Kriya Yoga Teachers
Marshall Govindan Satchidananda has practiced Babaji's Kriya Yoga intensively since 1969.
He studied and practiced Kriya Yoga in India for five years with Yogi S.A.A. Ramaiah. He also assisted him in the establishment of 23 yoga centers around the world during an 18 year period. During this period he practiced Kriya Yoga for eight hours per day on average, and as a result attained Self-realization. While in India he studied the Tamil language and the works of the Tamil Yoga Siddhas. In 1980 he assisted in the collection and publication of the complete writings of Siddhar Boganathar.
In 1986 he administered the construction of a rehabilitation hospital dedicated to Yoga therapy and physical therapy in Tamil Nadu, India. In 1988 he was asked by Babaji Nagaraj, the founder of Kriya Yoga to begin teaching. This followed the completion of certain rigorous requirements to initiate others in the 144 Kriyas given to him by Yogi Ramaiah five years earlier.
In 1991, he wrote the best selling book, "Babaji and the 18 Siddha Kriya Yoga Tradition", now published in 13 languages. In 1992 he established Babaji's Kriya Yoga Ashram in St. Etienne de Bolton, Quebec. Classes, seminars and retreats are offered there year round. In 1995, he retired from his work as the chief systems auditor for Quebec's largest employer, the cooperative Mouvement Desjardins to devote himself full time to teaching and publishing in the field of Yoga. Since then, he has travelled extensively throughout the world guiding about 50 Kriya Yoga study groups in over 20 countries, and an ashram and publiishing office in Bangalore, India, and a lay order of teachers of Kriya Yoga: Babaji's Kriya Yoga Order of Acharyas, a non-profit educational charity, incorporated in the USA, Canada and India. He has authored and published over fifteen books on the subject of Yoga, His book, the "Kriya Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the Siddhas," has been critically acclaimed, and for the first time demonstrates the close connections between Classical Yoga and the Siddhars.
Since 1989 he has personally initiated over 10,000 persons in Babaji's Kriya Yoga in a series of intensive sessions and retreats. In October 1999 he was blessed with the darshan of Babaji Nagaraj near his ashram in Badrinath, Himalayas.
He is currently co-directing a team of scholars in a large scale research project encompassing the whole of the literature related to the Yoga of the Tamil Siddhars. He is a graduate of Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He is married to Durga Ahlund.
Durga Ahlund Govindan has been practicing and studying Yoga since 1967.
She has shared her experience of yoga as a teacher of Hatha Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, Raja Yoga and Kriya Yoga and as a therapist since 1984. She co-authored, performed, and produced with Marshall Govindan, the Yoga video, "Babaji's Kriya HathaYoga, Self-realization through Action with Awareness."
She developed and teaches a 200-hour Teacher Training Course for Babaji's Kriya Yoga and she developed the Kriya Yoga correspondence course, 'The Grace Course' and writes it with MG Satchidananda. She was inducted into the teaching Order of Acharyas of Babaji's Kriya Yoga in Bangalore, India in January 2003. She is married to Marshall Govindan and has two grown sons. Visit Durga's Blog www.seekingtheself.com
Shanti Ananda was born in Guatemala City, Central America.
She earned her Masters in Counseling Psychology from ASU, and has worked in the prevention and intervention field for the last 15 years. She has been studying Yoga since 1970, and was first initiated into Babaji's Kriya Yoga in 1991. In July, 2001 she became a member of Babaji's Kriya Yoga Order of Acharyas. Shanti is now authorized to initiate others into the first level of Babaji's Kriya Yoga. She conducts regular satsang gatherings in her hometown of Tempe, Arizona. In July, 2001, after several years of rigourous training, Shantiananda was authorized to become an Acharya in Babaji's Kriya Yoga Order of Acharyas.
She now teaches the first level initiation seminar of Babaji's Kriya Yoga in the Southwest as well as in Spanish speaking countries.
Arjuna Really I do not know what to write, my past is of no real importance, and who I am is not what I've done or I'm doing. I'm an actor in a perfect drama, I do not know what tomorrow reserves me in the role play, but it doesn't really matter. I'm the wick, remember? Complete surrender to the Lord helps to bring the wax to the flame and burn to the light, that is what I feel here and now.
