B.K.S. Iyengar inspired yoga practice in the West, notably through his 1966 international bestselling book, Light on Yoga. Through intensive study, using his own body both as a laboratory and a playground, he evolved a yogic method that calls for a profound spiritual and physical practice. In the classes he led over many years, Iyengar taught with joy and stern mastery, giving the gift of yoga to all who sought it.
B.K.S. Iyengar photographed at Yoga ‘87, Harvard University, 1987 by Peter Schweitzer
B.K.S. Iyengar PHOTo by Lindsey Clennell
“Yogacharya B.K.S.Iyengar (Guruji) is a living legend who has taught yoga in unique way to all his students. He finds the meaning of the yoga sutras by his practical search and regular practice of yoga. Thus, he has helped all to experience the wisdom of the yoga sutras. His style of teaching yoga is called "Iyengar Yoga" and is now being followed by certified teachers across the world.” (B.K.S. Iyengar Yoga - The Official Website)
“You have heard that I am an extraordinary man . . . I am just an ordinary person like you all, because ‘extraordinary man’ means something beyond the capacity of a human being. I am not.”
“I am branded as Hatha yogi. ‘Ha’ means sun; ‘tha’ means moon. ‘Ha’ means self; ‘tha’ means consciousness. ‘Ha’ means inhalation; ‘tha’ means exhalation. But only many of you think as a solar nerve and a lunar nerve, bringing the solar and lunar together on a physiological level is considered as yoga and it is branded as physiological or physical yoga.”