You have to Tantra Yoga
MAYA SWATI YOU MUST
Ride the Tiger!
Maya Swati Devi
Yoginī, Master of Tantrism and traditional Tantra Yoga, Spiritual researcher, Dancer of Indian and mystical dances.
Founder of DEVI TANTRA YOGA, in 2007.
Author of the books: “THE TANTRIC DANCER” 2016 and “THE ALCHEMY OF TANTRA” 2023.
Tantric yoga Teacher certified E- 500 RYT by Yoga Alliance and YACEP, continuing education teacher.
Biography
Maya Swati Devi was born in the month of Ashwin (October) in the early 70s in the heart of Tuscany, under the sign of Libra.
Since she was a child, she has had a great interest in oriental philosophies, religions and white magic; a sensitivity passed down from her grandmother of Spanish origins, a psychic and tarot and palm reader.
At just 14 years old, she discovered the book that would mark her history and connection with India: the Bhagavad Gita, bought by a group of Hare Krishnas in Florence.
Maya graduated in History of Art and Costume at the UNIVERSITY OF FLORENCE, subsequently she completed a Postgraduate Degree, with a scholarship, at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and a Master in Fashion Design, at Central Saint Martins in London.
Her great passion for India led her to attend courses in Indology, Indian philosophies and Sanskrit language at the UNIVERSITY OF MILAN, to obtain a degree in Vedic Astrology with Dr. David Frawley, a diploma in Holistic Psychology at the Spanish University Esneca of Madrid and to deepen her studies in Sanskrit language at the Yogic Studies Academy UK.
For a decade of her life, Maya worked as a fashion designer in the luxury brands sector of international fashion, traveled and lived between Milan, London, Paris, New York, Hong Kong and Istanbul and worked as a costume assistant in the Italian and Hollywood film industries.
From 2003 to 2006 – she worked as a freelance designer for many international brands, traveling between London, New York. Mumbai, Istanbul, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai. After her experiences in India and the search for truth, which characterizes her life, she abandoned the glittering and superficial world of fashion without any regrets, to fully embrace the spiritual path and dedicate herself to the spread of Traditional Tantrism.
In 1996 she met her first Taoist Master who introduced her to the WAY, Zen meditation, Taoism, the TAO of love, reading the I-Ching and Tai Chi and she had her first approach to TANTRA through reading texts and books.
In 1998 she moved to London for work and attended courses for holistic operator at the "School of Holistic Aromatheraphy".
It was in London that she also met another important Master for her personal growth who based his teachings on the principles of nature, practices and natural nutrition. Maya follows seminars on Vegan-macrobiotic nutrition, natural health philosophy, natural practices, and fasting. She attends REBIRTHING courses by Diana Roberts and Sondra Ray and studies NUMEROLOGY with a student of Nadav Crivelli.
In 2000, in India, she met her Guru Swami Anand Guptananda, of the Kaula Tantric tradition.
That meeting will completely transform her life because it will push her to stop in India and abandon the world of fashion and London life.
After 20 months in total Gurushishya Parampara with her Guru, in the Himalayan mountains, she was initiated into the Tantrism of the Kaula lineage and received the spiritual name: Maya Swati Devi: "she who in the form of the brightest star removes the veil of illusion and shows you reality".
In 2007, after 7 years of personal Sadhana, as instructed by her Guruji, Maya chooses to dedicate her life to the service of Devi and to spread traditional Indian Tantrism in Italy and throughout the world.
She founded in Milan DEVI TANTRA YOGA, the first Italian school of Indian Kaula and Śākta Tantrism and traditional Tantric Yoga, recognized by Yoga Alliance.
In 2008 she met Master Swami Shri Param Eswaran of the Śākta tantric lineage, "The Living Goddess Tradition".
In Madurai in Tamil Nadu, India, Maya dedicated many months to study and her training and was initiated into the Śākta lineage.
From 2008 to 2018, Maya invited Swami Eswaran to Italy organizing retreats, workshops, seminars and conferences at the Yoga Festival.
In 2009 she studied Sanskrit language and Kashmiri Shaivite Tantrism with Professor Mark Dickzkowsky (Author of "The Doctrine of Vibration" and Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Benares, India) and organized some of her seminars in Milan.
In 2011, in India, under the guidance of Swami Shri Bhagawan, of the Trika Kaula lineage, she is certified TANTRIC YOGA TEACHER 500 RYT Yoga Alliance.
In 2013, she received the Arvind Shahi, (the saree and the royal silver coins) from the Maharana of Udaipur: Arvind Singh Mewar, as recognition for the diffusion of Indian culture in the world, during the Mewar Holika Dahan festival, organized at the Udaipur City Palace.
Maya is considered an ambassador of Indian culture in Italy and has been awarded with honors by the Indian Consulate in Milan, the Indian Embassy in Rome and in India, by the Indian Tourism Board INCREDIBLE INDIA and by the Italian Consul at the Embassy in New Delhi
In addition to following an authentic spiritual path, Maya has been dancing since the age of 8, experimenting with various forms of dance.
