Raghu Anantharayanan

Mentor

Founder of Ritambhara, Raghu has been enquiring into three questions relentlessly in his life, these are how does one become the best that one can be? How do organizations and groups become the best that they can be? What does it mean to be an Indian?

This quest has led to more than a decade of intense study of Yoga with Yogaachaarya T Krishnamaachaarya and Desikachar. During this period he also had the opportunity to interact deeply with J.Krishnamurti and learn Process Work from Prof. Pulin K. Garg. Raghu’s work with people and organizations has been founded on the profound impact this period of study and introspection had on him. The Core of Raghu’s approach to teaching Yoga is based on the Krishnamaachaarya tradition, however, he has brought in aspects of experiential learning and introspection that make it contemporary and accessible. He obtained his Postgraduate Degree in Bio-Medical Engineering from IIT Madras during this time for which he studied the application of Yoga and Praanaayaama in curing back pain. He has published a very well received book “Learning Through Yoga”.

Raghu has also delved deeply into the Behavioural Sciences to develop a unique approach of personal unfolding and organizational transformation. He has devoted almost three decades to transforming the organizational culture across the spectrum from grass roots developmental organizations to modern industrial organizations. He has developed a unique methodology called “Totally Aligned Organization”, and a model called the “Tensegrity Mandala” that brings together his understanding of Organizational Processes and Yoga.

Raghu’s abiding interest in the question what is India was triggered by his years of contact with Dharampalji. He has been engaged with grass roots developmental work and has enabled the development of many craft groups and a Tamil theatre group called Koothu-p-Pattarai. He has pioneered an approach to process work that brings together the laboratory learning method with Yoga and theatre.

This juxtaposition of inner and outer exploration has been invaluable in making his personal spiritual journey meaningful and pragmatic. By working with a variety of groups across the spectrum: Dalit groups and developmental processes for the downtrodden, craft groups, traditional communities, groups focusing on the arts as well as with business organizations, he has developed an insight into human processes that cut across superficial categorizations on the one hand and processes that are circumscribed by the context on the other hand. Some of his pioneering designs for community mobilization like the ‘Koodam’ have been deployed in working with the Governance processes with great success.

Raghu Ananthanarayanan has co-founded Sumedhas Academy for Human context, The Barefoot Academy for Governance and FLAME TAO Knoware (Pvt. Ltd); He serves on the board of several companies. He is now engaged in mentoring a young group of “sacred activists” called Ritambhara, as well as co-creating a platform of Yoga Teachers from the Krishnamaachaarya Tradition called “Ananta Yoga”.

Publications: “Learning through Yoga” (Krishnamachaarya Yoga Mandiram, 2nd Edition 2002); “Totally Aligned Organization” (Productivity and Quality Publishers, 2nd Edition 2008), “Organization Development and Alignment” (Co-authored with Gagandeep Singh; Sage Response, 2013), a chapter titled: On Spirituality And Organized Religion: Conversations With Yogi Raghu Ananthanarayanan in the book Traversing the Heart – Journeys of the Inter-religious Imagination; Edited by Richard Kearney and Eileen Rizo-Patron as well as many papers in reputed Journals; Raghu is on the editorial Bureau of Integral Leadership Review (a journal that looks at a convergence of spirituality and management).

He can be contacted at : raghu@totallyalignedorganization.com