It’s technically an obituary, but this great Economist article is more like an entertaining profile piece with witty observations on the yoga world peppered throughout. Take, for example, this this well-written opening segment (we had to quote the whole thing because we just like it so much. 
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ONE sure sign that yoga has entered the mainstream of Western society, or at least the urbane bits of it, is that its practitioners have splintered into separate and sometimes competitive tribes. In spas, resorts and studios from Byron Bay, Australia to Big Sur, California, and wherever else one might expect Priuses on the roads and organic kale on the tables, the question is less likely to be “Do you do yoga?” than simply “Ashtanga or Iyengar?”
If the answer is Ashtanga, that has everything to do with Pattabhi Jois—“Guruji”, as his disciples called him. The word Ashtanga, “eight limbs”, originally meant the eight stages yogis must traverse to reach enlightenment, only one of which,asana or “postures”, is the sort of thing Westerners associate with yoga. But used in Mr Jois’s way, which is how most Westerners understand it now, Ashtanga meant stretching, balancing and swinging to the relentless rhythm set by a little, smiling, potbellied man in an undershirt and Calvin Klein shorts, crying “Ekam, inhale! dve, exhale! trini, inhale! catavari, exhale!”, until every member of the class was breathing like Darth Vader and running with rivers of sweat.
The last paragraph of the article also boldly points out some of the controversial contradictions that Jois embodied and which we haven’t seen mentioned in other obituaries. You can read the entire Economist article here.
And while we’re on the topic of Pattabhi Jois, we couldn’t help but point out a completely bizarre article that we came across from the Star of Mysore newspaper in Mysore, India, entitled “Nude Massage to Foreign Lady at Nature Center, Owner Behind Bars“. Apparently a Western male/female couple who were in Mysore for Pattabhi Jois’ memorial reported a local massage practitioner to the police because he allegedly asked the female to undress entirely for her massage. The masseur is now facing sexual harassment charges. We are just dying to know who this Western couple was! Check out the article here.
Glad you liked it, and thanks! I’m the author of that article in The Economist.
In case you’re interested, there was quite a bit of back an forth between my editor and me on this (which is unusual at The Economist), and if you want to follow the different versions, I blogged about the process here.
Namaste
Hi Andreas! Thanks so much for saying hello, and for sharing this fascinating link with us. We really appreciated the behind-the-scenes peek into editing practices at a major publication like The Economist. We found all three drafts of your piece to be informative and interesting, but we could definitely see the difference in emphases between them. And we learned some extremely interesting facts which didn’t make it into the final version of your piece – like the alleged disappointment that Krishnamacharya felt upon seeing Jois’ method years later. So intriguing! If you write more on the topic of yoga, we’d love to read it.
Drishti
With all due respect, feel that the article was unnecessarily harsh in tone and imbalanced. These well worn criticisms of Pattabhi Jois will be familiar to most/all practicing ashtangis. Debate is important and as yogis we must be aware of our teachers shortcomings. An obituary is not the correct place to air such opinions; Pattabhi Jois has revolutionised yoga and the scope of his influence reaches into towns and cities worldwide through his method and the derivatives of power yoga, vinyasa flow. This is his legacy. As such he deserves better than this lopsided article.
With all due respect, and in deepest heartfelt honor to the legacy and tradition Guruji left in his wake, and in honor of the litany of expressions and offshoots of hatha yoga practices that have emanated from Ashtanga, the truth is the truth, and sometimes is hurts.
I feel pressure to start with: “With all due respect…”
BTW, I actually DO respect your view, Jennifer. But I want to make two points:
1) you say that these criticisms are “well worn” and “familiar to most/all practicing Ashtangis”. Well, yes, that they are. But when I write in The Economist (as opposed to this blog, say) I don’t write for Ashtangis. I write for people who almost certainly have never heard of him.
2) You say that “an obituary is not the correct place to air such opinions”. And why not? In the yoga crowd, there seems to be this perception that obituaries are meant to be gushing eulogies, if not hagiographies. We don’t do that at The Economist. Because it would be … boring! We want to be incisive, challenging, cheeky, humorous, irreverent and fair. That’s my dharma as a journalist, and I try to do my dharma as Arjuna did his.
(You would, too.)
With all due respect (
), we find the debate taking place here quite compelling. We appreciate all of your thoughts, and are super thankful to Andreas for engaging. Andreas’ piece in The Economist was absolutely intended for a broad audience, and we respect its candidness and honesty. (And we are quite connected to the Ashtanga scene ourselves and have been practicing this form of yoga for years.) If the article happened to point out some of the controversies surrounding Jois, it also offered much appreciation for his accomplishments and influence. We do understand, though, that reflecting on a person’s life, especially a public figure whom many consider to be their spiritual guru, can certainly be a sensitive issue for some.
Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success.