Tribute to the great Pattabhi Jois

“Monday 18th May 2009 is a day that will long be remembered by students of the Ashtanga Yoga method. It saw the passing of K Pattabhi Jois, the man who popularised this Vinyasa-based style of Hatha Yoga, at the age of 93. Jois had been in poor health for almost 2 years and had been released from an Intensive Care Unit into the care of his family just prior to his death. I was fortunate enough to have studied with Jois at his Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore, South India for a decade. During that time I amassed many happy memories of him and his teaching so, rather than offer an obituary of my teacher, I would like to share a little of what he meant to me. It is through these memories and his teachings that his legacy will continue.
   One day during my first trip to Mysore I asked Jois, or Guruji as he was known to his many students, about his Guru. He told me in his broken English that although Tirumalai Krishnamacharya had been his Guru, his Sat Guru (root or true Guru) was Sankaracharya.
   Sankarachaya was an Indian mystic and saint of the 9th century who composed commentaries on many major Hindu spiritual texts. He propounded a philosophy called Advaita Vedanta. This philosophy, Jois told, me meant that “Simply, God is one.” All things, whether animate or inanimate were part of Brahman. “When you look at a wall you see a wall,” Jois said, “I see God. Simply God is one.” Jois told me that to appreciate the beauty of Sankaracharya’s work and to understand the philosophy that he proposed I would need to learn Sanskrit, the language of the ancient Yoga texts and of the commentaries and texts that Sankaracharya authored.
   Several years later I attended the celebrations to mark Guruji’s 85th birthday. I had recently introduced my Sanskrit teacher to him and he asked that I accompany her to the celebrations. During a gap in the afternoon’s proceedings Guruji, without warning, asked my Sanskrit teacher to sing for him. She thought for a moment and then, in the most melodious voice I have ever heard, gave a rendition of Sankaracharya’s poem the Guru Ashtakam (Eight verses in praise of the Guru). This poem stresses the need for devotion to one’s Guru regardless of worldly success, fame, wealth or knowledge. It starts: “One’s body may be handsome, one’s wife beautiful, fame excellent and varied, and you may have wealth piled high like a mountain; but if one’s mind be not attached to the lotus feet of the Guru, what is the use?”
   Guruji was so touched by the rendition and by the sentiments that the poem expresses that, in front of the hundreds of people at the event, tears rolled down his face...”

This tribute is written by Charlie Taylor-Rudman, who received authorisation from Pattabhi Jois to pass on the Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga method in 2001. For a full biography of Pattabhi Jois, please see http://kpjayl.org/biography.html

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