B.K.S. Iyengar famous quotes

Yoga is the rule book for playing the game of Life, but in this game no one needs to lose. It is tough, and you need to train hard. It requires the willingness to think for yourself, to observe and correct, and to surmount occasional setbacks. It demands honesty, sustained application, and above all love in your heart.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Honesty #Yoga #Book

As we shave it happens that we cut ourself with the razor blade; this does not mean that we must not shave in the morning any longer. It is the same thing for yoga.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Morning #Yoga #Mean

When the mind is controlled and still what remains is the soul
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Soul #Mind #Stills

In whatever you are doing, be one: body, soul, mind. Do it beautifully and with purity.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Soul #Mind #Body

Extension brings space, space brings freedom, freedom brings precision. Precision is truth.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Space #Precision

Yoga is an interior penetration leading to integration of being, senses, breath, mind, intelligence, consciousness, and Self. It is definitely an inward journey, evolution through involution, toward the Soul, which in turn desires to emerge and embrace you in its glory.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Yoga #Journey #Self

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

#Drawing #Silence #Perception

There is only one reality, but there are many ways that reality can be interpreted.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Reality #Way

There is no difference in souls, only the ideas about ourselves that we wear.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Ideas #Differences #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.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Intelligent #Desire #Attention

As we explore the soul, it is important to remember that this exploration will take place within nature (the body), for that is where and what we are.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Soul #Important #Body

When you are practicing, do not just do that for the sake of doing. Learn to reflect while you are practising. Make your mind and brain observe and relearn what you are doing. Doing is mechanical; learning is dynamic.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Brain #Mind #Sake

Feeling the movement of movements is wandering to the past or future. Living in the movements of movement is being in the present.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Past #Feelings #Movement

Yoga releases the creative potential in life.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Yoga #Creative #Release

Any action done with beauty and purity, and in complete harmony of body, mind and soul, is Art.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Art #Yoga #Soul

There is no progress toward ultimate freedom without transformation, and this is the key issue in all lives.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Keys #Issues #Progress

We need sound bodies so we can develop sound minds.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Mind #Sound #Needs

We can wash the skin of our bodies with a bath, but through asana practice we not only purify our blood and cells, we are cleansing the inner body as we practice.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Cells #Blood #Practice

When I stretch, I stretch in such a way that my awareness moves, and a gate of awareness finally opens
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Moving #Way #Awareness

The cure to combat the three Ss- stress, strain, and speed- can be found in three Ws- the work of devoted practice, the wisdom that comes of understanding the self and the world, and worship because ultimately surrendering to what we cannot control allows the ego to relax and lose the anxiety of its own infinitesimally small self in the infinitude of the divine.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Stress #Self #Practice

We are creatures that are designed for continual challenge. We must grow or we begin to die....So just standing still isn't really an option. We have to move on. If not, disturbances will come.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Moving #Challenges #Grows

Focus on keeping your spine straight. It is the job of the spine to keep the brain alert.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Jobs #Focus #Brain

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

#Mind #Use #Made

I also say with backbends, you have to be cautiously bold. Not carelessly bold. You have to descend to the dictation of the spine. You cannot command from the brain to do the poses. As you play with a child, guarding the child from injuries, similarly you have to play in backbends, guarding your spine.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Children #Play #Brain

When an asana is done correctly the body movements are smooth, there is lightness in the body and freedom in the mind.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Mind #Done #Movement

It is while practicing yoga asanas that you learn the art of adjustment.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Art #Yoga #Asana

We have two physical eyes, but every pore of the body is also an eye.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Eye #Two #Body

The body is your temple. Keep it pure and clean for the soul to reside in.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Yoga #Soul #Body

Is it necessary to practice all these asanas, further and further? Is it necessary to develop scientific researches further and further? To a yogi, the body is a laboratory, a field of experiments and perpetual researches.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Practice #Research #Body

Yoga uses the body to discipline the mind and to reach the soul.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Yoga #Discipline #Soul

Yoga allows you to find an inner peace that is not ruffled and riled by the endless stresses and struggles of life.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Stress #Struggle #Yoga

