B.K.S. Iyengar


BKS Iyengar, (December 19, 1918 to August 20, 2014)  dedicated eighty years of his long life to study, practice, and teach yoga. He is the author of the definitive encyclopedia of yoga, Light on Yoga, as well as many other authoritative books on the subject. Mr. Iyengar and his family have directly trained many excellent yoga teachers who have, in turn, written their own authoritative texts and trained other excellent teachers all over the world. In the footsteps of his guru, T. Krishnamacaria, he has been a preeminent proponent of the revitalization and dissemination of yoga in modern India and the world. His teaching is best known for his attention to precise alignment in yoga postures, his inventive use of props to accommodate the needs and abilities of individual students, and his relentless integrity of practice. He is also known for developing a system of yoga therapeutics to treat serious injury and medical conditions. Perhaps his most unique contribution to the yoga tradition is his refinement of the practice of yoga asana to the level of meditation in action. (For more of Mr. Iyengar’s biography, see bksiyengar.com.)