Amrit Desai | |
|---|---|
 Desai in 2016 | |
| Personal | |
| Born | Amritlal C. Desai 16 October 1932 Halol, Gujarat, India |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Nationality | India, United States |
| Spouse | Urmila Shah (Mataji) |
| Children | Pragnesh, Kamini, Malay |
| Organization | |
| Founder of | Amrit Yoga Institute and Kripalu Center |
| Philosophy | Yoga |
| Religious career | |
| Guru | Swami Kripalvananda |
| Literary works | Yoga of Relationships, Love and Bliss, Amrit Yoga and the Yoga Sutras |
Quotation
Your body is the most sacred place of pilgrimage you will ever come to.[1]
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.[2][3] He 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. His yoga training programs have reached more than 40 countries worldwide and over 8,000 teachers have been certified.
Homegrown Gurus, published in 2013, states: "Although 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."[4]
- ^ Yogi Amrit Desai, Love and Bliss, 2014
- ^ Jones, Constance A.; Ryan, James D. (2007). "Desai, Guru Amrit". Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Encyclopedia of World Religions. J. Gordon Melton, Series Editor. New York: Facts On File. pp. 124–125. ISBN 978-0-8160-5458-9. Archived from the original on 2 April 2020.
- ^ Beck, Phillipa (4 December 2019). "Power and Prana: When Yoga Leads to Abuse". Retrieved 17 August 2021.
Amrit Desai was the spiritual head of Kripalu from the 1970s until his abrupt departure in 1994. The charismatic, kundalini-raising guru was a master at creating a powerful, direct experience of prana, or life-force energy
- ^ Goldberg, Ellen (2013). "Amrit Desai and the Kripalu Center". In Ellen Gleig; Lola Williamson (eds.). Homegrown Gurus. State University of New York. pp. 63–86.