Welcome
 Parvathi was born in India into a family with ancient lineage of Yoga and Vedanta. Raised with these teachings and principles, at a very young age she began her training. She was formally initiated into the Pratyabhijnana Marga of Kashmir Shaivism by a yogini adept. Over the years she received the full transmissions of this tradition integrating them with Yoga, Vedanta and Samaya Tantras (a specific scientific school of yoga wisdom).
Parvathi is the disciple of Lalita Devi and heir of the deepest
tantric tradition of the Kashmirian Shaivism. The lineage of the Nath
goes back to Matsyendranath himself and through him to the oldest
sources of Shaivism. It is to this emblematic master that
Abhinavagupta pays homage in the opening of his Tantraloka, as
initiator of the Kaula lineage.
Later, she received the Shree Vidya transmissions through the eminent
Shree Amritananda Saraswati of Devipuram.
Parvathi's study and training is captivating because it reveals the
wisdom of this tradition expounding the great power of the yoginis and
their lineages transmitted from woman to woman since the origins.
Kaula is the union of Shakti, kula, and Shiva, akula. Matsyendranath
in his famous tantra, the Kaulajnananirnaya tantra, after presenting
the lineage of his masters, states simply that he received the
teachings directly from the Goddess Kali.
Parvathi underwent a beautiful and very strong training immersed in
the direct teachings and sadhanas of the Yoginis, the Kaula tradition
and the living philosophies of Kashmir Shaivism. She received the
transmission of the deepest teachings of the Kaula lineage and became
an adept in the art of mantras and the different sadhanas. She
practiced the sadhana of the Ten Mahavidyas dedicated to Kali, Tara,
Tripurasundari, Bhuvaneshvari, Chinnamasta, Bhairavi, Dhumavati,
Baglamukhi, Matangi and Kamala. Then she was initiated to the
teachings and cosmic practice of Shree Vidya that she transmits today.
As the years passed she also received training in the Mishra and
Samaya schools of Tantra. She is heir to three profound streams of
Tantra and Yoga lineage. After extensive training and arduous testing,
she was asked to teach by her teachers who themselves are lineage
holders. She does this as a yogini sharing the transmissions but not
as a guru.
This wisdom tradition has never been for renunciates; it is and was
practiced by those living in the world. In Kashmirian yoga, a yogini
is understood to be a practitioner (female or male) who is one with
what s/he is doing, perceiving, feeling. A yogin is the one who is in
awe and wonder of this relationship. This lineage of yoga emerged in
the beautiful mountaintops of Kashmir and verdant river valley of
ancient India. It is a tradition that is intrinsically in harmony with
Nature and seeks to fulfill the beauty of the ascent of humanity to
Divinity. The texts, stories and mantras are ripe with the poetic
vision of ones in accord with nature, and knowing the proper
relationships of the universe.
The Yogini Tradition was born when the ancient saints and sages
appreciated and respected the power of the Feminine principle.
Parvathi feels we must seek to recover this through practice and
through action. The Feminine principle (Shakti) is the power of wisdom
and compassion in action. This principle is not exclusive to any
gender, it manifests in all beings, male and female. This is the
interplay of life through senses, through desire, through justice and
through relationships. In these practices, the cause of wonder, the
power of creativity, spontaneity and wisdom are revealed. Yoga means
the great union of life back to its original source, creativity and
beauty.
Yoga brings us into the world and a deeper relationship as the
experience of self-changes. We become empowered and knowledgeable.
Wisdom emerges into our lives as the power of compassion and justice;
this is a yogic lifestyle. As self shifts from a fixed centralized
position into a dynamic relationship of human consciousness...
unbounded energy, potentiality and freedom are experienced. This is
not only possible but also the essential beginning, the foundation
from where we can do the work of serving consciousness and
experiencing directly nonduality.
As a young girl Parvathi traveled throughout America, Europe and India
due to her father's profession as a scientist. Later living in
America, she founded Saraswati River Yoga School and co-founded
Yogasphere in America. She trains teachers in this integrated method
of yoga transmitted originally from the yoginis, the Vedas and the
Tantras. Extensive travel, living in the West but undergoing arduous
traditional training and testing by her teachers has given Parvathi a
special ability to give pertinent and refined language to this
consciousness work; revealing its integrated application and
relevance.
As well, living a householder's life, in the world, as a mother and a
yogini, integrating yoga practice daily has given Parvathi a unique
perspective. She weaves the timeless wisdoms and ancient practices and
texts into everyday life. Finding grace and wonder in life through the
myriad of relationships is the aim of her yoga practice. To exist in
nonduality, conversing with duality and being accountable to every
level of relationship is the mastery of the yoginis.
The yoginis understood that nothing exists outside of relationship.
They were not prejudiced towards or against any aspects of
relationships. They experienced directly the indivisible whole of life
and consciousness. In this they touched the complex phenomena of the
interrelationship of life. The way to the simplicity of nonduality is
through the nature of complexity. They found humans to be the
expression of a complex cosmic evolution of the totality of space and
its aggregates. They began their yoga by looking deeply into the
phenomena of being human and exploring the nature of relationship and
from here they touched the totality of consciousness which humans are
one part. The yoginis' investigations and the sadhanas that evolved
from their experiences delve into every structure of human
relationship and consciousness in its orientation to the Totality.
They explored and perfected sadhanas from and for the physical,
emotional, mental, psychological, ecological, the visible, the
tangible, and the intangible and through the whole spectrum until
there was not one measure of separation. There was Tantra*- the
continuum of the Totality.
