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B.K.S. Iyengar
Iyengar on his 86th birthday in 2004
Born	Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar (1918-12-14)14 December 1918 Bellur, Kolar district, Kingdom of Mysore (now Karnataka, India)
Died	20 August 2014(2014-08-20) (aged 95) Pune, Maharashtra, India
Occupations	Yoga teacher Author
Known for	Iyengar Yoga
Spouse	Ramamani
Children	Geeta and 5 others

Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar (14 December 1918 – 20 August 2014) was an Indian teacher of yoga and author. He is the founder of the style of yoga as exercise, known as "Iyengar Yoga", and was considered one of the foremost yoga gurus in the world. He was the author of many books on yoga practice and philosophy including Light on Yoga, Light on Pranayama, Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and Light on Life. Iyengar was one of the earliest students of Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, who is often referred to as "the father of modern yoga". He has been credited with popularizing yoga, first in India and then around the world.

The Indian government awarded Iyengar the Padma Shri in 1991, the Padma Bhushan in 2002, and the Padma Vibhushan in 2014. In 2004, Iyengar was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine.

Early years

B.K.S. Iyengar was born into a poor Sri Vaishnava Iyengar family in Bellur, Kolar district, Karnataka, India. He was the 11th of 13 children (10 of whom survived) born to Sri Krishnamachar, a school teacher, and Sheshamma. When Iyengar was five years old, his family moved to Bangalore. Four years later, the 9-year-old boy lost his father to appendicitis.

Iyengar's home town, Bellur, was in the grip of the influenza pandemic at the time of his birth, and an attack of that disease left the young boy sickly and weak for many years. Throughout his childhood, he struggled with malaria, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and general malnutrition. "My arms were thin, my legs were spindly, and my stomach protruded in an ungainly manner" he wrote. "My head used to hang down, and I had to lift it with great effort."

Education in yoga

In 1934, B. K. S. Iyengar's brother-in-law, the yogi Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, asked him to come to Mysore, so as to improve his health through the practice of yoga asanas. Krishnamacharya had Iyengar and other students give asana demonstrations in the Maharaja's court at Mysore, which had a positive influence on Iyengar. Iyengar considers his association with his brother-in-law a turning point in his life saying that over a two-year period "he (Krishnamacharya) only taught me for about ten or fifteen days, but those few days determined what I have become today!" K. Pattabhi Jois has claimed that he, and not Krishnamacharya, was Iyengar's guru. In 1937, Krishnamacharya sent Iyengar to Pune at the age of eighteen to spread the teaching of yoga.

Though Iyengar had very high regard for Krishnamacharya, and occasionally turned to him for advice, he had a troubled relationship with his guru during his tutelage. In the beginning, Krishnamacharya predicted that the stiff, sickly teenager would not be successful at yoga. He was neglected and tasked with household chores. Only when Krishnamacharya's favorite pupil at the time, Keshavamurthy, left one day did serious training start. Krishnamacharya began teaching a series of difficult postures, sometimes telling him to not eat until he mastered a certain posture. These experiences would later inform the way he taught his students.

Iyengar reported in interviews that, at age 90, he continued to practice asanas for three hours and pranayamas for an hour daily. Besides this, he mentioned that he found himself performing non-deliberate pranayamas at other times.

International recognition

In 1952, Iyengar befriended the violinist Yehudi Menuhin. Menuhin gave him the opportunity that transformed Iyengar from a comparatively obscure Indian yoga teacher into an international guru. Because Iyengar had taught the famous philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti, he was asked to go to Bombay to meet Menuhin, who was known to be interested in yoga. Menuhin said he was very tired and could spare only five minutes. Iyengar told him to lie down in Savasana (on his back), and he fell asleep. After one hour, Menuhin awoke refreshed and spent another two hours with Iyengar. Menuhin came to believe that practising yoga improved his playing, and in 1954 invited Iyengar to Switzerland. At the end of that visit, he presented his yoga teacher with a watch on the back of which was inscribed, "To my best violin teacher, BKS Iyengar". From then on Iyengar visited the west regularly. In Switzerland he also taught Vanda Scaravelli, who went on to develop her own style of yoga.

He taught yoga to several celebrities including Krishnamurti and Jayaprakash Narayan. He taught sirsasana (head stand) to Elisabeth, Queen of Belgium when she was 80. Among his other devotees were the novelist Aldous Huxley, the actress Annette Bening, the film maker Mira Nair and the designer Donna Karan, as well as prominent Indian figures, including the cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and the Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor.

