Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, Pune, India

Iyengar Yoga, based on the teachings of yoga master B.K.S. Iyengar, is rooted in the 2,500-year-old classical yoga tradition of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. One of the world’s most widely practiced forms of yoga, Iyengar Yoga emphasizes alignment of body, breath, mind, and spirit within each yoga pose. This precision builds strength and stamina, balance and flexibility, avoids injury and maximizes benefits, and provides a deep sense of well-being.Iyengar Yoga, based on the teachings of living yoga master B.K.S. Iyengar, is rooted in the 2,500-year-old classical yoga tradition of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. One of the world’s most widely practiced forms of yoga, Iyengar Yoga emphasizes alignment of body, breath, mind, and spirit within each yoga pose. This precision builds strength and stamina, balance and flexibility, avoids injury and maximizes benefits, and provides a deep sense of well-being.
 

Iyengar Yoga instructors must train for years and pass rigorous assessments to receive certification to teach. This is unusual at a time when teachers can be certified in a month in some other methods. Our teachers are thoroughly grounded in anatomy, philosophy, and all aspects of yoga asana.
 

Iyengar Yoga is far more than simple exercise. What elevates the practice of asana from exercise to yoga is intelligent action and the infusion of awareness throughout your entire being when practicing the poses. When you refine what might otherwise be purely mechanical movement with intelligent action, you transform your practice into a meditation in motion that illuminates the previously dark, unconscious areas of your body and mind with the light of awareness.


Article provided by IYNAUS
Called the "Michelangelo of yoga" and the "king of yogis," named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people, B. K. S. Iyengar is universally acknowledged as the world's greatest yoga teacher.
 

His invention of yoga props -- now ubiquitous in yoga studios of all styles -- revolutionized the art. Blankets, belts and other devices allow students of all skill levels to work safely in the classical yoga asanas (postures). Mr. Iyengar also revolutionized the therapeutic applications of yoga, gaining recognition for yoga as a treatment for serious medical conditions.


Perhaps the most groundbreaking aspect of Mr. Iyengar’s teaching is that through the yoga asanas and Pranayama (the control of the breath), the practitioner can explore the most advanced stages of yoga, including concentration, true meditation and even Samadhi, the mystical union of the individual soul of the practitioner with the universal soul -- God. By bridging the traditional distinctions between hatha yoga, sometimes considered a merely physical form, and yogas, which focus on the intellect, devotion, and meditation, Mr. Iyengar has brought the spiritual nature of yoga home to hundreds of thousands of devotees.


Quotes BKS Iyengar
 

"By drawing our senses of perception inward, we are able to experience the control, silence, and quietness of the mind."
 

"Yoga allows you to rediscover a sense of wholeness in your life, where you do not feel like you are constantly trying to fit broken pieces together."
 

 "It is through the alignment of the body that I discovered the alignment of my mind, self, and intelligence."
 

"One's spiritual realization lies in none other than how one walks among and interacts with one's fellow beings."
 

"Health is a state of complete harmony of the body, mind and spirit. When one is free from physical disabilities and mental distractions, the gates of the soul open."
 

"We must create a marriage between the awareness of the body and that of the mind. When two parties do not cooperate, there is unhappiness on both sides."
 

"The hardness of a diamond is part of its usefulness, but its true value is in the light that shines through it."
 

"Spirituality is not some external goal that one must seek, but a part of the divine core of each of us, which we must reveal."
 

"Yoga does not just change the way we see things, it transforms the person who sees."