A Life-Changing moment. That is how I can describe the workshop on the Seven Cakra-s, that  I attended in March 2016, which was led by Dr Kausthub Desikachar. 

My name is Sabine Bender, and I am 64 years old. I live in Frankfurt, Germany, and I am a yoga teacher and yoga therapist. I have been working in a psychosomatic clinic near Frankfurt for 3 1/2 years and offer Viniyoga Therapy to my clients.

I finished my yoga teacher training in March 2016 in Frankfurt and studied the german version of the book “The Heart of Yoga” by T.K.V. Desikachar.
The book fascinated me, but I knew that I did not “understand” it fully. 
I had got to know Yoga mainly as a physical practice, and at that time I regularly attended yoga courses in my yoga studio in Frankfurt.

It was at this time that I saw the announcement of the workshop on the Seven Cakras by Dr Kausthub Desikachar. I realized that Dr. Kausthub Desikachar is the grandson of Sri T. Krishnamacharya and the son of Sri T.K.V. Desikachar.  I knew that I had to meet this teacher. The topic of the workshop was not that important to me.

This four intense days with him has changed my life forever! During these four days, Kausthub Desikachar gave me an idea that Yoga is so much more than just asana practice. Above all, an understanding for myself!
I suddenly recognized the connections in my life, imprints, traumatic experiences and how they expressed themselves physically and psychologically.

After that, everything happened very quickly. I had decided to do the three-year Viniyoga Therapy Training that Dr Kausthub Desikachar was offering in Brussels. On embarking this training, he became my teacher and mentor, the beginning of a beautiful journey that goes on and on.

I got to know Dr Kausthub Desikachar as a wonderful person and an exceptional teacher. From the beginning, I was able to experience that he has an extraordinary and profound knowledge. His lessons are very “true to life”, and he can also make very complex philosophical concepts easy to understand. He knows all classic yoga texts in the original and can explain them in the context of his culture and tradition.

He never reads anything to us in class from a book, and he can answer any question that is asked immediately. Such is his breadth and depth of knowledge. 

Kausthub Desikachar treats all students in the group equally. He is a very warm person and succeeded in creating an atmosphere in which every student in the group felt safe and in good hands.

I had two completely new and intense experiences during my learning with him.  First, the mentoring sessions and the establishment of daily personal practice. Over these years, Kausthub Desikachar accompanied me very carefully on a journey to myself. These personal Yoga practices created an intense path involving a great deal of positive change in my life.

Second, when I took the course titled “The Power of Mantra” and what it has changed for me in my yoga practice. This course that he conducted online involved a monthly session which included a daily mantra practice. It changed the way I practised Yoga and took it more internal and made it more powerful. 

I feel like a woman and also with all “female issues” with Dr Kausthub Desikachar very safe and in good hands.

A big challenge for me is my intensive change through working with Dr. Kausthub Desikachar and the resulting change in my life and with my environment.

I am now continuing my studies with Dr Kausthub Desikachar through the Advanced Viniyoga Therapy Training, and am happy to be on this journey for another three years. – again in Brussels with Dr. kausthub Desikachar.

Even during the global Corona Crisis, he has been supporting many other students and me through online classes, and these have also been an invaluable support. 

In conclusion, I can say that I can recommend learning with Dr Kausthub Desikachar to anyone who is interested and who wants to delve deeper into the subject of YOGA. It is about finding a suitable lifestyle for yourself, which can be adapted again and again to the respective circumstances and which helps more and more to recognize and dissolve old patterns and to deal lovingly with yourself and your body. We can learn what the old philosophies contain and how we can implement them in our everyday life.

Dr. Kausthub Desikachar is a very warm and humorous person, and it is an incredible enrichment to learn with and from him! And it’s just fun!

The most important sentence he gave me “ALWAYS FOLLOW YOUR HEART”

Thank you so much and NAMASTE

DR. Kausthub Desikachar – MY TEACHER OF THE HEART 🙏❤️