Jaya Devi Bhagavati, RYT is the executive director and spiritual director of Kashi Atlanta. She has a BFA from the Atlanta College of Art and has studied yoga, meditation and healing in depth since 1985. The focus of her training has been in Hatha, Kundalini and Kali yogas. She is a Registered Yoga Teacher with the Yoga Alliance at their highest 500 hour level, a Certified Yoga Teacher through The Kundalini Research Institute, 3HO International Kundalini Yoga Teachers Association, Amrit Yoga Institute, as well as a senior teacher of Kali Yoga. Jaya Devi is an ordained minister and monk in the lineage of Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati and the Kashi Foundation. She continues her training as a close student of Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati at Kashi Ashram in Sebastian, Florida.

Jaya Devi began teaching yoga in 1992. She has taught yoga all over Atlanta, from corporations to hospitals, meditation centers to yoga studios. Her well-rounded classical style is approachable while still maintaining the great depth of an authentic practice. She teaches meditation and pranayama (breathwork), as well as yoga for all levels. She also does spiritual counseling sessions, offering her insight and years of spiritual practice to help individuals work through their own personal struggles. She initiated and taught the Immune Yoga for AIDS and HIV at Grady Hospital Infectious Diseases Clinic. Jaya Devi is very committed to educating the public in compassion, self-healing and how to serve without burning out - she teaches both staff and clientele at organizations such as Georgia Parents Support Network, AIDS Survival Project, Common Ground AIDS Facility and Skyland Trail Mental Health Facility.

Jaya Devi is the initiator of Kashi Atlanta’s Street Meals Program for feeding and assisting Atlanta's homeless and hungry. She is the co-founder of the Kashi Atlanta Care Team. Jaya Devi's teaching style emphasizes love, compassion, open-heartedness, and selfless service.

Jaya Das has been a Kashi Atlanta teacher for 2 years. He graduated from the first Kashi Classical Yoga Teacher's training in 2004. Jaya Das is also on the Kashi Atlanta Board of Directors and a Kashi resident. He has helped run Kashi Atlanta as the CFO. Jaya Das teaches the Saturday morning Yoga Sculpt class.

After many years of seeking, Candika finally met her Beloved Teacher, Jaya Devi Bhagavati of Kashi Atlanta, and began studying how to live the authentic yogic life that she had always longed for. Through Jaya Devi, she eventually met her Guru, Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati. The love that Candika has for her Teacher and her Guru is her inspiration to live fearlessly and with compassion. In 2003, she decided to deepen her yoga practice and graduated from Kashi Atlanta's first 200 hour level Classical Yoga Teacher Training. The experience changed her life and has led to the opportunity for her to teach the anatomy portion of the Teacher Training every year. In 2004, Candika became a Kashi Atlanta resident, choosing to live in an intentional spiritual community, and dedicate her life to serving others. Besides teaching all levels of yoga at Kashi Atlanta, Candika is also one of the teachers involved in Kashi Atlanta's Prison Yoga Program. In this program, one of the various community service programs provided by Kashi Atlanta, women in a nearby jail are taught yoga and share in its blessings each week.

In addition to being a RYT, Candika is also a licensed massage therapist at Kashi Atlanta and has her massage space in the Ashram. In her work, and with more than twenty years of experience, she uses an intuitive blend of various healing and massage techniques intended to simply promote wholeness and peace. She is available by appointment and can be reached at 678-640-2613.

Kim Alford has been a student of Yoga since 1994. She teaches at Kashi Atlanta in the lineage of her guru, Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati. Kim graduated from Kashi Atlanta's first Classical Yoga teacher's Training in 2004. Her style of teaching is compassionate, grounded and heart-centered. She believes in being a student first and a teacher second. Just as her beloved teacher Jaya Devi Bhagavati taught her, Kim emphasizes that Yoga is about raising your consciousness and being present within the moment, not how easily you can touch your toes. Kim is continually grateful for the gift of Yoga and wants nothing more than to share it.

Iswari Verre has been a teacher at Kashi for 2 years. She graduated from the first Kashi Classical Yoga Teacher's training in 2004. Iswari's intense passion for yoga lead her to take the teachers training 2 more times in order to go deeper into her discipline. Iswari teaches Kashi Atlanta's Power Yoga classes.

