“Yoga allows you to find an inner peace that is not ruffled and riled by the endless stresses and struggles of life.”

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.

The supreme adventure in a man’s life is his journey back to his Creator.

It is through your body that you realize you are a spark of divinity.

Nothing can be forced, receptivity is everything.

True concentration is an unbroken thread of awareness.

It is not yoga that injures, but the way one does yoga that leads to injury.

The ultimate goal of yoga is to realize the brilliance of your soul.

Yoga has to be done with the intellect of the head as well as the intellect of the heart

You have to create love and affection for your body, for what it can do for you. Love must be incarnated in the smallest pore of the skin, the smallest cell of the body to make them intelligent so they can collaborate with all the other ones, in the big republic of the body. This love must radiate from you to others.

During inhalation, the breath should move exactly like clouds spreading in the sky.

First yoga deals with health, strength and conquest of the body. Next, it lifts the veil of difference between the body and the mind. Lastly, it leads the Sadhaka to peace and unalloyed purity.

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.

As breath stills our mind, our energies are free to unhook from the senses and bend inward.

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

I always tell people, live happily and die majestically.

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.

What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the human soul.

Your body exists in the past and your mind exists in the future. In yoga, they come together in the present.

Know your capacities and continually improve upon them.

It’s precisely the people who are considered the least ‘likely’ leaders who end up inspiring others the most.

This one question-‘What do I know for certain?’-is tremendously powerful. When you look deeply into this question, it actually destroys your world. It destroys your whole sense of self, and it’s meant to.

It is so inspiring when you come across a woman who is very strong and dedicated and is amazing at what they do. That’s how I feel about Meryl Streep.

I’d done a few short films before and thought acting was really creative, but when I worked with those guys, I was just like: “Wow!” They had such fun and freedom. They were trying things and stretching themselves. It was so inspiring that I was like: “I definitely want to do this!”

It is impossible to withhold education from the receptive mind, as it is impossible to force it upon the unreasoning.