So, I'm not the candle or the flame, I'm not the light either, but only the means for the Divine to let Himself being experienced. What experiences in the representation of my actual life are more significant? I do not know, and probably they are so only if read in the context of past and future lives, but there is no past or future either, only space and through that space we are desperately seeking for truth, not our limited sensorial truth, but that which has no words, only a deep total experience of bliss. We can say I'm an ordinary person, born in Italy, with a love for horseback riding, living in Italy with a stressful job in an investment bank, with an expertise in NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) and hypnosis, I daily experiment all emotions everyone does, I can feel frustration, sadness, happiness, sexuality and so on.
I know how to laugh and how to cry, how to get angry and how to forgive, but moreover I never am any of these emotions, I simply can experiment and enjoy these variations like diving in the sea and playing with the waves.This is what I can say.
Om Kriya Babaji Nama Aum.
Nityananda (Nacho Albalat) is a native of Valencia, on the east coast of Spain. He was initiated into Babaji's Kriya Yoga in 1997, learned the advanced Kriyas in 1998 and 1999, and since then has practiced them faithfully. He has also actively collaborated in the diffusion of Babaji's Kriya Yoga throughout Spain by organizing seminars and translating publications. He has translated into Spanish the books "Kriya Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the Siddhas", "The Voice of Babaji: The Trilogy on Kriya Yoga", and the Kriya Yoga Journals since the beginning, and several initiation seminars. He was also responsible for translating and recording the video course "Babaji's Kriya Hatha Yoga: Self-realization through Action with Awareness".
He has a University degree in journalism and he has worked for several local media organizations, promoting subjects related to personal growth and spirituality in the community. He is happily married to his wife Aurora, who is also a distinguished journalist, and has one daughter.
As an acharya, his major aspiration is: "to transmit the best possible way the teachings and techniques of Babaji's Kriya Yoga." Through it, any person can manifest his potential and improve not only one's own life, but that of everyone around.
Nagalakshimi (Sharanadevi) of Sao Paulo, Brazil, became an Acharya in 2003.
Born in 1961, she recounts how she first met Babaji in a dream, in 1993. At that time she had no knowledge of Yoga or of Babaji. Babaji told her that he was her Guru. After this dream she began looking for information about Babaji, and found Yoganandaji's "Autobiography of a Yogi." She followed Yogananda's lessons from the SRF, for five years, and then met M. Govindan Satchidananda, who initiated her into the 144 Kriyas of Babaji's Kriya Yoga from 1998 to 2000, in Brazil and Canada. She has practiced these diligently and faithfully since then. She also completed the requirements for the Kriya Hatha Yoga Teacher Training program and gives several classes to the public every week since 2001.
Sharana Devi works as a body mind therapist since 1993. She was certified by Stanilaus Grof in Holotropic Breathwork in 1996 and uses it to facilitate the growth of those who are in spiritual emergencies or emotional problems.
Married with three children, she states that "the practice of Babaji's Kriya Yoga has completely transformed my life and the people around me."
Saraswati Karuna Devi of Sao Paulo Brazil. Born in 1948, in Egypt, of British nationality, she moved with her parents to Brazil when she was twelve. She became a seeker of God and a practioner of a Yoga as a teenager. During her first visit to India in 1981, she recognized the presence and guidance of Babaji in her life.
In 1996 she was initiated by M. Govindan Satchidananda into Babaji's Kriya Yoga in Canada, and received the second and third level initiations in 1997 and 1998. Since that time she has not stopped practicing it, and began sharing it with others while completing the Teacher Training requirements for Kriya Hatha Yoga in 2001. She teaches several classes per week in Kriya Hatha Yoga.
Trained as a Jungian psychologist, she became a student of Stanislaus Grof in the 1970's, and since then has worked intensively in private practice as a transpersonal psychologist, using his Holotropic Breathwork and related techniques. She is knowledgeable in numerous spiritual traditions and practices.
