Top

Nayaswami Lahari

Lahari is insightful, wise, and present. She has served in many of Ananda's colonies since 1986, including Ananda Village, Sacramento, Rhode Island, and India. She and her husband, Biraj, helped to found the new Ananda community near Pune, India, and more recently, the new Ananda Valley Farm in Half Moon Bay. Lahari is a pastoral counselor and teaches many programs at Ananda.

Navashen Jones

Navashen helps others fulfill their highest potential through the Ananda teachings in a fun, positive atmosphere. Before Ananda, he was involved in operations services for baseball teams, and as Director of Operations at Facebook’s corporate fitness center. Navashen teaches meditation, and also has a gift for working with young children through nature awareness activities and guided play. He serves in many ways with kindness, a ready smile, and a deep wellspring of inner calmness.

David G

David G  has been with Ananda for 40 years. He has a gift for making complex ideas and situations easy to understand, with both clarity and humor. For the past 27 years, he has provided stress and meditation training for government and the private sector (see his public work here). He has devoted his life to understanding the spiritual life and the complexities of the human mind. His greatest enthusiasm is to help others have deep insights that have been be life-changing for many.

Nayaswami Ramani

Nayaswami Ramani is a Lightbearer at Sunday worship services, and a longtime meditator. She has deep experience with Yogananda's healing techniques and has served for many years with the Healing Prayer ministry. She has given years of loving service to Ananda's works in Berkeley, New Delhi, Pune (India), and most recently Torrance and LA in Southern California. She has a passion for healing, plants and sustainable farming as deep as her love for helping people.

Rose Atwell

Rose Atwell has been teaching young children in Living Wisdom School for years (she is now "famous" for her appearance in the Finding Happiness movie with the very young ones). She has many years of expertise in teaching nature awareness, yoga, and music to young people. She is a gifted actress and singer, her soprano solo voice gracing many Ananda performances.

Rita Deierlein

Rita Deierlein is a lifelong professional in body mechanics and movement — as a fitness trainer, yoga instructor, and dancer. In listening to the music of Kriyananda and Yogananda, she feels a powerful, uplifting energy deep within her being. This energy inspires flowing movement, expressed in spiritual choreography for herself and others.

Nayaswami Sharmila

Sharmila Barbara Hoffman has a private practice as a Marriage and Family Therapist in Palo Alto. She helps individuals and couples change negative and destructive thinking and habits, and helps them to reduce anxiety, stress, and depression. She teaches beginning yoga, as well as offering yoga and meditation to people suffering from stress and anxiety who would like to find greater peace, balance, and joy in their lives.

Esther Corona

Esther Corona, se acreditó como profesora de yoga y meditación para compartir con los demás los beneficios que estas prácticas han tenido en su vida. Esther es madre de cuatro hijos y empresaria. Ella, a través de la práctica diaria de estas técnicas, ha visto como su vida se ha transformado en una vida con más significado y menos estrés.

Gloria Ramirez

Gloria Ramirez ha gozado de una trayectoria muy exitosa de más de 15 años como conferencista, consultora, consejera espiritual y emocional y sanadora. Ella está dedicada a apoyar a las personas en su desarrollo interno y lo hace a través de clases, conferencias, seminarios y consultoría. Es también instructora en el Instituto Internacional de Meditación y Yoga de Ananda.

David Praver

David has been the foundation and steady hand guiding Ananda Palo Alto since 1987. He has long experience and patience working with a wide range of personalities (a rare skill, indeed). Under his guidance, Ananda has grown in many areas, developing the Living Wisdom School, expanding East West Bookshop, helping to birth Ananda Community in Mountain View, and most recently Ananda Valley Farm.

Hazemach

Hazemach has taught at Living Wisdom High School since 2019, in the subjects of personal development, mathematics, literature, and physics. He is a life-long yogi, a world-level competitor in Karate, and a graduate of Living Wisdom School. Hazemach’s love of wisdom shines through in his teaching as he explains concepts with clarity and joy. His dedication to truth makes his classes nuanced and impactful. Hazemach is always expanding his horizons through continued study, self-reflection, and meditation.