Vedaji
Vedaji leads the retreat from lived experience, not theory. Having grown up as a monk since he was five, living for years without technology, structured around natural light and dark, meditation, and nature. This retreat recreates that rhythm for a week.
Vedaji is a life-long practicing yogi, community builder, and teacher to thousands of souls throughout the world. With a background in the ancient lineages of Vedanta and Bhakti yoga, he was raised in a monastery in eastern India as a monk which he ultimately acted as the head of for many years. Eventually feeling the call to fulfill his dharma, he moved to the United States approximately fifteen years ago to help raise consciousness in the western world.
Based in Atlanta, Vedaji travels the world throughout the year to lead programs, retreats, and group tours. As founder of the non-profits Food4Lives and Mindful Seva Institute, his dharma is to raise global consciousness, to assist spiritual seekers through the process of Self-realization, to eliminate the mental health crisis, and to create lasting spiritual communities (sanghas) throughout the world. Through his signature Chitta Cleanse Technique, Vedaji assists those looking to overcome harmful patterns and traumas to ultimately find their unique dharma.
Learn more about Vedaji and his worldwide sangha here: instagram.com/vedathemonk and chittacleanse.com
Harrison Sokoloff
Harrison Sokoloff spent several years in the music industry as an A&R and publisher until his path shifted permanently after a series of darkness retreats, extended periods spent in complete darkness designed to strip away distraction and surface what lies beneath. What began as curiosity became a deeper spiritual calling, one that eventually led him to leave the industry behind entirely.
In the years since, Sokoloff has spent time immersing in a 90-day residency at the Atlanta Soto Zen Center, a month-long Bhakti immersion in India studying devotional practice at its source, and time spent working and training within the darkness retreat tradition in Vermont. Sokoloff holds a decade of meditation practice and 500 hours of Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) training, alongside additional experience in leadership and therapeutic retreat settings.
Today, Sokoloff works at the intersection of mindfulness and the entertainment industry, bringing contemplative practice to a world he knows intimately from the inside. He also writes Still Listening, a weekly newsletter distilling ancient wisdom into something usable — one quote, one story, and one question, delivered every Monday: harrisonsokoloff.substack.com
He is also launching Lotus Sessions, a free weekly meditation and mindful living practice built specifically for people working in music. More information and registration are available at lotussessions.com/join.