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B.K.S. Iyengar

"As long as the body is not free, the mind can't be free" B.K.S. Iyengar

Who is B.K.S. Iyengar?

B.K.S. IYENGAR Bellur Krishnamachar Sundaraja Iyengar was born on December 14, 1918 in India in the small village of Bellur (Karnataka), in a family of Brahmans. He died on August 20, 2014 in Pune. B.K.S. Iyengar, also called "Guruji" by his students, has devoted himself for more than 70 years to the practice and teaching of yoga.

Considered a living legend, he is recognized around the world.

Eleventh in a family of thirteen children, he is often ill and of weak constitution. In 1934, his brother-in-law, Shriman T. Krishnamacharya, welcomed him to his yoga school at Mysore Palace and introduced him to this ancestral science to overcome his health problems.

After long years of asceticism, he took advantage of this age-old science to create a method adapted to the needs of modern man.

A yoga master

A respected yoga master, his travels have taken him to five continents where his teaching has spread widely. He spent his life in Pune, South India, where he founded his school, the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in 1975. RIMYI has been welcoming students from all over the world.

All his life he has received many students, the most famous being Yehudi Menuhin. His meeting with the musician in Bombay in 1952 was decisive. It was Yehudi Menuhin who, seduced by his teaching, invited him to Europe and made him known in the West.

B.K.S. Iyengar is also the author of many books translated into 18 languages including Light on Yoga (considered as the Bible of Yoga), Light on Pranayama which are now reference books.

The RIMYI is now run by her children Geetaji and Prashantji who dedicated their lives to yoga. His little daughter Abhijata continues the work of transmission of his grandfather around the world.

Both traditional and modern, the Iyengar method proves that yoga can be practiced by women and men from all cultures, and that this age-old science is an effective answer to the problems of our time.

IYENGAR® Yoga is now taught around the world by certified teachers. B.K.S. Iyengar was voted «Personality of the Year 2004 by Time Magazine » and one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century