Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health

Kripalu Center is a relatively well-known tax exempt charity with 2007 revenue of $25.6 million, operating as a health and yoga retreat center attended primarily by affluent tourists in Stockbridge, Massachusetts near Tanglewood Music Center. It occupies a sprawling, 160,000 square-foot former Jesuit seminary built in 1957 in a spare and inexpensive architectural style in an otherwise rural area of the Berkshires, and can accommodate more than 400 nightly guests. SELF magazine named Kripalu "Best Yoga Spa" of 2000.

History
Kripalu had its beginnings in 1965 when 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 believe 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, following improper sexual conduct. After issuing a denial, Desai admitted, in an apology, to sexual relations regarding three female residents.[5] Kripalu later paid $2.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit related to Desai's administration of Kripalu. The suit represented more than 100 former residents, and 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 religion order in 1999, and as of March 2009, was headed by a president, Patton Garrett Sarley (aka Dinabandhu), and his wife, its vice-president Mary Sarley (aka Ila), who both became followers of Amrit Desai during the 1980s. Together in their charitable endeavor, the Sarley couple earn nearly a half million dollars annually (see below for references).

By the time of Desai's resignation, Patton Sarley had risen to the rank of chief operating officer. With Desai's departure, Sarley temporarily left Kripalu, and for a time headed the similar Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in nearby Rhinebeck, New York. Kripalu was able to locate and re-hire 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."

Several other "key employees" of Kripalu as of 2009 were also previous followers of Desai.

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. [7] 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.

Facility
The building that currently houses Kripalu stands near the site of the former "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 Wonderbook. [6] [7] 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.

Center Offers Guests 'High Risk' Drinking Water
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 [10] which for these reasons, cited Kripalu for water supply violations in December 2006. [11] 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.

Unfinished Sewage Project Tax Exempt
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 issued through Mass Development, a quasi-governmental economic development agency, with Berkshire Bank as lead lender. [8] Kripalu's sewage flows into the Stockbridge Bowl and from there via a small stream, to the Housatonic River.

Executive Compensation and Tax-Free Status
In January 2009, Kripalu eliminated 15% of its staff and forecast up to a 30% drop in 2009 revenue, while managers agreed to forgo their "bonuses" as well as to pay reductions ranging from 5% to 15%.[9] Patton Garrett Sarley Jr., and his wife Mary, as president and vice president, obtained combined 2007 executive compensation of $425,000.

Kripalu is tax exempt because it qualifies as a non-profit company and a charity under rules governing 501(c)(3) organizations, although its nightly rates range up to $462 per person. Its revenue in 2007 totaled $25.6 million and sources included "holistic therapies" which produced $2.44 million; seminars, $18.65 million, and "direct public support" of $1.4 million, according to its 2007 IRS document Form 990,[11]. Expenses of $24.03 million included $11.11 million in payroll and benefits for a staff of 436, plus $1.075 million related to executive compensation for seven "key employees" in 2007.

Kripalu compensation was highlighted in widely distributed media reports in the 1990s concerning Amrit Desai's estimated annual compensation of $350,000 to $450,000 including housing and other benefits, when Kripalu residents serving as unpaid staff received weekly cash stipends of $70.

Board of Trustees (2009)
Richard Faulds, Chairman and Chief Counsel, President of Kripalu from 1998-2001
Marcy Balter, holistic health educator
Maya Breuer, Director of Santosha School of Yoga (Providence, R.I.)
Jerry Colonna[13], investor
Lisette Cooper, Chief Executive of Athena Capital Advisors
Steve Dinkelaker, President of American Lease Insurance
Marcia Feuer, Director for Public Policy, Mental Health Asso. (Nassau County, N.Y.)
Sharon Ginsburg, President, Ginsburg Family Foundation
Maxine Grad, member of the Vermont House of Representatives
Sarah Hancock, philanthropist
Timothy Henry, business consultant
Joan Kopperl, community activist
Justin Morreale, Managing Partner, Bingham McCutchen (Boston)
Michael Potts, Chief Executive, Rocky Mountain Institute
George White, Asst. Director, Center for Communications and Community, UCLA