As long as you do not feel the serenity in the body, in each and every joint, there is no chance for emancipation. You are in bondage. So while you are sweating and aching, let your heart be light and let it fill your body with gladness. You are not only becoming free, but you are also being free. What is not to be glad about? The pain is temporary. The freedom is permanent.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Pain #Heart #Light

Balance in the body is the foundation for balance in life.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Balance #Foundation #Body

Yoga is an art, a science and a philosophy. It touches the life of man atevery level: physical, mental, spiritual. It is a practical method formaking one's life purposeful, useful and noble.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Spiritual #Art #Philosophy

The aim of yoga is to calm the chaos of conflicting impulses
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Yoga #Calm #Chaos

We often fool ourselves that we are concentrating because we fix our attention on wavering objects.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Attention #Wavering #Fool

Yoga is the music of the soul. So do continue, and the gates of the soul will open.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Yoga #Soul #Gates

I don't stretch my body as if it is an object. I do yoga from the self towards the body, not the other way around.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Yoga #Self #Body

The pose begins when you want to leave it.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Want

You must purge yourself before finding faults in others. When you see a mistake in somebody else, try to find if you are making the same mistake. This is the way to take judgment and to turn it into improvement.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Mistake #Trying #Way

Yoga is more than physical. It is cellular, mental, intellectual and spiritual-it involves man in his entire being
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Spiritual #Yoga #Men

Nothing is achieved by a mind that doubts
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Doubt #Mind

If you open the armpits, the brain becomes light. You cannot brood or become depressed.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Light #Brain #Armpits

The ultimate goal of yoga is to realize the brilliance of your soul.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Yoga #Goal #Soul

Yoga is when every cell of the body sings the song of the soul...
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Song #Yoga #Cells

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.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Moving #Differences #Balance

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.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Yoga #Self #Perfect

Awareness must be like the rays of the sun: extending everywhere, illuminating all.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Rays #Sun #Awareness

As breath stills our mind, our energies are free to unhook from the senses and bend inward.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Mind #Energy #Inward

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.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Thinking #Long #Perfect

Our greed comes from our fear that we will not have enough - whether it is money or love that we grasp. Yoga teaches us to let go of these fears and so to realize the abundance around us and within us.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Letting Go #Yoga #Greed

The union of nature and soul removes the veil of ignorance that covers our intelligence.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Ignorance #Soul #Veils

Words cannot convey the value of yoga - it has to be experienced.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Yoga #Values

It is through the body that everything comes to the mind. It is through and with your body that you have to reach realization of being a spark of divinity. How can we neglect the temple of the spirit?
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Mind #Temples #Realization

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.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Moving #Goal #Achievement

Hatha Yoga teaches us to use the body as the bow, asana as the arrow, and the soul the target.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Yoga #Arrows #Soul

Yes, flexibility of body and physical perfection for Yogasana is important. However more important is the state of your mind, Meditative mind. Your flexibility might be excellent but if your mind is not attentive, you are merely doing some physical exercise, not Yoga.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Yoga #Exercise #Perfection

In order to find out how to reveal our innermost Being, the sages explored the various sheaths of existence, starting from body and progressing through mind and intelligence, and ultimately to the soul. The yogic journey guides us from our periphery, the body, to the center ofour being, the soul. The aim is to integrate the variouslayers so that the inner divinity shines out as through clear glass.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Journey #Glasses #Order

Yoga is effort. Only practice is important. The rest of knowledge is only theory.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Yoga #Practice #Effort

The body has to be invaded by the intelligence; each part has to become intelligent.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Intelligent #Body

I can remain thoughtfully thoughtless, It is not an empty mind.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Mind #Empty

You must continue to go back to the beginning, to the foundation, and question the foundation. Even once you‘ve reached Samadhi you must go back so you can create it at will. Samadhi is the beginning of spiritual growth, not the end. You must always be questioning. Enlightenment comes as an accident at first, then you have to learn to recreate it.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Spiritual #Growth #Enlightenment

Yoga allows you to find a new kind of freedom that you may not have known even existed.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Yoga #May #Kind

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.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Yoga #Differences #Mind

