About Padma 

“You can live free from stress and confusion.”

Padma is an enlightened educator and one of Canada’s most respected and popular teachers of meditation, yoga and self-realization. For over 20 years she has been guiding people towards finding their own freedom, inner power, peace and enlightenment. Padma’s teaching style is free, joyful and insightful in the tradition of a Himalayan meditation master.

Padma completed 30 years of advanced meditation training in the Himalayas of India. She is certified to teach Advanced Meditation and Yogic Studies by the International Meditation Institute of India.

Padma produced and hosted 143 episodes of the Padma Yoga television series, aired daily across Canada since 2003, and has produced 12 DVDs of her work. Since 2000 she has also taught meditation and yoga to A-list Hollywood stars. She has developed original Online Meditation Courses and created a powerful Meditation Teacher Training Program.

"I love my meditations with Padma. In interviews after these classes, I speak with more clarity, surety and self-awareness."

– Freida Pinto, Actress

Padma masterfully translates meditation wisdom into modern language, making complex eastern philosophy available and relevant to our lives. She is highly regarded for her extensive studies and knowledge. Her teachings help her students cultivate fearlessness and inner strength and expand freedom and joy.

“Padma” is the name offered to her by her meditation teacher in the Himalayas. The name Padma means ‘The Lotus Flower’ and is a very important symbol in India and in Asian cultures, representing spiritual purity and intellectual awakening. The thousand-petalled lotus is the sign of complete spiritual enlightenment. Padma is also another name for the goddess, Laxmi, the symbol of wealth, prosperity, abundance and beauty.

"My class with Padma was a great wake-up call for my meditations and yoga."

– Uma Thurman, Actress

“Sit quietly and in stillness with your eyes closed. Don’t attempt to control or suppress the waves of your mind. Instead, simply remember that you are pure and free.”

– Padma

Where did Padma study?

Padma has lived for 15 of the last 30 years in a remote valley of the western Himalayas of India, studying with a Himalayan meditation master. Padma researched and contemplated advanced meditation, having daily discussions and meditations with her Guru, and receiving direct transmission of lineage teachings. She mastered original Sanskrit texts of classical philosophy, specializing in the Patanjali Yoga Sutras. For years, Padma meditated for up to six hours a day. Lifestyle in the Himalayas is rustic, including boiling drinking water and keeping the wood stove burning.  For years, she lived with no electric appliances, spending the years in meditation and study. She continues now to study for months each year in the Himalayas, when possible.

Padma
A bit of history

Padma, Marla Stewart, holds a B.Sc. from McGill University in Canada. She worked for the Canadian Federal Research Institute of Ocean Sciences.

She was always seeking deeper personal happiness and looking for the real root causes of destructive human behavior. In 1989 she traveled to the Himalayas to learn more about the human mind and ego.

There Padma became certified to teach ‘Advanced Yogic Sciences and Meditation’ (Senior Level) and ‘Hatha Yoga’ (Senior Level) by the International Meditation Institute of India. She is a unique educator specializing in a holistic approach to mental, physical, and spiritual wellness. Her western science and philosophical studies inform and expand her unique education.

She is a unique bridge between the two worlds of wisdom and speaks with eloquence of their oneness.

“Padma deftly explores the full spectrum of yoga with knowledge and a contagious enthusiasm. She is an articulate teacher who speaks from her formidable depth of experience with humour and compassion.”
"You make me believe in continuing a positive and peaceful way of life.”
“Padma is a competent and engaging instructor. She is an amazing and inspirational teacher.”
“You are like a Lotus flower – completely one with all the wonderful and changing happenings in the world, and yet forever remaining pure and free, clear in your knowledge of who you are.”

– Padma

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The mission of Padma Meditation is to offer education and skills for finding personal freedom, and to support living in peace, health and happiness.