Trainings and Recommended Readings

YOGA EXPERIENCE

AND CREDENTIALS FOR YOU TO ABSORB

"According to Indian Philosophy, Yoga is the system of gaining knowledge through direct experience.

A Chemist may understand the molecular basis of a strawberry.

A Geneticist may understand the DNA sequences that underlie different varieties of strawberries.

A Botanist may know the precise soil and water requirements for a strawberry plant to thrive.

A Yogi knows the strawberry by taking a bite."

Deepak Chopra

2008: Gail Graduates with 200hr Certification as a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) with Jody Myers and Silver Frith (photo right) through AYTT (www.ayttyoga.org). AYTT continues to follow in the Kripalu Yoga Tradition. Jody and Frith are remarkable, grounded, sincere. How blessed are they that train under these women ... even if indirectly.

Jody is the founder of AYTT, Halifax. Jody first travelled to the Kripalu Center in the USA in 1980 where she met the great Shaktipat Kundalini Yoga master Swami Kripalvandiji, and studied with Yogi Amrit Desai, the primary founder of Kripalu Yoga and Amrit Yoga Schools. She also studied with several other key founders and teachers of Kripalu Yoga, Amrit Yoga, and a number of visiting teachers from a variety of yoga traditions. A successful athlete and teacher, Jody immediately connected to the yoga path, particularly the spiritual aspects, while also embracing Kripalu's teaching and artistic lineages. Following the vision of her teachers, Jody founded Atlantic Yoga Teacher Training (in the Kripalu tradition) in 2000, and was a lead teacher in the program for 12 years.

Frith is a Yasodhara Ashram-trained teacher and brings with her the lineage of Swami Sivananda Saraswati. Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh (1887-1963) was one of India’s great gurus, and the founder of the Divine Life Society. Known for his generosity and selfless heart, he has inspired many to follow the path of yoga. Swami Sivananda initiated Swami Radha in 1956. To initiate a woman and a Westerner in the 1950s was groundbreaking. After an intense training period, he encouraged her to establish her own ashram in the West, so that she could share the teachings of yoga. Swami Radha has said of her guru, “Yoga is the path of knowledge that permitted me to find the Light within myself, and to discover my own divinity. Gurudev Sivananda, a man of great character, was my inspiration in awakening to this Light.” Swami Sivananda is the honoured maha-guru (grandfather) of our lineage, a visionary for his time.

Through 'an inspired path' ... you reap the beauty of both lineages.

Jody Myers & Silver Frith
Halifax, NS

2015: Gail Graduates from RYT500hr training with Yogacharya Amrit Desai at the Amrit Institute, Ocala Forest, Florida. Yogi Desai has been teaching for more than 50 years and is internationally recognized as a pioneer in bringing the authentic teachings of yoga from India to the modern world. Desai was born in Pratappura in Gujarat, India. 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. Amrit became one of Swami Kripalu’s closest disciples.

He came to the United States in 1960 to attend the Philadelphia College of Art, and began teaching yoga classes that were attended by a growing number of yoga enthusiasts in the Philadelphia area. In 1966, Desai and nine others formed the nonprofit Yoga Society of Pennsylvania to advance the science and philosophy of yoga in the West.

In 1972, Desai; his wife, Urmila; and a handful of dedicated students established a small residential yoga center in Sumneytown, Pennsylvania. The first Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training was offered in Sumneytown in 1973. A year later, the name of the nonprofit organization was changed from the Yoga Society of Pennsylvania to the Kripalu Yoga Fellowship, to reflect an emphasis on the teachings of Swami Kripalu.

He has authored books on the inner depths of yoga, health, personal growth and transformation and is the originator of Kripalu Yoga, and the Integrative Amrit Methods® (I AM) of Yoga, Yoga Nidra, and Quantum Breath Meditation™. His teachings are universal, insightful, experiential and easily accessible to everyone, regardless of age or background. (www.amrityoga.org).

