Ashtanga Mysore Practice — The Traditional Method at a Small Shala

Mysore-style Ashtanga practice is the original form: each student works through their own position in the sequence at their own pace, with the teacher moving around the room giving hands-on adjustments to each person individually. There is no music. There is no instruction to the group. You memorise the sequence over time and eventually you do not need the teacher to tell you what comes next — you need them to deepen what you already have. I have been teaching this way for eight years at a small shala in the RS Puram neighbourhood, which is a 10-minute autorickshaw from the centre of Mysore. My classes start at 6:00am because that is when the practice was designed to be done — before the heat, before the day's demands. The shala takes maximum 12 students. Complete beginners are welcome: I teach the Primary Series from the beginning and nobody is rushed into postures their body is not ready for. Mysore itself provides the context the practice was born in, and I show you that context as well.