Iyengar Quotes On Life And Happiness, Explained

Iyengar quotes on life: the short version

What makes a good life? Mr BKS Iyengar had a surprising number of answers, from gratitude to a good laugh, and Geeta and Prashant added their own. These Iyengar quotes on life are about happiness, simplicity and facing disappointment. There are 22 below, each explained in plain English, with ways to see them in your own practice.

Iyengar quotes on life and happiness in short form

• Fewer demands: needing less lets you see how much you have.
• Gratitude, not ownership: the right attitude to our things.
• Disappointment is a teacher: use it as the start of something.
• Practice reaches daily life: balance in the body supports balance in life.
• Humour counts: the Iyengars were funny people.
• Practise at Flametree: start with a free first class if you are new.

Iyengar yoga is the style developed by Mr BKS Iyengar. In the 20th century he did more than anyone to set down traditional Indian yoga, through his books and his teaching, and he pioneered the use of props. It is sometimes called modern classical yoga, and it’s the style we teach at Flametree. His daughter Geeta and his son Prashant carried the teaching on, and you’ll meet all three on this page.

What made for a good life, according to the Iyengars?

The first group is about what makes life feel full: gratitude, fewer demands, and treating setbacks as assignments.

I used the tool of disappointment as an appointment for a new assignment.

What it means: A wonderful play on words. Mr Iyengar took the experience of disappointment and treated it as an appointment, a new job to be done.

When a pose does not go your way, or a plan falls through, you can ask what is the next assignment. It turns a flat moment into a fresh start.

Read more: yoga and lifting your mood | Also on: Effort And Discipline

The circumstances of life are there for our evolution, not for our destruction.

What it means: Life’s difficulties are there to help us grow, not to crush us. That is a hopeful way of looking at a hard patch.

The mat is a small practice ground for it. You meet a tricky pose, you work with it, and you come out a little different.

Read more: the eight limbs of yoga explained plainly | Also on: Learning

Love, labor, and laugh.

What it means: Three words for a good life. Love, work and laughter. It is simple and hard to argue with.

It is also a fair description of a good class: you care about what you are doing, you put in effort, and there is usually a laugh somewhere.

Read more: a daily yoga habit that lasts | Also on: Effort And Discipline

For one man a meal is slight; for another it is a feast. Life is the same way. The fewer our demands on life, the greater is our ability to see its bounty.

What it means: What counts as plenty depends on how much we demand. Someone with few demands sees abundance in an ordinary meal. Someone with many demands is never satisfied.

This is close to what Patanjali called santosha (contentment).

Read more: Santosha: what contentment means in yoga

The correct attitude to our “possessions” is gratitude, not ownership.

What it means: Mr Iyengar suggests treating what we have as something we are looking after and are thankful for, not as something we own. It shifts how it feels to have things.

It also applies to the body, which you borrow for a lifetime and can look after.

Read more: contentment in yoga

Giving does not impoverish and withholding does not enrich.

What it means: Giving does not leave you poorer, and holding on does not make you richer. It is an old thought and a good one.

A class shows it in a small way. When people share a prop or a kind word, the room gets warmer for everyone, including the giver.

Read more: who was Mr BKS Iyengar?

Compassion is the recognition of sameness, of kinship with others.

What it means: Compassion starts with seeing that other people are like us. They have the same worries, the same hopes and the same stiff shoulders.

In a group class everyone is working on their own version of the same thing, and that sameness can be comforting.

Read more: yoga for beginners notes

Life without happiness is mere existence.

What it means: Geeta says that life without happiness is mere existence. Staying alive is not the same as living.

It suggests that enjoyment matters, and that a practice you enjoy is worth keeping.

Read more: yoga to uplift your mood

I have kept my life very simple. There is no hankering, no ambition, no demand.

What it means: Geeta described her own life as simple, with no hankering, no ambition and no demands. A simple life leaves more room for what matters.

It echoes her father’s line about fewer demands. The two of them agreed on the value of wanting less.

Read more: contentment in yoga

Living is an art. Yoga enhances the quality of one’s life. Hence it is an art.

What it means: Geeta calls living an art, and says yoga improves the quality of life, so it is an art too. Art is something you practise, shape and refine.

You do not have to be good at it to enjoy it. You just keep making the next brushstroke more carefully.

Read more: yoga for body, breath and mind | Also on: Philosophy, The Sutras And The Ego

How does practice carry into everyday life?

Several of these quotes are about taking what you practise on the mat into the rest of the day.

Balance in the body is the foundation for balance in life.

What it means: If you can find balance in how you stand and move, you have a model for balance elsewhere. The body is where we practise it.

In a standing pose a teacher might ask you to spread weight evenly through both feet. Many students notice that this even footing carries into how they stand in a queue or at work.

Read more: Mountain Pose and how you stand | Also on: The Body And Alignment

We all have presence of mind when everything goes well, but we need to have presence of mind when something goes wrong.

What it means: It is easy to stay calm when all goes well. The test is when things go wrong. Mr Iyengar wants presence of mind in both.

You can practise it in a pose that is not working. Instead of getting annoyed, stay alert, breathe and find the next adjustment.

Read more: yoga and anxiety | Also on: Attention And Awareness

In a healthy organism, feelings should pass like clouds over the sun. When feelings get anchored by thought into our memory, they become emotions, which are no longer related to the moment but to the past.

What it means: A feeling is meant to pass like a cloud over the sun. Trouble starts when thought pins it in memory, and it becomes an emotion tied to the past.

Seen that way, yoga practice is a chance to let small feelings come and go, without building a story around each one.

Read more: how to calm your nervous system | Also on: The Mind And Meditation

Look at your dog. When you leave him, he is sad; his heart is on the ground. When you come home, is there resentment? No, he is overjoyed to see you. Are you closer to reality or is your dog?

What it means: Mr Iyengar uses this comparison. Your dog is sad when you leave and overjoyed when you return, and holds no grudge. Who is closer to reality, you or your dog?

There is a joke in it and a point too: we carry resentment around for far longer than we need to.

Read more: yoga and anger | Also on: The Mind And Meditation

Our consciousness increasingly becomes what we feed it.

What it means: What we give our attention to, we become. If we feed the mind worry and noise, we get more of it. If we feed it care and quiet, we get that.

It is a reason to choose what you read, watch and talk about, and to give yourself some quiet time on the mat.

Read more: stillness in yoga | Also on: The Mind And Meditation

What you think, that is the seed of the future.

What it means: Prashant says what you think now is the seed of what comes next. Thoughts grow into habits and habits into a life.

It is an encouragement to think a little more kindly about your own practice.

Read more: a daily yoga habit that lasts | Also on: The Mind And Meditation

Man should not try to develop confidence. He should try to develop the components of confidence.

What it means: You cannot just decide to be confident. Prashant suggests developing the parts that confidence is made of, such as skill, knowledge and good preparation.

In class, that is why we break poses into steps. Each step builds a part of the confidence.

Read more: learning headstand step by step | Also on: Learning

What about character and a sense of humour?

Last, a few lines that show the Iyengars as people: funny, firm and honest.

I am not hard like iron, but hard like a diamond.

What it means: He was nicknamed Iron Iyengar for his firmness as a teacher. His answer was that he was not hard like iron, but like a diamond: clear, and capable of cutting through.

It shows the humour and self-awareness of the man behind the strict image.

Read more: who was Mr BKS Iyengar?

I believe in the perfection of the yogic system as a vehicle to enlightenment. I also support the Indian cricket team.

What it means: This is Mr Iyengar being funny. He has deep respect for the system of yoga and in the next breath admits to supporting the Indian cricket team.

It reminds us that a serious teacher can also be a fan and a person with ordinary loyalties.

Read more: the eight limbs of yoga explained plainly | Also on: Philosophy, The Sutras And The Ego

Freedom to a child often means the liberty to eat ice cream until he is sick or to stay up watching television till midnight.

What it means: Freedom to a child can mean eating ice cream until sick or staying up late. Real freedom is not doing whatever you like.

It is a reminder that discipline and freedom belong together. The practice gives you more choice by giving you more control.

Read more: managing effort in practice | Also on: Effort And Discipline

Cheats always lose.

What it means: Three words. If you skip the work or fudge the pose, you do not get the benefit. The cheat loses because they were the one who needed the practice.

In class this means doing the pose as it is, honestly, with a prop where you need one. A prop is not cheating, it is teaching.

Read more: using props in yoga: cheating or teaching? | Also on: Philosophy, The Sutras And The Ego

For them food comes first and then yoga. For me, it is yoga first, then food.

What it means: Mr Iyengar is describing his own priorities with a smile, in a chapter about diet. For some people food comes first. For him, practice came first.

It is about how a person arranges their day, and it is not advice about what to eat.

Read more: yoga, food and habits notes | Also on: Practice

Related pages

• Santosha: what contentment means in yoga
• Yoga Philosophy And Iyengar Yoga
• Yoga to uplift your mood
• Who was Mr BKS Iyengar?

Frequently asked questions

What did BKS Iyengar say about happiness?

He said the fewer our demands on life, the greater our ability to see its bounty, and that the right attitude to our possessions is gratitude, not ownership. He also gave a three-word recipe: love, labor and laugh.

What did Geeta Iyengar say about life?

She said that living is an art and that yoga improves the quality of life. She also said that life without happiness is mere existence, and described her own life as simple.

What does Iyengar yoga teach about everyday life?

That balance in the body is a foundation for balance in life, and that presence of mind matters most when things go wrong. Practice is a place to rehearse those things in small ways.

Can I try Iyengar yoga in Darwin?

Yes. Flametree teaches Iyengar yoga in Darwin and LIVE online. New students get a free first class, and there is a half price 10 class pass for new and lapsed students.

Flametree Yoga Studio teaches Iyengar yoga in Darwin and LIVE online. This page is general information about yoga, not medical advice. The quotes are short credited extracts from the books, articles and talks named beside each one.