06 Jun Igniting Our Inner Fire. A Spiritually Enriching Conversation with Acharya Shunya Ji of Vedika Global.

Levitating Monkey: What lead you to create the Vedika Global Wisdom School and Spiritual Community in California?

Acharya Shunya Ji: There comes a time when human beings realize that they have a special privilege. They are not just beneficiaries of the universe and its beautiful wisdom and knowledge and the sunshine that warms us. We realize that we are trustees of this universe. I was very fortunate that I was born in a family that has been giving back to society for hundreds of years. I was born into a lineage that traces its origins to Sage Vashista from Ayodhya. I still have a home in Ayodhya, the birthplace of Lord Rama, the ‘avatar’ of Vishnu. We still have a ‘gurukulam’, as mentioned in the Rig Veda. My great grandfather, my grandfather, my father, we have all been giving back. Altruism is not just a word or a concept for my family, we have have been living it, with a focus on compassion. This is a way of life for me.

In fact, I didn’t know this way of living and teaching — without money coming in between the true teacher and the truth seeker was something special, it was just our way of life. We believe that this wisdom that makes us sorrow-free — emotionally, existentially, physically is really important to share and be shared.

In the ancient days, there were some ‘sampradayas’, (lineages) with wisdom schools throughout India, from the tip of Northern India to the East and West and all the way to the South. But gradually these ‘sampradayas’ were destroyed, depleted and depraved of any royal support. Ultimately, all of India became taken over by secular education, which teaches us how to make a living, but it doesn’t teach us how to be joyful and most of us live deeply sorrowful lives.

So when I arrived in the United States, thanks to my husband, who had a job here and my karma, I was already an Ayurvedic healer for some time. As I had studied the three systems of ‘vidya’ (spiritual knowledge), which I had received in my lineage. Specifically: Advaita Vedanta, the Upanishads and the Vedas and then, Ayurveda and Yoga as a lifestyle. Advaita is a philosophy, a path to become one with our bliss being internally.

But at the time, I thought I am not so sure I should teach the ultimate spiritual teachings. So I started with Ayurveda in the late 90s, when folks were eating poorly, (i.e., too much canola oil, hydrogenated carbons, frozen foods). It was less about a focus on Atman (the Self) and Truth, and more about getting folks to eat fresh food. Then I looked around, in India and in America, and even worldwide, Ayurveda was being taught as pedagogic academic information and students were just under the stress of quiz taking and exams. The Ayurvedic faculty was feeling very proud of very much copying the western system of education in imparting a great spiritual science called Ayurveda without even contemplating if the impersonal style was appropriate for imparting deep wisdom.

So I knew I couldn’t copy any existing model and it was time for me to seed my own community, a spiritual community that upholds the spiritual truth that we are spirit with a body, we are not just a body with a spirit somewhere inside us. Spirit is the common factor between us, animals and plants. 

As I developed this spiritual community, I established a continuation of the wisdom school that has existed for thousands of years within my lineage. I gave it the name Vedika because Vedika comes from the ‘Ashtakoni’ or the 8 pointed ‘vedi’  (altar for fire offerings) in which fire ‘yajnas’ (rituals) are done which lead to transformation. I call it Global because it’s not specific to Hindus or people who look a certain way, eat a certain way, pray a certain way, it’s universal.

This lead me to the formation of my wisdom school, the best way to describe it is as a Harry Potter School of Ayurveda. It was magic, it was miraculous. I have had a 98% retention rate. It became the first school to offer a five year Ayurveda program, where others were happy with providing a two year program. I never followed any national guidelines because I followed my inner standards. So I now have 15 graduates who have studied five years of in depth education from the original text, they know Sanskrit, they’re all international students and they know everything that Charaka Sushrata Vagbhata and Bhava Prakash were mentioning.

I was able to bring in faculty from India, heads of departments, specifically Gujarat University, Benares University, Maharashtra University, along with myself to teach in a one of a kind school.

And then, I of course was teaching yoga, not just Ashtanga by Patanjali, because there are many schools doing a good job with that, but I also felt I needed to expand and teach Karma Yoga, Upasana Yoga from Bhagavad Gita.

The School is also hosting my most vivid program, the teachings of the Upanishads, along with my Vedic studies program which I launched about four years ago. I was lead to create the Vedika Global Wisdom School mainly because I felt the pain of Ayurveda being transferred as objective science whereas it is meant to be subjectively igniting our inner fire and for us to be able to self-heal, as we are self-healing entities and for us to fall in love with nature and for us to remember that we have tools that we can use and that nature is not against us.

