the iyengars

[Guest guest]

just bought "light on yoga" by b.k.s. iyengar. now i'm new to all of this so

back off on those flame throwers, but who is b.n.s iyengar and what is the

relation, if any, to bks?

[Guest guest]

I believe BNS Iyengar was a student of

Krishnamacharya, along with BNS Iyengar, PKJ and TKV Desikachar

(Krishnamacharya'a son). I've heard somewhere but can't remember

what the relationship is - I'm thinking maybe

brother-in-law. My teacher studied with him in Mysore. I have the

impression that Ashtangi's in the know are as likely to

visit Mysore to study with him as they are with PKJ. I

don't know much about him and would like to hear more.

Anyone else have anything to say? It would be cool if

there was a book by or about him or something. I have

found only a bit of info on the web on him, which is on

this cool little

website:<br><br><a href=http://www.ajna.demon.co.uk/yoga/iyengar.htm

target=new>http://www.ajna.demon.co.uk/yoga/iyengar.htm</a><br><br>Since that

breaks out of the frames menu, here is the

URL to the home page of this Ashtanga info

site:<br><br><a href=http://www.ajna.demon.co.uk/yoga/index.html

target=new>http://www.ajna.demon.co.uk/yoga/index.html</a><br> <br>(and yes,

okrgr1, do visit the studio if you

are visiting back home, Andrew's got a cool Ashtanga

scene going on here)

[Guest guest]

thanks for the reply terry. while i was waiting

for a response, i went back thru the early posts and

found that, as you have said, BNS studied under

Krishnamacharya. i had, for some reason, thought that it was BKS

that was the third amigo of KPJ and Desikachar. i

guess now my question should be, who is BKS. i know,

from going thru your book

list(<a href=http://www.ionet.net/~tslade/yogabook.htm

target=new>http://www.ionet.net/~tslade/yogabook.htm</a>), that he has some

books that are highly viewed as

sources about yoga, but Light on Yoga is the only one i

have seen yet. anybody have more info on him?

[Guest guest]

Probably BKS is the "3rd amigo" and BNS the

4th,<br>hardly ever mentioned. He must wear a cloak of

invisibility. On the other end of the spectrum, BKS Iyengar is

probably the most famous yogi in the world. When people

day "Iyengar yoga" they mean his style. I'm no

expert, but heres some of the big differences between

Iyengar and Ashtanga: Where there is a standard structure

in Ashtanga practice, any Iyengar class may be

different. Many of the same asanas but not in any particular

order. They pay attention to breathing but not

necessarily cooordinating inhales and exhales with movements

or using ujayi for asana practice. Postures are held

for long times. I have a tape of John Friend,

described as an Iyengar workout. He gives instructions for

allignment in each posture which are very detailed and the

postures have to be held a while just to get all the

instructions.<br><br>I have never really seen there to be any big

incompatibility between the Iyengar and the Ashtanga approaches.

Sometimes I think of the Iyengar appraoch to be kind of an

Ashtanga prep, which seems to be what I need. I think of

myself as working within the framework of Ashtanga and I

think of Ashtanga practice almost as a goal, which I am

working on through more of an Iyengar way - holding

postures a long time. I always hear that the big thing is

that Iyengar yoga focuses on allignment, but why is

that bad and who says Ashtanga yoga is not concerned

with allignment?<br><br>There is an official

website:<br><br><a href=http://www.bksiyengar.com

target=new>http://www.bksiyengar.com</a><br><br>(Seems to be down at the moment

but pretty sure that is

a good link).<br><br>Perhaps someone else can say

more about Iyengar vs. Ashtanga yoga. (or is that a

dangersous thing to suggest here?)<br><br>I'm glad to have

found Ashtanga yoga - I need the structure and it seems

to be the "real deal".

[Guest guest]

TL, being that you're in Norman, don't you know Andrew Eppler? He was/is a

student of BNS, and last I heard he teaches in Norman.

[Guest guest]

Andrew, is in fact my teacher. Haven't talked to

him that much about BNS. A friend of his came over

from England once and taught a couple of classes. She

had studied with BNS more extensively. I know he has

told me that he speaks good English and that there are

no complaints of him misbehaving with female

students. According to the website I referenced in my last

post on this, Godfrey Devereux and Lino Miele have

studied with BNS. So he's not totally unknown. I guess he

just needs better marketing, eh?

[Guest guest]

bns told me that he is NO relation to bks, iyengar, he says, is a common name

down there...