Srivatsa Ramaswami
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Srivatsa Ramaswami (born 1939) is a teacher of Vinyasa Krama yoga. He studied for 33 years under the "grandfather of modern yoga", Krishnamacharya. In India he teaches at Kalakshetra. He has run workshops in America at the Esalen Institute, the Himalayan Institute and many other centres.[1] He is the author of four books on yoga.
Srivatsa Ramaswami was born in Palayamcottai, Tirunelveli Dt in 1939 into a religious family that practised ritual and chanting, following the Vedanta philosophy. He was schooled at the Ramakrishna Mission. His father was a personal friend of Krishnamacharya, "the father of modern yoga".[2][3] He studied yoga in Madras under Krishnamacharya for 33 years from 1955.[4] In India he taught for over 20 years at the Kalakshetra Foundation and other places, becoming well known on Indian radio and television.[5] He has run workshops in America at the Esalen Institute, the Himalayan Institute and many other centres. He lives and teaches in America.[3][1] In Britain, he has taught programs on topics such as Vinyasa Krama Yoga, the yoga of Krishnamacharya, Pranayama Mantra and Meditation, Surya Namaskar (salute to the sun); and on Hindu scriptures including the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and the Bhagavad Gita.[6] He is a registered yoga teacher with the Yoga Alliance.[7]
He is married to the gynaecologist Dr. Uma Ramaswami.[1]
Opinion of Krishnamacharya's methods
Singleton notes also that Krishnamacharya told Ramaswami that the "dynamic sequencing" (vriddhi or shrushtimkri) of yoga postures (asanas) was "the method of practice for youngsters", especially for groups, and suggests that this may have been the origin of the vinyasa style of yoga taken up by another of Krishnamacharya's pupils, Pattabhi Jois.[8]
