हरिःॐ
I was born and raised in Stuttgart, Germany, to a German mother and an Indian father. Most of my years of study and practice, however, were spent in the holy city of Vārāṇasī, my father’s native city. From 1997 onwards, I lived there for many years in a small aśrama at the Hariśacandra cremation ground, directly on the banks of the Ganges. In those early years, my great-uncle Śrī Kauśal Kiśor Śrīvastava introduced me to the spiritual sciences. From the very beginning, my study of Sanskrit was shaped by Śrī Vāgīsa Śāstrī, who also authorised me in Veda and Vāgyoga. I studied for some time at Sampūrnānanda Sanskrit University in Vārāṇasī, as well as Classical Indology at Heidelberg University. From the age of sixteen, I also received instruction in yoga from R. Sriram. Among my other teachers were Śrī Rāmanātha Śarma in Veda and Śrī Nārāyaṇa Miśra in philosophy. My own practice goes back to the tradition of a South Indian master. We are Samayacāris within a living Śrīvidyā Sampradāya, at the centre of which stands my revered teacher, Svamiji’s closest disciple, herself an example of a strong woman in the role of Guru. Since 2004, Kashmiri Śaivism has been a central focus of my study and practice, above all through my years of study with Dr Mark Dyczkowski, whose closest disciple I was for sixteen years. Since 2012, I have also been able to spend extended periods of practice in the Nandadevi mountains of the Himalaya. For around thirty years, I have moved back and forth between India and southern Germany, and since 2006 I have been teaching and leading seminars. I also serve as a Vedic and Tantric priest, conducting rituals of both small and large scale. Teaching gives me great joy, and the path of knowledge has always been close to my heart. Since the age of seven, I have also been skateboarding, a passion that has remained with me to this day. In recent years, two book series have also grown out of this work: one on Sanskrit mantras and rituals (Mantraśikṣā) and one on the foundational texts of Kashmiri Śaivism (Śaivaśikṣā), both of which I am currently preparing for publication in English and German. Teachers
Tradition
Tradition in Sanskrit means paramparā, "that which is passed on from one to another". In India we have a very great tradition, and above all a tradition that has existed uninterruptedly for thousands of years. We refer to the Ṛṣis of the Veda, to the Yogis and Mahāyogis, to the sacred Sanskrit language, to Yoga, Veda and Tantra. We refer to philosophy and knowledge, to the energy body and ritual... to the entire Dharma, in short, we refer to the entire traditional soul wisdom and spiritual science of Indian culture, which has always examined the human being in all its depths. They are teachings charged with the power of consciousness that our teachers embody for us, so they accompany us on this path of self-knowledge. They tell us where to concentrate and what concentration is. They exemplify spiritual thoughts for us and their light draws us to the other side.
