“The success of yoga does not lie in the ability to perform postures, but in how it positively changes the way we live our life and our relationships.” -TKV Desikachar
Earlier this year, in August, T.V.K. Desikachar passed away in Chennai, India. He was a hugely respected and influential yoga teacher in India, in the USA and in the UK as well as across the rest of the world. Many tributes have been written about his life and work, but I would like to add a few words of my own.
Desikachar was the son of T. Krishnamacharya (1888-1989) who is often referred to as the “Father of Modern Yoga”. As well as Desikachar, Krishnamacharya’s other students included B.K.S. Iyengar, Indra Devi, Pattabi Jois and many others. Much of the yoga now available in the west can be traced back to these teachers.
I had been going along to yoga classes for many years before I encountered the work of Desikachar but it immediately struck a chord with me and has influenced me greatly ever since both in my personal practice and now, as a yoga teacher.
“Anybody can breathe, therefore anybody can practice yoga”
Desikachar’s book – The Heart of Yoga, first published in 1995, was the first book about Yoga that I read that was more than a list of postures. It describes how to put together a personal yoga practice and places yoga within a context, not just historically, but also in terms of yoga’s current relevance and importance.
“We have to accept ourselves just as we are.”
Desikachar’s approach to teaching yoga is that the teacher must meet the student where the student is at that moment. It's not a case of the student fitting into a set structure of yoga, but rather that the teacher will find the elements of yoga, be they physical asana practice, pranayama, mantra or whatever, that will benefit the student and work with each person as an individual. In a group class the teacher facilitates each student to have their own experience, use variations of postures that suit them, use their own breath as a guide and not to try to achieve a particular posture in the same way as the person next to them.
These are now the guiding principles I use in my own yoga teaching, as, in my own small way I bring yoga to new people.
Earlier this year, in August, T.V.K. Desikachar passed away in Chennai, India. He was a hugely respected and influential yoga teacher in India, in the USA and in the UK as well as across the rest of the world. Many tributes have been written about his life and work, but I would like to add a few words of my own.
Desikachar was the son of T. Krishnamacharya (1888-1989) who is often referred to as the “Father of Modern Yoga”. As well as Desikachar, Krishnamacharya’s other students included B.K.S. Iyengar, Indra Devi, Pattabi Jois and many others. Much of the yoga now available in the west can be traced back to these teachers.
I had been going along to yoga classes for many years before I encountered the work of Desikachar but it immediately struck a chord with me and has influenced me greatly ever since both in my personal practice and now, as a yoga teacher.
“Anybody can breathe, therefore anybody can practice yoga”
Desikachar’s book – The Heart of Yoga, first published in 1995, was the first book about Yoga that I read that was more than a list of postures. It describes how to put together a personal yoga practice and places yoga within a context, not just historically, but also in terms of yoga’s current relevance and importance.
“We have to accept ourselves just as we are.”
Desikachar’s approach to teaching yoga is that the teacher must meet the student where the student is at that moment. It's not a case of the student fitting into a set structure of yoga, but rather that the teacher will find the elements of yoga, be they physical asana practice, pranayama, mantra or whatever, that will benefit the student and work with each person as an individual. In a group class the teacher facilitates each student to have their own experience, use variations of postures that suit them, use their own breath as a guide and not to try to achieve a particular posture in the same way as the person next to them.
These are now the guiding principles I use in my own yoga teaching, as, in my own small way I bring yoga to new people.