Finding balance in the Berkshires: Kripalu Center celebrates 50 years in Stockbridge

It’s not yet the dark ages of winter, but it is late fall and the time of year when light is fading from either end of the day. When getting up early isn’t accompanied by summer’s bright light, but of the thin white light of the moon. As it is right now, at 6 a.m.

Six a.m. seems more a time for curling up deeper under the covers and sleeping some more rather than getting dressed and getting going. After all, this is a retreat in the Berkshires and this is not a go-to-work day, not in the usual sense at least.

Certainly, the idea of awaking and throwing on some stretchy gear and attending yoga, which for some might be routine, seems like downright self indulgence to me. Because at 6 a.m. I am usually imbibing enough coffee to jumpstart the work day, and if this isn’t a workday then surely it’s a rest day, not a get up at 6 a.m. day.

Even with the idea that what I am doing is absurd, I remain resolute: It’s on the schedule, let’s get there and get it done. Besides, I have to defer to the folks here at Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in Stockbridge, who surely know what they are doing. It is, after all, the nation’s largest and among its oldest yoga retreats, and is celebrating its 50th anniversary,

There, in the softly lit, large, rather church-like room where the gentle yoga class is held each morning (and evening; the advanced class takes place simultaneously in an adjacent room), people are already on mats: Silent, stretching, or just sitting still — eyes closed. This is a deliciously reverent way to start the day.

The hall feels like a place of worship, because, well, it once was. Kripalu is set in a former Jesuit seminary. The building itself is functional and pleasant enough, but it is its location overlooking Lake Mahkeenac in the midst of the Berkshire Hills that is the eye-candy.

The views are as idyllic as that description sounds. Though comparatively busy Lenox and Stockbridge are each within a short distance, the Kripalu Center is a place deliberately removed from what we call society and its busy doings outside of nature.

This 125-acre property once housed a 100-room Gilded Age cottage called Shadowbrook (hence the main building’s name), which was eventually owned by Andrew Carnegie as a summer home. After Carnegie’s death in 1922, the property was sold to the New England Province of the Society of Jesus for use as a Jesuit novitiate. In 1957, this new building went up.

Fifty years ago, the center unfolded here under the watch of Kripalu founder Amrit Desai, a native of India and a devotee of Swami Sri Kripalvananda, the center’s namesake. Swami Sri Kripalvananda, a music teacher based in Mumbai, India, began exploring traditional Eastern health practices involving yoga and Ayurveda, firstly because of his own ill health. In simple terms, the practices of yoga and Ayurveda unlock and unblock the body’s natural energy and healing powers, something modern Western medicine often ignores and/or works against.

Desai began teaching yoga in the 1960s while he was a student at the Philadelphia College of Art, and he co-founded the Yoga Society of Pennsylvania. Desai popularized what is called Kripalu Yoga, a style of Hatha Yoga he learned directly from Swami Kripalvananda. Of course, this was the late 1960s, a time when the most famous music group in the world, The Beatles, had publicly embraced Eastern spirituality, and a greater awareness of non-Western philosophies was on the rise.

Eventually, a residential yoga center was developed and then expanded at Summit Station, Pennsylvania — a health center was later added to the teaching facility.

In 1983, Desai moved operations to Lenox and founded the nonprofit Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. In 2001, a sister facility, The Amrit Yoga Institute in Salt Springs, Florida, was founded, and Kripalu Yoga is now taught and practiced throughout the U.S., and the world.

While many come to Kripalu to become teachers, most are here for their own well-being and personal health practices, and rejuvenation. Anyone thinking of turning over a new leaf in the New Year might start their new you-ness here

So it begins with that crack of dawn yoga, if you choose it, and continues through the silent breakfast in the communal canteen.

People often come to a place like Kripalu to fix things, even the constant babble we carry in our heads — what the spiritual guide Eckhart Tolle calls the “thinking disease” that robs us of peace and presence.

Swami Kripalvananda once spent 12 years in continuous silence, it is said. Silence here at Kripalu is golden. And it is a golden rule at certain times and certain places. Silent breakfast; silent lounge; two- to five-night Silent Retreats are available. Best begin with breakfast and work up from there. Silence is not something that comes easily these days.

