IT’S BEEN A YEAR!
On December 1st radha yoga & eatery celebrated its first year—a year full of learning, experimenting and discovering what radha wants to be in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver.

Sometimes we’ve wondered... But other times, it’s clear that we’re on a wave and this wave is carrying us to where we need to go. We’re making contacts in the community. People are making heartfelt connections to the teachings. We’re employing young people who are attracting other young people to this centre. We send out positive vibrations and prayers to our neighbourhood.

radha is not limited. She covers a wide range of territory. And so, like her, we have extended ourselves and met many of our goals: offering Swami Radha’s practical and inspiring teachings, serving delicious vegetarian food, being a venue for music and art, and a meeting ground for people from various traditions. We’ve hosted fundraisers that support local arts and social action.

Our collective of young people now numbers 5 full time and 2 part time, all excellent teachers, managers, servers and cooks who love radha & yoga. Karma yogis are also beginning to appear, some on a regular basis.

This fall has been surprising by the sheer number of events we’ve hosted—our own and other groups. I’ve counted 24 ranging from dance & music concerts to book launches and workshops, from Buddhist & goddess retreats to vegetarian festivals.

In the next two weeks we are catering several holiday dinners, hosting one more music concert and providing a venue for a television shoot.

One of our new year’s events (January 28) in collaboration with ascent magazine, is ESSEN—dinner as performance art . Victoria Stanton and a group of diners will be feeding each other and being fed. If you’re interested in participating, contact essen@ascentmagazine.com. In the new year, we also plan to make our very successful Sunday Blues Brunch into a monthly event (last Sunday of the month); and we’ll be doing Yoga in Action (karma yoga workshop) monthly, too.

radha is closing from Dec. 23 through January 2. Several of us will be at the ashram and hope to see you there! Thank you for your many generous donations that have truly kept us afloat, and for the Light & encouragement that keeps our spirits up. What will happen in year 2?

hari om
swami lalitananda