Jayaprada Radhika is a Yogini trained in Classical Vaishnava Tantra, Ashtanga, and Breathwork, and the founder of Kalpana Radhika Yoga. Few paths are as intense, multidimensional, and transformative as hers. From living through karmic cycles and natural disasters to training with Himalayan sages and classical Tantra lineages, her life is a testament to discipline, devotion, and inner alchemy.
Today, she lives at the Krishnafarm 'New Govardhana' in the Northern Rivers, Australia, and is offering her 'Kathartic Yogic Alchemy' 5-day Immersion at Krishna Village. We sat down with her for a chai and a chat to explore her journey: the initiations that shaped her, the mystical teachings she carries, and her vision for helping students transform themselves from the inside out.
When we first discussed this interview, you mentioned 'Maha Shani' and its intensity. What is that all about, and how did it shape your path?
The yogic and tantric teachings I am drawn to are rare and deeply experiential, giving me the capacity to channel them and guide others with strength and discipline, even under extreme strain. Maha Shani is a term from Vedic Astrology: a 19-year Saturn cycle that was one of the most intense periods of my life. For me, it meant that Saturn is in the 12th house - literally in my bed and aspecting the house of health - disrupted my sleep, diet, and nervous system, forcing me to learn to live on prana alone at times.
During these years, I was constantly in foreign lands, never able to fully settle. Astrologers made it clear I had to endure the instability and upheaval of this cycle. It was everything at once for over a decade: hosting large groups of yoga students, organising programs all around the world, running retreats, constantly living out of a suitcase, and carrying massive responsibilities, often without sleep or proper food.
Against my astrologers’ advice, I tried to settle in the Gili Islands, Indonesia, but the biggest Lombok earthquake forced me to keep moving, teaching programs even while unwell, often with no access to medical care. The earthquake destroyed my home, university, and belongings, the government placed me on the refugee list, and everything I had known was gone. It shattered my world and forced me to keep moving, yet became part of the thread that wove my path. This is part of what I'm teaching today: How to alchemise your biggest challenges into a reservoir of power and determination.
And the Siddha lineage? How did these teachings shape you?
I trained extensively with a teacher from the Siddha lineage, a direct disciple of Swami Muktananda, who taught Ashtanga yoga on Muktananda’s world tours. While Muktananda himself gave Shaktiput, my teacher’s guidance in consciousness through specific breath techniques and alignment provided a strong foundation for my path.
Even as the intensity of Maha Shani often made it difficult to fully embody the teachings, this training gave me the tools and guidance to navigate the deepest initiations. It was through my own experiences and inner awareness that I gradually recognised and explored the inner world I had sensed since childhood. From a very young age, I sensed there was so much more to reality than meets the eye. I didn’t have words for it and sometimes felt sad and alone. It wasn’t until training with my Siddha lineage teacher, Vaishnava temple practices, and later living in Vrindavan — a holy land with 5,000 temples — that I finally saw what I had known existed since my earliest memories.
You also were a bhaktine (a female monk) for many years and have practiced Vaishnava Tantra in this lineage for over 20 years, right? What was temple life like?
Temple life is intense and immersive. Over the years, I experienced emotional and mystical moments of love and awe I could never have imagined — sometimes brought to tears by Vedic saṁskāra fire ceremonies, chanting, or seeing devotion expressed in small, vivid moments, like girls in saris holding flowers, their faces radiant.
I had visited Vrindavan in India many times and was profoundly moved. It led me to pack up my life in Melbourne and move there, to begin teaching international trainings rooted in the heart of spirituality. I began the trainings to share yoga, proper breath techniques and the hidden spiritual laws underpinning reality.
“The music, chanting, and rituals are woven into every day, creating a framework that supports learning, discipline, and transformation.”
