Interview with Śrīmatī Shruthi Jois by Jens Bache, with contributions from Lisa Lalér and Susanna Finocchi. Interview conducted in Mysore, November 26, 2025. Published with the permission and approval of Shruthi Jois.
This is Shruthi’s first interview. Here, for the first time, she has decided to share her voice, in writing, with the global community. Below is her interview with Jens, with context described by Jens, Lisa, and Susanna.
The fall 2025 season at Sharath Yoga Centre (SYC) began not with asana, but with devotion, family, and remembrance. On Sunday, November 2, 2025, practitioners from around the world gathered in Mysore for the Vaikuntha Samārādhane: the one-year ceremony honoring the passing of Sri Paramaguru R. Sharath Jois, who left his body on November 12, 2024 (November 11, at his location).
The ritual, held in a ceremonial hall in Mysore, brought together his wife Shruthi, their children Shraddha and Sambhav, close relatives, extended family, and students. The atmosphere was tender and solemn.
Reflecting on her husband’s life, Shruthi said, “He has given his whole life to yoga. All his struggles… I know how much he struggled for this, to keep yoga alive. There is no rebirth for Sharathji, but he will live forever in our hearts.”
In the South Indian tradition, this means his ātman has reached vaikuṇṭha – mokṣa – the natural culmination of a life lived with discipline, compassion, and unbroken dedication to dharma.
Coming together in this way set the tone for the season. Before a single mat was unrolled, before the first breath of practice, we felt the community united with his family in the understanding that his presence and his teachings continue through the paramparā he upheld, and the place he built. The next morning, November 3, classes began at SYC in Hebbal – the shala he designed and built. For the three of us, entering the shala after the ceremony felt less like a new beginning, and more like stepping into the continuation of his presence – especially as the first class of led primary was conducted following his recorded voice with Shruthi, Shraddha, and Sambhav all present.
When the three of us sat with Shruthi after almost three weeks of classes, she shared with clarity and humility why she chose to open the shala, and how she sees the continuation of his teaching.
“My intention is… we have to,” she said. “Because Sharathji has given his whole life to yoga. All his struggles… I know how much he struggled to keep yoga alive. So we should keep him alive through his teaching.”
Reflecting on the first weeks of practice, she observed: “It seems like everybody is accepting this. Yes, it is very difficult for everyone without him. I agree with that. But we have to keep him alive… All these teachers have dedicated themselves to yoga for many years. We can receive help from them. I think Sharathji would accept that.”
For more than 25 years, she lived beside him – caring for him, raising their children, managing their home life, and supporting his teaching. She said: “I have taken care of a yoga guru. He was a legend… He used to discuss each and every point with me. Small, small things also he used to come and discuss with me.” She laughed gently, “I’m a karma yogi… He used to call me a karma yogi. I had to take care of everything – the house, the kids, Sharath. So I couldn’t give all my time to yoga. But I understood because he used to discuss everything with me.”
“Yoga is not only asana. You have to understand yourself and heal yourself. It is body and mind together. It is personality development – a strong commitment.” In this commitment, she sees how the community must move forward: “We heal together. We grow together.”
This season marked the first prepared continuation of practice without Sharathji present. Last year, the community was still in shock. December 2024 began as a month of self-practice, and January–February 2025 unfolded with sincere though unstructured efforts – everyone was grieving. The following season was different. Shruthi formed a team of 12–14 assisting teachers: long-term practitioners, authorized or certified by Sharathji, most of whom had assisted him in Mysore and had taught in their own shalas for decades.
Prior to this, a collective teaching model had formed in 2023, when unresolved visa issues prevented Sharathji from traveling to Europe to conduct workshops in five countries. Hundreds of students came anyway. We – Jens, Lisa, and Susanna – helped organize classes in Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Rome, and the other hosts did the same. Other teachers who had registered for the event stepped forward to teach and assist collectively, embodying the same method, rhythm, and reverence we had learned from Sharathji in Mysore. Through these weeks, we stayed in close contact with Sharathji, holding live video conferences and keeping him updated. A shared responsibility naturally emerged. This experience – unplanned and formed under a high-pressure situation – would become the first steps of the collective paramparā now evolving at the Sharath Yoga Centre. [Editor’s Note: This same teaching framework emerged organically in Charlottesville in the days following Sharathji’s passing, when the group of around 100 teachers intuitively, with no central authority, came together to practice and assist each other.]
