Inbound manual

Yoga Inbound Manual

Dear devotees,

This manual is for all those who would like to serve and preach through the Inbound Yoga tours. This document is only for the Indian tours and how to organize them. It describes the basic steps of what you have to know when you are organizing a tour to India.

Please, consider this is a manual only for organizational things. To have the complete information you need to read the Yoga Inbound book of Gurudev.

All the information you get you have to adjust to the circumstances in your country speaking about how you will present the tours, what prices you offer and so on.

Let us start with the presentation. You have to present your trips in a different way compared to all the offers for tours to India you may see in your country. This trip is spiritual, helping the people to discover their inner self and the spiritual treasure of India.

You have to present the ashram experience, meeting spiritual masters, vegetarian food, non-alcohol and non-smoking tour should be included as information. There are people who cannot stop smoking and you have to explain them they can smoke only outside the ashramas.

To advertise the tours you can use all the web sites available about India and Inbound Yoga.

There are plenty of pictures to use for the brochures, posters, leaflets and other materials you may use.

List of the web sites in English: http://www.yogainbound.com/ , http://www.inbound.ws/, www.vrindaclub.com

Further you have to decide the appropriate time when you want to make the tour and the places to visit in India. The weather is nice in February, March and September, October, November.

Usually the groups from Europe spend 10, 15 days because Europe is closer. South American groups spend 15, 20, 30 days.

You can decide how many days you want to have and also if you like you can adjust the program according to your tourists because if they are old people it may be hard for them to spend more than 10, 14 days in India traveling around. But it is nice to have your program fixed before going to advertise and after if it is necessary to adjust it to some people who may spend more or less time. Also of course the more days you spend the more Laksmi you may save and to have more time with the people.

The places we usually visit are: Vrindavan, Jaipur, Agra, Rishikesh and Haridwar. You can add to it Delhi if you would like.

Possible itinerary:

I day: Arrival in Delhi and leaving for Vrindavan. Accommodation in Vrinda kunja - yoga monastery owned by the queen of Manipur in the past. Breakfast and rest. Visiting the ancient temples in Vrindavana and attending the special evening worship in the Radha Raman mandir.

II day: Boat trip along the Yamuna river from Vrindavan to the town of Mathura. Visiting the temples of Mathura. Seeing flocks of pink flamingoes in one of the biggest natural bird reservation. Going back to Vrindavan by motoriksha.


III day: Trip to Varshana, The Govardhan hill and The Radha kunda lake, one of the most sacred places on the planet. Sightseeing in the surroundings of Radha kunda with a special guide.

IV day: Visit of Ayurveda clinic and lecture and tour in the farm of the clinic. Medical checks by desire of the tourists.

V day: Free day in Vrindavan. Shopping. Last visits. In the evening visit of Munger Mandir temple and meeting with Sadhu Maharaja - the former king of the city of Munger. Watching classical Indian drama.

VI day: Agra. The fort of Akbar The Great. Visit of The Taj Mahal and the forts of Agra. In the evening arrival in Jaipur.

VII day: Visiting Jaipur - "The Pink City". A place with unique architecture, built in the 18th century by a Bengali architect according to the Indian teaching Vastu Shastra. Visiting the palaces of the maharajas of Jaipur and the palace of the wind. Elephant riding and visit of the most famous forts of Jaipur. Visiting "The Choki Dhani Ethno Park", which represents the Rajasthan culture: cuisine, puppet theatre, dances, songs, riding a camel, magic etc.


VIII day: Visiting "The Lake temple", The Temple of Govindaji. Shopping in Jaipur.




IX day: Visiting Galta - ancient temple complex, hidden in the mountains of Jaipur and visiting the Ganges river of Jaipur. Visit of the cave.


X day: Leaving to Delhi. Visit of the Lotus temple.


XI day: Visit of Akshar Dham - the biggest complex, representing the Vedic culture. Trip to the cities of Haridwar and Rishikesh, situated at the foot of the Himalayas. Accommodation in a yoga ashram on the bank of the Ganges river and attending the evening puja (ritual for worship of the Ganges river).

XII day: Visit of Triveni - the place of the confluence of the three sacred rivers Ganges, Yamuna and Sarasvati. Lakshman Jhula - the hanging bridge in Rishikesh. Walk in the nature of "The Himalayan Hills".

XIII day: Trip to the caves of Valmiki and the temple of Shiva in the Himalayas. Visiting the ashram of the monk Prabhuji and conversation with him.

XIV day: Free day for last preparations and evening leaving to Delhi. Flight back.

In Vrindavan you stay in Vrinda kunja. If there is not enough place, you may stay in Vamsi kunja. If some person prefers more comforts he may stay in ISCKON. The price for AC room there is 850 Rs but it is better to have the group together because it is complicated with the food and planning meetings.