M.D. Satyananda, Yogaacharya in Babaji's Kriya Yoga Order of Acharyas since 2005, gives seminars with first, second and third initiation into Babaji's Kriya Yoga worldwide, mainly in Europe, India and the East. Certified in Psychology and Psychotherapy, he has worked in clinical and corporation settings. After studying spiritual wisdom of the world since childhood, and Vedanta and Yoga for more than a decade in India and the West, he dedicated one decade exclusively to intense study and practice of Babaji's Kriya Yoga and to Karma Yoga serving its students. Since more than one decade he offers programs on Babaji's Kriya Yoga, Yoga psychology and metaphysics, individual counseling, and offers regularly pilgrimages to India's sacred places and holy masters. "Satyananda is a highly informed and gifted teacher, adept at introducing powerful practices accessible and attainable to non-adepts without diluting their essence, effectively and precisely merging the essence of the various yoga paths into an unified whole."
Click here to read a profile article about Satyananda.
Ishvarananda (Ingvar Villido) became an acharya of Babaji's Kriya Yoga in May 2007, during a cermony attended by over 100 persons of the intentional community, Lilleoru, near Tallin, Estonia, which he founded fifteen years earlier. He is the spiritual director of this community and has for many years taught couses in developing awareness and higher consciousness. He has practiced and taught Yoga for more than 20 years. He has received initiations from several lamas and yogis from Tibetan buddhist traditions. Shri Muniraj, disciple of Herakhan Baba, has authorized him to conduct havan (yagya) fire ceremonies. These are conducted regularly at the Lilleroru community temple and yagna peetam. He has made several pilgrimages to India, both north and south. He is a skilled herbalist, community leader, and teacher of spiritual arts and sciences.
Ishvarananda was the managing director of a private company for several years. In his youth he served in the Soviet army for several years. He is now constructing an Eco Village with fourteen homes and a community center, following plans approved with a grant from the European Community. He is married, and the father of three children.
Nandi Devar began his diverse spiritual training from the age of 16. He studied and practiced both Japanese and Tibetan Buddhism. Sogyal Rinpoche taught him Dzogchen. He worked 7 years with S. Salpietro, a Sufi guru. He practiced martial arts for 6 years with a great master. It was after this master died that he felt the need to find some strong tools for personal transformation. He found them in Babaji's Kriya Yoga in 2002, when he was initiated by MG Satchidananda. He was certified in both Kriya Hatha Yoga and Shivananda Yoga and began to teach Hatha Yoga in 2003. His longing to free the personal self into the universal self increased, and what followed was a period of intense sadhana of the 144 Kriya techniques. His prayer that the divine would provide guidance for his life was answered when four weeks later, Satchidananda asked him to join the Order of Acharyas.
Nandi is a professional dancer, with an academic degree and has worked for many years as dance instructor. As a choreographer, he both developed dance theatre and performed with the company. He, and his wife Shakti are now running their own Yoga and Dance studio in Düsseldorf/Germany.
Premananda (Joseba Imanol Idoyaga) of Bilbao, Spain was born and raised in a devoted Christian family, and educated in the values of love and forgiveness. As a young man, he practiced the spiritual exercises prescribed by the St.Ignatius of Loyola. He aspired to dedicate his life to a religious order, until he married and had two children.
He is a graduate in psychopedagogy (the study of psychological education) and computer engineering. He worked for ten years as a computer analyst and later as a teacher in public schools. More recently he became a teacher trainer and lecturer in education centers.
He became an initiate of Tibetan Buddhism and made a pilgrimage to the Himalayas before beginning his initiation and training in Babaji´s Kriya Yoga in 2000. Since completing the teacher training course in Kriya Hatha Yoga, in 2003, he has organized many Kriya Yoga classes, seminars and satsangs in the Basque country.
His main motivation is to serve, and now to do so through Babaji´s Kriya Yoga. Kriya Yoga has been a great support to him during difficult periods, even removing from him the notion of being "difficult."
