Winter 2009

B.K. S. Iyengar was born into a poor family in a tiny village named Belur in Southern India. He was a sickly child, suffering from malaria, tuberculosis, typhoid fever and general malnutrition. Often too sick to attend school, his parents despaired for his future. When B. K. S. Iyengar was 15 his sister married the yoga master T. Krishnamarcharya and he was invited to move to Mysore and study yoga with him. The learning was arduous at first but as his weak constitution grew stronger he began to excel.

In 1937 at the urging of Krishnamarcharya, Mr. Iyengar moved to Pune to begin teaching yoga. Nearly starving to death as he learned how to teach and build his classes, Iyengar developed his own approach to the classic poses. His method focused on precision of alignment, the use of props such as chairs, ropes, blankets and blocks, he worked frequently within hospitals and schools.

Widely credited with popularizing yoga in the West, the author of 14 books including the “bible” of yoga- Light on Yoga, named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine, still practicing and teaching everyday! Well done Mr. Iyengar, and Happy Birthday!

                         

For those of you interested in learning more about Mr. Iyengar and his yoga , Google “History of B.K.S. Iyengar”, or go to Wikipedia for many references.

For those of you who wish to contribute to his fund which goes to various projects in his hometown of Belur, India, such as building schools, dormitories, water tower and more, I am happy to say that SYoga will be selling the newest DVD called “Leap of Faith”. This is a 90 minute film of his life, practice and teachings. A portion of each DVD price will go to the Belur project. I expect to receive the DVDs soon after Christmas.

Namasté,


Suzy