Even where speech is OK, and it generally is, it is done quietly and not on a phone, unless you are in your room.

The campus is quiet and still when I arrive on a Tuesday in the fall. There doesn’t seem to be anyone about. But as 2 p.m. — official check-in time — draws near, cars begin filing into the lot and people begin piling into the lobby. There is a warm welcome from staff and excited chatter from guests. It feels more like registering for a communal retreat than checking into a hotel or inn: It feels like we are all here with similar motivations.

Most people book the flexible “R&R” Retreat and Renewal program. Once you check in, you may access the rest of that day’s general activities and ones the following day through 2 p.m., and so on. Some classes cost extra.

First, it’s time to get rid of one’s stuff. Kripalu offers a variety of room options, from shared dorm style, or a room with a shared bathroom in Shadowbrook, the main building; or one of the private rooms in the newer Annex, which have en suite bathrooms. Though small and functional, these bright Annex rooms are quite delightful, with a Mid-Century Mod simplicity. Either way, there are no TVs. Device use is limited to designated tech spaces, or your room.

The tools for wholeness and well-being are all here for guests to choose and use. It can be something as fundamental as learning to cook healthy meals, or, rather, cooking for health — a practice long lost in modern life. Or doing an Ayurveda or Qigong workshop; or taking a Positional Therapy class to treat chronic pain; or joining the group guided hike through the adjacent woodland to observe nature and encourage presence. Or indulging in the luxury of sitting in the lounge or outside on the lawn and gazing at that heavenly view — and doing so silently. A key Kripalu element is immersion in nature, without distractions.

That peaceful progress through the woods is the opposite to the yoga dance class, whose teacher encourages wild, careening freeform movement: letting your inner freak flag fly without judgement while a very cool backing track of eclectic hip-hop and electronic pop plays — loud. With an instructor’s guidance, it’s up to each person to find their moves, and bust ‘em out. It looks looney, gets sweaty, and feels good.

One of the focal points of daily life is food. Here, it is no different. Kripalu’s canteen is a heavenly help-yourself, three-meal-a-day buffet: you can eat vegan, you can eat Ayurvedic, you can eat roasted chicken and meatloaf.

Kripalu is a human-focused retreat, not a place where animals are elevated, and it is definitely not pet friendly. Nature is acknowledged in regard to the Great You and what it can give to you. In turn, perhaps love and compassion to all beings and the planet blossoms. Maybe.

If there’s one place of unapologetic human me-ism it is the modern day spa, where we are all worth it, where we take me-time, where we seek visual improvement via facials and body sculpting and all sorts of temporary Band-Aids. Spas are generally as good as their staff: some are healers, some are simply staff.

Kripalu’s spa, The Healing Arts Center, is where you will experience the best hands-on healing, via massage or acupuncture and other physical therapies. There are facials too, using acupuncture or Dr. Hauschka products. Dr. Hauschka is a pioneering name in natural, organically produced, cruelty-free botanical beauty products.

Kripalu debunks the idea that achieving health is about denial — that is most evident in the delightful gift shop: there are displays of bright, beautiful yoga gear you will want to pull on, even at 6 a.m.; natural beauty products like Kripalu’s own brand of organic rose water; handcrafted jewelry; books, including the Kripalu cookbook; and, aha, what is this on the shelf? “Sinful” rich chocolate chip cookies made in the Kripalu kitchen. An occasional treat is a blessing; over indulgence, not so much. As one piece of inspirational wall art states: Balance Is Not Something You Find, It Is Something You Create.

If you go:

Rates for the onsite Retreat and Renewal experience start at $99 per person, per day, inclusive of three meals, standard yoga classes and workshops, and full use of Kripalu’s grounds. Accommodations are extra: Room rates from $110 per night. Day passes (you can check in as early as 6 a.m. and depart as late as 8 p.m.) are available for $125 and include three meals, and standard yoga classes and workshops. Additional on-campus programs, classes, and workshop rates vary.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health marks 50 years in Stockbridge