Iyengar Quotes & Sayings

One day I went to the manager and I asked him whether his model was working and he said, "Well, haven't you seen how many customers we have in this store?" And yes indeed I had. I mean it was definitely attracting a lot of customers, even attracting tourist buses that would land up at this store and people would go through the store and marvel at all the options, even sometimes take photographs of the various aisles. — Sheena Iyengar

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

You must purge yourself before finding faults in others.
When you see a mistake in somebody else, try to find if you are making the same mistake.
This is the way to take judgment and to turn it into improvement.
Do not look at others' bodies with envy or with superiority.
All people are born with different constitutions.
Never compare with others.
Each one's capacities are a function of his or her internal strength.
Know your capacities and continually improve upon them. — B.K.S. Iyengar

We are often in society told to make decisions in one of two ways. We're either told "Use your gut, just go with how you feel about it and let that guide you," or we're told to use reason - some very deliberative methodical process of pros and cons and really thinking it through. — Sheena Iyengar

And guys will say looks matter, but they'll also say things like "Well, she should be smart and kind." And you know those are ... so the typical responses and if you give them just a few options, like five or six, then they will rate them on the very characteristics that they said were really important to them. — Sheena Iyengar

The hardness of a diamond is part of its usefulness, but its true value is in the light that shines through it. — B.K.S. Iyengar

Stirred with passion, laced with fun, spiked with laughter & served with a smile. On the road. No sugar, no milk. Horn OK Please. Buy my books or may the wrath of a thousand locusts infest your underpants *Smack!!* — Kartik Iyengar

People will make worse financial decisions for them if they're choosing from a lot of options than if they're choosing from a few options. If they have more options they're more likely to avoid stocks and put all their money in money market accounts, which doesn't even grow at the rate of inflation. — Sheena Iyengar

Without education, confidence does not come. — B.K.S. Iyengar

What we share with animals is a desire for choice. It's a desire to have control over our life and a desire to live and use choice as a way in which we can facilitate our ability to live and that is something we really were born with. — Sheena Iyengar

We cannot expect that millions are practicing real yoga just because millions of people claim to be doing yoga all over the globe. What has spread all over the world is not yoga. It is not even non-yoga; it is un-yoga. — Prashant Iyengar

Yoga is meant for the purification of body and its exploration as well as for the refinement of the mind. — B.K.S. Iyengar

After a session of yoga, the mind becomes tranquil and passive. — B.K.S. Iyengar

The cure to combat the three Ss- stress, strain, and speed- can be found in three Ws- the work of devoted practice, the wisdom that comes of understanding the self and the world, and worship because ultimately surrendering to what we cannot control allows the ego to relax and lose the anxiety of its own infinitesimally small self in the infinitude of the divine. — B.K.S. Iyengar

If you truly have expertise - and expertise can be say a chess master who has really mastered something or an artist or a musician of some sort you know if you give a jazz musician ... — Sheena Iyengar

About the only time our gut can truly outperform our reason is if we truly have developed a kind of informed intuition. So that means the chess master or someone who has really thought about it and given themselves feedback on a particular activity for at least 10,000 hours or more. — Sheena Iyengar

When I was in Russia I found that I thought I was going to give these people that I was interviewing a whole bunch of choice in terms of what they could drink while we were chatting. — Sheena Iyengar

Why should you practice Yoga? To kindle the divine fire within yourself. Everyone has a dormant spark of divinity in him which has to be fanned into flame. — B.K.S. Iyengar

Asana done from the brain makes one heavy and done from the heart makes one light. — B.K.S. Iyengar

Look after the root of the tree, and the fragrant flower and luscious fruits will grow by themselves. Look after the health of the body, and the fragrance of the mind and richness of the spirit will follow. — B.K.S. Iyengar

Classics postures, when practiced with discrimination and awareness, bring the body, mind, and consciousness into a single, harmonious whole. — B.K.S. Iyengar

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

Do not aim low, you will miss the mark. Aim high and you will be on a threshold of bliss. — B.K.S. Iyengar

Once the jazz musician learns all the fundamentals they can keep track of a lot of choices in an instant. — Sheena Iyengar

To my father, Bellur Krishnamachar, my mother, Seshamma, and my birthplace, Bellur — B.K.S. Iyengar

