Stephen Sturgess

Stephen Sturgess's first experience of practising Yoga and meditation was in 1970, when he was practising Hatha yoga. During the 1970s he met and studied under some great Indian Yoga Swamis. It was a particularly inspiring time in London in the 1970s as authentic and spiritually inspiring, enlightened gurus and swamis visited from India. He met four direct disciples of Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh and studied under them - Swami Satyananda Saraswati (1923-2009), Swami Venkateshananda (1921-1982), Swami Satchidananda (1914-2002), and Swami Vishnudevananda (1927-1993) - all of them are authors as well.

He also studied under Dr.Swami Gitananda Giri (1906-1993) who had an ashram in Pondicherry, India. Swami Gitananda (1906-1993) taught me pranayama, he was a pranayama expert.

In 1981 Stephen was blessed in meeting in person J.Krishnamurti (1895-1986) at the Krishnamurti Centre, Brockwood, Hampshire in England.

During the ten years from 1970 to 1980 Stephen was focused on practising Yoga postures, pranayama, meditation, and study of the Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads, and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. So he certainly had a good grounding in Spiritual Yoga. It was purifying both his mind and his body. He got to understand devotion and service by following the Hare Krishna Movement for three years in the 1970s.

The big spiritual turning point for Stephen was when he met Swami Kriyananda (1926-2013), a direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda (1893-1952). Swami Kriyananda has a successful growing spiritual community in Nevada, California. At the time of meeting him, he was doing a tour of Europe and he had stopped off in England to give an afternoon lecture called on Kriya yoga called 'Divine life' at the Mind-Body-Spirit Festival at Olympia in London.

That night, after meeting Swami Kriyananda, Stephen had an extraordinary dream experience. A superconscious dream, that to this day, is very vivid in his memory. A dream that was important in giving him faith, purpose, and direction in life. He awoke the next morning with a great feeling of joy and exuberance! It was an overwhelming feeling and blessing that filled his heart - a life-changing realisation. In his superconscious dream both Paramhansa Yogananda and Swami Kriyananda had appeared to him. They came to affirm to him that Kriya Yoga was his spiritual path. He saw Yogananda’s radiant form very clearly as he stood in front of him and said, “Fear not, you no longer need to search for a guru for I, Paramhansa Yogananda, am your true guru. Kriya Yoga is your spiritual path, come, follow me!”

He met many spiritual teachers, swamis, and gurus on his spiritual journey through life, of whom he is also grateful to, for sharing with him their teachings. But Paramhansa Yogananda stands clearly above the others as a perfected Spiritual Master. He is a true authentic Guru, like a faultless diamond, without any imperfections. His inspiring teachings are perfect and his Yoga meditation techniques are powerful, they give positive results”.

He was first initiated into Kriya in London in May 1984by Swami Kriyananda, and later, also by the monks of the Self-Realization Fellowship, and by Roy Eugene-Davis, who was initiated into Kriyā by Paramhansa Yogananda himself in August 1951.

In 2011 Sturgess was ordained as a Kriyācharya (Kriyā teacher) by Roy Eugene Davis to teach and initiate others into Kriyā Yoga.

Stephen Sturgess is an artist, author and a Kriya Yoga Meditation teacher and continues to teach the art and science of Kriya Yoga Meditation in London, United Kingdom.