About Mukunda and Chinnamasta

About Mukunda

Mukunda Stiles—Yoga Therapy Center Director

Author of 4 books: Structural Yoga Therapy, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy, and Tantra Yoga Secrets available now

As a youth Tom was an eagle boy scout and a congressional nominee to West Point Military Academy. While in the army he experienced a tantric awakening to the inner teacher (guru). After four years of practice he began to teach what arose as psychic healing and Classical Yoga at University of Calif. at Davis in 1973. In April of 1974, he had another abrupt meeting with destiny through Swami Muktananda who initiated him into a spontaneous Tantrik Kundalini Yoga process of Shaktipat. "My life has never been the same". He moved into a new direction and received a degree in religious studies with a thesis on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Baba Muktananda gave his blessings to Mukunda to make Classical Yoga his profession. He gave him the name Mukunda, meaning "compassionate liberator" and authorized him to give spiritual initiation (Dhivya diksha), give spiritual names, and to transmit Shaktipat (spiritual awakening). He continues this tradition through individual sessions as a spiritual mentor.

Swami Muktananda Paramahansa with his disciple Swami Prakashananda Babaji

Mukunda was the Yoga instructor at four of Muktananda's ashrams in the US and in India. During his many trips to India he has studied with both secret and well known spiritual teachers. Babaji Prakashananda of Suptashring Devi became his spiritual teacher following the mahasamadhi (death) of Baba Muktananda later that same year. Babaji initiated him into the devotional aspects of Tantrik Kundalini Yoga focused on the Divine Mother. Mukunda's book The Yoga Poet describe these Tantrik yogic teachings.

While under Baba Muktananda’s spiritual guidance, he trained in the 900-year old lineage of the master of hatha yoga masters, Prof. Krishnamacharya.  While not directly being a student of the master he was drawn to K. famous and hidden   teachers including psychiatrist Paul Copeland MD, Indra Devi, BKS Iyengar, TKV Desikachar, and AG Mohan.  A video of the Master’s practice in 1938 can be found here (On the same page you can view a 1938 practice with BKS Iyengar.) 

Mukunda worked closely with Rama Jyoti Vernon, founder of America’s first professional Yoga school, the Institute for Yoga Teacher Education (now the San Francisco Iyengar Yoga Institute). Mukunda was in the first class to graduate this 2 year, 560 hour teaching certification in 1976. In 1978 he developed Structural Yoga Therapy (TM). To polish his understanding of anatomy and kinesiology he undertook a year’s graduate study in physical therapy at California State University in Sacramento.

Since 1978 Mukunda has offered a 575 hour Structural Yoga Therapist certification course. Yoga teachers world-wide have participated in this intensive training and since 1999 more than 80 graduates have successfully been certified. 

In 1981 Baba Muktananda sent Mukunda to Boston to be on the staff of the SYDA ashram.  Soon after this he became independent of the ashram and worked by referral from hospitals, physicians, and therapists to provide personalized Yoga Therapy for a multitude of medical and psychological conditions. He wrote a series of articles on Yoga Therapy for knees and shoulders published by Yoga International magazine. He taught to both patients and staff of the Mind Body Medical Institute, headed by Herbert Benson, M.D. and Joan Borysenko, Ph.D. for five years and published a paper entitled a Survey of Yoga therapy.

Mukunda with Indra Devi at her 100th Birthday. May 12th 1999

In 1992 he re-connected with his teacher Rama Jyoti Vernon and joined the executive board of Unity in Yoga International Conferences. In 1995, with Rama, he co-founded AYC - American Yoga College, a collaboration of other senior teachers to train a new generation of yogis who sought professional standards. Through AYC he gave trainings in Canada, England, Scotland, Russia, Brazil, Argentina and Israel and wrote their course manual Asana practice and teacher training manuals.  A revision of this manual is now used for Structural Yoga Teacher training 200 hour programs.  Mukunda has remained a close associate with his first teachers Rama and Paul since 1973.

Since the passing of his two spiritual teachers, the Inner Teacher has continued to actively providing him guidance in all avenues of life. Being a devotee of the Divine Mother, Mukunda completed teacher training in TriYoga with Kali Rae and has had Darshan of Ammachi since the first of her 20 years of world tours.  Inspite of the passing of his spiritual teachers they have proved worthy of the title of guru – “one whose presence and illumination never leaves their student”.

While in Boston from 1982 -2000 he trained in Ayurveda with John Douillard, from whom he learned pulse diagnosis, Dr. Vasant Lad, David Frawley and Robert Svoboda. Mukunda worked to reframe the connection of Ayurveda’s emphasis on health and lifestyle within the spiritual framework of a Yoga lifestyle. To this end he has been on the staff of the Rocky Mountain Institute for Yoga and Ayurveda and the International Ayurvedic Institute (IAI), working as editor of seven books on Ayurveda, Yoga Therapy and a five volume course manual written by David Frawley.

He is currently on the Advisory Board of the International Association of Yoga Therapists. His books Structural Yoga Therapy and Patanjali's Yoga Sutras are published by Samuel Weiser, Inc. Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy is published by Lotus Press. His most recent book Tantra Yoga Secrets is due to be published August 2011. This book is the culmination of his 40 years of all avenues of Classical Yoga practice. He now resides in San Francisco, California with his tantric Devi Chinnamasta.

About Chinnamasta

Chinnamasta Stiles: director of Shiva Shakti Loka and co-director of Yoga Therapy Center

Chinnamasta Stiles trained as an Intensive Care Pediatric Nurse for 12 years in a major University Hospital in Rotterdam, Holland from the age of 18 - 30 years.

