Rajanaka Sessions 2026 "Spring Semester"

Sessions Begin This Coming Week, News about Camp & India

Saturday, January 10, 2026

Aho’ Rajanaka,

I hope this finds you well. We have been resting and mending, valuing good company. I’ve been preparing both for University classes and Rajanaka Sessions and once again have realized how much the conversation means to me.

If there’s to be reading and writing, distillation and refinement, we’re going to need to make some time, sit with ourselves, let it seep into the marrow. How many of us stop for just ten minutes to read a poem, take a moment to wonder at the clouds racing across the sky and give ourselves a chance to think and to feel not trying to complete the next task, without turning to the next distraction or responsibility. Nowadays we’re likely all finding ourselves busy. As I get older, I feel more the urgency to do the things I want to do. There’s not a moment to lose. And yet there’s still the need to pause, to create more room to breathe and think and feel. All problems to be solved? Let’s call it the paradox to embrace.

No doubt all this is so very privileged when so many have so little, living with responsibilities and such pressures in everyday life, and in these changing times it also feels not a little… anachronistic. Why bother to read Karamazov or Lear when Wiki will summarize it? Why compose a letter when AI can write that email for us in an instant? As a teacher, I know these new “tools” will be an important part of student futures. But then how do we sustain, nurture our very human experience? What about the soulful?

I’m not advocating another ‘slow this or that,’ nor am I proposing we “let go” or somehow return to the past. We’ll have an eternity to opt out of the world. And in the meantime, we’ll need decide how we are going to engage it. As a teacher, I know too that these new “tools” will be an important part of student futures. Time races by, the machines are all a part of our story, but they can’t be the whole story.

The heart of the Rajanaka agenda hasn’t changed. I know what I’m looking for: real connection, good conversation, and, as the Boss puts it, “just a little of that human touch.” We live in an age with fewer community opportunities---I still see all of those road signs for the Lions, Rotary, this church or that---and I’m glad folks work to make association. But what I’m looking for is a conversation of learning, the kind best done together, the kind that takes time and remains always inviting. Honestly, I never learn so much as when I sit with you. Let’s get this going. Come whenever you can.

Next weekend we begin our Spring Sessions.

OUR FIRST SPRING SESSION IS LIVE AT TRU YOGA IN ROCHESTER, NY ON SATURDAY, JANUARY 17^th 4:30-7:30 pm. We’ll be continuing The Tantric Thread. Look here for registration details (and there will be recordings): https://www.truyogaroc.com/events

JOIN US IN FRENCHTOWN, PA AT DIG YOGA FOR WINTERFEST ON THE WEEKEND OF FEBRUARY 6^TH. Three Sessions and great yoga with Amy Ippoliti. Look here for details: https://www.digyoga.com/upcoming-workshops/winter-yogafest-2026-a-seekers-life-yoga-amp-the-invitation-to-meaning.

The Ramayana meets Saturdays 5pm Eastern. We begin Ramayana on January 24^th!

ZOOM LINK for ALL Saturdays: https://rochester.zoom.us/j/95057662268

We will be reading the Concise Ramayana, translated by Swami Venkatesananda. Ours is a close reading, page by page, beginning on page 1! You can join in anytime! It’s best to read along with us! A free PDF of the text is on the Archive which will also include the Session recordings. Look here for the Concise Ramayana Dropbox Archive (just download directly): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/k6klxp9u73twtpbn44anw/AACd-WmFID7V38Lo2qHK0gU?rlkey=rnewwb1vanema86tfwvrwf31q&st=7iur4kud&dl=0

Scheduled Ramayana Dates: Jan 24, 31, (note: we are off Feb 7), Feb 14, Feb 21, Feb 28, March 7, March 14, March 21, (note: we are off March 28), A0pril 4, 11, 18, 25, May 2, May 9. Then we’ll see, okay? That’s a total of 14 scheduled Sessions. Sessions run about 2 hours. Recordings will be available within a day of the original Session (use the Dropbox link cited above).

Tuition: You are on your honor to pay tuition, there is no further registration just show up on Zoom or access the recordings. $12 per Session or $150 if you choose to pay in advance for these 14 on the schedule, please use Paypal (svcourses@gmail.com) or Venmo (douglas-brooks-8). If you access a recorded Session, please pay tuition.

If you are a paying subscriber to the Rajanaka Substack, then ALL Sessions are free (including Sunday Mahabharata Sessions).

Please subscribe to the Rajanaka Substack (it’s free to subscribe or you can become a paying member with full access to current Sessions, recordings, and archives), look here:

Sunday Mahabharata meets Sundays, 5pm Eastern. We begin Mahabharata Sessions on Sunday, January 18^th!

