Our Team

The team at Yoga Bharati, consists of passionate yoga teachers and volunteers, yoga masters and monks (swamijis), experts from the field of yoga. Ayurveda, Research on yoga and other health care experts and spiritual leaders. However, due to our work culture of being a lineage-free organization, we do not have one spiritual Guru. But we openly appreciate and give credit to all spiritual gurus, sages, saints, and monks and and inculcate their teachings into our school (ano bhadra kritavo yantu vishwatah - let good thoughts flow from everywhere)

OUR TEAM

Featured

Anil Surpur, President

Anil Surpur, B.E (E&C), M.S (Yoga), MBA, E-RYT500, YACEP, C-IAYT, is a founding member and the President of Yoga Bharati; he is Senior Faculty and Yoga Teacher at Yoga Bharati. Anil's interest is in Yoga research in addition to teaching yoga. Anil is on the Board of Directors of Yoga Bharati and Vyasa USA. He is holding a position as Director of Engineering in Ooma Inc., Sunnyvale, CA.

Shailesh Basani, President, Austin Chapter

Shailesh Basani (MS, ERYT, C-IAYT) has been a yoga practitioner for more than thirty years. He holds official certifications in yoga and yoga therapy from Yoga Bharati, Vivekananda Yoga University (VYASA), Yoga Alliance and The International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT). He has been trained under world-renowned gurus such as YogaShri N.V.RaghuramJi, Dr. Nagarathna, Swami Bodhananda Saraswati etc. As an active Yoga Bharati volunteer for over 13 years, he has taught hundreds of classes on yoga, yoga therapy, stress management, Patanjali yoga sutras in the Bay Area and beyond. He also has been a faculty member of yoga teacher training and yoga therapy teacher training programs. He also has started to spread yoga in rural schools in Telangana (India). He holds a B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from NIT, Warangal and M.S. in Engineering Management from Santa Clara University. He currently works as Director in the Reliability Engineering Division at Adobe Systems and has recently relocated with his family (Supriya, Karthik and Kavya) to Austin after being in the Bay Area for over 20 years.

Ashwini Surpur, Executive Director

Ashwini Surpur, BS (CS), MA(Sanskrit), ERYT, CIAYT is the Executive Director of Yoga Bharati and a Senior Yoga Therapist. She has worked at Oracle as a Software Engineer for 15 years and quit her job in 2010 to join Yoga Bharati as a full time volunteer staff. She provides yoga therapy to the clients with various disorders and specializes in cancer and terminally ill patients. She has spoken at various conferences on yoga and Hindu philosophy. She writes articles for various magazines and news media on Yoga. She is passionate about literature and philosophy, and has a MA in Sanskrit. She writes poems in her free time.

Savita Joshi, Executive Director, Dallas Chapter

Savita Joshi, C-IAYT, E-RYT 500, MBA (Finance), is the Executive Director of Dallas Yoga Bharati (Vyasa) chapter. She has served as a Treasurer for past 15 years and as Director of Yoga Therapy services for the past 7 years. She has a Diploma in Yoga Therapy from Vivekananda Yoga University (SVYASA), Bengaluru, India. Savita’s passion is women’s yoga, yoga therapy for various psychosomatic disorders, and children's yoga therapy. She has also worked at a traditional samskrit medium online school as an Executive Director for a couple of years. She lives with her family; husband and 2 teenage daughters in Frisco, Dallas Texas. Savita is on the faculty for Yoga Teacher’s Training program at Yoga Bharati. She also guides yoga therapy students in training. Savita holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from India and Master’s degree in Business Administration from Cal state Hayward University. She has spoken at various retreats and conferences on the topic of yoga.

Siddu Rati, Secretary & Treasurer

Siddu Rati, RYT is the Secretary at Yoga Bharati. He has been a yoga teacher since 2006 and is pursuing his Diploma in Yoga Therapy at Yoga Bharati. He works to connect different chapters, different organizational collaborations and in coordination of Yoga Research projects at Yoga Bharati. Besides yoga career, he works at Citrix as a Program Manager.

Reshma Amin, Manager, Administration and Operations

Reshma Amin - Manager, Administration and Operations at Yoga Bharati Bay Area chapter. She has been a yoga teacher since 2004 and has completed her Yoga Therapy Certification from SVYASA University Bangalore India in 2005. Since then, she has taught various yoga classes for adults, kids and prenatal groups at Yoga Bharati. She has also conducted numerous yoga for back pain workshops and prenatal therapy workshops and presently manages yoga therapy division for clients at Yoga Bharati.

