Ashtanga Yoga Guru has a body of fans
Traditional-style teacher brings his message to Dallas for workshop

By KARON KARTER / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

Article originally published in the Dallas Morning News, 4/18/03.

Manju Jois was born a crown prince into the world of yoga. His father is Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, the renowned founder of the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore, India.

Manju is the modern-day guru of Ashtanga yoga, and the Dallas yoga community is rolling out the red carpet for a royal visit. Manju, 58, who started teaching yoga at age 15 at the Maharaja Sanskrit College in India, will be in Dallas to conduct a three-day workshop April 25-27.

"We're getting calls from all over Texas and from out of state," says Michelle Mock, director of the yoga program at Goodbody's Wellness Center, co-host of Manju's appearance, along with Living Yoga Dallas.

"To have him here is amazing – he's huge. We hope to enhance and expand the practice of yoga in Dallas. Bringing in people such as Manju will do that." It also raises the knowledge level and ability of instructors, says Ms. Mock, 48, whose 20 instructors teach 60 classes a week in various yoga methods.

"Guru means to bring you out of the dark and into the light – teaching enlightenment, that's what gurus do," she says. "And I do consider Manju a guru."

She says other Dallas fitness and yoga centers are enjoying a surge in the popularity of the ancient discipline. She sees this workshop as one way to unify the local yoga community. Several local instructors have signed up to participate in the three-day workshop, she says.

"Students who come to me with much interest and want to learn traditional yoga, meaning Ashtanga, I teach them," says Manju. "When they, in return, teach traditional yoga, that makes me very happy – to produce teachers that are dedicated to yoga. My yoga is everything to me. I hope to pass that on to my students."

Though Manju sees his role as a teacher of the Ashtanga tradition, he welcomes all levels of experience and all yoga methods at his workshops.

Ashtanga yoga involves synchronizing the breath with a progressive series of postures – a process producing intense internal heat and a profuse, purifying sweat that is said to detoxify muscles and organs.

Students of this method believe the result is improved circulation, a light and strong body and a calm mind. Two benefits of Ashtanga are immediate gains in strength and flexibility.

"If my students just want physical benefits, then that's fine," Manju says. "If they want more from yoga, then they can expect to get in touch with themselves. It doesn't have to be spiritual. It's OK to want just a better body. Yoga is personal and private."

Much of what Manju teaches – a series of movements consisting of primary, intermediate and advanced asanas, or poses – was developed years ago, but still delivers the supple "yoga body." Who hasn't heard Madonna preach its virtues or caught sight of Christy Turlington gracing the cover of Time magazine? Both are devoted Ashtangis, as is singer Sting.

Shri T. Krishnamacharya, "the grandfather of modern yoga," founded Ashtanga Vinyasa in the 1930s. However, Ashtanga remained generally unknown for 40 years until one of the guru's students, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, made Ashtanga (the literal translation means the eight limbs of yoga) a household word. The eight limbs are: moral codes, self-purification, asana (posture), pranayama (breath control), control over the senses, concentration, meditation and contemplation (reaching a blissful state of self-realization).

Manju, who calls Mysore and Encinitas, Calif., home, says that over time, he will "embrace the full legacy" of his father's teachings, including devotion to guru Krishnamacharya, who died in the late '80s at age 101.

"My father is my guru, but he's the world's as well," Manju says. "He was one of the original yogis who studied with Krishnamacharya, the master yogi of all. My goal is to teach and pass down that legacy."

These days, his father, who is 87, travels occasionally to teach Ashtanga, while Manju travels frequently. He sees himself as the humble messenger of yoga. Not that Ashtanga is the only pure yoga.

"Yoga is yoga," he says. "Yoga is a discipline, and it's my lifelong goal to keep yoga as traditional as possible."

Karon Karter is a Dallas free-lance writer, a student of yoga and the author of Complete Idiot's Guide to the Pilates Method (Alpha Books, $16.95).

BEING THERE

The Manju Jois workshop, hosted by Goodbody's Wellness Center and Living Yoga Dallas, will be April 25-27 at Goodbody's, 5301 W. Lovers Lane, Suite 114.

Cost is $185 for non-members of Goodbody's. Bring a well-hydrated and well-rested body; refrain from eating at least two hours before the workshop. When you do eat, choose fresh fruit, vegetables and whole grains. Wear comfortable clothes, and bring your own mat.

To sign up, contact Goodbody's at 214-351-9931. or Living Yoga Dallas, 214-739-1605; go online to www.living yogadallas.com for a schedule of events.