[1] The yoga scholar Mark Singleton notes that the book is almost legendary among Pattabhi Jois's students, though "very few have actually seen it".

He noted that the asanas in the book are described in "vinyasa krama", which was the way Krishnamacharya taught yoga to children in the Mysore palace.

[YM 1] An English translation by Lakshmi and Nandini Ranganathan was published in India in 2006, and released by them as a free download.

[YM 3] It discusses the elements of yoga, starting with yamas and niyamas, warning that "sleep, laziness and disease" are obstacles to becoming "an adept yogi".

[3] Singleton observes that the book called for the asanas to be held for long periods (3 to 15 minutes), arguing that the rapid sequences inherited by his pupil Pattabhi Jois were a special case, even then.

[12] The yoga scholar Norman Sjoman is critical of the book's perfunctory treatment of both academic requirements and yogic practices other than asanas.

Sjoman gives as an example the recommendations for vajroli mudra which call for "a glass rod to be inserted into the urethra [of the penis] an inch at a time.

"[4] The yoga scholar Elliott Goldberg comments that the photographs of Krishnamacharya's schoolboy pupils in the poses "don't truly capture yogins using their body as a tool for spiritual development either.

"[5] He adds that the group photographs are "showy ... eye-catching tricks", with boys in familiar asanas but arranged in a pyramid.

[16] He notes that Krishnamacharya was following the traditional interpretation of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, that the eight limbs formed a sequence of steps.