About Santosh Yoga
संतोष
Forty years of practice. Two careers. One Path
Engineering and yoga ask the same questions: what works, why it works, and how to keep it precise.
I started practicing yoga when I was five years old in Latur, India. My family practiced. My teachers practiced. It wasn’t a wellness trend — it was simply how we lived. My training came from Harishchandra Guruji in Latur, in the Hatha Yoga tradition he carried with quiet authority through decades of teaching.
Forty years later, I still practice every day. What changed is everything around the practice. I moved to the United States in 2005 and built a career in technology across some of the most demanding institutions in finance and commerce — Goldman Sachs, American Express, Citigroup, and Overstock.
The pace was relentless. The practice never stopped. While colleagues found ways to cope with the pressure, I had something older and deeper to return to —
the same breath, the same stillness, the same discipline I learned as a child.
Through those years I founded Santosh Yoga in Salt Lake City. Over the past two decades, I’ve taught thousands of students and trained yoga teachers who now lead practices of their own. Today I serve as co-founder and CTO of a healthcare technology company. The combination still surprises people — Wall Street, software engineering, and a daily Hatha Yoga practice that began before I could read. To me it has always been one path.
My focus now is what I’ve been quietly preparing for my whole life: combining technology with the practice I’ve lived since I was five, to help people live longer and live better. Longevity Yoga — ancient practice, modern data, personalized to the individual.
The tools the tradition gave us, used with the technology we now have, address most of what we struggle with today. That’s what I’m building. I’d love for you to be part of it.
I believe most of what people now seek from longevity science — better sleep, lower stress, metabolic health, mental clarity, mobility into old age — was solved by the yogic tradition thousands of years ago. The science is catching up. My work is to bring the two together.
Namaste
Santosh Maknikar
- MY TEACHER
Everything traces back to. one source.
He taught Hatha Yoga in the traditional way — without fanfare, without commercialization, without compromise. The breath came first. The discipline came daily. The depth came from sincerity.
I carry his lineage forward. The methods I teach are the methods he taught me. The students I train learn what he taught — adapted for modern bodies and modern lives, but never diluted at the source.
Harishchandra Guruji
Latur · Maharashtra · India
- What I Believe
Five convictions that
guide everything.
Yoga is a complete system, not a workout.
Postures are one part of eight. The breath, the mind, the diet, the rhythms of fasting and stillness — all of it works together. Treating yoga as exercise misses what it actually is.
The ancient methods are not outdated.
They are largely unsurpassed. Most of what modern wellness now promotes — breathwork, meditation, mobility, nervous system regulation, gut health, circadian rhythms — was already mapped by the yogic and Ayurvedic traditions thousands of years ago.
Technology should serve the practice, not replace it.
Wearables, biometric data, and AI personalization can help us meet each practitioner exactly where they are. They are tools. The practice itself is the medicine.
Longevity is the long game.
Authenticity matters.
- The Work Today
What I'm building now.
My current focus is Longevity Yoga — combining the Hatha tradition I learned at age five with modern data and technology, to help people live longer and live better. Three things are coming together for the first time in history.
The Ancient Practice
Refined over thousands of years, proven across generations. Authentic Hatha Yoga, taught as it was meant to be taught.
The Modern Science
Sleep, HRV, metabolic health, cellular aging, mental clarity. All measurable now. All addressable through practice.
The Personalization Layer
Wearables and AI that tailor a daily practice to your body, your age, your recovery, and your goals.
- Beyond the Studio
Yoga belongs to everyone.
- Non-profit
Yoga for People
We bring yoga to homeless shelters, recovery centers, and communities that would never otherwise have access to it. Yoga belongs to everyone. We make sure it reaches everyone we can.
- Education
Project Santosha
We sponsor education for children in the Maharashtra village where my family has roots — connecting students, teachers, and supporters across the world around contentment, education, and service.
- At a Glance
The credentials, briefly.
40+ Years
Daily Hatha Yoga practice
Harishchandra Guruji
Trained in Latur, India
20+ Years Teaching
Salt Lake City & beyond
Thousands of Students
Hundreds of certified teachers
Founder, Santosh Yoga
Salt Lake City, Utah
Co-founder & CTO
Healthcare technology company
Wall Street & Enterprise Tech
Goldman Sachs · American Express · Citigroup · Overstock
Service Founder
Yoga for People · Project Santosha
- Practice With Me