Rima Shah, Yoga Education Administrator

Rima is the Yoga Education Administrator at Yoga Bharati. She has had physical therapy education in India and is now a yoga teacher with therapeutic training in yoga. Apart from coordinating and administering yoga services, she conducts prenatal classes, wellness classes, and yoga therapy sessions. She believes that yoga has had a very positive influence not only on her but also on her entire family as well. Her son Arnav, enjoys the Yoga Bharati community and the Yoga classes over the summer. She looks forward for many more years of Yoga fulfillment in her life.

Kalpanadevi Thiyagarajan, Director of Yoga Teacher Training

Kalpanadevi Thiyagarajan, RYT-200, is a certified Yoga Instructor working at Yoga Bharati since 2020. She has worked at various companies as an Engineer and Product Manager. She quit eBay in 2019 to pursue her passion for Yoga. She is enthusiastic about taking Yoga classes for both adults and kids. She loves reading, is passionate about the topics of history, literature, and philosophy. She immensely enjoys sharing the deep knowledge of Yoga as it is a powerful means to feel empowered in life.

Chinmay Surpur, Director of Research

Chinmay Surpur (ERYT, BS Neuroscience), is the Director of Research at Yoga Bharati. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Clinical Psychology at Saybrook University. He has worked on initiating, completing, and publishing research studies at his Alma mater UC Santa Barbara, as well as at Yoga Bharati. He conducts international training and outreach work on behalf of Yoga Bharati. He intends to combine the best of therapeutic principles from the East and the West in order to contribute yoga research to the realm of academia. His envisions publishing research papers on the efficacy of yoga in various scientific journals and make yoga an accepted modality of therapy for chronic ailments by the mainstream health systems. Aside from his academic and professional career, Chinmay enjoys listening to music, singing, reading, and traveling. For more information, visit https://chinmaysurpur.com/. Feel free to reach out to him at chinmay.surpur@yogabharati.org with any research-related inquiries.

Shriram Sarvotham, Senior Faculty Member

Shriram Sarvotham, PhD, ERYT-500 is a senior faculty at Yoga Bharati. He has been practicing yoga since childhood; he received the Yoga Teacher Certification from Art of Living Foundation in 2001. He has conducted over 150 workshops and retreats on yoga, Bhagavad Gita and Patanjali Yoga Sutras all over USA at prestigious yoga conferences, educational institutions and corporate offices. Shriram is the recipient of the Exemplary Service Award given by the Consulate General of India in June 2015, and the Yoga Service Award given by ISKCON in September 2009. He works in the tech industry in Silicon Valley in California.

Indra Singhal, Senior Yoga Instuctor

Indra Singhal has been a yoga practitioner for almost 20 years. He completed the Yogabharati YIC teacher's training in 2013 and has been teaching free community classes since. Indra has completed coursework towards his post graduate diploma in yoga therapy. In his classes, Indra facilitates deeper mental involvement during each phase of the class. Indra has held engineering and marketing roles at AMD, SynOptics, and Bell Labs. Over the years, he has founded several startups and is now a part-time operating partner at a venture capital firm. Indra has a Bachelor's from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and a Masters from Penn State University.

Mona Shah, Senior Yoga Faculty

Mona Shah (C-IAYT) is a Certified Yoga Therapist and YB Faculty. She has been a yoga practitioner for over 25 years and has been teaching yoga since 2012. While she enjoys teaching group lessons, she is passionate about applying her yoga therapy knowledge in 1:1 Yoga Therapy sessions. Mona continues to develop curriculums and workshops relevant for enhancing the education experience for yoga students and practitioners. She is passionate about spreading the health benefits of yoga and yoga therapy for every child, young adult, and adult. Mona enjoys gardening, hiking, reading mostly Philosophy and about Health/Wellness. She has her BS in Biochemistry, MS in Computer Science, has worked in Healthcare companies in the Bay Area.

Sindhu Singal

Sindhu Singal, after being guided by her mother towards the yoga path 2 decades ago, has followed this flawless path since then. Keeping her unstoppable hunger for yoga ignited, she came in contact with Yoga Bharati in 2017 as a YTT student , continuing as a yoga instructor since 2018. Presently, she is pursuing a Diploma in Yoga Therapy at Yoga Bharati. She works as a yoga teacher for various non profit organizations and runs her private yoga classes.

