What:  Hands-On Gandhian Retreat

Interested in devoting one week to learning about Gandhi and experimenting with communal living and personal discovery?

Retreat to beautiful Santa Barbara, California for a week of focused exploration of Gandian ideas on nonviolence, truth and sustainability. The Retreat will be modeled after life at Gandhi’s ashrams and led by a long-time Gandhian social worker from India. In addition to studying Gandhi’s writing and discussing his ideas, the 25 participants will cook, clean, and garden communally every day. Sustainable skills workshops will emphasize hands-on, creative skills that participants can incorporate into daily life. Participants from all walks of life, with or without previous study of Gandhi, are encouraged to attend!

• Nonviolence and sustainability
• Working daily in the organic garden or building a walking meditation maze
• Sustainable skills workshops may include trainings in: permaculture, natural building, yoga, bread and yogurt making, etc. 
• Evening seminars open to the community
• Music
• Hiking nearby 

Today, issues of global climate change, political militarization, religious conflict, and globalized consumerism are at the forefront of public attention.

What can we learn from Gandhi and how can we apply some of his principles in our daily lives? How can we be, as Gandhi promoted, “the change we wish to see in the world?”

For More Info:  www.worldculture.org

When:  January 11th - 17th

Where:  La Casa de Maria Retreat and Conference Center, Santa Barbara, California

Email: sandhya.tillotson@gmail.com for more info or to sign up!!

Leader Bio: Shashi Tyagi is a long-time social worker and the co-founder of the non-profit organization Gramin Vikas Vigyan Samiti (GRAVIS), or the Center for People’s Science of Rural Development located in India. The organization takes a Gandhian approach to rural development by working with the poor villagers of the Thar desert to enable them to help themselves. For the past 25 years, Shashi and the GRAVIS team have worked with over 50,000 desert families across 850 villages in Rajasthan on issues of water scarcity, health, education, women’s empowerment, micro financing, agriculture and community development. www.gravis.org.in