Two Weeks Fasting Detoxification Retreat
with
Ayurvedic Massage
India Dates for 2025
Madurai
25 Oct - 1 Nov
1 Nov - 8 Nov
Gudur
13 Nov - 20 Nov
20 Nov - 27 Nov
Neyyar Dam
3 Dec - 10 Dec
10 Dec - 17 Dec
Join us and experience the powerful benefits of this juice detox programme, designed to cleanse and restore your body to ifs natural balance. This well established and world renowned programme helps you to detoxify, increase energy, bring clarity to both mind and body and also knock back some of those old habits, lowering blood pressure, boosting the immune system and improving digestion.
The safe environment of the Ashram and our personalised approach ensures that each participant receives the right care and attention throughout the programme, guided by Narayana and Krishna Priya.
The twice daily yoga practice and meditation and inclusive Ayurvedic massage enhance your detox experience, revitalising your body boosting circulation and relieving tensions.
You can register for either of the two consecutive 7 day programmes individually or as a full 14 day course and benefit from the freshly prepared juices and herbal supplements offered.
Dawn over Neyyar Dam
The juice fasting retreat at the ashram is very similar to the juice fasting programs at Moinhos Velhos but has been adapted to fit into the ashram schedule. Thus there are two yoga asana classes every day and the morning bell goes off at 5.20 AM for morning meditation at 6 AM. The daily fasting program is structured to allow the fasters to participate in most of the ashram activities. (During the fasting program at Neyyar Dam Ashram you will probably wake up and go to bed with the roar of the lions coming to you from the lion park across the dam!)
In addition to the every day fasting and yoga activities, there are two individual therapy sessions each week with Ayurvedic massage. There are also group workshops and excursions trips. One week we will go to Kovelam beach and the next week we hopefully make the waterfall trip.
Swami Sivananda was a great advocate for fasting. To quote him:
FASTING BY SWAMI SIVANANDA
If there is the least symptom of disease in the body, it is the signal to fast for a day or two. Animals which depend only on nature, fast naturally if there is any disease and cure themselves by natural means, sunlight, fresh air, fast and rest.
In the present circumstances it is very difficult to fast without taking anything except water without some practice. So we must follow the golden mean of taking the juice of two or three fruits – no solid food. This kind of fast is good for preservation of health.
Fast is a fast curing agent for many ailments; it gives rest to the stomach and eliminates toxins from the body. It cleanses t5he body and thus makes it more energetic. It can cure many diseases.
Fast for over a week not only cleanses the body and mind but gives us more energy and power and also spiritual strength.
Fast is a subject that is commended by all religions and all creeds of thought. It is the first step in the ladder of Divine Life. It is the first suggestion that your doctor of whatever practice he may be, prescribes to you as soon as you go to him for diagnosis, because it gives him a correct view of your entire physical system. The nervous system places itself before the medical man more clearly when you are not fed than when your stomach is full. Both fast and feast give blessings to the human being. The feast gives you immediate blessings which vanish in a few hours, craving for more, whereas the fast gives a different kind of happiness more lasting than that of feast.
In fasting, physically your system receives and overhaul more than that which even an intelligent doctor can do for you. Mentally you have more concentration and more capacity to resist. You improve in firmness; there is more capacity to withstand the physical disturbances of any kind of illness, fatigue and any disease.
Fast gives clearance of insight into subjects. A mirror for the vision; it bestows in the human machine an activity all anew. A man with a genuine practice of fast at regular intervals has clear-cut thoughts, an expression all his own, an imagination which others cannot excel. His thoughts are sublime and firm. His actions are diligent. There is a transcendental glow in him. He never wounds the feelings of others. His ideas are rays of light in the darkness of human life in everyday world.
Fasting is nature’s curative agent. It can restore health where everything else has failed. It gives nature a chance to clean then system.
If you overwork, you need perfect rest. If you continue to overwork without rest, the whole system will break down. Likewise, then stomach and other digestive organs need rest. If they are overworked on account of over feeding, various diseases of the digestive apparatus will develop. Fasting starves the diseases.
If the sewer system of a city gets clogged up they flush it with water. If your system gets clogged up, do the same thing. Stop eating. Flush the intestines.
