Amrita Yoga
When we perform yoga with complete awareness, it purifies each cell in our body.
—Amma
Director’s Message
Amrita Yoga® isn’t just about the asanas—it’s much more. It’s about aligning with our true Self. If yoga were only about aligning parts of the body, anyone with perfect bodily alignment would be Self-realized. Alignment is an inside-out approach. Aligning to the inner presence enhances the panchakoshas (five layers of the body described in the yoga scriptures) and is the actual alignment.
Amrita Yoga® supports us in establishing a positive and harmonious lifestyle. The practice moves us beyond the asana and breath into stillness and our innate silence by utilizing breath, chanting, and awareness. This experience of attunement extends into our family life and resonates with everything in creation. Oneness becomes part of our day, something we experience, not an unattainable ideal.
Amrita Yoga® has a long history of outreach, serving communities globally. Our curriculum is rooted in Sanatana Dharma and inspired by the living example of Amma and Her teachings.
We are committed to upholding Amma’s example of love and selflessness and bringing India’s rich and ancient yoga tradition to future generations. We continue to offer yoga as an essential tool to experience the innate happiness within us.
Among the many blessings of Amrita Yoga®, for which we thank Amma, we are most grateful to each of our precious volunteers for their selfless service. Amrita Yoga® could not have grown to what it is today without them. We are all so fortunate to have Amma’s presence and guidance. She is our Mother and Adiguru (first teacher).
About the director of Amrita Yoga
Brahmacharini Shobha was born into a yogic family. Her uncle, Swami Vijnanananda, a direct Sannyasi disciple of Swami Sivananda, initiated her into yoga at age 5. As a result, she was publicly demonstrating asanas as a young girl.
Irresistibly drawn to the universally revered Satguru Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, known to millions as Amma, she immediately dedicated her life to that Supreme Yoga for which her extensive knowledge, training, and extraordinary spiritual gifts made her an acclaimed emissary.
Shobha was key in formulating and developing Amrita Yoga® under the guidance and inspiration of Amma. Amrita Yoga is a school of yoga directly formed from Amma’s sankalpa (divine intention), prompted by unconditional love and an attitude of service to the world. Amrita Yoga offers a holistic approach, focused on awareness with heart-centered intention and aims to transcend the physical asana practice.
Shobha developed a thriving yoga school system at Amrita that operates worldwide in more than 30 countries and offers ongoing classes, international retreats, and workshops for all levels and abilities.
Shobha offers intuitive healing through a broad spectrum of Yoga Therapy that embraces and supports each individual’s search for growth and wellbeing. She infuses the practical means to a beautiful yogic life, providing inspiration and nurturing body, mind, and soul.
She offers a rare class experience of dynamic sequencing that reaches people at their deepest levels—the very purpose of yoga. She leads international retreats at Amritapuri; teaches open, ongoing in-person and online classes at all levels, tailored for both Indian and international ashram visitors and residents; and yoga and meditation classes and workshops at all levels throughout India and around the world, in the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
In 2022 March, she was appointed the Joint Secretary of the Indian Yoga Association (IYA), a self-regulatory body bringing leading yoga institutions together under one umbrella. IYA was established on 31st October 2008 and approved by the Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India.
In 2018, she was nominated as an Expert Member of the Council of the Inter-University Center for Yogic Sciences, Bengaluru, established by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
In 2016, she was made an Expert Committee Member (and the only woman) in the 12-member committee for Yoga Education in Universities, Government of India, Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD).
Shobha is a Ph.D. student of Yoga at the School of Spiritual and Cultural Studies at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. She is a graduate of Business Management from Maharishi University of Management, Iowa, USA, and worked for three years with American Express in a managerial position.
