Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar Quotes
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Yoga aims for complete awareness in everything you do.
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The decision to relax rather than to grip, even in the face of impatience or fear, is a conscious and brave choice.
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What I was is unimportant, what I am now is important.
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For me there were only two ways on the precipice - either I have to fall in or I have to fall out, to accept or say good-bye. The moment I crossed the precipice, it no longer was a discipline - it became a passion, an urge to pursue. Then I experienced freedom. Freedom comes when the discipline revolutionizes the discipline as a passion for the art.
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If you balance in the Present, you are living in Eternity
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When I practice, I am a philosopher. When I teach, I am a scientist. When I demonstrate, I am an artist.
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As we explore the soul, it is important to remember that this exploration will take place within nature (the body), for that is where and what we are.
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Give more than you receive. That is the principle I tell all my students.
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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.
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Any action done with beauty and purity, and in complete harmony of body, mind and soul, is Art.
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There must be relaxation in full extension.
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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.
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Action is movement with intelligence
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Health is not a commodity to be bargained for. It has to be earned through sweat.
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Yes, flexibility of body and physical perfection for Yogasana is important. However more important is the state of your mind, Meditative mind. Your flexibility might be excellent but if your mind is not attentive, you are merely doing some physical exercise, not Yoga.
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You must continue to go back to the beginning, to the foundation, and question the foundation. Even once you‘ve reached Samadhi you must go back so you can create it at will. Samadhi is the beginning of spiritual growth, not the end. You must always be questioning. Enlightenment comes as an accident at first, then you have to learn to recreate it.
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That's the beauty of backbends. Emotionally we can never be disturbed, for the emotional centre becomes an extrovert. When you do Viparita Dandasana, your head looks backwards, but your conscious mind stretches everywhere. Study by observing how the mind gets regulated. You not only know the freedom in the spine, but also the freedom in the spirit.
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Firmness in the body leads to firmness in the nervous system.
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Yoga is effort. Only practice is important. The rest of knowledge is only theory.
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I can remain thoughtfully thoughtless, It is not an empty mind.
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Our greed comes from our fear that we will not have enough - whether it is money or love that we grasp. Yoga teaches us to let go of these fears and so to realize the abundance around us and within us.
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An intellectual mind that is unconnected to the heart is an uncultivated mind.
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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.
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I think many of my students have followed the advice I gave years ago, to give more than you take.