Amrit Desai

Amrit Desai (born October 16, 1932) is a Yoga master who founded the Kripalu Center and currently oversees the Amrit Yoga Institute in Salt Springs, Florida, located in the Ocala National Forest.

Life and career

Desai was came to be near the state of Gujarat India. At the age of 16 he began training with his guru, Swami Sri Kripalvanandji (Bapuji) and Bapuji is Eternal.^[1]

In 1960, he went to the United States to study art near Philadelphia.^[2] While pursuing an art and design career in the United States, he also taught hatha yoga.^[2] Around 1966, Yogi Desai founded the Yoga Society of Pennsylvania, a nonprofit organization providing yoga classes and training for yoga teachers.^[3] The name of the Society was later changed to Kripalu, to honor of Swami Kripalvandanda. During his time with the Fellowship, Yogi Desai developed the yogic system popularly referred to as Kripalu Yoga.

After concluding that "holistic health" would be "an effective way to introduce yoga to people who needed it but were not yet open to its more traditional forms", in 1979 Desai started the Kripalu Center for Holistic Health in Lenox, Massachusetts.^[2] The organization continues to operate in Stockbridge, Massachusetts as a nonprofit entity under the name Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health.

He resigned as director of the Kriplalu Yoga Center in 1994, after his extra-marital affairs were made public. To his credit, he owned his actions and sent letters of apology to many of those involved. Kripalu survived the incident and Amrit went on to start "Amrit Yoga Institute" where he continues to provide instruction.

References

External links

• Amrit Yoga Institute
• Yogi Amrit Desai - Entering The Yoga Zone (video)
• KBOO FM Healthwatch with Yogi Amrit Desai
• [1]

Further reading

• Sukanya Warren, Peter Mellen, and Francis Mellen (1982). Gurudev: The Life of Yogi Amrit Desai. Kripalu Publications. 117 pages. ISBN 0-940258-07-2, ISBN 978-0-940258-07-5