Roots of Bhaktī
North India Pilgrimage
1st - 12th october 2026
Your heart already said yes, it’s just waiting for your permission.
Within every person lives a devotional intelligence, an innate ability to meet life with sincerity, reverence, and deep trust.
This pilgrimage refines that orientation. Over 11 nights and 12 days, we immerse in living culture, ancient practices, and devotion that bring this capacity into lived experience.
This is Bhaktī
Through practice, ritual, and sustained devotion, you will shift from trying to control life to being in honest and loving relationship with it.
भक्ति भक्ति भक्ति
Bhaktī Yoga is the yoga of the heart. The path of surrender. Of seeing the Divine not just in temples, but in the smile of a stranger, the river you sit beside, and the emotions that arise in any given moment.
To walk the path of Bhaktī is to move through life with grace and intention, to lead from the heart, and to feel the pull towards something truer, and be courageous enough to follow it.
You will see yourself more clearly than you have in years.
There’s something about being in India that cuts through the mental clutter.
These sacred lands have a way of reflecting your essence back to you, without the roles, expectations, or the performance we default to in daily life. It shows you who you are underneath it all.
A pilgrimage is a deliberate removal from the familiar patterns that keep the mind in charge of everything.
When you step onto land that has been prayed on, walked on, wept on, and surrendered to for thousands of years, your energetic body doesn’t get to pretend it’s unaffected. It becomes the catalyst for change.
What is a pilgrimage?
Temples are sanctified spaces that aren’t just pretty and symbolic, they’re extremely functional. Built on precise energetic points and charged through centuries of ritual, devotion, mantra, and presence, temples act like battery packs that store energy. When we enter these temples, that energy is transferred into us.
On an energetic level, this stirs the prāṇa (life force) out of its usual loops. Old karmic grooves; those unconscious habits, reactions, and identities we keep replaying, start to loosen.
The field you’re in, the practices you are doing, the people you are surrounding yourself with during this experience, it’s all effortlessly stronger than your mind games. India has a way of gently, and sometimes hilariously bluntly, short-circuiting the stories you’ve been telling yourself, and this is where transformation begins.
P.S How beautiful is our morning practice location in Haridwar!!
India is a felt experience.
It’s the awe of the way a temples ancient architecture reflects in the sun.
It’s the smell of fresh flowers ready to be offered in these temples.
It’s the unexpected freshness of slipping into real, layered conversation with someone you’ve only just met.
It’s the warmth of masala chai gently enlivening your system.
It’s the curiosity of ancient mythology and ways of living that seem so beyond what we know to be true.
It’s the joy in a 0.5 second smile from an elder that imprints itself in your mind forever.
This experience doesn’t send you back as someone that you aren’t, it sends you back as a truer YOU. Expect a quieter mind, a deeper inner knowing, and a heard-led steadiness that allows you to move through life with grace.
Saying yes to India is actually saying yes to:
•Discovering new parts of yourself
•Learning to trust the next step even if it’s unknown
•Letting Curiosity lead instead of fear
•Expanding your capacity for love, adventure, awe and spicy food
•Letting your heart unclench after years of guarding
•Remembering what devotion feels like
• Choosing a dharmic way of living
• Feeling the sacred pulse of life again
• Being seen by the world
•No longer postponing your dreams
•Courage that finally feels louder than doubt
• Rewriting the next chapter from a place of inner knowing
• Opening to abundance without apologising
• Choosing yourself, fully
What You’ll Experience
✔ Daily breath + kriya + mantra practices beside sacred rivers, on rooftops and overlooking the mountains.
✔ A direct experience into the energies of both Shakti and Shiva temples
✔ A contrast of unbounded silence, and expansive chaos
✔ Shared human devotion that dissolves isolation
✔ An inner return to the Self that you know sits beneath the noise
Why India, Why Now
India doesn’t meet you where you wish you were. It meets you exactly where you are.
The temples, rivers, streets, and daily rituals are not curated for tourists, they are lived. This is what makes the experience confronting, beautiful, and deeply grounding. Devotion is a full force living reality here.
A pilgrimage in India is a radical act of surrendering control, while letting curiosity and courage lead the way. Yes there is chaos, but what sits beneath it all is something far more intelligent than the thinking mind usually sees. It’s a felt experience at its finest.
How This Pilgrimage Is Held
This journey is intentionally structured so the practical details are held for you, allowing your energy to stay with the experience itself.
You are guided through:
daily embodied practice (breath, kriya, mantra, movement) to stay regulated and present.
ritual ceremony and temple visits rooted in lived Bhaktī.
group spaces that prioritise maturity, responsibility, and integration
enough spaciousness to actually digest what you’re experiencing
This is about creating conditions for lasting and sustained internal shift.
