Kripalu Center

Kripalu Center

Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health
Former names	Yoga Society of Pennsylvania
Location	Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Type	Retreat
Opened	1983
Website
www.kripalu.org

The Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health is a non-profit organization that operates a health and yoga retreat in , Massachusetts. Its 160,000-square-foot (15,000 m²) facility is a former Jesuit novitiate and juniorate seminary built in 1957. The center has described itself as North America's largest residential facility for holistic health and education. With 2013 revenue of $34.7 million, it employed about 626 people as of 2008 and can accommodate more than 650 overnight guests.

Kripalu Yoga is a form of Hatha Yoga using inner focus, meditation, standard yoga poses, breathwork, "development of a quiet mind", and relaxation. Kripalu emphasizes "following the flow" of prana, or "life-force energy, compassionate self-acceptance, observing the activity of the mind without judgment, and taking what is learned into daily life."

In 1965, Amrit Desai founded the Yoga Society of Pennsylvania, later called Kripalu, to provide yoga classes as well as training for yoga teachers. Desai is a native of Halol, India, where he met guru Swami Kripalvananda, for whom Kripalu is named. During the 1970s, Desai established yoga retreats (ashrams) in Sumneytown and Summit Station, Pennsylvania.

Kripalu acquired its Stockbridge property in 1983. Soon thereafter, Kripalu legally became a religious order. Residents took vows of celibacy and obedience to Desai. However, Desai's estimated annual compensation was $350,000 to $450,000, including housing and other benefits.

In 1994, Desai resigned after admitting to sexual intercourse with followers. Kripalu paid $2.5 million to settle a purported class action lawsuit brought by more than 100 former residents who had served as unpaid staff. Kripalu financed the payment partly by selling its adjacent Foxhollow property, which it had acquired to provide housing for its most senior members.