t Krishnamacharya > the inspiration

Born in 1888, Tirumalai Krishnamacharya is regarded as the grandfather of modern yoga. Today, his teachings have become very popular through his students, especially TKV Desikachar, BKS Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois and Indra Devi.

T Krishnamacharya, a direct descendant of Nathamuni, a ninth century yogi, began his formal education at the age of six. His thirst for knowledge inspired him to travel widely and learn all aspects of the Vedic tradition from the best teachers across India. Thanks to his perseverance and eagerness, he mastered all the philosophical schools of Indian learning, Ayurveda, and Sanskrkit. At the age of twenty-eight, he trekked to Lake Mt Kailash, in the Himalayas, to learn Yoga from Ram Mohana Brahmachari. He left Manasarovar seven and a half years later at the command of his guru, to share his wisdom with and for the benefit of the society at large.

Being a master of several disciplines, Krishnamacharya was offered high scholastic positions in great institutes of learning and in the courts of kings, but he chose to be a teacher of yoga, in order to honor the promise he made to his Guru.

On many occasions he demonstrated to the world the great potentials of yoga in different areas of health and self control. With his vast learning in yoga as well as other systems of Indian philosophy, he emphasised that the practice of yoga must be adapted to the individual and not the individual to yoga. This was probably one of his most significant contributions in the field of health and healing through yoga. Though only hundreds of people benefited from his direct contact, millions have been influenced by his teachings that have become so popular today.

Through his teachings, T Krishnamacharya always insisted on utilizing the spirit of yoga to enhance the quality of our lives, he never insisted on one particular technique, but rather emphasised that techniques must be evolved to suit the needs of the individuals at the given moment. This is indeed the yoga of yoga, this aspects of teaching can be seen by the vast differences in the teaching his students received, when they studied with him at different point of time.

Krishnamacharya lived for over a hundred years and continued to teach till the last few days of his life.

T Krishnamacharya’s contribution to yoga is indeed enormous and very significant in our current day living. He revived the idea that yoga is appropriate and beneficial to the common person and not just to the holy ascetics living a life of austerity and meditation in the mountains. Through his hard work, perseverance and innovations, Krishnamacharya made the tool of this ancient discipline relevant in the contemporary context. His was a silent revolution, the benefits of which are seen more today than when he was alive.

He based his teaching on the Yoga Sutra-s of Patanjali, the Yoga Rahasya of Nathamuni, his own studies with his master and his great experience and knowledge of other traditions. He opened the doors of yoga to all, by highlighting the universality of its teachings and thus helping people from all walks of life. Whether they were rich or poor, educated or illiterate. Sick or healthy, theistic or agnostic, he always had something to offer them that touched and changed their lives. For him, yoga was a very secular and spiritual path that brought people closer to their true nature.

Krishnamacharya firmly believed that the tools of yoga were many and that it was important to pick the right ones and tailor them to suit the individual practitioner. Only then would the needs and abilities of the students be respected. His ways were very sophisticated, in that he used a wide range of tools to offer a unique solution to every student. He demonstrated and taught that yoga is universal and yet extremely personal.

Today, Krishnamacharya’s teachings continue to be propagated throughout India and the West by his students, and their students in turn. They include his son TKV Desikachar; BKS Iyengar of Iyengar Yoga; K Pattabhi Jois of Ashtanga Yoga; AG Mohan of Swastha Yoga; Russian born Indra Devi [the first Western woman to study yoga in India] and many more. For those unfamiliar with yoga, these teachers initiated the most widely practiced systems of hatha yoga in the West today.
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TKV Desikachar > in the footsteps of the master

TKV Desikachar, son and student of the legendary yoga master Sri. T Krishnamachary, is today recognised as one of the worlds greatest teachers of yoga.

TKV Desikachar was born in Mysore in 1938, the fourth child and second son of T Krishnamacharya and his wife Srimati Namagiriammal. TKV Desikachar commenced his yoga studies relatively late. He first studied engineering, and then worked as a structural engineer during his early adulthood. In the year 1961 a life-changing incident occurred which inspired TKV Desikachar to make yoga the central focus of his life. He witnessed a New Zealand woman, Mrs Malvenan, hugging his father in a touching expression of her overwhelming gratitude that the great yoga teacher has healed her of chronic insomnia. TKV Desikachar was amazed and profoundly moved by this unusual display of emotion towards his father, an orthodox Brahman. He asked himself, how is it that his father could help people from such different backgrounds, in such a powerful way, where even medical doctors had failed? From that moment on he made the decision to commit himself to study with his father. He left his full-time job and, taking a part-time job, he began his study of yoga. Soon he stopped engineering work altogether and devoted himself full-time to practicing yoga; studying with his teacher as well as teaching yoga to students of his own.