When your motor car goes out of order very frequently, you send it to the workshop and have it completely overhauled. When you take it out, it runs like a new car. Even so is fasting. Fasting thoroughly overhauls the system and gives new vigour and strength This bod- motor-car will run smoothly without disease.
If you stuff your stomach with food when there is no hunger, it is a physiological sin. You go against nature. Nature will punish you seriously. Therefore fast and pray. Do not overload. Observe moderation in diet always. You will be happy and healthy.
Never eat unless you are really hungry, unless you can enjoy every mouthful. Beware of false appetite. Never force yourself to eat. If you have no appetite, it clearly indicates that the body does not require any food at that moment. To force yourself to eat simply because it happens to be a mealtime is exceedingly unwise. You must be able to differentiate habit hunger from real hunger.
Give up the erroneous notion that fasting weakens your body or thereby you lose your strength. On the contrary, it is the most effective and drugless method of revitalising your system and rebuilding health. Therefore, take recourse to fast-cure and be healthy. Persons become stronger day by day while fasting because energy is conserved. Utilization of considerable amounts of energy for digestion, assimilation and elimination is saved. The conserved energy builds better health.
Fast and eliminate the poison from your system. Fast and control your sleep. Fast and pray. Fast, purify and meditate, realise the Self and be free. Fast and shine with divine splendour and glory.
If diseases were caused by impurities and toxins 2000 years ago, how much more vital must it not be to fast and cleanse today, when we live in a world putrefied with chemicals and toxins. I saw an article some time ago in a London newspaper, which claimed that a person living in London, UK is exposed to 500 different toxins every day. Children today are born with toxic blood:
Ayurvedic Massage
Ayurvedic massage used to be an integral part of Indian life.
The benefits of this oil massage is described thus:
It checks the aging process.
It prevents fatigue.
It improves eye sight.
It enhances the luster of the skin.
It brings the body to perfect health balancing the three humorals.
It provides resistance against disease.
It rejuvenates both mind and body.
Ayurvedic massage has a special relevance in the present era where pollution is predominant all over the world. Furthermore living a disciplined life is almost impossible for a person even if he wants to. A person thus gets sandwiched between pollution on one side and a scattered way of life on the other and ages prematurely. It is high time we ask ourselves whether there are any solutions? Yes, Ayurvedic massage can help tremendously.
In a very simple way, Ayurvedic massage can be explained as the methodological scientific external application of medicated oils to the entire body exerting optimum pressure. In Ayurveda external application of herbs and oils and the penetration of medicinal effect through the skin was well established and considered of equal importance if not more than that of oral administration of medicines. Medicated oils are prepared in strict conformity with the methods laid down, usually containing chosen herbs and plant juices which impart to the oils the required medicinal properties as powerful stimulants and counter irritants.
A scientific Ayurvedic massage, thus more than curing a patient of his/her illness, prevents the occurrence and recurrence of the disease and hence is advised even for maintenance and preservation of one's health.
The medical effect of the oils penetrates the skin, goes deep into the system and brings the toxins to the peripheral area of the body where they come out through the skin. Therefore a sauna, steam bath or hot shower is advisable after the massage.
All the marma (acupressure) points are given an optimal pressure by the masseur with his fingers which in turn activates the internal organ. Hence Ayurvedic Massage is not just to give soothing effect to the muscles and the skin, but also rejuvenates all internal organs.
According to Yoga-shastra, the index finger is for releasing the energy and the thumb is to absorb. Here the masseur uses mainly the index finger and the thumb and thus impart his/her energy to the person and takes the negative energy away from the person.
Ayurvedic Massage ensures proper circulation and relaxation of the muscles, and also removes tension. It increases circulation which produces more oxygen, glucose, protein and other vital sources for the blood.
During the Xmas period there is a special cultural program hosted by the ashram. There are pujas, dancers, concerts, lectures and other events and performances all of which can be enjoyed by the participants of the two week fasting and detoxification retreat. Some of these events as well as special excursion trips extend till over New Year, so a participant in the fasting/yoga/detox program may consider spending a few extra days at the ashram at the conclusion of the fasting retreat.
TO BOOK A FASTING PROGRAM AT THE ASHRAM GO TO:
http://www.sivananda.org.in/neyyardam/fasting-detoxification-programme/