Thank You Guruji

Thank you Guruji for giving us your Light on Yoga and Your Light on Life:

And thank you Guruji for giving us a travel guide on our journey through life toward wholeness, inner peace and ultimate freedom;

To help us all experience harmony and joy in our bodies, hearts and souls and with all souls around us.

May you rest in peace knowing we are committed to passing on your light and wisdom with our dedicated practice, and illuminate our journeys onward.

With love, gratitude and respect.

In Memorium

Here are some beautiful and profound words from our friend John Schumacher that we would love to share with you, on the passing of Mr. Iyengar:

My teacher, mentor, friend, and inspiration, B.K.S. Iyengar, died today, Aug. 20, 2014 at age 95. He wasn't just my teacher, mentor, friend, and inspiration; he was that to all his pupils, direct and indirect; he was that to the worldwide yoga community; he was that to mankind. The world has lost a truly remarkable, profound, transformational, and unique individual.

Guruji's teachings and the force of his personality changed yoga as it is practiced and taught today and helped instigate the explosion of yoga worldwide. In light of his immense influence on yoga and in recognition of his role in yoga's acceptance and popularity, Time magazine in 2004 included Mr. Iyengar among the 100 most powerful and influential people in the world. We - you and I, Unity Woods, the yoga world, and the world at large - will miss him tremendously. And though the light of his personality has gone out, the light of teachings will survive, thrive, and guide teachers and students of yoga for many years to come.

In this time of grief and remembrance, it would be good to put Guruji's passing in perspective through his own words: "The sadhaka (seeker, practitioner, student) perceives that there is no difference between life and death, that they are simply two sides of the same coin. He understands that the current of self, the life-force, active while he is alive, merges with the universe when he leaves his body at death.......In realizing the oneness of life and death there is an end to ignorance in the aspirant, and he lives forever in the flow of tranquility." Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, II: 9.

And: "Discover what does not die, and the illusion of death is unmasked. That is the conquest of death. That is why I did not cry for my wife, in spite of all my pain, for I will not cry for an illusion." Light On Life

And finally: "I am old, and death inevitably approaches. But both birth and death are beyond the will of the human being. They are not my domain. I do not think about it. The complexity of the life of the mind comes to an end at death, with all its sadness and happiness. If one is already free from that complexity, death comes naturally and smoothly. If you live holistically at every moment, as yoga teaches, even though the ego is annihilated, I will not say, 'Die before you die.' I would rather say, 'Live before you die, so that death is also a lively celebration.'" Light On Life

So we mourn and celebrate and do what Guruji always taught and what he would want us to do: practice with intensity and devotion and love of yoga.

From Geeta Iyengar, on the passing of her father:

"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 to practice, to his illness and death. Even last night he was telling Abhijata,* "I have shown you all these things, now realize them for yourself." What he has given cannot be encompassed by words. If a disciple is more developed, then that person will understand. What can be said in words, is that he was precious to us."

*Abhijata is Guruji's granddaughter and one of the inspirational teachers at the Yoga Institute in Pune.

From Pune, India
by yoga teacher and student, Luci Yamamoto
who is currently in India studying Yoga at the Ramamami Memorial Iyengar Yoga Institute

Walking toward RIMYI just after noon, I saw a crowd blocking the street. Just outside the gate, an ambulance was parked. Soon I heard chanting, and five or six men, draped in white cloth, came carrying the body of BKS Iyengar, adorned with flowers, high on a stretcher.... Read More

"Yoga is like music.

The rhythm of the body,

the melody of the mind, and

the harmony of the soul,

create the symphony of life."

"Yoga is the golden key which

unlocks the door

to peace, tranquility, and joy."

"Yoga is a light

which, once lit, will never dim.

The better you practise,

the brighter the flame."

"The still waters of a lake reflect

the beauty around it.

When the mind is still,

the beauty of the self

is seen reflected in it."

"I do pray that my ending will be your beginning.

The great rewards and the countless blessings

of a life spent following the Inward Journey await you."

B.K.S. Iyengar