Acharya Mangalananda began his spiritual life in 1972, when he met Sri Swami Satchidananda and was inspired to follow the path of Yoga. He received initiation from Swamiji and lived in an Integral Yoga Ashram in Austin, Texas. He was able to spend several retreats with Swamiji and trained as a Yoga teacher under his guidance.

After having an inner experience of the great woman Saint Anandamayi Ma (written about in Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi), he went, with Sw. Satchidananda ji’s blessing, to India to find and study with her. He travelled in India with Anandamayi Ma during the years 1973 and ’74, receiving mantra Initiation from her hands. He has lived in ashrams in her Lineage ever since.

In 2001, Ma’s main Swami, Sw. Bhaskarananda, sent him back to India to help start a school for village children in one of her ashrams. He lived in India for 12 years, teaching in the school and doing his sadhana. From 2007, the ashram sent him touring Europe and the US, giving kirtan concerts and classes during the summer months. He is an appointed Acharya (Lineage Teacher) of Ma Sharanam Ashram in Central India. In 2013, he returned to the US and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area where he continues his sadhana and service to his Guru and Lineage.

Devoted to Sri Anandamaya Ma and her direct disciples, he helped establish a spiritually-based school for local village children after living in her ashram. After teaching in the school for twelve years, he toured internationally to give kirtan presentations and spiritual workshops. In 2013, he returned to the United States and now hosts a small ashram in the San Francisco Bay area, sharing kirtan and classes.He is now a kirtan singer well-versed in the traditional kirtan style of India’s rural villages.