About the Founder

Yogacharini Maitreyi

SACRED ARTIST / FILM MAKER | TRAINER and SPEAKER | HEALER and HOLISTIC COACH

Yogacharini Maitreyi is a practical Mystic and the founder of Arkaya. She has taught a wide variety of people, from Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka, prisoners in Sweden, an all Islamic group in Bangladesh, emerging practitioners in Dubai, seasoned practitioners in Hong Kong, yoga teachers in Vancouver to children and CEOs in India and internationally for the last 25 years. She brings a calm and lightness to the teachings & classes and encourages people to tap into play. She is a bridge between many worlds. She is both an artist and scientist where she asks those in her space to dance to their internal rhythm and become both the experiment and the experimentor. She teaches tools to bridge the right and left brain, logical and lateral, poetry and prose, material and spiritual savouring all that life offers as well as refining ones senses and sensibilities.

Maitreyi = A Sanskrit name that means the sun who is a friend to all. Also the feminine version of Maitreya or the compassionate one.

Mystic = One who has experienced and seeks oneness. Practical = In this context it means learning to live in the world with healthy boundaries and not mistaking loss of boundaries through trauma as oneness

She has been given many titles like Yoga Shiromani (gem) ,Yoga Chemmal (expert) and Yoga acharini (guide) since 1997 in India, for creating awareness about the science and art of Yoga and Classical Sattvic Tantra for over 20 years. She was also one of the youngest to be invited to be on the Advisory Board of the World Yoga Council in Europe in 2006 and also spoke at their conference in Rome.

 Sattvic Tantra = subtle energetic and emotional awareness principles. ( Kindly do not confuse real Tantra with the hypersexualised western versions)

When in Vancouver, she trains teachers & healers in the 500 hr Arkaya teacher training. This is a self awareness and self discovery program over 2 years for better assimilation.She also facilitates teacher trainings and workshops in India

The groups are small to allow for a depth of understanding, most importantly depth of connection, integration and assimilation so they can embody the principles. She is inspired by those who are willing to commit, long term, to a life of refinement, kindness , healthy boundaries and expansive living.  The sessions address ones multilayered stress, ones multidimential existence and takes a multisensory approach. Her workshops always bring in an integrated full specturm experience of life.

Maitreyi has trained many top companies like Ford, Lever Brothers, Nasscom, Rane, L&T, Symbiosis Institute of Management, Radisson group etc. and consults on wellness issues, holistic health and organic management. She trains them in the science and art of SELF/STRESS MANAGEMENT through ‘The Magick of Mindfulness” a one to two day Playshop. Here one can tap into their essential bliss as well as manifest in alignment with the highest. She is passionate about holistic self development and does life enhancement coaching for top management and decision makers. She enables them to see the need for managing the body, emotions, mind and resources effectively and creatively. Her individual sessions include energy and chakra assessments.

She has been a key note speaker for audiences of 800 and above and trained over 60 companies. She was also a consultant for the Madras Management Association in 2004 and was instrumental in designing and organising a series of 20 Health awareness workshops for their members. She believes a holistic lifestyle can infiltrate all walks of life.

She has appeared on national channels like Doordarshan and international channels like Star Vijay, NDTV, Channel M of Vancouver etc. giving talks and sessions on the holistic aspects of yoga.

In her younger years she studied Visual communication where she worked on many commercials, for television production with companies like UTV and also films for big production houses like Canal plus. She started her own production house and won advt club awards. She decided to let go of her company to her business partner and further immerse herself in the yogic life.

She wanted her artistic expression to be aligned with her values and expressed it through her writings , poetry and yantra paintings. She was a columnist for the Economic times and wrote a column called Pace Maker for The Hindu in India. She has written articles for various magazines and journals on the joy of yoga.

Media Features

Maitreyi is a versatile writer with over 100 published articles in Management Mandate, Times Wellness, Yoga life, Life Positive, Heritage Healing, Indian Express, Asana Journal etc.

Her versatility is seen in the fact that she has written scholarly articles that have been quoted as recommended readings in yoga to short humorous articles. She has also written verse for the Agora in vancouver as well as an article for Common ground. Maitreyi is in the process of compiling a book of verse called The Mystic in the Mundane

Maitreyi is open to connections that reflect the divine. She shares more and teaches less. She exudes the energy of a friend as her name implies. She has taken many through the healing process, including herself. She is dedicated to training trainers and has inspired many to refine their lives. She teaches the Foundation course or the Yoga Bija course to ground people in the yogic principles. She also shares her insights and trains teachers groups.

Yogacharini Maitreyi has taught and done many years of seva at the Ananda Ashram. She has founded The Arkaya foundation for children living in slums in Chennai/India where they learn to have fun cleaning up and cultivating a holistic and healthy lifestyle. They learn this through song and play. Their interventions are focused on prevention and healing rather than just cure.

Maitreyi studied film in university and worked on various films and documentaries from 1993 to 2000. She holds a degree in Visual Communication and has worked for many Indian and International companies like UTV, Goumond-Boreales of France and East-West Productions of Canada in Filmmaking. She was also running her production house before she decided to dedicate more time to teaching yoga. She integrates her filmmaking skills into exploring the human spirit.