Valmiki (Mikel Agirreazkuenaga) is a long time student of languages. He is currently a professor of linguistics in the University of theBasque region in Spain. Since 1998 he has worked with the Foundation "Life and Languages" based upon thework of Dr. M.M. Sanchez Carrion, to sustain language cultures- Since beginning his training in Babaji´s Kriya Yoga in 2000, he has come to appreciate it as "language of transformation and service." He has attended many seminars in Babaji´s Kriya Yoga and a Kriya Yoga pilgrimage to India.
He has been sharing his knowledge and love for Babaji´s Kriya Yoga in the Basque region of Spain for several years since completing his training as a teacher of Babaji´s Kriya Hatha Yoga. He is married and has one daughter.
Mirabai (Lourdes Planas Calvo) She began to practice Yoga in 2002 and was later initiated into Babaji's Kriya Yoga. This was an important turning point in her. Since then she has participated in several initiations at the second and third levels, and has completed her certification in Babaji`s Kriya Hatha Yoga Teacher Training program. She has also made three Kriya Yoga pilgrimages to India, two in the South and one in the Himalayas. She completed her graduate degree in Nursing during the 1970`s. She is also a physiotherapist since 1984 and received a degree in Social and Cultural Antropology in 2003. Now she is studying for a Masters degree in naturopathy. She has worked as nurse in hospitals and in outpatient departments. From 1977 to 1981 she worked in health services for children under the age of five in Sierra Leona, Western Africa. Professionally, she has introduced yogic techniques to deal with stress for groups of people that suffer from anxiety, depression and other psychosomatic problems. She is married and mother of three children.
Savitri (Maria Rosa Blasco) She was initiated in 2001, and since then she has practiced with enthusiasm the techniques of Babaji's Kriya Yoga, and has participated several times in second and third level seminars, in the Hatha Teacher Training and in pilgrimages to India. She studied Medicine and works as family doctor in Public Assistance, combining it with the practice of Homeopathy. She teaches seminars to deal with the stress and writes articles for national magazines about health and self-help. As an Acharya she thinks that the practice of Babaji`s Kriya Yoga can improve the lives of many people, and for her it's a privilege and an honor to be able to share the teachings with others. She lives and works in Girona, near Alicante, 100 km south of Barcelona.
Nagaraj (Otsuki Norihiko) was born and raised in Sendai, north-eastern part of Japan. He was initiated into Babaji's Kriya Yoga in 2000, learned the advanced Kriyas in 2001 and 2002. In 2003, he completed the teacher training course in Kriya Hatha Yoga in Quebec and taught Kriya Hatha Yoga in Japan for some years. He returned to the Quebec Ashram in 2008 for 6 months to do tapas for 8 to 12 hours per day and to translate the Grace Course into Japanese.
Since he was a child, Nagaraj has asked the questions why we are here, living on this planet Earth and what are we here to do? He feels Babaji's Kriya Yoga answered his questions and that everybody should attend Initiation seminars in Babaji's Kriya Yoga, as it is a means to living a true and wide life. Nagaraj is a wonderful teacher and we are very pleased that he will be teaching Babaji's Kriya Yoga in Japan.
Nagaraj graduated from a university in Tokyo majoring social psychology and worked as a teacher for many years. He worked at a private school tutoring children with physical, mental or emotional challenges and also counseling their parents.
Siddhananda (Sita) Born in Brazil in a family of spiritual seekers, I grew up in the spirit of Yoga, mystical Christianity and the precious teachings of Tibet.
Through my explorations of the world and human nature as well as through my studying of sacred literature during long sea voyages, pilgrimages and retreats, I learned to recognize the universal presence of an essence which animates and unites all of us.
I have been a teacher, a translator and a builder and organizer of several different enterprises. I have raised my five children in love and by example.
Since my decisive encounter with Babaji's Kriya Yoga, I have participated in several pilgrimages to India and completed its teacher training program. Since then I have taught Kriya Hatha Yoga. I also offer a complimentary therapy based upon sound and DNA programming.
