Geeta S. Iyengar (7 December 1944 – 16 December 2018[1]), the eldest daughter of Yogacharya
B. K. S. Iyengar, was a
yoga teacher credited with advancing
yoga for women.
Life and work
Geeta Iyengar, eldest daughter of the founder of the worldwide
Iyengar yoga method, Yogacharya
B. K. S. Iyengar, was described as "the world's leading female yoga teacher".[2]
Iyengar studied
yoga with her father from an early age. After graduating high school in 1961, she began substituting for her father when he was away on international teaching tours.[2] When he retired in 1984,[3] she became co-director, with her brother
Prashant S. Iyengar, of the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI)[4] as well as undertaking her own international teaching tours.
Iyengar adapted her father's method of yoga to the specific requirements of women.[5] Specific
asanas,
pranayama and sequences are given for different stages in a woman's life including
menstruation,
pregnancy, postpartum, and
menopause. Like her father, Iyengar explained how yoga is used as a method to unify body and mind, and strengthen the respiratory system, circulatory system, nervous system, muscles, epidermis, and the mind.[6]
In addition to teaching at RIMYI, Iyengar periodically toured worldwide to carry on the
Iyengar Yoga lineage. She was a well-known figure in yoga around the world, in North America,[7][8][9] Australia,[10] South Africa,[11] and Europe.[12]
She trained yoga teachers around the world, for example in Italy.[13] She died on 16 December 2018, two days after her father's birth centenary, aged 74. She was unwell and used a wheelchair for more than a year. She had said that she would not depart this earth until she had completed her father's 100th birth anniversary celebration.[14]