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About Us

Our Teachers

Spiritual guides, initiators, and an active teaching faculty bring deep experience and compassion to the center through teachings grounded in the Himalayan Yoga Tradition.

Spiritual Guides & Spiritual Committee

Lineage holders

Initiators in the Himalayan Tradition and members of TMC’s spiritual committee.

Swami Ritavan Bharati

Spiritual Director, Initiator, Spiritual Guide

Swami Ritavan Bharati (MA. E-RYT 500) holds advanced degrees in management, education, holistic philosophy, and Eastern studies, and has served H.H Sri Swami Rama and Swami Veda Bharati since 1970. He has conducted and guided silence and meditation retreats across the globe, as guides the teacher training program of the Association of Himalayan Yoga Meditation Societies International (AHYMSIN). In addition to his leadership as spiritual director of the Meditation Center, he is the ashram pramukha and spiritual guide at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama in Rishikesh, India, and the worldwide AHYMSIN community.

Swami Ma Radha Bharati

Initiator

Swami Radha Bharati (MA) earned her Master’s in philosophy and commenced doctoral studies in Eastern and Western philosophy with emphasis on views of the self and mind. She has taught philosophy at a number of schools, including the University of Hawaii. She received a fellowship from the Humphrey Institute in Public Policy. Swami Ma Radha was initiated by H.H. Sri Swami Rama 33 years ago and has been an active member of the Meditation Center community ever since.

Stephen (Stoma) Parker

Initiator
Stephen Parker (PsyD, E-RYT 500) was initiated in the Himalayan Yoga Tradition by Swami Veda Bharati and was given the initiate name Stoma in 1971. Among the first teachers certified by the Himalayan International Teachers’ Association, H.I.T.A., he began teaching hatha yoga in 1974.  A member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, he serves on the faculties of the Meditation Center in Minneapolis and the Sadhana Mandir and Sadhaka Grama ashrams in Rishikesh, India. He is also a senior faculty member of the Himalayan Yoga Tradition Teachers’ Training Program. He has lectured on yoga, meditation and spiritual practice in the U.S. and Canada as well as in Caribbean countries, Holland, Italy, Austria, Hungary, South Africa, Korea, Hong Kong, and India. In 2004 he helped originate and teach the first course on yoga in an American medical school at the University of Minnesota Academic Medical Center. In 2007 he received took preliminary vows of renunciation from Swami Veda and the Shankaracharya of Karvirapitha.
 
Stoma has been a licensed psychologist in private practice in St. Paul, MN since 1985. He also serves as Adjunct Assistant School Professor of Counseling and Psychological Services at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Professional Psychology at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, MN. He teaches on the faculty of the introductory workshops of the Minnesota Society of Clinical Hypnosis. In addition to authoring journal articles and book chapters, Dr. Parker edited volume two of Swami Veda’s definitive scholarly work on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and he has been a peer review editor for the Journal of Men’s Studies, the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, and the International Journal of Yoga Therapy.

Emilio Bettaglio

Spiritual Committee

Emilio Bettaglio was initiated into the Himalayan Yoga Tradition in 1971 by then Pandit Usharbudh Arya (later Swami Veda Bharati) and has been a regular practitioner since. He has received instruction on pranayama practiced from various teachers in the tradition over the years and most recently from Pandit Hari Shankar Dabral. In 2019, Emilio took Vanaprastha vows and is currently a member of the Meditation Center’s spiritual committee.

Eric Ness

Spiritual Committee​

Eric Ness has been teaching meditation and yoga for over ten years. His teaching is based on the experiences that he had while immersed in a meditational environment. He deepened his study of meditation while participating in the residential program at the Meditation Center. He also trained for three years at the Swami Rama Institute for Meditation in India. His calm teaching style brings students the tools they need to move toward a peaceful state of mind. Eric is a member of the TMC spiritual committee.

