BHAKTI & BOUGIE
Travel Company
Auspicious sadhana. Uncompromising luxury.
In India, luxury isn't antithetical to spirituality. It is one of its highest expressions.
India's tradition of the most refined hospitality and luxury has its roots in humanity's oldest spiritual texts, the Vedas. They first expressed the idea of Atithi Devo Bhava — the guest is God. You feel this everywhere in India, from the most regal palace hotel to the humblest private home. Immersing oneself in this tradition isn't taking a break from a pilgrimage, but a seamless continuation of it.
The seva of a butler and the seva of a priest flow from the same source, and Bhakti & Bougie is devoted to offering both, auspicious sadhana and uncompromising luxury.
Over more than a decade of travel in India, I've slept on a charpoy and stayed at the Taj Lake Palace. I've eaten off banana leaves and cooked with the chefs at Varq. I've been on the bus and I've floated on a private shikara, and I understand the value of all of it. When you travel with Bhakti & Bougie, we plan your journey with reverence, because discomfort is not a prerequisite for depth.
The India we seek is not the one defined by lines on a map, but rather the one defined by temples, sacred rivers and mountains, and the footsteps of pilgrims over many thousands of years. This is the sacred geography of India, where an itinerary isn't a schedule, it's a pilgrimage.
The entire land of Bharat is suffused with the divine, but the holy cities and great temples are its landmarks and waypoints, the places of the heart to which we return again and again.
Every property in our collection has been chosen by hand — from the grand palace hotels of Rajasthan to intimate havelis and private homestays where the family still lives upstairs, and may even invite you into the kitchen.
Beyond the temples and the palaces lies the India that stays with you longest — the cooking fire, the weaver's loom, the qawwal's voice rising at dusk. This is where India becomes personal.
I'm not a typical travel agent; I don't want to sell 'tours.' I want to share the India I've fallen in love with, the India that took me decades to find.
Michael Levin came to India the way many do, sideways, through yoga. "I was dragged, kicking and screaming, to my first yoga class," he says. But it led him to become a yoga teacher, deepening his understanding of yoga philosophy, traditions, and rituals, which in turn sparked even more curiosity and inevitably led him to India. And before the end of that first trip, as part of a group of yoga instructors, he was planning his return.
Over the years that followed, the trips deepened. The temples got more remote, the insiders and interlocutors became more knowledgeable, and the experiences more significant. And somewhere between a below-freezing night in a windy, creaky shack on the edge of a cliff in the Himalayas and a leisurely stay at the Oberoi Amarvilas, he realized that authentic experiences and spiritual depth were not in tension with India's uncompromising tradition of hospitality and luxury. They are all expressions of a common set of understandings and ways of viewing the world. Bhakti & Bougie was born from that realization.
Michael is a veteran of over a decade of travel and exploration in India, an E-RYT 500-certified yoga instructor, and holds an MA in India Studies from O.P. Jindal Global University. He records and performs kirtan internationally as Jam Dass and is a big fan of non-dual traditions.
Every journey begins with a conversation. Tell us a little about yourself and what's calling you to India — there are no wrong answers, and no obligation attached to reaching out.
We typically respond within 48 hours. For urgent inquiries, email michael@bhaktiandbougie.travel directly.
We accept a limited number of bookings each year. If the timing is right, we'll know quickly.