Mark Whitwell was born in 1949 in Auckland, Aotearoa/ New Zealand. In 1973, he traveled to India and began a life-long study of yoga with Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888-1989) and his son, T.K.V. Desikachar (1938–2016). Mark Whitwell’s simple mission is to give people the principles of practice that came through Tirumalai Krishnamacharya to make their Yoga authentic, powerful, and effective. Mark Whitwell is the founder of the Heart of Yoga foundation and the Heart of Yoga Peace Project, an organization dedicated to developing yoga communities in conflict zones around the world. Mark Whitwell lives between New Zealand and Fiji.
Mark Whitwell has taught yoga for over three decades throughout the Americas, Asia, Europe, Australia, Fiji, and Aotearoa-New Zealand. Mark Whitwell’s simple mission is to give people the principles of practice that came through Tirumalai Krishnamacharya and his teacher TKV Desikachar, to make their Yoga authentic, powerful, and effective.
Dissatisfied with the life options offered in his home country of Aotearoa New Zealand, Mark Whitwell first travelled to India in 1971, in the wake of the Beatles. Falling in love with Baba Muktananada in Ganeshpuri, he continued to travel in India until meeting his yoga teachers T. Krishnamacharya and his son T.K.V. Desikachar in 1973, whose scholarship allowed him to integrate the energies of the masters he had previously met. Since then, Mark Whitwell has shared Yoga around the world, helping everyday people enjoy the intimacy with life which he was lucky enough to receive from his gurus. Mark lives in the Pacific and is the author of four books and one spoken word album, 'The Pure Love Project.'