from Ramaswami's Feb 2011 Newsletter, 'Anthony's Nudge' (previous post)
from Ramaswami's Feb 2011 Newsletter, 'Anthony's Nudge' (previous post)
"Sometime in the late 70s I guess, Krihnamacharya Yoga Mandiram was started. As I had mentioned earlier I was one of the three founder trustees, the other two being Sri Desikachar himaself, the Managing Trustee and Sri Kuppuswamy, Desikachar's classmate. We all contributed some money for the corpus fund. I think Sri Krishnamacharya also gifted some money from his savings.
Sri Desikachar started, I think, a 2 year yoga program at the Mandiram and I was one of the first teachers, but it was for a very short period. I was also involved in the creation of the syllabus, some legal leg work for creating the trust. During the initial stgae one of Desikachar's friends asked Desikachar to write a series of articles for an almost a century year old Indian English magazine called Indian Review. He was very busy at that time and with the consent of his father he asked me if I could write the articles on behalf of the Krishnmacharya Yoga Mandiram. I started writing the articles. I would write in long hand. It would be given to Desikachar who after reading it would read it to his father at a time convenient to both of them. This arrangement worked well as both lived in the same house. If there were any suggestion of my Guru, Desikachar would convey it to me. I was the trustee for a few months only, so the articles bore my name as the trustee for the first few issues . First two issues I wrote about the Yoga Sutras and then decided to write about my Guru at the instance of the Editor of the magazine. I had known nothing at all, about my Guru, about his past-- where and what he studied and other details. Desikachar talked to his reluctant father and gave me some informaation. Based on that I wrote the article. The magazine published it under the caption "About Sri T Krishnamacharya, My Guru". It also contained a beautiful black and white photo of my Guru in Padmasana with straight body (rijukaya) head slightly bent and the palms together in perfect anjali mudra.
Well this article was read to him and so I may say that the information contained in it would be correct. In it I wrote as follows
" ....As a boy Sri Krishnamacharya's teacher was his father Srinivasa Tatacharya. a priest and a religious teacher who gave his son a thoroughly traditional education and had begun instructing him in the elements of yoga when his untimely passing away interrupted his deep study unfortunately. At the age of twelve therefore Sri Krishna made his way to Mysore City and there joined Mysore Maharaja Sanskrit College . At the same time he took up the study of Sanskrit grammar (Vyakarana)and logic (nyaya) under Krishna Brahmatantra , the Swami of Parakala Mutt and the Guru of the Maharaja.
After five years of study he wended his way to Kashi and continued his studies under the great scholars,Vamacharya Bhattacharya,Ganganatha Jha, and other well known scholar teachers of Indian philosophy in the early years of the century. In the next 15 years Krishnamacharya was awarded several degrees, including Samkhya Yoga Siromani, Mimamsa Tirtha, Nyayacharya, Vedanta Vageesa, , Nyaya Ratna and Veda Kesari from Universities as Kashi Hindu University, Allahabad, Calcutta, Baroda and Darbhanga Universities. "
These titles when translated sound very nice. Samkhya siromani would be crest-jewel of Samkhya. Mimamsa Tirta wuld be Master of Mimamsa philosophy. Nyayacharya would be The masterguide of Nyaya philosophy, Vedanta Vageesa would be Lord of exposition of Vedanta philosophy, Nyayaratna would be jewel of Nyaya philosophy, Veda Kesari would be Lion of the Vedas. I have heard that he was an excellent debator== in different languages especially Sanskrit-- of Vedic philosophies and equally highly respected religious expert.
My complete article referred to, can be accessed --thanks to my good friend, a senior student of Sri Desikacharar and a well known yoga teacher, Paul Harvey.
http://www.yogastudies.org/wp-content/uploads/S_Ramaswami_About_TK.pdf
In the same article I had written about his Yoga studies which is well known. He taught not only asanas to his students and many people came to him to study the various texts. In fact after teaching me a wide range of asanas follwing the vinyasakrama consisting of hundreds of vinyasas built around scores of asanas he went on to teach several of the ancient texts he deemed necessary to teach us. Most people know of Krishnamacharya only as an asana exponent . Some even seem to suggest that his yoga system of vinyasas appear to be borrowed from western gymnastics. Unfortunately very little is known about his wide range of teachings and contributions. When I first started teaching in the West I was appalled by the complete lack of information about the comprehensiveness of his teachings and not restricted to just asanas. It is still the impressions of long term yoga practitioners even of the Krishnamacharya lineage"
"...I wrote about the Yoga Sutras and then decided to write about my Guru at the instance of the Editor of the magazine. I had known nothing at all, about my Guru, about his past-- where and what he studied and other details. Desikachar talked to his reluctant father and gave me some informaation. Based on that I wrote the article. The magazine published it under the caption "About Sri T Krishnamacharya, My Guru". It also contained a beautiful black and white photo of my Guru in Padmasana with straight body (rijukaya) head slightly bent and the palms together in perfect anjali mudra.