Because of T Krishnamacharya’s great wealth of knowledge, TKV Desikachar studied and practiced in depth all aspects of yoga, including asana [body postures], pranayama [breath regulation], meditation and yoga philosophy based on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra and other ancient texts. He also studied Vedanta philosophy, vedic chanting, ayurveda, Sanskrit, mimamsa [ritual], nadi pariksa [the art of pulse-reading] and more during lessons with his teacher. In 1966 Desikachar began his first overseas visit to Switzerland, where he taught to J Krishnamurthi.

While living in Madras, studying with his father and teaching yoga, TKV Desikachar also raised a family of three children with his wife Menaka.

Desikachar lived and studied with his teacher continuously for almost 3 decades, up until T Krishnamacharya’s death in 1989. The depth and closeness of the teacher-student relationship, which developed between Desikachar and his father during this long period of study, enabled him to receive the teachings in a very pure and complete form. It is because of this fact that his teaching is closest to Sri T Krishnamacharya’s great wisdom.

An extremely important aspect of T Krisnamacharya’s teachings, which is reflected strongly in Desikachar’s work, is the emphasis on respecting every person as an individual when teaching the practice of yoga. Prior to Krishnamacharya, yoga had been taught the same way to everybody.

One of Desikachar’s most profound gifts, has been to highlight the great power yoga has to heal, which was closest to his teacher’s heart. Krishnamacharya had been using yoga to heal so many people all over India, in some cases where other systems had failed. Desikachar brought this aspect of his father’s teaching into the modern world. Respecting each individual as unique, and drawing from a wide variety of tools, we can use yoga in a creative way to help people with problems on any level, from physical to emotional. The success of this approach is witnessed on a daily basis at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram in Madras, which was formed by Desikachar in 1976 as a guru-daksina [offering of gratitude] to his teacher.

One of Desikachar’s greatest contributions to the world of yoga is the creation of the stick figures. He began inventing these figures very early in his yoga path and at the time people criticised it by saying that he was bringing engineering into the field of yoga. Today these figures have become such an important basis for the modern yoga community and they have become nearly indispensable assets for every teacher and student.

Desikachar has translated many important ancient texts and written commentaries on them using his talent for clear communication, thus making them accessible and relevant to people the world over. He has authored numerous books himself, as well as translated his father’s works, and has traveled internationally where his teaching on yoga have helped to inspire a growing wave of interest in yoga in the west . His books include: The Heart of Yoga, Health Healing and Beyond, The Viniyoga of Yoga, Yoga of T Krishnamacharya, Reflections on Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, What are we Seeking?, In Search of Mind, Translations and Commentaries on Yoga Rahasya of Nathamuni, Yoga Yajnavalkya Samhita and many of T Krishnamacharya’s compositions.

More information can be found at www.kym.org

Desikachar’s student, and second son , Kausthub is continuing this process of spreading the essence of T Krishnamacharya’s yoga teachings extensively worldwide, where they continue to bring inspiration and change many people’s lives for the better. Desikachar is a living example of how through practicing yoga we are able to reach out and touch the hearts of others. The yoga he teaches brings a message of hope, peace and optimism that we all have within us the power to make positive changes in our lives and the lives of others.

Written by Rachel Lander
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Kausthub Desikachar > a rare inheritance

Kausthub sees the immediate future as a watershed for yoga in Australia. “Yoga is peaking in Australia and the work done by the Australian teachers is the only reason for this success,” he says. “The time now is crucial for Australia as it’s now at a point where it can mature into a healthy yoga community or can become yet another yoga commodity market. It is my hope that teachers in Australia will be responsible enough to take the former path rather than the latter. I will be very happy to help in any way I can.”

Kausthub Desikachar took part in Australia’s first Yoga Convention of its kind, Celebrating Yoga, held in April this year. He explains: “The idea of the Convention came to me a few years ago when I was traveling. I found that there has never been an occasion where the depths of yoga’s teachings have been presented, under one event.”

The Convention was Kausthub’s answer to the growing Western appetite for spirituality. He believes the widespread appeal of yoga is not based on its physical benefits, because there are a huge range of exercises options available to the public. Instead, he believes people are responding to the inner solace that yoga provides as a system ultimately intended for spiritual realisation.

“For me the most profound teaching of yoga is its ability to help us be present and connected with our focus in life. Enlightenment is not so much giving up everything and seeking liberation in the holy Himalayas. Its more about finding peace within ourselves and our society we are dealing with, through our daily actions.”

Celebrating Yoga was developed with this in mind. It was open to everyone, regardless of their awareness of yoga, ethnicity, religion, physical health or age. It addressed some of yoga’s lesser known practices including the use of sound , breath retention and modification, intelligent sequencing, hand gestures, meditation, ritual, pacifying and dynamic asana practices, energetic ‘locks’and much more.

