Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya- The Father of Modern Yoga
Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya was born on November 18, 1888 in the Mysore Kingdom of India. He was an exceptionally brilliant academic and scholar who began learning to speak and write Sanskrit and chant the Vedas from his father before the age of five. Krishnamacharya held multiple scholastic degrees and certifications including, but not limited to, those in Ayurveda, Sanskrit, and each of the six Yoga Darshana (Indian schools of philosophy).
To further his studies in Yoga, Krishnamacharya sought out a great guru named Sri Ramamohan Brahmachari, one of a handful of true yogi gurus who existed at the turn of the 20th century and lived in the Himalaya mountains of Tibet. Under the reign of the British Raj at the time, many Indian traditions, including Yoga, were suppressed as newer generations of Indian people were taught and schooled under more Western methods.
Legend has it that Brahmachari mastered over 7,000 yoga postures (asanas) and held in safe-keeping many original Yogic texts and teachings, including a mythical yogic text named the Yoga Korunta.
After two and a half months traveling on foot through the Himilayas, Krishnamacharya found Sri Brahmachari living in a cave at the foot of Mount Kailash with his wife and three children. The great guru agreed to take Krishnamacharya on as his student.
Krishnamacharya spent over seven years studying under Brahmachari. During his apprenticeship, he studied many sacred texts (specifically the Yoga Sutras of Patañjali), memorized the Yoga Korunta, learned thousands of asanas, pranayama, and studied the therapeutic aspects of yoga. It was during this time that Krishnamacharya mastered many of the skills of Yoga and even gained special powers (siddhis) as a result: Krishnamacharya was able to control and stop his own heart from beating for a few minutes.
When Brahmachari told Krishnamacharya that his tutelage was complete and it was time for him to leave, rumor has it that Krishnamachayra did not want to — but Brahmachari insisted. In the Yoga tradition, when a student’s studies with a particular teacher are finished, it is customary to give that teacher a gift in appreciation for passing down the knowledge of Yoga. Since Krishnamacharya had no money or possessions to give his teacher (he’d lived with him and his family in a cave for all these years), it is said he told his guru: “But I have no gift to leave you with”.
Brahmachari told Krishnamacharya to go back and live in society, become a householder, get married, have children, and be a teacher of Yoga. He was being tasked to bring Yoga out of the caves and back into society — this would be Krishnamacharya’s gift to his teacher, and he did as his teacher asked.
In 1926, the Maharaja of Mysore contacted Krishnamacharya. He was ill and had heard of Krishnamacharya and the healing capabilities of Yoga.
Krishnamacharya went to Mysore, India, and helped heal the Maharaja through the practices of Yoga. Out of gratitude, the Maharaja gave Krishnamacharya a place to teach Yoga at the Mysore Palace.
It was there at his Yogashala in the Mysore Palace that Krishnamacharya developed Vinyasa Krama Yoga, and he is said to have taught thousands of students. Some of those students became the world’s most notable and influential Yoga teachers: Indra Devi (the First Lady of Yoga), B.KS. Iyengar (Iyengar Yoga), Srivatsa Ramaswami, K. Pattabhi Jois (Ashtanga Yoga), and A.G. Mohan (Svastha Yoga), and his son T.K.V. Desikachar (Viniyoga). All of these teachers were instructed by Krishnamacharya to become householders and teach Yoga in society. The same way his guru, Sri Ramamohan Brahmachari, instructed him to do. The exception was that Krishnamacharya directed his students to teach Yoga in the West.
And the rest is history.
Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya was the guru who lit the fire of Yoga influence all over the Western world without ever setting foot in it — and this is why he is referred to as the Father of Modern Yoga.
So, the next time you’re on your mat or cushion, and your teacher tells you to dedicate your practice to someone, Krishnamacharya is one of the people to honor in that moment. He’s probably the reason you’re there in the first place.
Namaste,
Kelly
*If you have been misguided on your yogic path, or have felt frustrated with the current yoga scene, I invite you to download my free e-book: How Yoga Philosophy Can Transform Your Teaching.