22 Facts About Amrit Desai

Amrit Desai is a pioneer of yoga in the West, and one of the few remaining living yoga gurus who originally brought over the authentic teachings of yoga in the early 1960s.

Amrit Desai is the creator of two brands of yoga, Kripalu Yoga and I AM Yoga, and is the founder of five yoga and health centers in the US.

Homegrown Gurus states: "Although Amrit Desai has not received scholarly attention, he has arguably been one of the most influential and sought-after figures in the development of Hatha Yoga in America over the last 40 years.

Amrit Desai taught himself yoga asana from a chart he found tacked to the wall of the local gym.

Amrit Desai started teaching others outside the cowshed where his guru lived.

Related searches

Amrit Desai recalls: "The pranic energy became so strong his body was hurled across the room with tremendous force.

Amrit Desai saved enough money to travel to America, and in February 1960, arrived at the Philadelphia College of Art with only enough money in his pocket to cover his first semester's tuition and rent.

Amrit Desai created distinct textures and patterns with razor blades and eye-droppers.

Amrit Desai started teaching yoga in the early 1960s in the Philadelphia area while still an art student.

Out of this experience Amrit Desai created a form of hatha yoga called Kripalu Yoga, named in honour of his guru.

Amrit Desai reduced his teaching to once per week to make time for higher yoga practice.

In 1974, Amrit Desai spent three months in seclusion at a small cottage on the property that came to be known as Muktidham.

Yogi Amrit Desai was initiated into the secrets of Shaivite kundalini yoga by his guru, Swami Kripalu, a master of tantric sadhana.

Clad in a flowing white robe and sitting before us, Amrit Desai easily assumed the lotus posture, his body perfectly poised.

Amrit Desai led us into a meditation and the first thing I noticed was a wave of euphoria permeating my body.

Yogi Amrit Desai revived the ancient teachings of the millennial old Shaivite Yoga, rooted in the Lakulish tradition from Kayavarohan in Gujarat, one of the greatest centers of India's older Yoga practices… Yogi Amrit Desai has demonstrated a Prana Siddhi in which he can allow the Universal Prana to move not only through his mind and body but through his environment and into the audience around him, awakening their own inner prana and spiritual intelligence.

When Michael A Singer, a long-time supporter and host of Desai's seminars, heard that Desai had left the Kripalu community, he invited him and his wife to spend some quiet time living with the Temple of the Universe community in Alachua, Florida.

Amrit Desai resumed teaching in 1996 at the original Kripalu Ashram in Sumneytown, Pennsylvania.

Amrit Desai Yoga Institute is an ashram where the guru-disciple relationship continues to flourish and residents enjoy the benefits of a traditional yogic lifestyle.

Paul Harris Fellow – In 2011, Yogi Amrit Desai received this award from the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International, in Naples, Florida, "in appreciation of tangible and significant assistance given for the furtherance of better understanding and friendly relations among peoples of the world.

Bhuriben Trust – The Yug Prabha newspaper, Halol, India stated in a 2007 article, "Yogishri Amrit Desai was honored in his home town of Halol for his humanitarian works known to offer scholarships to the poor and approximately 5, 000 women are helped financially through the Bhuriben Trust he established.

Yogi Amrit Desai has been the subject of several biographies, including:.