Iyengar made his first visit to the United States in 1956, when he taught in Ann Arbor, Michigan and gave several lecture-demonstrations; he came back to Ann Arbor in 1973, 1974, and 1976.

In 1966, Iyengar published his first book, Light on Yoga. It became an international best-seller. As of 2005, it had been translated into 17 languages and sold three million copies. It was followed by 13 other books, covering pranayama and aspects of yoga philosophy.

In 1967, the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) called for classes in "Hatha Yoga", free of yoga philosophy, but including asanas and "pranayamas (sic)" suitable especially for people aged over 40. The ILEA's Peter McIntosh watched some of Iyengar's classes, was impressed by Light on Yoga, and from 1970 ILEA-approved yoga teacher training in London was run by one of Iyengar's pupils, Silva Mehta. Iyengar was careful to comply with the proscription of yoga philosophy, and encouraged students to follow their own religious traditions, rather than trying to follow his own family's Visistadvaita, a qualified non-dualism within Hinduism.

• In 1954, the violinist Yehudi Menuhin invited Iyengar to teach in Europe.
• Iyengar at Iyengar Centre House, London, 1971

Iyengar, Natarajasana, and 20th century yoga

Iyengar in his signature pose, Natarajasana

"As the signature pose of Iyengar, the most acclaimed master of postural yoga, Natarajasana became the representative yoga pose of the late 20th century... Iyengar saw himself as Nataraja's avatar. And he clearly (sometimes desperately) wanted us to see him as the incarnation of Nataraja. So he came close to conflating the yogin and the dancer." — Elliott Goldberg

In 1975, Iyengar opened the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune, in memory of his late wife. He officially retired from teaching in 1984, but continued to be active in the world of Iyengar Yoga, teaching special classes, giving lectures, and writing books. Iyengar's daughter, Geeta, and son, Prashant, have gained international acclaim as teachers.

Iyengar attracted his students by offering them just what they sought – which tended to be physical stamina and flexibility. He conducted demonstrations and later, when a scooter accident dislocated his spine, began exploring the use of props to help disabled people practice Yoga. He drew inspiration from Hindu deities such as Yoga Narasimha and stories of yogis using trees to support their asanas. He was however thought by his students to be somewhat rough with his adjustments when setting people into alignment; the historian of yoga Elliott Goldberg records that, as well as being known for barking orders and yelling at students, he was nicknamed, based on his initials B. K. S., "Bang, Kick, Slap". In Goldberg's view, Iyengar "rationalized his humiliation of his followers as a necessary consequence of his demand for high standards", but this was consistent with his childhood response to the rough and abusive treatment he received from Krishnamacharya, taking offence quickly, being suspicious of other people's intentions, and belittling others: "In other words, he sometimes behaved like Krishnamacharya". Goldberg concludes, however, that Iyengar hid "a compassion of which Krishnamacharya was never capable", and his students remembered his playfulness as well as his unpredictable temper.

Philanthropy and activism

Iyengar supported nature conservation, stating that it is important to conserve all animals and birds. He donated Rs. 2 million to Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens, Mysore, thought to be the largest donation by an individual to any zoo in India. He also adopted a tiger and a cub in memory of his wife, who died in 1973.

Iyengar helped promote awareness of multiple sclerosis with the Pune unit of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of India.

Iyengar's most important charitable project involved donations to his ancestral village of Bellur, in the Kolar district of Karnataka. Through the Bellur Trust fund which he established, he led a transformation of the village, supporting a number of charitable activities there. He built a hospital, India's first temple dedicated to Patanjali, a free school that supplies uniforms, books, and a hot lunch to the children of Bellur and the surrounding villages, a secondary school, and a college.

Family

In 1943, Iyengar married 16-year-old Ramamani in a marriage that was arranged by their parents. He said of their marriage: "We lived without conflict as if our two souls were one." Together, they raised five daughters and a son. Ramamani died in 1973 aged 46; Iyengar named his yoga institute in Pune, the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, after her.

Both Iyengar's eldest daughter Geeta (1944–2018) and his son Prashant have become internationally known teachers in their own right. His other children are Vanita, Sunita, Suchita, and Savita. Geeta, having worked extensively on yoga for women, published Yoga: A Gem for Women (2002); Prashant is the author of several books, including A Class after a Class: Yoga, an Integrated Science (1998), and Yoga and the New Millennium (2008). Since Geeta's death, Prashant has served as the director of the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI) in Pune. Iyengar's granddaughter, Abhijata Sridhar Iyengar, trained for a number of years under his tutelage, and is now a teacher both at the Institute in Pune and internationally.