Since 2007 she has been a dancer of Kathak (classical Indian dance), Indian Dances of Rajasthan, Sufi Mystic Dance.
She is an internationally recognized Dancer and member of CID UNESCO, International dance Council., choreographer and artistic director of festivals and events of dance and music. Since 2008 she has collaborated with Indian tourism bodies and has performed in front of great personalities in her career: the Maharana of Udaipur Arvind Singh of Mewar, Ambassador Mancini of the Italian Embassy in New Delhi, Mr Gangadhar the director of Incredible India Milan, the royal family of Jaipur, the Bollywood Star Amitabh Bachchan and she was one of the few dancers who had the honor of performing for Guru AMMA (Amritanandamayi) in her Italian program.
Many authentic Masters have accompanied her in her training as a dancer: the legend of Kathak Pandit Birju Maharaj, the Master of Kathak Pandit Arjun Mishra, the Master of Kathak Anurekha Ghosh, the Masters of Kalbeliya Suva Devi, Sayari Sapera, Gulabo Sapera, the choreographers of Bollywood George Jacob, Rahul Verma, Karan Singh, Saroj Khan.
In her intense and passionate spiritual research and during her long stays in India, Maya has met many Masters and many cultures, who have expanded her knowledge and her expression of the soul: The Qawwali Sufi Mystics of India, The Sufis of the Mohinuddin Chisti mosque in Ajmer, the snake charmers of Rajasthan: Kalbeliya, the Mughul culture of Northern India, The Mevlana Sufis of Jalal al-Din Rumi, The last Tawaif of the Kathak tradition of Lucknow, The Navab Sultan of Lucknow.
From 2007 to today, Maya has dedicated herself to spreading the teachings of the Indian tantric tradition, in her three-year High Training School of Traditional Tantric Yoga certified 200 RYT, in residential retreats in Italy and abroad and organizes spiritual trips and retreats in India.
She is one of the few Western Masters of Tantra Yoga invited to hold workshops and retreats throughout India and to Yoga festivals, where she broadcasts in English and Hindi.
In India she has taught Tantric Yoga in places of rare beauty: royal palaces, Havelis, Forts, Heritage properties and Tantric Temples.
She has trained yoga personalities from the world of Bollywood entertainment and members of the most important royal families of India.
Since 2020, Maya has been living and teaching between Italy, Greece and India, organizing yoga retreats and trips to places rich in culture and spirituality.
She collaborates as a writer with the major Yoga magazines in Italy: YOGA JOURNAL, YOGA MAGAZINE, VIVERE LO YOGA.
Currently DEVI TANTRA YOGA is based in India with branches in Italy, Greece and the Maldives.
Maya is always in continuous research and personal evolution and dedicates most of her life to spiritual practice, tantric yoga, dance, the study of sacred tantric texts and the publication of her next book.
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH, FRENCH, SPANISH, HINDI (spoken), SANSKRIT (Yoga and Tantra knowledge).
LIFE: Maya has been a vegan since she was 20 and uses Ayurvedic remedies to maintain a healthy body and mind according to the principles of nature.
GIULIA BORIOLI
Director of Yoga Festival
"The first impression one gets of Maya, meeting her for the first time, is that she has more than one life to tell. Her walk, harmonious and decisive, her proud, almost warrior bearing seem to tell of many existences: dancer, yogini, tantric, there are many aspects of Indian art and thought on which he worked for many years. So I was not surprised that she decided to put down her personal experiences in this life, experiences that concern her being a woman, her feminine energy, the value of the feminine but that has nothing to do with that sort of seduction. so fashionable today and practiced by many women looking for something. His passion for Yoga and Tantric thinking is contagious, it draws you into a spicy and poetic world that is hard to resist. Maya is a true teacher: she has learned from true teachers what she knows, following a deep and never finished initiatory path: she loves to pass on to those who love to learn, she takes seriously every opportunity to teach, try, experiment, take risks. And this book is a follow Maya in her life and in her knowledge, a journey that can also awaken that inner Goddess that she sees in all of us, protagonists in the world ".
ROBERTO MILLETTI
Founder of Odaka Yoga
"Its value is to fix one's own experience in words. Lived as an experiential practice translates into words that express beauty, poetry, looking for the implied message and not the one explained. Maya Devi, a woman, a Yogini, a dancer, whose form finds its rightful place after the essential has been grasped. Nothing needs to be explained when you observe Maya expressing herself with the musical instrument par excellence, the body. I am happy and honored to have been invited to write this preface which has flowed suddenly accompanied by the unmistakable notes of the music of the soul, your Maya Devi music ".
GUIDO GABRIELLI
Director of Yoga Journal Italia
"Maya Swati Devi, teacher of Tantra Yoga, is a strong supporter of the modernity of the tantric approach to life. Not for the easy popular illusion linked to tantric sex, but for its profound meaning of total adherence to life in all its manifestations , physical and spiritual. She herself says: Nothing is more magnificently creative and meditative than a sacred act of love. In that moment we understand that we are not alone and that we are one with the macrocosm "
