Inside AUM Life, Mumbai’s New Urban Ashram

I am lying on a mat in a dimly-lit room. Around me, shells clatter, waves crash, and winds rush in rhythmic swells. My shoulders ease, my jaw slackens, and my palms unfurl. I am not on a beach holiday, but inside a sound healing room at AUM Life, a new wellness space in Worli that feels almost sealed off from Mumbai’s upbeat pulse.

Conceived as an “urban ashram”, AUM Life offers yoga, meditation, healing therapies and Ayurveda consultations with experienced doctors and practitioners in the heart of Mumbai. The brainchild of Richa Agrawal, who has practiced meditation and yoga from a young age, AUM was envisioned as a space where wellness seekers could reconnect with their body, mind and soul without leaving the city. 

“People often travel far and wide to seek teachers and open spaces across India. If you have the time, that’s wonderful, but most people in the city live life on the fast-track. And practices picked up on travels often get left behind once they are back,” says Agrawal. AUM, she says, is designed to bring seekers and teachers under one roof and make sustained wellness part of everyday life. 

The urban ashram sprawls 7,300 square feet in a light-filled indoor space done in cool, muted shades. At its heart is a generous studio for different schools of meditation and yoga, including hatha, vinyasa, asana and ashtanga. Besides it are Ayurveda consultation and treatment rooms. The space also extends to alternative modalities such as traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practices like acupuncture and acupressure, crystal healing, and occult sciences, including astrology and tarot. 

The sonorium, or sound-healing room, houses over 30 instruments specially handcrafted in Auroville. Their soundscape moves from day to night rhythms, from the croaking of frogs to the thunder of storms. The instruments are arranged in the direction of the sun and the moon, and sounds draw from Ayurveda’s five elements of water, air, fire, ether, and earth. My session was helmed by Kainaz Motivala, a sound healer who has trained in Auroville.

Each session begins with a personalised consultation. My sound-healing session was recommended by Dr. Hena Verma, an Ayurveda physician with over two decades of experience, including years of practice across centres in Kerala. After a nadi pariksha, a pulse diagnosis, and a handful of lifestyle questions, she accurately identified an irritable bowel, a condition I have lived with for nearly five years.

Beyond sound therapy for stress relief, Verma also prescribed abhyanga, a full-body Ayurvedic massage. My therapist, trained in Kerala, worked patiently through the knots, using warm herbal oil and measured strokes along key energy points, designed to dissolve tension.

AUM Life draws on years of knowledge and experience with a seasoned team. Its yoga programme is led by Suyash Singh, trained at the Bihar School of Yoga. Panchakarma therapies are overseen by Dr Parth Chokshi, who brings over a decade of clinical experience, while Dr Durgesh Khandelwal, a practitioner of naturopathy and acupuncture, specialises in integrating Traditional Chinese Medicine with holistic practices to address autoimmune conditions and hormonal imbalances.

Nutrition is integral to the philosophy here, so there’s a satvik café, Aahaara, which is rooted in Ayurvedic principles. Led by chef Hina Choksi, the kitchen focuses on meals designed to balance the doshas. It welcomes guests whenever a session ends, be it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or an evening snack. 

Lunch and dinner thalis feature nutrient-dense preparations centred around millets and seasonal vegetables. Think amla-and-coriander soup, ragi dosas stuffed with carrots and beans, and even a Burmese khow suey reimagined with jowar millet. Breakfast brings buckwheat pancakes or jowar khichu, while evenings see protein-rich tikkis made from green gram, Bengal gram, and vegetables. Menus shift daily, keeping the experience both mindful and varied.

After my sound-healing session, I stepped onto a small open deck overlooking the busy Coastal Road, where cars snaked past below. For a moment, it was hard to believe I had checked out without really leaving the city.