18/11/2019
ON KRISHNAMACHARYA'S BIRTHDAY: SALUTATIONS AND A REFLECTION, “WHAT DID KRISHNAMACHARYA REALLY MEAN?”
- Dr. Ganesh Mohan
As you may all know, my father, A. G. Mohan, was a personal student of the great yogi Sri Krishnamacharya from 1971, staying with his guru until his last day in 1989.
My sister and I had the good fortune to have direct interactions with Krishnamacharya when we were young, because my parents were so closely associated with him through those years.
A decade ago, when I helped my father write our book, Krishnamacharya: His Life and Teachings (Shambhala Publications, 2010), I began revisiting this question from its roots, asking my father, "What did Krishnamacharya really teach, and how to understand his teachings?"
Krishnamacharya’s students who systematized his teachings from the 1970s, gifted and committed though they were, had a large gap from him. Krishnamacharya was 80+, immersed in Vedic studies all his life, and practiced yoga intensely as a young man secluded in the Himalayas. His students were 50-60 years younger, with a modern education, practicing yoga in family life.
For these reasons, my father always felt that it was not possible for any of them to understand Krishnamacharya’s teachings entirely or deeply at that time. That is why, to this day, he has preserved essentially all the thousands of pages of notes from his 18+ years of study with the master.
The key to deeper understanding was further extensive studies after Krishnamacharya’s passing: ayurveda, ta**ra, dharma-śāstra, śabda-śāstra, the extensive works of Swami Hariharananda Aranya and much more. (I have learned from my father in many of these areas and debated and partnered with him in later years on some of these studies!)
After all, gaining knowledge was always close to Krishnamacharya's heart!
Carrying any traditional teaching forward with wisdom and integrity is not easy. Krishnamacharya himself said that we need punaranveṣaṇa: re-search or searching again and again to establish what is accurate and meaningful.
We need to dive deeply into Krishnamacharya’s teaching in its original form and full spectrum—and then reflect on it and build on it with broad knowledge, sustained practice, clear discernment, and above all, values and integrity. This is what yoga should be, is it not? 😊
This clear understanding and expansion of Krishnamacharya's teachings is one of the several pillars of Svastha Yoga & Ayurveda.
There are millions now under the umbrella of Krishnamacharya's teachings. "Propaganda" as he used to call it, has indeed worked for yoga. One of the missions of his life is now a success!
Deep respect and gratitude to Sri Krishnamacharya and to all those who carry forward his teachings! 🙏🏼
