B.K.S. Iyengar Quotes

It is not yoga that injures, but the way one does yoga that leads to injury.

Yoga is a mirror to look at ourselves from within.

We need sound bodies so we can develop sound minds.

The seeker should have faith in himself and in his master. He should have faith that God is ever by his side and that no evil can touch him. As faith springs up in the heart it dries out lust, ill-will, mental sloth, spiritual pride and doubt, and the heart freed from these hindrances becomes serene and untroubled.

Asana has two facets, pose and repose. Pose is the artistic assumption of a position. 'Reposing in the pose' means finding the perfection of a pose and maintaining it, reflecting in it with penetration of the intelligence and with dedication.

True alignment means that the inner mind reaches every cell and fiber of the body.

Intellectuals tend to be arrogant. Intelligence, like money, is a good servant but a bad master. When practicing pranayama, the yogi [makes] himself humble and without pride in his intellectual attainments.

Yoga allows you to rediscover a sense of wholeness in your life, where you do not feel like you are constantly trying to fit broken pieces together.

Do not allow past experiences to be imprinted on your mind. Perform asana each time with a fresh mind and with a fresh approach.

You must be as joyful when you fail again and again as you are joyful when you succeed. It is often when you fail that you move toward the goal without being aware of it. You must feel joy even when you have not fully succeeded but only moved toward achievement of your goal.

The body is your temple. Keep it pure and clean for the soul to reside in.

Your body is the child of your soul.

The mind (manas) and the breath (prana) are intimately connected and the activity or the cessation of activity of one affects the other.

By drawing our senses of perception inward, we are able to experience the control, silence, and quietness of the mind.

A stable mind is like the hub of a wheel. The world may spin around you, but the mind is steady.

Abhyasa (practice) is a dedicated, unswerving, constant, and vigilant search into a chosen subject pursued against all odds in the face of repeated failures, for indefinitely long periods of time.

Activity and passivity must go together in asanas.

The breath must be enticed or cajoled, like catching a horse in a field, not by chasing after it, but by standing still with an apple in one's hand.

You have to create love and affection for your body, for what it can do for you. Love must be incarnated in the smallest pore of the skin, the smallest cell of the body to make them intelligent so they can collaborate with all the other ones, in the big republic of the body. This love must radiate from you to others.

Yoga takes us to an unconditioned freedom, because yoga sees even good habits as a form of conditioning or limitation.

The hardness of a diamond is part of its usefulness, but its true value is in the light that shines through it.

Approach each asana with freshness every day.

The body has to be invaded by the intelligence; each part has to become intelligent.

The Yogi conquers the body by the practice of asanas, making the body a fit vehicle for the spirit. The Yogi knows that it is a necessary vehicle for the spirit, for a soul without a body is like a bird deprived of its power to fly.

Fear and fatigue block the mind. Face both, then courage and confidence flows into you.

It is Einstein's famous equation E=MC^2, in which E is energy (rajas), M is mass (tamas), and C is the speed of light (sattva). Energy, mass, and light are endlessly bound together in the universe.

To do is hard, but to teach is still harder. Do not teach only to teach. Teach to improve the pupil. To be a teacher requires tremendous, vigorous discipline on oneself. We are teachers because somebody demands it from us. But the teacher should first rub his own self, and teach afterwards

I always tell people, live happily and die majestically.

He who has learnt to control his tongue has attained self-control in a great measure. When such a person speaks he will be heard with respect and attention. His words will be remembered, for they will be good and true. When one who is established in truth prays with a pure heart, then things he really needs come to him when they are really needed: he does not have to run after them. The man firmly established in truth gets the fruit of his actions without apparently doing anything. God, the source of all truth, supplies his needs and looks after his welfare.

When the mind is controlled and still what remains is the soul

All games are meaningless if you do not know the rules.

Classics postures, when practiced with discrimination and awareness, bring the body, mind, and consciousness into a single, harmonious whole.

True concentration is an unbroken thread of awareness.

Freedom in a posture is when every joint is active.

People say that steadiness of mind is an end; no, it is a beginning. I am there; I can explain everything up to that point. Then I struggle to discover what comes after, so this steadiness is not an end, it is the beginning and the instrument.

Asana is perfect firmness of body, steadiness of intellect, and benevolence of spirit.

You have to get rid of borders, limits, and classifications; then light comes. We see everything on the screen of our ideas. We must get rid of that screen to be able to see what is behind. X's ideas are limited, that is why he remains on the surface. Y got rid of the limits, so she always goes to the depths. We should always meet people and new subjects with no set frame of mind. We have to live like that even after long acquaintance. We must get rid of every set idea to approach everything and everyone with love.

Practice doing yoga with an innocent mind. Then, you will be able to cognize the things happening in your body

In forward bends, one uses the outer mind while in backbends the outer mind is silenced and the inner mind is made to work.

There is no difference in souls, only the ideas about ourselves that we wear.

Lack of knowledge is the
source of all pains and sorrows whether dormant, attenuated, interrupted
or fully active.

Meditation is oneness, when there is no longer time, sex, or country. The moment when, after you have concentrated on doing a pose (or anything else) perfectly, you hold it and then forget everything, not because you want to forget but because you are concentrated: this is meditation.

In each pose there should be repose.

You do not need to seek freedom in a different land, for it exists with your own body, heart, mind, and soul.

