Women of Kriya Yoga: Living In Joy Podcast

Episode 14: Heather Debrecini

In this episode, Marydale Ma speaks with Heather Debrecini about what it means to come home to yourself after years of holding everything together for everyone else. Heather's path wound through search and rescue, law enforcement, and single motherhood before her body began quietly insisting on a different way of living — a season of illness that medicine couldn't fully explain, and that ultimately became her greatest teacher. We explore what she calls "radical selfishness," the surrender that comes from realizing you are both nothing and everything, and the unexpected way Kriya Yoga found her just six minutes from home. This conversation is an invitation to consider that healing may not always look like the absence of struggle, and that divinity may be less about escaping our daily lives than about learning, moment by moment, to sanctify them. ✨ Full show notes and transcripts are available at: womensministryofkriya.org/episode-14 [http://womensministryofkriya.org/episode-14] ✨ About Our Guest: Heather Debreceni is a spiritual mentor, author, retreat facilitator, ordained reverend, shamanic practitioner, and devoted Kriyavan. Before entering spiritual mentorship, she served as a Deputy Sheriff in Florida and later owned a divorce coaching practice supporting mothers through high-conflict divorce. After developing multiple chronic illnesses and reaching a point where conventional medicine offered few answers, Heather began searching for a deeper path to healing. That search led her to Kriya Yoga International, where she was initiated in Monroe, Washington, in August 2024. She credits Kriya Yoga with profoundly transforming her physical, emotional, and spiritual life. 🙏 About the Podcast: Welcome to the Women of Kriya Yoga: Living in Joy Podcast — a gathering place for women walking the spiritual path. Here, we share stories, teachings, and reflections rooted in the timeless practices of Kriya Yoga. These conversations are an offering from the Women’s Sangha & Ministry of Kriya Yoga International, inviting you to rest in stillness, awaken your inner light, and connect with a community of women to support one another in living in joy. This podcast is brought to you by the Women’s Sangha & Ministry of Kriya Yoga International. Learn more →  https://womensministryofkriya.org [https://womensministryofkriya.org/] 🙏 About Kriya Yoga: Kriya Yoga is a powerful meditation practice that awakens constant communion with the Divine through the science of the breath. Handed down from teacher to student in an unbroken lineage of enlightened masters, it transforms body, mind, and heart—helping us be calmly active and actively calm. Today this living tradition welcomes seekers everywhere through the guidance of Paramahamsa Prajnanananda, the principal disciple of the great master Paramahamsa Hariharananda. To learn more about Kriya Yoga, please visit kriya.org [http://kriya.org/] 🔗 Learn more: Women’s Sangha & Ministry: womensministryofkriya.org [http://womensministryofkriya.org/] Kriya Yoga International: kriya.org [http://kriya.org/]

Episode 13: Yogacharya Devjani Mohanty

In this episode, Marydale Ma speaks with Yogacharya Devjani Mohanty, whose life reflects the quiet truth that the sincere seeker is always being guided. Born in Puri, Odisha, and raised in a devotional family, Devjani Ma carried an inner longing through years of life across England, Japan, and Australia — until, in April 2000, she met her beloved Guruji at a satsang and recognized that her search had reached its goal. She shares the grace-filled story of her initiation into Kriya Yoga, the way her practice became an anchor through profound loss, and her journey into guiding meditation and initiating seekers herself. It is a tender conversation about devotion, surrender, and the living presence of the Guru. ✨ Full show notes and transcripts are available at: womensministryofkriya.org/episode-13 [http://womensministryofkriya.org/episode-13] ✨ About Our Guest: Yogacharya Devjani Mohanty is based in Sydney, Australia. Born in Puri, Odisha, she nurtured a deep longing for spiritual growth throughout her life and career, exploring many paths until April 2000, when she met her beloved Guruji during a Satsang and knew her search had reached its goal. She and her husband Arvind were soon initiated into Kriya Yoga, with their sons following. With the blessings of the lineage, Devjani Ma began guiding meditation in 2023 and initiating seekers in 2025, offering her service with deep devotion to Guruji and the teachings. 🙏 About the Podcast: Welcome to the Women of Kriya Yoga: Living in Joy Podcast — a gathering place for women walking the spiritual path. Here, we share stories, teachings, and reflections rooted in the timeless practices of Kriya Yoga. These conversations are an offering from the Women’s Sangha & Ministry of Kriya Yoga International, inviting you to rest in stillness, awaken your inner light, and connect with a community of women to support one another in living in joy. This podcast is brought to you by the Women’s Sangha & Ministry of Kriya Yoga International. Learn more →  https://womensministryofkriya.org [https://womensministryofkriya.org/] 🙏 About Kriya Yoga: Kriya Yoga is a powerful meditation practice that awakens constant communion with the Divine through the science of the breath. Handed down from teacher to student in an unbroken lineage of enlightened masters, it transforms body, mind, and heart—helping us be calmly active and actively calm. Today this living tradition welcomes seekers everywhere through the guidance of Paramahamsa Prajnanananda, the principal disciple of the great master Paramahamsa Hariharananda. To learn more about Kriya Yoga, please visit kriya.org [http://kriya.org/] 🔗 Learn more: Women’s Sangha & Ministry: womensministryofkriya.org [http://womensministryofkriya.org/] Kriya Yoga International: kriya.org [http://kriya.org/]

