The AYA Teachers
For millennia yoga has been transmitted from teacher to student without any interruptions.
Although there are many other ways to learn yoga in the modern world - books, audio cds, videos, DVDs, web sites on the internet, podcasts and so on - nothing beats learning yoga from a live teacher.
In this tradition we recognize several categories of teachers.
The Gurus
It may seem counterintuitive to modern and Western-minded students but the most important links of the chain are the great Masters who came before us and are part of our illustrious lineage of gurus.
In our particular guru parampara there are truly thousands of them who came, lived these teachings and transmitted them with utmost care to their disciples but we will acknowledge particularly three of them.
- Sri Shankaracharya - The exponent of the great philosophy of advaita vedanta and the founder of the ten swami orders.
- Swami Sivananda Saraswati - The great 20th century Master who authored over 200 books and brought yoga out to the whole world.
- Swami Vishnu-devananda Saraswati - A disciple of Swami Sivananda and accomplished master of all paths but particularly known for his expertise of the kundalini branch of hatha yoga.
The Staff Members
The Advaita Yoga Ashrama is a small non-profit ashram run by volunteers.
At this point there are two full-time staff members
- Swami Atma-swaruparamananda - Founder/director of AYA residing at the Levoča ashram.
- Sita Chaitanya - Director of the AYA Yoga & Meditation Center in Austin, Texas.
The Affiliate Teachers
In the spirit of this extended spiritual community are the affiliated teachers and centers.
Although functioning independently the affiliates follow and teach the same classical teachings that AYA is dedicated to.
They are located around the world and please feel free to visit them for classes.
- Bhagavati - Susan Nicolas - In Amsterdam, Netherlands.
- Lila - Brenda Lolling - In Austin, Texas.
- Maria Steiner - Formerly in Basel and Liestal, Switzerland and now in Ipswich, Australia.
- Vidya - Susan Feathers - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- Lalita Devi - In Witten, Germany
- Vivekananda - In Ulm, Germany
- Gauri Susan Baumann - in Zurich, Switzerland
teachers