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Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar Biography
BKS IyengarBellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar (14 December 1918 – 20 August 2014), better known as B.K.S. Iyengar, was the founder of the style of yoga as exercise known as "Iyengar Yoga" and was considered one of the foremost yoga teachers in the world.
He was the author of several books on yoga practice and philosophy. 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.
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."
In 1934, his brother-in-law, the yogi Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, a Brahmin scholar who had set up a school of yoga at the Jaganmohan Palace, asked the 15-year-old Iyengar to come to Mysore, to improve his health through the practice of yoga asanas.
Iyengar had very high regard for Krishnamacharya and considered his association with his brother-in-law a turning point in his life, but 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. Iyengar was neglected and tasked with household chores.
Iyengar’s only friendship came from his roommate, a boy named Keshavamurthy, who was Krishnamacharya’s favorite protégé. Keshavamurthy left without a word one day and never returned.
As Krishnamacharya was only days away from an important yoga demonstration and had relied on his favorite pupil to perform asanas, he began teaching Iyengar the asanas, sometimes telling him to not eat until he mastered a certain posture. On the day of the demonstration, Iyengar surprised Krishnamacharya with an excellent performance.
After that Krishnamacharya began thoroughly instructing Iyengar, who made rapid progress. He began to assist in yoga classes and demonstrations, while Krishnamacharya continued his tough style of teaching.
Once, when Krishnamacharya asked him to perform Hanumānāsana1, Iyengar complained that he can’t properly do the pose. Krishnamacharya commanded him to do it anyway. He complied, tearing his hamstrings. Later, Iyengar would say: “Nothing can be forced, receptivity is everything.”
When a group of women asked Krishnamacharya for instruction, he chose Iyengar to teach them. Impressed by his teaching style, they requested Krishnamacharya to let Iyengar to remain their instructor.
This advancement did not improve much Iyengar economic situation. At times he ate only one bowl of rice in three days. However, he devoted himself to perfecting his practice to such extent that his family thought that he had gone mad. He would practice for hours using heavy rocks and logs to force his legs and torso into different positions.
In 1943, Iyengar married 16-year-old Shrimati Ramamani in a marriage that was arranged by their parents in the usual Indian manner. 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 46.2
By 1950, Iyengar’s reputation grew and several celebrities became his students. In 1952 Swami Śivānanda granted him the title of Yogi Raja.
Because Iyengar had taught the famous philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti, he was asked to go to Bombay to meet the violinist Yehudi 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 Śavāsana, and he fell asleep. After one hour, Menuhin awoke refreshed and spent another two hours with Iyengar.
Menuhin came to believe that practicing 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".
Menuhin gave him the opportunity that transformed Iyengar from a comparatively obscure Indian yoga teacher into an international guru. 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.
B.K.S.Iyengar in Bhujapidasana.He taught yoga to several celebrities. He taught śīrṣāsana (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 bestseller. As of 2005, it had been translated into 17 languages and sold three million copies. It was followed by 13 other books, covering prāṇāyāma and aspects of yoga philosophy.
In 1967, the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) called for classes in "Haṭha Yoga", free of yoga philosophy, but including asana and prāṇāyāma 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 Viśiṣṭādvaita3.
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.
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.
BKS IyengarIyengar'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 several charitable activities there.
He built a hospital, India's first temple dedicated to Patañjali, 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.
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 honor 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 Haṭha 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."
Works
• Light on Yoga
• Light on Prāṇāyāma: The Yogic Art of Breathing
• The Art of Yoga
• The Tree of Yoga
• Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
• Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom
• Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health
• Astadala Yogamala: Collected Works (8 vols)
• Yoga Wisdom and Practice
• Yaugika Manas: Know and Realize the Yogic Mind
• Core of the Yoga Sutras: The Definitive Guide to the Philosophy of Yoga
• Illustrated Light on Yoga: An Easy-to-follow Version of the Classic Introduction to Yoga (Y. Menuhin coauthor)
Sources
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._K._S._Iyengar
• https://www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2005-Fo-La/Iyengar-B-K-S.html
• https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/b-k-s-iyengar-10876.php
• https://www.yogajournal.com/yoga-101/krishnamacharya-s-legacy/
• https://iynaus.org/
Footnotes
1. 
Hanumanasana or Monkey Pose.
2. 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 several years under his tutelage, and is now a teacher both at the Institute in Pune and internationally.
3. Viśiṣṭādvaita is one of the most popular schools of the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. Vedanta literally means the end of the Vedas. Viśiṣṭādvaita (literally "Advaita with uniqueness; qualifications") is a non-dualistic school of Vedanta philosophy. Ramanuja, the 11–12th century philosopher was the main proponent of Viśiṣṭādvaita philosophy.
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