Turyananda (Thierry Morfin) Born in 1964 in Valence, in the Rhone Alps of France. I am married with three children, three beautiful daughters. Since 1989 I have lived in the France's Overseas Department Reunion Island which is in the middle of the Indian Ocean, 800 km east of the big island of Madagascar, and 200 km east of the better known island of Mauritius. In Reunion I work as the Director of a company whose headquarters is in in Grenoble, France, and which specializes in construction projects underwater and on cliffs and other inaccessible places.
I discovered Hatha Yoga in 1992 and I was initiated into Babaji's Kriya Yoga in 1998 during a visit by M. G. Satchidananda to Reunion Island. The following year I received there the second initiation. The year after that, in 2000, I participated in the Kriya Yoga Pilgrimage to south India. This was a revelation for me, as I was able to discover in the deepest part of my being the ability to surrender, thanks to the devotional experiences I had in India. Never before had I been transported by such a long lasting joy. From the age of 13, when I developed a passion for climbing cliffs and exploring subterranean caverns, I had found moments of joy when attaining a goal, but nothing which lasted. So at the age of 36 I have found my path.
Today, I am astonished by the impact of the words I speak may have on others, due to the grace of Babaji and the Siddhas. In this path which Babaji has charted for me, by allowing me to share his message, I have the feeling that it is His thoughts which are projected outwards. It is as if, in a certain manner, this permits the discovery of his Words as they are continuously given birth and thus to unveil the mystery for others. The teachings of Babaji and the Siddhas abides as an overruling necessity in this world where lost, sprawling humanity must find its way home to that which Is, that which we truly are, with the help of wise shepherds, if not smugglers.
Ganga Auer has a teaching degree from Hungary, and she began her spiritual journey when she moved to Canada in 1990. Ganga has practiced Yoga intensively since 1995. She started to teach Hatha yoga in 1998 and since then has taught it for thousands of hours. After searching for Truth for many years, in March 2000, when she attended the first initiation in Babaji's Kriya Yoga in Toronto, Babaji answered her call. She also found her spiritual family. Since then she has sincerely practised the 144 kriyas. Ganga participated in the first Kriya Hatha Yoga Teacher Training with Durga Ahlund in 2001. She is also certified as a teacher of Kundalini Yoga, and in Hatha Yoga by the Esther Myers Yoga Studio, Toronto, Canada. In November 2004, Ganga opened her studio, the Yoga Room, in Barrie, near Toronto, Canada. She has a great passion for teaching yoga. Her goal is to continue to help others to have happier and healthier lives by expanding their Yoga practice from the mat or cushion into everyday situations. She loves to learn and share her knowledge with others. May the loving grace of Babaji guide us on our path towards Self-realization.
Amman first learned about Babaji as a teenager and was initiated into kriya yoga in 1970 by Yogacharya J. Oliver Black, a lay minister of SRF and direct disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda. Amman has worked in northern and western Canada as a community youth worker, forest ranger and environmental protection officer. He currently works in the field of geographic information systems with the Ministry of Environment in Saskatchewan. In the mid 1980's Amman lived with Yogacharya Black at his yoga retreat in northern Michigan. In 2006 Amman rediscovered Babaji and has since gained greater insight into yoga through Babaji's Kriya Yoga. Amman has taught hatha yoga at the yoga center in n. Michigan, in a corrections facility in Saskatchewan and continues to teach from his home.
Shivadas from Dijon, France, lives on the island of Martinique, an island in the Caribbean. Shivadas was drawn intensely to spirituality since his adolescence, when he discovered Yoga. He made several voyages to India and across Europe to train in various disciplines, including Sivananda Yoga (Advanced Teacher training in Trivandrum, India) Reiki, human magnetism. He was initiated by M. G. Satchidananda in his home town of Dijon, France in 2004. He recognized Babaji as his master, guiding him with love towards the Divine. Joining the Order signifies to him that he can retransmit with humility what are humanity's greatest treasure. Since 2007, with his wife, Swarupu, a school of Yoga and Bharatanatyam dance in Martinique, APSARA. He may be contacted at Shivadas
Jnanashakti (Josée Sylvestre) From my earliest years, I have been fascinated by the complexity of the human being, as well as by the mysteries of life and what lies beyond this world. Being a little too clairvoyant, sensitive and perceptive, I saw and painfully felt the faults of humanity. I was overjoyed when I read with profound interest the collection of books on the lives of the saints in the school library. From that time onwards, the quest for wisdom became the ultimate goal of my life. I was only seven years old. I set what I considered to be a reasonable amount of time to achieve this goal, by the age of 30 years. Oh! How far did I misjudge the requirements related to such aspirations.