When I started, I came across this intellectual behavior of trying to objectify Ayurveda with overly academic interpretations of scholars sharing Ayurveda information. When I look back at the last seventy years, after India gained her independence, India has produced only a handful of bright Ayurveda experts. With the rest being anonymous and unknown and it is because of the system of schooling that had killed Ayurveda, that was once taught as a living, breathing science.

My teaching, specifically in the kitchen, involved teaching over 200 Ayurveda recipes, not just khichadi. From making the oils, to making over twenty tooth powders, to growing the herbs, my students were learning more than a few basic recipes. I couldn’t keep it alive at that level, because ultimately, I am a spiritual teacher. I had to move on to teaching the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. My students are continuing with the Ayurveda program. Now Vedika Global has gone on to expand, where my students have become certified to provide staff training on Ayurveda in prisons across California, as we now are certified providers of such a program. The prison staff are now all chanting Om, learning how to carry it forward to prison inmates.

My graduates from the Ayurveda program have gone on to teach Ayurveda at the United Nations. My students also went on to be a part of a pilot program three years ago at Stanford University, as part of their Health Improvement Program. We now teach there, twice a year, annually, as part of the program. Quietly, without getting an Ayurveda spotlight, so to speak, we have been doing real work in the community to open students up to the real pulsating value of Ayurveda and Yoga.

This is the reason why I felt the need to start Vedika Global. Living Ayurveda lead the way to Vedic Yoga, a more extensive teaching of yoga than what is taught with just asana and pranayama, as we go deeper. And of course, four  years ago, we opened the program back to my roots, which is Advaita Vedanta, the nondual teachings of the Upanishads.

My spiritual community is worldwide, with Vedika Global also teaching online and in person. I am being matched by students who are selective, who want to go deep, who want to make a lifelong commitment to really blossom into who they are.

Another reason I created Vedika Global is that when I was born, (literally a few minutes after I was born), my Guru, Baba Ayodhya Nath, a renowned teacher and seer, the holder of our lineage, made the prediction that I would travel abroad, establish a school for the uplifting of Vedic knowledge in critical times. Growing up, I didn’t know what all this meant, I used to get teased by my family that they were going to put me in a boat and send me off to Sri Lanka.

As I showed up in America, I only had $800 to start Vedika Global, but I had my lineage with me and it has grown into an organization of  international repute. Two years ago, I was invited to advise the Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Unani, Sidha and Homeopathy).

Levitating Monkey: I know you touched on this just now, but talk to us a bit more about your guru, grandfather and teacher, Baba Ayodhya Nath. What were some of the key teachings he shared with you that lead you to pursue the spiritual path you are on?

Acharya Shunya Ji: My first book, Ayurveda Lifestyle and Wisdom, is about my teachings and conversations with him. He chose me at the age of nine to be the lineage holder, despite all the male children and male devotees that were present. My life went through its own crisscrosses of dark and light, but I came through and Baba knew that I was the one to carry this knowledge forward. He was a brilliant teacher of the Upanishads. My family has always been considered radical in modern terms, but it is directly in line with Vedic ideals, where the rights of women and animals are strongly upheld.  

The Vedic society was not only one of the advanced civilizations of the world, but also one of the most open, liberal, and egalitarian ones, including belief in equal opportunity in: education, profession, marriage and the spiritual choices of males and females. For example, we find in the Vedas, the following injunctions towards women:

• Women should participate in war (Yajur Veda, 16,44)
• Women should take part in “legislative chambers” (Atharva Veda, 7,38,4)
• Women should take a lead role in leading nations (Rig Veda, 10,85,46)
• Women should take a lead role in social activities (Rig Veda, 10,85,46)
• Women should take a lead role in government matters (Rig Veda, 10,85,46)
• Women have the same rights as men in inheriting property (Rig Veda, 3,31,1)

There was no societal prohibition on women’s secular and spiritual advancement whatsoever, since this goes against the spirit of the Vedas. Following the truly liberal path, Vedic sages were both male and female. Male seers were known as rishis and female seers were known as Rishikas (seers of truth), or Brahmavadini, the knowers of Brahman. No less than 27 women sages have authored sublime hymns in the Hindu holy book called The Vedas. That is a first. 

