Tuesday when I read the news that yoga master B.K.S. Iyengar had been hospitalized and was in critical condition from renal failure, my heart sank and I began to weep. Yesterday when the news of his passing was confirmed, I cried throughout the day, a heaviness in my heart that this great man was no longer in his body.
For those that do not know, Iyengar was instrumental in bringing the teachings of Hatha yoga to America. If you ever took a yoga class, rolled out a yoga mat and practiced yoga postures (asanas), then you, mostly unknowingly, have been touched by his teachings. His style of Hatha yoga (known simply as Iyengar Yoga), has had a long history. While I myself had not taken a teacher training with B.K.S. or any of his teachers in his specific style, many of his teachings find their way into my classes - through his books and other lessons. I could never say that I could teach an Iyengar style class, but I can easily say that his influence is present in each of the classes that I teach. His story and legacy are important for all aspiring yogis to know about. I feel compelled to share a little...
Born in Bellur, India in December, 1918, Iyengar was a very sick child. His mother, while pregnant with him, had contracted influenza. In his own words:
"My arms were thin, my legs were spindly, and my stomach protruded in an ungainly manner. So frail was I, in fact, that I was not expected to survive. My head used to hang down, and I had to lift it with great effort. My head was disproportionately large to the rest of my body, and my brothers and sisters often teased me. I was the eleventh child of thirteen, although only ten survived.
The frailty and sickliness remained with me throughout my early years. As a boy, I suffered from numerous ailments, including frequent bouts of malaria, typhoid, and tuberculosis. 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 of living." (From Light on Life).
As luck would have it, one of Iyengar's sisters married the famous Shriman T. Krishnamacharya, a scholar of philosophy and Sanskrit who had spent many years in the Himalayan Mountains near the border of Nepal/ Tibet, pursuing the study of yoga. It was Krishnamacharya that invited B.K.S. to live with him and learn the methods of yoga, in an effort to heal his sickly body and mind. This was a moment that Iyengar refers to as "a major turning point" in his life. Many yogis already know the rest, but for those who are still learning of these great yoga masters, Krishnamacharya's other student was the late Sri K. Pattobhi Jois, founder of the Asthanga school of yoga, the origins of which any Vinyasa style class is based on. It has always amazed me that from one teacher (Krishnamacharya), two of this generation's most important yoga teachers came...and they couldn't have been more different in techniques and styles.
While Asthanga yoga is a based on a specific series of postures to be done as a meditation with breath and body syntonization, Iyengar yoga is a very precise method of working on postures individually, while using various props and creating dynamic extension in the body. Both methods of yoga have equal weight and value. In my opinion, one cannot say that one method is any better. They've both shaped the way that we practice yoga today.
Each time I taught a class since his passing, I have dedicated it to Guruji, as he was known. As I read passages from Light on Life, I choked up each time. The rich teachings and long lineage of yoga continues through teachers like myself and those that even I train in my yoga teacher trainings. Yoga will go on. Maybe I found some comfort that such a master teacher was still alive and kicking to share his knowledge of the practice with us. I believe that we are ALL ongoing beginners in the practice of yoga. I don't believe there is a right or wrong style of yoga or necessarily even a "bad" teacher, because I truly feel that we learn something each time we unroll he mat and take to practicing. I suppose that I am saddened for the end of this era of authentic, Indian yoga teachers. While we have so many knowledgable and important teachers today: Shiva Rea, Baron Baptiste, and the likes, these men were the real deal - they literally wrote the books on yoga that all other teachers today are inspired to instruct by.
I have to be honest, I've walked out of more Iyengar classes and workshops than I've sat through in entirety. It was not a style, in the way that the local Iyengar teachers that I'd taken practice with taught, that resonated with me. However, reading B.K.S. Iyengar's books, listening to and watching him speak in videos, and learning some important aspects of his teachings has made me a better teacher - one with the ability to assist others in healing, the way that B.K.S. Iyengar was able to heal himself too through the practice of yoga.
"You do not need to seek freedom in some distant land, for it exists within your own body, heart, mind, and soul. Illuminated emancipation, freedom, unalloyed and untainted bliss await you, but you must choose to embark on the Inward Journey to discover it." (From Light on Life).
