Swami Dhumavati

Swami Dhumavati was born in England as Lucy Horne. Her family attended a Brethren Church and during school years she attended Anglican services. As a young adult, she traveled and worked around the world. She studied and taught in Japan, ran a guesthouse for women and started a preschool in Nepal, photographed for an international youth project in Chile, and developed housing for single mothers and operated an Asian import business in Taos, New Mexico.

In 1992, she went to the Kashi Ashram in Sebastian, Florida, to study with Ma Jaya. Kashi Ashram is an interfaith spiritual community, rooted in Hindu philosophy, that embraces sacred practices of many traditions and teaches practices of kindness, compassion and service. Swami Dhumavati is a kirtan wali and a pujari for Durga Puja fire ceremonies and took vows of sanyassin from Ma Jaya in 2005. She teaches yoga classes and facilitates workshops and intensive retreats. She also operates the Ashram's spiritual gift store and coordinates communications for the Ashram.

Swami Dhumavati has been deeply involved in service work in the HIV/AIDS community for a number of years and oversees Kashi Rainbow, the Ashram's gay and lesbian organization. She is a member of the National Religious Leaders Roundtable, a project of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force. She is an advocate for tolerance and justice for all persons, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race or religion.

(This biographical statement written by Mark Bowman from information on the www.kashi.org web site and public statements given by Swami Dhumavati.)

Biography Date: April, 2008

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