B.K.S. IYENGAR

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Do not allow past experiences to be imprinted on your mind. Perform asanas each time with a fresh mind and with a fresh approach.  If you are repeating what you did before, you are living in the memory, so you are living in the past.  

That means you don’t want to proceed beyond the experience of the past.  Retaining that memory is saying, ‘Yesterday I did it like that.’ When I ask, ‘Is there anything new from what I did yesterday?’ then there is progress.  Am I going forward or am I going backward? Then you understand how to create dynamism in a static asana.

• Be inspired but not proud
• Breath is the king of mind.
• Yoga is a means and an end.
• Move from the known to the unknown.
• Action is movement with intelligence
• Your body is the child of your soul.
• Learning is as much an art as teaching
• Nothing is achieved by a mind that doubts
• The pose begins when you want to leave it.
• Willpower is nothing but willingness to do.
• You exist without the feeling of existence.
• There must be relaxation in full extension.
• Without education, confidence does not come.
• A good teacher helps you explore the maximum.
• The body is my temple, asanas are my prayers.
• Approach each asana with freshness every day.
• Yoga releases the creative potential in life.
• It is never too late in life to practice yoga
• The commercialism may wash off sometime later.
• Knowledge of yoga is no substitute for practice.
• Nothing can be forced, receptivity is everything.
• Life without tapas, is like a heart without love.
• Yoga is a mirror to look at ourselves from within.
• Activity and passivity must go together in asanas.
• We need sound bodies so we can develop sound minds
• Freedom in a posture is when every joint is active.
• To master fear is the most important battle to win.
• Do not live in the future, only the present is real
• How can you know God if you don’t know your big toe?
• The ribs are the wings of the body. Open your wings.
• True concentration is an unbroken thread of awareness.
• Life itself seeks fulfillment as plants seek sunlight.
• If you have the right mind, your body can do anything.
• Do not stop trying just because perfection eludes you.
• Yoga aims for complete awareness in everything you do.
• What I was is unimportant, what I am now is important.
• If you keep your armpits open, you won’t get depressed.
• Know your capacities and continually improve upon them.
• Relaxation: In. Every. Pose. There. Should. Be. Repose.
• All games are meaningless if you do not know the rules.
• I am standing on my own altar; The poses are my prayers.
• You must purge yourself before finding faults in others.
• I always tell people, live happily and die majestically.
• If you balance in the Present, you are living in Eternity
• Balance in the body is the foundation for balance in life.
• Purity is when there is no anxiety, no worry, no thinking.
• If everyone practiced yoga, pharmacies would have to close.
• Hard work and humility are essential for spiritual sadhana.
• When stability becomes a habit, maturity and clarity follow.
• Training of the mind and body leads to awareness of the soul
• Yoga is a way of life; it is an art, a science, a philosophy.
• Firmness in the body leads to firmness in the nervous system.
• As leaves move in the wind, your mind moves with your breath.
• The aim of yoga is to calm the chaos of conflicting impulses.
• Giving does not impoverish us nor does withholding enrich us.
• When the mind is controlled and still what remains is the soul
• The brain is the hardest part of the body to adjust in asanas.
• Yoga is when every cell of the body sings the song of the soul.
• We can rise above our limitations, only once we recognize them.
• After a session of yoga, the mind becomes tranquil and passive.
• I can remain thoughtfully thoughtless, It is not an empty mind.
• Asanas keep your body, as well as your mind, healthy and active
• Yoga uses the body to discipline the mind and to reach the soul.
• Live before you die, so that death is also a lively celebration.
• Yoga allows you to rediscover a sense of wholeness in your life.
• To be dull is easy, to be active requires tremendous work.
• Words cannot convey the value of yoga – it has to be experienced.
• Without the accurate spine movement, one can’t exist dynamically.
• The highest point of yesterday should be the lowest point of today
• Health is a state of complete harmony of the body, mind and spirit.
• The art of teaching is tolerance. Humbleness is the art of learning.
• The ultimate goal of yoga is to realize the brilliance of your soul.
• It is through your body that you realize you are a spark of divinity.
