A sickly boy who could barely lift his head became yoga's global guru
B. K. S. Iyengar was born during the influenza pandemic and spent his childhood battling malaria, tuberculosis and typhoid, so frail he had to lift his drooping head by effort. Yoga rebuilt him. A chance session with the violinist Yehudi Menuhin, who fell asleep on the floor, launched him to worldwide fame.
Iyengar was born on 14 December 1918 in Bellur, in Karnataka's Kolar district, the 11th of 13 children of a poor schoolteacher and his wife. The family moved to Bangalore when he was five, and his father died of appendicitis just before the boy turned nine. He later described his childhood body with brutal honesty: thin arms, spindly legs and a protruding stomach.
In 1934 his brother-in-law, the yogi Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, often called the father of modern yoga, invited him to Mysore to strengthen his health through postures. The relationship was hard. Krishnamacharya expected the stiff teenager to fail, set him to household chores, and started serious teaching only when a favourite pupil left, at times withholding food until a pose was mastered. Iyengar nonetheless called the few days of real instruction he received over two years the foundation of everything he became. At 18, in 1937, he was sent to Pune to teach.
The breakthrough came in 1952. Because he had taught the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti, he was asked to meet Menuhin in Bombay. The exhausted violinist offered five minutes; Iyengar had him lie on his back in a resting pose, and Menuhin slept for an hour, woke refreshed and stayed two more. Convinced yoga improved his playing, Menuhin invited him to Switzerland in 1954 and gave him a watch inscribed to his best violin teacher. Iyengar travelled west regularly after that, teaching the Queen of Belgium a headstand at 80 and counting Aldous Huxley and Sachin Tendulkar among his students.
His method became known as Iyengar Yoga, and books such as Light on Yoga spread it widely. He said that at 90 he still practised postures for three hours and breathing exercises for an hour every day. India awarded him the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and, in 2014, the Padma Vibhushan, and Time named him among the world's 100 most influential people in 2004. He died on 20 August 2014.
Source: B. K. S. Iyengar