Now let us look at these noble attitudes towards animals:

The Vedas See Animals as Teachers

• “One should be considered dear, even by the animal kingdom.”  (Atharva Veda, 17.1.4)
• “The ascetic calls these animals as his teachers.” (Bhagvad Purana, 11.9.24)
• Deer, camel, donkey, monkey, rats, creeping animals, birds and flies should be considered like one’s own children, and not differentiate between one’s children and these creatures.”  (Bhagvad Purana, 7.14.9)
• “One should not satiate his hunger and thirst without first giving water and food to one’s animals.” (Vishnu Dharma Sutra, 63.18)
• “He who does not seek to kill, cause pain, or tie up living creatures and desires the good of all attains everlasting bliss of liberation.”  (Manu Smriti, 5.46)
• “Having no ill feeling for any living being, in all manners possible and for all times, is called ahimsa, and it should be the desired goal of all seekers.”  (Patanjali Yoga Sutras, 2.30)

It is clear the Vedas are a very liberal text, but in later years, its interpreters were not so liberal. My great grandfather had opened a school to women and people of lower casts in 1930. As he believed that the Atman (the Self) in every being is the same. The Vedic texts also speak of this liberal view,  Self is neither female, nor male, nor neuter. Whatever body the Self assumes, the Self becomes identified with that. (Svetasvatara Upanishad, 5.10)

All that to say, we are a very liberal tradition. People have misinterpreted it and they call us fundamentalists. That is why I take my job very seriously, as I am an ambassador of the true light.

My new book, that I am working on currently, is going to be a revelation on the true secrets and the Vedic teachings and the foundation of such amazing leading edge consciousness that the Vedas were putting forward. Baba was the light for that. He truly was a self-realized being. His presence was huge. He and I had meaningful conversations that planted seeds in me that later became huge trees and forests. As I joined his class, at the age of 9, I learned a lot. He would take me to the river, where he taught me meditation daily, so I’ve had a magical journey as I think back to my childhood.

Baba planted the seed in me to give back, as he gave back all his life. We give back now. We felt wealthy, not rich financially, but we were rich in contentment. Baba lived in trust of pure existence. He was kind, humble, unassuming and composed. He was the key figure in my life and the conduit of my legacy.

Levitating Monkey: Can you share a bit about your course offering of Yoga for Atmabodha and how it benefits one in developing his or her own cosmic energy, prana, and keeping the physical body pain- free?

Acharya Shunya Ji: Yoga for Atmabodha is about a return to Vedic roots. Now a days, yoga is promoted as a tool for physical health – for blood pressure, for weight loss, for flexibility, for a good spine – which is all fine, I’m not contesting that, but we’ve forgotten that Atman means Self, and Bodha means to meet your own Self. So yoga is really a tool.

There are two words, sadhana and sadhya…sadhana means – the tool and sadhya means – the goal.Yoga was always a tool, a sadhana for the goal of Self or Atman which is the ‘sadhya’ – our own spiritual potential, our true Self. With that in mind, I have instituted a program which is about getting back to Self (Atmabodha, the original philosophy).

In this yoga, students learn, not only asanas, pranayama and meditation, but to use each asana, i.e., tree pose, beyond just being used for shoulder muscles, improving blood circulation, but it’s also about being a spiritual entity. When you look at the spiritual side, the way the Vedic seers of yoga saw it, when doing tree pose, I ask my students to sway their hands, while feeling the stability below. I then ask my students to “now meet your own true self, no matter the changes that are happening externally, internally you are stable and still. The impermanence outside is matched by an equally permanent being within you.” And within that asana, my students get to experience a spiritual “aha” moment, a “moksha moment.” They have a freedom moment.

In some of these classes, my students only do one asana in a whole hour. In Yoga for Atmabodha, this is another key difference. In the ancient days, 1 to 3 asanas were done a day, maximum. Now a days, they jam pack 70 asanas per class, which is an abuse to the body. It’s that same mechanical, physical objectifying of every spiritual science, and then making it that next big thing.  My students come from far and wide, some of whom are themselves yoga teachers, now they also only teach 1-3 asanas per hour for their own classes. They do it so slowly, so calmly, with all the attending knowledge that I share with them and then there is a change within them. It’s a transformation at a belief level, at a very deep level of who they are. Doing up to three poses in an hour has helped many of my students in recovering from emotional trauma.