Having received a baccalaureat diploma from the university in Psychosociology of communication, I subsequently earned several other certifications in order to be equipped with some effective tools for helping and coaching others professionally, individually, spiritually, and at the organizational level. After being involved with many enterprises both in Quebec and internationally, having taught management, communication and even meditation to managers, I was blessed in 2006 to have come into contact with Babaji Nagaraj and to have learned the powerful techniques of his Kriya Yoga. Since then, the aspiration "to Be" with you, growing together towards Self Realization, has multiplied it fervor.
Vidhyananda (Sherry Ryan) LMT, RYT is the founder of Providence Healing Arts, a Yoga Studio & alternative healing center in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. As a student of Hatha Yoga and Kundalini Yoga for 40 years, Vidhya is a certified 500 hour yoga instructor facilitating retreats and teacher trainings throughout the world. She has over 25 years of experience in the study of Ayurveda, Macrobiotics and Traditional Five Element Theory.
Brahmananda was initiated in 2001 in Vienna into the tradition of Babaji's Kriya Yoga and in May 2013 into the Order of Acharyas. On account of Babajis graceful guidance Brahmananda's living conditions developed during this time slowly to a red thread, how a call of Dharma: during the same time his yogic development to be a Hatha Yoga Teacher, to participate at several Indian pilgrimages and being educated to an Acharya took part, the attachments freed themselves in job and career, past and other karmic obstacles. With the practical experience as a former company owner and dipl. engineer of shoe technology he meanwhile has reduced his conventional working quota to a minimum measure to dedicate his life and work to the teachings of Babaji and Yoga. Brahmananda lives in Attersee in Upper Austria and organizes there regularly Kriya Hatha Yoga classes, Workshops and Satsang. In the service of the Order of Acharyas he holds initiation seminars in the German-speaking area.
Maitreya (Michel Zonatto)
Since childhood Michel had felt a deep desire to know God / Truth. He was first introduced to Yoga and mysticism at the age of eight by his mother. He had his first training in Classical Yoga at eighteen and began to teach regular classes at twenty. He continued his studies in Yoga and other paths to self-realization and natural therapies, such as Ayurveda. He was initiated into various methods of reiki, meditation and vibrational healing. He received initiation and personal guidance in Vajrayana Buddhism. However, it was when he learned of Babaji and Kriya Yoga that he knew he had found his true guru and path. He felt compelled to find a lineage and a realized teacher to guide him and his sadhana. In 2009, he received the first initiation in Brazil from acharya Sharanadevi and in the same year, met his teacher M.G. Satchidananda. In 2010, he was initiated by Satchidananda into the advanced kriyas. These practices of Kriya Yoga brought him a deep sense of peace and of returning home, as he began to understand that his dedicated practice was encouraging loving and conscious action in all his daily life. In 2012, he was invited to prepare to become an acharya and after two years of intensive training he was, in November 2014, inducted into Babaji's Kriya Yoga Order of Acharyas.
Maitreya teaches classes of Kriya Hatha Yoga at the university and therapeutic centers and offers private sessions with natural therapies, deepening students knowledge in undergraduate Applied Naturology. He teaches initiation seminars, leads satsanga, kirtan, gives lectures, workshops and makes mandalas.
He is eternally grateful to the Kriya Yoga Tradition and the living Presence of Babaji in his life guiding and providing him a way to serve and fulfill his divine purpose. He is married to Lakshmi, Luana Marcanzoni Alves and lives in Palhoça, Santa Catarina, Brazil.
