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Ashok Khanna and the Reimagining of Restorative Travel

When Ashok Khanna speaks about Ananda, it’s never in the voice of a hotelier. There’s no talk of occupancy rates or seasonal margins. Instead, he threads through memory, philosophy, and a vision that was decades in the making. The son of legendary hotelier Rai Bahadur M.S. Oberoi, Khanna inherited an intuition for hospitality—but chose to channel it through a radically different lens. In creating Ananda in the Himalayas, he didn’t just build a destination. He crafted a modern sanctuary that’s redefined wellness travel in India—and beyond.

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Khanna's path began not with Ayurveda oils or yoga sutras, but on the global stage. After working in the Oberoi Group for over two decades and opening marquee properties from Bali to Egypt, he could have continued a polished international career. But the whispers of something quieter, more essential, began to take hold. “People don’t just want to relax,” he’s often said. “They want to feel whole.” This wasn’t a marketing tagline. It was a pivot. One that would take him deep into the philosophical heart of India, not as an escape, but as a contemporary return. The Himalayas weren’t chosen for drama—they were chosen for resonance.

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Ananda, which opened in 2001, was never intended to be another luxury spa. It was designed as an ashram in spirit, elevated with the precision of five-star service. This balancing act—between ancient and modern, sacred and sensorial—became the core of Khanna’s innovation. He brought in not only Ayurvedic doctors, Vedanta scholars, and expert yoga teachers, but also created integrative wellness programs that would later be emulated by global retreats from California to the Amalfi Coast. His work showed that true wellbeing doesn’t lie in extremes, but in alignment. That Ayurveda could be as relevant to a Silicon Valley entrepreneur as it is to a sannyasin.

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What’s perhaps most compelling about Khanna is his restraint. Ananda is luxurious in experience, yes, but it’s devoid of flash. The spaces breathe. There is intentional quiet. Design choices—antique teak doors, muted palettes, open verandahs—speak less of indulgence and more of reverence. This is the fingerprint of a founder who has spent years studying not just wellness practices, but the psychology of restoration. Under Khanna’s direction, the property remains free from the performative gestures that often define the wellness industry. There is no push for immediacy here. Guests are invited, gently, into their own rhythm.

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Khanna’s personal regimen mirrors Ananda’s ethos. He begins his day with meditation, and his engagement with Vedanta isn’t performative—it’s studious. He believes that intellectual understanding of spiritual principles is just as vital as the physical. “People come for detox or stress,” he says, “but they leave with something deeper—clarity, sometimes purpose.” This intentional layering of the Ananda experience, with its educational pillars of Vedanta, yoga, and Ayurveda, is Khanna’s true legacy. In his world, healing isn’t curated. It’s remembered.

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Twenty years on, Khanna remains deeply involved, though always from behind the curtain. He refuses the spotlight, allowing Ananda’s guests to shape their own stories. And perhaps that’s why the property remains so deeply relevant—it’s not about transformation through spectacle, but through stillness. Khanna’s vision was never to disrupt, but to recalibrate. Not to dazzle, but to guide.

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In a world chasing wellness as a lifestyle trend, Ashok Khanna reminds us that the real work—the real art—is interior. That luxury, when deeply considered, can feel like silence. That the future of hospitality may lie not in newer, shinier experiences, but in the rediscovery of what we’ve always known.

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