That is why, yoga was always a tool meant to connect to something bigger. Whereas, right now, many are just content with using Yoga to connect to our muscles. In my own way, in a small way, I’m trying to do what I know to be right.

Levitating Monkey: With your book,  Ayurveda Lifestyle and Wisdom you provide many tips for living an Ayurvedic lifestyle,  without giving away all the great advice you wrote about, what are your top three Ayurvedic tips that folks can incorporate into their daily lives to live healthier, more balanced lives?

Acharya Shunya Ji:

• Fix Your Wake Up and Sleep Time – This is essential. If you look at all plants and animals in nature, (let’s not talk about our pets, as we’ve conditioned them according to our behavior), they have a very fixed relationship with light and darkness. These biorhythms are key to our physical health and well-being. With that in mind, one should look to wake up between 3-6 am. Don’t toss and turn, just wake up. (Further details in the book).

One a side note: My book speaks to how I no longer believe in prescribing too many herbs, as 93% of Ayurvedic herbs are now endangered and that’s upsetting, and I no longer want us to continue exploiting Mother Earth. The changes I recommend to my students are more about making lifestyle changes.

At our lifestyle clinic in the Bay area, we purposefully do not focus on dispensing drugs, my graduates are meeting hundreds of clients from all walks of life and what we prescribe is a medicine-free lifestyle model, it’s not about prescribing herbs for living a healthy life. What we have found is that these clients, some of whom have come in to meet with us because they have eczema, hypertension, mental depression, are all recovering based on this simple model, using these three key lifestyle guidelines. This one mentioned change has been critical. And I am no different, I can tell you that all my writing and all my spiritual growth happens when I meditate in the morning and have set wake up and sleep times.

• Fix Your Meal Times – (Do Not Snack) Eating at fix times. Grazing is not normal. Historically speaking, we would have to work for our food. I.e., We would have to climb a tree to find a mango. Now we just go to our refrigerator. One needs to remember that constant eating creates ama, (toxins) in our tissues. Making every organ in our body compromised. That is why it is important to eat at fixed times, using batching (i.e., I may batch a cookie with my lunch), as part of our fixed meals. In between, if you are hungry, take a teaspoon of honey or some warm water separately, as one shouldn’t mix honey with warm water. Train your physiology for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Around 4pm, have a small snack. This has helped my clients clear skin conditions and maintain healthy weight, to name just two conditions we have addressed.
• Cultivate a Relationship with the Sun and the Moon – The sun and moon are not just entities in the sky, they are free medicine given to us by Mother Earth. With the rising sun – if viewed with our eyes, it also has an  effect on our brain. The sun is a big antidepressant. If we can wake up with rising sun, the way nature’s animals do, we can see many benefits. Rather than the way we live now, with the curtains drawn, waking up to look at our smartphones instead of at the sun. With the moon, it is the same.

Even on full moon nights, we make special recipes, chant to the moon, all these things fill our bodies with amazing balancing benefits. The sun and the moon connect us to the yin and the yang, the god and the goddess within us, the male and the female – this is Mother Earth’s free medicine for us all to benefit from.

For us, ‘Surya Devata’ or the Sun, is the God of total health and the moon is his shadow and is the center of our total health. It’s not just about rituals, but about a venerable state of mind.

I have one client, a teenager who was acting out, and now using these three simple principles, he meditates and reveres the full moon, wakes up with sun and is now off all antidepressants. The parents were asking me, “What have you done to our teenager?” I just reconnected him to his cosmic parents, the sun and the moon.

Levitating Monkey: Can you suggest an Ayurveda/yogic remedy for stress without any side effects?

Acharya Shunya Ji: Absolutely. Bhramari pranayama, aka the “Bumble Bee” pranayama. This is one of the best stress remedies, it even comes in handy when one is going on a job interview. Research and cat scans have shown that this pranayama helps the creativity, relaxation, visioning centers of the brain, (all the nice areas of the brain) light up. I myself, do nine of these every morning. It takes like thirty seconds per pranayama and is quite beneficial. When done right, it does wonders for stress. Even chanting “Om” is very useful.

Levitating Monkey: What role does diet play as it relates to the benefits of Ayurveda?

Acharya Shunya Ji: The Bhagavad Gita says “The mind is nothing but food.” Food is gross matter, but when it is digested, it becomes the body. What is not wanted by the body, becomes the waste product. What is really valuable in that food, the most valuable part of the food, becomes the mind — the most subtle essence of it.