Beginning in November, 2025, a team at SYC would teach collectively, with no single teacher taking center stage. Students came to honor Sharathji and continue their practice in the paramparā he embodied.
Each morning, something profoundly moving happened: Shruthi and Sambhav would chant the opening mantra, the vande gurūṇām. Their voices carried love, steadiness, and devotion. Many students had tears in their eyes.
Inside the shala, we felt the assisting team become a single organism. Shruthi told us to observe the students, in the way Sharathji always instructed us to work in the shala. We only adjusted where needed, but the real commitment lay in continuous communication, with every step focused on the student and what would benefit their practice:
• Is this student stable and ready for a new asana?
• Would repeating be more beneficial at this stage, for safety and steadiness?
• How do we best support the student’s sādhana at this stage?
Every decision was based on observation, conferring with one another, and communicating with Shruthi. No one acted alone. This was an expression of how he taught us to work: with humility and dedication to the student’s well-being and steady practice. As individuals, none of us can replicate his extraordinary capacity to guide hundreds or thousands of students. But by coming together, supporting one another, and sharing what he taught each of us, we could transmit this method with sincerity and integrity.
It was in this collective effort that the teaching continued – not as imitation, but as service.
Shruthi emphasized: “Whatever he has taught you, just continue the same thing with the students… We have to retain that energy and keep going.” When we spoke about his teaching, she said, “He knew the right method, the right skill. He understood every one – very closely. He worked so many years… studying each and every body. My husband was totally a magic person. Most would take 100 years to do everything he did in 50 years… Whatever had to be given to the world, he gave it.”
When we asked her why she thinks people should come to Mysore today, her answer was simple and sincere: “Health… one should come for health. And to learn the method, and learn the right way – that is also important.” For her, in essence, coming to Mysore is not only for ambition – it is first about healing, well-being, and learning the correct method directly within the lineage her husband carried so fully.
For Shruthi, her children, Shraddha and Sambhav, are now her vision, her purpose, and the light that guides her forward. Shraddha is strong and independent, and is carrying forward her father’s teachings. She recently received her master’s degree from New York University, fulfilling what her father had always wished for her. She also worked closely with Sharathji on the Active Series and is continuing to travel and share this transmission with teachers around the world. Sambhav contributes daily at the shala: present, chanting, supporting his mother, and managing office tasks, all while studying for his bachelor’s degree. “My kids… they are my two eyes,” she said.
What is unfolding at SYC is not fragmentation, reinvention, or post-lineage yoga. It is collective paramparā: lineage carried by many hands. Holding this season together was not an administrative task. It was an act of devotion. For the three of us, our assisting service concluded on November 30, but the season continued into early 2026 with new assisting teachers stepping in – all committed to the same collective spirit. And a new fall 2026 season is already taking form.
Sharathji often said: “Yoga is family – yogaḥ kulaṃ.” He said this at workshops and during his online classes during Covid. They describe not only a philosophy, but the way he lived, taught, saw us as students, and held the community.
About the Authors
Jens Bache first met R. Sharath Jois in 2001, and was authorized in 2007. He is the co-founder of Astanga Yoga of Copenhagen and has run the shala since 2000. Jens hosted Sharathji and coordinated his European tours from 2009–2024. He is the Danish translator and publisher of Aṣṭaṅga Yoga Anuṣṭhāna by R. Sharath Jois.
Susanna Finocchi is a certified senior teacher and life-long practitioner. She first practiced in Mysore in 1995 and was blessed to teach by both K. Pattabhi Jois and R. Sharath Jois in 2004. She co-founded Astanga Yoga of Copenhagen, and taught mysore-style in Copenhagen and Rome for more than 25 years, where she was also the long-time host of Sharathji’s workshops. She is the translator and publisher of Aṣṭaṅga Yoga Anuṣṭhāna by R. Sharath Jois into Italian.
Lisa Lalér is a senior authorized teacher (2010) and long-term student, having first practiced in Mysore in 2004. She has directed Yogashala Stockholm and has taught mysore-style there since 2009, and was the long-time host of Sharathji’s workshops in Stockholm. She is the translator of Aṣṭaṅga Yoga Anuṣṭhāna and Ageless by R. Sharath Jois into Swedish.
Tiger Tracks was created and is edited by Dhawi Pienta, David Kessel, and Angela Jamison.