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Our Teachers

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Spiritual Guides/Spiritual Committee

Swami Ritivan Bharati (Spiritual Director, Initiator)

Swami Ritavan Bharati

Formerly Pandit Ananta (American name Daniel Richey) has been serving H.H. Swami Rama of the Himalayas and Swami Veda Bharati’s work for the past forty years with single-minded devotion and dedication. His educational history includes degrees and multiple advanced degrees in theology, philosophy, psychology and education. He is also a highly trained and experienced teacher of Yoga and Meditation, holding many certifications and is Yoga Alliance certified (E-RYT-500). Swami Ritavan joined the Dhyana-Mandiram (Meditation Center) Ashram in 1970 and has since then remained in spiritual life in a steadfast manner. By the grace of Swami Rama of the Himalayas, he was conferred the monastic vows of samnyasa (swami) in 2007 and earlier in 2001 the vows of Vanaprasthi, having lived a married life for 22 years. In 1995 he had received the sacred thread and the title of Pandit by Swami Veda Bharati.

Swami Ritavan, in addition to his duties as spiritual guide of the Meditation Center Ashram which he has directed for 20 years in the absence of Swami Veda Bharati, also spends much of his year serving, teaching, and practicing disciplines and meditation at Swami Rama’s Ashrams in Rishikesh. Swami Ritavan has been traveling and teaching internationally for the past ten years, teaching throughout North and South Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Southeast Asia. In addition, he has been a much appreciated presence as an advanced teacher at Swami Rama Dhyana Gurukulam in Swami Veda’s Ashram in Rishikesh. He also spends much of his time in guiding the International Himalayan Yoga Teachers Association in training numerous yoga teachers, having taught for the past 38 years. He is gifted in guiding and conducting numerous Silence and Meditation retreats throughout the world. A man of few words, his primary focus is on the inner life. He continues to be trained and further guided by his guru, Senior Acharya Sri Mahamandaleshvar Swami Veda Bharati from his Rishikesh Ashram.

Swami Ma Radha Bharati

Swami Ma Radha Bharati earned an M.A. 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.

Swami Ma Radha Bharati (Initiator)
Stephen (Stoma) Parker PsyD, E-RYT 500 (Initiator)

Stephen (Stoma) Parker 

Stephen Parker 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. Stoma is a Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher at the 500 hour level of the Yoga Alliance (E-RYT 500). A member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, he serves on the faculties of the Meditation Center in Minneapolis and the Sadhanamandir and Sadhaka Gram 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 Carribean 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 

Emilio Bettaglio was initiated into the Himalayan Yoga Tradition in 1971 by then Pandit Usharbudh Arya 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 Dabral. In 2019, Emilio took Vanaprastha vows and is currently a member of the Meditation Center’s Spiritual Committee.

 Emilio Bettaglio
Eric Ness 

Eric Ness

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 

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 Masters 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.

Michael Smith, E-RYT 500
Jim Nelson, MA

Jim Nelson

Jim holds a Masters degrees in Education and Counseling Psychology.  He worked as a Consulting Psychologist and therapist for Family Life Mental Health Center for almost fifteen years, while teaching psychology at Blaine High School.  Jim received the Medtronic Outstanding Teacher Award in 1997 and was selected to the Whose Who of American teachers.  He served five terms on Blaine City Council championing environmental causes, and served on the Anoka County Mental  Health Advisory Board for several years.  He currently is in private practice and worked until his recent retirement, at Transition Plus as a Psychologist, serving students with learning disabilities and mental health issues.   For almost 20 years he was on the Meditation Center’s Board of Directors serving as President or Chairman of the Board for most of that time.  Jim has taught at the Center for over 25 years. He currently serves as Vice-President of AHYMS-A and is on the executive committee of AHYMSIN—the International organization dedicated to spreading the teachings of Swami Rama and the Himalayan Tradition.  He has traveled broadly in North America speaking at conferences on a variety of psychological and Philosophical topics.  He currently finished writing a book—Running on Empty”–an assessment of the destructive changes and challenges, that have eroded the well being of adolescents and young adults.

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Active Teachers

Lori Beron, RYT 200

Lori  Beron

Lori Beron 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 3-year Vanaprastha Vow from Swami Veda Bharati during the 2013 Sangha Gathering. (Vanaprastha-a stage in life where one lessens worldly attachments.)

