Rishikesh: For years, Sattva Yoga Academy built a global reputation as one of Rishikesh’s premier destinations for yoga teacher training, drawing thousands of students from across the world to learn what it described as an authentic Himalayan tradition under its founder, Anand Mehrotra. Today, that reputation is under unprecedented scrutiny.
On 15 June, a website called SafeHouse published detailed statements from four former students — from countries such as Belgium, Norway, the United States — alleging sexual misconduct and abuse of power within the organisation. The accounts span nearly a decade and include allegations ranging from non-consensual sexual contact to years-long relationships that the women say were shaped by the unequal power dynamics of a guru-disciple relationship. According to the website, this is the third wave of allegations against Mehrotra since 2015.
Sattva Yoga Academy has, over the years, expanded beyond Rishikesh through chapters and affiliated centres in places including the US and the UK. Under the banner of Sattva Yoga Academy Global, it has offered training in Australia, Italy, California, Hawaii, and Bulgaria. Some of those offshoots — including Sattva Tuscany, Sattva UK (now operating as Sangha UK), and Sattva California — have since distanced themselves from Sattva Yoga Academy.
The publication of the statements has triggered a wider reckoning within the global yoga community. Several organisations that once worked with Sattva have publicly severed ties with the academy and Mehrotra. Former students and teachers have begun sharing their own experiences online, conversations dating back years have resurfaced, and questions are now being asked not only about one teacher’s conduct but about the structures of authority, silence, and accountability within modern spiritual practice institutions.
“People are often coming in a vulnerable state, and they’re completely surrendering themselves at the hands of someone that they trust,” one of the women told ThePrint. “The body knows much quicker than the mind. It often took years — and sometimes hearing another woman’s story — for people to realise there was a pattern.”
How the website went live
On 15 June, the website SafeHouse went live from Hawaii after months of conversations among former students, teachers, and associates of Sattva Yoga Academy, who were trying to make sense of allegations that had quietly circulated within the community for years. What began as an internal struggle among former members who said they had received immense value from Sattva eventually became a public repository of testimonies, timelines, and supporting documents from women who said they were harmed within the community.
At the centre of the effort was Hawaii-based attorney Christina Lizzi, a former Sattva student who told ThePrint that she initially struggled to reconcile the allegations with her own experience.
“I was so committed to Sattva. I loved the teachings. I loved the practices. It gave me so much,” Lizzi said.
She said she only became aware of the allegations in April 2026 after Sattva California announced it was ending its affiliation with Sattva Yoga Academy and Sattva Yoga Global. According to Lizzi, the split was initially presented within the community as a business dispute. But she said an email from Sattva California stating that it was closing over “ethical violations” prompted her to probe further.
“It didn’t sit well with me,” Lizzi said. “Then I heard there was going to be a meeting with Anand. I started speaking to people in the community and realised this had happened before. This wasn’t the first time.”
The meeting that changed everything
Sattva California was led by Bajrang Moran and Gabriel Gendron, who had operated independently in California while conducting teacher trainings affiliated with Sattva Yoga Academy.
Bajrang told ThePrint, over a phone call from California, that in April this year he and his partner received a call from a friend about a woman who, he alleged, was trying to leave her role at Sattva because she was being abused by Mehrotra. As they began looking into the matter, they said they also heard allegations that Mehrotra had engaged in relationships with other women students.
“I decided that even though I was in California, I would fly to India to meet Anand,” Bajrang said.
On 28 April, he travelled to Rishikesh and met Mehrotra for around two hours. According to Bajrang, the purpose of the meeting was to inform him that Sattva California intended to sever ties with Sattva because they believed the women who had approached them.
They thought they were special. They thought they were the only one. It often took years for them to realise there was a pattern
– Christina Lizzi, a former Sattva student
During that meeting, Bajrang alleged, Mehrotra disclosed “multiple incidences of inappropriate conduct” involving two women students. Those allegations were later referenced in an email Bajrang sent to Mehrotra, which was subsequently made public on the SafeHouse website.
The email stated: “During our meeting on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, at your office at Sattva Yoga Academy, you disclosed multiple instances of personal interactions… We believe the women are victims resulting from the power dynamics of the teacher/student relationship.”
ThePrint reviewed WhatsApp messages between Bajrang and Mehrotra confirming the meeting took place. Bajrang said that later the same day, Mehrotra sent him a message asking him to keep the conversation confidential.
“He asked me to keep our meeting confidential,” Bajrang said. “I never agreed to keep anything quiet.”