Minakshi Rai, Senior Yoga Therapist

Minakshi Rai, C-IAYT, E-RYT 500, HCI Scholar, MA, B.Ed, BCA, is the Senior Yoga Therapist of Fremont, Yoga Bharati. She has been a yoga practitioner over 20 yrs, and served as a Yoga Therapist in the USA for close to a decade.

She is conducting meditation sessions in Irvington high school, fremont. She has also worked as a Hindi language faculty in HUA, Florida. She has conducted yoga for Back pain management, Diabetes workshop, Vision workshop, Chronic ailments and Kids summer camp

She is very compassionate and brings discipline to her profession. Minakshi aims to incorporate Ashtanga yogic principles into her daily life with the objective of healing mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health.

Akila Padmanabhan

Akila Padmanabhan is a yoga teacher and is now pursuing diploma in yoga therapy. She began her yoga journey over 5 years ago and has been teaching wellness yoga classes, kids class, prenatal yoga class and therapy yoga classes for kids and adults. She was a part of Diabetes Movement in collaboration with Sewa, Bay Area and Yoga Bharati.

Ishwarryah Ramanathan

Ishwarryah Ramanathan is a Yoga Alliance certified(RYT200) teacher and Faculty with Yogabharathi. She is a MS Graduate in Computer Science & Information Systems, Experienced Mobile App Developer turned Artist/ Bakery Business Owner. She is currently pursuing Diploma in Yoga Therapy with interest in Psychology and Pranayama. Yoga and its Philosophy helped her to a lifestyle thats balanced - Better health, better mind and spiritual growth. She is passionate to share her experience with others.

Kirtida Ruparel

Kirtida Ruparel , RYT-500, C-IAYT, is a life-long student of Yoga and Vedanta, and loves to teach and heal through yoga. She has lived in the Bay Area for the past 32 years and has been studying Yoga and Yoga-therapy since 2011. Kirtida’s teaching style is primarily focused on achieving a balance of body, mind & spirit – this makes it universally applicable to people of all ages. Kirtida firmly believes that Yoga is for everyone.

Ranjitha Sastry

Ranjitha Sastry, finished her yoga instructor course in 2001 from SVYASA Bangalore. After life got in the way she wanted to get back into teaching. She did my bridge course through Yoga Bharati in 2018 and has been teaching yoga ever since. She is currently pursuing her “Master of Science (MS) in Yoga”. For her, yoga is all about building endurance and flexibility with a dash of Pranayama. Challenging herself to get that one inch more stretch. Her class combines mobility in a dynamic fashion. Expect to have fun, sweat, and rejuvenate.

Santosh Kumar

Santosh Kumar completed his YTT certification in 2019 and has been teaching and learning Yoga since 2018, both independently and as a volunteer with Yoga Bharati. He also holds a MS in Yoga Therapy and an MS in Yoga Philosophy from VaYU ( Vivekananda Yoga University). It has been an enriching experience and he hopes to impart the practice of Yoga onto you. The style of Yoga practice he teaches is primarily structured around IAYT style but personalized with a freestyle approach. His sessions combine a mix of slow and fast paced Yoga intermixed with Vinyasa styles as well.

Autumn Bukhart

Autumn began practicing Yoga in 2004 with an at-home video, then completed a 16-week introductory course in the Iyengar style, and has practiced all four paths of yoga ever since. In 2020, she completed the 200hr level teacher training with Yoga Bharati, herein finding a community of yogis. As a teacher, her ultimate goal is to teach students how to turn inward, practicing yoga with disciplined effort. As stated by Patanjali “By dedicated practice of the various aspects of yoga, impurities are destroyed; the crown of wisdom radiates in glory” (YS II.28).

Shilpa Kurkut, Yoga Therapist

Shilpa Kurkut, ERYT-200, RYT-500, IAYT Certified Yoga Therapist, actively works as a yoga therapist for seniors, adults, and kids, and handles classes in Pleasanton. She has a Diploma in Yoga Therapy from Yogabharati. She has an MSC in Zoology. She has been a yoga practitioner for more than 20 years. Shilpa has taught people in the Blind Center in Santa Clara.

Shilpa has conducted various workshops like the Vision Workshop for Kids, Stop Diabetes Workshop, Back Pain Workshop, and Kids Yoga Summer Camps.

