About – Swami Jaya Devi

“When we breathe to deepen our awareness, we get closer to our truth.”

– SWAMI JAYA DEVI

Considered a teacher of teachers, Swami Jaya Devi embodies a blend of formal yogic and vedic training with a lived, metropolitan experience. With insatiable curiosity and a powerfully open heart, she has both retreated from the world in silent contemplation and fully engaged in the world, loving and serving people from all walks of life. This gives her a unique ability to honor, connect and understand spiritual seekers: those longing to experience their own sacred aliveness, one person, one moment, and one breath at a time. Swami has a great depth to her – it’s palpable – but her profound presence is combined with a down-to-earth sense of humor and an ability to love in outrageous situations. This makes her brand of yogic wisdom accessible, jubilant, inspiring and very real.

Working with Swami Jaya Devi is an invitation into authenticity. With great compassion, she guides you to step into the wildness of real yoga, which ignites your own transformation process. Yoga means union, wholeness, and skilled, mindful living. To live the life of a yogi is to embody your true self, unencumbered by habitual, self-limiting behavior. Yoga is not your deepest backbend, it’s your deepest life. Swami Jaya Devi gently and consistently guides you into these liberation practices with a deft, experienced hand.

After decades of devoted study and practice, Swami Jaya Devi was officially recognized as a Swami or sanyassin in 2008. She was also given the titles Acharya – revered teacher, and Yoga Acharya – esteemed teacher of yogic wisdom – by her guru Ma Jaya. She holds the highest degrees in Kali Natha Tantric Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, and Hatha Yoga. Swami is the founder of the Urban Yoga Ashram at Kashi Atlanta, Street Meals, KidsArt and the Prison Yoga Project.

Swami Jaya Devi has a passion for connecting with and empowering marginalized individuals and it is evident in how she approaches her work. She has trained and certified over 500 yoga teachers, many from the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities. She is dedicated to continue learning and evolving her own awareness and practice. Swami is applying some proceeds from her book launch for a BIPOC Scholarship Fund for aspiring yoga teachers.