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.
To do is hard, but to teach is still harder. Do not teach only to teach. Teach to improve the pupil. To be a teacher requires tremendous, vigorous discipline on oneself. We are teachers because somebody demands it from us. But the teacher should first rub his own self, and teach afterwards.
I am standing on my own altar; The poses are my prayers.
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.
The mind is the king of the senses, and the breath is the king of the mind.
The primary aim of yoga is to restore the mind to simplicity and peace, and free it from confusion and distress.
Sometimes our body is willing, but our mind is weak. Sometimes our mind is willing, but our body is weak. Do not be afraid. Strive to extend your capacity but do not be disappointed with yourself. What does not challenge us, cannot change us.
Before peace between the nations, we have to find peace inside that small nation which is our own being.
We have two physical eyes, but every pore of the body is also an eye.
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.
Health is not a commodity to be bargained for. It has to be earned through sweat.
Asanas maintain the strength and health of the body, without which little progress can be made. Asanas keep the body in harmony with nature.
We are a little piece of continual change, looking at an infinite quantity of continual change.
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.
Spirituality is not some external goal that one must seek, but a part of the divine core of each of us, which we must reveal.
It is through the body that everything comes to the mind. It is through and with your body that you have to reach realization of being a spark of divinity. How can we neglect the temple of the spirit?
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.
After a session of yoga, the mind becomes tranquil and passive.
An intellectual mind that is unconnected to the heart is an uncultivated mind.
In whatever you are doing, be one: body, soul, mind. Do it beautifully and with purity.