Dharma Mittra
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Sri Dharma Mittra is a Yoga teacher, and a student of Sri Swami Kailashananda Maharaj. Best known for creating the Master Yoga Chart of 908 Postures, his "influence on the yoga world extends far beyond the nearly 50,000 copies of that poster that have been printed since Mittra completed the laborious project in 1983."[1] He has been teaching since 1967, and is director of the Dharma Yoga Center in New York City.
Dharma Mittra was born Carlos Augusto Vargas[2] on May 17th, 1939, in Pirapora, Minas Gerais, Brazil. He started studying Yoga in 1958. In 1964, he left the Brazilian Air Force and moved to New York City, to study under his new guru, Sri Swami Kailashananda. After intensive study of Ashtanga and Karma Yoga, he was accepted and initiated as a sannyasi (one who renounces the world in order to realize God). Dharma began teaching in 1967, after spending a decade as a full-time yogi and brahmachari (a celibate religious student who lives with his teacher and devotes himself to the practice of spiritual disciplines). A celebrated teacher at his guru's ashram, he left in 1975 and founded the Dharma Yoga Center in New York City. He has been teaching daily since that time.
Dharma Mittra completed the Master Yoga Chart of 908 Postures in 1984, after having meticulously photographed himself in 1300 Yoga postures, then cut and pasted the pictures to create the work. The Master Yoga Chart is hung in many ashrams and Yoga centers worldwide, as a teaching tool and inspiration for all students of Yoga. His more recent book, entitled Asanas: 608 Yoga Poses was published in 2003. In 2006, he released an instructional Yoga video series entitled Maha Sadhana: The Great Practice. Mittra is also featured as the inspiration and model for Yoga Journal's coffee table book, entitled Yoga.
Dharma Mittra, who is considered by some to be one of the original independent teachers, started many on the path of studying and teaching Yoga. He began teaching Yoga before various diverging styles became popular, and is considered by some to have remained true to the original practice of the third limb of Raja Yoga, asana, or the postures of ashtanga. Having initiated tens of thousands of individuals into the practice of Yoga, Dharma Mittra's students and admirers call him the "Teacher's Teacher" and the "Rock of Yoga."
His most notable disciple is Chandra Om, who founded a school in his honor and is based in North Carolina.
[edit] References
- ^ Phelps, Nicole. "Talking Shop with Dharma Mittra". Yoga Journal. http://www.yogajournal.com/views/1289_1.cfm. Retrieved 18 May 2009.
- ^ http://www.agniyoga-ay.com/MisteriosdeIoga.html
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