• We have two physical eyes, but every pore of the body is also an eye.
• When every asana is multi-petaled, why do you make it single petaled?
• Sirsasana the king of all asanas and the reasons are not hard to find.
• Confidence, clarity and compassion are essential qualities of a teacher.
• It is while practicing yoga asanas that you learn the art of adjustment.
• The supreme adventure in a man’s life is his journey back to his Creator.
• Give more than you receive. That is the principle I tell all my students.
• A yogi’s brain extends from the bottom of the foot to the top of his head
• The body is your temple. Keep it pure and clean for the soul to reside in.
• Your body is the child of the soul. you must nourish and train that child.
• Yoga is the golden key that unlocks the door to peace, tranquility and joy.
• Where there is yoga, there is prosperity, success, freedom and bliss.
• It is not yoga that injures, but the way one does yoga that leads to injury.
• There is no difference in souls, only the ideas about ourselves that we wear.
• From Freedom of the Body comes Freedom of the Mind and then Ultimate Freedom!
• If we become aware of its limitations and compulsions, we can transcend them.
• Love begets courage, moderation creates abundance and humility generates power
• An intellectual mind that is unconnected to the heart is an uncultivated mind.
• I planted the seed, now you must work a lot otherwise the tiny plant will die.
• Yoga is effort. Only practice is important. The rest of knowledge is only theory.
• Health is not a commodity to be bargained for. It has to be earned through sweat.
• Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.
• People remind me of my age, but while practising I am beyond my body and its age.
• The back is like a frame, the front body, the painting that it throws into relief.
• Asana done from the brain makes one heavy and done from the heart makes one light.
• Awareness must be like the rays of the sun: extending everywhere, illuminating all.
• There is only one reality, but there are many ways that reality can be interpreted.
• Yoga is the music of the soul. So do continue, and the gates of the soul will open.
• During inhalation, the breath should move exactly like clouds spreading in the sky.
• The body has to be invaded by the intelligence; each part has to become intelligent.
• As the trunk is one but the branches are many, yoga is one but adaptations may vary.
• As long as you do not live totally in the body, you do not live totally in the Self.
• The needs of the body are the needs of the divine self, which lives through the body.
• One day you too may experience what I have experienced. So right away go and practise.
• Pranayama teaches the aspirant to regulate his breathing and thereby control the mind.
• This practice of yoga is to remove the weeds from the body so that the garden can grow.
• In whatever you are doing, be one: body, soul, mind. Do it beautifully and with purity.
• If you open the armpits, the brain becomes light. You cannot brood or become depressed.
• Yoga allows you to find a new kind of freedom that you may not have known even existed.
• Fear and fatigue block the mind. Face both, then courage and confidence flows into you.
• Savasana is being without was, being without will be. It is being without anyone who is.
• When you see a mistake in somebody else, try to find if you are making the same mistake.
• Yoga has to be done with the intellect of the head as well as the intellect of the heart
• The union of nature and soul removes the veil of ignorance that covers our intelligence.
• Focus on keeping your spine straight. It is the job of the spine to keep the brain alert.
• Asana is perfect firmness of body, steadiness of intelligence, and benevolence of spirit.
• Do not aim low, you will miss the mark. Aim high and you will be on a threshold of bliss.
• Your whole being should be symmetrical. Yoga is symmetry. That is why yoga is a basic art.
• Anything physical is always changing, therefore, its reality is not constant, not eternal.
• The body is the prop for the soul. So why not let the body be propped by a wall or a block?
• Extension brings space, space brings freedom, freedom brings precision. Precision is truth.
• All of us have a dormant spark of divinity in us which has to be fanned into flame by yoga.
• As breath stills our mind, our energies are free to unhook from the senses and bend inward.
• Regular practise of yoga can help you face the turmoil of life with steadiness and stability
• Ignorance has no beginning, but it has an end. There is a beginning but no end to knowledge.
• Hatha Yoga teaches us to use the body as the bow, asana as the arrow, and the soul the target.
• The best way to overcome fear is to face with equanimity the situation of which one is afraid.
• Why think of liberation at some future time? Liberation is in the little things, here and now.
