Light on Yoga - Day 1

Day 1 - Tribute to Guruji and his book Light on Yoga

My edition of Light on Yoga was published in 1991 by Thorsons.  It has been published at least 11 times by about 9 different publishers and most recently in 2015. The cover has seen many different designs and has been published into at least 26 different languages. 

The behind the story stories can be as interesting as the story itself. The history of the making of Light on Yoga is very interesting as many were involved in believing in Mr. Iyengar, in him believing in himself and the importance of this book to take the many years of hard work it needed for it to come to fruition. 

Mr. Iyengar's daughter, Vanita writes in an article, "The Light on Yoga times..", about how her and Geeta would be in charge of typing the manuscript in the early days. Typing and retyping when changes or corrections needed to be made.  She writes how this helped her learn the art of concentration by needing to remain present while Guruji dictated.  During the writing of the book heavy floods came to Pune in 1961. Mr. Iyengar was away and as the floods entered the house the one thing his wife saved was the manuscript!

 

Rajiv H. Mehta writes in an article, "The Making of Light on Yoga - A Daunting Task", also about the time taken to write the book. During this time there was no computers to help make correcting mistakes easier or digital cameras for the many photos that were taken. Mr. Iyengar personally wrote, rewrote and corrected the manuscript for retyping. Mr. Mehta also commented that for every photo in the book at least 36 photos were taken that Mr. Iyengar posed for. It was not until after they were developed that Mr. Iyengar would know if they were suitable or not. 

 We all have a story about how we came to yoga.  It may have been a seed planted many years ago that you may or may not remember, an injury, spiritual quest or just a casual curiosity that led to dedicated discipline. 
So when I look at that first page where the publishers information is given I know the journey it took to get it to that point is always a story in itself.
 

 

Namaste.

Pamela Nelson

Www.plnyoga.blogspot.com