Where are we going on this pilgrimage?
Over 11 nights and 12 days, we will journey to four sacred towns:
Rishikesh, Haridwar, Nainital and Kainchi Dham
Rishikesh:
There’s a steady, grounding energy in Rishikesh. Nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, the town has this calm undercurrent, you can feel a quiet Shiva presence here.
Devotion isn’t something you have to go looking for in this place, watching how locals relate to the water is its own teaching in living with intention and sincerity.
This is where our pilgrimage begins.
We will have three days to land, ground, and settle into the energy of this beautiful country through Kriya, Breathwork, Yoga Asana, and Mantra. We’ll also explore temples, visit ancient meditation caves, and take part in Puja and Yagya ceremonies + so much more.
Notable Exploration: Opening Yagya Fire Ceremony, Beatles Ashram, Vashishta Cave, Practicing yoga by Ma Ganga river, Mala Making Workshop, Ganga Aarti Evening Ceremony, Gayatri Puja
Haridwar:
Haridwar is full-power devotion. You just step right into the heart of it.
Our time in Haridwar will be centred around the Divine Mother energy of Shree Shree Anandamayi Ma.
Anandamayi Ma was one of India’s most respected female saints, not because she set out to be anything special, but because her presence affected people in a way they couldn’t explain. She lived an incredibly simple life, yet carried a depth of stillness and compassion that drew people from all over the world.
Staying at her ashram in Haridwar will give you a direct experience of this: a place built around presence, simplicity, and quiet inner strength.
Through devotional practice, we’ll start to crack open to the sweet nectar that India has to offer, this comes through the merging of polarities (yes, think; divine smells of flowers meets a waft of urine on the streets haha).
Notable Exploration: Famous Har Ki Pauri for Ganga Aarti, Anandamayi Ma’s Ashram, Optional Sacred dip in Ganga, Kirtan, Kriya Practice, Visiting Shakti Peeth Devi Temple
Nainital:
This land is held by Śakti, tucked gently into the Kumaon hills, Nainital has the uncanny charm of a European lakeside village; cobblestone calm and alpine air.
We will explore another Shakti Peeth Devi temple here, Naina Devi - nayana meaning “eyes” or “vision”, anchors this place as a centre of inner seeing.
Time here is intentionally lighter in structure, with space at the lake to integrate, reflect, and let perception sharpen without force.
Nainital supports clarity and intuition simply by removing excess. Less noise, fewer distractions, and a natural sense of orientation returns.
Notable Exploration: Shree Maa Naina Devi Temple, boat ride on the lake
Kainchi Dham:
Our most subtle stop of the pilgrimage will be Kainchi Dham, a place that asks us to dissolve the western model of thinking that needs something to be big and shiny to be impactful.
Here, we will have the absolute blessing to receive darshan (the sacred act of seeing and being seen), at the home of Neem Karoli Baba, often called Maharaj-ji.
Maharaj-ji was a highly respected Indian saint known for again, his simplicity, his humour, and the way he taught through presence more than words. His whole approach was practical: love everyone, serve everyone, and remember God.
He’s also the guru of Krishna Das and Ram Dass, two people who helped share his teachings with the West.
Maharajji is said to be an avatar (incarnation) of Lord Hanuman, and with that, the energy in and around the ashram is almost indescribable. There is a tender and loving strength here.
Notable Exploration: Neem Karoli Baba Ashram Darshan + Aarti, Alphine open air kriya practice
Rishikesh:
Our pilgrimage comes full circle in Rishikesh with two spacious days dedicated to grounding and integration. We will spend 3 nights in our own oasis 45 minutes outside Rishikesh, through gentle practice, Ayurvedic treatments, and time to truly land, we allow everything we’ve experienced to settle into the body and nervous system.
This is time for reflection, not just on where we’ve been, but on how we choose to move forward in life from this more elevated, clear, and embodied state.
This is the integrated practice meets and merges with life.
Notable experiences: Ayurvedic Massage, Integrative workshops, Longer practices, group discussions
What will our daily practice look like?
At the heart of White Sun teachings is practice steeped in the wisdom of both the Vedic and Tantric tradition. This includes the practice of Kriya, Breathwork, Mantra, Hatha, Somatics and Yin Yoga.
No two days are the same. Some mornings unfold in long, expansive practices on the rooftop; others are quiet, seated moments beside Gaṅgā Mā. While other days we’ll be tested by truely living this practice off the mat.
