BKS Iyengar will always be known for making yoga famous in the West
World renowned Yoga guru BKS Iyengar, who founded the ‘Iyengar Yoga’ died at a private hospital early Wednesday, leaving behind a vast legacy. He was 96. A widower, he was suffering from age-related ailments and breathed his last around 3.15 am. Author of several books on Yoga, its practice and techniques, Iyengar was conferred the Padma Shri in 1991, the Padma Bhushan in 2002 and Padma Vibhushan in 2014 and was in 2004 named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential personalities, among his many other national and international honours.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled Iyengar’s death and said he will be remembered as a fine guru and scholar. “I am deeply saddened to know about yogacharya BKS. Iyengar’s demise and offer my condolences to his followers all over the world,” Modi tweeted.
Born Dec 14, 1918 in a poor Brahmin family of Bellur in Karnataka as Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar, he was a sickly child, having fallen victim to malaria, typhoid and tuberculosis in his early childhood.
In 1934, when he was 16, the young Iyengar was introduced to yoga by his teacher T Krishnamacharya as a cure for all his childhood illnesses, and after two years sent to Pune to propagate yoga as he understood some English.