Yogaville is an intentional community started by Sri Swami Satchidananda, an Indian religious teacher and world famous spiritual leader. He founded Yogaville (also called Satchidananda Ashram, meaning religious retreat) with the intention of creating a place for like minded individuals to practice, live, and impart his yoga teachings in order to experience Supreme Peace and Joy and to then share that Peace and Joy with others. The community is located on 750 acres of land in Buckingham, Virginia. While being the home of approximately 150 residents, Yogaville also offers short term accommodations for those who want to recharge or progress on their path. However, there are several rules that guests must follow when visiting the ashram. Some items that are not permitted on site include: non-vegetarian foods, eggs, and incense. Further, guests are required to follow certain dress code guidelines including: no shorts or jeans in meditation areas, no bikinis (although other types of bathing suits are allowed), and no revealing clothing in general. The community contains several sacred sites where prayer and worship services, holiday celebrations, and meditation services are regularly held. The most famous of these sites is the interfaith Light Of Truth Universal Shrine (LOTUS) which is open to people of all faiths. LOTUS celebrates the diversity of the world’s religions and unifies them by housing altars for every major religion, those less well known, and those not yet known. It’s the first shrine ever built to house altars for so many faiths, using the symbol of light as the universal symbol of the Divine. Today, Yogaville provides accommodations and training to more than 2,000 guests per year and continues to serve as the international organizational headquarters of Swami Satchidananda’s documented teachings.

To learn more about Yogaville, visit https://www.yogaville.org/