Now is a great time for Iyengar Yoga

In January, among the impressive flowers and celebration memorabilia on display for the 50th Anniversary of the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI) in Pune, India, was a timeline of historic photographs dating back to 1975 when RIMYI opened. The photos featured the early days with Yogacharya BKS Iyengar, his daughter Geeta and son Prashant at the institute alongside international and local students including his granddaughter Abhijata Iyengar, a senior teacher at the institute today.  

While looking at the timeline that paralleled my own life that began in 1976, I imagined where I was during those times on the other side of the world. When I got to photos in the early the 2000s, I thought about my four daughters. I calculated their ages to the photos that I was looking at and tried to remember what my life looked like then. 

It felt profoundly special to be present at the RIMYI 50th Anniversary Celebration. A part of me felt sad, that I missed the opportunity to visit India when BKS Iyengar and Geeta were alive.

Abhijata was trained by her grandfather, Geeta and Prashant. She is a living link to the Iyengar lineage. She is an intelligent leader, a precise teacher who spreads joy, and a mother. I began taking weekly Zoom classes with Abhijata in 2022. In Pune at RIYMI, her class felt familiar and welcoming.

Some people attending the 50th Anniversary were at RIYMI for many events on the photographic timeline. Such as senior teacher Chris Saudek from LaCrosse Wisconsin, who took her first yoga trip to RIMYI in 1980. I was four years old then.

Chris, now 75, teaches a weekly advanced yoga class on Zoom that I have been taking for two years. She weaves in stories and teachings from her studies with BKS Iyengar, Geeta and Prashant, offering a solid bridge from the past to the present. From India to the US.

I discovered Iyengar yoga in my mid 20’s and then prioritized full-time motherhood during the years when BKS Iyengar and Geeta Iyengar were alive and still teaching. When Geeta died in December 2018 my girls were 4, 9, 12 and 14. It was the year I built my home yoga studio and moved my practice out of my living room. Before Covid brought everything to a halt.

I’ve been on a lifelong study of Iyengar Yoga full of twists and snags that teach me acceptance and awareness that things always work out. Abhijata, along with senior teachers like Chris, are bridging decades of yoga and showing us why the teachings of BKS Iyengar still matter today. 

Prashant, who is sill teaching at RIYMI and online, shines valuable wisdom and light on the roots of yoga with important insight from India, as life evolves there too.

Iyengar Yoga gives us knowledge to feel how our actions are connected so we don’t just do and do and do. It teaches us to move internally and externally with intention and discipline. While having the awareness to observe the mind without judgement. This work can take a lifetime to deeply understand.

We gain nothing by clinging to the past or living for the future. So I’m choosing to embrace the present, because it is definitely a great time for Iyengar Yoga. 

In 2025 we have incredible teachers to learn from and the technology to study in so many ways. I am grateful I can experience Iyengar Yoga at home, through podcasts, in India, in Nashville, in Argentina… and on Zoom.

After the anniversary celebration and two weeks of classes in Pune, Prashant Iyengar offered a four-day intensive in Bellur, a village an hour from Bangalore where BKS Iyengar grew up. To support the local area BKS Iyengar developed a trust in Bellur which built a school, hospital, university and yoga institute.

It is one of the most remote towns I have visited. Going there deserves a separate post on remote travel and how these experiences deep into unknown places change me and the adventures I crave.

I knew very little about Bellur. But like my mentor Aretha McKinney said during a workshop last weekend in Nashville, “If you ever get the chance to study with Prashant, you go!”

I went to Bellur with Aretha and we shared a dorm room at the institute. I was grateful to have her as my travel buddy, and my mentor.

I was probably the least experienced student there. It was small a group of about 100 students. With a pretty even mix of Prashant’s local students and esteamed teachers representing all the continents except Antartica.

At RIYMI, BKS Iyengar, Geeta and now Abhijata trains teachers to teach yoga. But not Prashant. He is a philosopher who teaches yoga. He discussed this during an episode of On The Light podcast, where he summed it up by saying training up teachers is “not my cup of tea.”

After intense studies focused on passing my teaching assessment in Fall of 2023, I went to India in search of a long interrupted time to be a student. It was wonderful because with Prashant, because everyone was there to be a student.

Studying with Prashant at the Bellur Iyengar Yoga Center and visiting the village of Bellur was incredibly special and deeply transformative. His teachings brought new light to my decades of curiosity and practice, inspiring me to explore yoga and oneself more freely. The more months that pass since I was there, the I more I realize this.

