About AshtangaYoga.info and its author - Arjuna

HI, I'm Arjuna, a Yoga teacher and a Medical Doctor. Some say I'm one of the most dedicated Ashtanga Yoga practitioners Here you can read a bit about me and my approach to Yoga.

After I learned Yoga form from my mother at early age, I restarted Yoga on my own with a daily practice in 1990. In 1999 I discovered Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. At that time, there weren't many people doing Ashtanga Yoga in Germany, my home country and place of resicence. My first contacts with Ashtanga Yoga were at workshops. I travelled to nearly every Ashtanga Yoga workshop within about 500 km from my home city, Nurenberg. I was lucky enough to meet and learn from some of the most well-known Ashtanga Yoga teachers, such as Lieno Miele, John Scott and David Svenson.

I'm fascinated by the grace, power and elegance of the Ashtanga Yoga practice. But to a greater extent I am enthralled by its ancient tradition; each movement, breath and direction of gazing has been practiced for thousands of years, just as it is done today. Being part of a tradition of generations of Yogis that have already practiced all these techniques is a magic thought for me.
Some people claim that Ashtanga Yoga has no tradition at all. They say: "Ashtanga Yoga is just a modern invention". It's true that there are many assertions about Ashtanga Yoga which are difficult, if not impossible to prove. But do we always need evidence?
Somehow life is like a kaleidoscope. If you look through it, you see beautiful colours and amazing geometrical paterns. If you are only concerned with physical reality, you can destroy the kaleidoscope and you will come to the conclusion that all the beauty you saw was mere splinters of odd coloured glass. You will be disillusioned and the dream of the kaleidoscope will be dead.

For me, it feels good to be practising Ashtanga Yoga in what I understand to be the most traditional method. I used to be a bit confused about the differences between different teaching approaches. To get in direct contact with the roots of Ashtanga Yoga I travelled to India to study with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. All other Ashtanga Yoga teachers alive have either learned directly from him or from his students. I hoped - a hope that has been justified by my experience of him - that he was the one who could teach me the most traditional way of Ashtanga Yoga. He always confirms the method he teacjes today is exactly the one he learned from his teacher Sri Tirumali Krishnamacharya.
But it seems that he wasn't very exact in his teaching, because there are a few slight differences between the practices (and therefore teachings) of the various people that have studied with Patabhi Jois at different times.
My Ashtanga Yoga practice represents what I learned from Pattabhi Jois. In the places where I noticed differences, I asked him or his grandson Sharath for the correct method of counting, breathing and moving. However, because I only did the primary and intermediate series under Pattabhis guidance, when I practice the advanced series I use the counting and method I have learned from some senior students of Pattabhi Jois.

I teach what I practise. For me, teaching feels more like sharing my personal practice - I just forward what I have experienced. Hence, I teach Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga in a way I believe to be the most traditional. Nevertheless, the "most traditional" form of Ashtanga Yoga still differs quite a bit from teacher to teacher.
Maybe Ashtanga Yoga is like yeast. If you put a bit of curd in milk, the yeast will transform the milk into curd. You can take your curd to any country, put it into milk and it will happen. - But the curd will always taste a bit different. The yeast is the same, but the milk changes. Likewise, Ashtanga Yoga has a different flavour everywhere, but it is still Ashtanga Yoga.