In The Beginning...

A Cup of Tea was created by spirit, through Virato and Dhiraja during an inspirational flash of light at their mountain retreat. An epiphany. In fact, Virato actually fell out of his chair as the name blasted through. They were directed to start this special place--based upon the popular "salon" concept popular in the 1920's and '30s--in which learning and healing happened in a small and  intimate atmosphere through experience and exploration. The name, A Cup of Tea, which finds its heritage in Buddhist tradition, and is also the name of the book--a compilation of letters to friends--by the enlightened mystic Osho,

Located  in Asheville, North Carolina, A Cup of Tea is a place/concept of personal exploration, growth and enlightenment

Virato, who has been editor and publisher of New Frontier Magazine for over 20 years, editor of Asheville Magazine for 9 years, and  host of VIRATO LIVE!, since January 2005provides a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the transformation of human consciousness. He has personally met, and dialogued with such notables as Deepak Chopra, Ram Dass, Rupert Sheldrake, Ravi Shankar, Marianne Williamson, Steven Halpern, Kitaro, Gabriel Cousens, Caroline Myss, Sogyal Rinpoche, Robert Monroe, Tim Wheater, Timothy Leary, and hundreds of other leaders in the new paradigm of body, mind and spirit.

Virato has also had outstanding success in the field of drug and alcohol addiction/misuse treatment in Russia, where many psychologists have adopted his methods. He was also featured in a special on drug addiction broadcast on Russia's equivalent of PBS-TV.  Virato also spent a  part of 1979-1980 in India, and is a considered a master of the ancient  philosophy of Tantra. Hundreds of stories about him have appeared world-wide

He was director of Premsagar Meditation Center in Philadelphia, The Love Center in New Jersey, New Frontier Education Society (and director of its successful growth center in Philadelphia).

Currently Board Director of the Nepal Institute, Virato has served on the Board of Directors of the Association for Humanistic Psychology, and was one of the co-founders of Oasis Mountain Wellness Center, Black Mountain, NC, a major-scale holistic drug rehab retreat and treatment center (medical doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists and mystics) which for economic/financial and political reasons never opened. As host of VIRATO LIVE!  [a popular 3 hour talk radio show on Clear Channel radio, 880 AM each Saturday, 10:06 AM to 1 PM East Coast time]. through him and his guests, a unique flavor of waking up...beyond mind and body comes to Asheville and the world.

Dhiraja, the beloved wife, and eternal soul-mate of Virato, is a natural shaman, healer and intuitive artist from St. Petersburg, Russia. Around Asheville, whenever her name is mentioned people seem to glow about her in almost "saint-like" reverence and respect. 

Born in the Ukraine, then a part of the Soviet Union, Dhiraja, also known as Lyudmila, or Luda,  spent her childhood (from less than one year old until she was ten) in Tajikistan (near China and Afghanistan) where she connected with spirit. She studied art and experienced hermeticism in St. Petersburg  She met Virato in Russia

Arriving in Atlanta in January 2002, she and Virato were married on St. Valentine's Day, 2002. They spent a month in Chattanooga, and then found themselves, as wanderers, heading toward Asheville...

Dhiraja feels one with nature and enjoys all interaction with the earth. She enjoys also sorts of creative art. In 2006 she had her own conscious Russian language radio program on Asheville's progressive WPVM-FM.

Both Virato and Dhiraja offer themselves and their oneness in the essence of it all...

Magic happens around Dhiraja and Virato...and they have attracted other practitioners  with outstanding abilities, success and credentials...