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In-person Seven-Day Pilgrimage Retreat

Taking your spiritual commitment to a new level

A pilgrimage retreat is truly a pilgrimage – a hallowed universal tradition of travelling to a sacred place to deepen one’s spiritual journey.

Returnee
Program
Tomales, California, USA
7 days

A pilgrimage retreat is truly a pilgrimage – a hallowed universal tradition of travelling to a sacred place to deepen one’s spiritual journey. In our case, we are pilgrims to the BMCM and Ramagiri Ashram in Tomales, California - the “well of living waters” founded by Easwaran and Christine.

This program is for you if you are deeply committed to Easwaran as your spiritual Teacher, and you yearn to dedicate yourself to his vision of a spiritual renaissance, in which our planet is healed, and our children have a bright future.

This is a new form of in-person retreat, in which we join together at our BMCM retreat house in Tomales, as an extension of Ramagiri Ashram. You will live out a rich spiritual schedule mirroring Easwaran and Christine’s daily lifestyle. In the spirit of Ramagiri life, “working in harmony for selfless goals,” you will join the other retreatants to prepare meals, clean up, and maintain the retreat house. Be prepared to dive deep spiritually, and to work hard and selflessly.

Retreat content

When pilgrims set out on their sacred journey, they prepare themselves ahead of time, physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. This allows them to take every step of their pilgrimage with full awareness. That is how our pilgrimage journey will begin, making preparation in the weeks preceding our time together. Upon arriving at our Tomales retreat house, we will settle quietly into a rhythm of life set by Easwaran and Christine themselves: morning, noon, and evening meditations; long mantram beach walks; times for quiet study and mantram writing; group study of Easwaran’s teachings; and “sitting at the teacher’s feet,” to watch Easwaran’s talks. These inward activities will be balanced with “working in harmony” as a spiritual household. We will make meals together, do kitchen clean ups, and keep our pilgrimage retreat house smoothly functioning and tidy.

As the days proceed, we will aim for a deepening contemplative atmosphere in our retreat home. This will allow us to open our hearts wide to the devotional experience of stepping on to the sacred ground of Ramagiri Ashram, “the well of living waters.” Ramagiri represents to us all our powerful spiritual lineage going back from Christine to Easwaran to his mother and Granny - and beyond, to all those saints and sages who gave us our inspirational passages and holy mantrams.

How does the pilgrimage retreat end? That is your responsibility. Each person must take this holy experience deep into their heart and ask, “How will I pass on this gift I have been given? What is my role in the spiritual renaissance, and how will my life help to heal the earth and give the children a bright future?”

Join us on this pilgrimage only if you want, with all your heart, to become “an instrument of the Lord’s peace.”

Prerequisites

The In-person Seven-day Pilgrimage retreat is a good fit for you if you meet the following prerequisites:

  • You have practiced daily passage meditation for the past five years
  • You have attended three Returnee Online Retreats  (a Setu, a Weeklong or a Returnee Weekend) prior to 2025
  • You are registered for or have attended a returnee online retreat in 2025 prior to this in-person retreat
  • You are physically able and eager to participate in “working in harmony” on household chores at the retreat house, and “putting others first” in ashram-style living
  • You want to keep everyone at the retreat house and Ramagiri Ashram healthy, so you are willing to follow COVID protocols that include reducing exposure risk in the week prior to the pilgrimage retreat and daily COVID testing during the retreat
  • You will set time aside to attend a 60-minute zoom orientation session two months before the pilgrimage retreat
  • You commit to attending the full retreat
  • You plan to follow up your pilgrimage experience with an earnest effort to deepen your practice of passage meditation so that you may be “an instrument of the Lord’s peace” to help heal our planet and give the children a bright future
  • You have a deep desire to help the spiritual renaissance to blossom

Please contact us if you have any questions about meeting the prerequisites.

Times when it is best not to attend an In-person Pilgrimage Retreat

This retreat will not work for you if your general health is unstable and you are not able to do vigorous activity. However, our online retreats are a wonderful way to be spiritually replenished in your own home.

Also, we can all find ourselves facing extreme crises which cause us to be emotionally or psychologically stressed – times of intense inner turmoil, depression, or grief. At these times, an In-person Pilgrimage Retreat will be too intense. Instead, regular participation in BMCM Satsang Live – even participating twice a week – will help you get replenished and regain your equilibrium.

Fee

The standard fee is $750. The sliding scale is $625–$900.

Explanation of Sliding Scale

  • Our sliding scale means that you can choose the price that's right for you. If you can pay the standard fee, that will cover the cost of your retreat.
  • Please choose a lower fee if the standard fee is too much for you to afford.
  • If you add a donation to the standard fee, that will help others to attend – thank you!

The BMCM is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. All of our work is made possible by donations. While income from books and retreats covers a portion of our costs, everything we do depends on the generosity of those who benefit from Easwaran’s teachings.

Each dollar paid over the standard fee is a tax-deductible contribution. We keep all donations and fee payments confidential.

Financial Aid

You're welcome to attend this program with a scholarship if you need to pay less than the lowest end of the sliding scale. Our scholarship fund is created out of donations from generous friends to help more people attend programs.

We also offer payment plans, so you can pay your fee in installments.                                           

For either a scholarship or payment plan, please don’t register online, and instead write to financial.aid@easwaran.org or call us at 800.475.2369. We’ll get back to you within three days.

Refund

If you need to cancel your retreat, please let us know as soon as possible so that your spot can be given to someone on the waitlist. We’ll refund your full fee.

Schedule

The In-person Seven-day Pilgrimage retreat is a round-the-clock affair, starting on Friday at 2 p.m., and lasting through Thursday at 2 p.m. If you are coming from a distance, you may arrive the Thursday evening preceding your retreat to settle in. You may also stay over the Thursday evening at the end of your retreat if you need to catch a Friday morning flight out.

Living the Ramagiri lifestyle, you can think of every hour of the retreat as an offering to the Lord within. Here is a sample schedule of a pilgrimage day: In-person Retreat Schedule


Accommodation

Our retreat house is a restored bed and breakfast, set in a peaceful garden with views of rural Marin County.

We have two bedrooms at ground level reserved for retreatants who can’t climb stairs. The other 9 bedrooms are accessed via a flight of stairs. Some bedrooms have in suite bathrooms, others have a bathroom next door.

Two bedrooms on the second floor are single, and we give these to people with medical needs (to someone who uses a CPAP machine, for instance). The other bedrooms are shared with one other person. You can tell us in advance if you’d like to share a room with your friend or partner.

The workshop room and dining room are on the ground level, and the meditation room is down a flight of stairs. You can also meditate in the workshop room if you can’t climb stairs.

We provide linens, towels, and soap.

Travel Information

Our retreat house is in the small town of Tomales in West Marin, 55 miles north of San Francisco. Transportation is available. You will receive more information after you register.