Bajrang said he subsequently contacted the women discussed during the meeting. According to him, one woman told him that Mehrotra had asked her to conceal the nature of their relationship if questioned, while another disputed Mehrotra’s account of what he had described as a “healing session.”
That exchange, Lizzi said, marked the moment when a private concern began turning into a collective action.
A pattern over time
As Lizzi began speaking with former students and teachers, she said it became increasingly clear that the allegations extended far beyond the four testimonies eventually published on SafeHouse.
“The four statements are the women I’ve personally spoken with,” she said. “But there are many more.”
According to Lizzi, the website represents what its organisers described as the third wave of allegations involving Mehrotra, with the first publicly known complaints dating back to 2015. Through conversations with former members, she said she has also heard accounts dating back to around 2009, although organisers are still working to piece together a fuller timeline.
Bajrang said he had not been aware of the earlier allegations when they surfaced. However, he recalled hearing around 2020 about an allegation involving a student who allegedly woke up after drinking with Mehrotra believing she had not consented to sexual activity. When Bajrang raised the issue at the time, he said Mehrotra denied drinking alcohol.
“I believed him because he was my guru,” Bajrang said. “I found out this year that he does drink. Looking back, I believe I was lied to.”
As more women came forward, Lizzi said a common thread emerged.
“They thought they were special. They thought they were the only one,” she said. “It often took years for them to realise there was a pattern.”
She said many women struggled for years to recognise that what they had experienced was shaped by an unequal teacher-student relationship. Several told her they had initially viewed Mehrotra’s attention as mentorship, spiritual guidance or a special connection before later recognising what they now describe as grooming and manipulation.
Lizzi added that leaving Sattva was often just as difficult as recognising the alleged abuse.
“For many people, Sattva wasn’t just a yoga school,” she said. “It was their work, their friends, their home, their entire spiritual community.”
According to her, women feared that speaking up would mean losing not only their teacher but also their careers, social circles, and sense of belonging.
What SafeHouse published
The SafeHouse website contains statements from four women describing experiences involving both consensual and non-consensual conduct with Mehrotra while they were students or employees within the organisation. According to the website, one account concerns an isolated incident, while the other three describe relationships spanning overlapping periods over several years.
Lizzi, who has coordinated the effort and has been authorised by the women to speak on their behalf, said that legal options are under discussion.
“The legal pathway is complicated,” she said, noting that the alleged conduct took place in India while many of the women are citizens of different countries. “We’re trying to determine what accountability looks like.”
She said SafeHouse has since evolved beyond publishing testimonies into a support network, facilitating survivor support groups, connecting women with trauma-informed therapists, launching fundraising efforts to cover counselling and legal costs, and exploring restorative justice processes.
For the women who have chosen to make their statements public, Lizzi said accountability begins with acknowledgement.
“They’re asking people to listen,” she said. “To acknowledge what happened instead of dismissing it.”
Meanwhile, former students are sharing their own experiences across Instagram and Reddit, while older conversations dating back to 2020 are resurfacing.
Back in Mohan Chatti
In the rural valley of Mohan Chatti, around 25 km from Rishikesh, June is usually a busy month. Known for adventure tourism, luxury resorts, and yoga retreats, the area attracts visitors from across India and abroad.
But during ThePrint’s visit in the last week of June, Sattva Yoga Academy appeared unusually quiet. Around a bend in the hill road, a blue sign bearing the academy’s white tree emblem marked the entrance. A short distance downhill stood a black wrought-iron gate beneath a weathered board reading “Sattva Retreat”. Beyond it, the campus was largely hidden beneath dense green foliage, with only the rooftops visible through the trees. A security guard sat inside a small room beside the gate, while a row of rooms with clothes hanging out to dry and a few parked cars lined one side of the driveway. Apart from the guard, no one else was visible.
The neighborhood shops and restaurants said that there are no reports of the academy being shut and that it usually hosts mostly foreigners.
A long-time student at the academy, who requested anonymity, said classes were continuing and most students were nearing the end of their training. Asked about the allegations, he said, “Things were transparent inside the academy and the picture on social media is completely different.”
The manager on site, Ramesh Semwal, said he was not authorised to comment on the allegations. He said the academy had been functioning normally and would soon close for its annual monsoon break because of seasonal road closures.
