Shobha Bagrecha has dedicated the past 20 years of her life to teaching yoga, meditation, and leading social development projects with some of the most underrepresented sectors. She travels internationally teaching specialized courses and organizing service initiatives impacting hundreds of thousands of people, from youth to high executives. 

 

Originally from a small village in India, she currently resides in the United States and Costa Rica, and travels internationally, teaching advanced meditation, silence, and stress relief programs. She works with volunteers coordinating initiatives to create a more inclusive world and has taught courses in over 20 countries, including India, the USA, UK, and Latin American countries.

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Shobha has been involved in specialized service programs for diverse sectors of society. She has led and taught programs for corporate development in Fortune 500 companies; government training for stress relief and human development; United Nations campaigns against female feticide and early child marriages; reforestation campaigns; initiatives for the development of the Millenium and Sustainable Development Goals; educational human values and empowerment conferences in universities and schools; training for the military, paramilitary, army forces, and administrative personnel; drug, and violence rehabilitation training; trauma relief workshops in several natural calamities.

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Shobha’s life journey has passionately been driven to empower women, youth, and thousands of individuals that she has come across. She is a motivator, philanthropist, coach, and an inspirational human being. Although her journey was very challenging and tough, she was able to resiliently grow from it with awareness and inner-strength. She went through many tests and skillfully was able to follow her dreams while staying in harmony with her cultural traditions. She has inspired many other individuals to do the same.

 

Shobha is a dreamer. As a child, she always wanted to do something different and out of the ordinary and was not convinced to live the life pre-determined for other women around her. She stood out from other girls as very inquisitive, curious, and sensitive towards peoples' pain and suffering. She first inspired her commitment to serve society from figures like Swami Vivekananda and Florence Nightingale. As a tradition, she had been taught to chant mantras and meditate from an early age. 

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Many times, her curiosity and thirst to know and question conflicted with her family and cultural tradition, which had great values but was so strict for girls. She was always surprised by the different social disciplines imposed and expected from boys compared to those of girls. Boys would have many liberties while girls would be tied with so many rules, dos, and don’ts, which did not allow girls to laugh or express freely. Girls were only allowed to get education up to the eighth or tenth grade, learn cooking, and take care of the house. They would get married to the boy chosen by their family, who chooses them as well. Then go to the boy’s house and take care of him, his family, and children, all while covering their face behind their dresses veil, living a life as though they don’t exist at all. 

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But as a dreamer, she wanted to explore the world, study and work very hard, serve humanity, and celebrate her existence without these restrictions, free like a bird touching the sky, and reach new heights. She always respected and honored her higher traditional values and elders, yet it was very hard to have everyone in her extended family see eye to eye with her vision. Her parents supported her but that put them into tension with other family members. 

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A new journey begins to follow her higher aspirations; she did not have any formal guide. She started following her heart and intuition and let herself be guided by nature. She traveled alone to a city 90 km away from home and stayed some time with relatives to pursue higher education. After some time, she convinced her parents to allow her three younger siblings to go with her to the city to also get a University education. She became the first girl from her village and her family to achieve the Master’s degree, in commerce, and coached and guided her siblings as well. Her brothers are very successfully working with multinational companies, leading teams, running their business, and serving society. She motivated her friends and many girls from her village as well and helped them in their academics. She had the coaching skills inherent from an early age and continues to motivate and empower people. She was moved by a deep faith in nature and divine Grace that she would be protected, be able to go through all the challenges and her wish to serve would somehow become a reality. Her inner strength and determination allowed her to move through life with contentment and peace.

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During her youth, after hearing about her desire to lead a life of service, she was invited by many spiritual leaders to become a renunciate in their organizations. But her heart was looking for something higher than all the traditional, cultural, or religious boundaries, so she continuously refused to go. She used to wonder from an early age if God was omnipresent and omnipotent, how could there be better people than others, why were the names of religions and castes so important? She remembers thinking, “if we are all one, why do you want to win over or bring down any other tradition, and could not understand why spiritual traditions could not love and respect each other. She never followed all these boundaries and divisions and made friends with everyone in her school sharing food and supplies with all children.   

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It was not until YEAR after living in Gujarat that she came in contact with The Art of Living Foundation and started practicing the SKY Breathing Meditation that she felt she found her calling. Her first experiences were indescribable. Despite having meditated and practiced yoga from an early age, she had never felt this silence and stillness. It was as if everything stopped, time, mind, space, and there was total awareness with lightness. When she met Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the founder of the organization and creator of the SKY Breathing Meditation technique, that she felt so much peace and love in his presence. She started volunteering with the foundation and while taking training became a teacher of The Art of Living and the SKY Breathing Meditation. 

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She has been teaching, mentoring, and coaching thousands of people around the world. In 2014 she got married and moved to Costa Rica, where her husband is from. She now lives in the USA, where she continues to teach SKY Breathing Meditation and mentor students worldwide to live a fuller, more impactful, happier, and purposeful life.