Kriyanandamayi, a member of Babaji's Kriya Yoga Order of Acharyas since 2015. She offers Kriya Yoga initiation seminars in Sri Lanka, India and Malaysia in English or Tamil. In her country Sri Lanka, she manages our two ashrams as the secretary of Babaji's Kriya Yoga Order of Acharyas Trust, organizes initiation seminars and pilgrimage tours to Katirgama and other holy places, conducts Hatha Yoga classes, corporate and students stress management programs, acupuncture treatment, and performs sacred ceremonies at our ashrams. After being introduced into spirituality by her parents at a very young age, she soon explored various spiritual lineages and has practiced Hatha Yoga since 2001, and taught it regularly since 2002. Since her initiation into Babaji's Kriya Yoga in 2006, she dedicated her life fully to intense Sadhana of Babaji's Kriya Yoga and to serving the local Sangha and her parental family.
Gurudasan
Born as Gowri Varadhan in Salem, Tamil Nadu (India), to parents Shri. Radhakrishnan and Shrimati. Kalavathi, Gowri obtained a Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Technology and works as an investigative data analyst. His study of spirituality began during his teen years when he was introduced to the writings of Swami Vivekananda and he grew especially drawn to the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi and Seshadri Swamigal of Tiruvannamalai. Being from the Tamil culture, Gowri greatly appreciates the various Tamil Siddha traditions and their perspective potentials in the context of God Realization. He is also initiated into Sri Vidya Sadhana. Understanding Advaita through the eyes of Ramana, Gowri was able to also understand and appreciate other schools of philosophy such as Dvaita and Vishisht Advaita as different perspectives of the same truth.
In the early 2000's, Gowri found the Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahamsa Yogananda, which introduced him to Mahavatar Babaji and Kriya Yoga. This, along with Babaji and 18 Siddha Kriya Yoga Tradition, by Marshall Govindan convinced him that Kriya Yoga was a perfected, scientific and authentic lineage of teachings of the Yoga Siddhas available for mankind to attain Self-realization. In the year 2008, he was initiated into Babaji's Kriya Yoga (both First and Second initiations) by Marshal Govindan Satchidananda and has been practicing ever since.
In 2011, he was initiated into all the 144 Kriyas in Bangalore, which were taught in three initiations and also took the intensive Babaji's Kriya Hatha Yoga Training at the Quebec Ashram.
Gowri has been studying, practicing and training to be an acharya for many years. He has served as translator in a number of Kriya Yoga initiations in India for the benefit of Tamil speaking population not comfortable with English. He married in 2014, and he and his wife Kiran currently live in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He offers free Kriya Hatha Yoga classes every week there and leads Kriya Yoga Satsangs where group sadhana is practiced followed by discussions on spiritual matters.
Gowri is deeply grateful for the support, guidance and encouragement received from MG Satchidananda ji, Durga ji, Satyananda ji, Nandi Devar, Vyasa and above all Sadhguru Babaji and Paramaguru Agasthiar. Gowri also feels the blessings of being born to parents who have supported him so whole-heartedly every moment of his life.
If I had to summarize my entire life story in a short sentence, I would say that it made me a disciple of Babaji. I was born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1951. And, since 1982, I am married with Marcia (acharya Annapurna Ma). This happy marriage gave me three children, Milena, Pedro and Marcela, and two grandchildren, Marina and João. I work professionally as a journalist, writer and teacher.
For more than three decades, I am researching intensely different spiritual traditions. As well as its connections with philosophy, sciences and arts. My study and my experience convinced me that "All is One". And, based on this monistic conception, I have written five books and a large number of articles, published in the media or in my personal blog.
I became an atheist before the age of 14 and continued to be an atheist until 28. During this time, I had two remarkable spiritual experiences. The last one definitely dismounted my materialism and brought me back to the spiritual path. Before that, I came to know about the existence of Babaji, through the Autobiography of a Yogi, of Paramahansa Yogananda. Years later, I had the grace of experiencing his presence directly, in a session of 'Holotropic Breathwork', coordinated by my friend and psychologist Doucy Douek (acharya Saraswati Karuna Devi).
