by Sumati Brekke
One year ago, Dada Vishvarupananda and Sumati Brekke were discussing the need to bring together Ananda Marga yoga educators around the world, and decided it was time to team up and make it happen. To do so, in collaboration with Dada Shambhushivananda, they revived the existing structure of AMAYE – the Ananda Marga Association of Yoga Educators. AMAYE is one of the newest additions to the Gurukula family. Many Ananda Marga yoga educators around the world have been rendering fruitful service since the early 1960’s. Now, their contributions are becoming well recognized, and they are starting to share their experiences and knowledge through this global association. We encourage every AM yoga educator to join AMAYE soon. Registration is easy: just fill in the sign-up form at: www.amaye.org/join (in case of difficulty, write to )
At the Global Neohumanist Education Conference 2019 in Salorno, Italy, the AMAYE team had the excellent opportunity to connect with the wider community of neohumanist educators. There were several meetings on various organizational matters with the overall feeling that AMAYE is becoming well integrated within the Gurukula structures. One such meeting was on the last day when the AMAYE team presented the association’s journey so far and their strategic plan, getting useful feedback from those present.
In this first year, the association’s focus has been on mobilizing members from all around the world (82 so far!), setting up communication infrastructures and channels (e.g. online newsletter, updates, discussion group for members, website), reviewing yoga teacher training manuals and standardizing the steps of practice of Ananda Marga ásanas, and – most importantly – coming up with a good and sustainable plan.
We wanted to develop the association in a systematic way from the very beginning, have fun and not get stressed out in the process. Therefore, we came up with a strategic plan in 4 phases against which we can continually check our progress and revise our priorities. We are now half way through Phase 2 and will continue to pursue our targets in the working areas of:
1. Setting up the association (organizational development), 2. Developing the network and community feeling (membership benefits), 3. Technical infrastructure (communications and knowledge exchange), and 4. Research and development (new resources).
We also hope to hold a Yoga Educators Conference in the coming years.
If you would like to stay tuned, you may read and subscribe to the newsletter AMAYE Voices at: www.amaye.org/newsletter.
We encourage all members engaged in yoga therapy, kids yoga or yoga education in general to regularly send their photographs and news of activities to the editor of AMAYE Voices. For any further information, please write to .