‘Ahatho Brahma Jignasa’ — Vedanta Sutra
Now that you have a human form, it is time to inquire about the self. — Vedanta Sutra
A living experiment in harmony.
Karuna Dham — the Abode of Compassion — is a yoga retreat and self-sustaining community in the forested hills above Kodaikanal, South India. For more than two decades we've grown our own food, built homes from earth and local wood, drawn power from sun and river, and kept the doors open to travellers who want to rest, practice, and reconnect.
Our life here is guided by a simple idea: that material and spiritual well-being are not at odds. We grow vegetables and we sit for meditation. We build houses and we offer food to the Lord. We keep cows and we sing. Self-sufficiency of the body, quiet cultivation of the spirit.
Three ways into Karuna
Stay
Seventeen rooms and cottages — from a dormitory bed to a wood-fire suite with mountain views. All solar-lit, simple, clean.
Accommodation & rates
Experience
Daily yoga at sunrise. Forest walks and all-day treks. Govinda's café by the waterfall. A quiet library, a meditation workshop, and time.
Explore the experience
Our Land
Twenty acres of organic gardens, coffee and fruit groves, earthship houses, and resident cows and bees — off-grid and low-impact.
See how we live
Nevil Moncher
I'm a Mumbai-born Parsi who came to live in solitude in Kodaikanal in the 1980s, and I never left. For nearly a decade I fought to protect this land — court cases to save forests and lakes, to close polluting factories, to build fair-trade for local crops.
Then I decided to practise what I preach. Since 2000 I've put my energy into Karuna — an off-grid, sustainable community, and a place where a quieter, more purposeful life is possible.
A glimpse of the retreat
Come and stay a while.
Rooms fill quickly in the cooler months. Two-night minimum. Vegetarian meals available from Govinda's.
Check Availability & Book