This festival is dedicated to the memory of Patabi Jois, one of modern yoga's great teachers, who died May 18, 2009.

Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois was born on the full moon day of July, 1915, Guru Purnima day. Pattabhi Jois's father was an astrologer and a priest, who acted as the pujari for many of the families in the village. From an early age, as most brahmin boys, Pattabhi Jois was taught the Vedas and Hindu rituals.

When Jois was 12 years old, he attended a yoga demonstration at his middle school in Hassan. The next day he went to meet the great yogi who had given the demonstration, a man by the name of Sri T. Krishnamacharya, who had learned yoga for nearly eight years from his Guru, Rama Mohan Brahmachari in a cave in Tibet. For the next two years, Jois learned from his Guru every day. When Jois turned 14, he had his brahmin thread ceremony. Krishnamacharya left Hassan to travel and teach, and Jois left his village to go to Mysore.

Jois wished to attend the Sanskrit University of Mysore. With two rupees in his pocket, he left with two friends. They traveled the 100 plus kilometers by bike, over dirt roads. For the first year or two, life was very difficult. With very little money, he begged for his food from some of the brahmin houses. Jois attended classes and did his studies. Then, around 1930, he went to a yoga demonstration and saw that it was his Guru. He came forward and prostrated, and they recommenced their relationship, and Jois his yoga studies.

The Maharaja of Mysore, Krishna Rajendra Wodeyar, who had taken a liking for Jois, told him, "I want you to teach yoga at the Sanskrit College. You teach. I will give you a scholarship to go to school, free food in my mess hall and a salary." Jois headed up theYoga Department of the Sanskrit College on March 1, 1937. He continued as the head until his retirement in 1973.

In 1964, Andre Van Lysbeth bacame the first Westener to study with Jois. Soon after that, more Europeans came. Around 1972, the first Americans came, after meeting Manju at Swami Gitananda's ashram in Pondicherri. It was at that point that ashtanga yoga began spreading in America, starting in California, and then later emerging in Hawaii. In 1975, Jois and Manju made their first trip to America. Over the next 25 years, the practice spread through the world. Jois' influence upon modern yoga has been significant to say the least. As a modern yogi, he stood with one foot firmly planted in tradition and one in modernity. And we thank him for his teachings and will remember him for his passion.

thanks to www.kpjayi.org/ for their biography.