Swami Jaya Devi Bhagavati is the Founder and Spiritual Director of Kashi Atlanta, a nonprofit urban yoga ashram that has served Atlanta for 21 years. Through weekly classes and weekend immersions, Swami teaches her students how to live mindfully in the world from the deepest realms of the open heart. She is an urban yoga monk, working tirelessly to inspire people to live effectively and deeply, loving everyone along the way.

Swami Jaya Devi has studied yoga, pranayama (yogic breath), meditation, and healing in-depth since 1985. Swami took her monastic vows in the Saraswati lineage of Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati. Swami was inducted into the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Board of Preachers at Morehouse College in 2005. She was given the title Yoga Acharya (master teacher of yoga) and Sanyassin (Swami) in 2007. Swami Jaya Devi is a Registered Yoga Teacher with the Yoga Alliance at the 500-hour level as well as a Certified Yoga Teacher through The Kundalini Research Institute, 3HO International Kundalini Yoga Teachers Association, and Amrit Yoga Institute. She is an esteemed Senior Teacher of Kali Natha Tantric Yoga and Meditation. Kashi Atlanta has been voted Atlanta’s Best Yoga Studio by Creative Loafing magazine every year since 2000, and Swami has been voted Best Yoga Instructor since they created that category in 2006.

For years, Kashi Atlanta and Swami Jaya Devi, in particular, have been teaching people and organizations how to use yoga and mindfulness improve the quality of their lives and work. She taught at the 2004 Parliament of World Religions in Barcelona, Spain, and was Grand Marshal of the 2015 Atlanta Pride Parade in recognition of decades of work with the LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS communities. In between those events, Swami has spoken at the CDC, DFACS, the Georgia Tech Women’s Empowerment Group, CARE, Coca Cola, CNN, Turner, Atlanta Yoga Conference, Ft. Lauderdale YogaFest and the City of Atlanta. The author of the Classical Yoga Teachers Training Manual, Swami Jaya Devi created the first Immune Yoga for AIDS and HIV in the southeast, leads an annual 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training and founded Kashi Atlanta’s Street Meals Program. Swami also founded our urban yoga community in 2002. We currently have 24 residents in 8 residential homes who have dedicated themselves to living the teachings of yoga. Swami resides in our ashram along with her beloved goldendoodle, Sukha.

Check out our Q&A with Swami Jaya Devi.