This Sunday Sarah will be leading 108 sun salutations in honour of the life and work of Ashtanga Guru Shri K Pattabhi Jois who died this week a year ago. We’ll be starting at 8:30am at the BNHC. Please join us for this special occasion which should take around an hour.

Why 108 sun salutations?

The number 108 is considered sacred in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism & Sikhism. A mala normally has 108 beads for reciting mantras. Guruji’s book is called YogaMala. For more on the number 108 check out Wikipedia.

I recently watched the film Enlighten Up, a documentary made by a female American yogi following a yoga-virgin journalist on his global quest to find the meaning of yoga. Various gurus and yoga ‘celebrities’ were interviewed, including Shri K Pattabhi Jois. I’ve been practicising Mysore style Ashtanga for a year now and naturally consider Pattabhi Jois to be my guru. However, although I’ve seen him interviewed before, this time I was suddenly overwhelmed with emotion. I felt a great sadness and loss, not only because he’s no longer with us, but because I never had the opportunity to meet and practice with him. Guruji seems to me to be such a gentle, kind man full of peace and joy. I’m filled with love and calmness whenever I picture his face and have a lump in my throat even as I write this. I feel so grateful to him for his teachings and so sure that his path is the one I want to follow. I’ve never had a guru before or felt faith so strongly and, even though he died the very next day after I started practising, he has always been and will always be my guru. Long may his memory live on in all our hearts.

In this month’s Yoga Journal I spotted this tribute to Guruji with tributes by some of Ashtanga’s most notable names: David Williams, David Swenson, Eddie Stern, Richard Freeman, Beryl Bender Birch, Bhavani Maki (who’ll be doing workshops at the BNHC this month on Patanjalim’s Yoga Sutras.), Kino Macgregor and others. It makes for some interesting and touching reading.

You can pick up a copy of Yoga Journal from Infinity Foods in Brighton.