When I practice, I am a philosopher. When I teach, I am a scientist. When I demonstrate, I am an artist.

In backbends, one touches the body physically, mentally, intellectually, consciously and spiritually everywhere.

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.

As long as you do not live totally in the body, you do not live totally in the Self.

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.

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.

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.