Renowned Yoga Guru BKS Iyengar dies in Pune

20 August 2014 :: World renowned yoga guru Bellur Krishnamachar Sundaraja (BKS) Iyengar passed away in Pune on Wednesday He was 96. Yengar breathed last at 3.00 am at Prayag hospital where he was undergoing treatment since last week after he faced difficulty in breathing. Since Sunday he was put on dialysis due to renal failure.

B. K. S. Iyengar, or Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar (December 14, 1918 – August 20, 2014), founded the style of yoga known as “Iyengar Yoga” and was considered one of the foremost yoga teachers in the world. He has written many books on yoga practice and philosophy including Light on Yoga, Light on Pranayama, and Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Iyengar yoga classes are offered throughout the world. Iyengar was one of the earliest students of Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, who is often referred to as “the father of modern yoga”. After modern yoga had arisen from the teachings of Krishnamacharya, it was Iyengar who established it. As he revealed in an interview in the documentary Breath of the Gods he struggled in the beginning to make a living as a yoga instructor because he was confronted by a great deal of prejudice. He has been credited for establishing and popularizing yoga firstly in India and then moreover around the world.

 He was awarded 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 Iyengar family (a priestly Brahmin caste) at Bellur, Kolar District, Karnataka, India. He was the 11th of 13 children (only 10 of whom survived) of father Sri Krishnamachar, a school teacher, and mother Sheshamma. Iyengar’s home village of Bellur, in Karnataka, was in the grip of the influenza pandemic at the time of his birth, leaving him sickly and weak. Throughout his childhood, he struggled with malaria, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and general malnutrition. When he was five years old, his family moved to Bangalore and within four years his father died of appendicitis.