B K S Iyengar, the Man who Introduced Yoga to the West, Dies

Renowned yoga guru B.K.S. Iyengar, who was instrumental in introducing yoga to the western world , passed away in  Pune, India  on Wednesday.

Iyengar, 95, died of heart failure, said his granddaughter Abhijata Sridhar-Iyengar, The New York Times reports.

Iyengar was admitted to a hospital and he told his family members some hours  before his death that his time had come.

"My time has come. My soul is satisfied with the work done..." he told family members, according to The Indian Express.

The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted a condolence message on Twitter.

 As a child, Iyengar suffered from tuberculosis, typhoid and malaria and said the practice of yoga was instrumental in saving his life.

He was spotted for his yoga prowess in his mid teens and invited to demonstrate his  impressive and bewildering positions of yoga at the court of the Maharaja of Mysore.

But the turning point in his life came when he met violinist Yehudi Menuhin in 1952, who was an early yoga devotee.  Iyengar started to travel with Menuhin and opened yoga institutes in six continents.

After that, there was no looking back for him.

Novelist Aldous Huxley, actress Annette Bening, designer Donna Karan, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor  were some of his devotees.  He even taught Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, who was 85  , the head stand.

In his book , "Light on Life," Iyengar talked about the immense changes he had seen over the years.

He says in the book that he set off on his yoga path 70 years ago when people ridiculed and condemned yoga students even in India, its birth place. He wrote that if he had become a sadhu, and wandered through the roads of the country with a begging bowl in hand, he would have got more respect and less scorn.

Iyengar's students remember him as a warm and charismatic man, who was also strict.

As he became popular, Iyengar was intensely competitive with other eminent yoga gurus, and would get irritated when asked about their methods, one of his students Elizabeth Kadetsky, said.

"He demanded loyalty," she said, reports the Indian Express. "One had to be 100 percent with him."