THE TEAM
Anisha Manjeni
Formerly an Orthodontist, Anisha Manjeni quit dental profession in search of a field that dealt with deeper layers of life which is when the doors of yoga opened.
She studied in Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Meenakshi Ashram, Madurai, to become a Yoga instructor. Very soon she was made a faculty in Teachers' Training Course where her acharya Prahalada Ji assigned Bhagavad Gita as her subject. Anisha, otherwise atheistic, began her search to understand Hinduism in its truest sense. Within months she visited over 100 temples and understood that many cultural practices, including Yoga, had profound meanings. She began learning more about this through the study of scriptures directly under a popular Vaishnava scholar Dr.A.V.Rangachari and indirectly by keenly listening to discourses of Thiru.Suki Sivam.
Today, after 9 years of balancing ashram and social life, she is experienced in teaching Yoga as a Science and Philosophy. In the past four years as a teacher of Philosophy, Bhagavad Gita, Anatomy & Physiology and Hatha Yoga at Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Ashram, she has taught over 1000 students from 50+ countries. However, she considers herself a student of life ever keen in learning and sharing the wisdom of Yoga and its Philosophy with aspiring people. Although a native of a temple town in north Tamil Nadu where she heads a private school, Anisha always loved the southern Tamil culture and thus placed herself in a village by the western ghats where she is involving in farming, yoga and other rural social activities.
In free time, Anisha volunteers in her alma mater ashrams teaching yoga. She also volunteers with Anbe Yogam conducting online lectures and yoga practice sessions worldwide.
Jananya D
Jananya, born into a family known for textile business, completed her under graduation in Apparel & Fashion Technology from the prestigious PSG College of Technology.
As a young girl, she was a passionate athlete formally trained in Tennis and an excellent Volleyball player. At that age she would look for all chances to avoid Yoga classes as she found them very slow. Many years later, Yoga revisited her through an acquaintance and took her to Sivananda Ashram in Kerala for the Teachers' Training Course. It was during this course that Jananya met Anisha who was the Bhagavad Gita teacher for their batch. The most boring subject becomes interesting depending on the teacher. Similarly, in Jananya's case, an already interesting subject became life changing because of the teacher, and gave her a deeper exposure, clarifying that Yoga is not just about asanas.
While opportunities shifted her to London to pursue a Masters in psychology, Jananya dropped out mid-way and returned to India. "Indian Philosophy has all the Psychology I need to learn," she said.
Today, over 5 years since the Yoga training, Jananya truly sees the better personality that she has become and is keen to take it forward to people of all walks of life.