The Parampara is an unbroken line of masters whose teachings and tradition have been faithfully transmitted from teacher to student over a long period of time. Just through such lineage the purity and potency of the teachings can remain intact.
In Hindu spirituality, the Masters (so called Gurus) are able to lead their students beyond their own capacity. True Gurus are also able to impart their level of knowledge and ability to others just by desiring it.
There is sometimes confusion in the West related to the use of the word Guru. A Guru is not a simple teacher, from the Sanskrit Gu=darkness/ignorance, Ru=remove/dissipate, he is the one who removes, dissipates the darkness in our mind by making us walk towards the light. A Guru to be such must have had a Guru himself. It is only by the grace of one's Master that one can achieve one's own ultimate goal.
ASHTANGA YOGA PARAMPARA
Krishnamacharya
A student of Rama Mohan Brahmachari, a yogi, healer, linguist, Vedic scholar, expert in Indian schools of philosophy, researcher and author, born in 1888 in a small village in South India, Sri T. Krishnamacharya was the one of the greatest yogis of the modern age. During his hundred years of life he succeeded in adapting the ancient techniques of yoga to the society of his days by transmitting this practice to anyone who showed an interest in learning. His knowledge of yoga was so vast that he was able to teach each student in a different and totally appropriate way, as well as to heal many people.
Sri K. Pattabhi Jois
Coming from a family of Brahmins, born in July 1915 on a full moon night, he is the founder of the yoga method called Ạṣtāṅga Yoga and the one who must be thanked for having spread it in the West._cc781905-5cde-3194- bb3b-136bad5cf58d_
He began studying the Vedas and rituals at the age of five under the guidance of his father, an astrologer and priest. The meeting with Krishnamacharya at twelve years old marks the standing of his studies of yoga which will last more than twenty years with his master. Aged fifteen he left his family to study Sanskrit at Mysore College. In 1948, he opened his own Institute in Mysore called Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute, to share yoga as learned from his Guru and experience its medical aspects. With enormous theological, philosophical, spiritual as well as medical knowledge, he was one of the most important yogis of the twentieth century.
Paramaguru Sharath Jois
R. Sharath Jois (born Rangaswamy Sharath, September 29, 1971) is the most advanced practitioner ofẠṣtāṅgaYoga and the most eminent authority on its traditional practice. He was born in Mysore, India, and began practicing at the age of seven under the guidance of his grandfather, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. He is the only student to have mastered the six complete series of Ạṣtāṅga Yoga. Current holder of the Ạṣtāṅga Yoga lineage, as well as Director of the Sharath Yoga Center, in Mysore, a place where every year many practitioners have the opportunity to study this method under his guidance.