Faculty
The Faculty members at Alandi are chosen to help provide students with an excellent quality Ayurvedic education. The majority of our teachers hold degrees in both Ayurveda and a western medical subject such as Doctor of Medicine, Herbalism, Plant Ecology, etc. They also must hold to the traditional “Gurukula” style of education and be committed to encouraging and supporting the “transformation of consciousness” which Ayurveda can so readily provide.
Dr. Alakananda Devi (Alakananda Ma), MB, BS
Alakananda Ma has practiced Ayurveda and Flower Essence Therapy since 1988 in Boulder, Colorado. Her extensive medical background and training at one of the world’s best medical schools combined with years of study of Ayurveda in India and the US serve to make her an outstanding Ayurvedic Practitioner and Ayurvedic Pulse Reader. She is also the first physician since Dr. Edward Bach to research and make her own flower essences out of Rocky Mountain wild flowers. One of the first Western physicians to practice Ayurveda in the US, her unique, unadorned style provides a simple, powerful healing environment for her clients.
Dr. Bharat Vaidya, B.A.M.S., M.D.
Dr. Vaidya is a skilled Ayurvedic physician who received his basic Ayurvedic medical training in Mumbai and then obtained a medical degree in the Netherlands. He comes from an Ayurvedic family who was instrumental in the establishment of modern Ayurvedic universities in India. He has practiced medicine in India, in Europe, and in the U.S., and specializes in history of Ayurveda, pharmacology, gerontology, rejuvenation, vajikarana, and other branches of Ayurveda. Teaches History, Philosophy and Sutras of Ayurveda, Ethnopharmacology, Madhav Nidhan, Ayurveda in the Community and Nighantu and Pharmacology. Dr. Vaidya is loved by the students for his passionate teaching style.
Jane Bunin, PhD, Ayurvedic Educator
Jane earned a BA in genetics and MA in biochemistry before she turned to more holistic scientific interests and a PhD in plant ecology. She is a graduate of Alandi Ayurveda Gurukula as an Ayurvedic Educator, is involved in Andean Shamanism, and teaches in Environmental Studies and Wilderness Therapy at Naropa University. She is a former faculty member of the Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical studies, where she taught ethnobotany.
Danielle Custode, D.C.
Dr. Custode received a BA in Anthropology at CU Boulder and always maintained a keen curiosity for cultural constructs around health and healing. She began studying Yoga in 1996 with Richard Freeman and eventually left Boulder to study chiropractic at PalmerWest College of Chiropractic in San Jose, CA. After finishing 2nd in her class, she returned to Boulder where she marries her love of yoga with structural rehabilitation in her chiropractic practice, Full Potential Chiropractic. She loves teaching students of all kinds about the amazing design and resilience of their bodies.
Kourtney Nelson, Bhishakgwara (Advanced Ayurvedic Practitioner)
A graduate of Alandi Ayurveda Gurukula's 4 year Advanced Ayurvedic Practitioner Program, May, 2012. Kourtney is the Dean, Pharmacy Director and teacher at Alandi. Kourtney holds a Bachelor's in Biology and Anthropology, and a Masters in Science education. She is also trained in Ayurvedic post partum care.
Heidi Nordlund, Bhishakgwara (Advanced Ayurvedic Practitioner)
Heidi holds a BA in Contemplative Psychology with focus on Health & Healing from Naropa University in Boulder, CO. She is a graduate of Alandi Ayurveda Gurukula's four year Advanced Ayurvedic Practitioner Program and is also a graduate of the Rocky Mountain Institute of Yoga & Ayurveda’s Ayurvedic Practitioner Program. Heidi offers Ayurvedic Consultations, Yoga Therapy, Ayurvedic Postpartum Care and Tibetan Cranial through her business Namaskar Healing™, LLC. In addition to her training with Alakananda Ma, Heidi has learned the traditional art of Ayurvedic medicine making and other Ayurvedic practices from: Dr. Vasant Lad, Dr. Sarita Shrestha, Dr. Bharat Vaidya, Dr. Sarasvati Buhrman, Ysha Martha Oakes, and Donna Diamond. Heidi currently teaches medicine making courses at Alandi.
Renay Oshop
Renay Oshop has read thousands of astrological charts a year for over 10 years. At age 21, she was on faculty at the University of Colorado Health Sciences in Denver. She currently teaches Sanskrit and Vedic Astrology at Alandi Ashram, and has taught at Boulder Valley School District, and Metropolitan State College of Denver. She can be reached at her website, www.ayurastro.com.
Terra Rafael
Terra Rafael, Registered Midwife & Ayurvedic Practitioner, has provided women’s holistic health services since 1981, when she began attending homebirths. She helped create the first standards of care and education for direct-entry midwives, both in Colorado, and later with the Midwives Alliance of North America. Terra taught beginning midwifery classes to about 200 students over the years using 10 study modules she created. She graduated from Alandi Ayurveda Gurukula in May, 2001 and has used Ayurveda in her practice of Women’s Holistic Health ever since. She wrote Ayurveda for the Childbearing Years, among other books and articles. Terra teaches Pregnancy, Fertility and Postpartum.
Sadananda
Sadananda was born and raised in a mixed Catholic and Baptist family in a Mexican neighborhood of Denver. A series of mystical experiences during his teens and twenties led him to study with the masters of the East who were arriving in America during the late 1960's and early 70's. After studying at the Naropa Institute and Insight Meditation Society, Sadananda travelled to India to follow in the footsteps of the Buddha. For seven years he lived the life of a traditional sadhu, meditating in temples, ashrams and cremation grounds and he became a beloved disciple of his sadguru, Raghudas Maharaj. Currently, Sadananda continues his advanced study of Vipassana under Joseph Goldstein and has made several long retreats.
Sadananda has always been a musician. In the 70's, as a singer and songwriter, he studied and performed at the Denver Folklore Center. In India he imbibed kirtan at the feet of the true kirtan masters of Maharashtra. Today Sadananda is a soulful kirtan leader and inspiring meditation instructor. Sadananda teaches Meditation.