We were originally drawn to India by the study of yoga and its close spiritual traditions and knowledge. We entrepreneurs Petteri and Janita studied yoga asanas and philosophy for years. Janita also lived and worked in India for a year before the couple met. In addition to the knowledge based on the physical yoga asana familiar in the West, we studied Vedic philosophy. The deepest and longest studies were in a traditional yoga guru school in a small Indian village, where we continue to study every year. Peter also studied the Buddhist tradition in monasteries from South Korea to Nepal, even ending up in Tibet :). Almost all Indian spiritual traditions contain elements of the yoga tradition, so the knowledge and practice of yoga connected us to the people in India and the people connected us to the Indian coffee culture and farmers. The Vedic tradition, from which the philosophy of yoga also derives, is closely related to the main Indian religion of Hinduism, and also to minority religions/philosophies such as Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, although yoga is not a religion in the traditional sense of the word, its content and values meet and synergise with all the spiritual traditions of the world. When one devotes oneself to any spiritual or physical practice, one achieves a kind of connection with the body and thus a connection with nature, since the human body is naturally part of the surrounding nature. As body consciousness develops, the connection and interest in food becomes clearer and clearer, so high quality clean food and coffee slowly crept into a significant part of our lives.
So we studied and lived Indian culture, and this helped us to find partners with the same values, both in our home country Finland and far away in India and Indonesia. The main partners have been working with us since 2018. We were impressed by coffee farming that respects Vedic culture and traditions. So it’s natural that yoga eventually led us to work with the sacred coffee of India.
Beyond India??? Bali
Bali in Indonesia, the Island of Gods and Demons, has become something of a centre for yoga and alternative medicine and nutrition for the nomadic lifestyle. Bali is home to a wonderful vibrant and rich mix of Hinduism and natural religions, which is quite unique and lives in almost every Balinese. Respect and worship for nature is something very Balinese and rightly so, for the active volcanoes on whose slopes coffee grows, in addition to the rich and fertile soil, create a reminder of the forces of nature, against which man is utterly powerless. Religion is present in the daily lives of individuals and therefore in all their activities. So Bali was a natural extension of our importing activities not only because of the spiritual continuity but also because the Arabica coffee grown in the rich soil high on the slopes of the Kintamani volcano has a divine aroma that the coffee tree has absorbed from the volcanic soil.
Finnish Forest
For Finns, the forest is a sacred place and nature defines the spiritual landscape of many Finns. We are Finns and were born into this culture, therefore nature and the forest located there are sacred and home to us. Ultimately, when studying any spiritual tradition or philosophy, they begin to appear the same. I think they have originated from the same root. The mountain has the same peak, but there are numerous paths.
For us entrepreneurs, yoga and the Vedic tradition were the easiest to approach and reach. I also think that it is one of the most unchanged spiritual traditions of humanity. I myself, Petteri, do not even think of these as a spiritual or philosophical tradition, but as a doctrine of humanity. Everyone has been given life to learn to live. In a way, it is an instruction manual for humans and there are many versions of it, from which everyone can choose the tradition that suits them best. If the action corresponds to the theory, the end result is a healthy and wholesome life. What attracted me to yoga and Vedic philosophy was that it also encompasses the physical body and its well-being, through yoga movement and knowledge of clean nutrition, as well as Ayurvedic natural medicine. And it is a very practical science – you don’t have to believe in anything, you can experience everything within yourself by practicing the tradition. Just like a good cup of coffee is not a matter of belief, but can be experienced with every sip.