Rosann Chamberlain

Rosann Chamberlain has been practicing yoga since the 1980s. She became kalyanamitra (spiritual friends) with Sig Martel at Teacher’s Training in 2001, when they discovered they’d grown up 10 miles from each other near La Crosse, WI.  Together they teach the Wednesday morning Gentle Yoga class. Join this Wednesday group for a truly relaxing experience!

Rosann Chamberlain
Paul Emerson PhD

Paul Emerson

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

Sunita Bhardwaj Gangopadhyay

Sunita Bhardwaj Gangopadhyay brings 18 years of affiliation in the Himalayan Yoga and meditation tradition. She has completed a 200-hour Teacher Training Program with Himalayan Yoga. Dedicated to helping students find balance and peace, Sunita focuses on making each class accessible and rewarding, regardless of experience level. Sunita has a PhD in Physics and a retired executive who worked in 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.

Sunita Bhardwaj Gangopadhyay
Cynthia Gran MA,E-RYT 500, YACEP

Cynthia Gran MA, E-RYT 500, YACEP

Cynthia Gran, MA, E-RYT 500, YACEP, began studying yoga in 1978 at the Himalayan Institute of Glenview. She has endeavored to serve the
Himalayan Tradition ever since. During the 1980s, she was a resident, serving in several capacities. In the 1990-2010s, 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, CYT, DAy

Gary Gran, CYT, DAy.  Gary and his wife Cynthia have 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 & 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.

 Gary Gran, CYT, DAy
Daniel Hertz, MS, BCB, E-RYT 500

Daniel Hertz, MS, BCB, E-RYT 500

Daniel Hertz, MS, BCB, E-RYT 500, started giving yoga and meditation classes at The Meditation Center in 1995. He has offered individual Biofeedback sessions since 2007. Please see this link for more information on Biofeedback and to directly contact Daniel with any questions. (https://themeditationcenter.org/biofeedback/). 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 (https://www.amazon.com/Everything-Little-Bit-Alright_Meditation/dp/1951651294/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0). Click on the title to find the book on Amazon. Thank you!

Rodney Huff

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 Sadhaka Grama in Rishikesh. He began teaching Hatha yoga in 2003 and has been a regular teacher of Hatha Yoga (I & II) as well as Meditation I. 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.

Rodney Huff
Jennifer Manion, RYT 200

Jennifer Manion

Jennifer found the Meditation Center in 2007 and was initiated into the Himalayan tradition in 2008 by Pandit Hari Shankar Dabral. She has taught hatha as well as Meditation I, II and III at the center and in studios in the Twin Cities, and 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.
Jennifer earned her MA and PhD at the Johns Hopkins University, and has taught philosophy and women’s studies to college students in Minnesota and 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 Means

Aaron Means began practicing yoga in 1994 while in college to ease his own afflictions at the time. Soon thereafter he studied and practiced 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. He has periodically taught yoga and meditation in the community throughout the years, as well as at The Meditation Center. Aaron (Arunadeva) 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 a doctorate in clinical psychology (PsyD) 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.
Aaron Means
Aaron Means
Sig Martel

Signe Martel

Signe Martel has been practicing yoga since the 1980s. She became kalyanamitra (spiritual friends) with Rosann Chamberlain at Teacher’s Training in 2001, when they discovered they’d grown up 10 miles from each other near La Crosse, WI.  Together they teach the Wednesday morning Gentle Yoga class. Join this Wednesday group for a truly relaxing experience!

Eric Ness

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 Ness
Michael Snodgrass

Michael Snodgrass

Michael was initiated into the Himalayan tradition in 2019, and is currently working on completing a 200 hour teacher training. 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 is currently teaching Gentle Hatha Yoga on Thursday nights at the Meditation Center. 

Chris Young

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 in Minneapolis. Chris occasionally leads Kirtan at the Meditation Center’s Thursday satsang, and helps with some IT aspects of the HYT 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 Tradition. He is the father of two amazing boys, he enjoys singing and playing music, and is ready to help with your ocular asanas through eye-roll-inducing dad jokes.
Chris Young
Chris Young