Sri Dharma Mittra

Sri Dharma Mittra was born in 1939 in Minas Gerais, Brazil, and first came to yoga through books in his teens, after years as an air force serviceman, bodybuilder and wrestler. In 1964 he travelled to New York to study with his guru, Swami Kailashananda, also known as Yogi Gupta, and gave roughly ten years to full-time training and service, taking the vows of a renunciate along the way. In 1975 he opened his own school in Manhattan, among the first independent yoga schools in the city, which carries on today as the Dharma Yoga Center on West 24th Street. He is known for the Master Yoga Chart of 908 Postures, for which he photographed himself in every pose, and for the book Asanas: 608 Yoga Poses.

His method, Dharma Yoga, treats postures as one part of the classical eight limbs. Strong and often advanced asana sits alongside breathing practice, deep relaxation, meditation and plain talks on ethics, compassion towards all beings and the search for self-knowledge. Now in his eighties, he still teaches classes in New York, in person and over Zoom, leads the Life of a Yogi teacher trainings with his senior students, offers recorded classes online, and travels for occasional weekends, including an advanced immersion at Kripalu.