volunteer residential staff and teachers the in-depth study and practice of yoga, along with a yogic lifestyle. A variety of health, yoga and spiritual trainings and programs were offered. As the demand for programs grew, the residential staff grew from 37 to 70. In 1974, Desai spent three months in seclusion at a small cottage on the property that came to be known as Muktidham. Upon his return, he was greeted by 350 disciples, mostly dressed in white, some of whom had travelled from as far away as Detroit, Chicago and Montreal for the celebration. In 1976, an additional ashram in Summit Station, PA was opened to accommodate the growth in program participants and volunteer staff. As a result, the program center grew to provide a greater variety of programs, and the residential staff grew to 150. In 1983, the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health was founded in Lenox, MA. The staff of Summit Station was transferred to Lenox, and soon grew to 350 full-time resident staff. By 1994 Kripalu Yoga teachers were teaching in 50 states and 45 countries worldwide, and it was described as the world's largest yoga and health center. The Amrit Yoga Institute in Salt Springs, FL was founded in 2001, and currently operates as an ayurvedic healing and yoga retreat center. Regular yoga teacher trainings are offered in the Integrative Amrit Method, or the I AM techniques. In 2014, he co-founded the International University of Yoga and Ayurveda that offers accredited training programs in the US and in India. A Shaktipat lineage Yogi Desai was initiated into the secrets of Shaivite kundalini yoga by his guru, Swami Kripalu (Kripalvananda), a master of tantric sadhana. There are numerous documented accounts of energetic transmission or shaktipat experienced in his presence. D. R. Butler describes a meditation led by Desai at a week-long retreat with about 200 attendees at the 1973 ICSA Yoga Convocation, where Desai was an unannounced guest: Dr David Frawley stated: In the afterword to Ancient Wisdom, Modern Master, Mickey Singer described a meeting with Desai during which his heart chakra was "permanently opened" by "the simple touch of Amrit's hand." Controversy The Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health was an Ashram. One of the spiritual practices that the single residents were expected to practice was celibacy (brahmacharya). Although sex within marriage was condoned at the ashram, after his third child was born in