Top 250 B.K.S. Iyengar Quotes (2024 Update)
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201. “Yoga is meant for the purification of body and its exploration as well as for the refinement of the mind.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

202. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

203. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

204. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

205. “Illuminated emancipation, freedom, unalloyed and untainted bliss await you, but you have to choose to embark on the Inward Journey to discover it.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

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

— B.K.S. Iyengar

207. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

208. “When you have an anger, irritability, or disappointment mound, the conditioned reflex works like this: Suppose you’re irritable with your parents, and your mother comes into the room. She might only say “Dinner’s ready,” but the irritability reflex is ready to spring up.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

209. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

210. “I planted the seed, now you must work a lot otherwise the tiny plant will die.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

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

— B.K.S. Iyengar

212. “Freedom in a posture is when every joint is active.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

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

— B.K.S. Iyengar

214. “It is not yoga that injures, but the way one does yoga that leads to injury.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

215. “You have to create love and affection for your body, for what it can do for you. Love.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

216. “During inhalation, the breath should move exactly like the clouds which are spreading in the sky.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

217. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

218. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

219. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

220. “Without the accurate spine movement, one can’t exist dynamically.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

221. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

222. “The back is like a frame, the front body, the painting that it throws into relief.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

223. “By persistent and sustained practice, anyone and everyone can make the yoga journey and reach the goal of illumination and freedom.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

224. “Feeling the movement of movements is wandering to the past or future. Living in the movements of movement is being in the present.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

225. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

226. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

227. “When you see a mistake in somebody else, try to find if you are making the same mistake.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

228. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

229. “There is no difference in souls, only the ideas about ourselves that we wear.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

230. “Yoga takes us to an unconditioned freedom, because yoga sees even good habits as a form of conditioning or limitation.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

231. “Asanas maintain the strength and health of the body, without which little progress can be made. Asanas keep the body in harmony with nature.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

232. “Do to your capacity. Always strive to extend your capacity. Ten minutes today, after a few days, twelve minutes. Master that, then again extend.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

233. “To my father, Bellur Krishnamachar, my mother, Seshamma, and my birthplace, Bellur.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

234. “But a yogi never forgets that health must begin with the body. Your body is the child of the soul. You must nourish and train your child. Physical health is not a commodity to be bargained for. Nor can it be swallowed in the form of drugs and pills. It has to be earned through sweat.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

235. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

236. “I think many of my students have followed the advice I gave years ago, to give more than you take.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

237. “The commercialism may wash off sometime later.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

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

— B.K.S. Iyengar

239. “One day you too may experience what I have experienced. So right away go and practise.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

240. “The practice of asanas purges the body of its impurities, bringing strength, firmness, calm, and clarity of mind.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

241. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

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

— B.K.S. Iyengar

243. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

244. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

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

— B.K.S. Iyengar

246. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

247. “The seeker should have faith in himself and in his master. He should have faith that God is ever by his side and that no evil can touch him. As faith springs up in the heart it dries out lust, ill-will, mental sloth, spiritual pride and doubt, and the heart freed from these hindrances becomes serene and untroubled.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

248. “We often fool ourselves that we are concentrating because we fix our attention on wavering objects.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

249. “Yoga is the teacher of yoga; yoga is to be understood through yoga. So live in yoga to realize yoga; comprehend yoga through yoga; he who is free from distractions enjoys yoga through yoga.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

250. “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.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar