Who we Are… About As

The Krishnamacharya Healing and Yoga Foundation (KHYF) was founded by T.K.V. Desikachar and his son Kausthub in January 2006 as the official umbrella organization in which the complete range of teachings of Yogaacharya Tirumalai Krishnamacharya is meant to be shared internationally. We teach and offer Yoga, Vedic disciplines such as Vedic Chanting and Sanskrit language, as well as Yoga Therapy. KHYF is the only organization from India that represents the family of the two Yoga Masters and therefore ensures that the high quality standard of the teachings is maintained and transmitted into the future. The Krishnamacharya Healing and Yoga Foundation is a charter member of the Council for Yoga Accreditation International (CYAI).

Our Current Teachers

Menaka Desikachar

Menaka Desikachar is the wife of TKV Desikachar and has studied under the guidance of her husband for more than 40 years. She is one of the very few people that Tirumalai Krishnamacharya graduated as a Yoga Teacher. She has been instrumental in spreading the teachings of her father-in-law and was head of Vedavani, the department for Vedic Chanting in the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram for many years. Together with her husband, her son and daughter, she has conducted numerous seminars and workshops around the world about Yoga, Vedic Chanting and Yoga Therapy. Menaka is renown as an authority in the field of Vedic Chanting and teaches chanting to numerous students around the world. She is a force to be reckoned with and would never miss one mistake in the chanting of her students! Menaka is also an exceptional Yoga therapist with a keen eye and a deep understanding of the spine, physical misalignments and constitutional imbalances and how the tools of Yoga can be applied to alleviate them. Female students also often seek her expertise when it comes to pregnancy and children’s diseases. In her free time, Menaka loves gardening and grows her own vegetables and colorful flowers in the garden around her house.

Dr. Kausthub Desikachar

Dr. Kausthub Desikachar is the current lineage holder of the classical Yoga tradition of T Krishnamacharya & TKV Desikachar. He is also the CEO of the Krishnamacharya Healing & Yoga Foundation. He is an acclaimed yoga teacher, yoga therapist, healer and writer. Kausthub has been studying Yoga since he was 9 years old under the continued guidance of his father and teacher T.K.V. Desikachar. For more than 15 years, Kausthub has taught a multitude of students and teachers around the globe and has conducted numerous teacher and therapist training programs. He has a dual Masters degree from the renowned Birla Institute of Technology & Sciences, Pilani, and a PhD from the Psychology Department at the University of Madras, where his topic of research was “Effect of Individualised Yoga Training on Quality of Life.”

Kausthub is an outstanding Yoga Therapist with extraordinary observation skills and offers clients astute and effective solutions for all sorts of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual ailments. He combines his classical training in Yoga and Ayurveda, his modern education in psychology, and his interactions with traditional healers worldwide, to offer optimum and effective synergetic solutions to alleviate a wide range of problems. As a Yoga educator, he is known for his vast knowledge and his ability to present the ancient teachings in a profound, yet applicable, modern and often humorous way. In his free time, Kausthub enjoys photography, cricket, traveling and visiting spiritual places.

GR Venkatakrishnan

Fondly called ‘GRV’, he inspires care seekers to connect with their inner potential and hearts. One of the fortunate few to have met T Krishnamacharya, he has undergone the yoga training program directly under TKV Desikachar and has been practicing yoga since 1982. With over three decades of experiential knowledge, he has been a committed care provider who has conducted programs for international groups as well as mentally challenged children within India. He is a kind and humble teacher and extremely enthusiastic about sharing the teachings with sincere students from around the world. GRV has also given innumerable private therapy classes for people of all ages and from all walks of life. A science graduate, he completed his post graduate work in Personnel Management & Labour Welfare. Being an illustrious cricketeer in his yesteryears and reaching the heights of success in his career as a top-notch manager in a reputed firm did not distract him from pursuing the path of yoga. GRV has specialized in designing programs for corporate firms that would best serve to keep people in better health. In his free time, GRV is still a huge fan of cricket.

Sreeram Jaganathan

Sreeram holds a PHD in Sanskrit from the University of Madras. He is a guest teacher at KHYF and is teaching Sanskrit language and concepts of the Vedas and of different Indian philosophies in group contexts, seminars, training programs and private classes. Even though he is already an acclaimed scholar, he never stops learning and continuously studies Vedanta and other schools of Indian thought with his Guru. Before taking up full time studies in Sanskrit and Philosophy in 2009, Sreeram was working for the corporate world in various capacities. As part of his work, he has lived in the Netherlands for a couple of years. He also holds a graduate in Physics and a post graduate degree in Management. In his free time, he likes to write poems in Tamil, English and Sanskrit.