Chandrakant John Heister is a senior teacher and seminar leader at the Amrit Yoga Institute in Salt Springs, Florida. He prepares, presents and leads professional training both nationally and overseas in the Integrated Amrit Method of Yoga, Yoga Nidra and Quantum Breath Meditation, as well as a variety of other yoga and stress-reduction based programs. He is a preacher’s son, a Vietnam era veteran, a longtime practitioner of the martial arts and a graduate of Rutgers University with a degree in psychology. Bringing a unique blend of street-level experience, understanding and practical psychology to all his seminars and workshops, he conducts programs for educational organizations, recovery groups, community service agencies, hospital staff and large corporations, as well as yoga and meditation groups.

Through 'an inspired path' ... you participate in this lineage.

Yogacharya Desai
Ocala, FL

Chandrakant
John Heister
Ocala, FL

2019: Gail receives Certification upgrade with Kofi Busia (www.kofibusia.com) at The Kripalu Center, Stockbridge, Massachusetts (www.kripalu.org). The Kripalu Center was founded by Yogi Amrit Desai. As a member-in-good-standing of Yoga Alliance (www.yogaalliance.org), teachers must update their training regularly and notify Y.A. of their latest accreditation. This is to help ensure that people claiming to be teachers are not only actually certified by a reputable school, but also that they update their knowledge in a suitable timeframe. Y.A. is not the only accreditation organization ... just the most well-known in North America.

Kofi Busia is one of the world's foremost teachers in the Iyengar tradition. He has been teaching for nearly 40 years, and has held his Advanced Certificate for over 35 years. He has taught, and is recognized, all over the world. He began yoga as a student at Oxford and has taught professionally ever since. Throughout the 1970's and up until the mid-1980's, he studied regularly with B. K. S. Iyengar, and directly from him on a regular basis at the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune, Maharashtra, South India.

Although he has lived most of his life in Oxford, England, he is currently based in Santa Cruz, California, where he is putting the finishing touches to three planned books, one of which is an original translation and commentary, direct from the Sanskrit, of the Yoga Sutras of Patañjali. His father was a Ghanaian political leader and academic who was Prime Minister of Ghana from 1969 to 1972.

Through 'an inspired path', you too receive the teachings of Kofi.

Kofi Busia
Stockbridge, MA

The history of 'Kripalu Yoga' is a fascinating one ... as are all yoga histories. Our visit to Muktidham in 2019 (www.kyifamily.org) was unforgettable (thank you Shambu!). From its inception, Muktidham has been a sacred place. Muktidham, or “Abode of Liberation,” was built in 1973-74 by the residents of the original Kripalu Yoga Ashram in Sumneytown, Pennsylvania as a place of seclusion for Yogi Amrit Desai and later became the perfect retreat for his Guru Swami Kripalvananda when Bapuji (Amrit's name for the Swami) was finally convinced to visit the United States from India. Ever since Bapuji left Muktidham, it has been preserved as a sacred pilgrimage place for seekers and disciples. Through Muktidham, many experience Bapuji’s subtle, loving presence. Gail and Wayne absorbed the prana that filled this small and secluded ashram in the woods ... energy that you will receive through 'an inspired path'.

Kripalu's namesake was a yoga master renowned not only for the depth and dedication of his practice but also for his humor and compassion—Kripalu translates as "compassion" or “one who is compassionate.” According to Kripalu Historian Vandita Kate Marchesiello, the Kripalu approach stems directly from the teachings of Swami Kripalu, and is based on the philosophy of Sanatana Dharma, or the “Perennial Wisdom,” the recognition that all the world’s wisdom traditions stem from a shared universal truth that we can experience directly through various spiritual disciplines.

“What Swami Kripalu offered, and what Kripalu continues to foster today,” Vandita says, “is a nondogmatic, nonsectarian approach to the Perennial Wisdom through the practice of yoga.” It is a practice and an approach that can serve us well in times of trouble and challenge, as well as in navigating the ups and downs of daily life. By tapping into the wisdom of yoga, both on and off the mat, we access resilience, flexibility, a stronger sense of self, and a more deeply felt connection to others and the world.

On the cover of "A Sunrise of Joy" you see Bapuji with a young devotee ... Amrit Desai.