In Vrinda kunja you will have double rooms and there is one 4 beds room.

It is nice to have list of the people and the rooms - to see who will stay with whom in a room. Otherwise if you start doing it when you reach there people start being nervous and bargaining with you which room they want.
You may have breakfast, lunch and dinner in Vrinda kunja and also to ask the cook to prepare something you like to have.
In Vrindavan you may spend 5 days.

You have to inform the people about the water. They should drink only mineral water or filtered water from Vrinda kunja. Now in Vrindavan there is a hot water for bathing but the bathrooms are outside and only two rooms have bathroom attached.

Other important topic is about the diseases. The best is if every person goes to his family doctor and asks for advice about all the vaccines, diseases, medicine and so on. It is nice to recommend them to take some pills against malaria. It is nice also to have medical insurance for the trip.
Against the mosquitoes every room has a device against them. They may need repellent also when you go outside.
About the monkeys you have to inform people they should not play with them, give them food or to eat food yourself walking on the streets. All the people who have glasses need some little rope to tie it because the monkeys are stealing glasses very easily.
Also when they go outside their room in the ashram they should lock the door.

To protect their values they need a little bag to wear around the waist for the money and the passport. They should never leave this in the hotel room.
Every two rooms have one bathroom. For any type of electronic device to charge you give it to the devotees to charge in the room with the UPS or generator otherwise it may burn from the changing power of the electricity.
After the accommodation before going outside you can say some words for welcome to Vrindavan and to tell its story.
After you may go first to Loy bazaar to buy some clothes and shoes. Indian clothes will be more comfortable for the people to feel the atmosphere and also interesting. The shoes are because they will have to put them off every time they enter a temple and this is also nice to explain in advance.
Some devotee from the temple can come with you when you go first day around Vrindavan. You may start by visiting Gopesvar Mahadev next to Vrinda kunja to ask permission from Gopesvar Mahadev to enter Vrindavan. Darshan time in the afternoon is at 4 pm.
The Shiva lingam is 5000 years old. You can perform a little puja there. They sell some puja sets outside the temple and the pujari of the temple can help you to perform it. You can make just as a proposal to your guests to perform some little typical ritual if they would like. You can tell them the story of Gopeshvar Mahadeva.
After you can go to Vamshi vata. The temple is very near where is the 5500 years banyan tree where Krishna was dancing the rasa lila dance with the gopis. You may tell them a bit of the story too.
For all the stories and places in Vrindavan you may use some guide book for Vrindavan – ISCKON or the one of Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja.
You can go to the Ranganath temple. It is very beautiful opulent temple in South Indian style.
Also it is important to offer to your group some spiritual program or practice and they can choose if they would like to do something. For example you may invite them to the morning class at 7 am or to have before it at 6 or 6,30 am yoga class. If there are people who are interested they may go to the mangala arati 5 am in the morning. 8 am starts the breakfast.
First day you may visit also Govindaji. This is the original temple of the deity Govindaji which presently is in Jaipur after the empire Aurangzeb was destroying the temple. Later they will see the original deities in Jaipur.
In the evening after the dinner you may go to the evening flute puja in Radha Raman temple which starts 8.30 – 8.45 pm. It is very beautiful and mysterious as an atmosphere. Other temples if you like to see is Banke Bihari, Radha Damodar or whatever you may choose.
Second day you may go by boat to Mathura. It is nice to start after the breakfast but have the boats organized before going there with the group. It may cost for one boat like 1000 Rs.
You have to ask the kitchen to prepare for you food for picnic because it will be complicated to search restaurant in Mathura but there is also nice place there to have lunch.
The tour will take around 3.5-4 hours. On the way you may see a lot of different birds. Once we saw even around 50 pelicans in the river. You may sing a bit together some bhajan on the boat.
When you reach Mathura they will ask you not to put on your shoes. You have to go up the stairs and then to put on your shoes. From there it is close to the temple Dvarakadesh. This is a temple where Krishna is worshiped in an opulent way. Darshan time is in the afternoon 4 pm or till 12 noon. Other temple to visit there is Janmasthan – the birthplace of Krishna. They will not let you enter there with mobile phones, food, keys and better to say you can enter only with your money and passport. They have something like a clock room outside but I am not sure it is secure. Somebody can wait outside and guard the things of the others or you can leave it at the car.
It is very far from Dvarakadesh. You will need rickshaws. Other option is if we order cars and they wait for you in front of the ghat.
On the way back to Vrindavan you may go by motor rikshaws. In the center of Mathura you can hire some tempos. If you prefer the car option they will take you to Vrindavan. On the way back you can visit Krishna Balaram temple and Samadhi of Srila Prabhupada.
Third day in Vrindavan you may go by cars to Radha kunda and Govardhan. You may have lunch at the place of Lalita Madhava prabhu who is our guide there and visit an Indian family. He will invite you to his house and the guests may see Indian family and to meet his wife and children. He will tell you the story of Radha kunda and to answer different questions people may have. Near Radha kunda there is a beautiful temple of Chaytania Mahaprabhu. After you can see Radha kunda and Lalita will give you instructions what to do and how. From there you may visit Kusum Sarovar and inside you will see beautiful pictures of the different lilas of Krishna and you can say some of the stories to the people showing the pictures.
After you may go to Govardhan hill and to tell the story of it and they even may make a house from the stones of Govardhan constructing this way their house in the spiritual world. After you can go back to Vrindavan.
In the evening you may visit Yamuna kunja and to buy some books from our bookstore.

