Power Alignment Yoga® Enterprises

An edited excerpt from Mary Dunn's speech on Guru Purnima, July 2008

I was living out in California. My mother had been to India and to England to study with B.K.S. Iyengar, and brought him once to the Ann Arbor Y. This time, she was bringing him out to California. I was going to meet him and I was thrilled. After a short time in the class, I was not only thrilled but actually convinced that here was a true teacher and here was a subject that embedded the truth. In class, we felt the truth of getting aligned. About half an hour into the class, I looked over at my mother, and gave what I hoped was an absolutely significant nod that said, “You are once again right; you are absolutely right, I will go with you to India, I need to do more of this.”

There was a wonderful connection with him and he loved my mother. She was an American and had come to him an obviously sincere student. Then here I was a younger, California version and I didn't know much about yoga at all. He put me up on stage and said, “She's a rank beginner -- she doesn't know anything.” I didn't mind that at all because I didn't! He said, “I'm going to teach her in front of you and you all can learn from the way I'm teaching her.” He had me as a model up there most of the time; and of course he made me look good! He put me up and held my leg up and made me absolutely sturdy and if I couldn't reach the floor, it didn't matter; and he'd tell everyone, “It doesn't matter!”

That was my first experience with Guruji and then after that I went back every year or two until just very recently. He is an extraordinary teacher who can teach from all different kinds of points of view: physical, metaphysical, and psychological points of view and from life experience. What a wonderful opportunity we have today to celebrate his teachings, and to celebrate the other 364 days of the year because it's through him that we got the teachings. This year he will celebrate his 90th birthday. We celebrate this wonderful man and the teachings of this wonderful man because the teachings are what will live on.