• My Maman told me that only the crazy ones and the passionate ones accomplish anything in life.
• Any action done with beauty and purity, and in complete harmony of body, mind and soul, is Art.
• We are a little piece of continual change, looking at an infinite quantity of continual change.
• Asanas penetrate deep into each layer of the body and ultimately into the consciousness itself.
• A stable mind is like the hub of a wheel. The world may spin around you, but the mind is steady.
• Yoga is a light, which once lit, will never dim. The better your practice, the brighter the flame.
• I think many of my students have followed the advice I gave years ago, to give more than you take.
• We often fool ourselves that we are concentrating because we fix our attention on wavering objects.
• Yoga is firstly for individual growth, but through individual growth, society and community develop.
• There is a universal reality in ourselves that aligns us with a universal reality that is everywhere.
• Mind is the king of the senses; breath is the king of the mind; and the nerves are king of the breath.
• Keep your attention internal, not external, not worrying about what others see, but what the Self sees.
• When I stretch, I stretch in such a way that my awareness moves, and a gate of awareness finally opens.
• Before peace between the nations, we have to find peace inside that small nation which is our own being.
• The yogi learns to forget the past and takes no thought for the morrow. He lives in the eternal present.
• When I practice, I am a philosopher. When I teach, I am a scientist. When I demonstrate, I am an artist.
• Yoga is meant for the purification of body and its exploration as well as for the refinement of the mind.
• Don’t practice for cosmetic beauty, practice for cosmic beauty. Practice for inner beauty and inner light.
• It is through the alignment of the body that I discovered the alignment of my mind, self, and intelligence.
• Yoga is the method by which the restless mind is calmed And the energy directed into constructive channels.
• Your body exists in the past and your mind exists in the future. In yoga, they come together in the present.
• There is no progress toward ultimate freedom without transformation, and this is the key issue in all lives.
• Practice doing yoga with an innocent mind. Then, you will be able to cognize the things happening in your body
• The lotus grows in muddy waters but this flower does not show any trace of it: So we have to live in the world.
• One’s spiritual realization lies in none other than how one walks among and interacts with one’s fellow beings.
• The hardness of a diamond is part of its usefulness, but its true value is in the light that shines through it.
• You do not need to seek freedom in some distant land, for it exists within your own body, heart, mind, and soul.
• In backbends, one touches the body physically, mentally, intellectually, consciously and spiritually everywhere.
• The practice of asanas purges the body of its impurities, bringing strength, firmness, calm, and clarity of mind.
• 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.
• The decision to relax rather than to grip, even in the face of impatience or fear, is a conscious and brave choice.
• Yoga allows you to find an inner peace that is not ruffled and riled by the endless stresses and struggles of life.
• The study of asana is not about mastering posture. It’s about using posture to understand and transform yourself.
• Penetration of our mind is our goal, but in the beginning to set things in motion, there is no substitute for sweat.
• Persistent practice alone is the key to yoga. As you take pains to learn, continue with devotion what you have learn.
• When an asana is done correctly the body movements are smooth, there is lightness in the body and freedom in the mind.
• By drawing our senses of perception inward, we are able to experience the control, silence, and quietness of the mind.
• Yoga takes us to an unconditioned freedom, because yoga sees even good habits as a form of conditioning or limitation.
• The primary aim of yoga is to restore the mind to simplicity, peace, and poise, to free it from confusion and distress.
• Lack of knowledge is the source of all pains and sorrows whether dormant, attenuated, interrupted or fully active.
• In forward bends, one uses the outer mind while in backbends the outer mind is silenced and the inner mind is made to work.
• 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.
• If you practice yoga every day with perseverance, you will be able to face the turmoil of life with steadiness and maturity.
• The beauty of a lake reflects the beauty around it. When the mind is still, the beauty of the Self is seen reflected in it.
• Life means to be living.Problems will always be there. When they arise navigate through them with yoga- don’t take a break.
• 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.
• Spirituality is not some external goal that one must seek, but a part of the divine core of each of us, which we must reveal.
• When you inhale, you are taking the strength from God. When you exhale, it represents the service you are giving to the world.