Many ask me whether pranayama ... postpones old age. Why worry about it? Death is certain. Let it come when it comes. Just keep working. The soul has no age. It doesn't die. Only the body decays. And yet, we must never forget the body, since it is the garden we must cherish and cultivate. — B.K.S. Iyengar

The way we frame information for ourselves or for others can make a big difference in how we see and respond to choice. Every time we encounter new information or reexamine old information, we're influenced by its presentation. We can use framing to our advantage, but sometimes it has a negative impact on the quality of our decisions. — Sheena Iyengar

Knowledge has a beginning but no end. — Geeta Iyengar

They [people] start asking themselves "Well which one is the best? Which one would be good for me?" And all those questions are much easier to ask if you're choosing from six than when you're choosing from 24 and if you look at the marketplace today most often we have a lot more than 24 of things to choose from. — Sheena Iyengar

Approach each asana with freshness every day. — B.K.S. Iyengar

The aim of yoga is to calm the chaos of conflicting impulses — B.K.S. Iyengar

The best way to overcome fear is to face with equanimity the situation of which one is afraid. — B.K.S. Iyengar

Where there is yoga,
there is prosperity,
success, freedom and bliss. — B.K.S. Iyengar

I didn't really give them anymore than one choice, soda or no soda. They didn't ... whereas we put a lot of stock in the differences between soda ... — Sheena Iyengar

The expansion of choice has become an explosion of choice. — Sheena Iyengar

I used to go to this store called Draeger's and you had a little bit of that same feeling because this was a store that offered you so many varieties, things you'd never contemplated before, you know like 250 mustards and vinegars and over 500 different kinds of fruits and vegetables, or over 2 dozen different types of water. — Sheena Iyengar

It's always a thrilling experience to go into a place that offers you a lot of choice. You know it's like it reminds you of when you're a kid and you go to the amusement park and whether it be Disneyworld or Six Flags you know that thrilling moment when you first enter and you know you've got all these possibilities for the day and it's really a ... it's a wonderful feeling. — Sheena Iyengar

You have to get rid of borders, limits, and classifications; then light comes. We see everything on the screen of our ideas. We must get rid of that screen to be able to see what is behind. X's ideas are limited, that is why he remains on the surface. Y got rid of the limits, so she always goes to the depths. We should always meet people and new subjects with no set frame of mind. We have to live like that even after long acquaintance. We must get rid of every set idea to approach everything and everyone with love. — B.K.S. Iyengar

Regulate the breathing, and thereby control the mind. — B.K.S. Iyengar

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

You know, like, none of us would choose - no matter where we are in the world - would choose to you know become a member of Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" world, but how much choice is really the question. — Sheena Iyengar

I'm a great believer in the idea of not choosing based on our taste. — Sheena Iyengar

Now if you expand their choice set. Say you give them 20 different speed dates, everything goes out the window. Everybody starts choosing in accordance with looks because that becomes the easiest criteria by which to weed out all the options and decide "So who am I going to say yes to?" — Sheena Iyengar

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. — B.K.S. Iyengar

The battle of yoga is with the body and with the ego. You must conquer your ego, or small self, so that you can let your soul, your big Self, be victorious. — B.K.S. Iyengar

If the body is stiff that is understandable. But if the mind is also stiff then you can't get anywhere. The mind has to become flexible. — Geeta Iyengar

Knowledge of yoga is no substitute for practice. — B.K.S. Iyengar

How did people end up confusing the fear of falling to their death on the jagged rocks below with the feeling of being struck by Cupid's arrow? — Sheena Iyengar

Life itself seeks fulfillment as plants seek sunlight. — B.K.S. Iyengar

Awareness must be like the rays of the sun: extending everywhere, illuminating all. — B.K.S. Iyengar

I think of choosing as a ... both a fun and an effortful activity and I think of choice as something that in order for you to really get what you want out of it you have to put a lot into it and so I'm only willing to do that for a few different things and for the rest I really just try to either satisfy, come up with a simple rule or let somebody else make the choice. — Sheena Iyengar