Anup Param

Anup Param is looking forward to sharing his practice of yoga with the YB community, which typically includes pranayama, loosening exercises with breath and body synchronization, a few core asanas and a relaxation routine. His focus will be to keep breathing at the core of your practice, and supplement your breathing with yoga asanas. He has been practicing Patanjali yoga for about 5 years, and has been leading online sessions over the last year. He is really interested in being part of a community, where he can comfortably share and make yoga more accessible. He hopes to provide an equitable and accessible space where anyone can join to benefit on and off the mat.

Vinutha Nagaraj

Vinutha Nagaraj, certified RYT-200, is a sincere and committed yoga practitioner. For her, yoga is more for mental and spiritual well-being, and she aims to live yoga every day as an experiential reality and not just an hour of practice. She aims to kindle the joy of yoga in every practitioner through asanas so they begin exploring yoga for themselves

Anusha Patil

Anusha has enjoyed being an IT Professional in India and later a school teacher in the USA. During this close time with children, opening the yoga practice for them, she witnessed the impact of Yoga on kids’ balanced state of mind and body. She moved on to get her certification from Yoga Bharati. Her journey into holistic yoga has been equally empowering and gratifying. Anusha believes Yoga is a unique physical discipline that benefits beyond tangibles, as it opens the door to opportunities for everyone in the mind, body, and soul. She loves to share this journey of self-exploration through her one-on-one and group classes. Her other passions include nature, cooking, and dance. She lives in Redwood Shores with her awesome husband Pramoda, energetic son Samyak, and a loving 7 month young Sulcata tortoise "Taco", teaching her Kurmasana!

Manjul Mishra

Manjul Mishra got introduced to Yoga after getting diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis back in 2019. She started practicing Therapeutic yoga and gradually progressed to Vinyasa, Ashtanga, and Iyengar Yoga styles. As a student of Yoga, she has benefited tremendously not only in the physical aspect but also in her mental well-being.

She completed her RYS 200 with Sanatana Yog Sandesh in Rishikesh, India, and is working towards her RYT 200 from Yoga Bharati. She is also a certified Ayurvedic Health Counselor, and her classes incorporate Ayurvedic Principles when practicing Yoga. She has a daily practice of Yoga, meditation, and Ayurvedic Dincharya, which she is passionate about. Hiking and Biking are her other hobbies. Besides Yoga and Ayurveda, she holds an M.S. in Electrical Engineering and works as a Product Specialist with Siemens.

SF Bay Area California Team

Our Chapters and Teams

Yoga Bharati LA Los Angeles California USA

VYASA LA Los Angeles (close to downtown LA)

Our Board of Directors

Featured

Yogashree N.V.Raghuram

Yogashree N.V.Raghuram is the Chairman and Spiritual Founder of Yoga Bharati and Professor of yoga philosophy in Swami Vivekananda Yoga Research Foundation (SVYASA), Bangalore India. Sri N.V Raghuram is trained under some of the most renowned exponents of yoga such as Prof Satyanarayana Sastry and has been practicing yoga since early childhood. He is instrumental in introducing yoga therapy in a neurological clinic in Germany and starting yoga therapy in hospitals in Italy, Turkey, and China. He has traveled to several countries in Asia, Europe and America, giving discourses and stress reduction programs based on yoga.

Swami Bodhananda

Swami Bodhananda is highly respected in America and India as an accomplished teacher of Vedanta and meditation. Originally from Kerala, India, he did his undergraduation in economics, and then joined the Saraswati order — one of ten sannyasa orders established by Adi Shankaracharya. Presently, Swamiji is the Spiritual Founder and Director of The Sambodh Society in America and 11 other organizations of Sambodh Foundation in India. Swami Bodhananda is the author of several books on vedanta and yoga. For details visit: https://sambodh.org

Dr. Prasad Kaipa

Prasad has been an advisor and coach focusing on innovation and leadership since 1990 for about 120 C-level executives in Global Fortune 500 companies. Prasad coaches them to channel their creativity to come up with innovative decisions, products, and services. He assists clients in becoming effective in managing people as well as oneself (personal mastery) in exploring innovative, and strategic decisions. He has deep exposure to Hindu spiritual literature like Vedas, Upanishads and brings this rich eastern value into the business world. Dr. Kaipa conducts Practical Vedanta sessions in the San Francisco Bay Area. For details visit: https://www.prasadkaipa.com

Anil Surpur

Ashwini Surpur

Ashwini Surpur, BS (CS), MA(Sanskrit), ERYT-500, CIAYT, is the Executive Director of Yoga Bharati and a Senior Yoga Therapist. She has worked at Oracle as a Software Engineer for 15 years and quit her job in 2010 to join Yoga Bharati as a full-time volunteer staff. She provides yoga therapy to clients with various disorders and specializes in cancer and terminally ill patients. She has spoken at various conferences on yoga and Hindu philosophy. She writes articles for various magazines and news media on Yoga. She is passionate about literature and philosophy and has an MA in Sanskrit. She writes poems and articles in her free time.