Breath is the vehicle of consciousness and so, by its slow measured observation and distribution, we learn to tug our attention away from external desires toward a judicious, intelligent awareness.

Keep your attention internal, not external, not worrying about what others see, but what the Self sees.

Yoga is the music of the soul. So do continue, and the gates of the soul will open.

As a fire blazes brightly when the covering of ash over it is scattered by the wind, the divine fire within the body shines in all its majesty when the ashes of desire are scattered by the practice of pranayama.

There is no progress toward ultimate freedom without transformation, and this is the key issue in all lives.

Hatha Yoga teaches us to use the body as the bow, asana as the arrow, and the soul the target.

Words cannot convey the value of yoga - it has to be experienced.

Health is a state of complete harmony of the body, mind and spirit. When one is free from physical disabilities and mental distractions, the gates of the soul open.

When every asana is multi-petaled, why do you make it single petaled?

Yoga is a way of life; it is an art, a science, a philosophy.

Yoga allows you to find a new kind of freedom that you may not have known even existed.

As each individual is electrically alive and dynamic, so yoga is a living, dynamic force in life. In order to savor its essence, one needs a religiously attentive dynamic practice done with awareness and absorption.

Your whole being should be symmetrical. Yoga is symmetry. That is why yoga is a basic art.

Healthy plants and trees yield abundant flowers and fruits. Similarly, from a healthy person, smiles and happiness shine forth like the rays of the sun.

There is only one reality, but there are many ways that reality can be interpreted.

Asanas maintain the strength and health of the body, without which little progress can be made. Asanas keep the body in harmony with nature.

Whenever asana is done mechanically from the front brain, the action is felt only on the peripheral body, and there is no inner sensation, there is no luminous inner light. If the asana is done with continual reference to the back of the brain, there is a reaction to each action, and there is sensitivity. Then life is not only dynamic, but it is also electrified with life force.

A yogi never forgets that health must begin with the body ... Physical health is not a commodity to be bargained for. Nor can it be swallowed in the form of drugs and pills ...
It is something that we must build up. You have to create within yourself the experience of beauty, liberation, and infinity. This is health.

Life without tapas, is like a heart without love.

Yoga is about the will, working with intelligence and self-reflexive consciousness, can free us from the inevitability of the wavering mind and outwardly directed senses.

All of us have a dormant spark of divinity in us which has to be fanned into flame by yoga.

I think overall the majority of people who are practicing it as a subject are following the right line. For the aberration, don't blame yoga or the whole community of yogis

Asanas keep your body, as well as your mind, healthy and active

As long as the body is not in perfect health, you think about it, and that prevents you from thinking of the mind. The sound mind is a sound body.

My Maman told me that only the crazy ones and the passionate ones accomplish anything in life.

When you see a mistake in somebody else, try to find if you are making the same mistake.

If you keep your armpits open, you won't get depressed.

I think many of my students have followed the advice I gave years ago, to give more than you take.

First yoga deals with health, strength and conquest of the body. Next, it lifts the veil of difference between the body and the mind. Lastly, it leads the Sadhaka to peace and unalloyed purity.

If you can adapt to and balance in a world that is always moving and unstable, you learn how to become tolerant to the permanence of change and difference.

While doing the postures, your mind should be in half-consciousn ess, which does not mean sleep. It means silence, emptiness, space, which can then be filled with an acute awareness of the sensations given by the posture. You watch yourself from inside. It is a full silence.

Without education, confidence does not come.

Life means to be living.Problems will always be there. When they arise navigate through them with yoga- don't take a break.

Asanas penetrate deep into each layer of the body and ultimately into the consciousness itself.

The art of teaching is tolerance. Humbleness is the art of learning.

Penetration of our mind is our goal, but in the beginning to set things in motion, there is no substitute for sweat.

Health begins with firmness in the body, deepens to emotional stability, then leads to intellectual clarity, wisdom and finally the unveiling of the soul.

The material body has a practical reality that is accessible. It is here and now, and we can do something with it. However, we must not forget that the innermost part of our being is also trying to help us. It wants to come out to the surface and express itself.

Everybody should live quietly whether his experiences are happy or sad, whether they are successes or failures.
That is contentment.

Yoga uses the body to discipline the mind and to reach the soul.

Be inspired but not proud.

Purity is when there is no anxiety, no worry, no thinking.

Yoga is the golden key that unlocks the door to peace, tranquility and joy.

Hard work and humility are essential for spiritual sadhana.

Willpower is nothing but willingness to do.

To be dull is easy,
to be active requires
tremendous work.

Yoga, an ancient but perfect science, deals with the evolution of humanity. This evolution includes all aspects of one's being, from bodily health to self-realization.

Give more than you receive. That is the principle I tell all my students.

Through surrender the aspirant's ego is effaced, and ... grace ... pours down upon him like a torrential rain.

The battle of yoga is with the body and with the ego. You must conquer your ego, or small self, so that you can let your soul, your big Self, be victorious.

A lamp does not flicker in a place where no wind blows; so it is with a yogi, who controls his mind, intellect and self, being absorbed in the spirit within him.

Do not live in the future, only the present is real

The aim of yoga is to calm the chaos of conflicting impulses

Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.

In whatever position one is in, or in whatever condition in life one is placed, one must find balance. Balance is the state of the present - the here and now. If you balance in the present, you are living in Eternity.

As leaves move in the wind, your mind moves with your breath.