Episode 12: Dr. Nandini Bhowmik

In this episode, Marydale Ma speaks with Dr. Nandini Bhowmik — Indologist, Sanskrit scholar, stage actor, author, and founder of Shubhamastu, a charitable trust led by women priests devoted to creating a more compassionate and equitable society. Born in Kolkata into a family deeply rooted in Kriya Yoga, Nandini Ma shares how her grandmother's early guidance, her father's journey into monkhood, and her own lifelong love of Sanskrit shaped a path of scholarship, service, and courageous reform. From pioneering women's priesthood in India to challenging caste and gender discrimination through sacred ritual, her story is one of devotion in action — and of a life in which, as she says, every act of honest work becomes worship. ✨ Full show notes and transcripts are available at: womensministryofkriya.org/episode-12 [http://womensministryofkriya.org/episode-12] ✨ About Our Guest: Dr. Nandini Bhowmik is an Indologist, Sanskrit scholar, and Associate Professor who has dedicated her life to both the study and the living of dharma. Born in Kolkata, India, Dr. Bhowmik is the founder of Shubhamastu and a pioneering priest whose unique approach to priesthood has grown into a genuine social reform movement — breaking down barriers of discrimination and expanding access to sacred ritual in ways that have earned her recognition across television, radio, academic institutions, and beyond. She is the author of four books, a contributor to numerous research journals, and a 25-year veteran of the stage as a theatre actor. Her life and ideology inspired the Bengali film Brohma Janen Gopon Kommoti, and she has been honored with awards including the prestigious Sera Bangali by ABP Ananda. We are so glad to welcome her to the Women of Kriya Yoga podcast. 🙏 About the Podcast: Welcome to the Women of Kriya Yoga: Living in Joy Podcast — a gathering place for women walking the spiritual path. Here, we share stories, teachings, and reflections rooted in the timeless practices of Kriya Yoga. These conversations are an offering from the Women’s Sangha & Ministry of Kriya Yoga International, inviting you to rest in stillness, awaken your inner light, and connect with a community of women to support one another in living in joy. This podcast is brought to you by the Women’s Sangha & Ministry of Kriya Yoga International. Learn more →  https://womensministryofkriya.org [https://womensministryofkriya.org/] 🙏 About Kriya Yoga: Kriya Yoga is a powerful meditation practice that awakens constant communion with the Divine through the science of the breath. Handed down from teacher to student in an unbroken lineage of enlightened masters, it transforms body, mind, and heart—helping us be calmly active and actively calm. Today this living tradition welcomes seekers everywhere through the guidance of Paramahamsa Prajnanananda, the principal disciple of the great master Paramahamsa Hariharananda. To learn more about Kriya Yoga, please visit kriya.org [http://kriya.org/] 🔗 Learn more: Women’s Sangha & Ministry: womensministryofkriya.org [http://womensministryofkriya.org/] Kriya Yoga International: kriya.org [http://kriya.org/]

