Google honours guru who contributed to globalizing yoga

One of his popular students of the Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan awardee includes Sachin Tendulkar
Google honours guru who contributed to globalizing yoga
Google honours guru who contributed to globalizing yoga
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On his 97th birthday, Google decided to honour yoga guru BK Iyengar for his contribution to the spread of yoga across the world. In place of the second ‘o’ in the ‘Google’ below the search bar on the search engine’s page, stands a colour-appropriate Iyengar figure performing different asanas.

The search engine said, “BKS Iyengar, it’s been said, could hold a headstand for nearly half an hour well into his eighties.”

One of his popular students of the Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan awardee includes Sachin Tendulkar, Queen Elisabeth of Belgium and Swiss musician Yehudi Menuhin.

It was Menuhin, who invited the guru to the West for the first time.

In 1965, Iyengar published an instruction guide to yoga that helped to make the practice a global sensation. Today, Light on Yoga: Yoga Dipika (1965) is regarded as the book that introduced the physical and spiritual practise of yoga to the West.

Earlier, this year the Yoga guru died at a private hospital in August at the age of 96 due to age related ailments.

Iyengar was conferred the Padma Shri in 1991, the Padma Bhushan in 2002 and Padma Vibhushan in 2014 and was in 2004 named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential personalities, among his many other national and international honors.

Born Dec 14, 1918 in a poor Brahmin family of Belur in Karnataka as Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar, he was a sickly child, having fallen victim to malaria, typhoid and tuberculosis in his early childhood.

In 1934, when he was 16, the young Iyengar was introduced to yoga by his teacher T. Krishnamacharya as a cure for all his childhood illnesses, and after two years sent to Pune to propagate yoga as he understood some English. Gradually, he developed the 'Iyengar Yoga', exploring the meaning of yoga sutras by his practical search and practice of Yoga, integrating the body, mind and emotions. This 'astanga style' is now recognized and followed by certified yoga teachers globally. 

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