But Sonia’s involvement with Guruji’s heirs and their attempt to codify his teachings into
something called Jois Yoga
has created a current of unease and distress in the close-knit community of Ashtanga teachers, although few are expressing this openly, whether out of loyalty to Guruji’s memory, fear of the future, or hope that it will just go away.
Many Ashtanga teachers have not just their livelihoods but their very existence tied up in the practice, and Jois Yoga, which from the outside can seem like one part Lululemon (the hugely successful line of high-end yoga clothing) and one part Yogaworks (the California-based chain of yoga studios), is a challenge to all of that. It feels like a commercial enterprise—or worse. “I believe it’s about power, and I don’t want to be part of it,” says Lino Miele, a senior teacher, about Jois.
Alison Hinks Yoga 
But isn’t that what yoga’s all about these days, branding and self-promotion? I think some of more traditional schools of yoga are now just getting caught in the undertow of the hustle of the century, the so-called yoga alliance. I wonder if they also sent in their $700 to YA in order to be recognized as a school?
I love being a yoga teacher, and I love sharing my knowledge of both asana and philosophy that I have accumulated through many, many years of studying at the feet of giants. Branding and self-promotion just aren’t my thing. But I can’t criticise anyone else’s success through self-promotion, nor can I find fault in another yoga lineage jumping on the bandwagon. God bless ’em all. I hope we all one day get whatever recognition we crave, or better yet, stop craving it.