Received
The student learns through sustained contact with a teacher and method.
Ashtanga Yoga Education · Parampara
A practice carried through relationship. Teacher to student. Generation to generation.
Ashtanga Yoga is more than a sequence of postures. It is a living tradition transmitted through years of direct study, practice, observation, correction, and relationship between teacher and student.
Direct transmission
More than two decades in Mysore
Tradition taught progressively
Krista with her teacher, Sharath Jois.
Lineage becomes personal through years of direct study, practice,
observation, and relationship between teacher and student.
Practiced
Knowledge becomes embodied through repetition, attention, and time.
Passed on
The teacher shares the tradition with care, context, and responsibility.
A living tradition
Lineage gives the practice continuity—not a reason to stop questioning.
The modern Ashtanga Yoga system taught in Mysore developed through T. Krishnamacharya and his student Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, then continued through the Jois family and the students who studied with them directly.
A living lineage is not a museum display. Each generation inherits both the method and the responsibility to understand it deeply, teach it honestly, and meet the people practicing now.
The modern system takes shape
T. Krishnamacharya brought breath, movement, philosophy, and disciplined study together.
In the early twentieth century, T. Krishnamacharya became one of the most influential teachers in modern yoga. His work brought together asana, pranayama, philosophy, concentration, and individualized teaching.
Among his students was Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, whose lifelong teaching in Mysore shaped the progressive Ashtanga Yoga series practiced around the world today.
The teachers who carried the method
A lineage becomes visible through the lives devoted to it.
Each teacher carried the practice through a different generation, while the center of study remained Mysore, India.
Sri K. Pattabhi Jois
A devoted student of Krishnamacharya, Pattabhi Jois dedicated his life to studying and teaching Ashtanga Yoga. In 1948, he established the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore.
The progressive series link specific postures through breath and movement, creating a disciplined practice in which physical effort, concentration, and meditative attention are inseparable.
The method traveled globally because students first traveled to Mysore.
Saraswathi Jois
Pattabhi Jois’s daughter, Saraswathi Jois has played a vital role in the continuation of the lineage. She was among the first women to practice and teach Ashtanga Yoga publicly.
Her teaching has made the practice more visible and accessible to generations of students while maintaining a direct connection to her father’s work in Mysore.
Her place in the lineage widened who could be seen practicing and teaching.
Sharath Jois
Pattabhi Jois’s grandson and Saraswathi’s son, Sharath Jois became the principal teacher of the Ashtanga tradition following Pattabhi Jois’s death in 2009.
Under his leadership, Mysore remained a place of pilgrimage and sustained study for practitioners from around the world. Sharath died unexpectedly on November 11, 2024, in Virginia.
He was a devoted teacher, husband, and father—and he is deeply missed.
Krista Shirley
Krista began her annual pilgrimages to Mysore in 2005, studying first with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois and later with Sharath Jois. In February 2009, she received Level Two Authorization from Pattabhi Jois and Sharath Jois.
As Central Florida’s only Level II Authorized Ashtanga Yoga teacher, Krista brings more than two decades of practice, study, and direct lineage experience to The Yoga Shala in Maitland.
The responsibility is not to reproduce a shape. It is to transmit a method with integrity and care.
From Mysore to Maitland
Lineage becomes real in the way one student is taught today.
At The Yoga Shala, honoring tradition does not mean asking every body to perform an identical practice. Students are introduced progressively to posture, breath, Sanskrit terminology, focused gaze, concentration, and the culture of the method.
Krista’s responsibility is twofold: preserve the intelligence of the practice and teach the actual person standing in front of her.
Sequence with context
Learn not only what comes next, but how each part supports the larger method.
Tradition with discernment
Respect the source while responding thoughtfully to structure, history, injury, and capacity.
Practice before performance
Develop breathing, focus, familiarity, and steadiness rather than chasing impressive shapes.
What is actually passed from teacher to student?
More than posture order.
The sequence matters, but lineage also carries language, rhythm, attention, philosophy, standards of practice, and ways of seeing.
Breath
The organizing principle that links movement, pace, effort, and attention.
Vinyasa
The precise relationship between breath, movement, entry, state, and exit.
Drishti
Focused gaze that gives the eyes and mind a deliberate place to rest.
Sanskrit
The names, counts, and language that connect practice across generations.
Observation
The teacher learns to see the student—not only the outward posture.
Responsibility
Teach honestly, remain a student, and avoid reducing tradition to status or performance.
Continue exploring the method
Lineage is understood through study and practice together.
Begin here
Ashtanga Yoga for Beginners
See how the traditional method is introduced progressively and individually.
Explore the beginner guide → Understand the practiceAshtanga Classes at The Yoga Shala
Explore Mysore-style Ashtanga, Beginner Mysore, and guided class options.
Explore class options → Study the languagePrimary Series Vinyasa Count
Review the Sanskrit names, states, breaths, and traditional count.
Open the reference →Common questions
Understanding lineage without turning it into mythology.
Lineage refers to the direct transmission of a practice through generations of teachers and students. It includes the sequence, techniques, language, context, and responsibility carried through sustained study and relationship.
No. At The Yoga Shala, the method is honored while instruction is adapted thoughtfully to the person’s experience, structure, injury history, goals, and capacity. Modification is different from teaching without understanding the method.
Authorization was granted within the Mysore lineage to students who had completed sustained study and were given permission to teach. Krista received Level Two Authorization from Pattabhi Jois and Sharath Jois in February 2009.
No. You may begin with breath, Sun Salutations, and foundational postures. Understanding develops gradually through practice, conversation, terminology, and continued study.
No. Students can learn locally from a qualified teacher who has studied the method deeply and continues to treat the tradition with honesty and care. Travel to Mysore is meaningful for some practitioners, but it is not a prerequisite for beginning.
Join the living tradition
The next link in the lineage is not a photograph. It is a student who begins.
Start with four classes for $50 and experience a traditional practice taught with personal attention, progressive learning, and respect for both the source and the person in front of us.
