Honoring the Memory of Sharath Jois:

A Tribute to a Visionary Yoga Instructor

The yoga community is mourning the sudden loss of Rangaswami Sharath Jois, a beacon of wisdom and skill in Ashtanga yoga. At just 53, his unexpected departure in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains has left a void that words cannot fill.

Sharath was one of the most skilled yogis alive

The late R. Sharath Jois was perhaps the most advanced yogi on the planet, he had completed all of the advanced series from his grandfather. I remember watching several videos of him doing Sirsasana and dwi pada Sirsasana and thinking that he must have been very disciplined to accomplish the postures with such grace and ease.

Sharath would often give lectures on the weekend while he was in Mysore. He was often traveling around the world to teach yoga, especially to westerners and people that lived in the United States. He spent a lot of time in Encinitas, CA.

Sharath worked hard to spread to teaching of yoga to the western world. He will be remembered as someone who modernized, and adapted the practice to his many students, numbering in the millions.

A Pragmatic Guide and Teacher

I can remember one lecture where he talked a lot about headstand, and why it is important to limit the more challenging headstands to only 5 breathes maximum, such as Mukta Hasta Sirsasana and the other head stands with limited arm support. He said to move through these poses a bit faster than usual because of the tension the postures place on the neck. In my opinion, this is a very necessarily pragmatic approach for some of the most challenging, and also potentially straining postures for the neck. This is an important shift from the more forceful approach of his grandfather, K. Patthabhi Jois who was known to be much stricter.

My Experience in Mysore with Sharath and Saraswathi Jois

I remember when I first arrived in India in 2015, it took me a day to get out to Gokulam, which is a smaller town just outside of Mysore. There was a day when I was meant to register for classes and so I went over to the main Shala and signed up. On that day, I met Sharath in passing and got to see and play with his kids for a little bit! You see, in Mysore, the Shala is a family business; Sharath took it over from his grandfather at one point. Sharath’s sisters and cousins are administrators.

It didn’t take too long to sign up and I got assigned to Saraswathi Jois’ classes which was more of a beginner oriented studio in its own building. During my practice (~4:30-5am) I found the others in the room to be very deep in meditation and to be working at their own pace, for nearly 2 hours during the morning. It was certainly a very meditative space, full of breath and movement. The discipline of the school was very challenging, but rewarding in ways that are difficult to describe; they created a kind of mental freedom for me that probably can only come from more of an Eastern approach to life. Slowing down, feeling the world around, and breathing became a primary focus of my mind.

Sharath represented a new kind of teacher, one that adapted to his students and their needs. He seemed to me to be very intelligent and to allow students to truly guide themselves, which is the whole point of Ashtanga.

To hear about how he died “last week, an otherwise healthy 53-year-old Jois died suddenly of a heart attack while hiking with students in the Blue Ridge Mountains after teaching an international group of yogis at the University of Virginia.”^[4]

Healthy Reflections

Obviously events like this can be very sudden and are impossible to predict. The mountains where he was hiking are relatively low in elevation. “That afternoon, he went on a hike with around 50 students. Appearing fatigued, Mr Jois was trailing the group when he sat on a bench about a third of a mile into the trail, and later fell off it, John Bultman, the yoga program manager at the University of Virginia. Students’ attempts to revive him using CPR failed, and he was pronounced dead moments after emergency medical workers arrived.”[6]

It isn’t clear if Sharath was exerting himself too much, or if he was out of shape when the heart attack occured. Heart attacks can be sudden and seem random. Heart disease seems to be very related to genetics. Heart disease is considered polygenic, meaning many different genes interact to influence a person’s risk. Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading global cause of mortality.^[7]

Sharath was a provider for his family. He would wake up at 1 every day to do his own practice, then would teach students all morning. He was typically stressed and working very hard, which takes its toll on the body. Additionally, sleep is one of the most important things your body needs; it allows the mind and stress system to release and recharge from the previous day. There is an article from the NIH that talks about how night shifts can specifically have a very negative effect on the hearth.^[8]

I personally used to love to wake up early and practice at 4am, but I would need to get to sleep at 8, or even earlier to really sustain the practice. I can’t imagine waking up at 1 to practice. Even waking up at 4am took its toll over time; there were a couple years in my early 30s where I slept 9-10 hours every day and I felt like I really needed it.

There is a lot of new science coming out about recovery based on feelings. High intensity athletes need more sleep and the way that they feel about the sleep becomes very important to recovery^[9] Sleep deprivation (<7 h) increases circulating stress hormones (e.g., cortisol) which takes away from the body’s ability to recover. Sleep is essential for anyone practicing large amounts of intense yoga, such as the Ashtanga series. Rest is essential for the muscles to recover.

My Journey into the Ashtanga Method

This brings up a few points that I have felt and explored in my own body for a long time now. It has been about 5 years since I have let go of a daily yoga practice in favor for 3-4 days a week, with a lot more Yin yoga (2 days a week) and some lower intensity yoga practices. I still do hot yoga and Ashtanga, but I only feel the need to practice like that a few times a week.

Yoga is not a complete body solution. While excellent for circulation and reducing inflammation, it is absolutely complimented by weight lifting for bone density health, ligament and tendon strength.
Yoga is extraordinarily complimentary to running, which is, in my opinion, the best way to work the heart muscle.
Sprinting is an exercise that our body needs and is meant to do. Getting your heart rate up to higher levels is good for anyone experiencing hypo-tension, or low blood pressure. It is also good for hypertension and helps to lower the heart rate during rest.
Inversions (including lots of downward dog) can lead to low blood pressure. While not as common as high blood pressure, this can lead to health issues. I used to get light headed very easily before I began running and hiking in conjunction with my yoga practice.
Maintaining a homeostatic, or balanced blood flow is extremely important!

However, if you have hypertension, getting upside down and practicing yoga might be exactly what your body needs. I think the key to staying healthy is experiencing a wide range of exercises, stretches, and physically demanding exercise such a lifting, sprinting, or rock climbing. Similar to a healthy diet, balancing and maintaining homeostasis are essential. If you want to live for a long time, it is probably best to try to adapt your body to many kinds of exercise and different ways of experiencing nature. Surfing, for example, is an excellent exercise that is certainly very healthy; but if its all you do, it could lead to muscular imbalances. Yoga is no different from this.

I love yoga for the mind, the Ashtanga series is one of my favorite ways to start the day. But rushing though postures and losing sleep to practice is just not very healthy in my opinion. The breath takes a certain amount of time; as does sleep. And it evolves over time.

The Altar at the K Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Shala

Prayers for Sharath and the Jois Family

My heart goes out to the Jois family, I am very saddened to hear the news about Sharath. It must be heartbreaking for them and their family, to have such a loss happen so suddenly. Eventually I would love to return to the Shala, but until then, I can only offer my condolences and my heartfelt gratitude to Sharath for taking on the mantle of his grandfather, K. Pattabhi Jois. The world became a better place because of Sharath Jois and his discipline and devotion to the traditional yoga practices he taught in Mysore, India and around the world.

Farewell, Sharath

Sharath was a shining example of how life can be enhanced with yoga and the discipline of Ashtanga. Our lives are short, and this is a reminder for us that we only have a little time on this planet. Sharath’s passing was very sudden and completely unexpected for me and I’m sure for millions of people around the planet. It is very sad to head of his passing to the next place. Lets use this as a lesson, to make the most of the time that we have on planet Earth! And to try to live in the best ways that we possibly can.