astrocartography extends that inquiry to place, exploring how different locations around the world may resonate with an individual’s chart.
Warm, conversational, and grounded, Rajat approaches astrology not as a rigid prediction of the future, but as a framework for reflection, awareness, and possibility. His interests in travel, sustainability, hospitality, and astrology ultimately share a common curiosity: how and where we choose to live, and how those choices might bring us into greater alignment.
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Participants will leave with a foundational understanding of the birth chart and planetary influences, an introduction to reading the major lines on an astrocartography map, and a new lens through which to reflect on the geography of their own lives: the places they’ve called home, the places that have challenged or transformed them, and the places they feel mysteriously drawn toward.
Come curious. Bring your questions, your stories, and your sense of possibility.
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International Rate — $60 USD
For participants living and working in the USA, Europe, and comparable economies.India Rate — ₹3,000
For participants living and working in India.We offer location-based pricing to make these workshops more accessible across different economies. If you live elsewhere, or somewhere between these pricing contexts, please choose the rate that most closely reflects the economy where you live and work.
-
2 Live Online Classes (Total 4 Hours) with personalized attention from the teacher
Digital Handouts
Recordings of Live Classes
Workshop Teasers & Testimonials
“As milk flows for the nourishment of the calf, so does Nature act for the liberation of Puruṣa.”
— Īśvarakṛṣṇa, Sāṅkhya Kārikā 57

