Insightful Quotes (of and about B.K.S. Iyengar)

From The Tree of Yoga

From the chapter Effort, awareness, and joy

When you are practising a pose in yoga, can you find the delicate balance between taking the pose to its maximum extent, and taking it beyond that point so that there is too much effort creating wrong tension in the body? p. 37

When wise action comes, you no longer feel the effort as effort – you feel the effort as joy. In perfection, your experience and expression find balance and concord. p.40

From Light on Life

And when we are free from physical disabilities, emotional disturbances, and mental distractions, we open the gates to our souls (atma). p. 22-23

Physical health is not a commodity to be bargained. Nor can it be swallowed in the form of drugs or pills. It has to be earned through sweat… You have to create within yourself the experience of beauty, liberation, and infinity. This is health. p. 24

If extension is from the intelligence of the brain, expansion is from the intelligence of the heart. While doing an asan, both the intellectual intelligence and the emotional intelligence have to meet and work together. Extension is attention, and expansion is awareness., I often say. It is the bringing of attention and awareness to the tips of your body and activating the skin. p 33

By learning to appreciate breath, we learn to appreciate life itself. The gift of breath is the gift of life. When we receive a gift, we feel gratitude. Through pranayama we learn gratitude for life and gratitude toward the unknown divine source of life. p. 72

Hence pranayama is more than a physiological breathing exercise. Because breath is life, the art of judicious, thoughtful, ungreedy breathing is a prayer we offer to life itself. p. 72-3

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From Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

The practice of yoga integrates a person through the journey of intelligence and consciousness from the external to the internal. It unifies him from the intelligence of the skin to the intelligence of the self, so that his self merges with the cosmic Self. [p. 87]

The path of knowledge (jnana-marga) is the study of the self (svadhyaya) from the skin to the core and back again.  [p. 163]

 From Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom

While working in asana, if the action is “done” solely from the front brain, it blocks the reflective action of the back brain. The form of each asana needs to be reflected to the wisdom body (vijnanamaya kosa) for readjustment and realignment. 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. [p. 39]

From Sparks of Divinity (compiled by Noelle Perez-Christianes)

10.83 You have to work through the gross body to the subtle body (the spine), and then go through the spine to the mind. [p.93]

11.9 Detail and precision of the body lead to mastering the art of relaxation. [p. 96]

11.15 First you start with physical action; then you have to forget about action on that plane only. You have to discipline the mind through the action. [p.97]

14.7 Yoga is self-realization through understanding of the body. [p. 109]

10.61 The whole body, far from being ignored, is taken up in this spiritual alertness, till the whole man becomes pure flame. [p. 99]

An alert, erect spine creates a spiritual intensity of concentration that burns out distracting thoughts and the brooding over past and future, and leaves one in the virginal, fresh present.

14.48 Yoga is harmony of the body, of the senses, of the spirit, and of the intellect. This is why there is no difference between physical yoga and spiritual yoga. [p.118]

14.50 Spiritual knowledge begins when the mind extends a little further than where it is at present. [p.118]

18.7 Yoga becomes spiritual when the mind sees what is taking place. If the mind is not seeing, it is physical yoga. [p.158]

13.23 When the concrete is silent, then only can you go to the abstract. But many people want to go to the abstract without knowing the concrete. [p.105]

From: Light on Pranayama

“7. The practice of pranayama should not be mechanical. The brain and the mind should be kept alert, to correct and adjust the body position and the flow of breath from moment to moment. One cannot practice pranayama by force of will; hence, there should be no regimentation. Complete receptivity of the mind and intellect is essential.

8. In pranayama relationship between chitta (mind, intellect, and ego) and breath is like that between a mother and her child. Chitta is the mother and Prana is the child. As the mother cherishes her child, care and chitta should cherish prana.”

In the chapter “The Art of Preparing the Mind for Pranayama”

“1. Inhalation (puraka) is the intake of cosmic energy by the individual for his growth and progress. It is the path of action (pravrtti marga). It is the Infinite uniting with the finite. It draws in the breath of life as carefully and gently as the fragrance of a flower might be indrawn and distributes it evenly throughout the body.”