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A blend of homestay, ashram-style and hotel accommodation, each place carefully chosen and personally experienced by Anabel.
Either twin share or private rooms available.
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We will have our own private bus and driver for the entire journey taking us safely to each place.
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A deeply loved part of the pilgrimage.
Through an intentional 2-hour workshop, you’ll choose from high-quality crystal beads and hand-craft your own mala. These sacred beads are then offered and blessed in the waters of Ganga Mā, infusing your mala with prayer, presence, and living intention.
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All breakfast included
6x Lunch
11x Dinner
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Entry to Beatles Ashram and cost for Yagya/Puja ceremonies are included
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A special goodie bag full of local products and items to support the experience, as well as a White Sun pilgrimage tee!
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In our final days of integration, you’ll receive a deeply nourishing Ayurvedic massage, supporting the body’s natural capacity to integrate and gently settle the nervous system.
What is Included
What is not Included
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International Flights to India are not included. Airport transfers can be arranged through our trusted drivers though.
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Visa is required for entry to India.
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Tips for drivers, temples, porters, and local support staff, given at your discretion and according to local custom.
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Laundry, snacks, offerings or personal souvenirs along the way
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Travel insurance is recommended and should be arranged independently to cover medical care, trip disruptions, cancellations, and personal belongings during your time in India.
A note from your host, Anabel
Spending time in India has no doubt changed my life, it has ushered me into the most heart centred place I’ve ever known. India has this way of completely cracking you open to life itself- yes to the beauty, joy, peace, and awe, but also the pain, heartache, grief and confusion, and yet somehow even within this experience of full spectrum human emotions, I’ve felt more content than ever before.
Diamonds are made under pressure, and that’s why they shine so bright. When we meet life fully, in all it’s complexity, contrast and depth, what is created (or really just rememebered) from within is something so unwavering, so innate, and so YOU, that it really does make you unstoppable in living your most heart centred and expansion life.
I have wholeheartedly and (lovingly) relentlessly dedicated the last 7 years to this practice, this tradition and these teachings, and it would be my absolute honour to guide you into this exploration of both your inner and outer worlds too.
If you’ve got any questions, or would like to chat further before securing your spot, reach out via email!
With love, Anabel
INVESTMENT
All prices are in Australian Dollars
Twin Share
$3,000
Limited spaces left
Private Room
$3,300
Only 3 rooms left
Payment & Deposit Policy
To secure your place on the pilgrimage, a non-refundable deposit of $500 is required. Once your deposit is received, Anabel will reach out via email to confirm your place and discuss payment options. Payment plans are available.
To support clear planning and shared commitment, the following payment milestones apply:
50% of the total investment is due by 1st May
75% of the total investment is due by 1st July
100% of the total investment must be paid in full by 1st September
All payments must be completed by 1st September in order to attend the pilgrimage. This ensures final bookings, logistics, and preparations can be made with presence, care, and ease.
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From start to finish, this pilgrimage has be carefully curated for experience. This is not a “relaxing retreat”, it is a deeply spiritual experience. In saying that, there will be opportunities for rest, along with practices to support the integration, but we also have action packed days of temples, some long drives, and not to mention - simply being in the energy of India is a lot
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You just need curiosity, humility, and a willingness to meet life as it is.
Practices are guided, grounded, and accessible.
We will be doing a 40 day Mantra Japa practice in the lead up to the pilgrimage and a daily meditation practice is recommend as this helps to sustain the energy that we are cultivating on pilgrimage.
What you put in, is what you get out of it.
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At times, yes! We are stepping into a third world country with centries of spiritual practices infused. It is also deeply nourishing.
Pilgrimage works by softening you, as well as pushing you. There is space to rest, integrate, and be held. You’ll be guided every step of the way, with care for both the nervous system and the heart. -
Perfect.
That usually means you’re paying attention.The greatest transformation, change and shifts happen when we step outside our comfort zone.
Stepping outside the comfort zone = the unknown. These feelings arising is so normal. This pilgrimage has been created with this all in mind. -
No, this pilgrimage is open to everyone!
Please reach out if you’d like to discuss sharing a room with a partner as this slightly changes the room configuration but let’s make it work! -
Rishikesh → Haridwar → Nainital → Kainchi Dham → back to Rishikesh
We do have 2 big travel days that bring us to the Nainital/Kainchi Dham area, but we’ve ensured there is rest time either side of this, and stops along the way.
The landscapes in India change quickly. On one day we’ll go from the dusty streets of Haridwar, through the jungle (where I saw wild elephants last time), and then make our way up into the mountains - this place is just spectacular!!!