• Change leads to disappointment if it is not sustained. Transformation is sustained change, and it is achieved through practice.
• The flexibility we gain in asana is the living symbol of the suppleness we gain in relation to life’s problems and challenges.
• Do not allow past experiences to be imprinted on your mind. Perform asana each time with a fresh mind and with a fresh approach.
• Feeling the movement of movements is wandering to the past or future. Living in the movements of movement is being in the present.
• By persistent and sustained practice, anyone and everyone can make the yoga journey and reach the goal of illumination and freedom.
• Yoga cultivates the ways of maintaining a balanced attitude in day-to-day life and endows skill in the performance of one’s actions.
• Action is movement with intelligence. The world is filled with movement. What the world needs is more conscious movement, more action.
• Everybody should live quietly whether his experiences are happy or sad, whether they are successes or failures. That is contentment.
• Asanas maintain the strength and health of the body, without which little progress can be made. Asanas keep the body in harmony with nature
• In your discipline, if doubt comes, let it come. You do your work and let doubt carry on with its work. And let us see which gives up first!
• Classics postures, when practiced with discrimination and awareness, bring the body, mind, and consciousness into a single, harmonious whole.
• Do to your capacity. Always strive to extend your capacity. Ten minutes today, after a few days, twelve minutes. Master that, then again extend.
• Illuminated emancipation, freedom, unalloyed and untainted bliss await you, but you have to choose to embark on the Inward Journey to discover it
• 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.
• The conjunction of effort, concentration and balance in asana forces us to live intensely in the present moment, a rare experience in modern life.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Backbends are to be felt more than expressed. The other postures can be expressed and then felt. Like in meditation each person has to feel backbends.
• Yoga has a threefold impact on health. It keeps healthy people healthy, it inhibits the development of diseases, and it aids recovery from ill health.
• 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.
• We must create a marriage between the awareness of the body and that of the mind. When two parties do not cooperate, there is unhappiness on both sides.
• Health begins with firmness in the body, deepens to emotional stability, then leads to intellectual clarity, wisdom and finally the unveiling of the soul.
• 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.
• Why should you practice Yoga? To kindle the divine fire within yourself. Everyone has a dormant spark of divinity in him which has to be fanned into flame.
• 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.
• Do not think of yourself as a small, compressed, suffering thing. Think of yourself as graceful and expanding, no matter how unlikely it may seem at the time.
• 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.
• If the foundation is firm the building can withstand calamities. The practice of yoga is the foundation so that the self is not shaken under any circumstances.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 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.
• 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.
• Willpower is concrete, not ethereal. When you do something, you demonstrate your willpower, and it becomes all the easier to have the same power of will the next time.
• Happy is the man who knows how to distinguish the real from the unreal, the eternal from the transient and the good from the pleasant by his discrimination and wisdom.
• 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.
• 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.
• The yogi cannot be afraid to die, because he has brought life to every cell of his body. We are afraid to die, because we are afraid we have not lived. The yogi has lived.
• 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
• The sleeping tortoise takes all its limbs into its carapace. So does the yogi: going back into himself he does not see anything worldly any longer, he makes peace in himself.
• Yoga is nothing if it is not perfect harmonyof the body, senses, mind and intellect, reason, consciousness  and self. When all these are integrated  that is true yoga.
• The supreme adventure in a man’s life is his journey back to his Creator. To reach the goal he needs well developed and co-ordinated functioning of his body, senses, mind, reason and Self.
• 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.
• When the asana is correct, there is lightness, a freedom. Freedom comes when every part of the body is active. Let us be free in whatever posture we are doing. Let us be full in whatever we do.
• 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.
• 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.
• Yoga is an art, a science and a philosophy. It touches the life of man at every level, physical, mental, and spiritual. It is a practical method for making one’s life purposeful, useful and noble.
• 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.
• 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?
• 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.
• When your body, mind and soul are healthy and harmonious, you will bring health and harmony to the world- not by withdrawing from the world, but by being a healthy, living organ of the body of humanity.
• 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.
• 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.