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

You know, or three kinds of ice cream bars and you'd see this and like this ... okay they could clearly benefit from some more choices and I remember having these discussions with the Japanese because they you know they often like to go to Hawaii for vacation because it was definitely much cheaper for them and I would ask them, "So when you go to Hawaii, you know do eat all these other things?" — Sheena Iyengar

You must do the asana with your soul. How can you do an asana with your soul? We can only do it with the organ of the body that is closest to the soul - the heart. So a virtuous asana is done from the heart and not from the head. Then you are not just doing it, but you are in it. Many people try to think their way into an asana, but you must instead feel your way into it through love and devotion — B.K.S. Iyengar

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

Rather than trying to trick ourselves, we can teach ourselves, avoiding temptation until the act of avoidance itself becomes habitual and automatic. III. — Sheena Iyengar

Also if they choose from more options than fewer options they're less satisfied with what they choose and that is true whether they're choosing chocolates or which job offer to accept. — Sheena Iyengar

When heuristics don't yield the results we expect, you'd think we would eventually realize that something's wrong. Even if we don't locate the biases, we should be able to see the discrepancy between what we wanted and what we got, right? Well, not necessarily. As it turns out, we have biases that support our biases! If we're partial to one option - perhaps because it's more memorable, or framed to minimize loss, or seemingly consistent with a promising pattern - we tend to search for information that will justify choosing that option. On the one hand, it's sensible to make choices that we can defend with data and a list of reasons. On the other hand, if we're not careful, we're likely to conduct an imbalanced analysis, falling prey to a cluster of errors collectively known as confirmation biases. — Sheena Iyengar

He who has learnt to control his tongue has attained self-control in a great measure. When such a person speaks he will be heard with respect and attention. His words will be remembered, for they will be good and true. When one who is established in truth prays with a pure heart, then things he really needs come to him when they are really needed: he does not have to run after them. The man firmly established in truth gets the fruit of his actions without apparently doing anything. God, the source of all truth, supplies his needs and looks after his welfare. — B.K.S. Iyengar

Extension brings space, space brings freedom, freedom brings precision. Precision is truth. — B.K.S. Iyengar

Your body is the child of the soul. you must nourish and train that child. — B.K.S. Iyengar

At its best, choice is a means by which we can resist the people and the systems that seek to exert control over us. But choice itself can become oppressive when we insist that it is equally available to all. It can become an excuse for ignoring inequities that stem from gender or class or ethnic differences, for example, because one can blithely say, oh, but they had a choice! We all have choices. — Sheena Iyengar

You do not need to seek freedom in a different land, for it exists with your own body, heart, mind, and soul. — B.K.S. Iyengar

Fear and fatigue block the mind. Face both, then courage and confidence flows into you. — B.K.S. Iyengar

The body is my temple, asanas are my prayers. — B.K.S. Iyengar

First-generation children were strongly influenced by their immigrant parents approach to choice. For them, choice was not just a way of defining and asserting their individuality, but a way to create community and harmony by deferring to the choices of people whom they trusted and respected. — Sheena Iyengar

When people are given a moderate number of options (4 to 6) rather than a large number (20 to 30), they are more likely to make a choice, are more confident in their decisions, and are happier with what they choose. — Sheena Iyengar

Like the swimming rats in Richter's experiment, we can survive for only so long without solid ground beneath our feet; if the choices aren't real, sooner or later we will go under. It's important, therefore, that we examine our assumptions about choice and that we openly discuss how, when and why it falls short. — Sheena Iyengar

You get to decide how you're going to look and what you're going to be when you grow up and when people learned that my parents actually had an arranged marriage people thought that was the most horrific thing on earth. I mean how could anybody allow their marriage of all things to be prescribed by somebody else? — Sheena Iyengar

A good teacher helps you explore the maximum. — B.K.S. Iyengar

You know the known, so go a little into the unknown. The mind that is caught up in the known - extended a little beyond reason. The moment you go beyond , you move in the soul. Releasing the bondage of your mind to extend further, reach the unknown a little more. The further you go, you realize that the known is limited and the unknown is vast. — B.K.S. Iyengar

A scientist sets out to conquer nature through knowledge - external nature, external knowledge. By these means he may split the atom and achieve external power. A yogi sets out to explore his own internal nature, to penetrate the atom (atma) of being. He does not gain dominion over wide lands and restless seas, but over his own recalcitrant flesh and febrile mind. — B.K.S. Iyengar

