Amba Jaya Bhagavati

Amba has been a student of Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati since 1975 and is a Senior Kali Natha Yoga Teacher, certified with Yoga Alliance. In her yoga classes, Amba focuses on movement as vibration; transporting her students into a place of silence and stillness. After having been introduced to chanting and kirtan in New York City in 1975 by Krishna Das, Bhagavan Das and Jai Uttal, she traveled extensively in India and immersed herself in the sounds of this ancient art. As the head kirtan wala of Kashi Ashram, she is in charge of kirtan for all the weekly gatherings, holy days and festivals. She executive produced and performed on the Kashi Ashram CD, “Songs of the River”. Since 1998, she has studied Sound and its Healing Potential with Pandit Mukesh Desai, foremost disciple of the great North Indian classical singer, Pandit Jasraj. Amba is a Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner, Licensed Massage Therapist and Natural Foods Educator & Cook guiding her clients into natural balance and health with personal consultations, massage and body treatments through her practice, “Be Nourished”, located in Vero Beach, Florida. www.benourished.net

Amba teaches Sunday, 9am

Swami Anjani

Swami Anjani is Kashi’s Director of Community Relations. She served as the River School’s Principal for 24 years and helped organize the Treasure Coast Teen Institute, a youth leadership camp. In ’02, the Congressional Youth Leadership Council in Washington recognized Swami for her contributions as an advisor. Swami Anjani currently serves our community as Treasurer of the Board of Directors of the Economic Opportunities Council, a member of the Sebastian Advisory Council of the Boys & Girls Club, and President of Sebastian Clambake Foundation. Swami Anjani is a devotee of Hanuman, the Hindu God of humility and service. As a Hanuman Pujari, she has taught the Hanuman Chalisa and the Hanuman Ashtok, which are Hindi songs in praise of Hanuman, and she performs a hawan, or fire puja, at Hanuman Jayanti each year.

Babaji

Babaji was serving as a 20-year-old U.S. Marine in Vietnam in 1965 when he received a wake-up call saying, “Hey, you’re responsible for your own life!” In San Francisco in 1970, he experienced the darshan of Swami Muktananda, Ram Das, and Swami Rudrananda (Rudi). Living in the Catskills at Rudi’s ashram, Babaji learned the discipline of karma yoga while building and learning all aspects of restaurant operations. Rudi taught Babaji his first breathing and meditation practices. In 1977, Babaji met Ma Jaya and knew immediately that he was home. Since that time Babaji has lived and served in Ma’s ashrams, first in Queens and then at Kashi Florida. He is a certified nursing assistant whose current passion is developing Kali Natha Yoga classes for the elderly, which anyone and everyone can do. His yoga practice emphasizes breathwork, balance, and moving awareness.

Babaji teaches Sunday, 3.30 pm

Swami Dhumavati

Born and raised in England, Swami Dhumavati has traveled and worked around the world. She has studied and taught in Japan, run a guesthouse for women and started a preschool in Nepal, photographed for an international youth project in Chile, developed housing for single mothers and run an Asian import business in Taos, New Mexico. Since moving to Florida to study with Ma Jaya in 1992, Swami Dhumavati has been deeply involved with service work in the HIV/AIDS community; she operates the Ashram spiritual gift store, serves on the Board of Directors, and runs Kashi Rainbow, the Ashram’s Gay and Lesbian organization. Swami Dhumavati facilitates workshops and intensive retreats. She is a kirtan walla, and a pujari for Durga Puja fire ceremonies and was honored to take her vows of sanyassin from Ma Jaya in 2005. Swami Dhumavati has been teaching yoga classes since she graduated Kali Natha Yoga Teacher Training in 2006 and works in the Kashi office. Swami Dhumavati is a breast cancer survivor.

Swami Dhumavati teaches Wednesday, 6 pm

Ganga Mayee Jaya

Ganga Mayee Wasserman is a Registered Yoga Teacher with the Yoga Alliance. She has been training in Kali Natha Yoga for over 16 years and has been teaching it for 3 years. Her study of interfaith spirituality at Kashi Ashram began in 1977 and became more focused since 1989. She also has had 30 years experience in ballet training, teaching, and performing. In addition, she has 11 years training and teaching Tae Kwon Do and has attained a 3rd Degree Black Belt. Ms. Wasserman has been an LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker) since 1986 with her own private psychotherapy practice. This combination gives her a broad range of knowledge about the body’s abilities and limitations and the interaction of mind, body, and spirit.

Ganga Mayee teaches Monday, 10 am

Swami Himalaya Jaya

Swami Himalaya began yoga practice in the late 1960s with Indra Devi in her native Southern California. She spent a year in India living at the ashram of Sattya Sai Baba before moving to New York where, while studying with Hilda Charlton in 1972, she met and became one of the first students of Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati. In 1976 Himalaya moved to Florida with Ma and was one of the founding members of the Kashi community. She has since represented and shared Ma’s teaching with presentations, conferences, and retreats in the U.S. and abroad. As a senior Kali Natha Yoga practitioner and instructor who has experienced this yoga’s evolution since the “early days in Brooklyn”, Swami Himalaya emphasizes the importance of bringing spirituality into everyday life and work. The physical practice offers tools for going within to experience the depth and flow of meditative space. A practicing licensed massage therapist and reflexologist in Indian River County, Florida, Swami Himalaya offers yoga, pranayama, meditation, and spiritual counseling for individuals and small groups in home settings.

