David Miliotis
"Teach what is inside you. Not as it applies to yourself, but as it applies to the other."
~ Sri Tirulamalai Krishnamacharya
Director of Samjiva Nilayam, David discovered yoga in 1989 and was soon introduced to Ashtānga Yoga by the renowned master, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, who had traveled to teach in Santa Barbara, CA. This fortuitous experience began David’s relationship with both Ashtānga Yoga and the Jois family, and continues to this day. By the time David traveled to Mysore, India in 1999 to study again with Pattabhi Jois, he had studied with Richard Freeman in Boulder, CO. After his initial six-month stay in Mysore with Pattabhi Jois at the Ashtānga Yoga Research Institute, David was granted teaching authorization. Since then, David has traveled to Mysore numerous times. In 2009, he was among the first to receive the newly created Level 2 Authorization from Sharath Jois, director of Sharath Yoga Centre.
Recognized for his devotion to blending daily practice with the study of philosophy and Sanskrit, David was selected as one of four participants in a yoga demonstration presented by Pattabhi Jois in 2004 to a gathering of Mysore business dignitaries. When Jois Yoga Encinitas opened in California in 2010, David served as a principal instructor of the Mysore Ashtānga program and assistant manager until 2014. David continues to work with Jois Yoga to host Sharath in California.
Mindful of yoga as an integrative practice of the physical and the philosophical, David is an avid student of Sanskrit, chanting and the Yoga Sūtras. Since 2012, he has studied under the tutelage of Vidwan Shrikantha Shastri, a scholar, priest & founder of Veda Geetha Foundation & Shri Bhaktha Anjaneya Temple San Diego. At the 2014 Ashtanga Yoga Confluence, David and Shastri conducted the opening ceremony (Pūja). David’s dedication and excellence to yoga has earned him the unique honor of teaching to the widespread Indian community in San Diego. He routinely leads members of this community through Sun Salutations (Sūrya Namaskāras) during their community celebrations (Pūjas).
As a teacher, David skillfully incorporates Pattabhi Jois’s belief that yoga belongs to “the entire human community.” In 2004, David founded and operated the Tapas Project, a program that brought yoga to at-risk teens in Santa Barbara County. David is the author of “Sanskrit and Chanting: a workbook for yoga practitioners.” He teaches weekly chanting and philosophy classes, and regularly hosts Satsaṅga of prānāyāma, chanting & philosophy. These gatherings culminate in a meal representative of the traditional food of Southern India that David prepares from the ample store of recipes he learned to cook during his many stays in Mysore. He travels throughout the U.S. teaching courses and workshops at yoga studios dedicated to preserving the Ashtanga tradition with its emphasis on parampara, the passing of knowledge through direct and practical experience from teacher to student.
In 2014, David was listed among the top 100 most influential yoga teachers in the USA.
ॐ