S. 'Anasuya' Taylor has been practicing yoga since 1998 and has been teaching since 2003. She has studied with a variety of local instructors including Margaret Pierce and Graham Fowler, as well as her own beloved teacher, Jaya Devi Bhagavati. Since finding Kashi Atlanta in 2001, Anasuya has committed herself to the practice of yoga in all areas of her life, and continues to learn and grow as both student and teacher. She was in the first graduating class of Kashi Atlanta’s teacher training program, and followed that by spending a year as a Kashi Atlanta apprentice. She is currently a certified yoga teacher at the 200-hour level.

As a teacher, Anasuya strives to create a feeling of warmth and nurturing in her classes, using asana, meditation and focus on the breath to tap into the essence of the feminine divine within each of us. Her specialties include slow-flow vinyasa yoga, prenatal and postnatal yoga, and yoga for kids.

Heather Havey has practiced yoga for over 10 years. She has trained with Jaya Devi for over two years and graduated from the Classical Yoga Teachers Training in 2004. Since 2003 she has been teaching Gentle Yoga & Hatha Yoga. For Heather, yoga is an interfaith spiritual practice that enhances mind-body health as well as our connection with nature, with each other, with ourselves and with divinity. Through diverse practices, this path teaches peace, wholeness, health, & love. For more information: www.yourlifeisadream.com.

Ty Mahadev Bittner has been a student of Jaya Devi's for 7 years. A certified instructor, he teaches yoga classes, workshops and substitutes for instructors.

Seva (selfless-service) has been his life's path, with 25 years as a teacher of the blind. Ty Mahadev helped to develop our Street Meals, Kid's Art, Care Team and Ashram seva programs. These programs are supported by Kashi Atlanta student donations.

Ty Mahadev says," Service is a major component of this teaching. It is an opportunity for our students to stretch beyond themselves and experience our oneness with others through active compassion."

Hila Kerekesh's first step in the path of Yoga was taken during her B.A. (2001), while studying Sanskrit and East-Asian philosophy and literature. Ever since, she has been practicing more and more, exploring the depth of this unique and beautiful practice, which is constantly changing, healing, revealing. She graduated from Kashi Atlanta’s Classical Yoga Teachers Training in March 2005 and has been teaching in Atlanta since. In her teaching she shares her own practice and understanding of the path to balance and harmony through the body.

Skanda has been studying yoga for over five years and completed the Classical Yoga Teachers Training in both 2004 and 2005 at Kashi Atlanta. His foundation of yoga is classically based, infusing Kali, Hatha, Kundalini, and Ashtanga Yoga styles. He has been chela to Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati and student of Jaya Devi Bhagavati for five years and currently resides in the Kashi Atlanta Ashram. He is an avid student of Kali Natha Yoga as taught by Ma Jaya. He has also studied yoga with Mukanda Stiles, Structural Yoga Therapist.

Skanda Jaya is a very active participant in the Twelve Steps of Recovery. He sponsors and guides others in their healing of addictions and is currently teaching Yoga for Addictions.

Susan Voelker is one of our Kids Yoga teachers. She graduated from the first Kashi Classical Yoga Teacher's training in 2004. Susan's caring, fun and comapssionate teaching style makes her great with kids. Being a very creative artist enhances the kids yoga experience.

Ganesh Giri has been practicing yoga and meditation since 1998, and has studied with Jaya Devi Bhagavati and Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati for the past six years. In 2000, he was introduced to kirtan, a form of spiritual practice using melodic chanting, by his teacher, Jaya Devi. He's performed and recorded with Arlo Guthrie, Bhagavan Das, Arjuna (Dave) Stringer and Wynne Paris, and yoga workshops with Jaya Devi Bhagavati and Acharya Swami Krishnapriya of Kashi Ashram in Sebastian, FL. Ganesh Giri also leads kirtan at Kashi Atlanta, and is a freelance musician in the Atlanta area.

Frani Green (Shakti) has been studying yoga since 1985 and teaching for nine years. she is a certified Yoga Instructor through the International Yoga Institute, the American Aerobic Association International, and the International Sports Medicine Association.

