A LIVING VEDIC LINEAGE
Sarayu Parampara
from Ayodhya, India
Guiding Seekers Toward Self Realization
The Lineage
Sarayu Parampara is a living Vedic lineage rooted in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India, carried for nearly two thousand years through Guru, Shastra, Sadhana, and Seva.Its sacred memory reaches back to Sage Vashishta and Arundhati, whose presence illumines the spiritual soil of Ayodhya.
Our earliest ancestors were disciples in this current of wisdom, preserving the teachings through family, practice, scripture, and direct transmission.In recent generations, this stream has flowed through Acharya Shanti Prakash, Acharya Ayodhya Nath, and now Acharya Shunya, who carries the parampara forward for sincere seekers, students, and disciples in our time.
The Sarayu Parampara
The Sarayu Parampara carries the nondual wisdom of the Vedas through a householder lineage from Ayodhya, India. Rooted on the sacred banks of the Sarayu River, this lineage teaches that liberation is not separate from life. It can be discovered in the midst of family, work, responsibility, devotion, and the daily duties of the world.
For generations, this wisdom has been passed from teacher to student, not as theory alone, but as a lived way of awakening. It invites seekers to know the Self beyond body, mind, role, fear, or circumstance, while living with clarity, dignity, and compassion.The Sarayu Parampara has never been confined to monasteries alone.
It has lived in homes, courtyards, kitchens, temples, family life, community care, and daily worship. Its strength has come from remembering the highest truth while living fully in the world. Today, through Acharya Shunya, this stream continues to reach sincere seekers across cultures and countries, offering a path of devotion, knowledge, practice, and inner freedom.
“The one who has an Acharya knows
”Acharyavan purusho veda"
— Chandogya Upanishad 6.14.2
The Living Stream
A parampara becomes visible through its teachers. These three lives carry the recent current of Sarayu Parampara, preserving the wisdom of Ayodhya through scripture, practice, devotion, and direct transmission.
Acharya Shanti Prakash
Revered Elder of the Sarayu Parampara
Acharya Shanti Prakash, lovingly remembered as Badey Baba, was a householder renunciate from the age of twenty-two, a master of Advaita Vedanta, and a devoted teacher of the Bhagavad Gita. He led regular Gita satsangs and preserved the wisdom of the lineage through his commentary on the Adi Bhagavad Gita.
Baba Ayodhya
Nath
Guru and First Teacher of Acharya Shunya
Baba Ayodhya Nath was a scholar, healer, and lifelong teacher of Advaita Vedanta. Before returning to the life of a householder sage, he undertook deep tapasya in the Himalayas in search of truth. Through him, the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, spiritual Ayurveda, and Yoga became living pathways to Atma Bodha, Self Realization.
Acharya
Shunya
Current Spiritual Head of the Parampara
Raised and trained within the lineage from childhood, Acharya Shunya carries the Sarayu Parampara into the twenty-first century without diluting its source. As a living Acharya, she brings together Advaita Vedanta, Shakti wisdom, devotion, dharma, and Self-knowledge for sincere seekers across cultures.
A Scripture Preserved by the Lineage
Among the treasured scriptural contributions of Sarayu Parampara is the Adi Bhagavad Gita, a rare sacred text compiled, decoded, edited, translated, and illuminated with commentary by Acharya Shanti Prakash, lovingly remembered as Badey Baba.
The source material was found on ancient palm leaves and copper plates, with traditions connected to Bali Island and the Farrukhabad district of India. Badey Baba undertook the sacred labor of deciphering and preserving the text, allowing its wisdom to remain available for seekers of dharma, devotion, and Self-knowledge.
Published through Ramtirth Pratishthan and still circulating among readers, the Adi Bhagavad Gita stands as one of the visible signs of the lineage’s devotion to Guru, Shastra, Sadhana, and Seva.
A Legacy of Satsanga, Sadhana,
and Seva
In 1932, Acharya Shanti Prakash established Sadharan Dharma Sabha as an expression of the lineage’s commitment to satsanga, sadhana, seva, and the preservation of sacred learning.
In the present era, that same spirit continues through Vedika Global, founded in 2007, which carries forward the lineage’s work through Advaita Vedanta, the yoga pathways, and spiritual Ayurveda in service of soul, mind, and body.
This continuity reminds us that the organizational expression of the lineage is not new. It is part of a longer dharmic impulse to gather, teach, serve, and preserve wisdom across generations.
