Yogi Amrit Desai Deepak Chopra Popular Books

Yogi Amrit Desai Deepak Chopra Biography & Facts

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. 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." Early life and education Desai was born on 16 October 1932, the second son of Chimanlal, a village merchant, and Buribhen Desa in Pratappura in Gujarat, India. At age ten, the family moved to Halol. At age 15, he met his guru, Swami Kripalvananda (Bapuji), a wandering Shaivite monk and kundalini yoga master who was offering free talks on the Bhagavad Gita in Halol. Desai taught himself yoga postures from a chart he found tacked to the wall of the local gym, and then began teaching others outside the cowshed where his guru lived. After the swami observed him teaching one day, he allowed him to witness his private sadhana. The swami went into a trance-like state and began to perform movements unlike anything he had seen on the asana charts. Desai said, "The pranic energy became so strong his body was hurled across the room with tremendous force. As I watched in awe, he was dancing, weaving in and out of complicated asanas." After studying engineering and training with the Indian Air Force in Madras, Desai returned to Halol, where he took a job teaching art at the local high school. He married his betrothed, Urmila Shah, in January 1955. The following year, in 1956, the couple moved to Ahmedabad, where he earned his art diploma over the next four years. They had three children between 1959 and 1968. Desai saved enough money to travel to the United States in February 1960, where he entered the Philadelphia College of Art with only enough money to cover his first semester's tuition and rent. By teaching yoga and washing dishes while at college, he eventually saved enough money to bring his wife and infant son to the U.S. two years later. Desai is a vegetarian and practices occasional fasting. In 1964, he graduated with a degree in fine arts and design from the Philadelphia College of Art, and then began working at a textile firm. His watercolor paintings won awards at art shows, including at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He created distinct textures and patterns with razor blades and eye-droppers. In 1961, while still a college art student, he played the flute in a "Music of India" concert at the Commercial Museum at the Philadelphia Convention Center. Desai also began teaching yoga in the early 1960s while still an art student. Career Yoga pioneer In 1966, during his first visit to India since his arrival in the United States, Swami Kripalvananda gave him initiation and further instruction in kundalini yoga. In 1966, after returning to the U.S., he left his job to form The Yoga Society of Pennsylvania and teach yoga full-time. Two years later, in 1970, he claimed to have had a Kundalini awakening experience that revealed to him that Patanjali's Yoga Sutras are a manual for the practice of Ashtanga Yoga rather than mere philosophy. Out of this experience Desai created a form of hatha yoga called Kripalu Yoga, named in honour of his guru. His Meditation in Motion approach is based on the practical application of Patanjali's Ashtanga Yoga in daily life. The system combines two traditional paths of yoga: the rigorous discipline of Ashtanga yoga with the path of initiation and surrender that is Kundalini yoga. In this system, the student begins with the practice of wilful discipline and gradually moves on to the more advanced practice of surrender to prana. In 1966, the not-for-profit Yoga Society of Pennsylvania was formed, renamed in 1972 as the Kripalu Yoga Fellowship. By 1970, it had trained 44 teachers and grown to 150 yoga classes, attended by more than 2,500 students per week, in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, Delaware, and southern New Jersey, making it one of the largest Yoga organisations at that time. In 1972, the first Kripalu Ashram was founded in Sumneytown, Pennsylvania on a 50-acre property purchased to fulfill the growing demand among students for a yogic lifestyle experience. Desai reduced his teaching to once per week to make time for higher yoga practice. The ashram also became a program center that provided the volunteer residential staff and teachers the in-depth study and practice of yoga, along with a yogic lifestyle. A variety of health, yoga and spiritual trainings and programs were offered. As the demand for programs grew, the residential staff grew from 37 to 70. In 1974, Desai spent three months in seclusion at a small cottage on the property that came to be known as Muktidham. Upon his return, he was greeted by 350 disciples, mostly dressed in white, some of whom had travelled from as far away as Detroit, Chicago, and Montreal for the celebration. In 1976, an additional ashram was opened in Summit Station, Pennsylvania to accommodate the growth in program participants and volunteer staff. As a result, the program center grew to provide a greater variety of programs, and the residential staff grew to 150. In 1983, the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health was founded in Lenox, MA. The staff of Summit Station was transferred to Lenox, and soon grew to 350 full-time resident staff. By 1994, Kripalu Yoga teachers were teaching in 50 states and 45 countries worldwide, and it was described as the world's largest yoga and health center. The Amrit Yoga Institute in Salt Springs, FL was founded in 2001, and currently operates as an ayurvedic healing and yoga retreat center. Regular yoga teacher trainings are offered in the Integrative Amrit Method, or the I AM techniques. In 2014, he co-founded the International University of Yoga and Ayurveda that offers accredited training programs in the US and in India. To date, Desai is the founder of five yoga and health centers in the US, and co-founder of a university of Ayurvedic sciences. A Shaktipat lineage Yogi Desai was initiated into the secrets of Shaivite kundalini yoga by his guru, Swami Kripalu (Kripalvananda), a master of tantric sadhana. There are numerous documented accounts of energetic transmission or shaktipat experienced in his presence. D. R. Butler describes a meditation led by Desai at a week-long retreat with about 200 attendees at the 1973 ICSA Yoga Convocation, where Desai was an unannounced guest: Clad in a flowing white robe and sitting before us, Amrit easily assumed the lotus posture, his body perfectly poised. He led us into a meditation and the first thing I noticed was a wave of euphoria permeating my body. Sud.... Discover the Yogi Amrit Desai Deepak Chopra popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Yogi Amrit Desai Deepak Chopra books.