Prana…The Life Force

Dr. Robert Svoboda is the first Westerner ever to graduate from a college of Ayurveda and be licensed to practice Ayurveda in India. During and after his formal Ayurvedic training he was tutored in Ayurveda, Yoga, Jyotish, Tantra and other forms of classical Indian lore by his mentor, the Aghori Vimalananda. He is the author of over a dozen books and has served as Adjunct Faculty at the Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque, NM, and at Bastyr University in Kenmore, WA.

Yogacharya Dr. Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani is Director of the Centre for Yoga Therapy Education and Research (CYTER), and Professor of Yoga Therapy at the Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth, Pondicherry (www.sbvu.ac.in). He is also Chairman of the International Centre for Yoga Education and Research at Ananda Ashram, Pondicherry, India (www.icyer.com) and Yoganjali Natyalayam, the premier institute of Yoga and Carnatic Music and Bharatanatyam in Pondicherry (www.rishiculture.in). He is son and successor of the internationally acclaimed Yoga team of Yogamaharishi Dr. Swami Gitananda Giri Guru Maharaj and Yogacharini Kalaimamani Ammaji, Smt Meenakshi Devi Bhavanani. In recent years he has travelled abroad 20 times and conducted invited talks, public events, workshops and retreats and been major presenter at Yoga conferences in the UK, USA, Italy, Czech Republic, South Africa, Germany, Switzerland, Malaysia, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. He is currently member of numerous expert committees of the Ministry of AYUSH including its National Board for Promotion of Yoga and Naturopathy, Scientific Advisory Committee & Standing Finance Committees of CCRYN, Technical Committee of the Yoga Certification Board, Expert Committees for Celebration of International Yoga Day and the National Yoga & Diabetes program. He is Consultant Resource Person for the WHO and its Collaborative Centre in Traditional Medicine (Yoga) at MDNIY, New Delhi.

Dr. Vinayachandra Banavathy is the Director of Indica Yoga, an Indic Academy platform that offers authentic, immersive and transformative yoga experiences across the world. He holds a PhD on psychological insights in the Vedas from Pondicherry University, besides Master’s in Sanskrit, English, Yogic Science and Applied Psychology. He is a dedicated teacher who travels across the world conducting courses, lectures and workshops on a unique blend of Yoga, Psychology and Sanskrit. His publications include a report on Standardization of Yoga Terminologies for WHO; a book co-edited with Dr. Anuradha Choudry titled ‘Perspectives on Indian Psychology’, published by Jain University Press, another book co-authored titled ‘Happiness: Indic Perspectives’, published by Development Foundation, besides a few articles, papers, booklets on Yoga, Indian Psychology, Culture and Spirituality.

Dr Prasanna Narasimha Rao in his distinguished career has been constantly involved in bettering the healthcare of the society in various positions and responsibilities. In his 27 years as head of the institute at SDMCA&H, Hassan he has been able to make it as an institute par excellence in Ayurveda education and healthcare. He has been instrumental in development and administration of five hospitals with three educational institutes of Ayurveda across Karnataka under the aegis of SDM Educational Society. Developed MoU with international universities, industries, institutes of national repute and NGOs in field of skill development and research. As Dean (Faculty of ISM) in Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, (RGUHS) Karnataka he pioneered in motivating and incubating perseverance for research and higher education among AYUSH fraternity. During his tenure, doctoral programme in ISM was introduced; besides it, financial assistance for research and publications were also initiated. By being part of advisory boards across universities, he has enhanced the quality of education in Ayurveda and healthcare. Globally, his expertise has been utilized by many international universities / organizations for development of Ayurveda. As Chairperson for AYUSH Accreditation Committee of National Accreditation Board for Hospital and Healthcare (QCI), he constantly strives to better the quality of healthcare services and to enhance safety standards across India.

Dr. Latha is one of the few doctors in India, who is specially qualified and trained in Obstetric Medicine. She has extensive experience in Medical disorders in Pregnancy (high risk pregnancy) both in United Kingdom and India. Dr. Latha has received MRCOG (United Kingdom, 1992) & MRCP (Dublin, 1994).She has also been awarded the fellowship of RCOG (FRCOG). Dr. Latha is one of the first in India to have combined clinics for medical disorders in pregnancy like Diabetes & Pregnancy clinic, recurrent pregnancy loss clinic. She is a consultant in Sagar Chandramma Hospitals, and leading OBGYN in Rangadore Hospital.

Vinay Varanasi calls himself The Jack of All Trades. An architect by day, Vinay has been in the field of architectural and design education. He set up a start-up that looks into ways of adding value into the way architecture is taught. They conduct immersion programs which has been their flagship focus in terms of taking architects and designers on rural journeys, and exposing them to how our design is present in the grassroots and the complicated layers around this. Vinay also studied design education with a focus on how to design better education. Vinay does not think he is a storyteller per se, because he does not have the boxes to check, saying he has formally learned it. His strong interest in all things Puranic goes back to as long as he can remember, and I think the explanation comes in terms of both storytelling - orally and visually - comes through art. Vinay wants to create an experience for people, such that they leave with a feeling; neither they have to leave with facts nor do they have to remember anything. Vinay also writes lyrics and a few pallavis.

