Yoga Journey + Journal | Tirumalai Krishnamacharya

During my Yoga Teacher Training, we’ve been writing a lot about what we're learning and why it's important, recently we discussed Tirumalai Krishnamacharya and his influence on modern yoga. I love journaling especially when prompted with a particular subject or idea, and I love it even more when I’m able to share with others what I’ve found or learned.

Tirumalai Krishnamacharya is commonly known as the father of modern yoga and is one of the most influential modern yogis we know of today, and we have him to thank for his contributions of Hatha yoga to the modern world.  He was born in November 18, 1888 and left his human vessel on February 28, 1989. He was knowledgeable in six Vedic darśanas, also known as Indian philosophies. My favorite style of yoga; vinyāsa, breathing with movement, is attributed to him.

Underlying all of Krishnamacharya's teachings was the principle "Teach what is appropriate for an individual."  This is especially important in a modern society where we do not all share the same religion and dietary regulations.  We are all so fragmented our ability to practice a shared skill has a wide variety of abilities and each person their own unique challenges.  Since we are so diverse our diets impacting our lives, our work ethics affecting our daily movement and so on, it’s important as a yoga teacher to be aware of each person’s unique needs and meet them where they are.  While yoga is a practice in mind and body, if a body is not able to fold into positions that activate or calm the mind the yoga can’t reach them, by being aware of this and integrating modifications that allow for the same benefits of a specific pose the teacher has connected a person one step closer with enlightenment.

To the Western world he is known as a yogi, but in India Krishnamacharya is known more so as a healer who drew from both ayurvedic and yogic traditions to restore health and well-being to those he treated.  Knowing what I know about the Ayurvedic lifestyle, it’s obvious that the two are so strongly connected, as Karta Purkh Singh Khalsa, Ayurvedic Doctor and Herbalist, stated, “They’re [ayurvedic and yoga,] not even two sides of the same coin, they just the same coin.” 1  They are so strongly connected and while they can studied separately, but ultimately they’re joined and one fuses into the other.

According to Wikipedia, Krishnamacharya would work with a person for healing including adjusting their diet; making herbal medicines; and setting up a series of yoga postures that would be most beneficial. It’s noted that Krishnamacharya particularly stressed the importance of combining breath work (pranayama) with the postures (asanas) of yoga and meditation (dhyana) to reach the desired goal. And he would continue to watch the person approximately once a week to monitor the progress until he or she was healed.  There was no note as to how long this process would last but one can assume depending on the ailment it could and probably did last a lifetime for some.

A bit about Krishnamacharya and his early life.  He was born in Muchukundapura, situated in the Chitradurga district of present-day Karnataka, in South India, to an orthodox Iyengar family. Iyengar is a caste of Hindu Brahmins of Tamil origin whose members follow the Visishtadvaita philosophy propounded by Ramanuja. They are found mostly in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. 2

After his father’s passing, Krishnamacharya continued to practice the yoga that his father had taught him as a young boy. Krishnamacharya also studied with the yoga master Sri Babu Bhagavan Das and passed the Samkhya Yoga Examination of Patna. It seemed many of Krishnamacharya's instructors acknowledged his excellent abilities in the study and practice of yoga and encouraged his progress. This is when people started asking that he teach their children.  After this phase he was acknowledged by King of Mysore, Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV, and sent to teach yoga. Krishnamacharya traveled around India under King of Mysore, Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV, presenting lectures and demonstrating yoga. The most intriguing demonstration of all might be the ultra cool bar trick; stopping his heartbeat.

According to Wikipedia Krishnamacharya's students who became the most renowned teachers include; Indra Devi (1899–2002), K. Pattabhi Jois (1915–2009), B. K. S. Iyengar (1918-2014), T. K. V. Desikachar (1938-2016), Srivatsa Ramaswami (born 1939), and A. G. Mohan (born 1945). Krishnamacharya was the brother-in-law of B. K. S. Iyengar, the founder of Iyengar Yoga, who credits Krishnamacharya with encouraging him to learn yoga as a young person in 1934.

Krishnamacharya “believed Yoga to be India’s greatest gift to the world.”  I agree with him that that yoga can be both a spiritual practice and a mode of physical healing.  It’s said that Krishnamacharya was deeply devoted to Vaishnavism, yet he also respected his students’ varying religious beliefs, or nonbeliefs.  Which is important to someone like myself who doesn’t have a strong singular belief, but more an openness to whatever is there, is there. I don’t feel the need to obsess over it.  It’s welcoming to yoga because I can have a spiritual practice without having a solid standing for a certain deity. And I love the visualization that A former student recalled, when Krishnamacharya instructed students to close their eyes and “think of God. If not God, the sun. If not the sun, your parents.” For Krishnamacharya, the path of yoga would mean different things for different people and that each person should be taught in a way that they could understand clearly. As to make it more accessible to each person regardless of their views or body types and that is what attracts me to to teacher side of yoga, it really can be for any body.

Honestly, there seems to so much to Krishnamacharya’s life, as is with any human, that one page barely does it justice, but to sum it up he was so talented and aware that he spread the practice to hundred and now thousands of people.  By having a mindset of the more people practicing yoga in whatever capacity they can the better the world is. And we have him to thank for that acceptance and outlook.

Jennifer Lind Schutsky