Teacher and Founder

Raquel Fischer Barros (spiritual name: Bhavani) began practicing Tai Chi Chuan (in Rio de Janeiro, where she was born) at the age of 7. She chose this discipline without really knowing what it was, as if she already had this calling to spirituality within her. At the age of 8, she started studying and practicing classical ballet (www.facebook.com/pg/redencaoballet/) and later, also contemporary dance, until she was 20 years old – this art was also a great help in self-discovery and expression of the Creative Self.

At the age of 18, she lost her father, and from that moment, a conscious process of inner and spiritual seeking began with greater strength. She found in yoga and meditation deep healing tools for the soul, above all, but also for the body and mind. Her first experience with yoga happened in the year 2000 with a wonderful guide, Vera Cosmelli, in Satyananda Yoga; Porto Alegre, Brazil (www.poneshiyoga.wordpress.com).

Her exploration of this sacred science continued in the United States with some trips, mainly in California and New York.

From 2004 to 2006, she first certified by completing the “Yoga Teacher Training – Teacher Training Course in Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan” in Montreal, Canada, at the “Yoga and Meditation Institute” with Shabad Saroop Singh Khalsa. She also participated, during the same period, in several deepening courses and workshops with Guru Dev and “Kirtan” with Snatam Kaur, all direct students of Yogi Bhajan, the Master who brought Kundalini Yoga to the West. During these years, a process of immense purification and spiritual awakening began with greater intensity. In this period, sadhana – or yogic and meditative practice – became part of daily routine. And the search continues…

In 2007, she traveled to Italy (a change made mostly out of love and with love), where her yogic experience continued with classical Hatha Yoga, Ashtanga Vinyasa, and Vinyasa, collaborating in various yoga academies and schools with different experienced teachers and masters.

In 2008, she completed the “Child Play Yoga Teacher Training” with Shakta Kaur Khalsa. And in the same year, she received the certificate as a Reiki II therapist, according to the tradition of the original Japanese teaching “Komyo Reiki”.

From 2009 to 2013, she collaborated in teaching yoga and meditation at the “Kriya Yoga Ashram Milano,” approaching and deepening the meditative practice of ‘Kriya yoga as taught by Paramahansa Yogananda.’ When she started reading the book “Autobiography of a Yogi,” she cried with emotion and felt as if she had already read those words, identifying completely with this Master, almost as if she herself had written that story. Everything was being confirmed: what she had always believed was manifesting clearly. Joy and gratitude overflowed from her Being. She had always believed in Christ but had distanced herself from the church due to dogmatism, but Yogananda made her renew her faith and devotion to God, who is the essence of all.

After some meditative experiences in superconsciousness with this Master and some “awakened” dreams, she feels the confirmation of her inner feeling and recognizes Yogananda as her spiritual Master, and Kriya Yoga as her path to self-realization. We all need a guide, and even though Yogananda is no longer in his physical body, given his level of spiritual enlightenment and omnipresence, this fact is just a detail. He himself said, “those who think of me as near, I will be near.”

In the same location, she was an assistant in the Teacher Training, alongside the master of the center “Kriya Yoga Ashram Milano.”

In June 2010, she was initiated for the first time into the advanced techniques of Kriya Yoga, and since then, she continues to deepen this practice daily, with devotion, growing, expanding her spiritual dimension, and finding in this blessed path the door that leads to the realization of the infinite Self – the Divine Light, Divine Joy, and Divine Love.

She also holds a diploma in ‘Hatha Yoga Sivananda’ – Satchittananda school – at “Vidya Yoga” in Dharamsala, India, in 2011. An unforgettable journey and retreat, revealing her soul and life’s mission: to transmit the teachings of yoga, in their purity, as a channel for the Masters of Kriya. Just as this discipline heals her every day, she wants to see others heal as well.

She collaborated, writing some articles in the Italian magazine ‘Vivere lo yoga’ in 2012 and 2013, and as a Yoga model at www.yogaessential.com and in two books by Ananda Edizioni: “Ananda Yoga,” on the cover, and “Yoga come preghiera” inside the book (www.ananda.it).

In 2014, she found her living Spiritual Master, Roy Eugene Davis (www.csa-davis.org) – a direct disciple and pure channel of Paramahansa Yogananda. From him, she received the blessing and authorization to spread the path of Kriya Yoga, teach, and initiate new devotees of Truth into Kriya Yoga.

In 2016, she received the certification as a Minister of Kriya Yoga, representing Yogananda and Davis in Brazil. Since then, her most important mission in life is to disseminate these sacred teachings. She offers spiritual ceremonies such as weddings, baptisms, blessings for pregnant women, Kriya initiations, among others.

In the same year, she also obtained the certificate “Yoga Alliance International – Experienced registered Yoga teacher 500 Gold designation” – officially allowing her to provide continuing education courses for yoga teachers, workshops, seminars, and be the director and main instructor of a teacher training program.

Since 2009, she has participated in retreats and visits, if possible once a year, to the Ananda community in Assisi (Italy) www.ananda.it, or Kriya Yoga Stella in Liguria (Italy) and Furio Sclano (Italy) www.kriyayoga.it – to continue her deepening and updates on yoga teachings. Or she retreats on pilgrimages to sacred places.

She finds in Kriyabans (practitioners of Kriya) a beautiful spiritual family – as well as in her students, colleagues, and all those who are on a conscious spiritual path.

She is the founder of ‘Prema Kriya Yoga’ in 2016 – a school with the mission to disseminate the teachings of Kriya Yoga by Paramahansa Yogananda, integrating them with Hatha Yoga and Kundalini Yoga, devotional chants, and recitation of mantras.

She also founded, in the same year, ‘Morada Darshan’ in Praia do Rosa/Santa Catarina/Brazil; a paradisiacal place created especially for yoga and meditation – along with vacations. A space to relax, regenerate, in nature, and during spiritual retreats.

In November 2018, she started a voluntary project at CAPS (Psychosocial Attention Center) for yoga and meditation for substance abusers, depressives, and anxious individuals. Having already experienced such situations firsthand, she feels in her heart that yoga can consistently help in the total healing of these people.

In 2021, she moved to Búzios/RJ and actively and voluntarily participated in the “Yoga de Rua” (Street Yoga) project in Rio de Janeiro to promote yoga to people experiencing homelessness. To learn more about this luminous action: www.yogaderua.org / Instagram @yogaderua / Facebook @yoga de rua

In 2022, she moved to Tenerife/Spain, and in her new home, she continues to organize weekly online and in-person yoga classes, deepening workshops, retreats, ceremonies, kirtan chants, meditation sessions, Kriya Yoga courses, Kriya initiations, and online and in-person yoga teacher training courses.