Book Review:  YOGA, the Iyengar Way - by Silva, Mira, and Shyam Mehta
 

Six years ago, a close friend of mine spent the summer in a remote tower in Arizona, watching for fires.  Anticipating the copious free time of his solitude, he asked for a book from which he could teach himself yoga.  I in turn asked my teacher, expecting to hear my teacher recommend B.K.S. Iyengar’s seminal LIGHT ON YOGA, or even Geeta Iyengar’s YOGA: A Gem for Women.  Without hesitation, my teacher replied YOGA, the Iyengar Way by Mira Mehta, Shyam Mehta and Silva Mehta.  Intrigued, I bought the book, but too late to gift it to my friend. As he spent his months without a personal practice, I came to see what makes the Mehtas’ book so remarkable.

The text sorts dozens of asanas as standing poses, reclining poses, seated postures, and so on.  This already distinguishes it from the classical texts by the Iyengars.  Furthermore, it includes large photographs of practitioners in intermediate stages as well as the final pose.  The accompanying instructions are short in length and simple in language.  The student can read the points, and immediately incorporate them into her own practice.  The book also warns of contraindications, so an astute student will be aware of when to stop.  I found that reading the points helped me to recall more of my teacher’s words; the book was greater than the sum of its points.

The instructions and photographs are the lentils and rice of YOGA the Iyengar Way.  Lentils and rice make for a nourishing but uninteresting meal.  So the authors flavor their presentation by including sections on philosophy and sequencing. The discussion of yoga philosophy is quite lucid, and the offered sequences give the practitioner a safe place from which to begin.

The authors are senior teachers in the Iyengar method, and the book has received Mr. Iyengar’s blessing.  A yogi may use YOGA the Iyengar Way with confidence that her practice will improve.  That said, I feel happy that my friend did not take this book.  One should learn yoga from a teacher, not from a book or a video.  A teacher can see a student’s unique physique, but a book must traffic in generalities.  However, once a practitioner has experienced the teacher, YOGA the Iyengar Way, provides an easily-followed and unimpeachably correct tool to further her practice.
 

Cost: $23 in the Lotus Boutique.