Practice is the Teacher: Ashtanga Yoga & Mysore Memories

It is with deep sadness that we learned of our dear teacher, Sharath Jois, passing away at the age of 53 last week. He left this world doing what he loved - hiking nature and in the company of his beloved students. The loss for his family and the worldwide yoga community is heartbreaking.

We spent many special moments with Sharath over more than 10 trips to Mysore that have shaped and inspired how we teach, practice and live. Here we'd like to honour him by sharing some memories from these precious trips, hoping to inspire you to roll out your mat tomorrow and practice—not just for yourself, but to remember to be kind in the world.

Our First Visit

We first visited Mysore while travelling through India in 2002. We had already been practising Ashtanga Yoga for several years but felt ambivalent about whether the 'Mysore scene' would be for us. Back then classes were held in the 'old shala' in Lakshmipuram, which would later become the family home of our dear friend and chanting teacher, Laksmish Bhat.

We hadn't booked a place in the highly sought after morning schedule but then heard that Sharath was running his own classes in nearby Gokulam, out of his mother's living room. From the first practice there we were hooked. Captivated by Sharath's humility, kindness and gentle touch, we knew there was more to learn with him. And so it began...

Rob and Jean outside the humble 'old shala' in Laksmipuram, Mysore (photo: Laksmish Bhat)

A New Life Direction

We started planning our lives around yearly trips to Mysore to study for anything from 2 to 6 months in what became the 'new shala' in Gokulam. Back then the so-called 'old students' couldn't imagine how Sharath and his grandfather Pattabhi Jois would be able to teach a room of 60 or so students, after so many years working the intimate 12-student shala. Yet somehow, the hundreds of students who flowed through their practice each morning in rolling 'shifts' from 4.30am to 12pm all received exactly what they needed while Sharath adjusted, encouraged and joked with seeming boundless energy. We think this was mostly due to his many years of dedicated yoga practice, but also probably the deliciously sweet South Indian coffee he periodically drank on short breaks in the little office at the back of the shala.

The Gokulam 'new shala' where we spent most of our time practising with Sharath.

Sharath working the room.

So much seemed to happen every morning in the physical, mental, and spiritual crucible of that simple rug clad room. Sweat was wrung from our bodies as myriad emotions and psychic knots dissipated. By the end of each practice we would emerge somehow equal parts invigorated and exhausted. Stumbling out of the 'finishing room' and navigating through the moving and perched bodies of the shala and sweaty little waiting room, we would finally reach the oasis of fresh air outside. If you've been to India then you'll understand that "fresh" is a relative concept. If there promise of "fresh" air wasn't enough, then there was always the sumptuous reward of sweet coconuts to look forward to, lovingly selected,  machete'd and served by Bek and his diligent lineage of coconut wallas.

Jean waiting in line to hydrate with dear friends Val and Borja at the shala coconut stand.

Support Through the Seasons of Our Life

After morning practice, Mysore days were filled with important and difficult decisions - mostly about where to eat and how to balance the busy schedule of lunch dates with dear friends from around the world. 'Stand Up' - the local breakfast joint on Gokulam high street - was always filled with bright eyed yoga students unpacking the practice with each other as they savoured steaming idli and vada. One of the gifts Sharath gave the Ashtanga Yoga community was to create a common space where people from all corners of the globe could practice and connect, forming friendships that would last a lifetime. We feel blessed to have an extended yoga family from Mysore that has seen us grow through the different seasons of our lives - as we moved cities, studied and got PhD's, opened our own 'shala', had kids, and even met our parents when they each visited us in Mysore.

Jean's parent's taking our motorbike for a spin outside the shala while visiting us in Mysore. 

"Cow!" - one of Jesse's first words.

Jamie's favourite Indian meal was paper dosai. He got special treatment wherever he went and this picture made the local paper - the Star of Mysore.

Lunch with friends at one of our favourite houses, the 'White House', which we shared with Natalia, Tim and Kino during a 6-month trip in 2005. This was a break in between shooting photos for the book 'Mysore Style' by Graeme Montgomery.

Cherished Lessons 

One of the lessons we cherish from our time with Sharath is the importance he always placed on family and being a kind person in the world. For Sharath, it didn't matter if you caught your heels in kapotasana or could come back up in karandavasana if you weren't dedicated and loving in your parenting, relationship, or contribution to others. The ever-changing constellations of yoga romances among the Mysore yogis was a source of amusement and sometimes disappointment for Sharath. He loved that we were in a committed relationship throughout our time with him, and brought our kids to India to meet him. He would give special kid-friendly timeslots to us and the other parents, sometime eliciting scowls from non-parents in the waiting room as we skipped the queue. Sharath loved to see how everyone's kids had grown each year and he was so proud of his own children - Shradda and Sambav. On our first trip we hardly knew Sharath but remember how giddy with excitement and pride he was when his daughter Shradda was born while we were there.

Jamie enjoying a coconut on one of his 5 trips to Mysore.

After four trips to India, including six months of intensive study, Sharath 'Authorised' us, or gave us his blessing to teach in 2005. He encouraged us to "go home and open a shala", so in 2006 Yoga Space was born. We returned many more times, and watched as he grew into the role of the lineage holder. This was both a joy and a heavy responsibility for Sharath, from what we saw. He loved the students and being able to spread Ashtanga as far as possible. And he also laboured under the demands of a community hungry for more. We spent a few cherished quiet moments with Sharath, drinking coffee in his home or hiking in the Byron hinterland on one of his tours, where he talked about his love of the practice. He longed for the simplicity of doing his just practice and enjoying nature, his other great love. But as a committed student of the Bhaghavad Gita, he was steadfast in his commitment to doing his dharma and carrying on the Ashtanga lineage after his grandfather died in 2009.

Apart from yoga, one of Sharath's great loves was hiking and taking photos in nature. Appreciating the Byron hinterland while on tour in 2006. 

The Difficult Legacy Sharath Inherited

His success in doing this and fuelling the exponential growth of Ashtanga is undeniable. We, and the rest of the Ashtanga community, owe him a great debt for this. We were devastated to hear of his grandfather's abuses in 2017; Sharath was always so gentle, kind, and respectful toward us. We started to glean in hindsight how difficult it must have been for Sharath to reconcile these abuses with his love for his grandfather and the practice. Given our work in mental health and particularly with survivors of abuse, we chose to step back from the shala in 2018. This was a challenging time given our love for Sharath, but in the end it was the lessons we learnt from him that enabled us to follow our hearts and consciences. And still he greeted us with love, warmth and respect.

The Most Important Thing

The greatest teaching we got from Sharath - that the practice is the real teacher, beyond any person, belief system, or text. It is the practice that fosters insight, understanding and compassion. For this empowering lesson, and the myriad other lessons Sharath helped us to learn by holding space for our practices, we will be forever grateful. This final lesson is one of impermanence and to cherish the life we have, as death comes to all of us, and sometimes much too soon.

One of the sweetest parts of practice in Mysore was the quiet Namaste gesture across the crowded room to Sharath as we left the shala. As Sharath leaves this earthly plane, we again place our hands in prayer and bow our heads in gratitude.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti.  

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