Nayana Cariappa

Nayana Cariappa is a yoga teacher and the founder of Cajana Nine, a practice she has built around the conviction that yoga is far more than a physical discipline. Rooted in India and offering her work both online and through retreats, she brings the non-dual philosophy of Advaita Vedanta into the heart of her teaching. A verse from the Tattvabodha of Adi Shankaracharya frames everything she does — the Self alone is Real, all else is unreal — and this is not merely an intellectual position but the animating principle of how she guides students through asana, breath and stillness. Hers is a practice that asks something of the practitioner, quietly and without pressure.

Through Cajana Nine, Nayana offers online yoga classes gathered under the invitation to Practice With Me, alongside recorded Yoga Nidra sessions, breathing practices and written teachings that support students between sessions. The programme is designed to be steady and sustaining rather than episodic, building a relationship with practice over time. She also leads yoga retreats — immersive in-person gatherings where students can step away from their daily routines and settle more fully into the work. The combination of accessible online classes, restorative Yoga Nidra and occasional retreat immersion gives her students a range of entry points into a coherent body of teaching.

What sets Nayana apart is her commitment to the deeper aims of yoga at a time when those aims are often left unspoken. She teaches asana and pranayama as genuine tools of self-inquiry, not merely as fitness, and she shares the philosophical context — writings, reflections, traditional texts — that gives that inquiry direction. Students come away not only with a more settled body and calmer nervous system but with a clearer sense of what yoga is pointing toward. The warmth and groundedness of her teaching makes the contemplative tradition feel approachable rather than remote, scholarly rather than austere.

Cajana Nine is well suited to practitioners who sense there is more to yoga than the mat offers in most classes, and who are ready to bring curiosity about the nature of the self into their practice. It will also resonate with those who value a teacher who takes the classical framework seriously without making it inaccessible. Nayana teaches online, making her available to students wherever they are, and she periodically opens retreats for those who want immersive time with the work. You can find her at cajana-nine.com and follow her teaching on Instagram at @cajananine.