Sir Issac Newton, the renowned English physicist, once wrote in a letter to a colleague: “If I have seen farther it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Leaving aside the “seen farther,” my great good fortune in life are the “giants” who have been my teachers. My current mission in life is to honor them by carrying on their work and sharing with others what they so generously taught me.
Goswami Kriyananda
is the founder and Spiritual Preceptor of the Temple of Kriya Yoga. He carries the flame of the Kriya Lineage through the mystical teachings of his Guru, Sri Shelliji, who is a direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda. I participated in his two-year Kriya Yoga Seminary in the 70’s. It was from Kriyananda that I first learned about the essential unity underlying all spiritual traditions, the Eight Limbs of Yoga as a complete science of God-Realization, and how an astrological birth chart reflects the soul’s
karma.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
After the passing of his legendary guru, Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, and a period of intense spiritual practice,
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi emerged from a cave in the Himalayas to bring the world Transcendental Meditation, which became a global phenomenon. Subsequent to being initiated into this practice, I was so impressed with the benefits that I choose to train as a teacher and taught for a period of years. Maharishi’s profound translation and commentary on the “
Bhagavad-Gita” has been an endless source of spiritual guidance and inspiration, for which I am eternally grateful.
Shri K.N. Rao
Among the most renowned astrologers of India,
Shri K.N. Rao is the founder of the Institute of Astrology in New Delhi, the largest school of its kind in the world with an on-going enrollment of over 1000 and a faculty of 27 teachers, all trained by him. He is the guide and editor of the Institute’s
Journal of Astrology and has overseen the publication of numerous original astrological researches, in addition to authoring dozens of books and articles that are considered among the best available on this topic.
I first met him when he was the Chief Guest at the Second International Symposium on Vedic Astrology in 1993 in San Rafael, California where he astonished everyone with his ability to pinpoint many past events in people’s life with incredible accuracy and specificity using this system of astrology. After a personal demonstration of this with my own chart, I became an ardent student of his, deeply absorbed in studying the methods he taught both in a classroom and through his many books and articles. As a result he was kind enough to make the following comments about me in a book published in 1996: "I have watched with special interest his astrological development. He is among the top astrologers already. He is the soundest astrologer I have known among Vedic astrologers in the USA" (Shri K.N. Rao, Astrological Journey through History, Mystery and Horoscopes, page 267).
Any proficiency in Vedic astrology that I’ve acquired is entirely due to his teaching and I want to acknowledge this huge debt of gratitude.