There is no difference in our souls...That is what yoga teaches. When you and I meet together, we forget ourselves -- our cultures and classes. There are no divisions, and we talk mind to mind, soul to soul. We are no different in our deepest needs. We are all humans.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Yoga #Class #Differences

Yoga is a way of life; it is an art, a science, a philosophy.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Art #Philosophy #Yoga

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.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Light #Ideas #Long

Yoga is firstly for individual growth, but through individual growth, society and community develop.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Yoga #Community #Growth

The physical body is not only a temple for our soul, but the means by which we embark on the inward journey toward the core.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Mean #Journey #Soul

If you practice yoga every day with perseverance, you will be able to face the turmoil of life with steadiness and maturity.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Perseverance #Yoga #Maturity

You must fill every inch of your body with the asana from your chest and arms and legs to the tips of your fingers and toes so that the asana radiates from the core of your body and fills the entire diameter and circumference of your limbs. You must feel your intelligence, your awareness, and your consciousness in every inch of your body.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Body #Asana #Legs

One day you too may experience what I have experienced. So right away go and practise.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#One Day #May

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.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Yoga #Self #Mind

The practice of asanas purges the body of its impurities, bringing strength, firmness, calm, and clarity of mind.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Practice #Mind #Body

The back is like a frame, the front body, the painting that it throws into relief.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Relief #Body #Painting

Keep your attention internal, not external, not worrying about what others see, but what the Self sees.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Self #Worry #Attention

Lack of knowledge is the source of all pains and sorrows whether dormant, attenuated, interrupted or fully active.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Pain #Sorrow #Dormant

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

#Yoga #Mean #Problem

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.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Yoga #Order #Essence

The needs of the body are the needs of the divine spirit which lives through the body.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Needs #Body #Spirit

The best way to overcome fear is to face with equanimity the situation of which one is afraid.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Overcoming #Way #Faces

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.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Balance #Eternity #Here And Now

Yoga is a light, which once lit, will never dim. The better your practice, the brighter the flame.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Motivational #Yoga #Light

When you inhale, you are taking the strength from God. When you exhale, it represents the service you are giving to the world.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Inspiring #Yoga #Giving

Anything physical is always changing, therefore, its reality is not constant, not eternal.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Reality #Constant

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.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Mean #Sleep #Space

All of us have a dormant spark of divinity in us which has to be fanned into flame by yoga.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Yoga #Flames #Divinity

Yoga is a mirror to look at ourselves from within.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Yoga #Mirrors #Looks

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

#Heart #Positivity #Land

The mind is the king of the senses, and the breath is the king of the mind
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Kings #Mind

Breath is the king of mind.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Inspiring #Kings #Mind

Action is movement with intelligence
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Movement #Action

We are a little piece of continual change, looking at an infinite quantity of continual change.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Pieces #Littles #Infinite

When the restlessness of the mind, intellect and self is stilled through the practice of Yoga, the yogi by the grace of the Spirit within himself finds fulfillment.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Yoga #Self #Practice

During inhalation, the breath should move exactly like the clouds which are spreading in the sky.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Moving #Clouds #Sky

The practice of yogasana for the sake of health, to keep fit, or to maintain flexibility is the external practice of yoga. While this is a legitimate place to begin, it is not the end Even in simple asanas, one is experiencing the three levels of quest: the external quest, which brings firmness of the body; the internal quest, which brings steadiness of intelligence; and the innermost quest, which brings benevolence of spirit.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Yoga #Simple #Practice

The challenge of yoga is to go beyond our limits - within reason. We continually expand the frame of the mind by using the canvas of the body. It is as if you were to stretch a canvas more and create a larger surface for a painting. But we must respect the present form of our body. If you pull too much at once, we will rip the canvas. If the practice of today damages the practice of tomorrow, it is not correct practice.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Rip #Yoga #Practice

Look after the root of the tree, and the fragrant flower and luscious fruits will grow by themselves. Look after the health of the body, and the fragrance of the mind and richness of the spirit will follow.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Flower #Roots #Tree

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

#Emotional #Soul #Intellectual

The light that Yoga sheds on life is something special. It is transformative. It does not just change the way we see things; it transforms the person who sees.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar

#Yoga #Light #Special