Episode 11: Yogacharya Nisha Pandey

In this episode, Marydale Ma speaks with Yogacharya Nisha Pandey about a lifetime of devotion shaped by the living presence of Paramahamsa Hariharananda. Born in Amritsar into a family steeped in prayer and pilgrimage, Nisha Ma shares the story of her first journey to Jagannath Puri as a young woman of 17, the extraordinary moment of her initiation, and the nearly 25 years she spent in close association with Gurudev — accompanying him on travels, receiving his personal guidance, and ultimately being entrusted with the orange scarf that would mark her as a Yogacharya. She speaks with deep tenderness about Gurudev's motherly love, his humor, his punctuality, and the way his presence made an ordinary house feel like a temple. She also reflects on her encounters with Mother Teresa, her discovery of Kriya techniques inscribed on the walls of the Potala Palace in Tibet, and how she continues to integrate her practice into the fullness of daily life. A quietly profound conversation about the guru-disciple relationship as living fire — one that does not end when the master leaves the body. ✨ Full show notes and transcripts are available at: womensministryofkriya.org/episode-11 [http://womensministryofkriya.org/episode-11] ✨ About Our Guest: Yogacharya Nisha Pandey was born in Amritsar, India and has been a seeker of truth from childhood. Her quest for spirituality brought her to Kriya Yoga in 1978, when she was initiated by Shri Gurudev Paramahamsa Hariharanandaji in Puri. She remained in close association with him, practicing under his guidance and unceasing love until 2002. Nisha Ma immigrated to Canada in 1998, and in 2017 became a Yogacharya under the guidance of Shri Guruji Paramahamsa Prajnananandaji. She has been teaching and initiating since 2018, and today serves the community in Vancouver with heartfelt dedication and love. 🙏 About the Podcast: Welcome to the Women of Kriya Yoga: Living in Joy Podcast — a gathering place for women walking the spiritual path. Here, we share stories, teachings, and reflections rooted in the timeless practices of Kriya Yoga. These conversations are an offering from the Women’s Sangha & Ministry of Kriya Yoga International, inviting you to rest in stillness, awaken your inner light, and connect with a community of women to support one another in living in joy. This podcast is brought to you by the Women’s Sangha & Ministry of Kriya Yoga International. Learn more →  https://womensministryofkriya.org [https://womensministryofkriya.org/] 🙏 About Kriya Yoga: Kriya Yoga is a powerful meditation practice that awakens constant communion with the Divine through the science of the breath. Handed down from teacher to student in an unbroken lineage of enlightened masters, it transforms body, mind, and heart—helping us be calmly active and actively calm. Today this living tradition welcomes seekers everywhere through the guidance of Paramahamsa Prajnanananda, the principal disciple of the great master Paramahamsa Hariharananda. To learn more about Kriya Yoga, please visit kriya.org [http://kriya.org/] 🔗 Learn more: Women’s Sangha & Ministry: womensministryofkriya.org [http://womensministryofkriya.org/] Kriya Yoga International: kriya.org [http://kriya.org/]

Episode 10 - Dr Sruti Mohapatra

In this episode, Marydale Ma speaks with Dr. Sruti Mohapatra about the grace that quietly shapes a life — from the spiritual richness of her childhood, through the life-changing turning point of a spinal cord injury, to her initiation into Kriya Yoga and the miraculous ways Guruji showed up in her most difficult moments. Sruti Ma reflects on surrender, humility, and the simple but transforming principle of giving back — and what it means to discover that we are never, in any moment, truly alone. ✨ Full show notes and transcripts are available at: womensministryofkriya.org/episode-10 [http://womensministryofkriya.org/episode-10] ✨ About Our Guest: Dr. Sruti Mohapatra is a nationally and internationally acclaimed disability rights and inclusion expert — an author, scholar, and grassroots changemaker whose work has transformed lives at the community level. Once a dynamic young woman with a bright future—an outstanding student, a gold medallist, a state-level basketball player, and a national debating champion—she had just qualified for the Indian Civil Services and was engaged to be married. But at the age of 23, a tragic road accident forever changed the course of her life. Left wheelchair-bound, she found herself battling not just physical limitations but also social exclusion, bureaucratic apathy, and the insensitivity of those around her. But rather than succumb to despair, she confronted her trauma with remarkable bravery. What followed was not withdrawal, but a lifelong commitment to converting personal adversity into collective empowerment. As the founder of Swabhiman, a pioneering nonprofit, she has spent over three decades working to make inclusion real and reachable — shaping India's disability rights framework, influencing policy across the country, and enabling thousands of children with disabilities to access education, dignity, and opportunity. A five-time TEDx speaker and recipient of over 79 national and international awards, including the Nari Shakti Purashkar from the President of India, she continues to travel, write, and speak globally. Her motto: To enjoy life, give joy to others. 🙏 About the Podcast: Welcome to the Women of Kriya Yoga: Living in Joy Podcast — a gathering place for women walking the spiritual path. Here, we share stories, teachings, and reflections rooted in the timeless practices of Kriya Yoga. These conversations are an offering from the Women’s Sangha & Ministry of Kriya Yoga International, inviting you to rest in stillness, awaken your inner light, and connect with a community of women to support one another in living in joy. This podcast is brought to you by the Women’s Sangha & Ministry of Kriya Yoga International. Learn more →  https://womensministryofkriya.org [https://womensministryofkriya.org/]