Who Are The Top Yoga Instructors in India?

Who Are The Top Yoga Instructors In India?

Yoga is considered as an intrinsic part of India's health science. It is a 5000year-old holistic approach to mental as well as physical well-being. This ancient mind-body intervention practice was introduced by the yoga instructors in India who were ancient sages and has now become very much popular even in western countries and America.

Yoga has gained wide acceptance throughout the world. Everybody gladly recognizes and considers India as the country where yoga originated. They wholeheartedly believe that the journey of yoga started from Lord Siva who passed it on to ‘Adiyogi’ which was then handed over to ‘Adiguru’ from where it spread all over the world from India.

It is an unforgettable fact that during the past centuries eminent yoga instructors in India have dedicated their life for the cause of yoga trying to unearth the meaning of yoga in its original form in which was transmitted long back.

Years of perseverance, discipline, strong determination, and practice from the part of yoga instructors in India were involved in the evolution of a strong persona suitable for training and practicing and attracting people across various countries.

Selecting the best and most inspiring yoga instructors in India will naturally be a difficult task as one will have to choose the best teachers based on their learning, yogic journey, and experience in asanas, yogic meditation, etc. One also will have to consider diverse sections like therapy and training which are matters of prime importance in the present scenario.

Tirumali Krishnacharya Thirumalai Krishnacharya is one of the renowned yoga instructors in India. He is also known as the father of modern yoga. He is the force behind the revival of hatha yoga and is also the architect of Vinyasa. He has immense knowledge in both yoga and Ayurveda. He mixes both Ayurveda and yoga proportionately and uses them for promoting yoga. He has also performed wonderful feats like stopping his breath. His book named Yoga ‘Makaranda’ was written in 1934 and ‘Yoga Rahasya’ was written in 1941. He has also written several poetic compositions and essays. Famous and influential yoga instructors in India like Indira Devi 1899-2002) and B.K.S. Iyengar are his students. He has acquired degrees in logic, philosophy, philology, divinity and music. He was offered the most revered position of Acharya according to Srivaishnava Sampradaya. But he has declined it as he preferred to stay in his native place with his family.

Ram Jain He is a living yoga maestro and the founding director of Arhanta yoga ashrams in India and the Netherlands. From the year 2009, Arhanta ashrams under his patronage have trained more than 4000 yoga teachers.

He was born in Delhi, India in a traditional Jain family. He started his studies of Vedic and yogic philosophy at the age of 8 when he was doing his primary education as part of the primary education. He has deep knowledge in classical hatha yoga. He is also well-versed in Indian scriptures of the ancient days. He was fortunate to work with various physiology and anatomy experts and has developed special skills in modifying, adjusting, and teaching of yoga.

Presently he is engaged in teaching different yoga styles like hatha yoga, yin yoga, Vinyasa yoga, and meditation as well as yoga Nidra. For a good part of a year, he teaches in India and for the remaining part, he teaches in the Netherlands where his family consisting of his wife and two children are living.

Jain is a well disciplined and creative yoga expert. His teaching style is unique and his asana correction and modification techniques are superb.

He believes in personal supervision and individual attention. He believes that the duty of a teacher is to support his students and let them achieve their goals. His teaching style has evolved from his personal talent and experience and he is very adept in explaining complex Vedic ideas in a simple and easy-tounderstand manner. This rare quality has made him one of the best yoga instructors in India.

Swami Sivananda Swami Sivananda was a prominent vedantic and yogic scholar and a Hindu spiritual teacher. He was born in Tirunelveli in the year 1887. Though he was a physician by profession he took up monasticism later. He founded the Divine LIfe Society and Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy. More than 200 books were written by him on his favourite subject yoga.

His disciple Vishnudevananda has propagated a new style of yoga introduced by his teacher and known as Sivananda yoga This style has now spread to many countries through the Vedanta centers established in his name in those countries, though these centers are not part of Sivananda Ashrams run by his Divine Life Society. Swami Sivananda, one of the greatest yoga instructors in India attained his ‘Mahasamadhi’ also known as the departure of a refined soul, in the year 1963.

B K S Iyengar B.K.S. Iyengar is a student of Krishnmacharya. He is the person who was behind the popularisation of yoga in western countries. He has to fight a lot of diseases that were always burdening his life. It made him feeble and weak. He

tried to find his solace in yoga. His conscientious dedication to yoga gave him the ability to introduce what is now known as Iyengar yoga. Even at the age of 95 when he bid farewell to the world, he was able to do shirshasana for 30 minutes.

In the year 1952, he had an opportunity to teach yoga to the famous violinist Yehudi Menuhin. This made Menuhin write a forward to Iyengar’s treatise named ‘Light on Yoga’ which contained around 600 photographs of Iyengar in different yoga poses and asanas. This gave a great break to yoga in Europe and America.

Iyengar, one of the greatest yoga instructors in India, started the Ramamani Iyengar yoga institute in memory of his late wife. This was run with the assistance of his son and daughter. By the beginning of the 21st century, this yoga center has grown tremendously with around 200 sub-yoga centers, thousands of yoga teachers, and millions of students around the globe.

K Pattabhi Jois A Sanskrit scholar and one of the greatest yoga instructors in India, Sri.K Pattabhi Jois was instrumental in developing and popularizing the vinyasa style which is known as Ashtanga Yoga. He started the Ashtanga Yoga Research Centre in Mysore, India. Pattabhi Jois along with B.K.S Iyengar were the great yoga instructors in India and the pioneers of establishing and propagating yoga as an exercise and wellness practice in the 20th century.

From 1976 to 1978 he was an Honorary Professor at a Government College of Indian Medicine. He was also fortunate in saving the then Maharaja of Mysore from an incurable and chronic disease. The Maharaja was very happy and became his patron and allowed him to start a Yogasala in JagMohan Palace, Mysore. In the year 1948, he started Ashtanga Yoga Research Center at their home town Lakshmipuram.

He went to South America in 1974 to deliver a lecture at the international yoga conference. In 1975, he inaugurated Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. For the next 20 years, he regularly visited the US to teach yoga to thousands of American people. Iyengar, one of the greatest yoga instructors in India wanted to bring back ‘Parampara’ which means the passing of knowledge from a teacher to his student. There was one student named Having who stayed with him for many years as part of his ‘Parampara’ and secured his lineage.