Meet the Teachers
Swami Sitaramananda (b. 1953) is in charge of the US West Coast and Asian Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers and Ashrams. She is director of the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm, Grass Valley, CA. A direct disciple of Swami Vishnudevananda, she has been an active Karma yogi since 1982, training thousands of Karma Yogis around the world. Her teaching style is dynamic and very clear. Her wisdom touches your heart.
Swami Sivasankariananda is director of the Los Angeles Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center. She completed her TTC at the Yoga Farm in 1997 and ATTC there in 2008. Swamiji has been on yatra in north and south India and Mount Kailas. She loves to teach and is particularly fond of the Bhakti Yoga practices. She took sannyas in 2017 and is a certified yoga therapist, specializing in chronic pain care. She is on the faculty of the Sivananda Institute of Health & Yoga (SIHY). She served as director of the San Francisco Center from 2015 to 2019.
Swami Jnaneswariananda joined the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers in 1995 and has been director of centers and ashrams in Canada and Italy. She teaches Hatha Yoga, Meditation, Anatomy, and Vedanta at Teacher Training Courses in North America, Italy and India. Swami Jnaneswariananda took vows of sannyas in 2001. She is currently a senior teacher at the Yoga Farm in Grass Valley. She teaches with great enthusiasm and humor. Swami Jnaneswariananda has a Phd in Biomedical Engineering and is an excellent teacher of anatomy and physiology and yoga philosophy. She is a senior teacher and director of the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm and is part of Sivananda Institute of Health & Yoga (SIHY), the health branch of the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers.
Swami Dharmananda is assistant director of the Yoga Farm and is in charge of the Karma Yoga program. He is a faculty of the Sivananda Institute of Health (SIHY) and is one of the main teachers of Yoga Philosophy and Meditation at the Ashram. He took sannyas vows in 2013 and is keenly interested in yoga psychology and philosophy, presenting the classical teaching in a practical and accessible way to people of all faiths and backgrounds.
Swami Adi Parashaktiananda is a dedicated Sadhak and an experienced international Sivananda Hatha Yoga teacher and trainer in international TTC in USA, Vietnam , Japan and China for more than twelve years. He mainly serves as assistant to Acharya Swami Sitaramananda at the Sivananda Ashram yoga Farm in Grass Valley California and at the Sivananda Ashram in Vietnam. He took the first monastic vow from Sivananda lineage in 2011 and became a sannyasin in 2017. He teaches a 7-day Hatha Yoga Sadhana course and the 14-day Sivananda Sadhana Intensive course, whose emphasis is on individual sadhana. His teaching is classical and brought peace and clarity to many.
Swami Hamsananda is a senior staff teacher at the Yoga Farm, taking TTC in 2010 and Advanced TTC in 2014. Swami Hamsananda took Brahmacharya vows in 2014 and sannyas in 2022. She graduated from the the Sivananda Yoga Health Educator Training in 2019 and is a Certified Yoga Therapist specializing in Stress Management, Positive Thinking, Chronic Pain and other Yoga therapeutic practices for holistic and positive health. From 2016 to 2018, she was director of the Los Angeles Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center.
Lalitha Vaidyanathan is a Sivananda Yoga teacher and lifelong practitioner of meditation. She completed her Teacher Training Course in 2016. Lalitha is a certified Ayurvedic Health Counselor, currently completing her Ayurvedic Practitioner training with the Kerala Ayurveda Academy in the Bay Area. She has used the principles of Ayurveda to manage personal health challenges and is passionate about sharing whatever she knows of this ancient science to help others heal and be well.
Nadav Somekh has been captivated with the mind-body-spirit connection since his first yoga class in 2003. His own sports injuries have encouraged him to find the healing and reconstructive value of yoga. Nadav graduated TTC at the Sivananda Yoga Farm in 2017.
Other teachers: Sudarshan, Tejaswini, Pavan Manocha, Radharani