Babaji’s Kriya Yoga Acharya
Since childhood Maitreya (Michel Zonatto) had felt a deep desire to know God / Truth.
He was first introduced to Yoga and mysticism at the age of eight by his mother. He had his first training in Classical Yoga at eighteen and began to teach regular classes at twenty. He continued his studies in Yoga and other paths to self-realization and natural therapies, such as Ayurveda. He was initiated into various methods of reiki, meditation and vibrational healing. He received initiation and personal guidance in Vajrayana Buddhism. However, it was when he learned of Babaji and Kriya Yoga that he knew he had found his true guru and path. He felt compelled to find a lineage and a realized teacher to guide him and his sadhana.
In 2009, he received the first initiation in Brazil from acharya Sharanadevi and in the same year, met his teacher M.G. Satchidananda. In 2010, he was initiated by Satchidananda into the advanced kriyas. These practices of Kriya Yoga brought him a deep sense of peace and of returning home, as he began to understand that his dedicated practice was encouraging loving and conscious action in all his daily life. In 2012, he was invited to prepare to become an acharya and after two years of intensive training he was, in November 2014, inducted into Babaji’s Kriya Yoga Order of Acharyas.
Maitreya teaches classes of Kriya Hatha Yoga at the university and therapeutic centers and offers private sessions with natural therapies, deepening students knowledge in undergraduate Applied Naturology. He teaches initiation seminars, leads satsanga, kirtan, gives lectures, workshops and makes mandalas.
He is eternally grateful to the Kriya Yoga Tradition and the living Presence of Babaji in his life guiding and providing him a way to serve and fulfill his divine purpose. He is married to Lakshmi, Luana Marcanzoni Alves and lives in Palhoça, Santa Catarina, Brazil.