A collection of quotes and teachings of B K S Iyengar on Yoga, health and life. Yogacharya B.K.S. Iyengar (14 December 1918 – 20 August
2014) was one of the foremost Yoga experts. He has been credited with
popularizing the kind of yoga that we learn, hear and see today.
Fanatics speak in the street. You are internal fanatics. You talk inside. A wise man neither speaks on the street or inside. Such a man is a saint.
The gross body must be adjusted before going into the inner body.
Poise in the body is peace in the mind.
Concentration is like a tightly held fist. Open the fist and concentration is extended. There is freedom. This is meditation.
If you have a pain thank God because you can learn so much from it. Pain teaches us about fear. When we face pain we face fear, and facing fear leads to freedom.
Soul is pure and your soul is as pure as mine.
One intelligence moves the arm, another keeps another part still. There is intelligence in the whole body. The skin is the outer intelligence, the self is the inner intelligence and there should be tremendous communication between the two.
Destiny is the accumulated actions and reactions of past lives, stored together to play their role in the present life.
When destiny strikes like lightning and is accepted, one has to anticipate the challenges without oscillating one’s mind. It has to be remembered that destiny alone is not enough. Balanced, determined efforts are necessary to build up character for progress. When destiny and efforts play together equally, they mould and change the life of that individual. If the changes are accepted then the gates of luck open for him to move towards success and embrace its achievement.
The rhythm of the body, the melody of the mind, and the harmony of the soul create the symphony of life.
Meditation cannot calm your mind, but a calm mind can meditate.
Health is a state of complete harmony of the body, mind and spirit.
Yoga is like music. The rhythm of the body, the melody of the mind, and the harmony of the soul, create the symphony of life.
The moment one goes a little more than the body wants to take, one is nearer to the Self.
Life means to be living. Problems will always be there. When they arise navigate through them with yoga – don't take a break.
Willpower is nothing but willingness to do.
Yoga practice gives us the tools for cleansing, toning, and ordering the organism into a harmonious whole.
Asana is nothing unless it leads you to the seat of your soul.
Success will come to the person who practices.
Yoga is a light which once lit never dims, better your practice brighter the flame.
Nothing can be forced; receptivity is everything.
Yoga allows you to find a new kind of freedom that you may not have known even existed.
When the health of the cells is maintained through the precise practice of asanas, the physiological body becomes healthy and the mind is brought closer to the soul. This is the effect of the asanas. They should be performed in such a way as to lead the mind from attachment of the body towards the light of the soul so that the practitioner can dwell in the abode of the soul.
Practice is the positive aspect of Yoga; detachment or renunciation (vairagya) is negative. The two balance each other like day and night, inhalation and exhalation.
Samadhi is seeing the soul face to face, an absolute, indivisible state of existence, in which all differences between body, mind and soul are dissolved.
Patanjali says that when an asana is correctly performed, the dualities between body and mind, mind and soul, have to vanish. This is known as repose in the pose, reflection in action. When the asanas are performed in this way, the body cells, which have their own memories and intelligence, are kept healthy.
B K S Iyengar Teachings on Health
The prime concern of each and every individual is health. But what is health? It may be broadly defined as that state of being wherein all the systems of the body function in unison without disturbing the growth of the body or impairing the development of the mind and intelligence. Each and every fiber of the body and each and every process of thinking are kept pure, clean and clear so that the individual experiences an unalloyed joy and happiness. In such a state, the intelligence urges one to stretch beyond that state of joyousness and to live a state of divine poise and harmony.
Disease and discomfort are the major impediments in our search for truth or reality. One must therefore remove obstacles which come in the way of both physical and mental health.
Health cannot be purchased, but is to be earned by hard and sincere effort day in and day out; then one is from body consciousness and new light dawns which enables one to pursue and go beyond the awareness of the body.