Teachers at Haa Retreat Center

Swami Ma Sita Savitri

Swami Ma Sita is originally from Iceland where she studied linguistics at the University of Reykjavik. Spontaneous experiences in her youth introduced her to the mystical path and she began searching for someone who could teach her genuine meditation. During her studies she practised yoga, but it was not until she moved to Denmark in 1982 that she found what she had been looking for. She attended courses at the Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School and Swami Janakananda´s teaching.

Mira

Mira is the leader of Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School in Stockholm. She was born and raised on the west coast of Sweden. She started her training at the school in Copenhagen, where she lived for five years. During the summers of this period, she was the driving force behind the organic farming at Haa Retreat Center.

In 1987 Mira began to teach at the school in Stockholm. Besides giving daily courses in yoga and meditation at the school, she teaches regularly for companies and at health resorts. Mira writes and translates for the magazine Bindu.

Franz Jervidalo

Franz originally comes from Northern Jutland in Denmark. He lived in Sweden for seven years, where he taught at the school in Stockholm and traveled around the country teaching weekend courses. In 1985 he moved to Copenhagen and is now in charge of the school there.

Franz has 30 years experience teaching yoga and meditation, and he teaches many different types of students including athletes, gymnastics instructors and health sector employees. Franz moreover runs courses for companies, training them in yoga and meditation in daily life to prevent stress.

Agnidhara

Agnidhara comes from Finland. She has practised yoga since the end of the eighties when she studied to become, and worked as a conservator. In 1995 she participated in the 3-month course, after which she started the yoga teacher training - exchanging the maintenance of the material tradition with that of the spiritual.

After having lived at the course center in Haa and the school in Copenhagen for many years, she now lives in Helsinki in Finland, where she started teaching in the fall of 2007.

Anandananda

Anandananda comes from Oslo, where he studied at the National College of Art and Design. He began his yoga teacher training in 1980 by participating in a three-month course at the Håå Retreat Center – and has since lived and taught at the Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School in Denmark and Sweden. He now lives in Gothenburg, where he has been teaching courses since 1996. Photographs and illustrations created by Anandananda can be seen in many places in our books (Bindu Publishers) and web articles.

Gyanashakti

Gyanashakti is British, but has spent a large part of her life in Sweden.

In the 1990's she worked as a physio-therapist with cardiac rehabilitation in Stockholm, which is where she came into contact with Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation school. In 1998 she participated in the three-month retreat at Haa. This was a life-changing experience, and a great shift in perspective - yoga and meditation was working on a more profound level than physio-therapy.

Gyanashakti did the yoga and meditation teacher training, living in Haa, and in the school in Stockholm, for seven years. She now lives and teaches in Copenhagen. 

Vasistha Jyoti

Vasistha Jyoti was born in Sri Lanka and raised in Scotland. Having practised meditation from a young age and experiencing some benefits, he had a keen interest in continuing the quest to discover himself. Yoga became a part of his everyday life and when he heard about the in-depth training you can get at Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School, he turned his sights towards the three month course. A year later Vasistha Jyoti came back to live at the ashram of Haa Retreat Center and be part of the yoga teacher training. He now teaches yoga and meditation in Scotland.

Shantiram

Shantiram is from Gothenburg, Sweden. He first came into contact with yoga as a teenager, when he attended an evening course with Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School. He was amazed by the effect it had on his life and his creative capacities, and for a few years he worked intensively with art, using yoga and meditation as an aid. However, his desire to share yoga with others grew stronger, and he chose to join the yoga teacher education in Håå. Shantiram is now living and working at the retreat center, taking care of course administration and web development.

Vivekashakti

Vivekashakti is from Stockholm. After many years working in academia, she felt the need to explore her spiritual side. At Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School in Stockholm, she found the authentic yoga practice she was looking for. This inspired her to participate in the 3-month retreat at Håå Retreat Center.

The energy and harmony that she experienced from the yoga, made her want to spend more time at the center, and she participated on more retreats, both as a student and as a volunteer, for three years. Viveka Shakti then moved in to the ashram and started her yoga teacher training; both to deepen her own self-knowledge and also to pass on yoga and its benefits to others.

Kaivalyamurti

Kaivalyamurti was born and raised in Ljungby in south Sweden. During his upbringing he lived an active life and did many sports, but by and by his focus shifted more to music.

Kaivalyamurti was inspired spontaneously to learn to meditate, and in the fall of 2013 he participated in his first course at the Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School. After spending time as a participant in the school's different courses and retreats and as a volunteer at Håå Retreat Center, the desire to intensify the work with himself grew, and Kaivalyamurti moved into the ashram in Håå to begin the yoga teacher education.