On the 10th July Sharath Jois posted the following text on his Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/p/BzuKYVRlUv9/
· sharathjoisr
“Growing up I was very close to my grandparents. When I recall learning asana from my grandfather it brings me immense pain that I also witnessed him giving improper adjustments. I did not understand and felt helpless. I am sorry that it caused pain for any of his students. After all these years I still feel the pain from my grandfather’s actions.
We must have zero tolerance towards abuse, mishandling, or touching students inappropriately. Teachers should respect students at all times.
We all have a responsibility to govern the teachings and protect against wrongs. Many times I have wondered why the senior students who were at the Lakshmipuram shala did not support the other students when they saw these things occur? They have moved on to become famous teachers worldwide. Why did they not act in support of their fellow students, peers, girlfriends, boyfriends, wives, husbands, friends and speak against this?
My grandfather was my guru. He taught me everything I know about Asana, and I loved him, but I’m extremely sorry for those students who are going through this trauma. I understand your pain. It is my humble request to all those students harmed to forgive him for his actions. By acknowledging the past wrongs I hope you will be relieved from this terrible burden. It is my sincere hope that we can prevent abuse from ever happening again.
Namaskara 🙏🙏🙏”
Firstly, I want to commend Sharath for acknowledging this at all. We have waited for this for such a long time that it felt overdue, unreal and almost unexpected when it finally came. I think this is a huge step forward from the silence we had to listen to for the last 18 months. I do hope that this is not the end but the beginning of a dialogue. In this spirit and keeping in mind that I feel great relief at this first step I want to offer a few observations:
Sharath, you are using the terms “giving improper adjustments”. To call grabbing a student’s breasts or genitals or to dry-hump them “giving improper adjustments” is unhelpful and hurtful to the victims. It is this language that was used for three decades to cover up your grandfathers assaults. Let’s not continue it. You can read up on Guy Donahaye’s Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/AVPJSA/ what language is appropriate and what isn’t. It would be important to say things like “I acknowledge that my grandfather KP Jois sexually assaulted and abused some of his students”.
Another point that is really important when making an apology is that one confesses in what way one has contributed by enabling (i.e. “I saw, stood by and did nothing and I’m really sorry about that”).
Very important is also to state in what way one has benefited from enabling, such as “through not speaking up and confronting KPJ I inherited a vastly profitable family business and immense power”. Again, you would find valuable guidelines in Guy’s FB group https://www.facebook.com/AVPJSA/.
Also, when making an apology it is really important that one does not use it to shoulder off some of the blame to others. While parts of your apology appear heartfelt it then veers off into attacking those Western “Lakshmipuram senior teachers” who became “famous teachers worldwide”. While you are right that the ball is in their court now and we are keenly awaiting their statements, one’s own apology in such a difficult matter is no time to seek fault in the actions of others. They did shut up for probably exactly the same reason than you did and after all you profited most from being silent as you are even more “famous worldwide”.
It also needs to be acknowledged that people did speak out, were ostracized for it, removed from the teachers list, blocked on social media, insulted and verbally brutalized. I was screamed down on several occasions when I aired criticism at your grandfather and many others had similar experiences. We were “removed” from the community. Deleted.
Using your apology to deliver yet another blow to those “world famous Lakshmipuram teachers” (only recently you took them off your teachers directory) makes it appears as if your agenda is to make yourself the sole hegemon of Ashtanga. But this was your agenda ever since you took over from your grandfather, wasn’t it? And your mother, your uncle and those Lakshmipuram teachers continue to be obstacles in your path.
A few sentences further down then you ask the victims to forgive KPJ. That’s a double-edged sword. It’s almost like putting a timeline on the coming-to-terms process, i.e. “I’ve apologized now you should forgive”. You have to give the victims the choice to forgive in their own time or also to not do so. They may do so when they are ready or they may not. But it’s their choice and there can be no coercion or pressure.
