What happens when someone born inside the culture of Yoga meets the modern world with eyes wide open? This timeless conversation with my Gurubhai, R. Sriram, originally recorded five years ago, is as alive and necessary now as it was then.

Sriram grew up in South India, surrounded by music, temples, and traditional values. He also experienced Catholic schooling, English literature, radical theater, and many layers of spiritual and political questioning. This is a deeply personal account of growing up in the very society that Krishnamacharya and Desikachar came from, while still struggling to feel at home in it. We talk about what it means to be indigenous to this tradition, and how Sriram’s life became a bridge between ancient learning and modern experience.

When he met Desikachar in the late 1970s, he didn’t just begin to study Yoga. He entered a relationship that helped him live through the emotional and cultural complexity of his own story. Breath, practice, and shared understanding gave him a way to continue, to grow, and to teach. That path eventually took him to Germany, where he has taught since 1988 alongside his wife, the Indian classical dancer Anjali Sriram.

This conversation is a reminder that the teacher-student relationship is about being seen. It is about friendship, sincerity, and learning to live with all parts of who we are.

A Life Inside the Tradition – Sriram shares firsthand memories of growing up in the same world that Krishnamacharya and Desikachar belonged to.

Holding the Whole – His life shows how Yoga supported him through family customs, academic pressure, spiritual curiosity, and social questions.

Desikachar’s Openness – Sriram remembers how Desikachar welcomed real people with real conflicts and questions.

Voice and Breath – Chanting became a way to connect with his roots, express devotion, and care for his inner life.

Ongoing Search – This story speaks to anyone asking how to live in two worlds, and how to find peace without needing to erase anything.

Yoga in a New Culture – Sriram reflects on decades of teaching in Germany, how people first reacted to Yoga, and how that has shifted over time.

R. Sriram’s Website: https://www.yogaweg.de/r-sriram/

R. Sriram on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramsriramyoga/

You are the beauty. You are the intelligence. You are already in perfect harmony with life. You don’t need to seek it. You need only participate in it.

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