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Meditation Sessions 2019 via Audio Stream

About Swami Vasudevananda

Swami Vasudevananda has been following the Siddha Yoga path for more than forty years. In 1980 he took monastic vows to become a Siddha Yoga Swami. Throughout the decades, Swami ji has been widely appreciated as a thoughtful and compassionate teacher, and a wise and inspiring mentor of other teachers, writers, and speakers.

He is the author and co-author, respectively, of two year-long courses in the Siddha Yoga Home Study Course—The Power of Siddha Yoga Meditation and The Power of Siddha Yoga: Path of the Heart. In 2015 and 2016 he was the teacher overseeing the series of Siddha Yoga Meditation Sessions via Live Audio Stream on the Siddha Yoga path website.

Swami ji is also author of the book Darshan: The Presence Within. He continues to share his deep understanding of the Siddha Yoga teachings in his role as an educational content developer for the SYDA Foundation.

About Swami Akhandananda

Swami Akhandananda began practicing the Siddha Yoga teachings in 1974, when he was a teenager. Two years later he made the commitment to offer seva full-time— first in the Siddha Yoga Ashram in Oakland, California, and later in Gurudev Siddha Peeth and Shree Muktananda Ashram. In 1982, he took monastic vows to become a Siddha Yoga Swami.

An experienced Siddha Yoga meditation teacher, Swami Akhandananda inspires students with his dedication to Siddha Yoga study and contemplation, and his great love for the Siddha Yoga practices, especially chanting. Swami ji has taught extensively in Siddha Yoga Shaktipat Intensives, satsangs, courses and retreats around the world.

About Ami Bansal

Ami began following the Siddha Yoga path with her family in 1976. For the past twenty-six years she has served as an SYDA Foundation staff member at both Gurudev Siddha Peeth and Shree Muktananda Ashram. She has offered seva in many SYDA Foundation departments, served as a member of the Ashram management team in Gurudev Siddha Peeth, and organized Siddha Yoga teaching and learning events for young people throughout India.

Ami is also a Siddha Yoga meditation teacher and a trainer of teachers for the Pilgrimage to the Heart Retreats in Gurudev Siddha Peeth. She now offers seva as a writer and Sanskrit scholar from her home in Mumbai, India, where she lives with her husband, Ruchir, and their daughter, Nitya-Shriya.

Ami has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in Sanskrit from Mumbai University.

About Yawu Miller

Yawu Miller began practicing the Siddha Yoga teachings in 1981, and he has been a Siddha Yoga meditation teacher since 2006. In the past, he has offered seva as a manager of the Siddha Yoga Ashram in Boston and a steering committee member for the Siddha Yoga Meditation Center in the Greater Boston area. His core practices are meditation and svadhyaya, the recitation of sacred texts.

Professionally, Yawu works as a senior editor for a weekly community newspaper. He has a Bachelor of Arts in English from Dartmouth College. Yawu lives in Boston, Massachusetts, with partner and two children.

About Mehul Joshi

Mehul Joshi began his Siddha Yoga practice twenty-eight years ago. He has offered seva as a Siddha Yoga meditation teacher, teaching in Siddha Yoga courses and retreats in locations around the world. Mehul served on staff in the SYDA Foundation from 2000 to 2009, and he currently offers seva from home with the SYDA Foundation Content Department.

Mehul holds an honors degree in physics from the University of Essex in the United Kingdom. He works as a senior partner in a leadership development consultancy in Sydney, Australia, where he lives with his wife, Genevieve Uttara, and their two children.

About Eesha Sardesai

Eesha was introduced to the Siddha Yoga path by her parents in 1991. She has been serving on staff in the SYDA Foundation since 2014, offering seva as a writer and editor, and as a speaker in Siddha Yoga teaching and learning events. She has written various pieces that have been published on the Siddha Yoga path website, including the Stories on Gurumayi’s Message for 2019 and the monthly introduction letters in 2018.

Eesha graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in creative writing and communications. She has experience writing in many genres, including creative non-fiction, short story, and poetry. Prior to serving on staff in the SYDA Foundation, she worked as a food writer.

About Swami Ishwarananda

Swami Ishwarananda has been following the Siddha Yoga path for more than forty years. In 1980, he took monastic vows to become a Siddha Yoga Swami. Swami ji serves Gurumayi as a Siddha Yoga meditation teacher, and he has traveled throughout the world to teach in satsangs, courses, Sadhana Retreats, and Shaktipat Intensives.

Swamiji teaches with great clarity and wit, encouraging students to discover for themselves the essence of the Siddha Yoga teachings and practices. He especially loves to teach students how to meditate.

About Lilavati Stewart Sutcliffe

Lilavati Stewart Sutcliffe began following the Siddha Yoga path as a child in 1970, when her mother opened a Siddha Yoga meditation center in their home in Melbourne, Australia.

Over the years, Lilavati has facilitated and hosted many Siddha Yoga teaching and learning events, including Intensives, family retreats, and satsangs. As a speaker, Lilavati inspires enthusiasm for applying the Siddha Yoga teachings in daily life by sharing experiences from her lifetime of Siddha Yoga sadhana.

In her professional life, Lilavati owns a commercial interior design business and also works as an executive coach, supporting leaders in business. She lives in South Yarra, Australia, and is a mother of two children.

About Paul Hawkwood

Paul Hawkwood has been following the Siddha Yoga path for twenty-nine years. From 1982 to 1992, Paul and his wife Achala Woollacott hosted a Siddha Yoga meditation center in their home in Eugene, Oregon. Currently, Paul offers seva as a writer and editor in the SYDA Foundation. He also serves on the leadership team for the Siddha Yoga Meditation Center in Eugene and as a Siddha Yoga meditation teacher in Sadhana Retreats in the United States and Europe.

Paul has a bachelor’s degree in religion and English from Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, and a master’s degree in composition and rhetoric from Eastern Washington University. Paul recently retired after teaching English at Linn-Benton Community College for thirty years. He lives in Eugene with his wife, Achala Woollacott.