Atma Vidya for Householders
and Yogis
Within the larger work of Sadharan Dharma Sabha, Acharya Ayodhya Nath, lovingly known as Baba, developed Atma Vidya Sadan as a focused branch for Self-knowledge. Through it, he unfolded the Upanishads, Advaita Vedanta, and Jnana Yoga for householders and yogis alike.Invited across India to speak at conferences and spiritual gatherings,
Baba carried the lineage into a wider public presence. He also strengthened the Sabha’s magazine, Vyavaharik Vedanta, which grew under his guidance to nearly 30,000 subscribers.In the 1960s, Baba opened scriptural education to women and welcomed sincere students from lower-caste backgrounds, honoring jigyasa, the sacred hunger for truth, above social status.
Through him, the lineage became more accessible without losing its depth, preparing the way for Acharya Shunya to carry it forward in a new era.
The Lost Pages
of Practical Vedanta
These surviving pages of Vyavaharik Vedanta were not preserved in a formal archive. They were found years later among old family trunks, worn by time, travel, and neglect, yet still carrying the unmistakable voice of the lineage.Begun under the inspiration of Acharya Shanti Prakash and later carried forward by Acharya Ayodhya Nath, the magazine brought Vedanta into the lives of householders.
Its pages offered reflections on Self-knowledge, Panch Yajna, dharma, devotion, and the practical application of Vedanta in daily life.Under Baba’s guidance, this publication reached nearly 30,000 subscribers, showing the lineage’s long-standing commitment to making Atma Vidya accessible without diluting its depth.
What remains today is fragile, imperfect, and precious. These pages remind us that a parampara is carried not only through temples and teachers, but through paper, ink, memory, and the devotion of those who refuse to let wisdom disappear.
Sons of the Lineage
The Sarayu Parampara has also flowed and been strengthened through the lives and works of Acharya Ayodhya Nath’s sons, the grandsons of Acharya Shanti Prakash, who carried its dharmic fragrance into literature, service, scholarship, and public life.
Though not formal Acharyas in the direct teaching seat, their lives bore the imprint of Baba’s wisdom and contributed meaningfully to the wider cultural and spiritual inheritance of the lineage.
Daya Prakash Sinha
Playwright, Cultural Thinker, and Teacher of Dharma
The late Daya Prakash Sinha, son of Acharya Ayodhya Nath and father of Acharya Shunya, carried the family’s dharmic inheritance through literature, cultural thought, and public teaching. A renowned playwright and scholar, his works explored history, moral courage, ego, divine consciousness, and the deeper meanings of dharma through powerful dramatic form.
He lived with simplicity while receiving some of India’s most respected honors, including the Padma Shri, one of the nation’s highest civilian awards conferred by the President of India, along with recognition from institutions such as the Sahitya Akademi and Sangeet Natak Akademi.
Beyond his literary life, he served as a teacher of dharma at Vedika Global, offering lectures to students in India and abroad. Through his writings, public presence, and devotion to sacred culture, he helped carry the values of the lineage into the modern intellectual and cultural life of India.
Sitesh Aloke
Scholar, Author, Sopcial Worker and Servant of Dharma
The late Sitesh Prakash, writing under the name Sitesh Alok, carried the dharmic inheritance of the family through scholarship, spiritual books, and public service. After retiring early from his work as an economist, he devoted himself to Sneha Trust, a nonprofit founded in his mother’s name to support poor children.
Over his lifetime, he authored thirty-two books, including commentaries on the Ramayana, Ramcharit Manas, Mahabharata, and Manusmriti. His literary and cultural contributions received recognition in India, including the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee National Award for the Promotion of Art and Culture, an honor associated with distinguished contributions to Indian art, literature, and culture. His life reflected the lineage values of study, simplicity, seva, and devotion to dharma.
Revat Prakash
Vedic Priest, Ritual Guardian, and Keeper of the Family Deity
Revat Prakash Sinha, son of Acharya Ayodhya Nath, continues to live in Ayodhya, where he carries the family’s sacred legacy in its ancestral soil.
While Acharya Shunya carries Sarayu Parampara across cultures and continents, Revat Prakash remains a living anchor of the lineage in Ayodhya itself. As a Vedic priest and teacher, he looks after the family deity, Jwala Devi, enshrined in the family’s three-hundred-year-old temple.
He leads worship, performs sacred rituals, teaches young children to chant the Vedas, and offers satsangs on Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga, and the renunciate spirit of Sannyasa. Respected throughout Ayodhya, he is invited to teach, bless, and guide devotees in the traditional manner.
His life reflects the quiet strength of dharma lived daily: devotion to the Divine, service to the community, simplicity, discipline, and sacred responsibility. Through him, the ritual and devotional current of the parampara continues to flow in Ayodhya, close to the very source from which it arose.
