"When I practice, I am a philosopher. When I teach, I am a scientist. When I demonstrate, I am an artist."

B.K.S. Iyengar

BKS Iyengar (14 December 1918 – 20 August 2014), affectionately known as “Guruji” has been credited with popularizing yoga around the world. He is widely considered an unrivalled master of yoga and has devoted over 75 years of his life to the practise and teaching of Yoga in all five continents. making yoga accessible to people everywhere, regardless of age, gender, culture or ability. The Iyengar method is both traditional and modern, and demonstrates how this ancient science is relevant to the problems of our age.

“Best Violin Teacher”

In 2004, Iyengar was named one of the 100 most influential people in the 20th century by Time magazine. BKS Iyengar was introduced to the West by Yehudi Menuhin, who called him his “best violin teacher”.

Ramamanyi Iyengar Yoga Institute

He established at the Ramamanyi Iyengar Yoga Institute in Pune, India in 1975. It is still a beloved and innovative centre of excellence visited by practitioners from all over the world to study with the Iyengars. It is now led by Geeta his daughter and Prashant his son. It was a deep joy to observe him practising every morning in the yoga hall. We often paused our own self practise to watch him teach challenging asana to Abhijata, his granddaughter, now a leading teacher herself at RIMYI and teaching internationally.

BKS Iyengar’s teaching of the postures (asana) and breathing (pranayama) is methodical and progressive, and emphasises accurate positioning and alignment of the body, the mind and breath. We develop self awareness through the canvas of the body. He is also known for introducing the use of props to help practitioners understand and benefit from the postures without strain. His teaching has a firm philosophical base in the Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali, a sage who lived about 2000 years ago in India and was the first to codify the ancient science of Yoga into 196 aphorisms (sutras) which are the profound study of the human psyche.

Rigorous standards

There are 180 national Iyengar Yoga associations worldwide and Iyengar yoga is practised in over 40 countries. Rigorous standards are applied to teachers all over the world. His book “Light On Yoga” (1966), the first publication to systematise over 200 yoga postures and variations of Pranayama is a widely known classic and called “the yoga bible”.

As he has correctly stated, “Yoga is an art, a science and a philosophy. It touches the life of man at every level: physical, mental, spiritual. It is a practical method for making one's life purposeful, useful and noble” BKS Iyengar.

For more information on Iyengar Yoga see the official B.K.S Iyengar Yoga website  www.bksiyengar.com