Miller, who is reluctant to complain, says his first thought was that, since there was so much bad feeling about Jois Yoga already, maybe he was in a position to be “harmonizing.” He decided to talk with Ruffin about working with them. But a person close to him tells me that the contract e-mailed to him by Jois Yoga treated him like an employee at a 24-hour fitness center, with stipulations that required him to pay for a substitute if he missed a day of teaching. And so, he decided that he would trust the bad feeling in his gut and walk away. Says Ruffin, “We honestly did try to have him join us.”

In the summer of 2010, the gleaming new Jois Yoga shala opened in Encinitas. I’m told that it cost $1 million to build out the space, and that the rent is $11,000 a month. When I was there, to get to the studio, you walked through a boutique selling all sorts of clothes, including the new Jois line but also clothes that look suited more to a night on the town than to a yoga practice. There were pictures of Guruji and Sharath everywhere, but also a picture of Sonia’s daughter Chrissy in the window, and inside a picture of Paul doing a backbend. There was a big opening party, which Sharath came in for.

Miller did not go.

There is now a Jois Yoga shala in Sydney, Australia, which is run by Sonia’s sister. There was also talk that one would open in Manhattan, the home of longtime teacher Eddie Stern. According to several teachers, Stern eventually opposed the idea; a source close to him says he felt the proposed location was too close to other teachers’ existing studios. The idea has been dropped for now.

But damage has been done. Friendships have splintered, and while much of the disquiet is under the surface, there is a noticeable rent in the fabric of the community. For instance, Lino Miele told Sharath to remove his name from the list of approved teachers. “Guruji said that Tim was a good man, and that means no one touches Tim,” says Miele. “I look at what is happening—I do not understand. I move out.”

When Sharath came to the United States in the spring of 2011, Jois Yoga sponsored him. Sharath taught a class that was available around the world via a live Webcam, but there was also a small private class for Sonia and a few others. It was wonderful and intimate, yet strangely unsettling. Should money plus dedication get you more yoga than dedication alone?

Despite the widespread feeling that Miller was treated badly, and all the other queasiness, many think that if Sonia can help spread the word, more power to her. Those who work with her and have gotten to know her are supportive. “All she asks is ‘What does Sharath want? What does Saraswathi want?’ ” says Andrew Hillam, a former student of Miller’s, who now teaches at the Jois shala in Encinitas. “She says, ‘I just want to do it in the right way, how Guruji would have wanted it.’ ”

Sonia, for her part, says, “I wouldn’t be doing this, trust me, if he hadn’t said, ‘Will you open schools for me all over the world?’ ”

Encinitas is, after all, the first place that Guruji came to in the United States, and the Jois family voices support for everything Sonia has done. “He [Guruji] would be thrilled,” says Manju Jois. “I don’t think it’s proper for others to say how this is wrong or this is right,” says Sharath. “Everyone has their own rights to share the knowledge with others. Nobody owns this.”

The discord might blow over as Jois Yoga matures. Both Sonia and Salima say they will never make money on the studios, and they are concentrating on philanthropy.

But several teachers say they think there will be a split. And if that happens, maybe it’s not all bad. “These kinds of things have happened throughout human history,” says Chuck Miller, who points out that Ashtanga was not the only kind of yoga that grew out of Krishnamacharya’s teachings. “A big teacher passes, and there is some kind of splintering.”

A slightly different perspective comes from Kino MacGregor. She points out that Krishnamacharya taught hundreds, maybe even thousands, of students, and there are only six who are well known today. “The students chose them,” she says. “The future of yoga is decided by the students, and whoever will bear the torch of Ashtanga yoga will be decided by the students. I don’t think we need to try to control it. We just need to sit with the uncertainty of it.”

The ultimate yoga portfolio (Amy Fine Collins and Michael O’Neill, June 2007)

The perils of exercising in New York City (A. A. Gill, December 2004)