“The influence the breath has on our state of mind is unquestioned and this is why the yoga masters elaborate so much on nurturing the breath in every tool of yoga, including asana,” Kausthub continues. “The Sanskrit language is also designed in such a way that different syllables are pronounced from different locations of our body and hence it stimulates the whole body.”

Kausthub enjoys a rare inheritance. As a typical young child growing up in Chennai on the south-east coast of India, he and his brother would make good use of their practice time counting aircraft from the terrace – all the while his grandfather, possibly the greatest modern yogi of his time, could easily have been in the next room stopping his heartbeat to demonstrate his incredible mastery of body and mind.

“Growing up with such eminent masters as my grandfather and my father evokes a lot of curiosity from the public,” he confides. “The feeling, that people think that my life would be much different from others – something special and extraordinary. The great thing I enjoyed about being part of this great family is the simplicity of life that we had in our house. It was such a close-knit family and everyone had a solid role in being a part of it. The greatness of my grandfather and my father is that they lived by their teachings. They meant what they taught. There was honesty in communication, dharma [responsibility] in every action, trust, in relationships. These were subtle teachings that I received growing up in such a household.”

In spite of the aircraft, the seed of yoga soon began to develop in Kausthub so that by the age of 13 he was teaching children’s classes. Later, on completing a double master in economics and management, where he became more convinced of the need for yoga to alleviate people’s suffering, he returned to his father to study seriously.“As this happened, my journey moved from the gross to the subtle. I see that yoga is not merely a tool for a healthy body, but one that addresses the holistic human system, even reaching the deeper realms of our spiritual thirsts. This is when I learnt [and am learning each day] so much about yoga and our great Indian tradition.”

Kausthub looks on his father and mother as the greatest influences in his life as a yoga teacher and an endless source of inspiration. “My father spent nearly four decades studying with my grandfather on a daily basis. He not only learnt asanas from him, but also all aspects of yoga, which include pranayama, meditation, chanting, visualization, food and life style teachings ,yoga as a therapeutic tool and pulse reading. This apart, he also learnt many aspects of the Indian wisdom, of which my grandfather was such an authority. This is why his teaching is so close to that of my grandfather.”

Despite his own international stature, he still meets with his father every day for two hours to undertake instructions in the classical yoga scriptures. “The more I study with him the more I realise how much there is to learn. Apart from this, my best teacher is my practice. I maintain a daily practice of asana and pranayama in the morning and a small meditation practice in the afternoon. I also do some chanting every day in front of my grandfather’s sandals to remember him.”

The growing popularity of yoga so closely attuned to Kishnamacharya’s own teaching, has more recently been dubbed ‘viniyoga’ by the Western world with its preoccupation with labels. Kausthub points out that the true meaning of ‘viniyoga means ‘appropriate application’ and can be used with reference to any discipline. Both he and his father practice this principle, but make it clear that they simply teach yoga – what they teach depends on the needs of each individual and cannot be limited to one ‘style’. “Viniyoga is not a brand of yoga. In a true sense, there can be no brand of yoga. To be honest I don’t think it’s a good idea to have styles in yoga. This is causing division in the yoga community when the very word itself means “union”. This is something we have to keep in mind. Also the ancient masters differentiated yoga experiences based on the function it served rather that on technique. The marketing aspect of yoga has caused this confusion today. However, all is not lost – we still can make a difference.”

When he is not traveling the world organizing yoga conventions and intensives for the gathering number of yoga enthusiasts worldwide, Kausthub teaches and studies in Chennai, and is involved in community projects to bring yoga to low-income groups and the infirm.

Krishnamacharya’s inspiration has worked its way deep into the hearts of his closest students and relatives. In November this year, Kausthub will join Desikachar, Sri Pattabhi Jois and grandson, Sharath Rangaswamy, to commemorate his grandfather’s 115th birthday. “We had hoped to have Sri BKS Iyengar also in this event, but owing to his reduced travel commitments he has expressed his inability to participate. However he has blessed this event.” While there may be factions among many yoga groups today, claiming that their way is best, those touched by Krishnamacharya come together as humble teachers of yoga for the benefit of all. “We share a lovely relationship and I have the highest respect for them for their hard work in bringing yoga to its current day popularity, despite all odds,” says Kausthub.

The legacy handed down to him by grandfather and father is a tool for helping him to integrate different teachings into his daily life in order to help others. “There are so many ways yoga has benefited the people I have worked with. But to put it simply it has made them smile, and more human and social.”

An interview by Rebecca Somerville 2003: Courtesy NOVA magazine
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