Living in temples exposes you to a multi-layered, demanding world that confronts what we are not, so that a deeper, eternal truth can gradually be revealed. Most of the time, we are not fully aware or in control — yet, by Divine grace, the practices, rituals, and daily life carry us forward, even through fumbling and uncertainty.
How did the earthquakes and upheavals impact your journey?
The first major earthquake didn’t just destroy my home — it shattered my life trajectory, burying my university, belongings, and the very framework of reality I had known. People I knew were buried under buildings, and everything I had relied on as stable was gone. Later, the Lombok earthquake again uprooted any attempt to settle in Indonesia, forcing me to keep moving.
Astrologers had predicted these upheavals as part of the 19-year Maha Shani Saturn cycle in the 12th house — a time of exile, disruption, and challenge. This karmic framework made it clear that these events, as devastating as they were, were part of the initiation I had to endure.
"The upheavals were total: every layer of life, every assumption, every plan was undone. They demanded that I confront impermanence, loss, and the fragility of everything I thought I could depend on."
Yet through it all, by God’s grace, the teachings, practices, and discipline carried me forward, revealing the implicit truth that anyone, with optimal discipline, willpower, and the right guidance, can access capacities beyond what they previously imagined, even breaking through what seems impossible, like breaking a brick or block with a hand.
In the Himalayas you met a cave baba who taught Kaivalya Tantra breath. How did that affect your path?
Yes I met a cave baba in the Himalayas, who shared with me the Kaivalya Tantra breath practices of the high Himalayas with me. These methods are used by sadhus (holy men) to access the bliss and clarity of the soul’s true nature. The intensity and purity of these teachings wove together everything I had encountered before, from childhood intuition and Siddha lineage training to temple discipline.
With such a vast, multidimensional path, what guides your teaching now?
My teaching is shaped by the integration of all these initiations: Siddha lineage, temple life, Himalayan transmissions, Vrindavan, earthquakes, and Maha Shani. What people see is only fragments; the backdrop of the journey is often invisible.
My work helps students awaken an inner world that has always existed inside them, while understanding that they themselves are agents of transformation. The practices, rituals, and tools guide this awakening, but the true power is within, across mind, body, and energy.
What transformation do you hope students experience?
I want my students to see themselves as living instruments of alchemy. With the right guidance, discipline, and clarity, anyone can transform their internal, spiritual, and physical state, accessing capacities beyond what they previously imagined.
The work is about awakening their own intelligence and power, helping them recognise that they can overcome challenges and embody strength they may not have known was possible.
When I look at photos and videos of you, I can see that you are also a contortionist and handbalancing teacher. How does this aspect of your practice influence your teaching and approach to yoga?
My handbalancing journey began over ten years ago and primarily helps me build fortitude in my energy system, activating chakras through bandhas to stabilise and support the body upside down while holding and balancing. It also fosters strength, mobility, one-pointed focus, and bone density, among other benefits.
I incorporate methods that are accessible to all levels, and the work has taken off globally — students of all ages and abilities engage with it enthusiastically. The practice is highly uplifting, moving dormant energy in ways that differ from usual movement patterns.
The spinal flexibility and physical ability I demonstrate has been greatly encouraged by the specific breath methods taught by my teacher — a signature aspect of all my trainings. These methods help in accessing greater depth of range of movement, especially in mobility and flexibility, and free prana (life force), which has shown me time and again that we are often not truly tired or hungry, but simply need to release dormant prana: it is waiting to be released, because we are magicians, agents of alchemy. With the wand of determination, optimal teachings, and guidance, this energy can be released, unleashing a huge reservoir of prana, life force, and propensity for miracles.
My life is a tapestry of multi-dimensional initiations, devotion, and alchemy. My teachings carry the depth of my lived experience — a blend of mystical insight, rigorous practice, and the knowledge that my students themselves are powerful instruments of transformation.
Thank you for making the time for this conversation!!
For more information on her upcoming courses, visit https://krishnavillage-retreat.com/courses/kathartic-yogic-alchemy