B.K.S. Iyengar Quotes

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.

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.

Savasana is being without was, being without will be. It is being without anyone who is.

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.

We need sound bodies so we can develop sound minds.

When an asana is done correctly the body movements are smooth, there is lightness in the body and freedom in the 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.

Health is a state of complete harmony of the body, mind and spirit.

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

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.

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.

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.

I can remain thoughtfully thoughtless, It is not an empty mind.

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 I stretch, I stretch in such a way that my awareness moves, and a gate of awareness finally opens.

Activity and passivity must go together in asanas.

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.

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.

Why think of liberation at some future time? Liberation is in the little things, here and now.

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.

One's spiritual realization lies in none other than how one walks among and interacts with one's fellow beings.

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.

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

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

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

Yoga cultivates the ways of maintaining a balanced attitude in day-to-day life and endows skill in the performance of one's actions.

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.

The needs of the body are the needs of the divine self, which lives through the body.

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.

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.

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.

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

The highest point of yesterday should be the lowest point of today

Do not aim low, you will miss the mark. Aim high and you will be on a threshold of bliss.

Yoga is a light, which once lit, will never dim. The better your practice, the brighter the flame.

From Freedom of the Body comes Freedom of the Mind and then Ultimate Freedom!

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

Before peace between the nations, we have to find peace inside that small nation which is our own being.

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

I always tell people, live happily and die majestically.

As the trunk is one but the branches are many, yoga is one but adaptations may vary.

Be inspired but not proud.

Persistent practice alone is the key to yoga. As you take pains to learn, continue with devotion what you have learn.