Biraj’s warmth and joy are contagious. He has been practicing and teaching meditation since 1987, including at Ananda's Expanding Light retreat, on the east coast, and in India. He was a founding member of Ananda India, and also helped begin Ananda Valley Farm. His passions are singing, selfless service, and connecting meaningfully with others.
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.
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.
Tandava Graham
Tandava is a Stanford and Google alum. He's a gifted teacher, whether the subject is meditation, music, dance, computer skills, or anything else, making concepts accessible with humor and clarity. It's hard to find a moment when Tandava isn't cheery, willing, and just on the verge of a terrific one-liner. He’s a frequent soloist and guitarist for 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.