International Yoga Day 2023: A look at the contribution of renowned gurus in reviving the ancient practice

Tirumalai Krishnamacharya is widely regarded as the founder of modern yoga. He was taught yoga right from the age of five by his father and he grew up to become a yoga instructor and Ayurvedic doctor. Krishnamacharya's yoga teachings for his Viniyoga style were based on the "Yoga Sutras of Patanjali" and "Yoga Yajnavalkya." His core concept was to "teach what is appropriate to the individual."He believed that yoga was both a spiritual activity and a physical healing practice. (Image: News18 Creative)

Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja((BKS) Iyengar was one of Tirumalai Krishnamacharya's initial students. He is popularly known for his yoga style called “Iyengar Yoga” and took yoga to the world besides teaching yoga to large groups of people abroad. He was suffering from several diseases including TB, malaria and typhoid during his childhood and that is when he took the help of yoga to cure himself. But he, later on, mastered yoga asanas to become a world-renowned yoga teacher. He gave his teachings to the world by publishing 14 books, the first of which was “Light on Yoga” published in 1966. (Image: News18 Creative)

Paramahansa Yogananda was the first Indian to take yoga to the West. He settled in the US and stayed there till his last breath. He is widely known to have introduced the concept of “kriya Yoga” in Western countries. As a yoga master, he deeply influenced Western culture during his lifetime. His book, Autobiography of a Yogi, sparked a spiritual movement in the West. It has been translated into over fifty languages and remains a best-selling religious masterpiece to date. (Image: News18 Creative)

Swami Sivananda Saraswati studied medicine and worked as a physician in British Malaya for 10 years before becoming a monk. In 1923 after coming back to India, he began dedicated spiritual practices and settled in Rishikesh while also following yoga. He founded the Divine Life Society (DLS) in 1936 and the Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy (1948). Swami Sivananda has also shared his extensive knowledge of yoga, Vedanta and other topics in over 200 books. (Image: News18 Creative)

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is not only famous as the founder of the Transcendental Meditation technique but is also responsible for restoring the Vedic understanding of consciousness in its original form. He founded the Spiritual Regeneration Movement in Madras, India in 1955 to share the essence of this ageless wisdom with the rest of the world. (Image: News18 Creative)