Michael Smith

Spiritual Committee​
Michael Smith has been teaching yoga for over 36 years and is currently a curriculum coordinator for the International Himalayan Yoga Teachers Association. He has also been certified by the Himalayan Institute Teachers Association and the Behram Guard School of Yoga Meditation (an Iyengar-based hatha yoga school). He was a public school teacher for 35 years and also a professor of comparative religion at North Hennepin Community College. He has edited and/or illustrated many books on yoga and has lectured widely on stress management (the topic of his MA thesis) and also on holistic health.  Currently he is very interested in the cultivation of a yoga-based life style, incorporating the principles of Ayurveda.
 
Active Teachers

Current faculty

Teachers currently leading weekly classes, drop-in sessions, and class series at the center.

Lori Beron

Active Teacher

Lori Beron (MA, RN) is an initiate and certified teacher through the Himalayan Yoga Tradition. She is a retired holistic and surgical oncology nurse and serves on the Meditation Centers board, currently as vice-president. Lori has immersed herself in the Himalayan Tradition teachings, including many visits to SRSG, our sister ashram in Rishikesh, India.

Lori took a three-year Vanaprastha vow from Swami Veda Bharati during the 2013 sangha gathering. (Vanaprastha is a stage in life in which one lessens worldly attachments.)

Rosann Chamberlain

Active Teacher​

Rosann Chamberlain has been practicing yoga since the 1980s. Rosann teaches the Wednesday morning gentle hatha yoga class and serves on the TMC board of directors, helping with the work of many TMC committees and projects. Rosann has co-taught a popular “Solar Salutation with Modifications” series. She is an initiate in the Himalayan Yoga Tradition.

Paul Emerson

Active Teacher​​
Paul Emerson (PhD) is a biomedical engineer who has worked as a research scientist, a manager of clinical research with a major biomedical company, and a university instructor. He holds eight patents in the areas of dialysis and sleep therapy. A scholar of ancient yoga texts, Paul was certified by the Rockford School of Yoga and began teaching in 1975. He is the authority on the physiology of breathing for the Meditation Center and has been teaching yoga for over 30 years.

Sunita Bhardwaj Gangopadhyay

Active Teacher​​

Sunita Bhardwaj Gangopadhyay (PhD, RYT 200) brings 18 years of affiliation in the Himalayan Yoga Meditation Tradition. She complete her yoga teacher training with the Association of Himalayan Yoga Meditation Societies International. Dedicated to helping students find balance and peace, Sunita focuses on making each class accessible and rewarding, regardless of experience level. Sunita earned her PhD in physics and is a retired executive who worked in the high-tech industry for 25 years. She is currently the president of the board at the Meditation Center. Native of India, Sunita currently lives in Eden Prairie, MN. She is married with two children.

Cynthia Gran

Active Teacher​​​

Cynthia Gran (MA, E-RYT 500, YACEP) began studying yoga in 1978 at the Himalayan Institute of Glenview, IL. She has endeavored to serve the Himalayan Tradition ever since. During the 1980s, she was a resident at the Himalayan Institute, serving in several capacities. In the 1990s to the 2010s, along with husband Gary, they operated the Evanston School of Yoga and the Annapurna Herb Shop. She has worked as a vegetarian chef, taught special education, and published articles on Ayurveda, yoga and meditation.

Gary Gran

Active Teacher​​​​

Gary Gran (CYT, DAy), along with his wife Cynthia, has been treading the Himalayan path since the late 1970s. They met at the old Glenview Center in Illinois and have served the tradition in various capacities over the years. Gary is a certified yoga teacher and Ayurvedic educator, and has also trained in Jyotish, Kriya Yoga, Tibetan Buddhism, Sufism, and Christianity. He has published more than eighty articles on yoga, meditation, and Ayurveda. Gary and Cynthia winter in Tucson, Arizona, from where they offer Zoom classes on Ayurveda and yoga. They summer in Minneapolis where they enjoy sharing the teachings in person.

Daniel Hertz

Active Teacher​​​​​
Daniel Hertz (MS, BCB, E-RYT 500) started giving yoga and meditation classes at the Meditation Center in 1995. He first came to the center with the hope of finding strategies to deal with the stress from his long career as a teacher and counselor in the Minneapolis public schools. The story of how his relationship with yoga and meditation has evolved over the years is told in his 2020 memoir entitled Everything Is a Little Bit Alright. Daniel has also offered individual biofeedback sessions since 2007. If you are interested in setting up a biofeedback session, or would like more information, reach out to Danial directly at danielhertz4635@yahoo.com.