Sattva Yoga Academy has publicly denied the allegations. But it is crumbling like a house of cards. Since they emerged, several organisations that were previously affiliated with Sattva — including Sattva California, Sattva Sanctuary Australia, UK Sattva and Sattva Tuscany — have announced that they are severing ties with the academy and Mehrotra.
ThePrint contacted Anand Mehrotra and Sattva Yoga Academy through email, WhatsApp, and phone with a detailed questionnaire, but had not received a response at the time of publication.
The official websites of Anand Mehrotra and Sattva Yoga Academy are all showing under maintenance, while the content on their Instagram accounts is no longer publicly visible.
The officers at the Laxman Jhula police station in Rishikesh confirmed that no case had been filed in regards to the allegations.
This is not the first time yoga institutes have come under scrutiny in India. Over the years, several prominent yoga schools and spiritual centres have faced allegations of sexual abuse, harassment, coercion and other forms of misconduct. Earlier cases include a Chennai yoga centre that faced allegations of exploitation and abuse in 2012; a yoga centre in Kerala, where police and court proceedings followed allegations of illegal detention and physical torture in 2017; and a Rishikesh yoga centre, where three staff members were arrested in 2020 after a Japanese national accused them of sexual harassment.
Legal threats and online backlash
The SafeHouse website also alleges that women who came forward, along with people who publicly discussed the allegations, faced legal threats. It says one of the women who published her statement was threatened with legal action. The website further alleges that an India-based yoga teacher and influencer with over 3.2 lakh followers who posted Instagram videos discussing the allegations received legal notices from Sattva, after which the videos were taken down. According to the website, when he later reposted the videos with a message about the legal threats and the importance of speaking about abuse in spiritual communities, those too were removed.
The influencer, who spoke to ThePrint on condition of anonymity, confirmed receiving legal notices after posting about the allegations. He said he has since chosen to step back from publicly engaging with the issue. He said the response to his videos extended beyond the Sattva allegations, with followers reaching out to describe what they said were similar experiences in other spiritual practice communities.
The SafeHouse website also alleges that, as of 19 June, students who edited previously positive reviews or re-posted negative reviews about Sattva on platforms such as Google found that their reviews were removed. While its Google rating remains 4.9, its rating on Trustpilot is 2.6.
These allegations are not new. An instagram account @sattvayogaaccountability has been posting reviews and experiences of former students since December 2021, which reiterate sexual and psychological abuse faced by many at Sattva. ThePrint tried to reach out to the account but did not receive any response.
On 29 June, the SafeHouse website said Sattva’s lawyers issued a notice expressing their intent to file a writ petition under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act against Christina Lizzi, Bajrang, two of the women who published statements on the website, and various internet hosting entities, seeking the removal of the website, its support group, and related URLs. A second notice, dated 30 June, expressed an intent to file a civil defamation suit against the same parties, seeking the removal of the website and Rs 3 crore in damages.
Lizzi told ThePrint that she stands by the material published on the website. “The allegations in the legal notices are baseless. I continue to stand by the truth of what has been shared on the website and justice will prevail in court”.
What the women say
The four women who have come forward are all from outside India. Their experiences span different years, countries, and levels of involvement with Sattva Yoga Academy. But together they describe recurring themes: the blurring of spiritual guidance and personal intimacy, secrecy around relationships, an unequal teacher-student power dynamic, and years spent struggling to understand what had happened.
One of the women writes, in her declaration published on SafeHouse, that she was 23 when she travelled to India in 2015 for a yoga teacher training. She sought Mehrotra’s guidance after struggling with dissociation during meditation practices. She alleges he told her to meet him alone after sunset, “to tell no one”, and to come dressed in white.
The woman says that during what she believed would be a healing session, he touched her intimately without seeking consent while chanting mantras. “My body froze,” she writes. “I sat there in shock feeling powerless… despite feeling unsafe and bewildered.” She says that before she left, he instructed her never to speak about the incident, especially to another woman in the community.
“I remained silent,” she writes. “It took me years before I disclosed the incident to trusted friends.”
She says she chose to come forward only after reading Mehrotra’s public statement that his relationships with women had been consensual. “I did not agree to be touched by him,” she writes. “Our interaction was not consensual.”
Another woman says that she first arrived at Sattva in 2014 as a student. Over the years, she became increasingly involved with the organisation, eventually serving as both a yoga teacher and an employee. In her declaration, she says her professional identity, income, friendships and spiritual life all became intertwined with Sattva, leaving her financially and emotionally dependent on the community. She alleges that between 2017 and 2026, she was drawn into what she now describes as an “increasingly coercive” relationship with Mehrotra. As per the statement, the interactions involved repeated incidents of “unwanted sexual contact and inappropriate touching” during what she says were presented as business meetings, healing sessions, and meditation sessions. She alleges the encounters were not limited to in-person meetings and continued through requests for photographs and video calls over the years.
