{"id":434,"date":"2026-06-19T22:49:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T20:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bakchichbaba.com\/journal\/?p=434"},"modified":"2026-09-15T16:54:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T14:54:34","slug":"pranayama-the-learning-of-b-k-s-iyengar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bakchichbaba.com\/journal\/en\/pranayama-the-learning-of-b-k-s-iyengar\/","title":{"rendered":"Pranayama, the learning of B.K.S. Iyengar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Some people are familiar with B.K.S. Iyengar\u2019s reference work on pranayama, \u00ab Light on Pranayama \u00bb.
How did he arrive at such a precise and accurate practice?
This is what I explore in this compilation of extracts from the books \u00ab Astadala Yogamala \u00bb, vol. 5, and \u00ab Iyengar: His Life and Work \u00bb. His teacher, Krishnamacharya, never really taught him pranayama. He simply instructed him to breathe in deeply, hold his breath, and breathe out deeply.
What followed were years of research, observation and personal experimentation.
What was essential was tenacity, persevering despite feelings of failure, drawing inspiration from the world around us, from what is beautiful and right.
Yoga isn\u2019t just on the mat, but all around us.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n


The first thing I always do every morning when I arise at four o’clock is pranayama. I ask myself, how would my first breath start if I were born today ? That’s how I started pranayama today. It may interest you all to know how my mind thinks I learned something from that also.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firts attempts at pranayama<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I would get up early in the morning with the fervour in my mind that I should sit. I used to sit in Padmasana. \u00ab Now I’ll do pranayama. \u00bb So I sat in padmasana for about a minute, and within one minute, my mind said, \u00ab no pranayama today \u00bb. The moment I kept my fingers on my nostrils used to rebel, and I used to gasp. So, naturally that day was gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I started doing trataka \u2013 gazing . I said let me do trataka if I can’t do pranayama. It so happened that trataka gave me some ill feeling in my eyes and in my brain, and I learned the bad effect of trataka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1944 I had an opportunity to go to Mysore, to take my Guru’s blessings. My guru never did pranayama in the presence of anyone. It so happened that one day he was sitting and doing pranayama. I observed for only 3 or 4 minutes how he places the fingers on the nose, how he sat \u2013 I saw the spine, and that is how I started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In practice<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I returned home and started trying. I could not sit straight like him. My spine used to curve because I did a lot of backbends in the early days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restlessly, I tried pranayama in Padmasana, Virasana, in Baddha Konasana, thinking that something may come in some pose and I kept continuing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Somebody gave me a bookwritten in the 1800’s, which said that if you keep cotton near your nose then it should not shake when you exhale. So, when I tried that, I could exhale but I could not inhale at all. Everybody, all the books, were explaining about exhalation. What about inhalation ? How difficult it was to learn !<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was teaching Krishnamurthi in 1948, and his theory of passive alertness was similar to the cotton which should not shake. Then I started inhaling with the passive alertness, saying that as in exhalation the cotton should not shake when I inhale. I should not feel it even in my nostrils. My heart started beating when I did that. So I was caught in between, not knowing how to do. So I began to do soft inhalation with a gentle touch on the inner carpet of the nose. I felt a sense of exhilaration and quitness. This, I thought, must be the right method and I began to manipulate the intercostal muscles of the chest, the fingers on the nose, and so forth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1958, I used to stay in Kapotasana for 15 minutes. But one day I said, let me do Janu-Sirsasana \u2013 I couldn’t for 15 minutes. So in 1958 I was determined to learn to stay in forward bends as long as I did in back bends.In that learning, my spine resisted and did not collapse when I sat for pranayama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Towards the art of pranayama<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 1960 I was in Switzerland. I used to get up and practice pranayama. One day, I felt that delight, or the fragrance of that inhalation, which was not too cold, not too warm.Some sensation came into my nose when I was controlling with my fingers. That sensation gave me the key to taste the in-breath and the out-breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From thet fragrance that I got in 1960 in Switzerland, I learnt how to place the fingers on my nose as I had seen my Guru do in 1944. My own student, Yehudi Menuhin, was also my Guru, though he never knew that I learned from him. I observed how he used to pull the violin strings, and what space he was creating ; how he used to flex his knuckles and how the knuckles were behaving, how the flesh was behaving on the back side, which part of his finger he used to keep. I noticed all those things. Then I started playing on my nose, and that’s how I learned pranayama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on Iyengar yoga https:\/\/rimyi.org\/resources\/<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The materials developed by B.K.S. Iyengar, which are of great help<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n \n \"Pranayama\n

Pranayama prop<\/p>\n <\/a>\n\n \n \"Pranayama\n

Pranayama cushion<\/p>\n <\/a>\n\n \n \"Cotton\n

Coton yoga blanket<\/p>\n <\/a>\n\n \n \"Yoga\n

Yoga bolster<\/p>\n <\/a>\n\n\n\"Linen\n

Linen eye pillow en lin<\/p>\n<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some people are familiar with B.K.S. Iyengar\u2019s reference work on pranayama, \u00ab Light on Pranayama \u00bb.How did he arrive at such a precise and accurate practice?This is what I explore in this compilation of extracts from the books \u00ab Astadala Yogamala \u00bb, vol. 5, and \u00ab Iyengar: His Life and Work \u00bb. His teacher, Krishnamacharya, never really taught him pranayama. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[66,65,67],"class_list":["post-434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-yoga","tag-iyengar-yoga","tag-pranayama","tag-yoga-iyengar"],"yoast_head":"\nPranayama, the learning of B.K.S. Iyengar - Bakchich baba<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How did B.K.S. Iyengar develop such a precise approach to pranayama? 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