Daughter of the Lineage,
Holder of the Flame
Transmission to Acharya Shunya
Acharya Ayodhya Nath’s sons served the family’s dharmic inheritance through scholarship, literature, public teaching, ritual service, and devotion. Acharya Shunya’s calling unfolded through direct transmission. From childhood, Baba recognized in his granddaughter a rare hunger for truth, deep receptivity to shastra, fearless inquiry, and the capacity to carry the lineage into a new era.
She trained her directly for fourteen years in Vedanta, Ayurveda, Yoga, dharma, devotion, and the disciplines of a Vedic life. In time, he entrusted her with the living teaching stream of the Sarayu Parampara, allowing the wisdom of Ayodhya to enter the twenty-first century through Guru, Shastra, Sadhana, and Seva.
The Lineage.
In the Present Era
Sarayu Parampara continues today through Acharya Shunya, who carries this householder lineage from its roots in Ayodhya into the modern world.
Through her Vedic and Shakti teachings, she guides sincere seekers across cultures into Advaita Vedanta, the four yogas, mantra, devotion, dharma, and the sacred power of the Divine Mother.
Here, wisdom is not treated as heritage alone. It is studied with rigor, practiced with sincerity, questioned with humility, and embodied in daily life through reverence, courage, and seva.
This is how a parampara remains alive: through a teacher rooted in realization, and through students who receive, practice, and serve the wisdom with steady hearts.
Carrying the Lineage
Forward
Acharya Shunya carries Sarayu Parampara into the present era through books, teachings, podcasts, retreats, and the living community of the Vedic Study Circle. Her work opens Advaita Vedanta, Yoga, Ayurveda, dharma, and Shakti teachings to sincere seekers across cultures, genders, races, and walks of life.
As the author of three acclaimed books, with more works forthcoming, she has brought the voice of the lineage into contemporary spiritual literature while remaining rooted in Guru, Shastra, Sadhana, and Seva.
Through her podcast, global teachings, and Vedic Study Circle, the parampara continues as a living path of study, practice, devotion, inquiry, and embodied dharma.
Modern Works in Service
of Shastra
Alongside the preserved scriptural inheritance of the lineage, Acharya Shunya has brought Sarayu Parampara into the modern world through published works that support the study, practice, and living of Shastra.Her books, including Sovereign Self, Roar Like a Goddess, and Ayurveda Lifestyle Wisdom, serve as contemporary gateways into Advaita Vedanta, Shakti wisdom, dharma, and spiritual Ayurveda.
They help sincere seekers approach ancient teachings with clarity, courage, and reverence.These works do not replace Shastra. They point back to it, illuminate it, and invite students to bring its wisdom into daily life through Guru, Sadhana, and Seva.
The Foundation of Vedika Global
Founded to Serve the Parampara
Founded by Acharya Shunya in 2007, Vedika Global is a 501(c)(3) religious nonprofit and the educational and service expression of the Sarayu Parampara. It welcomed its first students in January 2008 through the traditional Upanayanam ceremony, beginning formal study in Ayurveda, Yoga, Vedanta, and the disciplines of spiritual life.
A Living Educational Mission
Over the years, Vedika Global has developed and sustained programs in Ayurveda, Yoga, Vedanta, Ayurvedic wellness, and the spiritual culture from which these vidyas arise. Its purpose has remained steady: to preserve, embody, and transmit the wisdom of the lineage with integrity. Since its renewal in 2024, its work has entered a more distilled phase, with greater emphasis on Vedanta and Yoga while continuing to honor Ayurveda as an essential vidya of the tradition.
Serving Seekers Across the World
Today, students from more than twenty-one countries participate in Vedika Global teachings and sanghas. Many offerings are made freely or at low cost so sincere students may approach the teachings regardless of financial circumstance. Through Vedika Global, the wisdom of the Sarayu Parampara continues to take living form through study, practice, sangha, and service.
Discipleship in Sarayu Parampara
Guru Shishya Paramapara
To enter Sarayu Parampara is to approach a living stream of Guru, Shastra, Satsang, Sadhana, and Seva. Discipleship here is not a social identity or spiritual decoration. It is a sacred relationship of learning, humility, devotion, practice, and inner transformation.Rooted in Advaita Vedanta, the path guides sincere seekers toward Atma-Brahman realization through the four yogas: Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga, and Upasana Yoga.
Even Ayurveda is studied as a sacred support for clarity, steadiness, and spiritual life.For those who feel called, discipleship offers guidance, structure, correction, belonging, and the lifelong blessing of walking with the teachings until knowledge becomes lived truth.
