In 1971 I attended a public lecture at a university in Denton, Texas. The speaker, Swami Rudrananda (Rudi) of New York City, was not in the best of moods. His flight to Dallas had been late, rough, and long, making it impossible for him to stop at his favorite Dallas barbecue place before the drive to Denton. Also, the crowd was decidedly antagonistic, and their questions to the Swami were not the kind seriously inquiring about spiritual issues. I was a firm atheist but curious about yoga after reading a beautiful book, Autobiography of a Yogi, by Yogananda. Rudi was talking about energy, and his logic escaped me. I asked him, “Isn’t energy effortless?” (If we all remember the dumbest question we’ve ever asked anyone, that was mine}. He scowled at me, and Rudi knew how to scowl. But my question was serious, not meant to be argumentative. I started to say, “No, I didn’t mean to….” And he looked directly in my eyes, and said, “I know.” After what seemed forever, still curious, I said, “Well, what do you do when you meditate?” He said, “I push a boulder up a hill.” Which shut me up and I don’t remember anything that happened afterward. For some time I attended open eyes classes at the ashram established by Rudi in Denton (I told them I was an atheist, and they couldn’t care less. I wasn’t required to have any belief or follow any religious or spiritual practice…I was just encouraged to let the experience of open eyes classes speak for themselves….which they did). Rudi then visited again. After the first class I’d had with him, I went into a room, closed the door, sat down, and immediately I was walking down a large public hall, and on either side stood every person who’d been in my life up to that time. As I made my way up the hall, at the end sat Rudi on a golden throne and I walked up to him and stood there for a time. Eventually I opened my eyes, I moved into the ashram a few weeks later and stayed there for eight years. I met my wife, Mary Jane there, eventually taught open eyes class (once a week in the ashram, to students in a federal prison in Fort Worth, and to students in a private high school in Denton). Eventually I broke with my Denton teacher and moved to California to live by my parents.

In 1973, when Rudi died in a plane crash near his ashram in Big Indian, N.Y., things were pretty chaotic in the Denton ashram. The main teacher had actually been on the plane with Rudi, and survived and was recuperating in New York. I was a partner in the ashram contracting company we established, and was driving my truck up a street on the way home, when I realized that I was in quite a bit of turmoil in my heart and mind about my life. I suddenly pulled into the parking lot of the Catholic Church near the ashram. The priests and staff were friendly with us, having meals all the time at our restaurant we built and ran. I went into the sanctuary, and just sat down. I wasn’t expecting anything. I was crying and crying. I was asking in my heart, was I on the right path, was it ok to continue with Rudi’s work. Then a very bright white light filled the room and a voice, a male voice I did not recognize, said “Yes, it’s ok to follow your path.”  no figure, just the light and the voice. I stopped crying, and left.

I practiced the yoga/meditation every day of my life between 1979 and 2005 without a teacher of my lineage. During that time I obtained a M.A. in Special Education at the University of New Mexico, taught public school in Albuquerque, Dallas, Tx., and Ft. Worth, Tx., and obtained a doctorate in Educational Psychology at Baylor University in 2001. I was an assistant professor of Education at the University of Texas at Tyler from 2000 to 2006. I ended my marriage in 2000 and three years later met Bill May, my loving husband whom I married in 2014.

We were members of an ashram in Portland, Or. from 2005 to 2012. While there I was fortunate to work with the Tibetan Buddhist master Lama Wangdu Rinpoche who maintained a monastery in Katmandu, Nepal. I was initiated with several Tantric Tibetan Buddhist Sadhana It was at the ashram that I met my soon to be guru, Acharya Premananda (actually re-met, as I’d met him years before at Rudi’s ashram in Big Indian, New York). After studying there for some time and taking sannyas (becoming a swami) Premananda left and established meditation centers in Europe, notably in his native Norway and at his present center in Mallorca, Spain. He was initiated as Acharya Premananda in Ganeshpuri India several years ago.

