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Mukunda Stiles—Yoga Therapy Center Director & author of Structural Yoga Therapy, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali & Ayurvidic Yoga Therapy available now

After his army service, he pursued an economics degree at the University of California – Davis. Being a Pisces he has two sides, for his spiritual side needed a little balance, so he began to teach psychic healing and yoga. In April of 1974, he had another abrupt meeting with destiny through Swami Muktananda who initiated him into a deeper level of spiritual life through the Tantrik Kundalini process of Shaktipat. The effect of this deeper connection with Spirit was profound. “My life has never been the same”. He moved into a new direction and received a degree in religious studies with a thesis on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. Baba Muktananda encouraged him to make Yoga his profession and gave him the name Mukunda, an aspect of the Divine Presence as the compassionate liberator. Mukunda was certified to teach Muktananda’s meditation method, as well as hatha and raja yoga. Baba authorized him to give spiritual initiation (Dhivya diksha), give spiritual names, and to transmit Shakti Kundalini awakening through the formerly secret process of Shaktipat. He continues this tradition through individual sessions as a spiritual mentor.

Mukunda was Yoga instructor at four of Muktananda's ashrams in the US and in India. During his five trips to India he has studied with both secret and known spiritual teachers. Swami Shyam of Kulu instructed him in Raja Yoga, culminating in his own poetic rendering of the Yoga Sutras. Swami Shyam also gave him a second spiritual name, Mukundanand, in 1982. Babaji Prakashananda of Suptashring Devi became his spiritual teacher following the mahasamadhi (death) of Muktananda later that same year. Babaji initiated him into the devotional aspects of Tantrik Kundalini Yoga focused on the Divine Mother. Mukunda's book The Yoga Poet and Agaram Bagaram Baba - The Life, Teachings and Parables of Babaji Prakashananda by Titus Foster, describe these mystical yogic teachings.

Under Baba’s guidance, he trained in the 900-year old lineage of Prof. Krishnamacharya with both his unknown and senior teachers including Indra Devi, BKS Iyengar, AG Mohan and TKV Desikachar. He worked closely with Rama Jyoti Vernon, founder of America’s first professional Yoga school, the Institute for Yoga Teacher Education (now called the San Francisco Iyengar Yoga Institute). Mukunda received his 2 year, 560 hour teaching certification there in 1976. Mukunda set up three residential Yoga centers including the Sacramento Holistic Health Institute, offering state approved vocational training in Yoga, Massage/Bodywork, Rebirthing, and Holistic Lifestyle Education. It was during this period that he developed Structural Yoga Therapy (TM) and wrote his first books on this innovative process. To polish his understanding of anatomy and kinesiology he undertook a year’s graduate study in physical therapy at California State University in Sacramento. Since 1978 Mukunda has offered teacher certification courses. Among the graduates are the staff of the Nityananda Institute, Integral Yoga, and the founders of the Yoga Teachers of Colorado.

In 1981 Mukunda moved to Boston and founded the Yoga Therapy Center. He worked by referral from hospitals, physicians, and therapists to provide personalized Yoga Therapy for a multitude of medical and psychological conditions. He shared some of these insights in a series of articles on Yoga Therapy for knees and shoulders published by Yoga International magazine. He taught at the Mind Body Medical Institute, headed by Herbert Benson, M.D. and Joan Borysenko, Ph.D. for five years and published a paper entitled a Survey of Yoga therapy.

In 1992 he re-connected with his hatha teacher Rama Jyoti Vernon and joined the executive board of Unity in Yoga International Conferences, participating in events in Canada, Scotland, and Israel. In 1995, with Rama and Nancy Ford-Kohne, he co-founded American Yoga College, a collaboration of other senior teachers to train a new generation of yogis who sought professional standards. Through AYC he gave trainings in England, Russia, Brazil, and Argentina, and wrote their two semester Asana practice and teacher training manuals.

In 1998, his spiritual guidance directed him to go on retreat to the redwoods of Northern Kali-fornia to live with a secret yogi and re-connect with the healing power of Nature's Life Force. At that time he also attended teacher training in TriYoga with Kali Rae. Much of the next three years was spent reframing the connection of Ayurveda within the spiritual framework of a Yoga lifestyle. He has been on the staff of the Rocky Mountain Institute for Yoga and Ayurveda and the International Ayurvedic Institute (IAI), working as editor of IAI's seven books on Ayurveda, Yoga Therapy and manuals written by David Frawley. Since 1999 he has been training Structural Yoga Therapists, to date nearly 50 graduates have completed the two year course.

He is currently on the Advisory Board of the International Association of Yoga Therapists. His books Structural Yoga Therapy and Patanjali's Yoga Sutras are published by Samuel Weiser, Inc. He loves sharing his insights from 30 years with Yoga.