The Yoga of the Yogi: The Legacy of T. Krishnamacharya – Kaustub Deshikachar

Description

This deeply personal biographical tribute by Krishnamacharya’s grandson includes photographs, archival materials, and family recollections that have never been published elsewhere, as well as unique insights into the “master of masters” by some of his most famous students-Indra Devi, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, B.K.S. Iyengar, and T.K.V. Desikachar. First published in 2005 by the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram.

Prologue
1. From Birth to Rebirth
2. A Boy Always Hungry
3. Holistic Body, Holistic Outlook
4. Northward Bound
5. One Size Does Not Fit All
6. A Regal Beginning
7. Right Package, Right Delivery
8. Destination Madras
9. Why Yoga Works
10. Glorious Sunset
11. The Son is Shining
Epilogue
His Master’s Voice: Essay by Students

About the Author

Kausthub Desikachar certainly is his father’s son. For the last twelve years, he has studied yoga under his father, Sri T.K.V. Desikachar, who, in turn, studied for three decades under his father, Sri T. Krishnamacharya. Krishnamacharya’s teachings are widely considered to have fueled the upsurge in yoga’s popularity around the globe. This is no ordinary family tree.

Like his father before him, Kausthub was resistant to yoga at first, but after years of reluctance, eventually had a change of heart. Now twenty-nine, Kausthub credits his parents’ unwillingness to pressure him into yoga, mixed with the ever-presence of his grandfather’s teachings, as the main reasons he began to understand the value of yoga. After completing a master’s degree at The Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences in Pilani, he returned to his hometown of Chennai in 1997, eager to further his studies with his father.

In 2002, after working under his father’s guidance for five years, Kausthub took over the position of executive trustee of the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram, which Sri T.K.V. Desikachar started in his father’s name in 1976.

Now a father himself and a recognized teacher of Vedic chanting and yoga for children, Kausthub is steering a ship that continues to have a direct impact on the way yoga is practised around the world. To date, Kausthub has published three books with his father: The Vedic Chant Companion, The Viniyoga of Yoga and Adi Sankara’s Yoga Taravali, and has published one book on his own: Le Yoga des Jeunes. He has also rendered an audio CD of Patanjali’s yoga sutras.