Teachers

When you study with Shantarasa Yoga Darshana you access a superlative training system that has successfully prepared hundreds of teachers currently contributing to the health and upliftment of people all over the world.  Our mentoring and courses are regularly conducted on three continents and continue to support and educate yoga practitioners in over 10 countries.

The Shantarasa global yoga community accesses comprehensive life-long yoga education including 200-hour, 300-hour, 500-hour Yoga Teacher Training courses with international accreditation through Yoga Alliance.  Additional professional development and post graduate courses in the areas of Yoga Chikitsa (Yoga Therapy), Applied Ayurveda, Pre-Post Natal Teacher Training, and Yoga Nidra (Yogic Sleep); as well as continuing education and sangha (community) programs are conducted by Shantarasa founders Sadhana and Keval Pezet. These services ensure that your practice will continue to evolve and be a vehicle for inspiration and powerful life resource for yourself and others.

Sadhana and Keval are highly experienced and gifted yoga educators who have spent their whole adult lives dedicated to living and imparting an authentic yogic way of life. We invite you to participate in this exciting and truly transformative conscious life journey.

Shantarasa founders and principal senior teachers are a couple whose yogic path and practice, as well as vocation, spans over 4 decades.  The commitment to representing in an authentic way the human legacy the traditions of yoga have gifted genuine seekers remains a guiding force in their work. Yoga to them is a path that radically heals the human condition and their efforts to make the knowledge base and practices accessible and relevant while maintaining traditional roots are extensive. They guide practitioners past the surface the world has so readily embraced toward the depth that is harder to access.

Through the Shantarasa classes, trainings and events people find the means to genuine personal and life transformation.

Keval Pezet

Educated in the United States, Keval Pezet received his BA in Art History and Philosophy.  He developed a strong appreciation for Indian culture while specializing in the pictorial iconography of the world heritage listed Ajanta cave paintings.  This research gave rise to his lifelong relationship and passion for the Indian contemplative tradition.

In 1974 he met his mentor, the contemporary spiritual master Baba Muktananda of Ganeshpuri.  After several years of intensive study with his teacher Keval moved to Spain and later the UK where he supervised residential contemplative centres and conducted meditation trainings throughout Europe.  In 1984 he commenced his dedicated study with Mahamandaleshwar Swami Nityananda, the successor to Baba Muktananda, which continues to this present time.

In 1985 Keval moved to Australia to continue his work of facilitating yoga and meditative practices.  He met his wife Sadhana and together established Shantarasa Yoga Darshana as a vehicle for transformative instruction of ancient yogic wisdom into contemporary understanding and application.  Since 2000 Keval and Sadhana have trained hundreds of yoga teachers as well as yoga enthusiasts in Australia, India, Europe and the United States.

Sadhana Pezet

Sadhana was initiated into yogic study and practice in the mid 1970’s in Australia and spent extended time living in India studying with the great yogic sage Swami Muktananda Paramahamsa. She continues her own studies under the guidance of the current lineage head Mahamandaleshwar Swami Nityananda while also conducting courses and programs in yogic study along with Keval, at Swamiji’s beautiful Magod Ashram situated in Gujarat, India.

Sadhana first trained as a classical and contemporary dancer and studied art at Melbourne University. Sadhana excelled in both disciplines, performing widely as a professional dancer and exhibiting her paintings. Sadhana later took up post graduate studies in transpersonal psychology and cultural studies. She was the director for Ikon Institute in South Australia and trained counsellors and art therapists in transpersonal methods nationally in Australia.

Sadhana has sustained a personal yoga practice and served as a highly trained Hatha yoga and meditation instructor for 4 decades. Along with her husband Keval Pezet, she is the founder and co-director of Shantarasa Yoga Darshana and has trained hundreds of yoga asana teachers internationally for the past 19 years. Shantarasa offers courses in yoga philosophy, yoga therapy, conducts retreats and corporate trainings in yoga, meditation, with associated lifestyle practices. Sadhana is currently authoring two books, one detailing her approach to asana practice and philosophy and the second on yoga psychology- a window through the mind.

Shanti Pezet

Shanti is the daughter of Sadhana and Keval. She began her training in drama while at high school and later gained an honours degree in acting from the Drama Centre at Flinders University in South Australia. While having grown up in a household of yogis she chose to expand upon an innate love and aptitude for yoga only after having pursued a career in acting for a number of years. She subsequently trained formally in yoga with Shantarasa and also under the guidance of Mahamandaleshwar Swami Nityananda. Shanti and her husband Vinay (a classical Indian musician) currently reside in Walden, New York where she teaches yoga and is studying Ayurveda. She is the dedicated Shantarasa Student Services Manager assisting trainees through their process of gaining their skills to teach and live yoga.

Pru Davey

Pru is a practising midwife with over 35 years’ experience and a pre post-natal yoga teacher for over 20 years. Born and raised (by a midwife) in the river country of South Australia which led to Pru training as a midwife herself in 1979. Pru additionally completed yoga teacher training first with the Yoga Teachers Institute of SA then a Diploma of Yoga Teaching with Satyananda Yoga.

From the beginning of her midwifery career Pru saw the value of supporting women through pregnancy and bringing women together, initially through childbirth and parenting classes, later with prenatal yoga both in community and hospital settings. Pregnant and birthing women have been her greatest teachers and she has used this lived knowledge to develop yoga classes that support women on their journey of preparation for birth, mothering and growing families.

Pru currently works as a midwife at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital. Until recently Pru and a team of two other midwives/yoga teachers facilitated prenatal yoga sessions at the WCH, a successful free program for 15 years. She has been a valued faculty member and facilitator with Shantarasa for several years.

Verity Wilson