In the chapter “The Art of Inhalation (Puraka) and Exhalation (Rechaka)”

14. An erect spine can be compared to a cobra which has lifted its hood. The brain is the hood and the organs of perception are the fangs, while bad thoughts and desires are the poison glands. Practice of pranayama quietens the upsurge of the senses and desires. Thus the mind becomes sacrosanct or free of thoughts. The Sadhaka’s words, thoughts and deeds, become clean and pure. He maintains firmness in his body (achalata) and steadiness (sthirata) in his intellect.

In the chapter “The Effects of Pranayama”

From: Sparks of Divinity: The Teachings of B. K. S. Iyengar

1.19. When we are aware of the fact that without breathing there is no life, we feel very grateful to God, who gives life through breathing. We surrender our life to God during exhalation, and we receive our life from God during inhalation. As long as we do pranayama, we surrender ourselves to this meditation. Where is the difference between physical and spiritual yoga? [p. 51]

1.39. Never consider pranayama as an exercise, but as a prayer. Breathing is life. [p. 54]

From Astadala Yoga Mala (AYM)

About Pranayama

“The techniques of asana and Pranayama are the vehicles of meditation and prayer. Inhalation (puraka) is acceptance of the Lord, its retention (kumbhaka) is savoring the Lord in the full deep stillness of the self. Exhalation (recaka) is not simply the exhalation of breath, but it is the emptying of ‘I’ or the ego. Exhalation makes one impersonal and hence it is not only a fit instrument for the sadhaka, but the highest form of surrender to the Lord.” (Vol II, p. 122)

About Patajali’s definition of Asana

“Now about asana. The sthirata or stability in asana is not possible without non-violence and abhyasa. Sukhata or steadiness of intelligence in asana is not for the sake of pleasure but to develop desire-lessness through vairagya. Prayatna Saithilya is effortless that comes only with aparigraha. Attachment to the body, love towards the body and undue protection, does not transform effortful into effortlessness. Effortlessness leads to ananta samapatti. Ananta samapatti means reaching the infinite and this is nothing but Isvara pranidhana. When one attains the state of ananta samapatti there comes the freedom from the shackles of dualities or dvandva (Y.S. II.46-48)” (Vol VI, p.68)

“I think many have taken the meaning of Sukhata to the Sukha that leads toward attachments. Many of you are attached to the body and therefore you don’t like the body to suffer from pain, hence you dislike the asana and jump to something else. If asana is pleasurable (Sukha) you enjoy it, but Sukha id not the same as steadiness.

Patanjali uses three terms Sukha, Duhkha and Ananda… You should know that there is a vast difference between the word Sukha and Ananda. Sukha means comfort and pleasing, while Ananda means delight, joy and bliss. Normally we mix these words and treat Sukha and Ananda as happiness. Sukha is felt at the level of the senses while Ananda is a spiritual quality. While performing an asana Sukha conveys the feeling of pleasing sensation, as Raga or attachment. Ananda is unbiased happiness or delight in the self. In asana Sthira and Sukha both stand for Ananda on the spiritual level.

No doubt many of us take to yoga as you have attachment to the body. You dislike pain in the Sadhana. Many of you are satisfied with the practice as long as you feel comfortable. This is considered a fulfilment of desires. You continue to practice as long as this comfort remains, but the moment the comfort fades out you give up.” (Vol VIII, p. 153-154)

About the Spine

“An alert, erect spine creates a spiritual; intensity of concentration that burns out distracting thoughts and the brooding over past and future, and leaves one in a virginal, pristine present.”

About Dhyana

…”the savour of the fruit is only granted to those who “taste and see the Lord is sweet”. So, one can savour dhyana, but one can’t explain it.”

About Hatha Yoga

“Hatha yoga is a forceful discipline for transforming the inert (tamasic) body to the level of the vibrant (rajasic) mind. When body and mind are equally vibrant, both are trained together to reach the serenity of the Self (atma)”

“The unity of prana and prajna with atma is the aim of hatha yoga”

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