Then, are you aware that until this day some of your lieutenants slander and discredit some of the women that spoke out against your grandfather? Those heroic women who spoke out first faced those attempts right from the beginning. But the slander and discrediting are going on until this very day. How would you feel if the leader of the people who are trying to destroy you, after years of ignoring you comes out with a lukewarm apology? An apology in which responsibility is passed on to others and then a few sentences later they ask for forgiveness? Wouldn’t we have to first set things straight and reach out to the victims?
Finally, I’m wondering why now? So many people complained verbally through the decades. Anneke was the first who wrote it in 2010. Then Karen Rain spoke. There were articles in the Yoga Journal, Elephant Journal, petitions on change.org, so many students wrote you open letters, rescinded their authorization and certification, even asked you openly to take them off your directory. The Walrus article, the videos of your grandfathers adjustments taken off the web over and over again, yet they popped back up. Karen Rain’s video that gave us for the first time a visual testimony of the destruction your grandfather had wreaked on a human being. Jubilee Cooke’s excellent article. Then Matthew Remski’s book painstakingly documenting it all. Through all of that you had this amazing Teflon personality. Water on a duck’s back. It all peeled off you.
But then came Magnolia. Three weeks ago, one of your long-term students, certified and assisting in your shala threw everything away. She closed her studio, stopped practising and walked away from your yoga for good. And she wrote that she did it because you didn’t apologize. She had rather no yoga in her life than the yoga of an abuser, your grandfather. Was it that that caused the crack in your armour?
But I think there is another thing we need to talk about. The parampara. You call yourself parama-guru- the supreme guru. That’s a title that is usually reserved for God, the guru of gurus. In fact, on your Instagram feed to your post one of your students says, “Immense respect to you sharathji🙏 it’s takes a lot to speak up firstly, and when it involves ur idol/ guru all d more painful…..but you are God’s chosen one….may you continue to touch every person’s life with such honesty”. God’s chosen one? Do you agree with that or would you want to correct this projection of your gullible student? Or do you happily go along for the ride? Your grandfather was a master in the maintenance of such projections.
Another response on your Instagram feed states thus “For me, Guruji Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois remains flawless and the whole world will not change my vision. There is Shiva, Guru and Yoga and nothing else matters!” Deeply worrisome but then it’s a divinely handed down lineage, right. The above statement is internally consistent with that belief.
A parampara implies that one has received a title through a long lineage of teachers. In your case your grandfather. Now I’m asking you, can a spiritual lineage, a parampara be handed down through somebody that performs sexual abuse and assault (not to mention dry-humping and digital rape)?
Think well and don’t hasten. Take your time. Because if you say “yes” then arguably the term parampara means nothing anymore.
If it is “yes”, if there are no moral standards on those who hand down a lineage, we may as well all start our own paramparas. Or we could as well call your parampara “par-hump-ara” or “dry-humpara”. These would be all feasible consequences.
If your answer though is “no”, if there is in fact a moral standard for paramparas then your grandfather does not qualify for handing down a parampara.
In this case you did not receive a parampara!
You should then rescind the title parama guru. A title that you advertise ‘til this day on your Instagram account.
Save your soul, Sharath, and stop this narcissism. This self-aggrandisement! In any case wasn’t it one of those world-famous Lakshmipuram teachers who arranged the bestowing of this Parama title on you?
I think for the benefit of this yoga, this community it is necessary that you step down from this title (which was manufactured anyway). Ashtanga yoga is more and bigger than you, your grandfather, the Jois family. So many people have stopped practising Ashtanga because of your botched handling of this crisis. Do not damage this yoga any further.
This whole abuse was only possible because of this stratification and hierarchical order created by your grandfather and maintained by you. We should all just be sisters and brothers in yoga and no more looking up and down at each other in artificially maintained hierarchies.
Enough damage has been done to unsuspecting young people, who still believe that you are god-like or that your father is beyond reproach whatever he may have done. You can still teach and make Millions. But not continuing to use this title. It is morally bankrupt to do so.