Rodney Huff

Active Teacher​​​​​
Rodney Huff first came to the center in January of 2000 and quickly took as many classes as he could. Since then he has traveled to India to study at Sadhana Mandir and Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama in Rishikesh, India. He began teaching hatha yoga in 2003 and has been a regular teacher of hatha yoga as well as our Meditation I course. Rodney is grateful for the opportunity to teach at a place as special as the Meditation Center. The teachings he received transformed his life, and he hopes that each of his students can have an equally rewarding experience.

Jennifer Manion

Active Teacher​​​​​
Jennifer Manion (PhD, RYT 500) found the Meditation Center in 2007 and was initiated into the Himalayan Tradition in 2008 by Pandit Hari Shankar Dabral. Having traveled to India numerous times, she has taught hatha yoga and meditation in studios across the Twin Cities, and has taught hatha yoga as well as Meditation I, II and III at the center. She is continuing on with the 600-hr teacher training program of the Association of Himalayan Yoga Meditation Societies International. She has served on the center’s board. With her MA and PhD in philosophy from The Johns Hopkins University, she has authored a number of academic articles and has taught philosophy and women’s studies to college students in Minnesota and on the East Coast. She has a particular interest in mantra practice and science, as well as the metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of language underlying ancient Yogic texts.

Aaron (Arunadeva) Means

Active Teacher​​​​​
Aaron Means (PsyD) began practicing yoga in 1994 while in college, later studying and practicing yoga and meditation while living at the Meditation Center and other associated Himalayan Yoga Tradition institutions in the US and India. Aaron completed his first yoga teacher training through the Himalayan Institute Teachers’ Assoc. in 1997, and started a RYT training program in 2019. Aaron has been a student and initiate of Swami Veda Bharati since 1997. His teaching style is reflective of what he has learned under his spiritual preceptor (Swami Veda), as well as studies of psychology, compassion, and mindfulness. Aaron earned his doctorate in clinical psychology in 2015, and has been a practicing licensed psychologist in the Twin Cities since 2016. He is married with two children and enjoys spending time with family and friends, being outdoors, playing tennis, and strategy board games.

Signe Martel

Active Teacher​​​​​
Signe Martel has been practicing yoga since the 1980s. She became kalyanamitra (spiritual friend) with Rosann Chamberlain at teacher’s training in 2001, when they discovered that they had grown up 10 miles from each other near La Crosse, WI. Sig, Rosann, and others teach the Wednesday morning gentle yoga class.

Eric Ness

Active Teacher​​​​​
Eric Ness has been teaching meditation and yoga for over 10 years.  His teaching is based on the experiences that he had while immersed in a meditational environment.  He deepened his study of meditation while participating in the residential program at the Meditation Center. He also trained for three years at the Swami Rama Institute for Meditation in India.  His calm teaching style brings students the tools they need to move toward a peaceful state of mind.

Michael Snodgrass

Active Teacher​​​​​
Michael Snodgrass was initiated into the Himalayan Tradition in 2019, and is currently working on completing a 200 hour teacher training through the Association of Himalayan Yoga Meditation Societies International. He found yoga helpful during early recovery from addiction, and is now working in the counseling field, where he shares about his experience with yoga practice. Michael frequently leads gentle hatha yoga on Thursday nights at the Meditation Center.

Chris Young

Active Teacher​​​​​
Chris Young was initiated into the Himalayan Yoga Tradition in 2005, but has been connected with the tradition in some way since birth, with his parents being early members and faculty of the Meditation Center. Chris occasionally leads kirtan during our Thursday evening satsang, and helps with some IT aspects of the Himalayan Yoga Tradition teacher training program. Chris finds the thread of yoga and meditation that has been taught through the tradition and its teachers, and cultivated through practice, to always keep him returning to his heart’s path, the path of Yoga, and he is grateful to be a part of the local and global communities that are working to further the mission of the Himalayan Yoga Meditation Tradition. He is the father of two amazing boys, enjoys singing and playing music, and is ready to help with your ocular asanas through eye-roll-inducing dad jokes.