To the seat of yoga they throng

Meet Jade from Taiwan who has been living in Mysore for the past eight months, waiting for a visa extension of at least two more years.

Then, there’s Sumi from South Korea, who wants to stay here for three more years. They are not alone. A Frenchman with huge tattoos also wants an extended stay in Mysore.

The thread that binds is yoga. All these people, and many others from England, Australia, Egypt, Russia, all throng to Mysore to understand the nuances of yoga and gain mastery over it.

Their guru is Chidananda, who is in his early thirties. It is the norm for those seeking to learn yoga to throng Mysore, but those wanting to learn Ashtanga yoga all seek to learn from Chidananda, who gave up his IT job in a leading international firm to take up teaching yoga full-time. Yoga is no alien to this young man, having been brought up in an atmosphere where his father Venkateshaiah has been teaching hundreds of people yoga from the last 30 years.

Ashtanga yoga has been in practice in Mysore ever since 1935, when the famed yoga expert T Krishnamacharya helped set up a yoga school.

This received much patronage from Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar. He also took up yoga. Later, this tradition was continued by Pattabhijois. It was under his tutelage that B K S Iyengar, the famed and much venerated yoga guru learnt the ropes. Chidananda is one of Iyengar’s students.

Young and willing to learn

The foreign students who throng to him are all mostly youngsters. Most of them aspire to return to their countries and teach yoga themselves.

“I recently decided to learn yoga, and specifically, to come to India and gain mastery over it. When I asked my friend in Germany, she suggested Chidananda’s name. I finally managed to get a visa to come here. I have been living here from the lst six months.”

“There's a lot more to learn,” according to South Korea's Sumi.

Also, Chidananda himself travels abroad to teach yoga.