Om Namah Sivaya – Namaste,
Dear Friends, Welcome!
I’m Mahadeva – and I’m Hari Dasi, the co-founders of Rainbow Life Yoga. We met studying and practicing yoga side by side in California. After many months, our hearts connected and a spiritual partnership flourished. Guided by the teachings and inspired by each other’s zeal to realize them in our lives, we set out together on an adventure to teach and live a radiant yoga life.
We love to travel, teach, and practice yoga everywhere! So as we continue on our journey, it brings us great joy to share this website with you.
With love we dedicate this effort in support of the Sivananda Yoga founder Swami Vishnudevananda’s great vision of spreading peace in the world through yoga. It is also a humble offering to our many compassionate living teachers who have shared their time and given us the beautiful system of Sivananda Yoga. We also dedicate this to our family and friends who have supported us on our own journey into the life of yoga.
Why a Rainbow Life? Because we want you to shine and refract the inner beauty of your Divine Self as a colorful, vibrant life!
We practice and teach Hatha Yoga in the Sivananda tradition. If you are new to this school of yoga, or to yoga in general, we’re happy you found us! Here you will learn a simple yet deep system for integrating yoga into every aspect of your life, from your food to your very breath. Through these practices we hope you will find health, happiness and a deep sense of inner connection. We suggest you start with the Yoga Essentials as an introduction to the teachings, or just have fun wandering through the site!
Om Shanti, Shanti, Shantihi!
Your Rainbow Life Yogis
Om Friends, welcome I am Mahadeva (Nathan) thanks for joining us here on Rainbow Life Yoga. This started out as a personal blog many years ago, but never really got off the ground. With the help of my partner Hari Dasi we have made it into an exciting site helping to support your journey into Yoga Life. Its named in remembrance of my mother whose maiden name was in fact Rainbow. Sometime after my great grandparents immigrated from Russia they changed their name to Rainbow, the exact story will always remain a mystery to me. But, I love the name and the inspiration I feel when I think of leading a Rainbow Life; full of vibrance and color, elegant and transitory, impossible to find the beginning or the end. My Rainbow life journey began in 1981 and has taken many shapes and forms as I have grown and evolved into a more aware person. My entire life has been blessed with spirituality and my dad introducing me to meditation and yoga. But it took me many years of personal freedom, running after extreme and wonderful experiences, to realize the abiding peace and happiness I was looking for was not out there.
I have mainly been a chef, baker and farmer as my occupational labels in this life, but these jobs have all karmically lead me to Yoga. After a year of travel in North and South America, in May 2014, my spiritual journey brought me to the Sivananda Yoga Farm Ashram in Grass Valley, CA. I was registered for the Teacher Training Course, really only hoping to gain enough insight into yoga that I wouldn’t have to worry about taking classes ever again. But during that month I connected with a Life Perspective that put into words everything I had been unable to say for many years. So with the grace my of teacher Swami Sitaramananda I spent most of the next three years living, learning and teaching under her guidance in California, India and Vietnam. Beyond the physical practices of Yoga Asana, the simple philosophy of daily Yoga Life and the higher philosophy of Yogic Scriptures has been deeply ingrained in my mind.
I have been able to teach and assist a wide variety of courses and classes throughout the world including teacher trainings, beginner and intermediate courses, meditation course, yoga philosophy of positive thinking courses, introduction to Ayurveda courses, cooking courses, yoga nidra and many mixed level hatha yoga classes. Since leaving the ashram I have passionately set out to spread the teaching of yoga in a simple straightforward manner, hoping to impart the path of peace to anyone willing to learn; in honor or my teacher’s life mission of spreading peace through yoga.
So I am very happy you have found our website and hope our journey into yoga and the teachings of our masters will help you on your own journey towards inner peace and happiness. I look forward to hearing from you anytime, please don’t hesitate to ask us questions about yoga life and your practice. If we don’t know the answer surely we can try to point you in the right direction. With Love Always, Om Shanti
Namaste! It is an honor to have you here on our website. I feel blessed to be able to share these ancient teachings and my personal experiences with you. I hope you find them inspiring and helpful for guiding you on your path of healing and growth. It is impossible to put into writing just how much they have changed my life.
I remember spending many years of school being told what to expect out of life and exactly what to do in order to be successful. However, none of it sat well with me. My mind refused to believe that studying, working, and making money was all there was to life. I was absolutely convinced that there must be something more! But I didn’t know what it was.
And then, one day during the 16th year of my life, a shift occurred. I was introduced to my first book on spirituality and mindfulness, The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Something clicked. I understood – or rather, remembered – that spirituality and the search for Divine Love and inner peace is the only thing that really makes any sense to me. The desire to find my higher purpose grew exponentially. I began practicing Yoga and absorbing as many of its ancient teachings as I could fine. The more I practiced, the more I realized that I must search, and learn, until I knew exactly what it was I had to do.
After completing High School, I traveled. I thought that maybe, if I expand my physical boundaries and horizons, I will get a glimpse of the Truth. And my next great leap occurred at the end of my travels, when I completed my certification in Ayurveda Therapy in India, 2014. After a month spent learning and practicing the ancient holistic medicine of India and experiencing its powerful effects, I had found another of my puzzle pieces. I knew my passion to share this Love and healing with the world would determine the rest of my life.
I searched avidly for a source and an outlet for the Divine Love and potent healing energy I had discovered within myself. I wanted to be a channel for this wisdom. And in 2016 I, was introduced to Sivananda Yoga. I received my Yoga Teacher certification at the Sivananda Ashram in Grass Valley, California. There, I found what I was looking for.
The source: the ancient Masters, teachings, and practices.
The outlet: sharing the wisdom through teaching and devotion.
I learned about how to be a student of the lineage. I learned how to effectively share its wisdom with others. But most importantly, I learned that nothing can be compared to living the life of Yoga.
I have since had the blessing of teaching many varieties of Asana classes, as well as receiving training to teach Yoga Nidra, which has become one of my passions. I am also in the process of studying Vedic Astrology to offer consultations. I am so happy to be able to share all I have learned with you here, and sincerely hope you find it useful on your path to true Inner Peace and Divine Love.
Om Namo Narayanaya
~Hari Dasi