Shakti has studied with Jaya Devi Bhagavati, Shiva Rea, David Life, and Mukta Khalsa, as well as studying at the Kripalu Yoga Institute. Her background includes studies in Kundalini Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Kripalu, Ashtanga Yoga, and Bikram style. She has taught classes that include Beginner’s Yoga, Basic Yoga, Advanced Yoga, Restorative Yoga, Kids Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, Meditation, Pregnancy Yoga, Yoga for Sports, and Immune Yoga.

Shakti enjoys teaching yoga because it helps mental focus, cleanses the mind, builds a strong spine, and promotes good health. “I like to share this gift with people because I know it makes them feel better.”

Jennifer Keller teaches our children's yoga classes. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Dance and Elementary Education and has been teaching children for the past eleven years. She taught Kindergarten in Tampa, Florida for three years and moved to Atlanta in 1996 to continue teaching elementary school and begin an after school dance program.

Jen began her yoga practice at Jaya Devi Yoga Studio under the guidance of Gerry Mitchell (Durga Das) and began to blend yoga practice into her classroom curriculum. Positive student and parent response inspired her to take a teacher's intensive training in New York city with Alison West, the founder of Yoga Union. She is currently teaching first grade at Fernbank Elementary School and many of her former Fernbank students take the Kashi children's yoga classes.

"Teaching children's yoga has completely changed my practice. It adds a dimension of playfulness to yoga that I find really beautiful".

Renee Carlson has been studying yoga since 1995. Her studies have included Iyengar, Hatha, Tibetan Dream Yoga, Ashtanga and others. She enjoys bringing the influences of all her studies into her class. The most important element she brings into the class is fun and pure enjoyment of this wonderful art of yoga. She successfully completed David Swenson’s Teacher Training course studying Ashtanga’s first series. Her 200-hour level yoga alliance certification in the practices of Hatha Yoga was awarded from Peachtree Yoga’s certification program.

Renee’s classes focus on raising heat (prana), increase body awareness, and reconnecting with the body’s natural energetic resources. Raising heat internally by following thru poses (asana) with breath (vinyasa), facilitates deeper stretching, as well as strengthening the immune system, mind, and body. The concentration on mental focus increases concentration, and overall body awareness.

Yoga has changed Renee’s life, and continues to guide her path through life as a single mother. Her yogic journeys have presented her the path of combining yoga and medicine. She is currently in school to become a Registered Nurse. Her studies will continue with-in the realm of Holistic Nursing as well as Ayrvedic medicine. Renee’s goal is the fulfillment of her sanculpa (spiritual inspiration), which is “To heal myself through healing others”.

Agni Ma has studied yoga, meditation and spiritual growth in depth with Ma Jaya and Jaya Devi since 1999. She has been teaching yoga at Kashi Atlanta for over three years, and assists in coordinating Kashi Atlanta’s Certified Yoga Teachers Training course. Agni Ma is a member of the Board of Directors and is a resident of one of the Ashram houses. She is also a lawyer at Atlanta Legal Aid Society, and has worked as a poverty and civil rights lawyer for over a decade.

Ma Sodashi is one of Kashi Atlanta's Gentle Yoga teachers. She graduated from the first Kashi Classical Yoga Teacher's training in 2004. Ma Sodashi also teaches Senior's Yoga at Senior's Centers in the Atlanta area. Through her soft and gentle approach, she leads students through a restorative practice that calms the mind, heals the body and expands the heart.

Since 1998, childbirth studies, holistic health and yoga have been a passion and integral part of Mukti’s development as a yoga practitioner and instructor. Mukti is a recent graduate of Kashi Atlanta’s teacher training and has been a dedicated student of Ma Jaya and Jaya Devi for 3 years. Recently, her yoga and massage studies have grown to include a focus on creating and maintaining reproductive health before, during, and after pregnancy through holistic, non-invasive practices of massage, yoga asana, and meditative visualization. Her combined knowledge and experience of meditation, yoga asana, childbirth education, herbalism, and massage therapy as well as her work as a labor birth doula, provide a well-rounded breadth of knowledge available to participants in her pre-natal classes.