Iyengar died on 20 August 2014 in Pune, aged 95.

Legacy

3 October 2005 was declared as "B.K.S. Iyengar Day" by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Anthropologist Joseph S. Alter of the University of Pittsburgh stated that Iyengar "has by far had the most profound impact on the global spread of yoga." In June 2011, he was presented with a commemorative stamp issued in his honour by the Beijing branch of China Post. At that time there were over thirty thousand Iyengar yoga students in 57 cities in China.

The noun "Iyengar", short for "Iyengar Yoga", is defined by Oxford Dictionaries as "a type of Hatha yoga focusing on the correct alignment of the body, making use of straps, wooden blocks, and other objects as aids in achieving the correct postures."

On 14 December 2015, what would have been Iyengar's 97th birthday, he was honoured with a Google Doodle. It was shown in India, North America, much of Europe, Russia, and Indonesia. Yogacharya B.K.S. Iyengar: Uniting Through Yoga, a documentary film by Vishaal Desai, was released on his birth centenary in 2018. Leap of Faith (2008), another documentary film by Aditi Makim and Valentina Trivedi, covered his life from childhood to adulthood and the hurdles he faced in his career.

Currently, thousands of yoga instructors are CIYTs (Certified Iyengar Yoga Teachers), accounting for over 1100 in just the United States.

Awards and recognition

• Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honor (1991)
• 2002 Padma Bhushan
• 2014 Padma Vibhushan

Bibliography

• (1966; revised ed. 1977) Light on Yoga. New York: Schocken. ISBN 978-0-8052-1031-6
• (1981) Light on Pranayama: The Yogic Art of Breathing. New York: Crossroad. ISBN 0-8245-0686-3
• (1985) The Art of Yoga. Boston: Unwin. ISBN 978-0-04-149062-6
• (1988) The Tree of Yoga. Boston: Shambhala. ISBN 0-87773-464-X
• (1996) Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. London: Thorsons. ISBN 978-0-00-714516-4
• (2005) Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom. (with Abrams, D. & Evans, J.J.) Pennsylvania: Rodale. ISBN 1-59486-248-6
• (2007) Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health. New York: Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 978-0-7566-3362-2
• (2000–2008) Astadala Yogamala: Collected Works (8 vols) New Delhi: Allied Publishers.
• (2009) Yoga Wisdom and Practice. New York: Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 0-7566-4283-3
• (2010) Yaugika Manas: Know and Realize the Yogic Mind. Mumbai: Yog. ISBN 81-87603-14-3
• (2012) Core of the Yoga Sutras: The Definitive Guide to the Philosophy of Yoga. London: HarperThorsons. ISBN 978-0007921263

