BKS Iyengar 97th birthday: The guru's yoga technique explained
The Iyengar yoga technique is taught in 70 countries around the world
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Your support makes all the difference.Google has honoured the birthday of the man credited with bringing yoga to the West - BKS Iyengar - with his very own doodle on would have been his 97th birthday.
Iyengar - who died last year aged 95 - is credited with bringing his own technique of Iyengar yoga to the West after he was invited to Switzerland by a friend - the American violinist Yehudi Menuhin.
The guru’s practice emphasised bringing the physical body in line with the mind and focused on building up strength.
Iyengar was famed for his strict regime in later life and would use more than 50 aids during his practice - including mats and ropes.
The yogi - who was born into a poor family in southern India in 1918 - was first invited to study yoga by his brother-in-law - the celebrated yoga master Tirumalai Krishnamacharya when he was 15.
Iyengar had suffered years of ill health with bouts of malaria, tuberculosis and typhoid fever and says the regular yoga practice helped him recover.
He left his brother-in-law to become a yoga teacher in the late 1930s and in 1951 he met Menuhin.
Menuhin, who was already interested in yoga, said he was in near constant pain from playing his instrument.
It is said that Iyengar was able to fix the pains within minutes and Menuhin was left sleeping peacefully.
After that the pair remained close friends until the violinist’s death in 1999.
From there brought his technique to the West. More than 60 years later it is taught in 70 countries around the world.
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