• The whole thrust of yogic philosophical and scientific inquiry has therefore been to examine the nature of being, with a view to learning to respond to the stresses of life without so many tremors and troubles.
• It took me whole decades to appreciate the depth and true value of yoga. Sacred texts supported my discoveries, but it was not they that signposted the way. What I learned through yoga, I found out through yoga.
• 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.
• 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.
• Where does the body end and the mind begin? Where does the mind end and the spirit begin? They cannot be divided as they are inter-related and but different aspects of the same all-pervading divine consciousness.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Not all practitioners can jump to that highest level. They have to climb, step by step from the physical sphere to reach the spiritual sphere. If it is treated as exercise it is not the fault of yoga but of the practitioners.
• Love begets courage, moderation creates abundance and humility generates power. Courage without love is brutish. Abundance without moderation leads to over-indulgence and decay. Power without humility breeds arrogance and tyranny.
• 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.
• Sometimes our body is willing, but our mind is weak. Sometimes our mind is willing, but our body is weak. Do not be afraid. Strive to extend your capacity but do not be disappointed with yourself. What does not challenge us, cannot change us.
• 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.
• Change is not something that we should fear. Rather, it is something that we should welcome. For without change, nothing in this world would ever grow or blossom, and no one in this world would ever move forward to become the person they’re meant to be.
• I don’t bring yesterday’s poses to today’s practice. I know yesterday’s poses, but when I practice today I become a beginner. I don’t want yesterday’s experience. I want to see what new understanding may come in addition to what I felt up to now.
• As animals, we walk the earth. As bearers of divine essence, we are among the stars. As human beings, we are caught in the middle, seeking to reconcile the paradox of how to make our way upon earth while striving for something more permanent and more profound.
• As a well cut diamond has many facets, each reflecting a different color of light, so does the word yoga, each facet reflecting a different shade of meaning and revealing different aspects of the entire range of human endeavor to win inner peace and happiness.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Our flawed mechanisms of perception and thought are not a cause for grief, but an opportunity to evolve, for an internal evolution of consciousness that will also make possible, in a sustainable form, our aspirations toward what we call individual success and global progress.
• As a mighty river which when properly harnessed by dams and canals, creates a vast reservoir of water, prevents famine and provides abundant power for industry; so also the mind, when controlled, provides a reservoir of peace and generates abundant energy for the human uplift.
• Backbends are not poses meant for expressionism. Backbends are meant to understand the back parts of our bodies. The front body can be seen with the eyes, but the back body can only be felt. That’s why I say these are the most advanced postures, where the mind begins to look at the back.
• Many ask me whether pranayama … postpones old age. Why worry about it? Death is certain. Let it come when it comes. Just keep working. The soul has no age. It doesn’t die. Only the body decays. And yet, we must never forget the body, since it is the garden we must cherish and cultivate.
• 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
• As a breeze ruffles the surface of a lake and distorts the images reflected therein, so also the chitta vrtti (fluctuations of mind) disturb the peace of the mind. The still waters of a lake reflect the beauty around it. When the mind is still, the beauty of the Self is seen reflected in it.
• 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.
• 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 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.
• When you cannot hold the body still, you cannot hold the brain still. If you do not know the silence of the body, you cannot understand the silence of the mind. Action and silence have to go together. If there is action, there must also be silence. If there is silence, there can be conscious action and not just motion.
• 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.
• 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.
• You know the known, so go a little into the unknown. The mind that is caught up in the known – extended a little beyond reason. The moment you go beyond , you move in the soul. Releasing the bondage of your mind to extend further, reach the unknown a little more. The further you go, you realize that the known is limited and the unknown is vast.
• That’s the beauty of backbends. Emotionally we can never be disturbed, for the emotional centre becomes an extrovert. When you do Viparita Dandasana, your head looks backwards, but your conscious mind stretches everywhere. Study by observing how the mind gets regulated. You not only know the freedom in the spine, but also the freedom in the spirit.
• You must continue to go back to the beginning, to the foundation, and question the foundation. Even once you‚Äòve 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.
