Teachers and Students Behaving Badly

On September 22, 2025, I received an email from Shruthi (Sharath's widow), and Shraddha and Sambhava Jois (Sharath's adult children), who are now in charge of the Sharath Yoga Centre in Mysore, India. This email is also posted on our bulletin board at Kentucky Street along with a copy of the Ashtanga Teacher Code of Conduct which Sharath created several years ago and required all approved teachers who are on the Teacher List to agree to it. 

Here is the email:

It has recently come to our attention that there has been a breach of the Code of Conduct by one of our approved teachers.
We would like to take this moment to remind everyone that Sharath Guruji's vision has always been centered on the upliftment and well-being of both teachers and students. This was the very reason he so generously shared his knowledge — to create a respectful, safe, and supportive learning environment for all.
As clearly outlined in our Code of Conduct #7, every approved teacher is expected to maintain a safe and professional environment that is free from harassment or discrimination of any kind — including, but not limited to, those based on gender, ethnicity, nationality, or sexual orientation. It is essential that the rights, personal integrity, dignity, and privacy of each student are respected at all times.
Please note: Any teacher found in violation of this Code of Conduct will be subject to immediate removal from the directory of approved teachers.
Let us all continue to uphold the values Guruji instilled in us and ensure a positive and respectful space for everyone.

Before receiving this email, Karen Cairns told that she had been contacted by a group of concerned Ashtanga teachers wanting to have a group chat to discuss allegations made against some Ashtanga teachers.  Karen forwarded one of the chats to me. Over the next several days the group drafted a statement regarding the behavior and Ashtanga teachers were given the opportunity to sign the statement.  I did not sign the statement for several reasons:

The original Code of Conduct applies to the recent conduct.  The email from the Jois family is clear.  I did not want to agree to another statement that is not from The Sharath Yoga Centre.

From a legal standpoint, the allegations were vague, there was no information about how the allegations came to light, who had brought the allegations, and whether there had been an investigation.

The accused teachers were removed from the list of approved teachers. These teachers have no connection to Yoga East, and I do not know them.  I met one of the teachers in 2019 because she was assisting at the shala and happened to assist me a couple of times. In 2020 I was a recipient of a group email sent "to the Ashtanga Community" from a former student of one of the other teachers. This disturbing email made serious allegations against that teacher.  I brought this email to the attention of one of our students who had attended several workshops with the teacher in question, but I was told that it was probably from a student who had been accused of stalking the teacher, and to ignore it.  It probably should not have been ignored.  

In any organization of human beings, there is always going to be some behavior that requires some kind of unpleasant action. At Yoga East, we have had to ban students and teachers for theft or for extremely disruptive behavior.  Sometimes poor behavior is due to neuro-diverse conditions such as ADHD, autism spectrum conditions, bi-polar disorders, ASPD (anti social personality disorder), substance abuse, depression, anxiety - conditions for which yoga can be helpful.  If possible, we try to accommodate such students, but Yoga East is a yoga school, not a mental health facility, and we are not mental health professionals. 

If the accused teachers were students here, they would still be welcome to attend classes as students, but probably not to teach, at least not until the behavior that caused disruption has been addressed in a positive way for all concerned.  If students or teachers experience questionable behavior here or elsewhere, always bring it to someone's attention. 

--Laura Spaulding

Trying to Square the Hips in an Asymmetrical Pose

 Excellent question from a teacher training graduate:

Ok this is something that was brought to my attention during our training and I asked but I don't think I asked the question correctly. And this seems to be a practice done at several studios.  But my question is based upon my own body observations.

When instructing to do Virabhadrasana I, we are told to spread our feet 3-4 feet wide and to turn our front foot to the top of the mat and our back foot is turned at an approximate 45 degrees towards the side of the mat.  Then the next instruction is to square our hips to the front of the mat and then the student is instructed to bend the front knee to a 90 degree bend with the Knee lining up directly over the ankle.  Also your thigh is to be parallel with the floor.  The back leg is to be kept straight with the quadricep engaged.  But when I do all the above my back ankle doesn't bend at the correct angle due to compression and just stops (so the heel of my foot isn't quite on the ground).  So during class if this happens the instructor tells the students to shorten their stance between their feet.  However when I do this I lose the stretch to the front of my hip which I felt was some of the point of this pose.  

So out of curiosity I reviewed the pose in Light on Yoga.  He never mentions anything about making sure your hips are square (not that he would use a mat in his description).  But he doesn't mention the hips at all and if you look at the pictures his hips are not square with his front foot.  His back knee is slightly turned out in an external rotation which seems to be allowing for him to go deeper into the stretch of that hip.

So my question to you is there a benefit to squaring the hips and does squaring the hips create a compression in the hip joint that prevents you from going deeper into the pose.  But I feel that my compression in my back ankle is what is stopping me.  

In my mind the solution that seems to benefit me is that my hips are not square to the top of the mat which allows for me to turn my back foot out more hence allowing me to go deeper into the pose with a steadier base. And then I can actually get the benefit of a stretch to the front hip connected to the back leg.

Ok so next question let's say there is nothing more to stretch in this pose, is the next step just for strength and to just experience the pose?

My answer:

I see multiple issues with these particular instructions.

1. I never use the word “spread” when I instruct students about stance or how wide to be.  It’s a triggering instruction.  Instead I say “take a wide stance” or “step the feet wide” or “step the feet as wide as your own leg length”.  I don’t give a particular width of the feet because students are different heights, ages and levels of flexibility.
2. It’s physically impossible for human hips to be squared unless the feet are parallel, such as in Uttanasana or Prasarita Padottanasana.  Trying to do this in asymmetrical poses such as Virabhadrasana, Trikonasana, or Parsvakonasana puts undue stress on the hip joints.  Some teachers in the Iyengar system still use this instruction, but none of the Iyengar teachers with whom we have studied like Ramanand and Francois Raoult use it.  It’s a bad instruction.
3. I don’t tell students to turn their feet by degrees.  I think everyone knows what a 90 degree angle is, but 45 degrees?  60 degrees?

Here are simple instructions I use when I teach in the Rope wall room, right side first:

Let’s go to Viradhadrasana, Warrior 2, so take a wide stance facing the Rope wall, arms wide.

Turn the left foot in slightly and the right foot out toward the back of the room.

Look toward the rope wall and take a moment to square the shoulders and stretch the arms as much as possible.

The hips will be slightly rotated – this is normal.

Look toward the left hand and reach it back toward the windows.

Then look toward the right hand, take an inhalation and on the exhale, sit, and slide the right knee forward above the ankle. 

At Holiday Manor, we have a long mirrored wall, so I ask the students to look at themselves in the mirror and notice that the hips are turned, but the shoulders are square.

To build strength, hold it longer, but don’t teach that unless you see that students have properly set their foundation.

For your ankle, maybe leave it pointed toward the side (right angle, 90 degrees). Experiment and see what feels best for you.

There are more complicated and subtle instructions, but those are for very experienced students who are established in the pose.