Tirumalai Krishnamacharya
Indian yoga teacher, scholar, Ayurvedic healer, and the man widely called 'the father of modern yoga' — the source teacher whose three best-known students (B. K. S. Iyengar, K. Pattabhi Jois, and Indra Devi) carried his synthesis of asana, breath, and Sanskrit scripture to virtually every corner of the postural-yoga world. Born 1888 in Karnataka into a long Sri Vaishnava lineage tracing to the saint Nathamuni, Krishnamacharya was a polymath: he held seven degrees, mastered six Indian darśanas, was fluent in Sanskrit and several Indian languages, was a celebrated Vedic chanter, and a deeply trained Ayurvedic practitioner. From 1933 to 1955 he served as yoga teacher in residence at the Mysore Palace, where he developed the dynamic vinyasa-based asana practice that became the seed of modern yoga. After 1955 he taught privately in Madras (Chennai) until his death in 1989 at age 100, transmitting an increasingly therapeutic, individualized form of yoga to his son T. K. V. Desikachar and other students.
quotes in library
Quotes by Tirumalai Krishnamacharya
110 quotes“Patanjali's yoga is the foundation.”
“Memorize the sutras. Live the sutras.”
“They will guide you across decades.”
“The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are 196 brief verses.”
“Each contains a lifetime of meaning.”
“Read one each day. Sit with it. Live it.”
“In a year you will have completed two cycles. In ten years, twenty.”
“And the sutras will still be revealing themselves to you.”
“Health is more than absence of disease.”
“Health is the ease of the whole person — body, breath, mind, and spirit.”
“Yoga aims at health in this larger sense.”
“Combined with Ayurveda, yoga is the most complete health system.”
“Both come from the same source.”
“Both serve the same end.”
“In old age, simpler practice is better.”
“In youth, more vigorous practice is appropriate.”
“In middle age, balance.”
“Adapt your yoga to your stage of life.”
“Practice slowly.”
Explore More Teachers
Discover wisdom from 500+ spiritual teachers across all traditions.
Browse All Teachers