UG was an unusual person, whose spiritual search had finished completely, freeing up torrents of energy in his body and allowing him to live his life freely - what is called a jivamukti or liberated person in the Indian tradition. After arranging for the book’s publication in the US, and hosting Desikachar in New Zealand in 1995 for workshops, interviews and book promotion, Mark continued to teach around the world to carry out his teacher’s request, while always returning to his homeland of Aotearoa New Zealand.ĭuring this time he reconnected with UG Krishnamurti (student but no relation of the famous Jiddhu Krishnamurti), a student and friend of Krishnamacharya and a huge influence through friendship on Desikachar and Krishnamacharya. The book The Heart of Yoga: Developing A Personal Practice was the result. When Mark reported this to Desikachar, Desikachar asked him if he could perhaps do something about it. He later travelled to the USA and noticed that what was being taught in Yoga studios there bore little resemblance to what he had learned in India. Mark fell in love with this and with the Yoga he received.Īfter staying India several years, he then travelled back and forth between India and Aotearoa / New Zealand, set up yoga studios including on Auckland’s vital Karangahape Road, and brought students to India to study with his teachers.
Desikachar and his father were living as ordinary humble people, sharing their meals on the floor of their home, not posturing as superior beings or powertripping. But it wasn’t until Mark met Krishnamacharya and Desikachar in Chennai (then Madras) in 1973 that he discovered a practice that could make his inspirational experiences stable and comprehensible: Yoga. First ‘dropping out’ of New Zealand society and travelling to India in his teens, this was the beginning of a lifelong love affair that took him into the orbits of many of the great masters of our time, known and unknown, including falling in love with Swami Muktananda in the early seventies and accompanying him around Australia.
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