PS About 18 months ago when this story finally broke somebody suggested that Ashtangis should place the photos of the victims of Jois’ abuse on their altars instead of images of the Jois family. At the time I thought this suggestion to be flippant. I don’t really have an altar and I’m no friend of person worship at all. But Anneke, Karen and Jubilee taught me so much more about bravery, courage and honesty than this bogus-parampara ever could. Isn’t that what yoga is truly about?
Pretty sure his lawyers prompted this
Of course his lawyers did
Dear Gregor
Fabulous. You wrote this just about perfect. Just so good.
Small thought to add about the apology:
The matter he addresses is incredibly serious. I feel an instagram post is just about a smack in the face. Maybe this is how things are done now and I am old fashioned but it just feels wrong… I also listened to some of Sharath‘s recording etc and feel that this letter is not his voice. His pr company who wrote this? Which makes it even worse…speechless…
Furthermore, I feel so sorry that people abandon the practice. Pattabhi Jois contributed to the practice that exists since hundreds of years if not thousands BEFORE he was caught in what I feel is the real culprit here. The whole GURU matter is a problem. Remember Tolkien? All 9 human kings fell into darkness when they received power..it happens over and over in different shapes and colours.
And look what happens to his grandson right now…
This is why we developed intricate political systems to guard against this terrible downfall in our human makeup.
Which leads me to what I feel is a huge problem – I speak to people that consider, becoming an ashtanga teacher who feel they HAVE to go to the Sharath shala in order to be authorized. They feel that it is a necessary evil in order to be reckognized by students seeking a teacher. Another dictator on his way to triumph. ARGH!! Please dearest senior teachers worldwide, get together, form a democratic, healthy body that creates a healthy system of authorization to counteract ashtanga to be hijacked by the most terrible sickness that hurts human kind and that devoured Patthabi Jois and now his grandson.
Or to come back to this so very powerful writer Tolkien: the defenses must hold!
Dear Patrizia,
Thank you for your remarks. I agree. My take on it is that so far the message (spirituality) has not transformed the vehicle that conveys it (vertical, authoritarian guru-student relationships). Spirituality can only succeed if it transforms the vehicle of transmission itself. That is teacher and student must meet as equals. That is what the Anahata (hear lotus) teaches, but it is the Manipura (power chakra) that teaches that the student must bow to and submit to the all-important authority of the teacher.
Greetings
Gregor
The words I need to hear… Thanks so much Gregor!!!
I love this piece. I do feel the need to clarify one thing. Sharath did not call himself Paramaguru. This title was given to him, by Indian students, in a ceremony that is documented in Namarupa magazine. Whether or not he should use the title, is still a good question, however, I do think that it needs to be clarified that he did not give it to himself. I believe it was in issue 21 of Namarupa if you would like to do some research on it.
Hello Shanna, Good to hear from you. Issue 21, thank you. I’ll check it out. But you know, these guru titles are never bestowed by gurus on themselves. Similar to a monarch it’s always somebody else who crowns them and of course followers will jostle to the fore to be the crowners as they may get rewarded with influence. Hope this finds you well. Gregor
Well done excellent response to Sharath.
May I please ask you to publicise this Panel on Sexual Abuse in Yoga with Karen Rain and Jubilee Cooke, plus other women who have been involved in confronting this issue in other yoga traditions?
The Panel is being held at the Brighton Yoga Festival on Sunday 28 July: https://www.facebook.com/events/814899112236837/
It is the first time Karen and Jubilee (key survivors from Pattabhi Jois’ abuse) have spoken together on the same platform to address this issue.
Thank you, Davy Jones, I have added the event to my FB events and shared it to my page.
Thanks again.
Gregor
I am a life long yogi and have practiced Ashtanga for the last two decades.
