Iyengar Yoga

WHAT IS YOGA?

Yoga is an ancient discipline developed in India and corresponds to one of the six systems of Indian philosophy. The Sanskrit root of the word “Yoga” means ‘bind, join, attach, yoke’ and ‘union’ or ‘communion’.

Its goal is to show women and men, irrespective of their age and religion, a path leading to their own inner and outer peace. As written in Light on Yoga, ‘it means a pose of the soul which enables one to look at life in all its aspects evenly’.

There are several Yoga teachings, each with its own specificity. At its origin, the science of Yoga was transmitted from one person to the other.

WHO IS B.K.S. IYENGAR?

B.K.S. Iyengar was one of the world’s leading Yoga teachers and a world renowned personality. Born in 1918, he died on 20th August 2014 at the age of 96. His entire life was devoted to the study and the teaching of Yoga.

He lived in Pune (southern India) where he founded the internationally well-known « Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute » in 1975. His children Geeta and Prashant, his niece Abhijata, as well as a critical mass of high qualified teachers perpetuate and continue his teaching.

His works have been translated into several languages and represent must-read classics for the study of Yoga. His teaching style, clear and objective, has contributed to the decoding of the discipline across cultures.

WHAT IS IYENGAR YOGA?

Contrary to the widely shared notion of yoga as a sort of relaxation gym, Iyengar Yoga stands out as an in-depth teaching to attain bodily, mental knowledge and awareness. Yoga Iyengar teaching is based on the study of postures (asanas) and breathing (pranayama).

Compared to other Yoga teachings, Iyengar Yoga is characterised by focus on postures sequencing, alignment of the body in each posture, the duration in holding the posture, as well as on the use of props allowing each single body to adapt to a given posture to its best. Yoga can therefore be practiced under any physical condition (e.g. pregnancy, handicaps, pain).