Sri K. Pattabhi Jois of Mysore India (the Worlds leading master of Astanga Yoga).
 

Known affectionately by his students as Guruji, Jois began his studies in 1927. In 1946 he founded the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore, India, to practice the curative value of Yoga as described by the ancient texts. Ashtanga focuses on the union between body, mind and spirit. It is an intense, yet very empowering system of Hatha Yoga which demands hard work, but yields remarkable results. The benefits are far-reaching and rapid. Detoxifying, healing, flexibility and fitness are quickly achieved. It must be practiced with dedication. As Guruji says, "Yoga is 99% practice, and 1% theory.) Shri K. Pattabhi Jois was born on July 26th 1915, on a day of full moon, in a small village near Somnāthpur-Karnataka-South India. His father, Krishna Pattabhi Jois, was a famous astrologer in the service of the Maharaja of Mysore.

After his primary, and secondary studies, he began to study Sanskrit, and Vedic philosophy at the Maharajah Sanskrit College in Mysore. As soon as he got his diploma, he started teaching Sanskrit at the University of Mysore where he stayed until 1973. He spent another three years teaching at the AyurVedic College then retired.

He started yoga in 1927 at the age of 12. He was living in a small village near Mysore, so for the first three years he traveled 30 km each day to go to Mysore to his guru, Shri T. Krishnamacharya, who taught Jois for 25 years ( from 1927 to 1952 ), asking him to help spread an original method of yoga called Yoga Korunta.

Shri K. Patthabhi Jois started teaching yoga in India in 1937, and later taught in the U.S.A., and Europe. He now has students from all over the world who come to study this method of yoga. In 1942, he is the founder and director of the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute of Mysore ( 87/1, I cross, Lakshmipuram, Mysore - 570 004 - Karnataka, South India ).
Four years later, in 1946, he founds the Ashtanga Research Institute where he experiments, and develops the curative virtues of yoga. Then from 1976 to 1978 he is appointed professor emeritus of Yoga at the Governmental College of Indian medicine in Mysore.

Shri K. Pattabhi Jois was married. His lovely wife, Amma, died in December 1997. She always had a smile, a comfort or a benediction on her lips and she prepared coffee that was absolutely delicious. She had also studied the ancient yoga texts with Shri T. Krishnamacharya. They had three children, two boys and a girl.

Their eldest sun died in an accident on the Kāverī Dam. Manju, their son, teaches yoga at Emanitas in California. Saraswati, their daughter, still lives in Mysore. She is married to a schoolteacher and she too, teaches yoga.
His grandson, Sharath Rangaswamy, son of Sarasvatī, is now assistant director of the Institute, helping his grandfather, Shri K. Pattabhi Jois, to teach the principles of the Yoga Korunta.