When Iyengar was five years old, his family moved to Bangalore.

He was the 11th of 13 children (10 of whom survived) born to Sri Krishnamachar, a school teacher, and Sheshamma. Iyengar was born into a poor Sri Vaishnava Iyengar family in Bellur, Kolar district, Karnataka, India. In 2004, Iyengar was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine.

The Indian government awarded Iyengar the Padma Shri in 1991, the Padma Bhushan in 2002, and the Padma Vibhushan in 2014. He has been credited with popularizing yoga, first in India and then around the world. Iyengar was one of the earliest students of Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, who is often referred to as 'the father of modern yoga'.

He was the author of many books on yoga practice and philosophy including Light on Yoga, Light on Pranayama, Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and Light on Life. He is founder of the style of yoga as exercise, known as ' Iyengar Yoga', and was considered one of the foremost yoga gurus in the world. NPR Kroc Fellow Diane Geng contributed to this report.Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar (14 December 1918 – 20 August 2014) was an Indian teacher of yoga and author. It is also about the internal physiological and psychological effects of the practice.' When a raw beginner experiences this state of well-being, it is not merely the external or anatomical effects of yoga. 'Often, we hear people saying they remain active and light when they do just a little bit of asana practice. Even in simple asanas, one is experiencing the three levels of quest: the external quest, which brings firmness of the body the internal quest, which brings steadiness of intelligence and the innermost quest, which brings benevolence of spirit. 'While this is a legitimate place to begin, it is not the end. He used props like ropes, belts and bricks to help even the elderly, weak, and inflexible experience yoga's therapeutic effects.īut Iyengar says yoga goes beyond the physical motions: 'The practice of yogasana for the sake of health, to keep fit, or to maintain flexibility is the external practice of yoga,' he continues in Light on Life. Over the next seven decades, Iyengar used his own body as a living laboratory to explore how different yoga postures - called asanas - can alleviate health problems.

Light on life iyengar