The Master Yoga Chart of 908 postures, completed in 1984. Created by Sri Dharma Mittra, it now grace

The Master Yoga Chart of 908 postures, completed in 1984. Created by Sri Dharma Mittra, it now graces the walls of ashrams near and far. 

Christy Turlington: the model yogini. Christy Turlington's spiritual awakening—and the strength it has given her to withstand pain, pressure, and loss as she navigated a high-powered modeling career and built a successful business (Nuala, a line of yoga-inspired activewear she produces in partnership with Puma)—she owes to yoga. Discovered while horseback riding when she was 14, Turlington took her first Kundalini class four years later and was hooked. Her commitment to an active life on the mat continues to inspire those of us still wildly in thrall to her grace and her stamina and, yes, inner beauty be damned, her perfect yoga butt. Photographed in Amagansett, New York. 


Sri K. Pattabhi Jois: guru, Ashtanga yoga. Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, 91, has been described as "fierce and compassionate" and "strict and loving" by his students, but it's this kind of dichotomy that makes the teacher of Ashtanga so revered. Jois, who has been teaching for 70 years, started with a studio, or shala, in Mysore (Mysooru), India, that held only 15 students, and is now used to teaching groups that can number in the hundreds. He leads his students through a series of asanas that flow one into the next, synchronizing with the breath, and getting gradually more difficult, with the goal of producing an intense internal heat that detoxifies the body. Photographed at Sanskrit College in Mysore, India