The latest edition of Yoga Rahasya has many articles of tribute for the late yoga master B.K.S. Iyengar.
Each one expresses that Mr. Iyengar practiced what he taught, and that is truly following the yogic path.
Geeta, his daughter, spoke to the media on August 20th, 2014 saying, "Only his body has ended. One person's efforts from inside out changed the acceptance of yoga throughout the world. Nothing was hidden from the time he began his practice, to his illness and his death."
Mr. Iyengar didn't try to hide the wisdom he had gained, but tried to teach in a way that we could bring the realization to ourselves.
Prashant, his son, also wrote about how he remembers his father before he became well known and of course once he was well known and through all this he never changed how he interacted with others.
Abhijata, his grand-daughter expressed that, "While teaching Guruji never cared for himself. His lessons to me in the classes were not just the techniques on the way he helped people but on the way he healed them."
Although as a teacher, we teach certain points. They are meant to help open people up to explore themselves, bring awareness to themselves, not just to get the points right. That is the true essence of yoga.
There is many more tributes in this issue. But I will end with one by Father Joe Pereira.
He is a Catholic priest and has been a student of BKS Iyengar since 1968.
He writes, "In the past 46 years, the journey of the practice of Iyengar Yoga has been an inward journey. Unlike many modern day yoga teachers, Guruji's teaching and practice was no a "work out". It was a "work in". It was, as he would always emphasise, a journey from the periphery to the core. From the sympathetic nervous system to the Central nervous system and this was done via the autonomous nervous system."
"Guruji was faithful to his original gift of exploring the wisdom of the body. If the body was to be revered as the temple, then every asana was to become a prayer. His integration of the antaratma and antaranga sadhana in every asana made his practice spiritual.
Let your practice bring you inward to experience that wisdom! With deep respect and gratitude to BKS Iyengar.
Namaste.
Pamela Nelson
www.plnyoga.blogspot.com
plnyogastudio@gmail.com