Maitreyi is originally from South India and has trained there for many years in Classical Yoga. Her first guru was her grandfather who inculcated her love for a refined life. She also studied in the Shivananda ashram in 1997 and for many years in the Ananda ashram. She was given the title of ‘Yogacharini’ (guide, life coach) in the Gurukulum of Dr. Swami Gitananda. She demystifies and simplifies spirituality and teaches ancient wisdom in the modern context. (She plays many roles as stated above which is a practical way of expression for the material world. Her being radiates beyond the confines of words.)

 Some Organisations Maitreyi has trained
Radisson Group
Lever Brothers- Bangladesh
Livshalsa-Sweden
World Yoga And Meditation Congress- Srilanka 
Symbiosis Institute Of Management-Pune
Ford India Ltd
Cognizant Technology Solutions Ltd
Madras Management Association
Dakshin Speakers (Onkyo)
United India Insurance
Tamil Nadu Electricity Board
Karnataka State Chartered Accountants Association
NEG Micon
Scope International
Satyam Computers
EID Parry Ltd
GEA Energy Systems
HCL Computers
UCAL Fuel Systems
TCS Ltd
Bayar TPU Ltd.
NASSCOM
Grundfos
Larsen & Tubro
V A Tech Wabag, Indian railways, Entrepreneurs Organisation, etc

In Vancouver

EO

Phoenix yoga previously called Karma teachers

One yoga

Semperviva

UBC

Langara college

Ayurveda conference

Indian summer fest

Kirtan Vancouver

Institute of Holistic Nutrition

Yoga Outreach and various other events

She gives talks and workshops at various studios on decolonising yoga, cultural appropriation and solutions. She explains the difference between Yoga and exercise, an indigenous paradigm and an industrial paradigm and what it means to embody the wisdom teachings as a young elder. She has taught subjects like the “Deeper Dimensions of Yoga”, Invoke and Evoke your inner divine feminine”, “ Create a body of light”, “Sanskrit appreciation and pronounciation for yoga teachers” , “Tantra - Living Presence and Prana”, “Relationship healing and emotional resilience”, “ Stress and self management”, “ Yogic Nourishment”

Maitreyi’s Message

“A loving welcome to you, I have existed, escaped, questioned, explored, and live so that life may never tire me or become tired of me. The journey has been fascinating so far and continues to get more subtle and enjoyable. Arkaya awareness centre is a space where I can allow the voice of self-awareness to be heard. It is an open space that allows you to be yourself yet structured so that you can better yourself. I invite you to accept yourself completely and breathe into yourself so all that is unnecessary just melts away.

I invite you to journey through the peaks and valleys, the joy and pain, the goodness and misery and come through it wiser and with more enthusiasm. As the saying goes nine times down and nine times up. “There is no shame in falling, only in remaining there.” Pace yourself and heal. Be centered in your Self, not self centered. Learn when to have conscious boundaries as well as when to soften them. Embrace all of you yet dissolve trauma trips.

If there is some habit, pattern, tendency we see is dysfunctional, then we need to believe we can rise above it. Never be afraid of dreaming of a life of love, ease, peace and dignity. Reach for the stars yet let your roots connect to the earth.” May we all master the art of effortless effort.

Spirituality is honouring our humanity - Yogacharini Maitreyi

SOUL DANCE
 
As I connected with you
I felt my heart flutter
To sense your depth
What a delight
To feel your love for the light
 
I sighed , as my body relaxed
Into knowing you did not want to possess
That you felt the Great Spirit in you
You felt the unfettered
All encompassing magnitude
 
You recognized that beautiful spark in you
And hence saw that in me
In that recognition lay true beauty
The beauty of untainted love
Where you can truly dance with me
 
Dedicated to all who want to dance in the light and in lightness with another.

-Maitreyi

THE ETERNAL EMBRACE

There is a space
Where I’m neither man nor woman,
Young nor old

No colour, no race, not even a face
All I feel is my heart bursting with love

Holding the divine and you, in a long warm embrace

This poem was written by Maitreyi in her late twenties when she started travelling and teaching in many countries. She saw that all of us longed to return home. That space of safety , ease , creative expression and love.

ROSEMARY

I peep out my window 

To say hello to you

Oh beautiful rosemary

Whose essence I’ve known

I’ve asked you before

For what you need

And what I could 

take of you

Those two stems

Hanging right there

Were the ones 

you wanted me to have

So those I took

To savour for the day

And the rest of you

To savour for eternity

When I was in my early teens my grandfather introduced me to a book titled "The secret life of Plants" The book seconded what I had intuitively know. That we can communicate with plants. That we can feel abundant and nourished just by connecting to plants and not grab but take just want we need and what the plant feels is right for us to take. This was the sensitivity of ayurvedic herbalists who harvested plants. It came with the blessing of the plant. This poem is dedicated to Tricia who used to love to bake yam fries with rosemary from the garden, with me. I am the godmother of her kids and an ardent foodie advocating healthy ayurvedic organic meals. I love both fasting and feasting.