Nina Johnson was the founder and Director Emeritus of the Himalayan Yoga Meditation Center, formerly called The Yoga Society, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. With the blessings of her guru H.H. Sri Swami Rama, and with her own natural compassion, determination and a practical, down-to-earth style, Nina trained and initiated hundreds of students in the practice of hatha yoga and meditation.
Nina began studying yoga in 1965 at the downtown YWCA. In the spring of 1971, she met Swami Rama during one of his first visits to the United States. Soon after their first meeting, Nina was initiated by Swami Rama and asked to open a center for Himalayan yoga and meditation in Milwaukee. The Center opened in 1971 and began offering classes in this tradition. In 1974, Swami Rama instructed Nina to begin giving mantras on his behalf.
In recent years, Nina lived in the village of Malethi, India, the site of SRIVERM (Swami Rama Institute of Vocational Education and Research, Malethi), a project started by Nina’s beloved teacher Swami Hariharananda, and returned to Milwaukee twice a year continuing to teach and initiate new students into the Himalayan Yoga Meditation tradition.
Nina was 95 years old.