ZOOM LINK for ALL Sundays: https://rochester.zoom.us/j/314987250

We will be continuing our close reading of C.V. Narasimhan’s version of The Mahabharata (Columbia U. Press). A free PDF of the text is on the Archive which will also include the Session recordings. Look here for the Narasimhan text and all of the Mahabharata recording Archives: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wn3icbb418qcsrjqhk6ke/AGRZlDr4jD3CwECPGlLpoAc?rlkey=7otclsh4b0z7igpauy4y69e0t&st=ey7puj50&dl=0

Scheduled Sunday Mahabharata Dates: Jan 18, 25, Feb 1, (note: we are off Feb 8), Feb 15, Feb 22, Feb 28, March 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, April 5, 12, 19, 26, May 3, May 10. That’s a total of 17 scheduled Sessions. Sessions run about 2 hours. Recordings will be available within a day of the original Session (use the Dropbox link cited above).

Tuition: You are on your honor to pay tuition, there is no further registration, just show up on Zoom or access the recordings. $12 per Session or $200 if you choose to pay in advance, please use Paypal (svcourses@gmail.com) or Venmo (douglas-brooks-8). If you access a recorded Session, please pay tuition. If you are a paying subscriber to the Rajanaka Substack, ALL Mahabharata Sessions are free.

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE to the Rajanaka Substack (it’s free to subscribe or you can become a paying member with full access to current Sessions, recordings, and archives), look here:

There will be a few EXTRA THURSDAY EVENINGS.

ZOOM: https://rochester.zoom.us/j/98183733328

These will be single Sessions.

Thursday Evening 7pm, January 29^th. A Review and Open Conversation on The Tibetan Book of the Dead. This idea was deemed ‘An Evening at The Death Café’ so that we can talk about the TBoD text and, you know, death. Join us, even if you didn’t take the course last winter, all are welcome, no tuition.

&

Thursday Evening 7pm, February 5^th. A Coda and Review of the Eight Bhairavas and further conversation of Shiva & the Dissolution of Time. You can access the recordings of the Eight Bhairava Sessions from our Dropbox Archive, look here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/41r9we78inkyqqyzrc2cu/AAdDJNciVXu4OMVbhuFImzg?rlkey=8pia7vy8zsp195bkevlhd8gof&st=ztl45x83&dl=0

If you access the recordings but haven’t paid tuition previous, please off $10 per Session. If you would like to come to the Open Conversation on February 5^th, just come! Join us!

RAJANAKA SUMMER CAMP will be in Bristol, New York at our Bristol Valley Vineyards Center, our dates are Thursday, JULY 9^th (starting at 2pm) through Monday, JULY 13^th (ending with lunch). The will be Saturday Curry Night and Sunday Morning Puja. Tuition will be $700. MORE details with a complete Summer Camp Announcement (much like last year) soon soon. PLEASE NO LAST MINUTE REGISTRATIONS. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO COME, PLEASE REGISTER N BY SENDING AN EMAIL OR PAYING TUITION *to Paypal at svcourses@gmail.com or Venmo (douglas-brooks-8) or sending a check (7296 Gregg Road, Bloomfield, NY 14469). A payment plan is available, just ask me. Registration after May 1^st will be $750. Camp belongs to the community, so please make this easy and register NOW(ish). It’s okay to ask me about the topic after May 1^st but you must register before then and at this point everyone knows that the topic is not as important as you are. Good stories, great company. Camp is like nothing else and Bristol in the summer is just beautiful.

WE WILL BE GOING TO INDIA IN 2026. DETAILS VERY SOON. PLAN FOR THIS DECEMBER ‘26-JANUARY ’27, we leave just after Christmas and we’re home by about January 18th. Pilgrimage isn’t tourism and we know how to make you a fine pilgrim since we’ve done this now for more than 20 years. No asana, it’s about darsan at the great temples and meeting wonderful people, yes, and there is a dress code and all sorts of other things that we must to do make this happen. Plan the now. It’s not cheap, it is worth it (it’s really, really worth it), and we make it as affordable as possible. Details in a month or so.

The Rajanaka Archive of past Sessions is vast. Dozens of past Courses, Camps, and Sessions. If you’re looking for something in particular, a past course or seminar, write to me: douglas@rajanaka.com. There will be new access possibilities this year. This has just got to get organized so that everyone can have access---a lifetime of learning is here.

Lemme be plain, can I? Rajanaka, we’re a community, we mean to share in the bounty of learning together and keep our costs as low as possible to keep things afloat. We’re here for each other and to take care of one other. If this were about a “business,” honestly I would have retired yesterday. We want every bit of this learning and community to be as affordable and accessible as possible. I genuinely believe in your hearts, in all you have done and offered over these many years. We are always open to new folks, invite some friends to Sessions, we’ll be welcoming and ever helpful to each other. Let’s stay in the conversation for years to come. Come when you can. Know we’ll be here. We’re going to get through these times. Another year is before us, let’s make it together.

Saprema, with affection, as ever,

Douglas