Yoga guru B K S Iyengar no more
“I am deeply saddened to know about Yogacharya BKS Iyengar’s demise & offer my condolences to his followers all over the world.” ”“ Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Indian yoga guru BKS Iyengar has died in the western city of Pune, aged 95. The message on his website read: ”˜I always tell people, live happily and die majestically.’
Mr Iyengar was admitted to hospital last week and died early on Wednesday, August 20, 2014 after a kidney failure.
Mr Iyengar was credited with his own brand of yoga, and taught author Aldous Huxley and violinist Yehudi Menuhin, among other celebrities.
BKS Iyengar was considered to be one of the foremost yoga teachers in the world and is the founder of Iyengar Yoga. He authored many books on yoga practice and philosophy and is sometimes referred to as the father of modern Yoga. He learned yoga from his brother-in-law Sri Tirumalai Krisnamacharya who asked him to come to Mysore. The main reason for this was to improve his health. He was then sent to places by Krishnamacharya to spread his teachings. Iyengar would go on to teach yoga in London, Switzerland, Paris and other places and the popularity of yoga in the West is considered to be his doing.
Iyengar yoga is now taught in more than 70 countries and the guru’s books have been translated into 13 languages.
One of yoga’s finest teachers, Mr Iyengar practised what he called an “art and science” for more than eight decades and ran one of India’s top yoga schools in Pune.
He taught author Aldous Huxley and violinist Yehudi Menuhin, among other celebrities.
Even in his very old age the great yoga master could still do the sirsasana – or the headstand – for half an hour until last year.
“When I stretch, I stretch in such a way that my awareness moves, and a gate of awareness finally opens,” Mr Iyengar told a newspaper last year.
When he first met Yehudi Menuhin, the violinist complained that he never had time to relax and never got a good night’s sleep.
“Within one minute Iyengar had him snoring happily away. But Guruji did warn him: ‘Relaxation doesn’t mean yoga is a soft option. It’s a disciplined subject’.
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