In Delhi you may visit the Red fort, the Lotus temple, which is the temple of the Bahay religion and the ISCKON temple which is next to the lotus temple. Of course there are many other tourist places like Kutubh Minar, Jama Masjid, Humayun tomb and so on but you can decide if you want to get there the people. All these places have entrance fee. Most of them have 250 Rs fee. The Lotus temple is nice because they have a rule to keep silence there and you can have some meditation inside. The entrance is free. In ISCKON there is also a nice restaurant which works after 7 pm.

In the Red fort there is a sound and light show in the evening from 7,30 to 8,30 pm in English but you have to check the hour because it is changing sometimes. It shows the Indian history and is interesting. Monday the Red fort is closed and the fee for the ticket for foreigners is 50 Rs. If you visit the Red fort during the day to see it inside the ticket is 100 Rs.

The hotels you can rent are several. The most luxurious one is Grand Godwin. But I really recommend it to you because the service and the place are really nice. One double room is 1500 Rs including the government tax and you have to make a reservation about a month earlier to be sure to have place. For a guide of a group is more difficult to take free of charge room but you can try it. The restaurant on the top floor of the hotel is very nice – cheap and good food.

The other places are Indo Continental, Relax, God win and others. The prices are respectively: 900, 700, and 550 Rs. All the prices are for AC double rooms.

All the hotels are next to Pahar Ganj and it is a place for shopping.

For all the trips inside the country we rent cars. You can count 6 people per car and there is an Indian driver who will drive. This service includes 300 km per day and you pay around 2000 Rs per day per car. It is better to pay in advance the food of the drivers and the parking fees to save time after.

The best is if your cars wait for you in Delhi and take you to Vrindavan. The company we use is from Vrindavan and the name of the owner is Chandan. Such kind of service could be arranged by the devotees in Vrindavan. It is nice when you rent the cars to ask for at least one English speaking driver. It is important.

All the hotels can offer you complementary room for you as a guide but you always have to bargain for it. The same rule is for the food. When you go to restaurants you have to say you are the guide so you dont pay your personal food.

Next day by cars you start to Agra. It takes around 1,5 hour. You may visit Taj Mahal which costs 750 Rs and with the ticket from there you may pay just 250 more to enter the Red fort – the place of Akbar but it should be the same day. The close day is Friday. The cars may park in front of the Maya hotel where you will go after to take lunch. From there you can go to Taj Mahal on foot because it is very close.

In Taj Mahal you cannot also enter with any food, keys, mobiles, lighters. You will leave all these things in a safe and here is secure you may leave your things. When you enter you will have to pay fee for using video camera. It is around 100, 150 Rs. Video camera you may use only 200 m before Taj Mahal. You make your video and after go back to give your camera in a safe. They do not permit entering inside with video camera only photo camera is permitted.

Better fix some hour where you will meet all together before going out because when everyone goes somewhere will be boring to wait each other long time. You better go back to have time for lunch and from there to go to the Red fort. After the lunch in the Maya hotel you go by the cars to the Red fort where you do not need a guide. It is very beautiful place. Up to 5 pm they permit entering and they close 5.30 pm. From there you go on to Jaipur. Other opportunity is to stay to sleep in the hotel. If you think this program is tiring. From Agra to Jaipur is about 5 hours driving and the road is not very good. If you start 5 pm you will reach 10 – 10.30 pm. In Jaipur we stay in the RDB palace hotel. The prices are 800 Rs with AC per double room.

The restaurant is not good but if you order the breakfast earlier they may prepare or the dinner.

Next day you go to the City Palace. On the way from it you may stop in Laksmi Narayan temple. It is Birla temple. You may tell many stories from Shrimad Bhagavatam because there you will see a lot of pictures from there.

