If you want to understand more about your yoga practice, it might be helpful to learn about yoga gurus. A few key individuals helped create the modern world of yoga.
Understanding Yoga

A guru is someone who directs you from exact experience. However, when the word "guru" is used in relation to yoga, many people confuse the reference with religion.

It's important to note that yoga is not a religion. You do not need to hold a belief in order to practice yoga. However, you may discover that what you believe becomes more defined and more powerful because of your dedication to yoga. Noted yoga scholar Georg Feuerstein says, "If we genuinely desire to know ourselves more profoundly and make sense of the world in which we live, yoga is a reliable, well-tested vehicle."

This was the message of the early yoga gurus. Practice with purpose and you will reveal who you are, what matters most to you. When you attain absolute stillness, you are complete.

Yoga Gurus to Know

Many of the leading yoga gurus passed away years ago. Fortunately, their teachings live on through some of their students who are now famous teachers and through the practice of modern yoga.

Ramamohan Brahmachari
Considered to be one of the last true Vedic sadhus, or ascetic monks of India, Brahmachari lived in a Tibetan cave in the 19th century. Legend has it that he knew 10,000 asanas and that he lived to be 150 years old. Krishnamacharya studied with Brahmachari for nearly eight years and learned approximately 3,000 asanas and the meaning of the Yoga Sutras.

Sri T.K.V. Desikachar
This son of Krishnamacharya was born in 1938. He first became an engineer before following his calling of yoga therapy. He is considered to be the preeminent expert of yoga therapy. He's authored numerous books, including The Heart of Yoga and is the co-founder of the Krishnamacharya Healing and Yoga Foundation.

Indra Devi
While it's true that the majority of yoga gurus and students were male, Indra Devi was a primary exception. Born Eugenie Peterson in Russia, she studied with Krishnamacharya in India in the late 1920s and early 1930s. She migrated west to the United States, where she opened a yoga studio in Hollywood. She was also instrumental in introducing yoga to the people of South America. She authored many books, including Yoga for You. She died in 2002 at the age of 102.

Sri K. Pattabhi Jois
Krishna Pattabhi Jois began studying with Krishnamacharya in 1927 and quickly became an extension of his guru's teachings, never swaying off the main method. Over his many years as a guru, Pattabhi Jois taught tens of thousands of students. He is the founder of the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore, India. He died in 2009 at the age of 94.

Sri B.K.S. Iyengar
Born in 1918, Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar was an incredibly sickly child. As a teen, still rather ill, he studied yoga with his brother-in-law, Krishnamacharya for two years. Through yoga, Iyengar's health improved. However, the two did not get along, and Iyengar's guru told him to go off and teach on his own. In his practice, Iyengar focused on proper posture alignment and modifications for a student not quite at the level of a master. This method is known as the Iyengar style. Widely recognized for introducing modern yoga to the West, there are many Iyengar Yoga institutes throughout the world.

Sri T. Krishnamacharya
Considered the father of yoga, Tirumalai Krishnamacharya studied with Brahmachari. Krishnamacharya taught thousands of people the true nature of yoga, and was also an Ayurvedic physician. His students include his son, T.K. S. Desikachar, his brother-in-law, Sri B.K.S. Iyengar, his first female student, Indra Devi, and his star pupil, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. Krishnamacharya died in 1989 at the age of 100.

Learn more about him on the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram website.

Patanjali
Thousands of years ago, yoga scholars extended the tradition one person at a time with oral storytelling. Patanjali is the author of the Yoga Sutras, the ancient texts of yoga. He gathered the stories and wrote them down to make it easier for people to follow. There have been many translations of the Yoga Sutras over the centuries. Some books you may find helpful include The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Edwin Bryant and The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: Commentary by Sri Swami Satchidananda.