Vivek Sadasivam is a Carnatic singer who began learning music at the age of five under his grandfather and grand-aunt in Kolkata. He comes from the direct Shishya Parampara of Shri Muthuswami Dikshitar. His great-grandfather Shri Ananthakrishna Iyer learnt under Shri Ambi Dikshitar who happens to be the great grand-nephew of Shri Muthuswami Dikshitar. After being in Kolkata for generations, the family moved to Bangalore. Vivek continues to learn under his father and under Shri Rudrapatnam Thyagarajan and Shri Sanjay Subramanyam. Prior to taking up music full-time, Vivek pursued an engineering degree and also worked for a few years. However, he decided to dedicate himself to music thoroughly and has been performing for the past fifteen to twenty years.

Dr Selvamurthy is a Distinguished Scientist and served as a Chief Controller, Research & Development (Life Sciences & International Cooperation) at DRDO. He is presently working with Amity University as President of Amity Science, Technology and Innovation Foundation and Director General for Amity Directorate of Science and Innovation. He is spearheading the research and development activities for the health and wellbeing of the armed forces.

Dr Deepa Prakash is a Scientist at Kadamba, an organization working on Green Nanoscience, Functional Foods and Allied Sciences. She is also Principal Consultant at Anna Brahma Consultancy. Deepa also works on IoT and AI in food industry, medical sector and agriculture from Atusya Technologies. She has earlier worked as a Scientist at CSIR-CFTRI. She has got her doctoral degree from Mysore University.

Sudha Ragunathan is an Indian Carnatic vocalist, singer and composer. She was conferred the Kalaimamani award by the Government of Tamil Nadu in 1994, Padma Shri (2004) and Padma Bhushan (2015) by the Government of India, and Sangeetha Kalanidhi by Madras Music Academy in 2013. Trained under Dr. ML Vasanthakumari in the gurukula style, it involved considerable amounts of listening to the teacher and other practitioners to absorb their style and oeuvre.

Dr Jayashree S Bhat is an Audiologist, Speech Language Pathologist and Swallowing Therapist at Manipal University. She is also the Founder principal of Taranga School for the Hearing Impaired Shimoga and Bhadravathi. Guided more than 60 PG dissertations related to Audiology Speech Language Pathology. She received a grant to conduct a study on “Pranayama and voice related quality of life among teachers” by SATYAM Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, 2015. Some of her notable work on Pranayama are “Immediate effects of “Ujjayi Pranayama” on aerodynamic, acoustic and self perception parameters of voice in professional voice use; and Effect of Bhramari Pranayama on the Acoustic and Aerodynamic Parameters of Voice in Normophonic Females.

Dr. R.Rangan ji is a man of wisdom and simplicity. He was awarded Yoga-Vidya-Varidhi, a doctoral degree in Yoga from S-VYASA University, Bangalore. He is a master of Vedas, Vedic Sanskrit, Upanishads and epics. His main inspiration is Sri Rama, whom he calls as his friend, philosopher and guide. He learnt Advaita-Vedanta in a traditional way from Sri Sivarama Krishna Shastri. Then he learnt the texts of Vishishtadvaita and Dvaita schools by himself out of interest. He learnt Vyakarana and Sahitya from Sri Thirumalachari, Bhakti- shastras like Bhagavatam from Sri Sri Krishnapremi swamigal, Sri Balakrishna Sastri and Sri Hariji. He has written a commentary of Brahmasutra in Sanskrit. Uniqueness of this commentary is that it is based on Rig-Veda and Ramayana, while other commentaries are based mainly on Upanishads. He wrote thousands of research articles on Ramayana, Mahabharata, Vedas, Vedanta and Yoga before the age of twenty seven. He has published papers related to traditional Vedic education in the International Journal of Yoga.

Dr A Subramanian (Subbu ji)- an Electronics & Communication Engineer, had shifted to the human engineering of Yoga- Spirituality inspired by Masters like Swami Vivekananda. He has been a well acclaimed teacher of Classical Yoga for nearly two decades. A sadhaka since childhood, he is an initiated disciple of Swami Atmasthanandaji Maharaj of Ramakrishna Math, an ardent devotee of Sri Sri Krishnapremi Maharaj and one of the senior most students of the Yoga Scientist Dr H R Nagendra Guruji. After obtaining his Master’s degree in Yoga from S-VYASA Yoga University and Doctorate in Yoga- Spirituality from Hindu University of America, he had served as a Senior Faculty at S-VYASA for about twelve years. Hundreds of Yoga Teachers trained by him are successfully teaching across the globe. He has developed unique Yoga Modules based on classical techniques of Yoga to benefit people of all walks of life like SMART Yoga (Stress MAnagement through Relaxation Techniques of Yoga), Energy Engineering and Krida Yoga (Yoga in a play way method for Kids). Currently the Director of Adhyatma Yoga Academy at Bengaluru, Subbu ji also teaches at institutions including Indica Yoga, Pyramid Spiritual Science Academy and at the Yoga Department of the Bangalore University. Renowned for his fun filled discourses and workshops; he had moderated a popular interview series with well accomplished stalwarts in the field of Yoga called “KAAPI WITH YOGI”. He has authored a few books namely Pranayama - The Energy Engineering & All the Best!