Pattabhi Jois gave us this beautiful, rich practice, and it is, for many of us, a powerful spiritual practice. I get what happened and it is a tragedy. All the yogis fueled with outrage and indignation, demanding more apologies and better, different apologies is only creating more of the same. Instead I would invite you to think of this:
Many years ago Pattabhi Jois and his beautiful wife Amma lost their beloved son. It is a tradition among Hindus, when you feel you were in any way responsible for a death, to give up the most meaningful thing in your life. Pattabhi Jois was going to give up teaching, but Amma talked him into giving up his practice instead.
This had profound health consequences as Pattabhi Jois aged. No one seems to see the obvious: Over the years he developed dementia, which affected his behavior in devastating ways. I am not making excuses for this behavior, only hoping to shed light on what has happened because compassion and forgiveness often follows understanding.
And additionally, what Pattabhi Jois did or did not do has NOTHING to do with the beautiful the Ashtanga Yoga System, which he gave to the world.
Yoga, like life itself, is what you make of it. Ashtanga yoga is what you make of it. To me Pattabhi Jois and the Ashtanga Yoga System is like a giant basketball size rose. I can lament the fraying edge of one of its petals, but this will not deter me from celebrating the astonishing beauty of the whole.
Thanks for your response, JJ. I agree that what PJ did had nothing to do with the practice itself.
I think though what Pattabhi Jois did equates to more than just frayed edges of a petal and I know some of the survivors of his abuse would be distressed to hear that.
I admit that I, too, am sometimes drawn back and fourth between gratitude to him for exposing me to the system that changed my life and the horror at seeing what he did to some people.
I found it problematic to find in Ramesh’s death much material to drum up support for KP Jois’ actions. I know a fair amount of detail but it’s too long ago to be completely certain and too many people refuse to be quoted on what they know.
I heard testimonies of KP Jois starting sexual assault as far back as the 70’s but certainly 80’s is confirmed. So probably 30 years before he died. Surely that can’t be all due to dementia.
I also don’t think that it would give the survivors of his abuse any solace to know that it was performed under the influence of dementia. I tend to think that the internal world of the assailant, often used to explain abuses, is more or less irrelevant in these cases. It’s still abuse. I think we need to care about the inner world of the survivors for our Ashtanga-movement to heal. For all we know Pattabhi Jois is dead but the suffering of the survivors continues because they are still silenced by so many arguments.
Hope this finds you well
Gregor
Dear Gregor,
my feeling is, that the causa Patthabi Jois is more and more disturbing the clear minds of people. Its obvious also in a legal sense that he over decades sexually abused students. But in all mature juridical systems of the world there is a reason why VICTIMS of a crime can accuse, be the prosecutor – but NEVER be the JUDGE. For obvious reasons, because they are personally involved and their view is always subjective. What now is happening is somehow just a turning of tables: First Patthabi Jois was the holy Guru and now, after his fall from grace and fame, Karen Rain for instance is the pure victim. In my eyes both is (or was) bullshit. – I have a personal experience of childhood sexual abuse, and I even wrote a book about it, so I feel somehow via experience qualified to talk about these things. And therefore its for me clear, that declarations about how to behave ethically are not only totally useless (which every police man/woman in the world would admit, I guess) but also giving the wrong image of moral superiority. I think we all are both, good and bad. And if we now are acknowleding the criminal behaviour of Jois its very easy to suddenly use him as a negative projection figure for our own unsolved issues. And this seems now to happen. Either the holy or the evil guy, but no human in between anymore. And this is very bad, and will NOT help to prevent any future abuse. On the contrary; the feeling of moral superiority is a recipe for the next desaster looming. -Only someone really OUTSIDE the Ashtanga community can make a trustworthy judgement if we want to be really fair. That the idea of real justice. Neither Sharat nor Karen Rain are qualified for this. But also no involved Ashtanga teacher.
There is a reason why Buddha called his way: the middle way.He saw always both sides. And neglected no one.
But anyway, things are getting stirred up and thats maybe a real good thing. For future clarity there have to be a mess maybe first.
I just felt the urge to write this in my lousy english. With much love and respect!
