T. K. V. Desikachar
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Search complete. 8 mentions across 7 episodes found for "T. K. V. Desikachar".
Sep 7, 2026
J. BrownHOST
I've witnessed healing.
J. BrownHOST
I saw an interview with Desikachar not that long ago, and he was talking about how, you know, he was sharing the process of being in the room with someone and relating to them and doing the breathing and moving practice.
J. BrownHOST
And at some point he said something like, I'm not quoting it exactly, but it was like, something happens, right? That's this healing process.
J. BrownHOST
And he said, I don't know why it happens, but it happens.
J. BrownHOST
It was when very popular vinyasa yoga came about, and I was always trying to bring certain principles of practice into that context.
J. BrownHOST
Like, can I teach these personal practice principles that Desikachar was teaching in a class that looks like a vinyasa yoga class? At some point, I let go of trying to fit to that, And it was all about much more trying to legitimize it.
J. BrownHOST
We downplayed the chanting, and it was about functional movement.
J. BrownHOST
You're reaching for something on the top shelf.
22 MINS LATER
Karen PattersonGUEST
Yeah.
J. BrownHOST
So I get it.
J. BrownHOST
And that's what Desikachar yoga was very much about.
J. BrownHOST
It was about an interpersonal relationship between two people, essentially.
Lauren ToberHOST
Georg Feuerstein, in his massive book called The Yoga Tradition, warned that tapas must not be confused with what he calls harmful self-castigation or self-torture.
Lauren ToberHOST
And TKV Desikachar said simply that tapas must not cause suffering.
Lauren ToberHOST
And there is a teaching in the Buddha's story that really illustrates this.
Lauren ToberHOST
Before his enlightenment, the Buddha is said to have practiced the most extreme austerities for years, punishing his body, depriving himself, really pushing himself, and it didn't get him where he wanted to go.
Stephen BodianHOST
Um, and, um, he did in fact study with the great, uh, yoga master, uh, Krishnamacharya in India- Yes, he did.
Stephen BodianHOST
Yeah ... who was the, uh, who was the, uh, father-in-law of, uh, BKS, uh, Desi- uh, Iyengar, and the, I think the father- Mm-hmm ... of Desikachar, and, um, uh, the, the, the kind of the initiator of a long lineage, a, esteemed lineage- Mm ... of Hatha yoga.
Stephen BodianHOST
And, uh, so he inco-incorporated the asanas into his approach- Mm ...
Stephen BodianHOST
but he also worked, uh, in, uh, an energetic yoga tradition from the, uh, Kashmir Shaivite tradition, which I'll have you talk about.
Lauren ToberHOST
But there are broader understandings, and they're the ones that I find most useful for many of us living the lives that we actually live.
Lauren ToberHOST
Now, in his book, The Heart of Yoga, it's an incredible book, T.KV. Desikachar, he describes brahmacharya as forming relationships that foster our understanding of the highest truths and says that if sensual pleasure is part of these relationships, we just take care to keep our direction and not get lost.
Lauren ToberHOST
He also places it within the traditional stages of life, the child, the student, the householder raising a family, and then the renunciate later in life.
Lauren ToberHOST
And he makes the point that everything has its place and its time, including partnership and sex and family life.
Lizzie LasaterGUEST
So in the United States, I would say, what the main idea most people think of when they think of yoga, um, is, comes from a certain lineage called Krishnamacharya.
Lizzie LasaterGUEST
He was a teacher, and then he had several star pupils like Pattabhi Jois, and B.K.S. Iyengar, Desikachar.
Lizzie LasaterGUEST
These teachers then developed their systems.
Lizzie LasaterGUEST
Anything that you're doing that's called Hatha yoga, Flow yoga, Vinyasa yoga, Ashtanga yoga, Iyengar yoga, any of those type of words, they all come back to this one man, Krishnamacharya.
Suzanne DunningGUEST
And periodically, I would feel, and increasingly over the years, the authenticity of what I had to offer, whether that was sequence or a philosophy or an idea or whatever, a way of teaching.
Suzanne DunningGUEST
But I always felt some sense of like falling back to, especially when I needed to teach something to teachers, make it conscious of what are we teaching and why are we teaching it? I felt like I was pushed back to old philosophies that honestly stem back to like the roots of these original dudes, Iyengar, Krishnamacharya, Desikachar.
Suzanne DunningGUEST
Sivananda, like these primary little like dozen dudes that we could sit in a room and I'd be like, God bless you all.
Suzanne DunningGUEST
I bow to your feet.