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Welcome back to On the Light. I’m your host, Susan Johnson. Today I’m joined by Devki Desai.

Devki’s journey with Iyengar Yoga began in Mumbai in the mid-1980s, when her father first brought her to class as a teenager. What began with some resistance soon became a lifelong path, shaped by early study with senior teachers and, soon after, direct exposure to B.K.S. Iyengar himself. Over the years, Devki’s life became deeply interwoven with the Institute in Pune—through practice, teaching, family, and seva.

In this conversation, Devki shares intimate stories of being guided and trained by Guruji, Geetaji, and Prashantji —three influences she never separates, but experiences as a woven whole. She reflects on learning to teach through direct instruction, observation, and responsibility; on being “thrown into” classes as a form of training; and on the grace that carried her through those formative years.

She also speaks movingly about pranayama, motherhood, devotion, and the subtle ways yoga shapes a life over time.

This is a conversation rich with memory, lineage, and lived experience, and I’m so grateful to share it with you.

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