Silvo
Dear Silvo,
Thanks so much for your much-valued view. Things certainly got stirred up and yes, the pendulum swings back. If you just fast-backward a decade and “Guruji – A Portrait” was published. Just think for a moment that the editors and many of the contributors knew about these allegations and withheld them. The book was an exercise in unreasonable glorification of a deeply flawed person and it’s reasonable to say that a degree of deception/ withholding of vital information was involved. So we really need some swinging back of the pendulum to happen and as things go, it’s bound to overshoot at some point.
The KPJ case doesn’t concern the judiciary because you cannot try deceased people. But it does concern two groups which are still alive today. The victims/survivors and the community that enabled KPJ and let down the victims/survivors. I’m part of that because I was right in the middle. And may it be said at this point, in most spiritual communities that I was part of, there was sexual abuse (begs the question then what spiritual communities are good for but that goes beyond the scope of this answer). Here is an excellent article of an academic researching phases of crises that Buddhist communities went in which sexual abuse is rampant, too https://tricycle.org/magazine/bernhard-porksen/. In most of these cases judicial inquiry plays a minor role. What plays a role is how those left behind make sense of it and come to terms with it.
For many of us Ashtanga was/is an amazing healing modality. Seeing that now we face that there was a considerable amount of abuse involved we need to ask some serious questions. I consider this an important opportunity. One area of questions involves the amalgamation of method and teacher. When looking at Ashtanga today I think we must separate the method itself and the import placed on the role of the teacher(s). The method has a history of being handed down in a heavy-handed fashion that’s caused a significant amount of psychological and physical damage. I think we can fix that relatively easily (compared to what’s coming later in this reply) by training teachers in anatomy and also by educating teachers to be a friend and servant of students rather than towering above them in a “Supreme Guru”-like fashion. To that end I propose to demystify the role of the teacher and to withdraw all projection and power invested into the role of the teacher. I think up to this point it can be done with a certain amount of education and everybody who wants to continue to practice can end up with a pretty good system of yoga. Needless to say that the long-lost higher limbs of yoga need to be re-integrated. One of the reasons that people injured themselves was because they over-practised asana and this happened because there was no graduation from asana to the higher limbs. People practised more and more desperately and more and more crazy asanas because there was no leading on to higher limbs, which could have given us spiritual insight.
So far it’s still pretty straight forward but now we come to a difficult subject and that is the role the community played in enabling and empowering KPJ. Because all of this didn’t happen in his office or bedroom but in broad daylight in the yoga shala. We need to ask ourselves:
What did all of this do to our Ashtanga community, i.e. what level of psychological damage remains unaddressed and unowned?
What levels of trauma, ignorance, delusion, hypnosis, projection must have been present for us to let all of this happen?
What level of trauma, damage, PTSD, somatization of psychological damage is still today present in the victims/ survivors?
What level of damage has been metered out to the victims/ survivors not by KPJ himself but by the community by means of silencing, marginalizing and treating them as liars?
In what way is the healing of the community related to the healing of the victims/ survivors?
In what way is the healing of the victims related to the community assisting in healing and acknowledging of the victims/ survivors?
I’m not asking any of these questions as an accuser. I’m asking them as an enabler of KPJ’s sexual abuse and as somebody who has benefited from enabling him. I’m wondering now how can we improve on this situation?
Neither of the above questions are easily answerable. They certainly cannot be answered by ignoring the facts or by denying them. Let’s remember that we are just at the cusp of going from widespread denying and ignoring of the plain fact to one where for the first time a significant part of the community says, “My god, something did happen after all”. This opportunity must not be missed.
And I’m asking these questions because I don’t have all the answers but I do have a vague understanding that the healing of the community cannot come about unless we support the healing of the victims/ survivors.
I think if we do honestly tackle these questions, then again this crisis could present an opportunity for growth. If it is all just swept under the carpet and left to fester it is more likely to grow into something destructive.