Therefore, if you want to have a certain type of mind, maintain a pure Sattvic diet. According to Ayurveda, there are three types of diet.

1- Rajasic diet – one that consists of things like nuts, caffeine, alcohol, marijuana. All of these stimulate the mind ultimately.

2- Tamasic diet – one filled with heavy foods that dull the mind, make you sleepy. Old, leftover, stale and fermented foods are considered tamasic in nature.

3- Sattvic diet – (meaning that which is shiny) – i.e., fresh milk, ghee, fresh fruit, seasonal foods, foods that don’t create heartburn or constipation, rather they move through your body, making you energetic, happy and peaceful. These are the foods that Ayurveda likes to promote and in fact, this knowledge of foods working at a psychological level, at a spiritual level, at a physiological level  is very unique to Ayurveda and the sages of Ayurveda.

Food is very important. I at one time, used to think that food was just as important as herbs, but over the last seven years, we focus on food, not on herbs. Diet and lifestyle is enough and allows for huge positive changes to happen. My book speaks to this in a dedicated chapter.

Levitating Monkey: Can you share with our readers a favorite recipe of yours that provides well-balanced nutrition for all dosha types?

Acharya Shunya Ji: Sure. I have a savory mung pancake recipe in my book. You can use either green mung flour (it’s a lentil) or fresh mung lentil (soaked overnight), then make it into a thin paste and make a savory pancake.

In the book, I offer several different recipes for this pancake, but one that uses cumin, salt and cooking it in ghee is good for all three doshas because mung is three dosha balancing.

The yellow mung is especially good for pitta. The green husk is great for kapha types. And overall, because it is super digestive and clarifying, as it is cooked in ghee, becomes magical for vata. When you eat it, one feels light and cheerful. It’s a super Sattvic recipe. I eat it three times a week, myself. It also keeps my marital life happy. It keeps my students happy. It keeps my mind calm.

Levitating Monkey: What are the Ayurvedic benefits of fasting? How and when should one fast? Can you provide some tips for our readers?

Acharya Shunya Ji: As human beings, there is a tendency to eat eat eat, one starts and doesn’t stop. But if you look at animals or plants, animals don’t eat during hibernation and plants don’t want to be fed fertilizer all the time or too much water, as they will die. They each follow cycles of fasting and feeding throughout nature.

Human beings have a choice and we totally misuse it. We either go to one or the other extreme… undernutrition or over- nutrition. We have gone towards overeating in the west, and in third world countries, undereating. Our goal should be to balance. In our daily life, we should contemplate on deliberate choiceful fasting so that we can burn away the excess and probable toxins that we have accumulated from consumption prior.

Spring is a great time to detox. In my book, I speak to this. Even when not snacking, you are actually fasting in between meals. Fasting and feeding cycles provide for optimum health and metabolization at a deeper level.

If we only feed, feed, feed and not fast, the body becomes oversaturated and it protests in the form of: toxin deposits that are created in our joints, on our tongue, itchy rashes on our skin, dullness of the mind.

That said, fasting cannot be overemphasized. Ayurveda is one of the unique systems of nutrition that looks at everything at a scientific level, whereas western science speaks about such and such thing is good for you, now have more of it. (I.e., fortified iron is good for you, so now we see it being added to our orange juice). Whereas in Ayurveda, it is not about having more of it, it’s not about excess, it’s about the balance. We need to be mindful of the question of have we digested it, do we have the agni (digestive fire) to do so, have we converted it?

Ayurveda focuses on agni and our digestive capacity, optimized with fasting (weekly, daily — in between meals or monthly).

Levitating Monkey: What are the benefits of including pranayama in our daily routine?

Acharya Shunya Ji: The breath -“prana” is considered the gross aspect of the mind, whereas the mind – “mana” is subtle, yet both are related.

It’s not so easy to control our mind and the speed of our thoughts, but it is easier to breathe slowly if we are feeling anxious, for instance. The one benefit of having a daily pranayama practice is in its ability to slow down our mind.  This is one of the main reasons Patanjali spoke about it in 2 BC.

The second thing is that prana, itself is a kind of in between communicating layer in our body. It is an interface between the mind and the body. Therefore, our body health also improves by incorporating pranayama into our daily routine. Challenges with health issues like blood circulation, hypertension, odd aches and pains can be relieved with pranayama.

