Sri K. Pattabhi Jois taught Ashtanga yoga for more than 65 years before passing on May 18, 2009. Each day of his life marked a relentless devotion to the lineage he carried. A humble man born before both world wars on the day of the full moon in July 1915, Pattabhi’s lifelong dedication to yoga transformed the lives of countless people around the world . Coming from a small village called Kowshika in Southern India, Pattabhi discovered yoga at the age of 12 when he saw the man who would become his teacher, Krishnamacharya, give a yoga demonstration at his school. After devoting himself to his studies and earning the title of Vidwan (professor emeritus of Sanskrit Studies) Pattabhi taught yoga for nearly 30 years in a small room on the first floor of his modest house in Mysore until the first Westerner came to study with him in 1964. Yet, it was not until he made his first trip to California in 1975 that the worldwide legacy of Ashtanga yoga began to spread. He lived to see Ashtanga reach more than 30 different countries, transform thousands (if not millions) of yoga practitioners and sprout centres all around the world. His contibution to yoga lives on and he will be missed by those who knew and loved him.
A full tribute to Pattabhi Jois can be read in next issue of Complete Yoga – on shelf in August.