Will the real smiling Yogi please stand up?

I recently received a comment from a Yoga Journal reader regarding the identity of the instructor in my article in this month’s issue of the magazine.

The reader, Chetana, is a regular at Yoga Niketan in Rishikesh, and she is correct that there is no “Vikas” who teaches there; I changed the teacher’s name because in the article’s original, longer format, this character was an amalgam of several teachers at Niketan.

As the piece was honed however, Vikas reflected more and more a single teacher, but I kept the fictional name anyway. Chetana surmises that I was actually writing about Yogi Vishvketu, pictured above, and described on this World Yoga Family page. I don’t recall the actual name of my teacher in Rishikesh last July, but remove the beard, open the eyes, keep the smile, and yes, that may very well be “Vikas” who, as I wrote in Yoga Journal, is a remarkable teacher.

Thank you, Chetana; thank you, Vishva; namaste.