Interview with Saraswathi from Namarupa

NE: What advice can you give to Ashtanga Yoga teachers who want to teach this method over a long period of time, as you have done?

SR: You don't want to change the method. What you learn in Mysore with us is what you should teach in your place. Guruji has told us so many things; you can't go changing it. If you follow Guruji's method, definitely everything is coming spiritual. It will change minds; everything will change. People like it the way it is - that's why it is spreading everywhere. For forty years nobody has taught like hiim. But in old age - seventy years, eighty years - you keep a few asanas and make them your regular practice. Just do primary, that's enough, but don't stop. You look at the people and see what is suitablele for them. You can choose what their practice should be. Even a very big man can do Surya Namaskara with the correct breathing - you can make him try. Soon it will be much easier for him. If you can't do Surya Namaskara, you can do simple asanas, with breathing and mula bandha and drsthi. Even sick people can do the breathing. Eventually they will feel happy ad their bodies will become light. So many people tell us Guruji has changed their lives with Ashtanga Yoga.

Westerners are very strong people - when they start, they keep going.

From the Fall 2007 issue of Namarupa, excerpt from an interview of Saraswathi Rangaswamy, the daughter of Sri K.Pattabhi Jois by Nick Evans.