Evelyn Einhaeuser

Evelyn was born in Munich, Germany and has lived in Chennai since 2014. She holds a master’s degree in Communication Sciences, as well as in American and Italian Literature. Before dedicating her life to Yoga, she worked as a health and beauty journalist, editor, photo producer and director for some of the largest magazines in Germany. Evelyn has studied Yoga since 2005 and has been a yoga teacher since 2010. She has always been interested in the transformational as well as the healing capacities of Yoga and how it can help us remove our views of seperation. Her sincere interest in the deeper layers of the practice as well as its spiritual and holistic healing components has led her to this tradition in 2012. Nowadays, she continues to study Yoga and Yoga Therapy under the guidance of Kausthub and Vedic Chanting with Menaka. Apart from being a teacher, Evelyn is the media manager of KHYF. She designs, writes, and edits the content of our homepage and Facebook page. Evelyn is also the main force behind “Synergies in Healing Journal”, an online journal (www.synergies-journal.com) which she founded in 2014 together with Kausthub. The Journal propagates holistic healing modalities and advocates synergies between different traditional healing systems and modern science. In her free time, Evelyn likes to paint, hang out with their five cats at home, walk in nature or visit spiritual places.

And Out Staff Members

Shubashree Guruprasad

Shubashree is our general manager HR and Admin. She is in charge of our whole office team, manages and coordinates their daily activities as well as develop plans for longterm goals for our center. She is also in charge of developing collaborations and promoting the Yoga of Krishnamacharya in different areas of public life (schools, etc). She is very passionate about spreading the mission of KHYF in India and around the world. In her free time Shubashree likes to listen to music and to be of service.

Revathi Chari

Revathi is the Executive Secretary to our C.E.O. Dr. Kausthub Desikachar. She helps our teacher manage his huge schedule and appointments, books private classes for him, organizes his travels and types various reports out for him. She is a huge support in making sure that he can focus on his teachings. Revathi is also an avid practitioner of Yoga, often times in her breaks you will see her meditating in her chair. She likes Yoga, Meditation, reading books and listening to music.

S. Rupavathy

Rupa is the Manager of Office Operations and events manager. She is a huge part of what is happening behind the scenes in our office, from making sure the teaching room is nice and in order, to book sales and other administrative tasks. Our courses run smoothly thanks to a lot of organization from people like Rupa. She is also our event manager and has successfully organized a multitude of different events for the students of KHYF. With her friendly and caring disposition, Rupa has persuaded even high ranking scholars and priests to come to KHYF to chant, share their knowledge or give blessings to our students. When Rupa is not working, she is very engaged in devotional activities at home and loves chanting in her free time.

Ambuja Mohandas

Ambuja is our longest standing employee and has been working for the KHYF since it’s inauguration in 2006. She is our Accounts Manager and responsible for the main accounting as well as the budgeting and taxes. Like all the other staff members, Ambuja always has an open ear for the students who have questions or concerns. Ambuja has very much enjoyed working for the KHYF in the last decade. She feels that in all these years she has learnt a lot about how to look at things positively and has grown from it. She is happy to work in an environment that is health conscious and spiritually inclined. When Ambuja is not working, she likes visiting temples, listening to music and reading books.

S. Karthika

Karthika is our course manager. She is responsible in receiving and processing all course and training program applications and prepares the handouts as well as the schedules for the different courses and training programs. If you need to know the timings of courses or anything about your application, she is the person to ask! In a similar way as Rupa, she does a lot of behind the scenes work so that not only the courses in Chennai, but also the programs around the world, can function perfectly. Karthika helps with Kausthub’s busy travel schedule and projects. When she is not working, she likes to play with her kids and enjoys going out.

S. Devi

Devi is the Accounts Executive of the KHYF and helps Ambuja in her tasks. She coordinates the accounting for all the courses, raises invoices, follows up on fees and also coordinates the appointments and schedules for the other KHYF teachers. When she is not working, she likes to go out with her kids and friends.

We All Welcome You To The Krishnamacharya Yoga And Healing Foundation (KHYF)!