Early Life
Gangaji was born Merle Antoinette Roberson (Toni) in Texas on June 11, 1942, and grew up in Mississippi. After graduating from the University of Mississippi in 1964, she married and had a daughter. In 1972, she and her family moved to San Francisco. There, she was soon divorced and pursued many paths to change her life including relationship, motherhood, political activism, career, and spiritual practice. She took Bodhisattva vows, practiced Zen and Vipassana meditation, helped run a Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Center, and had a career as an acupuncturist in the San Francisco Bay area.
Feeling unfulfilled by her seemingly successful life, she and her partner of thirteen years, Eli Jaxon-Bear, sold their house and moved to Hawaii in 1989, where they were married shortly afterward.
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