There were many stories from people in the community—not necessarily around sexual misconduct, but behavioural misconduct, hierarchy misuse and elitist, cliquish behaviour. Reading all of that made me realise this is not just me and those four women
– one of the four women who came forward with the allegations
Whenever she expressed discomfort, she alleges Mehrotra reframed her concerns in spiritual language. According to her declaration, he told her, “We did nothing wrong”, “there is no crime being committed” and “we were simply sharing consciousness”, leading her to question her own instincts rather than his conduct.
“Rather than helping me trust my own instincts, they led me to question them,” she writes. “When I felt uncomfortable, conflicted, frightened, or confused, I increasingly interpreted those feelings as evidence that I lacked understanding, rather than as evidence that my boundaries were being crossed.”
She says she remained silent because by then she was “financially dependent”, “emotionally isolated”, and “deeply embedded within the Sattva community.” “When spiritual influence, emotional attachment, financial survival, community belonging, professional identity, and personal vulnerability become intertwined,” she writes, “leaving the relationship is far more complicated than simply choosing to walk away.
She also says she delayed speaking publicly because she had seen others who questioned Mehrotra become “marginalized, discredited, excluded, or silenced”. It was only after the allegations became public that she said she recognised the relationship as one marked by “coercive and abusive relational dynamics” rather than a failure of her own spiritual understanding.
A third woman describes what she says was a years-long relationship marked by secrecy, confusion, and increasing self-doubt. In her declaration, she writes that after returning to Sattva in 2022 while recovering from illness, she still found it difficult “to set boundaries or fully disengage.” She alleges that during one encounter that year, she was left feeling “physically and emotionally draining” and “significantly depleted”, after which her mental and physical health deteriorated. She says she disclosed part of her experience to a staff member, who appeared “somewhat shocked” and told her she had believed Mehrotra had stopped such behaviour. Shortly afterward, she decided to leave the academy.
Before leaving, she says she met Mehrotra and told him she did not feel well. Rather than referring to what had happened between them, she alleges he reviewed her astrological chart and attributed her condition to a difficult planetary transit. “I felt completely off afterward because of his pretending that nothing had ever happened,” she writes. After returning home, she says she experienced “significant physical and psychological distress.” Seeing others in the community appear to be thriving only deepened her uncertainty. “I continued to observe the broader community and noticed that others appeared to be thriving, which contributed to self-doubt about my own experience,” she writes.
She says she experienced growing anxiety, insomnia and emotional distress, and that whenever she attempted to raise concerns, she was encouraged to focus on practice and meditation rather than address the issues directly, leaving her increasingly uncertain of her own judgement. “The most psychologically damaging elements for me were the secrecy, the lack of openness, and the relational dynamics within the community, which created confusion, fear, and self-doubt,” she writes.
She also claims that she only fully understood her own experience after learning about the experiences of other women. In her declaration, she says it was hearing how other women described similar patterns — and learning that Mehrotra had characterised her experience to others as a single “healing session” while dismissing concerns as rumours — that led her to conclude the alleged behaviour was part of a broader pattern rather than an isolated experience.
‘A thriving community’
ThePrint spoke to the fourth woman, who first came to sattva in 2019, at the age of 29, for her 200–hour yoga teacher training in March and then subsequently for the 300–hour training in November.
In her written statement, she says she was “completely impressed by the teachings” and by Anand Mehrotra himself. She writes that she became “somewhat infatuated with him”, “confusing the teachings with the person” and “putting him on a pedestal and idolizing him.”
She told ThePrint that the weeks since the website went live have been an emotional whirlwind for her.
“At first there was a lot of fear. There was a lot of feeling really vulnerable and exposed,” she said. “It’s a very intimate and sensitive topic and I spoke really, really openly in the statement. It felt like you are being naked in front of a huge crowd.”
That fear gradually gave way to relief after the response from much of the community.
“The support was overwhelmingly positive. I felt really encouraged and really strengthened. It felt like a big exhale.”
But those emotions were followed by anger, sadness, and grief as more people began speaking about their own experiences.