In 1998, by the hands of Satchidananda, I was initiated in the Kriya Yoga. And, despite all the instabilities of the practice, the unshakable connection with Babaji maintained me on the way. My wife, which is much more intuitive and assertive than me, has helped me a lot to overcome the hesitations and move forward in the practical life and the spiritual path. Her love is a daily source of nutrition.
Initiated in Paris in 2006 with M.G. Satchidananda, Vivekananda found in Kriya Yoga much more than he hoped. Seeking a complement to his practice then, he discovered a complete and harmonious way.
Babaji's Kriya Yoga is gradually becoming his heart of practice.
He had continued with the 2nd and 3rd initiations and had participated several times in each of them.
Being already convinced of the liberating, unifying and transformative effect of Kriya Yoga for the individual and humanity, it is really during the 3rd initiation that the pieces of the puzzle are put in place and that he is struck by the genius of the method.
In 2011, he attended teacher training in central Canada, in Saint-Etienne de Bolton.
In 2017, he participates in a pilgrimage in southern India. (On June 30, 2018, at a ceremony following a yagna mantra, he joins the Babaji Kriya Yoga acharyas order and is authorized to transmit the first initiation.
"It is an immense blessing and a great joy to share this teaching").
He is married to Isabelle, curator and restorer of sculptures and art objects.
They have a daughter born in 2009. Isabelle has another daughter born in 1999.
He was born in the Loire (42), near Saint-Etienne in 1980. Since 2005, he lives in Côte d'Or (21) near Dijon.
He works as a yoga teacher and energetic practitioner. He also works as a night watchman in a cancer center.
I started my career with a major Japanese trading firm. I was doing fairly well for nearly 20 years and was nominated as a CEO of one of subsidiary companies in my early forties. However, it did not take me long time to realize the meaning of 'Ye cannot serve God and mammon' because I soon suffered from autonomic imbalance. I searched for a more realistic career for myself within the same company and obtained professional certifications in Internal Audit and as a computer auditor. In mid-fifties. I received the first initiation in Babaji's Kriya Yoga in 2010, and the second and the third initiations in 2011. I also received the teacher training course in 2012 in Quebec and started teaching Kriya Hatha yoga classes in Tokyo in 2013. After my retirement from the trading company in 2014, I considered farming while practicing yoga. But in order to help as many people as possible and to make the rest of my life an offering to Babaji, I accepted M. G. Satchidananda's invitation to fulfill the requirements to become an Acharya of Babaji's Kriya Yoga. In recent years, I was also one of the main members of a team which translated the book The Voice of Babaji into Japanese. I am married and have two daughters. I am a graduate of Tokyo University
Jamie Bright (Krishna) was born in 1981, in New York City to parents who followed the yogic spiritual path lead by one of the many Indian gurus who arrived in the 1970's in America. It is not surprising, growing up in a household imbedded with that knowledge and practice, that he learned to meditate at the age of nine. Throughout his youth and adult life, he has used the practices of yoga, pranayama, asana, and meditation for support and stability.
Jamie is a trained musician who received a Degree in Music Production and Engineering at Berklee College of Music. After college, he traveled extensively through America and Europe, lead by his creativity and love of music, but found his peace in the shakti of the mountains of Vermont, USA. He decided to settle in Vermont amidst the beauty of the open-minded and spiritually conscious communities, he found there.
Following their wedding, Jamie and his wife Adena , a yogini and Ayurvedic practitioner, honeymooned in India. There, their devotion to Yoga was deeply kindled. And, it was there, in the Mother country of Yoga that Jamie discovered the path of Kriya Yoga and Babaji. Jamie followed his June 2013 Initiation into Babaji's Kriya Yoga at the Quebec Ashram by performing Karma Yoga, in silence for 30 days. A pledge to surrender his own ego's desires to Thy Will, has led Jamie, now, Krishna on a path to love and serve all. He has been dedicated many years to self-study and transformation through devotion to Babaji and the Truth. He seeks to fulfill his dharma and share these teachings with others, who seek to evolve in mind, body and consciousness and for the benefit and upliftment of all life.
You can learn more about Krishna at his website: www.krishnabright.com