Friday, April 25, 2008

SKPJ AND MYSORE IN TIME MAGAZINE

Time magazine has an article about the yoga teachers in Mysore who attract a local following. According to the magazine, the local folks don't even know / care about them.

I think that's a load of bunk* - perhaps the writer speaks Hindi, not Kannada - but here's an excerpt anyway:

K. Pattabhi Jois, who taught Natascha here, was a disciple of Krishnamacharya, whose style he took to the world. But she also studied with Jois's student B.N.S. Iyengar, who moved away from his guru's rigidly-defined sequence of postures towards greater emphasis on the spiritual. "If anyone asks me for advice, I suggest Jois for flexibility, and Iyengar for concentration," she says, while demonstrating a split and touching her forehead to the ground as nonchalantly as a cat stretching after a nap.



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*Locals call SKPJ "Dollars Guru"

5 comments:

  1. The correct initials for Mr. Iyengar is B.K.S.

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  2. Anonymous8:34 AM

    palcsi, there is also a B.N.S Iyengar in Mysore, who is of the Ashtanga tradition. So, there is B.K.S. Iyengar in Pune (whom you are speaking about), and there is B.N.S. Iyengar in Mysore!!

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  3. Anonymous8:41 AM

    There are many locals in Mysore who'd agree with "dollars guru". Whenever I'm staying with my husband's family in Mysore, I always find myself defending SKPJ. They feel yoga should not be paid for, that true yogis do not charge fees. But when I tell them about how he started out, when as a young Brahmin man he set out to learn this yoga, when few people thought it was something worthwhile, and how he then dedicated himself to only a handful of western students in the '70s, then they begin to see it differently. Funny, the work that some journalists can churn out on tight deadlines ...

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  4. Another strange thing is the writer's omission of Venkatesh, aka the backbending king of Mysore, who from all appearances is the real deal (and not a Guruji wannabe).

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  5. Anonymous3:16 PM

    One can pretty much assume the writer has never been to Mysore, but rather has based this article on 1 or 2 phone interviews.

    -caroline

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