In the City palace there are 4 museums inside – art museum of the painting, knife museum, historical museum and the museum of the textile. The entrance fee is 250 Rs.

About Jaipur – the pink city, you may read a lot in Internet. Actually the complete city was built around Govindaji temple and the king who built it made his palace which is the city palace in such a way so he could see the arati of Govindaji from the balcony of his room.

After the observatory is just next to the City palace but if it is lunch time you may go first by cars to the Natraj restaurant. The person who helpes in Jaipur is Vimal. I will give you his contact also in the end of this document. He may accompany you in your tour and to help you showing you the places and speaking hindi. The restaurant Natraj is nice and it is not expensive.

Jantar Mantar – the observatory is just behind the City palace. The entrance fee is 10 Rs and you will need guide to who you may pay 100 Rs.

After you may visit Hawa Mahal – the wind palace which is near and the Govindaji temple which is also close. Darshan time is 6- 6.30 pm. It is very beautiful and exciting.

Second day you may go to the Amber fort. You will need guide there – 200 Rs. On the way you will see in the lake from the cars the Water Palace and you may stop to make photos. In Amber there are elephants. You may have elephant ride. It costs 550 Rs per elephant which means 2 people.

Amber fort is very beautiful and from there you will see Jaipur. It is the old city of Jaipur. The fee is 100 Rs.

Next to it is the temple of Mira Bhai. It is very beautiful and old temple. There are deities of Mira and Krishna and you may tell the story of Mira. She was famous as a devotee of Krishna in madhurya rasa with Him.

From there you may have lunch in Natraj and from there to go around the shops in the center. In the evening at 8 pm starts the ethno park Choki Dhani which represents the Rajasthan culture. It is very nice place. You may have there camel riding, puppet theatre, magic, music, dances and many other things. The dinner is included in the ticket but it is quite spicy. It is nice to try it also because the atmosphere is very authentic. It is pure veg.

The entrance fee is 250 per person.

You may fix again hour when you will meet all in front of the exit and will go back together. To get to Choki Dhani it takes 1 h.

Next day you may go to Galta. It is also famous with the name Monkey temple. First you see the monkey temple which is actually temple of Surya situated on a hill and after you go down to go to Galta which is like a hidden old city behind the mountains. It is very beautiful mystical place of Ramanujacarya.

There one yogi was chanting the name Ram in Datya yuga for 60 000 years and after the river Ganges started flowing from the mouth of a cow. It is falling down from this head of a cow as a waterfall and you will see beautiful temple complex. There are deities of Radha and Krishna and Sita and Rama.

There is one acarya there who speaks very nice English and he may tell some stories and answer many questions. Next to it there is also a cave where the yogi lived and they say from there there is a tunnel to Ayodhya.

After you may have lunch and to go back to Vrindavan or just to have free half day.

Next days in Vrindavan you may have free day. Other day you may visit Munger Mandir and to meet Sadhu Maharaja and also to see there Indian theatre. If you talk with Maharaja he can organize it for you and also they can offer you prasadam there.

You may visit also the other temples you could not see like Radha Madan Mohan and Keshi Ghat and to have in the evening boat trip around Keshi ghat and to have some kirtan and you may see Bhakti Vaibhava Puri Maharaja making his Yamuna evening puja. There is also beautiful arati to Yamuna in the evening.

After these 2 days in Vrindavan you can start to Rishikesh and Haridwar.

The road goes through Delhi to Haridwar first and you can reach there 6 pm for the evening Ganga puja at Haiki-o-Pairi.

The driving is 7, 8 hours. You can go after the puja directly to Rishikesh. The puja is very impressive and many people are there offering fire lamps to the Ganga.

In Rishikesh we stay in one ashram which is like a hotel. We pay 300 Rs per double room. It is next to Lakshman jhula and there is the most beautiful beach on the Ganges there.

You may visit the two bridges there of Rama and Lakshman and the temples also of Them.

Also you may visit one sadhu who is very inspired by Srila Prabhupada. His name is Prabhuji and he lives in the Omkarananda temple with his son. You may go there and have nice kirtan and to hear lecture from him.

There are also some waterfalls and caves near Rishikesh but I ve never been there. One cave is Vasishtha cave and you can go by car there for 4 hours tour.

Also you may have walk around the Himalaya hills.

The restaurants there are nice and the food is also very cheap.

You may spend there 2 days because to stay more there is not so much to see.

After you may go to Delhi. It takes 5 hours to get there and to go to the airport directly or to stay one night in a hotel it depends on when is the flight back.

I usually go with the group to the airport. They need to be there 3 hours before the flight and after I go back to Vrindavan and I stay for the Kartik or Gour Purnim depends which month it is.