Top 250 B.K.S. Iyengar Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

152. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

153. “When the mind is controlled and still what remains is the soul.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

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

— B.K.S. Iyengar

155. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

156. “The supreme adventure in a man’s life is his journey back to his Creator.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

157. “Asanas penetrate deep into each layer of the body and ultimately into the consciousness itself.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

158. “Without education, confidence does not come.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

159. “The needs of the body are the needs of the divine spirit which lives through the body.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

160. “Samadhi is an opportunity to encounter our imperishable Self before the transient vehicle of body disappears, as in the cycle of nature, it surely must.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

161. “You exist without the feeling of existence.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

162. “One’s spiritual realization lies in none other than how one walks among and interacts with one’s fellow beings.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

163. “We need sound bodies so we can develop sound minds.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

164. “If you open the armpits, the brain becomes light. You cannot brood or become depressed.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

165. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

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

— B.K.S. Iyengar

167. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

168. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

169. “The union of nature and soul removes the veil of ignorance that covers our intelligence.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

170. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

171. “People remind me of my age, but while practicing I am beyond my body and its age.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

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

— B.K.S. Iyengar

173. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

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

— B.K.S. Iyengar

175. “A good teacher helps you explore the maximum.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

176. “To master fear is the most important battle to win.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

177. “We are a little piece of continual change, looking at an infinite quantity of continual change.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

178. “After a session of yoga, the mind becomes tranquil and passive.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

179. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

180. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

181. “Yoga is a means and an end.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

182. “Do not allow past experiences to be imprinted on your mind. Perform asana each time with a fresh mind and with a fresh approach.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

183. “Yoga is more than physical. It is cellular, mental, intellectual and spiritual-it involves man in his entire being.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

184. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

185. “Approach each asana with freshness every day.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

186. “Firmness in the body leads to firmness in the nervous system.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

187. “The yogi uses all his resources – physical, economic, mental or moral – to alleviate the pain and suffering of others. He shares his strength with the weak until they become strong. He shares his courage with those who are timid until they become brave by his example. He denies the maxim ‘survival of the fittest’, but makes the weak strong enough to survive. He comes a shelter to one and all.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

188. “Activity and passivity must go together in asanas.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

189. “If everyone practiced yoga, pharmacies would have to close.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

190. “If we become aware of its limitations and compulsions, we can transcend them.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

191. “Give more than you receive. That is the principle I tell all my students.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

192. “The body has to be invaded by the intelligence; each part has to become intelligent.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

193. “Learning is as much an art as teaching.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

194. “Asana has two facets, pose and repose. Pose is the artistic assumption of a position. ‘Reposing in the pose’ means finding the perfection of a pose and maintaining it, reflecting in it with penetration of the intelligence and with dedication.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

195. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

196. “What I was is unimportant, what I am now is important.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

197. “An opening is like a doorway, and there is no such thing as a doorway that you can only go through one way. Yes, we are trying to penetrate in, but what is trying to come out to meet us? It.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

198. “Anything physical is always changing, therefore, its reality is not constant, not eternal.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

199. “Action is movement with intelligence. The world is filled with movement. What the world needs is more conscious movement, more action.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

200. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar