Rooted in Lineage.
In Service to the World.
Who We Are
Founded in 2007 by Acharya Shunya, Vedika Global is a California-based religious nonprofit established to carry forward the living wisdom of the Sarayu Parampara.
Rooted in Advaita Vedanta and the four classical yogas, the work supports seekers drawn to clarity, discernment, and freedom through sustained Vedic study and lived practice.
Our Threefold Focus
Vedika Global is rooted in three integrated streams of Vedic wisdom. These are not separate offerings, but mutually supporting dimensions of one lived path.
Ayurveda: Stability of Body and Mind
Daily living that supports clarity, discernment, and steadiness.
Yoga: The Path of Integration
Bhakti, Karma, Upasana, and Jnana taught as a complete, lived path.
Advaita Vedanta: The Path of Liberation
Scriptural inquiry oriented toward freedom, not belief.
Our Vision
Awakening Health and Consciousness
सर्वारोग्यं सर्वमुक्तिः
Promoting a life of wholeness and freedom.
We envision a world in which classical Vedic wisdom remains accessible, responsibly transmitted, and lived with integrity.
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WORLDWIDE
The Vedika Global lotus symbolizes grounded awakening lived fully in the world.
A path guided by tradition and inner discernment.
Rooted in Parampara
Vedika Global is rooted in the Sarayu Parampara of Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, North India, a living householder lineage transmitted through discipline, study, and daily responsibility. Acharya Shunya received this teaching through her Guru, Acharya Ayodhya Nath, who was guided by Acharya Shanti Prakash. This continuity of transmission affirms that the teachings offered here do not arise from personal philosophy but from a received tradition carried forward with ethical accountability and care.
Stewardship in Practice
From its founding to the present day, the organization has served as a careful steward of Vedic transmission, offering study and practice through donation-supported participation that honors accessibility while safeguarding the tradition's integrity, continuity, and ethical responsibility.
This mode of work is not new. It carries forward a long-standing Indian ethos of seva, in which wisdom is sustained not through ownership or commercialization, but through responsibility, relationship, and collective care. For centuries, teachings in the Sarayu Parampara and related householder lineages have been preserved in this way—through disciplined study, lived practice, and voluntary support—allowing knowledge to remain living, relational, and accountable rather than institutionalized or diluted.
How Our Work Has Unfolded Over Time
The work of Vedika Global has not progressed through programs or strategies alone, but through the continuity of purpose expressed in different forms as time, circumstance, and readiness require. What follows is not a record of expansion, but of stewardship: how one body of teaching, rooted in lineage and disciplined study, has been carried forward across changing conditions while remaining faithful to its original orientation.
Modes of Teaching and Transmission
1
2008 to2018:
The Physical Ground
Vedika Gurukulam, Emeryville, California
A decade of in-person teaching housed in a dedicated space, focused primarily on Ayurveda education while remaining integrative from its inception. This period emphasized embodied learning, daily discipline, faculty drawn from India, and shared community life. Yoga and Advaita Vedanta informed the educational environment as complementary supports, shaping ethics, self-inquiry, and responsibility in daily living, with satsangs and sanghas offered locally and shared publicly.
2
2019 to 2023:
Early Digital Exploration
Awakend Self Foundation,
Online Extension
As teaching moved primarily online, Vedika Global established its first sustained membership-based offerings, including The Vedic Way. This phase extended the same threefold integration through digital means, alongside weekly public-service Ayurveda radio programs and global satsangs, preserving rigor and lineage accountability while reaching a wider, international audience with sustained continuity and ethical responsibility.
3
2024 to Present
Mature Global Stewardship
Vedic Study Circle,
reaching Over 21 Nations
The work matured into the Vedic Study Circle and the complementary Ayurveda Study Circle, now serving seekers across more than twenty-one countries. The Vedic Study Circle alone offers ten foundational programs entirely at no cost, ensuring open access to serious, structured study. Deeper pathways are supported through donation-based and sliding-scale participation, allowing the work to remain accessible while preserving rigor, continuity, and integrity.
Teaching, Care, and Service in Practice
A Decade of Classical Ayurveda Education
From 2008 to 2018, Vedika Global sustained a traditional gurukulam-based Ayurveda school offering up to five years of disciplined study. Faculty were invited directly from India, carrying classical training and lived clinical practice into the learning environment.
The education was intentionally kept accessible, allowing committed students to pursue long-term study without the financial barriers common to comparable institutions.
During this decade, the school and its leadership received formal recognition for educational excellence and contribution to the field of Ayurveda and Vedic studies. These included the Nalanda Award for Excellence in Ayurvedic Education from the Association of Ayurvedic Professionals of North America and the Chaudhary Award for Distinguished Service in Vedic Science from the California Institute of Integral Studies. Acharya Shunya was also recognized among the Top 100 Ayurveda and Yoga Trailblazers by Spirituality & Health.
In addition, Acharya Shunya served as Advisor to the Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India, on international yoga and Ayurveda affairs. She was President of the Board of Directors of the California Association of Ayurvedic Medicine and served on the advisory board and governing council of Yoga Unify, contributing to national and international conversations on ethics and education in yoga and Ayurveda.
Many graduates of this gurukulam continue to serve as practitioners and teachers in their communities, carrying forward an approach grounded in discipline, accessibility, and fidelity to tradition.
Lifestyle-Based Ayurveda Care in Service
From 2008 to 2018, Vedika Global operated classical Ayurveda clinics rooted in a lifestyle-based model of care.
Treatment extended beyond symptom management to include daily routine, food discipline, seasonal alignment, and spiritual grounding, as taught in the lineage.
Practitioners trained in traditional methods offered consultations, pulse diagnosis, herbal protocols, and individualized lifestyle guidance. Care was designed to be accessible, allowing families and individuals to receive authentic Ayurvedic support without the high costs often associated with alternative health systems.
Over the years, thousands of consultations were conducted. Many patients experienced sustained improvement not only in physical health, but in clarity, resilience, and self-understanding.
The clinics served as living expressions of Ayurveda as it was intended: not a trend, not a product, but a way of life.
Community Education in Ayurveda
For ten uninterrupted years, Vedika Global opened the doors of its physical facility in Emeryville to the wider community, month after month, without fees and without pause.
These gatherings shared practical Vedic wellness wisdom through teaching, conversation, freshly prepared food, and fellowship.
These were not occasional events. They were sustained monthly Community Sangha gatherings rooted in service. Each three-hour session brought together teaching, practice, nourishment, and dialogue.
Fresh food was prepared on site, often serving 200 to 400 people in a single month. An Ayurveda principle was taught and applied to daily life. Yoga and breathing practices were offered. Cooking demonstrations were led by our chef. There was space for questions, reflection, and direct engagement.
People walked in from nearby streets. Families joined from community gardens and farmers’ markets. Farmers, working professionals, elders, and young parents gathered together. Many first learned of these offerings through newsletters and social media, and returned month after month.
Specialized sanghas emerged within this larger circle: children’s health, women’s health, geriatric care, mental well-being, daily household products, flowers as medicine, and practical Ayurveda for everyday living.
This work was sustained not by trend or funding cycles, but by commitment. It stood as a living expression of community-centered Vedic care in the West and continues in evolving forms today, sustained in the spirit of service and accessibility.
Global Satsang and Vedic Scripture Study
Our commitment is steady and clear:
to make authentic, lineage-rooted Vedic study available globally, without dilution and without financial barrier.
From the beginning, the emphasis has been on source texts and traditional pedagogy, not on trend-based spirituality. Study has unfolded as a complete path: daily living aligned with Dharma, yoga philosophy grounded in scripture, and contemplative inquiry rooted in Advaita.
