Real Yoga was Brought to the West by People who Sat at the Feet of Great Indian Sages: Jozef Kiekens

Jozef Kiekens or Narayan as he was named by his gurus, tells us the amazing story of how he became a champion for Yoga in Europe. A letter to Swami Shivananda created a chain of events which led to Yoga in Europe being lovingly shaped by gurus from Rishikesh. In that letter, Jozef Kiekens was told by the Swami that it was clearly evident that he had been a Yogi for a long time, perhaps over lifetimes.

Jozef Kiekens or Narayan, as he is called now was born just a few years before the start of World War II at Aalst in Belgium. Those were hard years and his father had to flee to the South of France on a bicycle with other men to escape the pain of the German occupation.

A medical emergency at the age of 14, from food poisoning, resulted in a week long struggle and almost certain death. “My peritoneum was ripped and my intestines stuck to my stomach muscles. As a result I suffered a chronic inflammation of the intestines,” he says. Before joining full time his job at a bank, Narayan worked with the marines, a physically demanding job which made him forget his inflammation for a while.

The world was changing rapidly. In 1958, the World Exposition in Brussels, led to work becoming easier with the introduction of vacuum cleaners, washing machines, cooking stoves etc, all of which could be bought on credit for the first time. Industries were booming and trade burgeoning with raw materials coming from poorer countries in Africa.

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