My yoga teaching path began in the mid 90’s with my first teacher training in the basement of a beloved  and long standing local Yoga Teacher. We used the Yoga Journal Magazine as our manual, reading it from cover to cover and discussing, dissecting actually,  EVERYTHING. 

I took a more formal  200 hour YTT  after realizing that I really wanted to be a yoga teacher who had a formal certificate from a Yoga Alliance accredited program. That program was great, but based only in the first three limbs of yoga. It wasn’t completely what I was looking for, but it lead me to meeting wonderful people and like minds and took me deeper onto the path of yoga.

Teaching awhile and still being drawn to learning from YJ, I saw a new advertisement for a “Home Study YTT 200” , accredited with YA, offered by a Temple in Chicago. I thought that I might learn the spiritual side of yoga in this realm. The requirements said you needed to join them for four in-person retreats  to receive contact hours with the lead teachers – a 6 hour drive was do-able. That year, 2001, my relationship with The Temple of Kriya Yoga began. It was a spiritual homecoming.

I continued to take nearly every course they offered. Completing my full Seminary Training in 2009.

I was ordained as Swami in a beautiful ceremony, by my Parham Guru and beloved teacher Sri Goswami Kriyananda. I am a Swami, a Yogic Priestess, and lineage holder in the Kriya Yoga Traditions  brought to the west by Paramahansa Yogananda,  and passed down to me via  Sri Shellyji (Timmer), Goswami Kriyanandaji and  Swami Enoch Dasa Giri.

My Swami name is Swarupananda: “she who finds bliss in knowing true nature”.

In the Kriya lineage of yoga, a Priest’s Swami name points to their Dharma, into which they are called to serve/teach, in order to achieve the enlightened state of their souls return to bliss and transcend the suffering of human experience.

I am a Dasa,“One who is called to serve”. My name does not hold Dasa in it, however for years I studied with another Kriya Yoga Lineage Holder who was my guru, Swami Enoch Dasa Giri. My intrigue to become learned by this teacher was due to the nature of service which I recognized in his soul. In my process of being a kriya yoga disciple I learned a great deal; gaining yogic discipline  and experiencing profound yoga practices like sleep fasting, dream kriya, studying Astrology and symbolism, Kriya yoga discipline guidance in Holy Kriya’s, Mantra, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Meditation, dove into  and contemplated the writings of Lau Tsu, I mastered how to serve a satsang and support a beloved teacher. Then, ultimately, how to support  and show up for mySelf.

In Kriya Yoga Seminary I studied Kriya Yoga  as well as the Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads, Yoga Sutras, Advanced Kriya Pranayams, Meditation, Dream Yoga,  Symbolism, Astrology, the Laws of Karma, Sanskrit, World Religions, Mysticism, Hatha Yoga, Spiritual Guidance, Rituals, Ceremonies and Pastoral Care