Through open-donation satsangs, in-person gatherings, and freely shared archives, Vedika Global has offered sustained study of:
• Sadhana Panchakam
• Tattva Bodha
• Selected verses from Viveka Chudamani
• Drig Drishya Viveka
• Nirvana Shatakam
• Bhaja Govindam
• Selections from the Yoga Sutras
• Foundational teachings on Atma, Dharma, Karma, Maya, the three gunas, and the four yogas
These teachings are not presented as isolated workshops, but as part of an integrated curriculum that includes daily practice, ethical refinement, disciplined inquiry, and responsibility toward the culture of spirituality itself.
Our global satsangs have served as entry points. For those seeking depth, structured study has continued within the Vedic Study Circle and the more advanced Vedic Studies Program, where students undertake sustained engagement with scripture and guided reflection.
An eight-part introductory series, now freely available on YouTube, has reached thousands of seekers worldwide. All study is offered without fees or through open donation. Those who can give, give. Those who cannot, are never turned away.
Knowledge preserved in its integrity.
Shared for the welfare of all.
The Vedic Study Circle
The Vedic Study Circle is the structured home of our ongoing scripture-based education. What begins in open satsang deepens here into sustained study.
Students from across 21 countries gather via live Zoom sessions to study the four yogas as presented in the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, and other classical texts. The emphasis remains consistent: source scripture, disciplined inquiry, daily application, and spiritual maturity.
This is not New Age reinterpretation. It is lineage-guided transmission. Study includes:
• Bhakti Yoga as devotion grounded in knowledge
• Karma Yoga as disciplined action aligned with Dharma
• Jnana Yoga as inquiry into the nature of the Self
• Upasana and contemplative practice rooted in scripture
Tenongoing donation-based Zoom programs provide structured engagement, supported by guided reflection and community accountability. The responsibility of carrying spiritual culture with integrity is made explicit.
The Vedic Study Circle represents our most sustained and professional educational offering to date. It stands as a bridge between open public welfare teachings and deeper long-term commitment to scripture.
As resources allow, we intend to further strengthen and formally endow this work so that rigorous Vedic education remains accessible for generations to come.
Care for Elders and Children in Ayodhya
In 2015, Vedika Global established the MAA Project in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India, as an expression of ongoing responsibility toward vulnerable elders and children. Rooted in local relationships and grassroots networks, the project continues to provide warm blankets, food, and basic medicines to those living with limited means, especially during the colder months when need becomes acute. This work has never been episodic or event-based. It has been sustained through personal presence, trust, and continuity of care. The photograph shown reflects this spirit: Acharya Shunya’s father, acting on her behalf and in alignment with the values of their lineage, offers blankets directly to an elderly woman in need. The gesture represents not charity, but shared humanity and duty carried across generations.
The MAA Project continues quietly, guided by dignity, respect, and long-term commitment rather than visibility or scale. It stands as a reminder that spiritual study and social responsibility are not separate paths, but expressions of the same ethical ground.
A Practice of Quiet Giving
Since its inception, Vedika Global, Inc. has consistently directed a portion of its resources toward charitable giving, supporting organizations that serve vulnerable populations, rescue and protect abused animals, and offer relief to communities affected by natural disasters. This giving has been carried out quietly and steadily, guided by responsiveness to need rather than visibility or recognition.
Over the years, Vedika Global has gifted forward significant financial support to relief efforts responding to events such as tsunamis, earthquakes, and the global COVID crisis. These contributions were made in alignment with the organization’s understanding that spiritual study and ethical responsibility cannot be separated, and that care for life, in all its forms, is an essential expression of dharma.
This ongoing commitment to giving reflects a view of resources as a trust rather than an entitlement, to be shared in service of alleviating suffering wherever it arises. It stands as part of Vedika Global’s long-held practice of integrating contemplation, learning, and compassionate action into a single, coherent path.
Support this Work
Vedika Global’s work is sustained through voluntary contributions from those who feel called to support the preservation and living transmission of Vedic wisdom. Such support helps ensure that core programs remain freely accessible, that teachers and learning environments are cared for responsibly, and that the work continues with integrity and discernment. Giving here is not understood as a fee, but as conscious participation in stewardship.