Yogi-Varenyah Best among yogis The Life and Teachings of Guruji, Dr. B.N.S. Iyengar
Centenary Felicitation Volume
This volume was released on 23 September 2026 at the Maharaja's Sanskrit College in Mysore, in honor of Guruji's hundredth year. It is published by Samskriti Foundation under Dr. M. A. Alwar.
US $40 · Worldwide shipping included
Dr. B.N.S. Iyengar
Guruji is now in his hundredth year. He belongs to a generation that knew yoga in Mysore before it became a worldwide movement, and his life is rooted in Sanskrit learning and in the teachings of Śrī Kṛṣṇamācārya and Śrī K. Pattabhi Jois.
He has long been known as much for his mudrā and prāṇāyāma techniques as for his āsana teaching. His classes join the three, with philosophy running through all of it, and he teaches all eight limbs of Ashtanga Yoga. He has always sought to give a complete education in yoga, and he speaks at length on the vāyus and the kośas, on kuṇḍalinī and samādhi.
He still teaches every day, with the same joy, humor and close attention to his students. Now, at a hundred, he speaks plainly about the techniques that build energy and preserve the body over time. Students from India and across the world continue to come to him for a deeper understanding of what yoga is.
Inside the book
Yogi-Varenyah is a symposium of Guruji's essential teachings.
It includes his traditional understanding of practices such as sūrya namaskāra, and the mythology, symbolism and esoteric meaning he teaches behind the Primary Series. His philosophy of mudrā and prāṇāyāma is stated plainly, and so are his ideas on the eight limbs of Patañjali's yoga.
In the second section, Soul Education, his talks and writings are arranged from the gross to the subtle. The book describes methods for deepening one's practice and one's approach to it.
Yogi-Varenyah gives a traditional view of Ashtanga Yoga that is little known outside Mysore's Sanskrit community.
The book
Section I
His life
A sketch of Guruji's life, and of the Mysore in which he learned.
Section II
Soul Education
His teaching from āsana to samādhi, with the Primary Series and its chart.
Section III
Tributes
Recollections from his students around the world.
Ordering
US $40 · Worldwide shipping included
Please allow two to three weeks for your book to arrive. It is usually much faster.
If you have not received your copy within four weeks, or if it arrives damaged, please contact us and we will make it right.
From the publisher
A hundred years of life is rare. To reach that age with such vitality, clarity, discipline and remarkable freedom from the illnesses that commonly accompany advanced age is rarer still. Sri B.N.S. Iyengar's centenary is not merely a milestone of age; it is the celebration of a life wholly devoted to Yoga.
For decades, Yoga has been the light Guruji has carried into the world, touching generations of students and preserving a tradition that leads beyond the body towards wisdom and a deeper understanding of life.
The present Felicitation Volume brings together three dimensions of this extraordinary journey. The first presents Guruji's life sketch, tracing the people, places, teachers and experiences that have shaped him. The second, Soul Education, is a compendium of his teachings on āsana, mudrā, prāṇāyāma, meditation and philosophy, revealing the depth of a tradition he has carried and transmitted for decades. The third gathers tributes and personal recollections from students across the world, offering intimate glimpses of the teacher they know, admire and respect.
Together, these pages celebrate the teacher, preserve a living tradition, and offer gratitude for the light of Yoga that Guruji has shared with the world for a lifetime.
Samskriti Foundation
Samskriti Foundation was founded in Mysore in 1999 by Prof. M. A. Lakṣmīthāthāchārya, the father of Dr. M. A. Alwar. He was a legendary Sanskrit scholar of Mysore and came from one of the city's great Śrīvaiṣṇava lineages. To learn more about the family's history and lineage, click here.
The Foundation studies India's cultural and scientific heritage and is actively involved in the preservation of ancient manuscripts.
Samskriti Foundation has produced a long list of publications, including critical editions with English translation of the Haṭha-Yoga-Pradīpikā, the Gheraṇḍa Saṃhitā and the Śiva Saṃhitā; the Yoga Sūtras with the Vyāsa Bhāṣya, edited from palm-leaf manuscripts; Yogābhyāsayoga of Gorakṣanātha, published from a manuscript that had never been printed; and a Sanskrit-English Dictionary of Yoga of some five thousand terms.
The Foundation is headed by Dr. M. A. Alwar, Senior Professor at the Maharaja's Sanskrit College in Mysore and a legendary scholar in his own right. He is also co-organizer of the Mysore Yoga Conference. Proceeds of the book go to Samskriti Foundation and contribute to the preservation of ancient Indian manuscripts and to other charitable works.
To read more about the Foundation and its work, visit samskritifoundation.org.
For studios and schools
If you would like to share this book with your students and yoga community, please contact us about wholesale pricing at andrew@ashtangayogastudio.com.