Quotes from B.K.S. Iyengar

The physical body is not only a temple for our soul, but the means by which we embark on the inward journey toward the core.

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

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

The head is the seat of intelligence. The heart is the seat of emotion.

Happy is the man who knows how to distinguish the real from the unreal, the eternal from the transient and the good from the pleasant by his discrimination and wisdom. Twice blessed is he who knows true love and can love all God's creatures. He who works selflessly for the welfare of others with love in his heart is thrice blessed. But the man who combines within his mortal frame knowledge, love and selfless service is holy and becomes a place of pilgrimage.

All games are meaningless if you do not know the rules.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Action is movement with intelligence.

Patañjali is saying that yoga is a preventive healing art, science and philosophy, by which we build up robust health in body and mind and construct a defensive strength with which to deflect or counteract afflictions that are as yet unperceived afflictions.

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

Our Parusa or Universal Soul is an abiding reality. It is logical, but remains conceptual to our minds under we experience it;s realization within ourselves.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The mind (manas) and the breath (prana) are intimately connected and the activity or the cessation of activity of one affects the other.

Life itself seeks fulfillment as plants seek the sunlight. The Universe did not create Life in the hope that the failure of the majority would underscore the success of the few.