Hanuman Festival

By Yoshi Aono

A teacher once asked, why did you start Hanuman Festival? It’s a mountain of work to run a yoga festival — why would you put yourself through that? What a great question!

Well...Hanuman Festival was born out of the essence of service and devotion. Just as Hanuman was devoted to serving lord Rama, organizing this festival has been about serving the Hanuman community and the festival's natural course of development.

For those of you who don’t know him already, Hanuman is a monkey-god superhero worshipped in India and throughout the world in yoga culture. For me, Hanuman symbolizes the great potential each one of us has to accomplish the miraculous when we get out of our own way and follow our hearts.

Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god, is an ardent devotee of Sri Rama and one of the most celebrated and worshipped figures in Indian religion

Our intention with Hanuman has been to inspire that realization in each one of our attendees.

Over the years, Hanuman has grown from a grassroots event honoring the practice of yoga to the Rocky Mountain region’s largest event focused on the depth of yogic teachings. We bring in master teachers who embody the highest potential of self, and teach from an authentic connection to their own practice and spiritual path.

This year, Hanuman Festival will be held from June 15 to 18 in Boulder, Colorado, which gives attendees the opportunity to have a festival experience that is filled with grace and ease. Intention is everything, and we adhere to holding a safe and sacred space for transformation, healing and growth. We honor the spirit of awakening through the heart. This is Hanuman.

On a recent Hanuman Adventures trip to India, our team had the good fortune of spending time with The Shift Network's Philip Hellmich. We discussed the essence of service and formed a mutual respect for each other's work in the world.

Peeling back layers, we were in gratitude over how nature presents us with the opportunity to surrender and to observe the natural flow of intelligence, which is really running the show.

As we progress I can’t help but think, How great would it be if humanity let go of its egoic ideas of how things should be, and allowed natural intelligence to guide us to the next level of our planet?

Service is being, Being is service.

Yoshi Aono is a yogi, guitarist and humanitarian. He is the founder of Hanuman Festival, Hanuman Presents and Hanuman Adventures. As the managing director of Hanuman Festival, Yoshi is devoted to creating a heartfelt gathering for the national community. His care and attention towards all things in life comes through in the expression of Hanuman Festival and the underlying message of service for the greater good.

Yoshi`s humanitarian work spans over a decade and has led him to Africa, Haiti, Cambodia, Thailand and Louisiana. He has coordinated and led tent city aid distribution projects along with leading teams into disaster zones. Yoshi`s spiritual, business and artistic experience allows a clarity to be held close to the heart when working in the depths of the third world.