Hope this finds you well
Gregor
Dear Gregor,
thanks for your mindful and compassionate answer. In case of doubt I am totally on your side! The enabling of constant abuse by the Ashtanga community is the real wound. And it has to be shown to be healed. Matching your thought about the overvaluation of Asanas my own experience in so called spiritual communities (first Aikido than much later Yoga) is also, that most people are obsessed by visual status-issues: by either Asanas or “Dan” grades or maybe the time spend in meditation-sessions. There is subconsciously always competion in the air. The higher limbs are only talked about, if even that, but not really loked for. To see, whats really going on. (My simple interpretation of Patanjali…)Maybe the advanced Yoga teachers should write in the near future books, not about advanced asanas, but where they are seen walking with their dog, standing waiting in a supermarket, cooking breakfast …Not sure, if they can survive than. But who knows:-)
-Hey, but I think the spiritual underground is moving to reality. Happy to be here, in these times. And to have contact to you.
All the best for now! Silvo
By the way Gregor, Sharath’s instagram post is gone.
Sharath on the other hand doesn’t speak to his mother/family members. Wealth, leadership disagreements created family separation.
He too is teaching from a place of pain, off loading his stuff through his teachings. Says a lot about the practise that’s being taught, the energy that’s being absorbed and the offerings from a place of pain not the true essence of yoga.
People are blinded by their own light, wrapped up in the illusion of a guru pain that he cannot recognise himself.
Asana asana asana. All the long years of Pattabhi J studying and the years of teachings and the abusive behaviour he had towards women, projecting his deep rooted stuff onto his students and now his Grandson having to deal with his stuff watching his GF abusive their students and his anger he has towards his family, withdrawing away from his deep rooted stuff (samskara), and without realising it, off loading it through his teachings…
You have to wonder what are the students really learning x
The root of the problem seems to never be addressed: real yoga is all about Hindu Dharma, taught by Hindus. In other words, today’s yoga is totally phony so what can be expectecd?
Pattabhi Jois would have never stopped teaching unless Age took over. Since the 60s when he was exposed to the West, he started making his quick millions, Why on earth would he quit. He was quite a selfish man and a pervert which is a known truth by now. The man never took any efforts to travel to any other part of India to teach since he and his grandson started getting trips sponsored to the West. He was an absolute Fake and Sharath got this title bestowed upon himself to run the million dollar business.
JJ Flowers,
Pattabhi Jois is not the one who gave Ashtanga yoga to the world as you say so. There were other teachers as well and there are still many other great Ashtanga yoga teachers in Mysore better than Sharath himself but for some stupid reasons westerners were more interested in calling Jois some sort of God of Ashtanga. For Heaven’s sakes, after 20 years of practising Ashtanga yoga as you claim so, havent you figured out this plain truth that Ashtanga yoga is not some family property of Jois??? And people from Karen Rein to Kino Macgregor – they all wanted to be “touched” by the Guru so they got that piece of paper called KPJAYI certified. The women were at fault equally.
Hello Shivin,
I do appreciate your outspokenness in all of this but we have to be really careful with calling women “at fault” in all of this. If sexual abuse or rape takes place it is the fault of the perpetrator and not the victim, especially not equally. Unfortunately wherever humans congregate authoritarianism and hierarchism plays itself out. This is especially strong in religion and spirituality where people like to believe that the transference of shaktipath can solve one’s problems. We were brainwashed back then to believe all this nonsense. But you can’t blame the women for this. Millennia of patriarchy and male rape culture have brainwashed women that it’s their fault when they get raped. What a great philosophy for the rapists. It’s only recently that the spell is being broken and males are being questioned. And that’s not limited to India and not to religion either. Here in Australia we are just having one rape scandal in government after another and it becomes blatantly obvious that the parliament, the ministerial cabinet and the government are a boys club. And if you are a female in that club you play by the rules (the rules being that rape victims are at fault) and if you call out the boys you immediately loose your career and have to step down. Let’s not continue this age-old game of victim-shaming.
Hope this finds you well
Gregor