Krishnamacharya: His Life and Teachings
A.G. Mohan
Language: English
Pages: 176
ISBN: 159030800X
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Here is a personal tribute to "the father of modern yoga" Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888-1989), written by one of his longtime disciples. Krishnamacharya was a renowned Indian yoga master, Ayurvedic healer, and scholar who modernized yoga practice and whose students—including B. K. S. Iyengar, K. Pattabhi Jois, T. K. V. Desikachar, and Indra Devi—dramatically popularized yoga in the West.
In this book, the author, A. G. Mohan, a well-respected yoga teacher and yoga therapist, draws on his own memories and Krishnamacharya's diaries and recorded material, to present a fascinating view of the man and his teachings, and Mohan's own warm and inspiring relationship with the master. This portrait of the great teacher is a compelling and informative read for yoga teachers and students who truly want to understand the source of their tradition and practice.
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propagate the teachings. AT WHAT AGE CAN CHILDREN START PRACTICING YOGA? Krishnamacharya believed that children can be taught yoga from the age when they can eat by themselves. He used to say: “If you practice, your child will also practice. Children learn by looking at elders and imitating them. Parents must lead a disciplined life. Make sure you inculcate good habits by demonstration and by making the child participate. If a donation is to be made, give it to the child and make her give it
through his voice, and they noticed that the unwavering attention he brought to his chanting helped them to still their own minds. Feeling that the recordings would be of help in their own learning and in meditation and personal transformation, they asked me to make some of these recordings available. Krishnamacharya would have been pleased. He had no hesitation in allowing his chanting or lectures to be recorded to help his students learn. I released some of these recordings as a nonprofit audio
disciplined, there will be nothing to note down.” Krishnamacharya liked to write his compositions in the script of the Telugu language, with which he was most comfortable, even though the verses were originally written in Sanskrit. He even had his letter-head printed in the Telugu script. In addition to these diaries, Krishnamacharya kept a diary for the names, addresses, and phone numbers of some of his students. He had students write down their contact information in the diary in the rare
mahamudra, baddhakonasana, and tadasana. Headstand and shoulderstand should be done only until the fifth month. Strong forward bends are to be avoided. Jalandhara bandha is useful, but uddiyana bandha and mula bandha are contraindicated. Ujjayi, sitali, and nadishodhana are useful types of pranayama, though others can be done as well. Fast-breathing techniques such as kapalabhati and bhastrika should be avoided. III.28–38: Yoga should be practiced with conviction and discipline, along with right
which makes it difficult at times to demarcate it from the other branches of Hindu spirituality. In its earliest identifiable form, Yoga was connected with the sacrificial ritualism of the Vedic peoples, who created the world’s oldest extant literature—the Vedas—and apparently also were the authors of the so-called Indus-Sarasvati (or Harappan) civilization.3 Vedic Yoga consisted primarily in techniques of mental concentration, breath control, chanting, and ritual worship. It served the purpose