Ashtanga teachers removed from the List - Manju Jois.

One of the most striking absurdities of Ashtanga's 'Listgate' (the removal of Certified teachers from the former KPJAYI.org list of teachers - now the Sharathjois.com list of teachers), is the removal of Manju Jois' name. What was he even doing on the list in the first place? As Pattabhi Jois son, just as with Saraswati, it goes without saying/listing that he is an authority on the practice as taught by his father. To remove his name strikes me as rather petty, families, what ya gonna do.

Unlike Sharath, who changed his name from Rangaswami to Jois after taking control of the institute on his grandfather's passing, Manju carries the name, he was there when Pattabhi Jois wrote Yoga Mala - Manju tells the story of Pattabhi Jois calling Manju in from playing outside to perform an asana with it's vinyasa while his grandfather wrote down the instructions. We see photos of Sharath in the current edition of Yoga Mala but it was Manju who was actually there during it's writing.

It was also Manju there teaching with his father in the old shala before the westerners came, in fact it was Manju who Norman Allan and David Williams first encountered demonstrating the practice, it was Manju who directed them to his father. It was Manju too who accompanied his father on his first trip to the USA, and Manju who stayed and is the real reason the practice took root in the soil of California and, along with those students of his and his fathers, who became teachers themselves before there was any mention of lists, spread.

Manju has taught ceaselessly ever since, traveling endlessly. I caught up with him twice in Crete and once in London. "Never fear guru's here", he disarmingly called out once, as he entered Kristina's shala in Rethymno. "I'm not a guru, just a messenger", he repeats again and again, evertime anyone tries to place him on a pedestal. At the Confluence in the US a  couple of years back he mentioned that '...parampara is often considered to be passed down from father to son, but that for Pattabhi Jois all his students were his children' thus parampara, for Manju  it seems, passes through all who have learned and pass on the practice.

Clearly Manju is dismissive of how the extended family of his father is being treated of late and that occasionally spills over into a line on fb, family's, who'd have 'em.



WRITTEN BY HELEN CLARE ON 3RD MAY 2016. POSTED IN YOGA CLASSES 
CORNWALL, YOGA LIFESTYLE, YOGA NEWS

Manju Jois, son of the late Pattabhi Jois – founder of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, had some very interesting points to make about modern day yoga this week during a 5 day workshop here in Cornwall. He claimed, with a chuckle but an underlying tone of seriousness, that he is “still trying to clean up the mess that westerners have created”. He is referring to the current yoga world, with it’s myriad forms and styles, Instagram yoga celebrities, books, leggings and other products, all seeming to enhance the yoga experience.

For a start, Manju claims the name Ashtanga Yoga is just a label that westerners have applied to the style taught by his father, Pattabhi Jois. It is still Hatha Yoga, as described in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and was never meant to have been labelled as anything else, just as B.K.S. Iyengar never meant for his ‘style’ to have his name attached to it.

Ashtanga yoga has gained a name for itself as a very strict form of yoga practice, where the yogi must dedicate her or himself to 6 days a week, preferably at 6am, not progressing to the next pose in the series until each one is mastered. “Nonsense!”, exclaims Manju, ‘just enjoy yourself’ he declares. Other than resting on Moon Days, it doesn’t matter what days you do or don’t practise or how many times in a week – it doesn’t even matter if you don’t stick to the series or move on before achieving a particular pose. When asked in the first of our Q & A sessions what we should do if we can’t do a pose, he replies, “Just go on to the next one! Screw that pose and move on to the next one!”

The Ashtanga Primary series is a therapeutic sequence of poses, he went on to explain, but there are certain poses within the second, Intermediate series, that can help facilitate some of the more advanced first series poses. For example, Bharadvajasana and Ardha Matseyendrasana can help with the infamous Marichyasana D. In the very first workshop, Manju led us through the first half of the Primary series followed by the first half of Intermediate – much to everyone’s surprise, but offering a well-rounded practice.

Manju has a passion for chanting the Vedic mantras as part of the yoga practice and wants to impart the equal importance of chanting to asana practice, which is lost by so many of us in the West. Manju’s fear is that yoga has become nothing more than physical exercise – comparable to aerobics because of the way it is taught – diluted and changed from the traditional source. “Keep it the same and you cannot go wrong”, he says referring to the many teachers who are claiming to be teaching in their own style. Continue the tradition and teach what your teacher taught you, and avoid the Ego by striving to invent new things and stand out, is his solution.

Manju is clearly a dedicated yogi and messenger of his father’s, but his answer to so many questions is – stick to the tradition, and just enjoy yourself.


Review: Yoga Chikitsa : Healing Techniques and assistance -Manju Jois
80 pages

Yoga Chikitsa : Healing Techniques and assistance -Manju Jois Amazon Link

from the publisher
The word yoga has three meanings; opportunity, prosperity and unification. Yoga is also the sacred knowledge of how to heal imbalances and eventually become one with ourselves.
When Manju taught yoga with his father Sri K. Pattabhi Jois in Mysore, India in the 1960’s, almost all of the students had some form of disease or illness. Often health care could not help the patient and they were asked to go to yoga as a last resort. They then used the yoga therapy and knowledge of how to heal imbalances through yoga to cure and relieve physical and mental ailments.
This knowledge has never before been taught to western students, so it is with great joy we now open a window into one of the most fundamental, but the least explored parts of Ashtanga yoga.

Yoga Chikitsa : Healing Techniques and assistance -Manju Jois

Yoga Chikitsa : Healing Techniques and assistance -Manju Jois

This is not a regular presentation of the Ashtanga Primary series but rather a collection of asana taken from Primary, Intermediate or Advanced, that Manju has supposedly chosen for their suggested healing benefits.

Yoga Chikitsa : Healing Techniques and assistance -Manju Jois

Yoga Chikitsa : Healing Techniques and assistance -Manju Jois