Shivananda Thomas Amelio

Shivananda Thomas Amelio is a teacher of yoga philosophy, mantra and meditation who was among the founding members of Kripalu, helping it grow from a small ashram into the large programme centre it is today. He spent close to twenty years with the community, including a year in India in 1990-91, where he received daily personal instruction from Swami Rajarshi Muni in the inner teachings of yoga and edited Rajarshi Muni's book Yoga: The Ultimate Spiritual Path. He later moved to New York City, worked on media projects with well-known authors in the wellness field, directed the Ross Institute's Center for Well-Being in East Hampton, and spent many years at the New York Open Center as faculty and then as its president and CEO, where he is now president emeritus.

His teaching rests on prana, breath and mantra within Patanjali's eightfold path. Since 2020 he has led a weekly Monday evening meditation class and sangha on Zoom, currently working through the Yoga Sutras, and each winter he returns to Kripalu to lead his New Year's Spiritual Renewal Retreat. He is also a certified professional coach who offers coaching and private spiritual mentoring by phone and video, and a musician and sound practitioner whose recordings include Mantra Darshan and The Infinite Om.