Umakant Kori was born in 1979 to a family of Siddha Yogis in Kolhapur in Maharashtra, India. At the time of his birth, Umakant’s grandparents hosted the Siddha Yoga Meditation Center in Kolhapur. Umakant’s parents then hosted a Siddha Yoga chanting and meditation group in their home in Clifton, Virginia, from 1994 to 2006. He now offers seva in the SYDA Foundation from his home in Fairfax, Virginia.

Umakant is a physician in family medicine, employed by the US Army as the chief of a primary care clinic. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and received his medical degree from Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk.