T. Krishnamacharya (1888-1989)

This sage of the Vaishnavas, Sri T. Krishnamacharya, lives in a house, a home, though traditionally sages have spent their later life living in the forest, forsaking all attachments of Earth. His purpose is to be a living example of the principle that one can live with the family while still maintaining the tradition of the forest sages, just as the leaves of a lotus plant may live in the water yet never get wet. Because of his disciplined living, the signs of his great age cannot be seen on him. He makes good use of his education, his experience, and his knowledge of Yoga exercises to cure the physical and mental ills of humanity. Let us hear the story of his youth in his own words:"

"Let us look at his usual day. Whether you believe it or not, this old man gets up at one o'clock in the morning. Anybody is welcome to wait on the verandah and see that he gets up at one o'clock in the morning. And one o'clock in the morning is something to us, I mean it is like a terror to get up at one o'clock, and he is 93. He prepares his own tea, and then he practises. I did not believe that, until I saw, because he is staying with me, that he practises his yoga asana and pranayama every day. In fact more than once every day, including headstand and padmasana. I am mentioning padmasana you see, because we are all sitting on chairs. Headstand, padmasana, everything he does, and at five o'clock the bell rings and we know that he has started his puja. And the bell is not one of these small bells like they have on the dining-room tables. I am sure that bell must weigh 11/2 or 2 kilos, because it is made of bronze. It must meet certain specifications, and the bell must produce the tone of OM, so it is quite heavy. I often wonder whether I could ever do this for five minutes, like he does. He goes on waking God -- come on, get up, get up -- also with some recitation, and all the family at that time curses him because he is waking all of us. At 6:30, when he has done all the chantings (it is very interesting to watch him doing these,) he makes his own breakfast. Then I go to see him at seven o'clock in the morning and we chant for one hour. And then sometimes he has somebody at eight o'clock for chanting; somebody else at nine. So he will be teaching this vedic chanting for three hours, after one hour of puja. You must try to chant for fifteen minutes, it is so tiring, but he manages. He has a great will. And then, if he feels like going out, he hires his own rickshaw. I'm sure some of you know that; he just goes like anybody else. I go by car for very short distances, sometimes he walks to get his rickshaw.

I am telling you this because what he says is based on what he does. He says that knowledge is not always memory, every day there must be something new. And I think his teaching seems to confirm that. He has developed so much in his teaching, made so many changes, that I don't think anybody can identify 'Krishnamacharya's style'. One person will say one thing, and a few minutes later somebody else will say, no, no, this is what he taught me. So, fortunately it solved the problem of the 'Krishnamacharya style', unless you are unwilling to see, of course."