Thanks to our revered teacher Sri BKS Iyengar’s tenacity as well as his daughter’s –Geeta S. Iyengar- and his son’s –Prashant Iyengar, the modest Pune Institute in India shines forth in more than a hundred countries through yoga associations, dedicated to spread his work and…and Belgium woke up. A team of certified and near certified Belgian Teachers, has boosted our newly reborn Belgian Iyengar Yoga Association, BIYA. BIYA magazine will be published twice a year and will be an informative tool complementing the new site www.iyengaryoga.be.

We would like to introduce this first number expounding an often unknown aspect of Sri B.K.S. Iyengar taken from ‘Light on Bellur’ booklet edited in 2006: his total commitment to his home town, Bellur, located in South India, supported with the donations of thousands of yoga lovers around de world.

Nearly 88 years ago, in this non-descript village, Bellur, was born Sundaraja, the son of a local school headmaster. It is a tradition in South India that an individual bears the name of his village, his father, his own name and that of his community. And, that is how Sundaraja came to be called as Bellur Krishnamachar Sundaraja Iyengar, respectfully referred to as Guruji.

If not for the B, in BKS Iyengar, Bellur would have remained unknown not only to the world but even to the Indians. Although, Bellur is situated just 40 kms away from Bangalore, considered as the silicon capital of India, the life in the village is archaic.

It is ironic that Guruji’s father was a headmaster but the village where Guruji was born had no school. In 1967, he built a primary school in his birth place in the memory of his parents.

Distressed at the plight of the ‘children’ of his village, he decided to build a yoga hall, also used for social and educational purposes, over the school premises. “My only desire now is to take yoga to the villages” is what Guruji expressed on the occasion of his 80th birthday in 1998.

In 2004, Guruji BKS Iyengar supported the construction of the world’s first temple dedicated to Sage Patanjali. In 2005, a high school was built with entire expenses borne by the Trust and in 2006, the Ramamani Sundaraja Iyengar Hospital was inaugurated.

The Belgian Iyengar Yoga Association wishes to contribute to Guruji’s task: Each member is invited to donate a self chosen amount to the account 210-0461825-60 with the mention: “Donation for Bellur”.

Giving does not impoverish. BKS Iyengar