Prashant has a brilliant way of relating the antient teachings of yoga to today’s modern world. I am honored to have studied in his presence. And to have to toured of Bellur, the school, the hospital and the village to see the wonderful impact BKS Iyengar has here.

After a month away from home, re-entry into daily life of activities and logistical management for a family of six was waiting for me. I’m an experienced traveler and can bounce back into our routines without missing a beat. This time I found myself wanting the rhythm to slow down. I wanted to reflect on India, prioritize my daily practice, and keep the emotional harmony that yoga effortlessly creates when I make enough space for it.

At home there are slivers of time and sometimes hours, to go deep into my practice. And there are many things that can pull me away. Someone forgets a lunch, a friend needs a last minute birthday gift, school projects, the HVAC guy is coming, the cats need a vet appointment, weekend trips to see college kids pop up, a teen a needs a ride, dentist appointments, new seasons brings new needs, new anxieties creep in, someone needs a hypothetical anchor, Halloween brings 1500 trick or treaters, I get wanderlust and start trip dreaming on Google. At home I can be pulled in many directions. Sometimes within my control. Sometimes not.

But when I go somewhere else to do yoga, I have the gift to just focus on yoga. To truly go inward, on a separate journey, with less distractions. And with the luxury of knowing things will be okay when I’m gone. Or at least okay enough. That was a special part of being in India for a month.

By spring 2025 I was craving more in person teachings and more of India. In May Abhijata was teaching at the Argentina Iyengar Yoga Convention. I knew about it because I met the Argentina Iyengar Yoga Association (AIYA) leader in India and she told me I was welcome to come. So, I went!

I don’t speak Spanish. Not even a little. To register and sign up for the Argentina Iyengar Yoga Convention I had to Google Translate everything. To stay in the loop, I joined AIYA. I still enjoy translating the newsletters and emails to follow what the AIYA is doing because the energy within this young organization is inspiring!

BKS Iyengar taught in English, to help populate the spread of yoga. And because, the UK ruled India, English was taught and used when Indians didn’t speak the same Indian language. Therefore, it’s easy to travel and study Iyengar Yoga if you speak English. Translators are provided from English to the local language.

At the convention, the AIYA was celebrating its first-time certifying level 2 teachers, and handing out a fresh batch of level 1 teaching certifications. When Abhijata addressed the group of newly certified teachers, it made me realize as yoga practitioners, we are all in a new chapter of this ever-evolving path of yoga – no matter where in the world we live. Or how long we have been doing Iyengar yoga.

It was then, In Argentina, when I decided to let go of my sadness that I missed out on trips to India while I was busy being a mom. Because NOW IS a GREAT time to be a student of Iyengar Yoga.

Yoga can be done in a local studio, in a living room on zoom, or traveling around the globe. I’m grateful to have Abhijata as a teacher, who is a mom, and a youthful spirit sharing her deep knowledge of traditional yoga in today’s world.

In 2026 I plan to attend Iyengar Yoga conventions in New Zealand, the US, and South Africa, to continue my studies with Abhijata. Traveling as a mom is a delicate balance of time away and financial decisions. But I’ve learned from my travels to 11 countries in 2025, the world is not as big as you may think!

When I realized I could spend my 50th birthday doing yoga in New Zealand, I messaged the NZ Iyengar Yoga Association on Instagram and asked how to register as an international student.

Upon seasons of reflection, a month in India and a journey to Argentina – I believe the next 50 years of Iyengar Yoga will be just as great as the last 50 years.  AND, I believe it’s possible that at the 75th anniversary of RIYMI, I could be one of the teachers who has been coming to Pune for 25 years.

If you are lucky to live in a city with an Iyengar Yoga studio and teachers dedicated to Iyengar Yoga, GO take classes and support these studios. Find a mentor and stick with them. Sign up to receive studio emails, watch for weekend workshops and travel opportunities.

• To find studios, teachers and workshops in the US visit IYNAUS.
• Become an IYNAUS member to access free classes with senior teachers, Saturday talks with Prashant, the Iyengar Yoga bookstore and more!
• Sign up for the 2026 convention in Pittsburgh with Abhijata!
• Discover On the Light by Susan Johnson. She interviews senior Iyengar teachers including Prashant!
• Watch free videos on the Iyengar Yoga Official Youtube site.
• Find Iyengar associations and teachers worldwide at BKSIyengar.com.
• Certified Iyengar Yoga teachers and trainees can register for Zoom classes from RIMYI.
• Follow Iyengar Yoga associations on social media in countries you would like to visit and see who is teaching there.