Savita Joshi

Savita Joshi, C-IAYT, E-RYT 500, MBA (Finance), is the Executive Director of the Dallas chapter of Yoga Bharati. She has previously served Yoga Bharati as a Treasurer and Director of Yoga Therapy services. She has a Diploma in Yoga Therapy from Vivekananda Yoga University (SVYASA), Bengaluru, India. Savita’s passion is women’s yoga, yoga therapy for various psychosomatic disorders, and children's yoga therapy. She has also worked as an Executive Director at a traditional Sanskrit medium online school for a couple of years. She lives with her family, husband, and 2 teenage daughters in Frisco, Dallas, Texas. Savita is on the faculty for the Yoga Teacher’s Training program at Yoga Bharati. She also guides yoga therapy students in training. Savita holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from India and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Cal State Hayward University. She has spoken at various retreats and conferences on the topic of yoga.

Shailesh Basani

Shailesh Basani (MS, ERYT, C-IAYT) has been a yoga practitioner for more than thirty years. He holds official certifications in yoga and yoga therapy from Yoga Bharati, Vivekananda Yoga University (VYASA), Yoga Alliance and The International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT). He has been trained under world-renowned gurus such as YogaShri N.V.RaghuramJi, Dr. Nagarathna, Swami Bodhananda Saraswati etc. As an active Yoga Bharati volunteer for over 15 years, he has taught hundreds of classes on yoga, yoga therapy, stress management, Patanjali yoga sutras in the Bay Area and beyond. He also has been a faculty member of yoga teacher training and yoga therapy teacher training programs. He also has started to spread yoga in rural schools in Telangana (India). He holds a B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from NIT, Warangal and M.S. in Engineering Management from Santa Clara University. He currently works as Director in the Reliability Engineering Division at Adobe Systems and has recently relocated with his family (Supriya, Karthik and Kavya) to Austin after being in the SF Bay Area for over 20 years.

Board of Advisers

Featured

Dr. H.R.Nagendra

Padmashree Dr. Nagendra is the chancellor of Swami Vivekananda Yoga Research Foundation (SVYASA), Bengaluru,India. He quit his high profile career at NASA USA and returned to India and founded SVYASA university — from engineering to human engineering “in search of truth.” SVYASA has published more than 300 research papers on yoga and its applications. Apart from being a unique Yoga Therapy Health Center and a Yoga University training students in the field of yoga, SVYASA also has Ayurveda and Naturopathy degree programs. For details, visit: http://svyasa.edu.in/

Dr. Nagarathna Ram

Dr.R.Nagarathna, MBBS, MD, FRCP (Edinburgh), FICA (USA) is the Chief Yoga Therapy Consultant and Dean of the Division of Yoga and Life Sciences at Swami Vivekananda Yoga Research Foundation, SVYASA, Bengaluru. She combines her medical training along with her deep understanding of yoga in leading the health center. She heads the therapy division for asthma, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, cancer and other ailments. Dr. Nagaratna serves as an adviser and guide for Ph.D students at SVYASA. For details regarding SVYASA, visit: http://svyasa.edu.in/

Sharad Dandekar

Sharad Dandekar is on the board of Advisors of Yoga Bharati. Engineer by profession he retired in 2003 from Xerox Corporation. After retiring he completed Yoga Instructor Course (YIC) in 2004. Since then he is actively engaged in promoting ‘Yoga for Positive Health – an Integrated Approach’. He is a registered member of Yoga Alliance at RYT200 level. In 2014 Sharad completed training in ‘Stop Diabetes Movement’ (SDM) program and conducted two camps. Sharad is one of the founding members of the Los Angeles Chapter of Yoga Bharati. Besides having on going Yoga classes the chapter conducts Yoga Instructor Course and Sun Salutation Marathon annually. Chapter also maintains library of books on Yoga and conducts monthly meeting of members Yoga Teachers’ Alumni.