A child prodigy, at age 15, he joined the University of Bombay, at Elphinstone College, where he met Nandini Nanak Mehta who would later become his wife.
After stints teaching at the Universities of Oslo, Ghana and Chicago, he moved to California in 1964 to become a member of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, a think-tank run by Robert Hutchins that assembled many of the great minds of the time.
As a teacher, Iyer was an inspiration for many generations of students; accessible, kind, and eccentric, with a breadth of knowledge that was unique and engaging.
[6] Together with his wife, a professor of religious studies at Santa Barbara, he was the founder of the local branch of the United Lodge of Theosophists.
[3] His major books include The Glass Curtain, Parapolitics: Toward the City of Man, The Moral and Political Thought of Mahatma Gandhi, and The Gupta Vidya.