Well this article was read to him and so I may say that the information contained in it would be correct".
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| Links to more articles on Krishanamacharya at Paul Harvey's Centre for Yoga Studies |
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| Links to more articles on Krishanamacharya at Paul Harvey's Centre for Yoga Studies |
 |
| Links to more articles on Krishanamacharya at Paul Harvey's Centre for Yoga Studies |
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| Links to more articles on Krishanamacharya at Paul Harvey's Centre for Yoga Studies |
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| Links to more articles on Krishanamacharya at Paul Harvey's Centre for Yoga Studies |
Link to more articles an different aspects of yoga by Ramaswami for the Indian Times at Paul Harvey's Center for yoga studies resource bank
"Sometime in the late 70s I guess, Krihnamacharya Yoga Mandiram was started. As I had mentioned earlier I was one of the three founder trustees, the other two being Sri Desikachar himaself, the Managing Trustee and Sri Kuppuswamy, Desikachar's classmate. We all contributed some money for the corpus fund. I think Sri Krishnamacharya also gifted some money from his savings.
Sri Desikachar started, I think, a 2 year yoga program at the Mandiram and I was one of the first teachers, but it was for a very short period. I was also involved in the creation of the syllabus, some legal leg work for creating the trust. During the initial stgae one of Desikachar's friends asked Desikachar to write a series of articles for an almost a century year old Indian English magazine called Indian Review. He was very busy at that time and with the consent of his father he asked me if I could write the articles on behalf of the Krishnmacharya Yoga Mandiram. I started writing the articles. I would write in long hand. It would be given to Desikachar who after reading it would read it to his father at a time convenient to both of them. This arrangement worked well as both lived in the same house. If there were any suggestion of my Guru, Desikachar would convey it to me. I was the trustee for a few months only, so the articles bore my name as the trustee for the first few issues . First two issues I wrote about the Yoga Sutras and then decided to write about my Guru at the instance of the Editor of the magazine. I had known nothing at all, about my Guru, about his past-- where and what he studied and other details. Desikachar talked to his reluctant father and gave me some informaation. Based on that I wrote the article. The magazine published it under the caption "About Sri T Krishnamacharya, My Guru". It also contained a beautiful black and white photo of my Guru in Padmasana with straight body (rijukaya) head slightly bent and the palms together in perfect anjali mudra.
Well this article was read to him and so I may say that the information contained in it would be correct. In it I wrote as follows
" ....As a boy Sri Krishnamacharya's teacher was his father Srinivasa Tatacharya. a priest and a religious teacher who gave his son a thoroughly traditional education and had begun instructing him in the elements of yoga when his untimely passing away interrupted his deep study unfortunately. At the age of twelve therefore Sri Krishna made his way to Mysore City and there joined Mysore Maharaja Sanskrit College . At the same time he took up the study of Sanskrit grammar (Vyakarana)and logic (nyaya) under Krishna Brahmatantra , the Swami of Parakala Mutt and the Guru of the Maharaja.
After five years of study he wended his way to Kashi and continued his studies under the great scholars,Vamacharya Bhattacharya,Ganganatha Jha, and other well known scholar teachers of Indian philosophy in the early years of the century. In the next 15 years Krishnamacharya was awarded several degrees, including Samkhya Yoga Siromani, Mimamsa Tirtha, Nyayacharya, Vedanta Vageesa, , Nyaya Ratna and Veda Kesari from Universities as Kashi Hindu University, Allahabad, Calcutta, Baroda and Darbhanga Universities. "
These titles when translated sound very nice. Samkhya siromani would be crest-jewel of Samkhya. Mimamsa Tirta wuld be Master of Mimamsa philosophy. Nyayacharya would be The masterguide of Nyaya philosophy, Vedanta Vageesa would be Lord of exposition of Vedanta philosophy, Nyayaratna would be jewel of Nyaya philosophy, Veda Kesari would be Lion of the Vedas. I have heard that he was an excellent debator== in different languages especially Sanskrit-- of Vedic philosophies and equally highly respected religious expert.
My complete article referred to, can be accessed --thanks to my good friend, a senior student of Sri Desikacharar and a well known yoga teacher, Paul Harvey.
http://www.yogastudies.org/wp-content/uploads/S_Ramaswami_About_TK.pdf
In the same article I had written about his Yoga studies which is well known. He taught not only asanas to his students and many people came to him to study the various texts. In fact after teaching me a wide range of asanas follwing the vinyasakrama consisting of hundreds of vinyasas built around scores of asanas he went on to teach several of the ancient texts he deemed necessary to teach us. Most people know of Krishnamacharya only as an asana exponent . Some even seem to suggest that his yoga system of vinyasas appear to be borrowed from western gymnastics. Unfortunately very little is known about his wide range of teachings and contributions. When I first started teaching in the West I was appalled by the complete lack of information about the comprehensiveness of his teachings and not restricted to just asanas. It is still the impressions of long term yoga practitioners even of the Krishnamacharya lineage"