• One has to see oneself through one’s actions, works, and mind. Knowing the Self by the self is not as easy as writing that line. A #‚Äé yogi  sees things in every movement he makes, maybe when practicing, maybe when teaching, or maybe when talking to people. You should have courage in your convictions and pursue what is dear to you all these years.
• For me there were only two ways on the precipice – either I have to fall in or I have to fall out, to accept or say good-bye. The moment I crossed the precipice, it no longer was a discipline – it became a passion, an urge to pursue. Then I experienced freedom. Freedom comes when the discipline revolutionizes the discipline as a passion for the art.
• 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.
• Yoga is as old and traditional as civilization, yet it persists in modern society as a means to achieving essential vitality. But yoga demands that we develop not only strength in body but attention and awareness in mind.The yogi knows that the physical body is not only the temple for our soul but the means by which we embark on the inward journey toward the core.
• A scientist sets out to conquer nature through knowledge – external nature, external knowledge. By these means he may split the atom and achieve external power. A yogi sets out to explore his own internal nature, to penetrate the atom (atma) of being. He does not gain dominion over wide lands and restless seas, but over his own recalcitrant flesh and febrile mind.
• 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.
• Faith, courage, and intelligent and uninterrupted awareness – these qualities are to be present whether one is wide awake, half asleep, or in deep slumber. An individual who lives like this performs his daily actions with a mind free from selfishness. This is poise in action. And this poise leads to that serenity which is in the truest sense a healthy mind in a healthy body.
• 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.
• Intensity is a mental attitude more than a physical attitude. Many people misunderstand what intensity means. They think it means straining and sweating. No! That is a wrong meaning of the word! Intensity is to get totally involved, fully immersed and absorbed in what one is doing. Intense practice means a fast and keen mode in adjusting, correcting, and progressively proceeding.
• 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. Yoga means union – the union of body with consciousness and consciousness with the soul. Yoga cultivates the ways of maintaining a balanced attitude in day to day life and endows skill in the performance of one’s actions.
• You must do the asana with your soul. How can you do an asana with your soul? We can only do it with the organ of the body that is closest to the soul – the heart. So a virtuous asana is done from the heart and not from the head. Then you are not just doing it, but you are in it. Many people try to think their way into an asana, but you must instead feel your way into it through love and devotion
• 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.
• 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.
• In Savasana or in meditation, the light of the eyes is drawn towards the lotus of the heart, so that the seat of the intelligence of the head is brought into contact with the seat of the intelligence of the heart, which is called the mind. Thus one passes from the individualistic state of consciousness to the universal state of consciousness. It is the merging of the intellect of the brain with the intellect of the soul.
• 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.
• Death is unimportant to a yogi; he does not mind when he is going to die. What happens after death is immaterial to him. He is only concerned with life-with how he can use his life for the betterment of humanity. Having undergone various types of pain in his life and having acquired a certain mastery over pain, he develops compassion to help society and maintains himself in purity and holiness. The yogi has no interest beyond that.
• I am old, and death inevitably approaches. But both birth and death are beyond the will of a human being. They are not my domain. I do not think about it. Yoga has taught me to think of only working to live a useful life…I will never stop learning, and it have tried to share some lessons with you. I do pray that my ending will be your beginning. The great rewards and the countless blessings of a life spent following the Inward Journey await you.
• 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. Do not look at others’ bodies with envy or with superiority. All people are born with different constitutions. Never compare with others. Each one’s capacities are a function of his or her internal strength. Know your capacities and continually improve upon them.
• Regarding perfection, that’s a very difficult question. I can say that I have superseded most in my sadhana [practice]. I am in it, and my mind and my intelligence gets better in my sadhana, and it reaches a certain place. When I stretch, I stretch in such a way that my awareness moves, and a gate of awareness finally opens… My body is a laboratory, you can say. 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.
• Think light! Try to impart a feeling of lightness to the body. Think light. This can be achieved by mentally extending yourself outwards from the centre of the body, i.e., think tall. Think not just of raising your arms but of extending them outwards and when you are holding them still, think again of reaching still further away from your body. Do not think of yourself as a small compressed suffering thing. Think of yourself as graceful and expanding – no matter how unlikely it may seem at the time.
• 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.
• 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.