ABOUT ARKAYA

Arkaya Awareness Centre: A Gurukulam

Arkaya Awareness Centre is a worldwide online school rooted in the traditional Yoga & Tantra of South India and modelled after the gurukula system. A gurukulam is a community of students who have an ongoing relationship with the guru or teacher. This ongoing relationship creates the conditions for deeper assimilation and embodiment of the teachings in the spirit of traditional Yoga & Tantra.

Arkaya Awareness Centre is the school operating under Arkaya Foundation in both India and Canada. In Canada, we are a federally registered not-for-profit based out of Vancouver, BC. In India, we are a registered charitable organization based out of Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

What We Do

Arkaya builds evolutionaries and conscious communities around the world. Arkaya’s offerings are available to people worldwide to provide the traditional teachings that Yogacharini Maitreyi is steeped in.

We provide a wide variety of online programs and some in-person workshops, retreats, and corporate / organizational trainings. This is presented in a modern context devoid of dogma and filled with love and grace.

Through our online programs, in-person events, learning resources, and our YouTube channel ArkayaTV we empower people to connect with their highest self and rise to their full potential.

Mission

Our mission is to build evolutionaries and conscious communities around the world using the "Arkaya Full-Spectrum Well-Being Model." Bringing classical Yogic and Tantric wisdom and practices into a modern, accessible context, we empower individuals, organizations, and communities to connect with their highest Self and rise to their full potential. We aim to ENABLE practitioners to imbibe the ethos of authentic Yoga, Including:

  • Self-awareness, self-responsibility, and Self-realization

  • Integration of the full human being with the transpersonal dimensions of consciousness

  • Multi-dimensional healing

  • Ashtanga Yoga - The 8-limbed path as laid out by sage Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras - which includes asana, pranayama and dhyana (meditation)

  • Mindfulness

  • Understanding Yoga's sister sciences from the Vedic culture

  • Seeing and processing so called unhealthy emotions and understanding the message they bring

  • Connecting with the bliss consciousness

  • And more!

Vision

The Arkaya vision is to have practitioners and teachers around the world who bring healing, peace, joy, and community connection to their corner of the world.

Our long-term vision is to create an Arkaya retreat centre/ashram and a fully sustainable ecological township on the Sunshine Coast of BC in Canada and in Tamil Nadu, India.

History

Arkaya is one of the names of the sun in Sanskrit, which means light, inspiration, and awesomeness. Arkaya came into being in 2000 in Chennai, India, when Yogacharini Maitreyi was called to dedicate more of her time to a Life in Light.  Maitreyi was drawn to the yogic life as a young child and started teaching holistic yoga in 1997. Arkaya was born when Maitreyi realized she needed to create a sanctuary for all to rise above old Self defeating habits that did not serve source.

From Chennai, Arkaya started trainings in various cities in India, including Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Calcutta. The teachings soon expanded to countries like Sweden, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Then, when Maitreyi became a permanent resident of Canada in 2005, the teachings spread to North America as well.

Maitreyi now lives on the ancestral lands of the Coast Salish peoples in Vancouver, BC, where the Arkaya school is growing and thriving. In 2020, the Arkaya school moved all online. Now our programs are available to people around the world from the comfort of their homes. Arkaya Yoga & Tantra is taught by Arkaya teachers in communities in many parts of the world.

Who Arkaya is For

Anybody with a body, emotions and mind will benefit from these timeless life sciences!

People are drawn to Arkaya’s programs and classes because of the community connection and the multidimensional benefits it brings. Yoga and Tantra are life sciences that are carried not just onto the mat, but throughout our lives. No matter who you are or what you do, these practices and way of life can benefit you.

The Arkaya practices are accessible and meet you where you are at. The community is made up of people from various walks of life and across age groups. Teachers, students, CEOs, prisoners, monks, business owners, tradespeople, parents, children… everybody needs this wisdom, self awareness and healing!

Life is a dream, an endless sea of possibilities.
Let me choose an ideal, not a fantasy.
Let me move towards life, not disharmony.
Let me not create a nightmare but a beautiful dream.
Let me love with fullness, yet detach and if needed grieve.
Let my belly ache only because I have laughed so much,
At myself and life’s idiosyncrasies.
If I must be part of this leela, (cosmic play) then let what unfolds be a romantic comedy.

- Yogacharini Maitreyi