“Let us look at his usual day. Whether you believe it or not, this old man gets up at one o’clock in the morning. Anybody is welcome to wait on the verandah and see that he gets up at one o’clock in the morning. And one o’clock in the morning is something for us, I mean it is like a terror to get up at one o’clock, and he is 93. He prepares his own tea and then he practices.

I did not believe that, until I saw, because he is staying with me, that he practices Yoga Āsana and Prāṇāyāma every day. In fact more than once every day, including headstand and Padmāsana, I am mentioning Padmāsana you see, because we are all sitting on chairs.

Headstand, Padmāsana, everything he does, and at 5 o’clock the bell rings and we know that he has started his Pūja. And the bell is not one of those small bells like they have on dining room tables. I am sure that bell must weigh 1½-2 kilos, because it is made of bronze. It must meet certain specifications, and the bell must produce the tone of OM, so it is quite heavy.

I often wonder whether I could ever do this for five minutes, like he does. He goes on waking God-come on, get up, get up, get up- also with some recitation, and all the family at that time curses him because he is waking all of us. At 6.30, when he has done all the chantings, it is very interesting to watch him doing these, he makes his own breakfast.

Then I go to see him at 7 o’clock in the morning and we chant for one hour. And then sometimes he has somebody at eight o’clock for chanting; somebody else at nine. So he will be teaching this Vedic chanting for 3 hours, after one hour of Pūja. You must try to chant for fifteen minutes, it is so tiring, but he manages. He has a great will.”

– TKV Desikachar from lectures on ‘The Yoga of T Krishnamacharya’, given at Zinal, Switzerland 1981.