My Love Affair with Ashtanga - by Mehtab, Yoga Yoga's Founder

I have a loving wife and an exciting mistress. I am happily married to Kundalini Yoga, devoted, content, and enormously appreciative of the growing relationship with each passing year.

But I confess a secret passion for Ashtanga Yoga, stealing heated moments in a sweaty room with a practice that leaves me ­ well, satisfied.

Can a yogi find true love in two places? Here is the story of how Ashtanga Yoga became a part of my life and a cornerstone of Yoga Yoga.

David Swenson carries Mehtab across the threshold of Ashtanga Yoga

In the early 1980s, my wife and I discovered Ashtanga Yoga after our Kundalini Yoga practice had dropped off for a few years. One of the early Austin yoga teachers that taught at the old YWCA was part of a group of people that had brought Pattabhi Jois and his son Manju Jois through town. She studied Ashtanga Yoga with the master teacher for a few weeks and started introducing his style into her classes at the Y. In those days, we did not have yoga mats ­ just old carpet pieces and rubber strips that shed all over the ancient linoleum floor ­ and the teacher did not even tell us it was Ashtanga Yoga that we were practicing. Back then, everything was just "yoga".

But the practice excited me. I loved the sequence, the movement with the breath, and the sense of accomplishment as you moved through the postures. I quickly sought out other teachers in Austin who had studied with Pattabhi Jois on his early visit through Austin while he was still a "younger" man.

Dale Whistler (who later painted the mural on the wall at Yoga Yoga South) was teaching Ashtanga Yoga at one of Austin's first floatation tank studios that was located where the old Juice Factory used to be at 45th and Guadalupe. We kept trying to get through the primary series with him all through the early 1990s. Seems like we never got past supta-kurmasana (one of my demon postures). I still remember a salty float in an isolation tank one night after a particularly good Ashtanga practice and realized that, yes, there is indeed a natural "high". Dale later went to Norway and our Ashtanga practice dropped off for a few years until David Swenson moved to Austin for the first time around 1995.

Mary Flinn in Supta Kurmasana, Mehtab's "demon pose"

David held one of his early Ashtanga teacher trainings in a top floor studio of the old Whole Foods building. My wife and I took the training with about a dozen other yoga students, including a feisty Leo named Sharon Moon. At this point, we were teaching yoga in our home, both Hatha and Kundalini, and soon added one Ashtanga class a week to our offerings taught by my wife, Guru Karam (the first Yoga Yoga Ashtanga teacher!).

For some reason, Ashtanga Yoga just did not catch on in Austin at that time. David taught dwindling morning classes at the Whole Foods studio, arriving each day on his bicycle, to greet the dedicated Ashtangis who could not believe our good luck to take an intimate class with such a talented teacher.

Finally it got to the point that only four of us were showing up for the classes consistently so David just invited us to come over to his apartment and practice with him in the morning. No air conditioning in his small Clarksville apartment made it seem like a mini-Mysore as David's breath filled the room and we tried to keep up. I remember leaving his apartment one morning and telling my wife, "Years from now, remember that we used to practice with David like this. Some day you won't believe it happened. He is going to be really famous."

I was right (as I often remind my wife) and David soon found an audience of thousands of students all over the world as he began his extensive travels and trainings. With the opening of Yoga Yoga South in 1997, we made a commitment to having Ashtanga Yoga on the schedule, even if we had only one teacher at the time (my wife). We began to attract other early Ashtanga teachers to the South studio, including Gloria and Annick who taught 6 to 8 students in a small carpeted room. I am embarrassed to admit that I even subbed an Ashtanga class one night, looking down at David's book as I counted each posture out for five breaths.

Gloria Uridel and Annick Sebanne were Yoga Yoga's first Ashtanga teachers

Sharon Moon and students Kewal, Rachel and Julie

When we decided to open our second location, Yoga Yoga North, we knew we had to do something else if we were to continue to make Ashtanga Yoga an important part of who we were. Sharon Moon, our classmate from David's training, had taken our Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training program with us and she had worked hard over the previous years to build an Ashtanga Yoga community in Austin. Renting spaces around town, losing money, and working other jobs, Sharon kept teaching with both heart and passion until she had a group of dedicated Ashtangis.

We agreed that Sharon would move her classes to Yoga Yoga North and become responsible for helping us train teachers to teach Ashtanga. From her first training, we got such Ashtanga teachers as Rachel and Kewal who teach Ashtanga at Yoga Yoga today. Sharon loved the students and the teachers that she trained and this helped us become one of the largest Ashtanga Yoga communities in this part of the country.

As we reached out to the international teaching community, we began hosting more and more Ashtanga workshops and trainings with national teachers, such as Darby from Canada, Tim Miller from California, our Yoga Yoga mentor, David Swenson, and of course, Manju Jois, the son of grand Ashtanga master Pattabhi Jois.

When Manju walked into Yoga Yoga, my first ridiculous thought was he seemed shorter than his pictures (just like most super stars!). And then he smiled this huge grin like we had been yoga buddies all of our lives and said Namaste ­ like it should be said, with a beautiful Indian accent. He said very little else to me that day but he taught very much. Here was a man who had practiced yoga since he was seven years old with one of the greatest teachers in the world and he was totally humble. He ran around the room at Yoga Yoga Westgate, giving amazing adjustments that were all photo opportunities, and connected with each student like he had known them all of his life. When he was done for the day, he returned to his hotel room near Town Lake, took a walk on the hike and bike trail and then made himself a simple dinner and went to bed early. A real Yogi and gentleman -- he even sends us a Christmas card each year.

Manju Jois adjusts Sharon Moon in Bakasana

I must admit I have been neglecting my mistress shamefully lately. Seems like the Kundalini love affair has heightened with so much time being spent with our new Kundalini Teacher Training class and ever-growing community of graduates.

But I know I will return to the arms of Ashtanga some day. How can you ever forget one of your first loves? It moved me and took me to places in my life that I needed just at the right time. I console myself that all yoga is ultimately the same Yoga, whatever we practice or call it.

Ashtangis do Kundalini, Kundalini students do Ashtanga, prenatal students eventually take postnatal yoga, and there are gentle yoga classes waiting for those of us at the end when our bodies are looking for rest.

So many yogas, so little time, and such a lifetime well spent.