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Ingela’s Reflection Iyengar Turning 90

 

At age 90, Mr. B.K.S. Iyengar stands on his head every day for up to 30 minutes while carrying on a conversation. He is considered the world’s greatest living Yoga master, and has been practicing and teaching Yoga for over 75 years. Millions of students now follow his method and there are Iyengar Yoga centers all over the world. He has written many books on Yogic practice and its philosophy including Light on Yoga, Light on Pranayama, Light on the Yoga Sutras and last, Light on Life.

Mr. B.K.S. Iyengar’s, or Guruji’s, first book, Light on Yoga, was written in 1966 and is often referred to as the “bible of Yoga.” It is the most sold Yoga book in the world today and has been translated into 18 languages! A few years ago Time magazine acknowledged Guruji as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

During his lifetime he has continued to spread the light of Yoga to millions of people, yet his own life didn’t start in the light; instead, it began under dark circumstances. He was born into a large, poor family in the village of Bellur in Southern India. His mother gave birth to him during an influenza epidemic, leaving him sick, weak, and close to dying. And during his childhood, he had many serious illnesses, including malaria, tuberculosis, and typhoid.

In his latest book, Light on Life, he says, “My poor health was matched as it often is when one is sick, by my poor mood. A deep melancholy often overtook me, and at times I asked myself whether life was worth the trouble living.”

When Guruji was nine his father died. With the added challenges at home and his poor health, his studies went downhill and failing grades brought his schooling to an end. The Iyengar family wondered how this young man might make a living.

The turning point in his life came at the age of fifteen, when he was sent to live with his brother-in-law Krishnamacharia, who worked as a Yoga teacher in the palace of the Raja of Mysore.

Guruji goes on to tell in Light on Life that “seeing that the general state of my health was so poor, my brother-in-law recommended a stiff regime of Yoga practice to knock me into shape and strengthen me up to face life’s trials and challenges as I approached adulthood.”

After a few years living with Krishnamacharia, Guruji’s health improved drastically with Yoga. His teacher saw potential in Guruji and at the age of 19 he was sent north to Pune to teach Yoga to an upper class sports club on a three year contract.

But many of his students were older and more accomplished in Yoga. Guruji was fearful of having to return in disgrace to his strict teacher in Mysore, so he embarked on a regime of practice that could last up to 10 hours per day. His aim was to become a total Yoga expert, fully systematizing the diverse bits of knowledge his teacher had passed on, and getting to know the ultimate potentials of his own body and being.

Neighbors in Pune, most of them unfamiliar with Yoga, questioned his sanity!! But Guruji’s knowledge and strength deepened. It was during this period that the systematic discipline later known as Iyengar Yoga developed.

After three years of working for the Gymkana sports club, Guruji ventured off on a career as an independent Yoga teacher at the age of 21. At first he had few pupils and there were days in which he subsisted on just rice and tea. Nothing would dissuade him, however, from his hours of daily practice. One of his supporters, a cardiologist named Mr. Vakil, and Mr. Vakil’s wife were good friends of the American violinist Yehudi Menuhin. And it was Yehudi Menuhin who became the main gateway for Guruji’s fame in the world.

During a visit to Mr. and Mrs. Vakil in Pune, Yehudi had heard about Yoga and wanted to spend five minutes meeting with Guruji before returning to the States. Well the five minutes turned into a session lasting several hours. Yehudi later invited Guruji to visit Europe in 1954 to teach Yoga to his friends and acquaintances, like the Queen of Belgium!! Mr. Iyengar had her stand on her head happily during her first private session at the age of 75.

Since then he has traveled to Europe and USA numerous times teaching Yoga to mega classes with 800+ students. And the popularity of Yoga in the West can in large part be attributed to Mr. B.K.S. Iyengar.

In 1975 Guruji opened the Ramamani Memorial Iyengar Yoga Institute in Pune in honor of his deceased wife. Their 30-year, loving and caring marriage gave birth to six children. Two of them are now the main teachers at the institute as Guruji retired from teaching daily classes when he was 66 years old. Monthly 60-80 students come to study at the Institute from countries all over the world. The waiting list is currently 2-3 years long and you need a minimum of eight years of study before you can even apply!

In 2005, Guruji came to the States to promote Light on Life, a book he finished writing at the age of 85! He was met by thousands of devoted students in 5 of the nation’s largest cities, and he greeted them with his usual sharp vigor, wit, and wisdom.

The book Light on Life received a seven-figure advance and the proceeds have been donated to the Bellur project (see www.bksiyengar.com). During the last few years several schools, a hospital, and a temple have been built, and clean water has been supplied to his birth town.

In spite of all his fame and fortune, Guruji has continued to live humbly in a small dwelling next to the Yoga Institute for the last 30+ years, carrying on a simple and honorable life.

From a sick and poor beginning, Guruji has journeyed from the dark into the light, with a remarkable inner drive and determination, persistence, creativity and devotion, always ready to learn and explore life fully.

So, what makes Guruji’s teaching so unique? Maybe it’s because he is both an artist, a scientist, and a philosopher.

While watching a Yoga dance demonstration by the Iyengar Yoga Association of New York in 2005, Guruji told Yoga teacher and choreographer James Murphy that when he was young, he himself wanted to be a dancer. You can see the inner dancer in Guruji when he practices his yoga asanas like an artist expressing himself with beauty and grace from the skin to the core.

And he is a scientist with an extremely curious mind, always wanting to learn more and experience and explore every aspect of the human body and being. The first time I went to study with Guruji in Pune in 1976, I spent two months literally living at the Institute. I took two classes a day and also practiced with Guruji in the morning and afternoon. In between practicing Yoga I spent hours in his library, filled with hundreds of books, many on anatomy, physiology, and physics, as well as books from every religion and philosophical background.

What was striking to me was that most of the books in his library had been thoroughly read and digested with his underlined emphasis and written comments on the side. From being a drop-out student, he later became a self-taught student of life by his inner drive for knowledge and wisdom.

Guruji is also a philosopher. He was born into the Iyengar family, a Brahmin group of priesthood, deeply rooted in faith and devotion for many generations back. And Guruji’s faith and devotion is beautifully expressed in all his writings, with a universal flavor.

So, Guruji has created Iyengar Yoga as a form of art, science and a spiritual path, integrating the body, mind and spirit. And at Yoga Northwest we are among the 2755 certified Iyengar Yoga teachers in the world today deeply committed to passing on his teaching, the Light on Yoga, like the sun spreading the light and illuminating our world with positive energy.

Mr. B.K.S. Iyengar says in his recent book, Light on Life,

I am old, and death inevitably approaches. But both birth and death are beyond the will of a human being…. If you live holistically at every moment, as Yoga teaches, even though the ego is annihilated, I will not say, “Die before you die.” I would rather say, “Live before you die, so that death is also a lively celebration.”

Let me conclude by quoting the words of the Spanish artist Goya who, in the seventy-eighth year of his life, when he was already deaf and debilitated, said Aun, prendo – “I am still learning.” It is true for me too. I will never stop learning, and I have tried to share some of these lessons with you. I do pray that my ending will be your beginning. The great rewards and the countless blessings of a life spent following the Inward Journey await you.”

Thank you, Guruji, for the gift of yoga.

                                           Namaste!