The spiritual benefit of pranayama is that when we sit down, going deeper into pranayama, it’s not just about taking long breaths, but when we start pausing – not taking a breath, not releasing a breath for milliseconds at a time — where the body is living without breath, then we realize that my life is me, it is not dependent on the breath. The breath is dependent on me. It’s a deeper spiritual and metaphysical transformation of realizing that I am pure consciousness and the breath is coming in and out of that consciousness. Up until that point, one may have thought that if my breath stops, I will stop. But in reality, we are immortal beings and the breath is just coming and going.

Levitating Monkey: This last question is one we ask all our Experts to respond to, as it’s our way of providing a bit of uniformity to all our interviews. If you could impart three key life lessons to others on their (spiritual) path, what would they be and why?

Acharya Shunya Ji:

1 – You are not the body, you are consciousness. This has made a huge impact upon me.

I have a body, but I am not the body. If I am consciousness and  I am all-pervading spirit and I dwell within every being, then even when I’m talking to someone, I can sense that I’m talking to another, but it takes away the ego construct of a me and the other, allowing for a certain flow to happen, a certain oneness, a non-duality. This has been a very key change for me. This whole notion of whether I am my own identity, in a separate body.  It’s like the same electricity is flowing through different bulbs. So do you have bulb identity or do you have electricity identity? I have electricity identity. Electricity identity is what we are after.

This has made a huge difference in how I perceive life. We are all connected. The nondual way of approaching life has been the single biggest lesson for my being and it has helped me and is the key teaching of Avidya, I don’t just teach, I walk it.

2 – Trust Yourself More – Each one of us is a divine instrument. We didn’t come here to walk on eggshells for other people, or to only look after decorating our body and pimp and sell it in the marketplace for the world’s approval. We have to go beyond looking at our body, selling it for approval. We are not just our mind and all of our desires.

We are each connected to the divine with a unique body of work to share with the world. It is oneness – there is only one being, we are its vessels. Trust in your inner voice, that is the voice I use. Self-acceptance is key. Don’t be something you are not. Accept yourself radically. By doing that, you are accepting the oneness operating through all of us. Don’t put labels on yourself.

3- Teaching of Dharma – The way Baba explained to me, it all comes down to treat others, the way you want to be treated, as Lord Jesus shared. Set boundaries, the way you want the boundaries clarified.

And of course, there is one more,

4 – Love yourself. I started practicing that in my life, especially in my most challenging relationships. I was not born doing it, I made it my practice, my art, my behavioral, deliberate response. Make dharma your practice. Mindful, deliberate behavior will help make your relationships flower. Practicing this, I have grown a dharma spine.

These are my key life lessons and I walk these teachings and like myself because of them.

—

About Acharya Shunya Ji:

Acharya Shunya Ji is a master teacher of Advaita Vedanta, the non-dual mystical teachings from India, which are the crowning philosophy of the Vedic tradition, one of the most ancient surviving spiritual traditions on the planet today. The Vedic tradition nourished the roots of the world’s oldest religion, Hinduism, and influenced the emergence of Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism in India. 

​Advaita is a Sanskrit word that literally means “not two”. Advaita itself is not a religion, but an experience and an exposition of our true nature, the Self, which reveals itself upon self-inquiry as ever illumined, ever blissful, ever free, undivided, and unlimited pure being, free from limits of time, space, and causation. It is a field of pure consciousness. 

​Through her teachings, writings, and life, Acharya Shunya Ji touches hearts and awakens seekers from the dream of a separate, powerless, and joyless existence. She offers genuine insights into ancient life transformative wisdom, and extends the invitation to awaken to consciousness and health; all kinds of health- spiritual, emotional, relational, and physical- through a life lived out of this insight. To support the awakening journey, Shunya Ji also imparts teachings from the sister sciences of Vedic Yoga, for a pure mind, and Ayurveda, for a pure body, which assist the journey of awakening to our true potential.

​The canonical texts of Advaita, which reveal the precious, profound, and awakening teachings of the enlightened sages of ancient India, include the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Brahma Sutras. Acharya Shunya Ji teaches from these exact sacred texts at Vedika Global, the wisdom school and international spiritual community she founded in 2007, which has its world headquarters in northern California. Shunya Ji also leads satsanghas (public discourses), weekend intensives, retreats, and conferences. She is also frequently invited to lecture internationally and is advisor to several spiritual and Vedic organizations worldwide.  Find out more on her website, Vedika Global.

 

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