Meet Our Yoga Teachers

Yoga was in Alpesh Patwari’s home before it was in his work. His mother, Manjula Devi, lived a life shaped by Bhakti, Karma and Jnana yoga (devotion, service and study), and she was his first teacher. As a boy he lived with epilepsy, and from the age of 12 the yoga and breathing practices he learned from Jain monks became part of how he looked after himself. That early, personal experience is why yoga became his life’s work.

He went on to study in Pune and Rishikesh in the Sivananda and Satyananda lineages, and since 2006 has trained under Usha Devi in Rishikesh, whose precise, therapeutic way of working shaped his own.

He has taught yoga for more than 22 years, and for 21 of them alignment has been the centre of his teaching, which makes him one of the most experienced alignment teachers working today. In a class that means he looks at the body in front of him, finds where a posture is collapsing or straining, and rebuilds it with clear cues, props such as blocks, belts and bolsters, and hands-on adjustments until it is stable and safe. His trainees learn to see and correct a posture the same way before they teach their first class.

In 2014 he founded Alpesh Yoga, and he still leads the teaching himself. The school follows the seasons, at Arambol Beach in North Goa from November to April and in Bhagsu above Dharamshala from May to September, and its graduates have come from more than 40 countries. He is a Yoga Alliance Registered Teacher, and the school is a Yoga Alliance Registered Yoga School.

His students describe a teacher who is demanding and kind at once: “tough, demanding and at the same time compassionate and caring,” in the words of Sivan Okavi, a 200 hour graduate who has taught full time since. Jessica Albert wrote that he teaches every asana “correctly and safely … firmly but with love and affection for each student,” and Shira Grafi that “he knew exactly what each person’s strengths are and the points to which they need to pay more attention.”

Benu has spent much of his life traveling and learning from various spiritual gurus, alongside formal education and training in many aspects of yoga.

He holds a Diploma in Yoga from Kerala University and a Diploma from the Bihar School of Yoga. His combination of formal education and lived experience gives students unique insights into the worlds of yoga, meditation, and spirituality.

Durgesh has been practicing yoga for more than 15 years, learning through travel and study at many traditional and modern yoga schools across India. That journey shaped her distinctive perspective on philosophy, meditation, and therapeutic yoga.

She has more than eight years of experience teaching Hatha and Tantra yoga, along with restorative Vinyasa, Yin yoga, meditation, pranayama, therapeutic yoga, prenatal yoga, yoga anatomy, asana alignment, shatkarmas, yoga philosophy, Marma therapy, and Ayurveda.

She holds a one-year diploma in yoga science, Yoga Alliance certifications for 200 and 300-hour TTC courses, qualified the QCI National Level 2 yoga teacher exam, and was associated with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations for International Yoga Projects.