ANTOANETA GOTEA

Antoaneta was an atheist until the age of 18, when the old saying that “a convinced atheist is better than a dogmatic follower” proved to be true. At about that time, she had her first spiritual awakening, when the words of Jesus fell directly into her heart…. After that, her intuition about the truth of the proverb “the kingdom of heaven is within you” led her to begin searching for a spiritual path.

In 1993, while studying at the Politechnical University of Bucharest (Romania), she discovered a Yoga course which gave her a lot of answers to her deep questions at that time. From 1997 to 2006, in parallel with her Yoga studies, she began to lead groups focused on Tantric teachings for women. Also at this time, she first joined the meditation retreats of Claudiu Trandafir, which completely changed her approach to meditation.

In 2007 she discovered Agama Yoga on her first trip to Koh Phangan, Thailand. She met wonderful people there – friendly, kind, open, and communicative – and was inspired to apply for the 2008 Summer TTC. She felt blessed to have studied with a fantastic group and an excellent Agama teachers’ team, and claims this was the best experience of her last five years. In March 2009, she was “baptized” as a Yoga teacher in the land of the rishis when she taught her first classes at the Agama branch of Trika in Rishikesh, India. In June 2009, she began to teach Yoga on Koh Phangan.

She is also very interested in the therapeutic and spiritual aspects of some forms of dance. She studied classical Egyptian belly dance and Wave Dance in Romania, combining them with her Yoga knowledge to bring forth the best synthesis. She teaches classical belly dance as a way of awakening Kundalini and purifying the chakras.

Antoaneta, a Cancer, expresses sincere gratitude toward Swami Vivekananda Saraswati for his support and inspiration in becoming a Yoga teacher.