She developed a personal interest for Ayurveda & Yoga when it became clear to her that living a healthy life, began with finding balance in her own personal and professional life. Experiencing the difficult process of suffering inspired her to seek a spiritual resolution to pain beyond the western medical view. This led to an ongoing awakening to Spirit even during the natural transition to life beyond death. She began to guide parents in how to deal with illness of their children and on how to gracefully embrace death when that was inevitable. These years of profound confrontation with death created the fertile soil for connection to the infinite Spiritual Heart. She received end of life counseling training with psychiatrist Michael Murphy, the founder of the hospice movement in New York.

She worked as the General Manager of the major Ayurvedic Spa in Holland from 1997-2000, where she started guiding people individually in returning to a healthy lifestyle with the principles of yoga and ayurveda. She finished a 700 hr. classical hatha yoga training program in Holland and graduated with a thesis on "Dealing on living, dealing with dying from Yogic perspective". She completed a thesis on Ayurveda as well as a thesis on Chakra Psychology. After her graduation in 2000 she decided to make a career change, by leaving her demanding position and focusing on Yoga & Ayurveda teaching for groups and individuals.

Chinnamasta and Mukunda met for the first time during a week of Structural Yoga Therapy Training in Switzerland in 2005, and as they looked each other in the eyes there was an instant recognition and knowing. Mukunda became her spiritual teacher and guide and a year later, she received initiation - Shaktipat into the lineage of Bhagavan Nityananda and Swami Muktananda of Ganeshpuri.

She studied with Mukunda in Europe and the US for 3 years before becoming a certified Structural Yoga Therapist in 2007 and wrote a case study on "Structural Yoga Therapy & Whiplash injury". She taught Ayurvedic Yoga and Tantra to groups and individuals in Holland, France and Costa Rica, with his spiritual guidance and blessings. She guided many people in 1 to 1 sessions and retreats in their quest for a fulfilling life from Yogic, Ayurvedic and Tantric perspective.

Her spiritual practices in Tantric Yoga led her to a unique relationship with Mukunda, as they deepened their sadhana by becoming consorts. This evolution is a continuous transformative process through which Spirit provides guidance to them through the Divine Mother. Bhakti pulled her to the deeper wisdom teachings of the trinity of Classical Yoga, Ayurveda and Tantra. Chinnamasta was given her spiritual name, which is the embodiment of the Goddess benevolent attribute of transformation. She currently offers personalized & group retreats and co-teaches the ayurvedic and structural certification programs with Mukunda throughout the US, Europe and India.

Her website is www.shivashaktiloka.com

Chinnamasta and Baba Kanhai Mishra

Chinnamasta met her first spiritual teacher Baba Kanhai Mishra in 2002 in Holland. He was a Raja and Bhakti Yogi as well as a Vaidya (ayurvedic doctor) with deep experience of the siddhis (secret yoga powers). He was a humble and hidden yogi, always at the loving service of his family and students. He guided and blessed Chinnamasta for several years on her spiritual path with a humorous, direct and no nonsense approach until he left his body in 2005. His impact was deep on a practical worldly level as well as in the guidance he provided in pulling her into the Inner Light and sharing his siddhis.

He always said, "I never want you to be devotional to me, the only one you should be devoted to is the Self". He ignited in Chinnamasta the true love for God, the wisdom to - no matter what - follow the truth and a longing for service that comes from the heart. His presence has never left her.

Chinnamasta and Kiran Vyas

In 2001 she met an ayurvedic doctor, Vaidya Baj Rathod - then 83 - who had a remarkable ability to read the pulse, gaining insight into her destiny - physically, emotionally and mentally.

Rathod introduced her to Kiran Vyas in France – the director of Tapovan (www.tapovan.com), the most famous Ayurvedic/Yogic Ashram retreat center in Europe. Their first meeting was auspicious as Kiran told her that they would be working together in the future, even though by than Chinnamasta had no intention to study Ayurveda in France. But her curiosity was awakened and her first pancha karma detox retreat by invitation of Kiran touched her deeply and led her to train under Kirans mentorship for 7 years, based on the teachings of Sri Aurobindo. Kiran mentored her in secret Ayurvedic teachings, where she was trained in the Indian tradition of transmitting teachings from guru to student. Kiran taught her about the vastness of Ayurveda ranging from cooking, organic gardening, beauty & art, alignment to nature, to the art of herbal remedies and the endless variety of ayurvedic healing and detoxifying treatments and procedures.

Chinnamasta would translate and apprentice for several years during sessions the Vaidyas would have with their clients in France and Holland.

She was a trainer to interns and a team member offering personalized variations to traditional processes such as Kayakalpa, Rasayana, Marma Chikitsa and Pancha Karma for personal and group retreat programs.

Vaidya Baba Biharilal

During this period of discipleship she was graced by special encounters with Vaidya Baba Biharilal whom she met in Mumbai, India. She had several experiences where she felt lifted out of her body, overcome by Grace. She was very fortunate to travel in India and sit next to these traditional Vaidyas who gave teachings accompanied by the blessings of their remarkable siddhis in intimate family scenes. These gurus have never left her and daily she feels grateful for their healing presence and guidance.

In 2005 Baba Biharilal introduced her to Bhagavan Nityananda of Ganeshpuri, by giving her a very rare original edition of the book "The Voice of the Self" - even though at that time she was not realizing the kind of gem that had been offered to her, since Bhagavan had left his body 44 years previous.

Mukunda asked her a year later whether she had a picture of Nityananda to put on her puja/altar. It was only during a vivid dream that she realized the "treasure" book she had with the picture of Nityananda on the cover, waiting on the book shell "to be held close to the heart". That picture would literally come alive during devotional puja and resulted in personal guidance via tantric experiences.