Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, Guru and Founder of Ashtanga Yoga, Mysore India

PATTABHI JOIS

Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois was born in the village of Kowshika, close to hassan, Karnataka, South India on July 26, 1915 (Guru Purnima).

He was present at a lecture and demonstration by S.T. Krishnamacharya in 1927, when he was only 12 years old. He was so impressed by this he became his student the next day. He then proceeded to study with Krishnamacharya for the next 25 years.

At the age of 14, in 1929, Pattabhi Jois ran away from home to study Sanskrit. His place of study was Mysore, India. Two years after this date, Krishnamacharya also came to live in Mysore and the two found each other again.

During this time Krishnamacharya worked with the Maharaja of Mysore, who was extremely ill. No one else had been able to help him but Krishnamacharya succeeded where all had failed. In gratitude the Maharaja founded a yoga shala for him in his palace grounds. It is here that Krishnamacharya and Pattabhi Jois studied and worked together. When the maharaja died in 1941 Krishnamacharya left Mysore to live in Madras.

Sri K. Pattabhi Jois decided to stay in Mysore and after time met and fell in love with a woman named Savitramma (she had a nick name of Amma). They married under a full moon in June 1937 when Jois was 22 years of age. They had three children, named Saraswati, Manju and Ramesh. They eventually purchased a home in an area of Mysore called Lakshmipuram.

Sri K. Pattabhi Jois secured a teaching position in Yoga at the Sanskrit College for numerous years. He studied to become a professor, which he achieved in 1956. He started the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute at their residence in Lakshmipuram in 1948.

Sri K. Pattabhi Jois wrote and published his first book, YOGA MALA, in 1962. This was first published in India in 1962 and was published in English for the first time in 1999.

The start of westerners coming to Mysore to study Ashtanga Yoga with Pattabhi Jois first began in the late 1960s. A Belgian man named Andre van Lysbeth had travelled to Mysore and studied with Pattabhi Jois. He later wrote a book called Pranayama in which he mentioned that he had studied with Jois and had provided his address in Mysore. From this book many westerners started to travel to India, and then Mysore to seek out and study with Pattabhi Jois. Today, it is has become very popular to travel to Mysore to study with Pattabhi Jois. Thousands of westerners have now done this and many thousands more will also make the pilgrimage. First to deepen their practice and learn the correct procedure and secondly, to delight in their time under the gaze of the master, Pattabhi Jois.

This Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute is still alive and well but now located in the suburb of Gokulum in Mysore. Pattabhi Jois is now 92 years of age and teaches each morning with the help of his grandson Sarath Rangaswamy. Each Friday he still calls (voices) the led class for the students there. A fantastic feat for someone this age. Looking at him, it is clearly evident that all the years of following the path of yoga and igniting the breath and body together are working for him. The sparkle in the eyes tell it all. The chuckle in his smile. He is happy to be here. We could all use some of that. Breathe!!!