Ashtanga Yoga Groningen

Dear Friends,

It is with a heavy heart that I share the news of the passing of R. Sharath Jois at the age of 53.

This morning, just as I was leaving the Mysore class, I received a call from an Ashtanga friend sharing that Sharathji had suffered a cardiac arrest while walking yesterday in Charlottesville, Virginia. Sharath was in the U.S. for the past couple of weeks, leading workshops, and was in Virginia at the University of Virginia to launch his new Active Series Ashtanga sequence.

I first met Sharath in 2001 and had the privilege of deepening our connection over the years, both in Mysore and during his trips abroad. When I was living in Taipei in 2011, I invited and hosted him for a week-long workshop. During this time, I came to know him more personally as we visited temples and cultural sites together. Sharathji was not only a master of Ashtanga Yoga and a dedicated Vedic scholar but also a teacher gifted in both the subtlety of hands-on adjustments and the depth of yogic knowledge.

While Guruji Pattabhi Jois was a larger-than-life father-figure, Sharath felt like a brother. We were both in our twenties when we first met, and we shared many years of practice and growth together on the mat. Sharathji will be remembered as a humble, soft-spoken master, whose dedication to his path allowed him to evolve continuously as a teacher. Even as he became renowned worldwide, he remained true to his practice and his role within the Ashtanga lineage.

The yoga world has suffered a great loss, yet I am deeply grateful that Sharath was able to introduce his Active Series, a sequence that I believe will carry forward his legacy within the great lineage of Ashtanga Yoga.

RIP Sharathji