Parampara

The word parampara means something like the transmission of the yogic teachings from the guru to the guru’s successor without dilution or distortion. Parampara is the primary means by which the teaching of yoga has survived the ages. It has allowed generation after generation to receive powerful, undiluted teachings in yoga and other spiritual matters. My yoga teacher expertly transmitted what she had learned from her teacher Manouso Manos. At the time, I was not remotely interested in where she got her chops, I just knew that what she was teaching really inspired and transformed. In time, I learned that her teacher Manouso Manos was the most senior teacher in Iyengar Yoga and that his teacher was BKS Iyengar himself. Manouso Manos was one of two teachers in the world who BKS Iyengar bestowed with the highest certificate of Senior Advanced teacher. What I didn’t know at the time was that every class my teacher taught was a sequence from a class that Manouso Manos taught, which likely was from a class BKS Iyengar taught. I didn’t realize until years later, after my teacher stopped teaching, that she had mimicked Manouso Manos to a T. I thought she was the biggest badass there ever was. She later told me she felt like an imposter because she knew she was trying to be Manouso. It wasn’t until I went to my first Manouso class that I realized how good she was at mimicking Manouso.