Swami Himalaya teaches Saturday, 9 am

Swami Moksha Ram

Swami Moksha Ram Nityananda’s first influential teacher was the great Chinese mystic saint, Lao Tzu. Initially introduced to the meditation and pranayama of Southeast Asian Buddhism by his mentor, Young Ho Rhie, both continue to play an important role in his life today. Swami has explored poetry, philosophy, psychology and comparative religions at the university level. Neem Karoli Baba came into his life in the middle 1960’s through Ram Das’ writings, but the most profound and far-reaching influence on his spiritual life occurred in 1975. This was the year he felt his heart being called to join once again with his Guru; Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati. Swami Moksha Ram has been graced by the teachings of Ma Jaya for over 30 years. He currently lives at Kashi Ashram acting as the head pujari of Dattatreya Kali Temple and spiritual mentor to residents and guests from around the world. He teaches meditation classes weekly and assists in the facilitation of retreats and intensives at the Kashi Center for Spiritual Studies. He also conducts tours of Kashi conveying the living spiritual roots of shrines and temples, giving all visitors an individual opportunity to experience the spiritual essence of the many forms of God here at Kashi Ashram.

Sat Santokh

A Student of Yogi Bhajan, Sat Santokh K Khalsa met her Teacher through Kundalini Yoga at Golden Bridge in Los Angeles. She studies internationally with and serves as a sevadar for Guru Dev Singh, Master of the Healing Art of Sat Nam Rasayan. SatSantokh is one of a few Bound Lotus instructor/healers worldwide. Through the encouragement of Mahan Kirn, author of Bound Lotus, she teaches Bound Lotus and offers appointments. She is a KRI certified Kundalini Yoga teacher, Sat Nam Rasayan III and Bound Lotus practitioner/instructor/healer.

SatSantokh currently resides in Florida offering classes, workshops, and reatments—dedicated to sharing the experience of Yoga, Meditation, and the Healing Art of Sat Nam Rasayan. She is Grateful to Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati for her continued support and teachings.

Sat Santokh teaches Monday 7.15 pm, Saturday 10.30 am, and Sunday 10.30 am.

Sati Jaya

Sati Jaya began studying yoga as a child at the Self Realization Fellowship temples of Paramahansa Yogananda in Los Angeles, California, but it wasn't until later in 1999 that Sati Jaya met her Guru, Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati and her practice became her life. For almost ten years, she studied with Yogini Acharya Swami Jaya Devi at Kashi Atlanta, devoting herself to all aspects of yoga and to living yoga “off the mat”. Over these years, she would travel back and forth to Kashi Florida to receive the teachings of her Guru, Ma Jaya. In 2005, she graduated from the Classical Yoga Teacher’s Training at Kashi Atlanta and discovered her love of teaching. In 2006, Sati Jaya graduated from the first Kali Natha Yoga Teacher Training, and has been sharing her passion for this yoga and the depth of transformation it can bring ever since. 

Sati Jaya has a deep love of Kirtan (devotional chanting) and has led kirtan for many years. She has also received great joy from  serving the homeless and elderly through Ma’s programs in both Atlanta and Florida. In 2008, Sati Jaya moved Home to Kashi Florida to live at her Guru’s feet. She is currently assisting with Kali Natha Yoga Teacher Trainings and the running of the Kashi School of Yoga.

Sati Jaya teaches Thursday, 10 am

Shakti Durgaya

Shakti Durgaya is a Senior Instructor of Kali Natha Yoga, trained by her Guru and the founder of Kali Natha Yoga, Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati. She has been an active yoga teacher in both the U.S. and Canada for 15 years. She is a registered, professionally certified Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy practitioner, since 1996. She has assisted and helped run Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy Trainings in the United States. She currently continues her training in Kali Natha Yoga as a close student of Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati. She is a resident of Kashi Ashram and teaches classes at the Kashi School of Yoga. Shakti Durgaya is involved with developing and managing programs and events at the Kashi School of Yoga. Shakti Durgaya holds her degree in Education. Her experience in education and in teaching seminars to the public spans 20 years.

Shakti Durgaya teaches Monday, 6 pm

Shanti Mayee

Shanti Mayee began yoga practice while living in Los Angeles in 1977. There she also began to study with Ma Jaya and moved to Kashi Ashram in 1979.  She is a senior instructor of Kali Natha Yoga currently teaching for the Kashi School of Yoga and Kali Natha Yoga teacher training course. Her areas of emphasis are the yoga of sound (nada yoga), devotional practice (bhakti yoga), mantras, mudras, and the chakra system. Shanti also holds a Master’s Degree in Education and works in the Vero Beach Museum of Art's education department.

Sita Gange

Sita Gange took the first Kali Natha Yoga teacher’s training course.  Her first love was dance and she competed in gymnastics in her early years.  She was even in a modern dance company and studied professionally in NYC.  After several injuries she found yoga and studied Kripalu and Sivananda yoga.  The dance of Kali Natha Yoga brought her love of dance and movement back into her life, as well as the surprise benefits of calmness, relaxation and spiritual opening.   

She is public relations director and media spokeswoman for Ma and Kashi. She contributes her skills to Children’s Home Society, Senior Resource Association and the Mental Health Association in the community.  Her true path is to serve in the lineage of Ma’s teaching, helping more people live with an open heart.    

Sita Gange teaches Saturday 4 pm

Tara Jaya Ma

Tara began yoga practice while growing up on Kashi Ashram when she first moved here in 1979. Having become a certified yoga instructor in 2006, she is a senior teacher of Kali Natha Yoga currently involved in the development of the Kashi School of Yoga. She holds a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts, is a certified Women’s Self Defense Instructor and a 2nd Degree Black Belt in the Korean martial art of Taekwondo. She works in the field of non-profit finance development and PR & Marketing, and works as Project Manager for the development of an affordable housing project for senior citizens. Tara also teaches yoga at Kashi, in the local community and at seminars around the country.