Kripalu Center is a tax exempt charitable organization operating a health and yoga retreat center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, with 2008 revenue of $27.4 million . Its 160,000 square-foot facility near Tanglewood Music Center is a former Jesuit seminary built in 1957 in a spare architectural style in a rural area of the Berkshires, employs about 400 people (see citation below), and can accommodate more than 650 nightly guests. Kripalu has received positive press coverage aimed at those interested in yoga.History
In 1965 Amrit Desai founded the Yoga Society of Pennsylvania, later called Kripalu, to provide yoga classes and training for yoga teachers. Desai, aka "Gurudev", ("beloved teacher"), is a native of Halol, India, where he met guru Swami Kripalvananda for whom Kripalu is named, and who followers believed was the 28th incarnation of Shiva, the supreme god of Hinduism. During the 1970s, Desai established ashrams run by mostly unpaid followers in Sumneytown, Pa., and nearby Summit Station.
Kripalu acquired its Stockbridge property in 1983, and soon after, Kripalu legally became a religious order. Residents took vows of celibacy and obedience to Desai, who resigned in 1994 due to illicit sexual relations with three female residents. Kripalu later paid $2.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit representing more than 100 former residents. Kripalu made the court-approved payment partly by selling its adjacent Foxhollow property. Kripalu had purchased Foxhollow to provide housing for its most senior members.
Kripalu switched its legal status to a non-profit charity, from a religious order in 1999.
As of 2009, Patton Garrett Sarley Jr. (aka Dinabandhu) was chief executive of Kripalu and his wife Mary Sarley (aka Ila), was its president. At the time of Desai's 1994 resignation, Sarley resigned as chief operating officer. Kripalu re-hired Sarley in 2004 "with the help of a nationally recognized non-profit executive search firm," retained when Kripalu was experiencing "negative trends in mission viability and financial viability." according to Kripalu .
Economics & Operations
In January 2009, Kripalu eliminated 15 percent of its staff and forecast up to a 30 percent decline in 2009 revenue, while managers agreed to forgo their "bonuses" as well as to pay reductions ranging from 5 percent to 15 percent, according to a local press report.
Kripalu's 2008 revenue grew 7 percent, to $27.4 million up from $25.6 million in 2007 according to IRS documents. Expenses in 2008 totaled $26.23 million, up 9 percent from a year earlier.
Facility
The building that currently houses Kripalu stands near the site of the gilded age mansion "Shadowbrook Cottage," reputedly the largest private residence in the U.S. at the time of its completion in 1894 and later destroyed by fire. It was named for Shadow Brook, a minor stream to the west of the site referred to by Nathaniel Hawthorne in his 1852 Wonder Book. Jesuits moved away in 1970 due to a dwindling number of seminarians. Thirteen years later, Kripalu acquired the 160,000 square-foot building with which the Jesuits had replaced Shadowbrook Cottage.
Conservation easements for 225 acres of the 300-acre property were sold by Kripalu in 1997, under the U.S. Forest Legacy Program for the Yokun Ridge Reserve area.
Kripalu owns and maintains its own water supply system, deemed at "high risk" of contamination with heating oil, gasoline, pesticides and other hazardous materials by a 2003 report from the state Department of Environmental Protection which for these reasons, cited Kripalu for water supply violations in December 2006. The following year, Kripalu's state-imposed deadline for replacing a hazardous well used to supply its guests with drinking water was extended to Aug. 1, 2009.
In 2008 Kripalu began construction of a 34,000 square-foot housing annex on the Stockbridge property, as well as improvements to its sewage treatment plant and parking lot. Construction was to be financed with proceeds of a $20 million tax-exempt bond issue through Mass Development, a quasi-governmental economic development agency, with Berkshire Bank as lead lender.
Kripalu Yoga
Kripalu Yoga is a registered trademark of Kripalu Yoga Fellowship, and a form of Hatha Yoga that defines itself as therapeutic, and spiritually focused. It uses yoga concepts of inner focus and meditation along with standard yoga poses and "breathwork," as well as "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.
As of 2008, Kripalu said it offered more than 750 programs and spiritual retreats attended by about 25,000 people annually. It also offered training and marketing support to teachers of its trademarked yoga, along with a semester-long program for young adults, projects in music, weight loss and post-traumatic stress disorder. A further program in health offered various folk remedies for disease.
See also
- Jagadguru
- Swami Kripalvananda
References
- ^ "SELF's Spa Awards 2000". about.com. 2008-09-23 . http://spas.about.com/library/weekly/aa111800.htm . Retrieved 2009-09-20 .
- ^ "Center website - Guest Info". Kripalu.org . http://www.kripalu.org/guest_information/320 . Retrieved 2009-09-20 .
- ^ Frommer, Arthur (August 1, 2007). "A "yoga vacation" at Kripalu in the Berkshires is non-threatening, moderately priced, and just what you need". Arthur Frommer Online . Wiley Publishing, Inc . http://www.frommers.com/blog/?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a3ec3ac40-db8a-4d10-a884-acf9ccad0879Post%3afa133672-3323-4bef-8fbf-3808abbff26c . Retrieved February 28, 2009 .
- ^ "Stripping the Gurus— -CHAPTER XXIII - UP THE ASANA". Strippingthegurus.com. 2005-05-15 . http://www.strippingthegurus.com/stgsamplechapters/desai.asp . Retrieved 2009-09-20 .
- ^ a b "History of Kripalu Center". Kripalu.org . http://www.kripalu.org/about/491/ . Retrieved 2009-09-20 .
- ^ a b http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2007/231/718/2007-231718197-04862cde-9.pdf
- ^ "Cafeteria-style yoga - The Boston Globe". Boston.com. 2004-07-18 . http://www.boston.com/travel/articles/2004/07/18/cafeteria_style_yoga/?page=2 . Retrieved 2009-09-20 .
- ^ "Kripalu latest to trim work force Jan 2009". Cache.zoominfo.com . http://cache.zoominfo.com/CachedPage/?archive_id=0&page_id=-1555856500&page_url=%2f%2fwww.berkshireeagle.com%2fci_11383945%3fsource%3dmost_viewed&page_last_updated=1%2f6%2f2009+12%3a10%3a00+PM&firstName=Garrett&lastName=Sar
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