Google has dedicated its doodle today to celebrate the life of yoga guru BKS Ieyngar on his 97th anniversary.
He founded the style of yoga known as ‘Iyengar Yoga’.
On Google hompage in many countries three animated Google Doodles showing Iyengar performing different asanas appears on the screen.
Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Ieyngar was born in 1918 into a poor family in southern India - one of 13 children of whom only 10 survived.
During his childhood he suffered from poor heath and later when he turned 15 he was invited to a yoga school in order to improve his health through yoga pratice. This school was owned by his brother-in-law in the state of Mysore.
When he turned 19, he was sent to Pune, Maharashtra to teach yoga in 1937 and it was until 1952 that he became an international guru, after he introduced renowned violinist Yehudi Menuhin to this art.
Menuhin invited him to Switzerland in 1954 and it was then that he continued visiting west and started spreading his brand of yoga across the globe.
Iyengar is considered one of the well known yoga teachers across the world. He is also author of many books like ‘Light on Pranayama’, ‘Yoga Sutras of Patanjali’ and ‘Light on Yoga’.
In 1991, the government awarded Iyengar with Padma Shri, the Padma Bhushan in 2002 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2014. In 2004 he also made it to the list of 100 most influential people in the world by TIME magazine.
On 20 August, 2014, Iyengar (95) took his last breath.
