Nathmuni’s Secret of Devotion and the Yoga of Krishnamacharya: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

T. Krishnamacharya, the legendary yogi who passed away in 1989 at the age of 101 in Chennai, South India, is renowned in the West for his unparalleled contribution to the dissemination of yoga. His name became known in the West first through his students K. Pattabhi Jois and B. K. S. Iyengar, who studied with him when they were young men, and later his son, T. K. V. Desikachar, who popularized the teachings that Krishnamacharya had given in the latter part of his life. Little, though, has been directly said in the available Western literature of the influence that his role as a devout follower of the Srivaishnava Sampradaya may have had on his teaching—but there are several publications that have been released by the Krishmacharya Yoga Mandiram that pay testament to the staunchness of Krishnamacharya’s devotion to Srivaishnavism, a devotion that could have only informed the foundation of what he must have felt was the essence of yoga.