SAMAT - Board of Directors
President and Director: Elizabeth Hallstrom (Prajna)
Prajna is a longtime spiritual practitioner with a PhD in Hinduism from Harvard University. She went to India for the first time in 1978 to study with her first guru, Swami Muktananda. In 1990 she returned to India to research her dissertation on Anandamayi Ma and returned an ardent devotee. Since then, she has been leading satsangs and kirtans in Ma’s Name and has written two books on Ma, Mother of Bliss: Anandamayi Ma (1896-1982) and The Gospel of Shri Anandamayi Ma: Conversations with the Divine Mother, Volumes 1 and 2. She lives with her husband, Ted, in Amherst, MA, USA.
Clerk and Director: Saraswati Barbara Haney
Saraswati has been a sadhaka for many years. She has served her community in various ways, including being a wildland firefighter, Peace Corps volunteer, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, doula, business owner, science teacher, and most recently, the Director of a large wildlife hospital in New York State. She is also the mother of three daughters. For nearly 20 years, she has taught yoga and classes on the Bhagavad Gita and Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. She studies Vedanta, Jyotish, and Vedic mantra chanting and has worked with many teachers. She has received mantra diksha in Anandamayi Ma’s lineage.
Director: Acharya Mangalananda
Mangalananda is an appointed acharya (lineage teacher) of Ma Sharanam Ashram in Central India. In 1973, at the age of 19, he went to India after having a deep experience of Anandamayi Ma while living in America. He travelled with Her in 1973 and ‘74, receiving mantra diksha and acceptance under Her protection directly from Ma's hands, and being placed under the guidance of Ma's main swami, Swami Bhaskarananda ji. From that time on, he has been living in Ma's ashrams in the US and India. In 2001, Swami Bhaskarananda sent him back to India to help start a school in one of Ma's ashrams in Omkareshwar. He lived there for twelve years and was sent to tour Europe and the US every year to present classes and kirtan concerts. He now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, Gloria, where he presents Matri Satsang, classes and kirtan events. He is the author of A Goddess Among Us, which has been translated into 8 languages.
Director: Ted Hallstrom
Ted Hallstrom is a retired school teacher and principal who worked in private and public schools in Massachusetts and New Mexico. He has traveled and lived in India where he helped start two schools – one in Banaras and one in the Tawang area of Northeast india. He has also been on pilgrimage to Nepal and Tibet. Accompanying his wife Prajña, Ted has visited Kankhal and had the darshan of Anandamayi Ma’s samadhi shrine and the good fortune to meet Ma’s swamis, Swami Vijayananda and Swami Bhaskarananda Ji. Ted lives with Prajna in Amherst, MA, USA.