Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois (1915-2009) was born in South India and is considered to be the guru of Ashtanga yoga. Being of the Brahmin caste he had never practiced yoga, but at the age of 12 he attended a demonstration at the middle school and was amazed by the asanas and flow from movement to movement. He sought out the yogi Sri T. Krishnamacharya the next day who agreed to be his teacher. He kept it secret from his family—he was supposed to be studying to be a priest and even left a few years later to attend the Sanskrit college in Mysore. He reunited with his teacher a couple years later and remained with him learning and teaching in Mysore for over 20 years. He married, had children, and established the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute (now known as the K Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute). His book, Yoga Mala, was published in 1962 and it describes the asanas and benefits of the Ashtanga practice. Although it was not translated into English until 1999, slowly the rest of the world started to take notice of Jois and Ashtanga. In 1973, the first Americans went to study with Jois and then over a thirty year period he made many trips to America. He dedicated his life to the teaching of yoga – “Yoga is 99% practice and 1% theory”, and “Practice and all is coming”, are a few sayings he is known for. You need to practice and experience yoga. He passed on what he learned from his teacher and now people all over the world can share in that practice.