The yoginis, the teachers and adepts, of this tradition used
meditation, mantras and working with the mind, body, and senses to
recover this freedom. The many sages and yogis that practiced in the
Saraswati River area, Kashmir and Assam, influenced this tradition.
Parvathi's teachings are an integration of the transmissions she
received, direct experience of a lifetime of sadhana and rigorous
training as a yogini in the authentic and traditional methods. This
integration is what distinguished the greatest yogi/nis of India and
what Parvathi offers today in her sadhanas, seminars, consultations
and trainings.
The aim of Parvathi's teaching is to assist men and women's growth to
integrate the depths of consciousness that includes the physical, the
mental, and the spiritual levels. To bring the individual
consciousness at its fullest to merge with something greater- the
integral whole of consciousness. This has been the work of the
unbroken ancient lineage of the Yoginis. Parvathi uses the precise
methods of yoga science to explore consciousness, mind, emotions, and
the body. These precise methods include mantra, Spanda, meditation,
Hatha yoga, Tandava, pranayama, yoga psychology (Patanjali's Yoga
Sutras) and the science of Tantra Vidya**. Through these systems every
aspect of life is addressed through harmonious emotional mental and
spiritual development. Not one aspect of the continuum of the body
mind can be neglected. This work is applicable to anyone of any gender
and background, religion or tradition. You are never asked to leave
anything or anyone, convert or function in a spiritually exclusive
way. The aim of the teachings is to discover Truth and uncover
freedom, not conform to yet another disguise albeit a spiritual one
for conditioned behavior. This takes a steady foundation, integrity,
psychological maturity and relentless commitment to growth and
honesty.
This work is best for those who already have a ground and integrity in
disciplines of consciousness and are committed to expanding and
harmonizing these multi-layers of consciousness. These teachings can
be a vehicle for those who have been doing consciousness work and have
experienced the realities of the mind beyond the usual discursiveness;
and wonder the possibilities and frontiers of the borderlands of
consciousness. Except for in the teachings of open seminars, the
student must already have a strong foundation in Ashtanga Yoga (eight
limbs of Yoga) or its equivalent in any yoga, consciousness or wisdom
tradition.
It's a unique opportunity to be able to encounter a yogini of the
great Tantric tradition of the Shakti and an unbroken yogic lineage of
7000 years.
om hreem tat sat.........
* This is not to be confused with neo-Tantra sexuality from which
Parvathi and this lineage distinguishes themselves.
** Mantra- sonic vibration science works in the subtle body,
deconditions the 5 sheaths of the physical body and is an invaluable
lens for deconditioning language, conceptuality, liberating verbal and
mental structures. A direct interplay of noumenon and phenomena
through pulsation and silence. NOT a mechanical repetition of
"nonsensical sounds".
Spanda- the tremoring of consciousness, tangible experience of the
flow of Shakti (power- harmony that reveals things back to their
source).
Meditation is seeing things as they are in the moment of their arising
sustaining and dissolving and experiencing the "background" from which
these make a "foreground".
It is the vigilant observation of our thought, action, and speech in
the moment of their arising. Meditation is taught in a systematic way
in Parvathi's teachings using the thorough and precise methods of the
Himalayan yogis to purify and uncover buddhi***, empty samskaras from
the unconscious and understand tangibly the four functions of the mind
(manas, chitta, ahamkara and buddhi) and see their interactions. In
meditation one learns to navigate with facile ease the seven levels of
consciousness. It is to know oneself completely in every movement.
Every moment, but seen with discernment and precision not clouded by
fears and desires.
Hatha yoga- systematic science using physical, subtle, emotional and
mental body to create an adamantine vehicle for Consciousness.
Tandava was perfected by the Yoginis and then exalted by the Dzogchen
practitioners where it became a secret teaching for high initiates. In
Tantra, it is a daily practice for any level practitioner. It is the
Dance of Shiva and Parvathi to communicate the totality and the
nonseparability of emptiness and form. Tandava reveals the subtle
terrains of energy that are in constant communication with space. To
enter directly the resonance of this communication, we encounter
dimensions of consciousness not attained through the linear aspects of
the mind.
Pranayama is the science of prana, subtle vibrations, resonance and
the deliberate harnessing of their power and potentiality.
Yoga psychology is explored through Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, basic
understanding first of the functions of mind, levels of consciousness
and then deeper understanding of form, function and boundaries of mind
and consciousness through other Kaula, Mishra and Samaya yoga texts
and the direct practice of Shree Vidya.
Tantra Vidya is the vast wisdom, science and practices of working with
the elements, the aggregates of every structure whether it is body,
mind, senses, natural elements, levels of consciousness and precisely
calibrating these energies to each individual person without any
severing from the fragile structures that bind the individual
consciousness to the whole.
*** These methods are not a religion or exclusive spiritual path but
systems used by the great masters and have been tested for thousands
of years. They are compatible with any system one is engaged in but in
a precise order to establish a ground as this is essential for when
the practitioner can directly touch the absolute or there will be
difficulty in integration.
If one is unfamiliar with terminology used in this website, it is
recommended to read Yoga Psychology by Dr. Ramamurti Mishra or any
Yoga-Vedanta, Shree Vidya or Tantra texts.
Parvathi places all her teachings, practices and each moment of her
life with the desire they be worthy offerings to her teachers who she
is forever indebted to: Shree Lalita Devi, the Bhairavi, Shree
Amritananda Saraswati, Shree Siddhanti, her children, long time
students in USA and India who are devotedly and relentlessly living
the teachings and Nature, especially the forests of the Himalayas who
has been a Mother to her in sadhana.
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