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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

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

Community Growth Yoga
Awareness must be like the rays of the sun: extending everywhere, illuminating all.
B.K.S. IYENGAR

Awareness Rays Sun
Do not think of yourself as a small, compressed, suffering thing. Think of yourself as graceful and expanding, no matter how unlikely it may seem at the time.
B.K.S. IYENGAR

May Suffering Thinking
Ignorance has no beginning, but it has an end. There is a beginning but no end to knowledge.
B.K.S. IYENGAR

End Ignorance Knowledge
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

Body Cells Yogi
Without the accurate spine movement, one can’t exist dynamically.
B.K.S. IYENGAR

Accurate Movement Spine
The back is like a frame, the front body, the painting that it throws into relief.
B.K.S. IYENGAR

Body Painting relief
Do not aim low, you will miss the mark. Aim high and you will be on a threshold of bliss.
B.K.S. IYENGAR

Bliss Inspiring Missing
We can rise above our limitations, only once we recognize them.
B.K.S. IYENGAR

Above Limitation Rise
The supreme adventure in a man’s life is his journey back to his Creator.
B.K.S. IYENGAR

Adventure Inspiring Journey
Yoga releases the creative potential in life.
B.K.S. IYENGAR

Creative Release Yoga
Life itself seeks fulfillment as plants seek sunlight.
B.K.S. IYENGAR

Fulfillment Plant Sunlight
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.
B.K.S. IYENGAR

Journey Mean Soul
I can remain thoughtfully thoughtless, It is not an empty mind.
B.K.S. IYENGAR

Empty Empty Mind Mind
The pose begins when you want to leave it.
B.K.S. IYENGAR

Want Yoga Yoga Practice
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

Ego Self Yoga
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.
B.K.S. IYENGAR

Mistake Trying Way
I also say with backbends, you have to be cautiously bold. Not carelessly bold. You have to descend to the dictation of the spine. You cannot command from the brain to do the poses. As you play with a child, guarding the child from injuries, similarly you have to play in backbends, guarding your spine.
B.K.S. IYENGAR

Brain Children Play
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

Mind Self Yoga
If the foundation is firm the building can withstand calamities. The practice of yoga is the foundation so that the self is not shaken under any circumstances.
B.K.S. IYENGAR

Practice Self Yoga
True concentration is an unbroken thread of awareness.
B.K.S. IYENGAR

Awareness Inspiring Unbroken
In your discipline, if doubt comes, let it come. You do your work and let doubt carry on with its work. And let us see which gives up first!
B.K.S. IYENGAR

Discipline Doubt Give Up
Asana is perfect firmness of body, steadiness of intelligence, and benevolence of spirit.
B.K.S. IYENGAR

Asana Body Perfect
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.
B.K.S. IYENGAR

Body Self Yoga
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

Bird Practice Soul
As breath stills our mind, our energies are free to unhook from the senses and bend inward.
B.K.S. IYENGAR

Energy Inward Mind
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

Rivers Uplifting Water

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

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

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