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B.K.S. Iyengar
B.K.S. Iyengar has been teaching and demonstrating yoga
throughout the world for sixty years. He has several million students
and has established yoga centres all over the world. He has written many
books on yogic practice and its philosophy.
Iyengar was born in 1918 into a large, poor family in a village in the
Kolar district near Bangalore, southern India. After his father died in
1928 when he was only 9 years old, he went to live with his brother in
Bangalore. Throughout his childhood he was constantly afflicted by a variety
of serious illnesses, including influenza, tuberculosis and typhoid. Combined
with continual malnutrition, Iyengar's state of health made it uncertain
as to whether he would make it to full adulthood.
At the age of 15 B.K.S. Iyengar's life changed dramatically when he moved
to Mysore to live with his sister who was married to the renowned Sanskrit
scholar and yogi, T. Krishnamacharya. Initially Krishnamacharya refused
to teach any yoga to Iyengar but after some months he relented and gave
him basic instructions in asana practice.
At first Iyengar's body was weak and stiff and he had difficulty in doing
any postures at all. Fear of his master coupled with a deep reservoir
of inner strength drove Iyengar to work through the pain and rigidity
of his body. He spent a lot of time at the Yogashala (yoga school) in
the Jaganmohan palace in Mysore and within a year he had mastered many
of the postures.
From that point onwards, his vocation became apparent. He started to teach
yoga in a variety of places, eventually settling at the Deccan Gymkhana,
Pune in 1937. He has been teaching in Pune ever since, developing his
extensive knowledge of yoga practice and commenting upon and interpreting
the classical ancient texts of yoga, especially Patanjali's Yoga Sutras.
Iyengar is mainly responsible for bringing yoga to the West. The Iyengar
style of yoga is probably the most widely practised form of yoga in Europe
and America. In the 1950s he was able to meet the violinist Yehudi Menuhin
who was performing in Bombay at the time. Iyengar gave him some yogic
instruction and Menuhin was so impressed that he asked Iyengar to teach
him at his home in Switzerland. It was Yehudi Menuhin who introduced Iyengar
to students in London, Paris and cities in the U.S.A. Iyengar then demonstrated
and taught in the West for a number of years until yoga became an established
presence.
B.K.S. Iyengar is now 89 years old and is still practising yoga every
day. In November 1997 he travelled to Europe and visited the Maida Vale
IYI. While he was here, he conducted puja (an Indian blessing) and gave
a speech on ashtanga yoga to over 200 students.
Sources: Yoga The Iyengar Way; Iyengar His Life and Work; "Iyengar
Looks Back" - article in Yoga Journal, Nov/Dec 1997.
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