Bill passed away at the end of 2018. He had multiple sclerosis for years, but it was cancer that was diagnosed in June of 2018 that caused his death. I had been his caregiver for years, as he was mine. We decided on at-home hospice and as his primary caregiver I had to help him live as I had to help him die. Our son, Garry, who we adopted together a few years earlier, was instrumental in making Bill’s final months an extraordinary journey for all three of us. I dedicate end-of-life meditation work to Bill, and to our son, Garry, who continues hospice work to this day.

In 2020 I reconnected with Acharya Premananda. He and his wife Acharya Shambavi Devi are teaching the Rising Energy Practice, based on Rudi’s teachings. As a lineage holder Premananda continues Rudi’s foundational work which is based on an Anutttara Trika practice-considered in Kashmiri Shaivism to be the most elevated teachings of all tantric schools. Premiji allowed me to attend his open eyes classes on zoom, and I shortly began two teacher training programs - one so I could offer guided transformative meditation sessions, and the other so I could teach open eye meditation classes. The work of Premiji and Deviji is profound, extraordinary in its depth, and their generosity through heartfelt surrender is unlimited.
My meditation practices have, through their teachings, transformed from rolling a boulder up a hill to opening to the Divine within myself and delving into the heart of my being.

From 2021 to 2023 I developed a meditation program at the Metropolitan Community Church of Albuquerque with the gracious support of Pastor Judith Maynard. The sessions continue on zoom weekly since I moved to Oregon City Oregon recently. The program includes guided transformative meditation and open eye meditation.
I teach open eye meditation bi-weekly to a zoom group in Europe. Participants are teachers and Acharyas in my tradition.

I take my name, Devadas (Servant of God) very seriously and will continue to be available to nurture those seeking the deepest freedoms life and the Divine have to offer.

Acharya Premananda (Premiji) has for more than 50 years practiced a form of meditation he learned from his teacher Swami Rudrananda (Rudi). It is a practice that focuses on releasing tension and allowing the creative energy to flow. He has taught the practice for many years while guiding students primarily from the US and Europe in their transformation process.

Premiji has written the books “Why Not Open Your Eyes”, “Freedom from the Web of Karma”, “Poems to the Bliss of Awareness” and most recently “Journey into the Heart of Being”. The books are available on amazon in paperback and kindle versions.

He has a Doctorate Degree in Education, with focus on teacher training. He was for five years professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA. He has also worked for many years as a consultant and trainer in industry, both in Europe and the USA, focusing on creativity, team building and improvement methods.
Premiji was a student of Swami Rudrananda (Rudi) in New York City in the early seventies. After that, he studied and practiced for many years in an ashram established by his teacher in the USA.

He has also studied Kashmir Shaivism and other Indian traditions. For a number of years, Premiji studied Tibetan Buddhist practices with Wangdu Lama Rimpoche, who runs a temple in Kathmandu, Nepal. Currently, he and his wife and partner Deviji run Rudra Retreat Center in Buger, Mallorca.

Swami Rudrananda (Rudi) was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1928. In his early adult years, Rudi worked actively with his spiritual development, most importantly as a student of Shri Shankaracharia of Puri. In 1958, while travelling in India, Rudi met Bhagavan Nityananda in Ganeshpuri outside Mumbai. Nityananada become his root guru. The meeting was of such a depth that it totally changed the direction of Rudi’s life. After Bhagavan Nityananda took samadhi in 1961, Rudi studied for many years with Nityananda’s student Swami Muktananda. Towards the end of his life, Rudi broke with Muktananda and continued to teach and serve his many students. Rudi was a truly extraordinary being and teacher. He departed this world in a plane crash in 1973.

Bhagavan Nityananda, whose name means “bliss of the eternal”, lived in the south western part of India from around the turn of the century until 1961. He was a well known Indian yogi and holy man. The last period of his life, Nityananda settled in a tiny village north of Mumbai, known today as Ganeshpuri. Here, an ashram and a whole town grew up around him. Nityananda is said to be an emanation of Ganesh, and his healing powers benefited a vast number of people. There are many stories of miracles occurring around him. The core of Nityananada’s teaching is incredibly simple: By surrendering one’s individual life to the universal, one becomes a transformed, liberated person.