References

1. Jain, Andrea (2015). Selling Yoga: from Counterculture to Pop Culture. Oxford University Press. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-19-939024-3. OCLC 878953765.
2. Aubrey, Allison. "Light on life: B.K.S. Iyengar's Yoga insights". NPR. Morning Edition, 10 November 1995. Retrieved 4 July 2007.
3. ^ Stukin, Stacie (10 October 2005). "Yogis gather around the guru". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 9 January 2013.
4. Iyengar, B. K. S. (2000). Astadala Yogamala. New Delhi: Allied Publishers. p. 53. ISBN 978-8177640465.
5. Sjoman 1999, p. 41.
6. ^ "Ruskin Bond, Vidya Balan, Kamal Haasan honoured with Padma awards". Hindustan Times. HT Media Limited. 25 January 2014. Archived from the original on 25 January 2014. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
7. "Padma Awards Announced". Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs. 25 January 2014. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
8. "2004 Time 100 – B.K.S. Iyengar". Time. 2004.
9. ^ Iyengar, B. K. S. "Yoga News & Trends – Light on Iyengar". Yoga Journal. Archived from the original on 31 August 2007. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
10. "B. K. S. Iyengar Biography". Notablebiographies.com. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
11. Iyengar, B.K.S. (1991). Iyengar – His Life and Work. C.B.S. Publishers & Distributors. p. 3.
12. ^ Iyengar, B.K.S. (2006). Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom. USA: Rodale. pp. xvi–xx. ISBN 9781594865244. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
13. ^ "B. K. S. Iyengar, Who Helped Bring Yoga to the West, Dies at 95". The New York Times. 21 August 2014.
14. Smith & White 2014, p. 124.
15. Singleton, Mark (2010). Yoga Body : the origins of modern posture practice. Oxford University Press. pp. 184, 192. ISBN 978-0-19-539534-1. OCLC 318191988.
16. ^ "3 Gurus, 48 Questions" (PDF). Namarupa (Fall 2004). Interview by R. Alexander Medin: 9. 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 March 2013. Retrieved 30 March 2013.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
17. Sjoman 1999, p. 49.
18. Iyengar, B.K.S. (2000). Astadala Yogamala. New Delhi, India: Allied Publishers. p. 57. ISBN 978-8177640465.
19. ^ "Being BKS Iyengar: The enlightened yogi of yoga(part1-2)". YouTube. 22 June 2008. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
20. Pag, Fernando. "Krishnamacharya's Legacy". Yoga Journal. Yogajournal.com. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
21. ^ "Being BKS Iyengar: The enlightened yogi of yoga(part2-2)". YouTube. 22 June 2008. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
22. SenGupta, Anuradha (22 June 2008). "Being BKS Iyengar: The yoga guru". IBN live. Archived from the original on 14 December 2013. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
23. ^ "BKS Iyengar obituary". The Guardian. 20 August 2014.
24. Wishner, Nan (5 May 2015). "The Legacy of Vanda Scaravelli". Yoga International.
25. "Life is yoga, yoga is life". Sakal Times. 13 December 2012. Archived from the original on 16 February 2013. Retrieved 9 January 2013.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
26. "Light on Iyengar". Yoga Journal. San Francisco: 96. September–October 2005. Retrieved 10 January 2013.
27. "Yogacharya B. K. S. Iyengar Dies August 20" (PDF). IYNAUS. 20 August 2014.
28. "au:B. K. S. Iyengar". WorldCat. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
29. Newcombe 2007.
30. Newcombe 2019, pp. 99, 236–239.
31. Goldberg 2016, p. 396.
32. ^ Goldberg 2016, p. 382.
33. ^ Goldberg 2016, p. 384.
34. ^ "Zoo felicitates B.K.S. Iyengar". The Hindu. 10 June 2009. Archived from the original on 14 June 2009.
35. "BKS Iyengar to participate in multiple sclerosis awareness drive". The Indian Express. 22 May 2010. Retrieved 9 January 2013.
36. "Bellur Trust". Iyengar Yoga UK. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
37. "The Pune Institute". Iyengar Yoga (UK). Retrieved 16 October 2019.
38. BKS Iyengar Archive Project 2007. IYNAUS. 2007.
39. Biography: Geeta Iyengar
40. "Yoga guru B. K. S. Iyengar passes away". The Hindu. 20 August 2014.
41. "B. K. S. Iyengar, Who Helped Bring Yoga to the West, Dies at 95". The New York Times. 20 August 2014. B. K. S. Iyengar ... died on Wednesday in the southern Indian city of Pune. He was 95. ... The cause was heart failure, said Abhijata Sridhar-Iyengar, his granddaughter.
42. Krishnan, Ananth (21 June 2011). "Indian yoga icon finds following in China". The Hindu. Chennai, India. Retrieved 22 June 2011.
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Sources

Goldberg, Elliott (2016). The Path of Modern Yoga :The History of an Embodied Spiritual Practice. Inner Traditions. ISBN 978-1-62055-567-5. OCLC 926062252.

Newcombe, Suzanne (2007). "Stretching for Health and Well-Being: Yoga and Women in Britain, 1960–1980". Asian Medicine. 3 (1): 37–63. doi:10.1163/157342107X207209.

 ———  (2019). Yoga in Britain: Stretching Spirituality and Educating Yogis. Bristol, England: Equinox Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78179-661-0.

Smith, Frederick M.; White, Joan (2014). "Becoming an Icon: B. K. S. Iyengar as a Yoga Teacher and a Yoga Guru". In Singleton, Mark; Goldberg, Ellen (eds.). Gurus of Modern Yoga. Oxford University Press. pp. 122–146. ISBN 978-0-19-993871-1.

Sjoman, Norman E. (1999). The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace. New Delhi, India: Abhinav Publications. ISBN 81-7017-389-2.