We will continue to learn yoga from B.K.S. Iyengar. His legacy lives on in each of us.
Namaste, Guruji.
Iyengar Website
CNN Interview on B.K.S. Iyengar, 2012
B.K.S. Iyengar in 1977 Demonstrating Yoga Asana
Interview with Iyengar from the 2008 movie "Enlighten Up"
Born in Bellur, India in December, 1918, Iyengar was a very sick child. His mother, while pregnant with him, had contracted influenza. In his own words:
"My arms were thin, my legs were spindly, and my stomach protruded in an ungainly manner. So frail was I, in fact, that I was not expected to survive. My head used to hang down, and I had to lift it with great effort. My head was disproportionately large to the rest of my body, and my brothers and sisters often teased me. I was the eleventh child of thirteen, although only ten survived.
The frailty and sickliness remained with me throughout my early years. As a boy, I suffered from numerous ailments, including frequent bouts of malaria, typhoid, and tuberculosis. 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 of living." (From Light on Life).
As luck would have it, one of Iyengar's sisters married the famous Shriman T. Krishnamacharya, a scholar of philosophy and Sanskrit who had spent many years in the Himalayan Mountains near the border of Nepal/ Tibet, pursuing the study of yoga. It was Krishnamacharya that invited B.K.S. to live with him and learn the methods of yoga, in an effort to heal his sickly body and mind. This was a moment that Iyengar refers to as "a major turning point" in his life. Many yogis already know the rest, but for those who are still learning of these great yoga masters, Krishnamacharya's other student was the late Sri K. Pattobhi Jois, founder of the Asthanga school of yoga, the origins of which any Vinyasa style class is based on. It has always amazed me that from one teacher (Krishnamacharya), two of this generation's most important yoga teachers came...and they couldn't have been more different in techniques and styles.
While Asthanga yoga is a based on a specific series of postures to be done as a meditation with breath and body syntonization, Iyengar yoga is a very precise method of working on postures individually, while using various props and creating dynamic extension in the body. Both methods of yoga have equal weight and value. In my opinion, one cannot say that one method is any better. They've both shaped the way that we practice yoga today.
Each time I taught a class since his passing, I have dedicated it to Guruji, as he was known. As I read passages from Light on Life, I choked up each time. The rich teachings and long lineage of yoga continues through teachers like myself and those that even I train in my yoga teacher trainings. Yoga will go on. Maybe I found some comfort that such a master teacher was still alive and kicking to share his knowledge of the practice with us. I believe that we are ALL ongoing beginners in the practice of yoga. I don't believe there is a right or wrong style of yoga or necessarily even a "bad" teacher, because I truly feel that we learn something each time we unroll he mat and take to practicing. I suppose that I am saddened for the end of this era of authentic, Indian yoga teachers. While we have so many knowledgable and important teachers today: Shiva Rea, Baron Baptiste, and the likes, these men were the real deal - they literally wrote the books on yoga that all other teachers today are inspired to instruct by.
I have to be honest, I've walked out of more Iyengar classes and workshops than I've sat through in entirety. It was not a style, in the way that the local Iyengar teachers that I'd taken practice with taught, that resonated with me. However, reading B.K.S. Iyengar's books, listening to and watching him speak in videos, and learning some important aspects of his teachings has made me a better teacher - one with the ability to assist others in healing, the way that B.K.S. Iyengar was able to heal himself too through the practice of yoga.
"You do not need to seek freedom in some distant land, for it exists within your own body, heart, mind, and soul. Illuminated emancipation, freedom, unalloyed and untainted bliss await you, but you must choose to embark on the Inward Journey to discover it." (From Light on Life).
We will continue to learn yoga from B.K.S. Iyengar. His legacy lives on in each of us.
Namaste, Guruji.
Iyengar Website
CNN Interview on B.K.S. Iyengar, 2012
B.K.S. Iyengar in 1977 Demonstrating Yoga Asana
Interview with Iyengar from the 2008 movie "Enlighten Up"
Comments
Post a Comment