This month's issue of Yoga Magazine has a great interview (you can read it here) with my mentor, teacher, and friend, Kausthub Desikachar regarding his approach to teaching Yoga. Two important reasons I sought out studying with Kausthub are that he has an immense amount of knowledge and experience in Yoga, and a genuine and deep reverence for it. The latter was critical for me. In my opinion, having great passion for a subject is only an asset if it is paired with reverence and humility. It is the latter that allows you to maintain curiosity and a spirit of exploration in the learning process. And these are essential when it comes to Yoga, with its various traditions and practices, a complicated, often mysterious, past, and a depth that feels impossible to wrap your head around.
Kausthub reveres the Yoga tradition and, even as he teaches the thousands of students who come to him, he continues to study on his own and with his own mentors in various areas. He has a great love for Yoga and an even greater humility with it. In part this is because of the important place the tradition has in his family. But it is also for deeply personal reasons.
This is very much my own attitude when it comes to Yoga and even photography. Each time I teach a class at UCSD I get at least a couple of student evaluations that mention that I clearly have a passion for the material I am teaching and that I enjoy sharing it with others. I take this as something to be proud of. Being a teacher is a duty first and foremost. A duty to continue to learn and develop yourself and a duty to share what you learn with others to help them progress more quickly in their chosen craft.
In Yoga, the concept of parampara points to a continuous chain of student-teacher relationships. In each, the teacher, who was once a student, is now then able to pass on the teachings to a student. That student, in turn, will become a teacher and pass on the teachings to another student. Parampara can be translated as "succession" or as a "legacy." It suggests that knowledge is something sacred that is passed down from teacher to student, both of whom are simply vehicles for the knowledge to continue being passed down. The particular teacher may have their own teaching style, they may introduce new concepts or revelations, but ultimately they are just one link in the chain of passing the knowledge along. At some point, the continuation of that knowledge will be out of their hands. And so the process of teaching should always be as concerned with serving the student, preparing them, and nurturing them, because for a time they will be the container for knowledge as it is passed down.
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