External links

• Official website
• B. K. S. Iyengar at IMDb
• BBC World Service article and programme by Mark Tully
• Leap of faith (2008), Trivedi & Makim, Documentary about the life of BKS Iyengar
• BKS Iyengar – 97th birthday on YouTube. Google Doodle Collection. 13 December 2015. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
• BKS Iyengar Google Doodle. 97th Birthday of "Iyengar Yoga" Founder on YouTube. Rajamanickam Antonimuthu. 14 December 2015. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
• Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute at Google Cultural Institute

v t e Yoga as exercise
Topics	Asanas List of asanas Standing asanas Downward dog Lotus position Meditation seats Sun Salutation Tree pose Warrior Accompaniments Drishti Pranayama Vinyāsa Hasta Vinyasas Teacher training Standards British Wheel of Yoga European Union of Yoga André Van Lysebeth Yoga Alliance Therapy Yoga using props 1979 Accessible yoga 2002 Trauma-sensitive yoga 2007 Restorative Yoga 2008 Yoga nidra International Association of Yoga Therapists • Richard Miller Janice Gates Events Competitive yoga International Day of Yoga Journals Asana Journal Yoga Journal Props Yoga brick Yoga mat Angela Farmer Hugger Mugger Yoga pants Lululemon
History	Early Early modern yoga Vivekananda 1896 Raja Yoga Pierre Bernard Harmonial gymnastics/yoga Marguerite Agniel Mary Bagot Stack Genevieve Stebbins Physical culture B. C. Ghosh K. V. Iyer Seetharaman Sundaram Paramahansa Yogananda Autobiography of a Yogi Aspects Hot yoga Science of yoga Sexual abuse by yoga gurus Matthew Remski Yoga and cultural appropriation In advertising For children For women Geeta Iyengar Yoga tourism Hybrids 1938 Naked yoga 1990 Mindful Yoga Frank Jude Boccio Anne Cushman Janice Gates Jon Kabat-Zinn Cyndi Lee Phillip Moffitt 2003 Acroyoga Doga 2013 Paddleboard Yoga 2014 Aerial yoga Beer yoga By country America 1961 Yoga for Health 1970 Lilias, Yoga and You Britain 1976 Lyn Marshall France Germany India Italy Russia Sweden 2015 Rachel Brathen Switzerland 1941 Selvarajan Yesudian Books 1996 Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace 2004 Yoga in Modern India A History of Modern Yoga 2005 Positioning Yoga 2010 Yoga Body The Subtle Body 2015 Selling Yoga 2016 The Path of Modern Yoga 2017 Roots of Yoga 2019 Yoga in Britain 2020 The Story of Yoga Films 2006 Guru 2009 Enlighten Up! 2012 Breath of the Gods
Schools (Gurus)	1918 The Yoga Institute Shri Yogendra Hansa Yogendra 1924 Kaivalyadhama Swami Kuvalayananda 1934 Viniyoga Tirumalai Krishnamacharya Yoga Makaranda T. K. V. Desikachar A. G. Mohan Indra Devi Srivatsa Ramaswami Vanda Scaravelli c. 1948 Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga K. Pattabhi Jois Mysore style Tim Miller Kino MacGregor Larry Schultz 1959 Sivananda Yoga Vishnudevananda Saraswati Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga 1963 Bihar School of Yoga Satyananda Saraswati 1965 Ananda Yoga Kriyananda 1966 Integral Yoga Satchidananda Saraswati 1966 Kripalu Yoga Amrit Desai Stephen Cope 1971 Himalayan Institute Swami Rama 1973 Bikram Yoga Bikram Choudhury 1975 Iyengar Yoga B. K. S. Iyengar Light on Yoga Yoga the Iyengar Way 1975 Dharma Mittra c. 1975 Yin Yoga Paulie Zink Paul Grilley Sarah Powers 1982 Forrest Yoga 1984 Jivamukti Yoga Sharon Gannon 1995 Power Yoga Beryl Bender Birch Bryan Kest 1997 Anusara Yoga John Friend 2006 Core Strength Vinyasa Yoga (Sadie Nardini)
Related	Yoga Hatha yoga Modern yoga Post-lineage yoga Asanas (template) List of yoga schools Yoga scholars (template) Yoga teachers (category) Modern Yoginis (template)

• Biography
• India

• 1918 births
• 2014 deaths
• Indian yoga gurus
• People from Kolar
• Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in literature & education
• Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan in other fields
• Modern yoga pioneers
• Modern yoga gurus