T.K.V. Desikachar

Early on the morning of August 8, 2016, Sri T.K.V. Desikachar, son of the great yogi Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, passed away in Chennai, in the Tamil Nadu, a province of southern India.

Those whose written accounts are compiled here were his personal students for many years. Some of them, Indians, taught alongside him at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram for 20, 30, or 40 years. Others, Europeans, belong to the “pioneers” who, beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, went to Madras, sometimes yearly, to study with him. Some of them had first received the teaching of Krishnamurti, in London or in Switzerland, and from there went to Madras, wishing to meet this young teacher, with whom Krishnamurti himself had studied yoga. This book bears witness, then, to the fifty years of teaching they received, and to friendship.

Beyond the content of that teaching, these accounts reflect a page in the history of transmitting that he “wrote”, in his way, with the deep and specific attention and friendship that he gave to each. Thus there is no heritage, strictly speaking, only loyalties that, through experience, reflection, continuous research, and sharing, continue to recount the constantly revitalized story of this lifelong art, which is yoga.

Béatrice Viard