“There were many stories from people in the community—not necessarily around sexual misconduct, but behavioural misconduct, hierarchy misuse and elitist, cliquish behaviour,” she said. “Reading all of that made me realise this is not just me and those four women.”
What struck her most, she said, was how many people had carried those experiences silently for years. “There’s so many people who have had negative experiences and have never shared or kept this to themselves,” she said. “And that brought up a lot of rage that I hadn’t really allowed myself to feel.”
She said that for many women, recognising what had happened was itself a long process. In both her written statement and her interview with ThePrint, she described a culture where it became difficult to separate the teachings from the teacher. From the outside, she said, Sattva appeared to be “a thriving community with a very wise teacher and a beautiful teaching staff.” But beneath that operated a far more complex set of relationships built on trust, authority and surrender.
Leaving, she said, was often as difficult as recognising the problem.
“It can be very scary when you feel there is no one who’s going to have your back,” she said. “Sometimes you have to pretend everything is fine for a while until you find a way out.”
She said isolation and shame often kept people from speaking up.
“Oftentimes what happens is that you feel isolated and alone,” she said. “There’s a lot of shame around it and confusion. That’s also what they make use of.”
Looking back, she said she increasingly came to see many women in Sattva’s inner circle not simply as participants in the system but as people shaped by it.
“I could see that they as well had been victims at some point,” she said. “All of the women there were suffering from similar wounds—the need for validation, the need for recognition, the need to be someone. A manipulator sees that and uses that and abuses that.”
She said those dynamics often created competition rather than solidarity among women.
“There would be jealousy amongst us. We were not treating each other as sisters, even though we were pretending to.”
Despite everything that happened, she said she has not abandoned yoga. She continues to practise yoga, meditation and other spiritual disciplines while undergoing therapy to process her experiences.
“Ironically enough, I’m super grateful to have received the practices through Anand,” she said. “Although Anand himself is not really the person who he pretends to be.”
She said she initially tried to address her concerns privately with Mehrotra before deciding to speak publicly.
“The first thing that he did was cut me off and then try and manipulate me again,” she alleged.
She said the academy’s categorical denials convinced her that speaking publicly had become necessary.
“I didn’t expect them to say, ‘Yes, it’s all true,'” she said. “But the least they could have done was acknowledge the allegations and say they were looking into them.”
For her, accountability begins not with punishment but with acknowledgement.
She believes meaningful healing is impossible without that first step. “As long as he’s denying it, there is no possibility for change,” she said. “The moment he is willing to see it, there is at least the possibility for healing—for everyone involved.”
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A community grapples with the fallout
The allegations have also prompted reflection within Rishikesh’s wider yoga community, where more than 100 active yoga schools operate, according to the Yoga Association. Bipin Baloni, president of the Yoga Association Rishikesh, said that the organisation was still trying to establish the facts and had not reached any conclusions.
“We should not suddenly take any action,” he said. “We are still finding more information and waiting for the facts.”
Baloni said the association had unsuccessfully tried to contact Mehrotra but had not spoken to the women who made the allegations. He said his understanding was based on the statements published online and discussions within the local yoga community.
He also said there were competing narratives circulating around the controversy. While one was the allegations published by the women on the SafeHouse website, another, he said, was that the dispute stemmed from business disagreements among former associates of Sattva. He further alleged that similar allegations in recent years had coincided with yoga teachers relocating to destinations such as Bali, Thailand, and Vietnam, contributing to business shifting away from Rishikesh.
Baloni also said the allegations had highlighted the need for stronger oversight of yoga schools, although he acknowledged that enforcing regulations would be difficult. “Definitely, we need regulations,” he said. “We have been working on it. But bringing all schools together on one platform and making them strictly follow the rules is very difficult. If the state government and our association work together, it can be done.”
Baloni said the Yoga Association is not a statutory regulator and has no authority to enforce rules across the hundreds of private yoga schools operating across the three districts that surround the Rishikesh region. He also said he had heard that the academy had suspended its operations.
The SafeHouse website also says that Yoga Alliance, one of the world’s largest yoga accreditation bodies, has been informed of the allegations and is “in the process of investigation” into possible action against Sattva Yoga Academy and lead teachers “who have facilitated ongoing misconduct,” including the potential suspension or revocation of Yoga Alliance accreditation.
Yoga Alliance also confirmed to ThePrint that it has initiated an investigation into the matter. While declining to comment on specific complaints or the details of its review, the organisation said it had “initiated an investigation and imposed an interim suspension of the school and associated teachers pending the outcome of that investigation.”
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)