Yoga is like music: the rhythm of the body, the melody of the mind, and the harmony of the soul create the symphony of life. — B.K.S. Iyengar

People don't put as much of an emphasis in expanding their choices, so that, you know, one of the things that I learned when I was in Japan way back in the 1990's and there were all these quarrels happening between the U.S. and Japan about allowing more American products into the Japanese market. — Sheena Iyengar

From Freedom of the Body comes Freedom of the Mind and then Ultimate Freedom! — B.K.S. Iyengar

The whole thrust of yogic philosophical and scientific inquiry has therefore been to examine the nature of being, with a view to learning to respond to the stresses of life without so many tremors and troubles. — B.K.S. Iyengar

The typical Walmart today offers you 100,000 products. — Sheena Iyengar

Undoubtedly, the mind is restless and hard to control But it can be trained by constant practice and by freedom from desire." - B.K.S. Iyengar.

Climbing is really great, we all love climbing. But what's interesting to me is what happens in my head or in my life because of it. Ultimately, I think climbing is a vehicle for exploration - of the world, of the self. — Steph Davis

What affected people's health most in these studies wasn't the actual level of control that people had in their jobs, but the amount of control they perceived themselves as having. — Sheena Iyengar

The typical American reports making about 70 [choices] in a typical day. — Sheena Iyengar

Any action done with beauty and purity, and in complete harmony of body, mind and soul, is Art. — B.K.S. Iyengar

Most of the time you should use reason, there is no doubt about that because gut often makes us susceptible to lots of different biases, particularly if what you're deciding is something that you really, that expertise can be brought to bear on it, there is a way in which you can align the odds, so then you should really use reason. — Sheena Iyengar

Balance in the body is the foundation for balance in life. — B.K.S. Iyengar

Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured. — B.K.S. Iyengar

Yoga is firstly for individual growth, but through individual growth, society and community develop. — B.K.S. Iyengar

I do think that there are cultural differences in the extent to which we value having more and more choice. — Sheena Iyengar

Yoga takes us to an unconditioned freedom, because yoga sees even good habits as a form of conditioning or limitation. — B.K.S. Iyengar

Change is not something that we should fear. Rather, it is something that we should welcome. For without change, nothing in this world would ever grow or blossom, and no one in this world would ever move forward to become the person they're meant to be. — B.K.S. Iyengar

The higher the exposure a product receives and the greater its perceived social acceptability, the more people will buy it, which in turn further increases its exposure and acceptability. — Sheena Iyengar

Intensity is a mental attitude more than a physical attitude. Many people misunderstand what intensity means. They think it means straining and sweating. No! That is a wrong meaning of the word! Intensity is to get totally involved, fully immersed and absorbed in what one is doing. Intense practice means a fast and keen mode in adjusting, correcting, and progressively proceeding. — B.K.S. Iyengar

When you inhale, you are taking the strength from God. When you exhale, it represents the service you are giving to the world. — B.K.S. Iyengar

We have two physical eyes, but every pore of the body is also an eye. — B.K.S. Iyengar

Your body is the child of your soul. — B.K.S. Iyengar

Yoga is a way of life; it is an art, a science, a philosophy. — B.K.S. Iyengar

As long as you do not live totally in the body, you do not live totally in the Self. — B.K.S. Iyengar

I mean can you walk to school on your own? Can you study science? Can you study math? Can you go to a normal school? Do you need to go to a special school? What is going to become of you when you grow up? Are you going to have to live on social security and SSI? — Sheena Iyengar

Personal happiness is always a very serious matter. — Sheena Iyengar

If you practice yoga every day with perseverance, you will be able to face the turmoil of life with steadiness and maturity. — B.K.S. Iyengar

In fact, even in that store Draeger's they had 348 different kinds of jam actually in the jam aisle. And what we found over about, say, 10 years of research is that as the number of choices actually increase people are less likely to make a choice and sometimes they do this even when it's really bad for them. — Sheena Iyengar

My Maman told me that only the crazy ones and the passionate ones accomplish anything in life. — B.K.S. Iyengar