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Light on Life
B.K.S. Iyengar--hailed as "the Michelangelo of yoga" (BBC) and considered by many to be the most important living yoga master--has spent much of his life introducing the modern world to the ancient practice of yoga. Yoga's popularity is soaring, but its widespread acceptance as an exercise for physical fitness and the recognition of its health benefits have not been matched by an understanding of the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual development that the yogic tradition can also offer. In Light on Life, B.K.S. Iyengar brings readers this new and more complete understanding of the yogic journey. Written with the depth of this sage's great wisdom, Light on Life is the culmination of a master's spiritual genius, a treasured companion to his seminal Light on Yoga.
282 pages, Paperback
First published September 12, 2005
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About the author
B.K.S. Iyengar
193 books513 followersBellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar (Kannada: ಬೆಳ್ಳೂರ್ ಕೃಷ್ಣಮಾಚಾರ್ ಸುಂದರರಾಜ ಐಯಂಗಾರ್), (also known as Yogacharya B.K.S. Iyengar) (Born December 14, 1918 in Bellur, Kolar District, Karnataka, India) is the founder of Iyengar Yoga. He is considered one of the foremost yoga teachers in the world and has been practicing and teaching yoga for more than 75 years. He has written many books on yogic practice and philosophy, and is best known for his books Light on Yoga, Light on Pranayama, and Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. He has also written several definitive yoga texts. Iyengar yoga centers are located throughout the world, and it is believed that millions of students practice Iyengar Yoga.
He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1991, and the Padma Bhushan in 2002.
B.K.S. Iyengar was born into a poor Hebbar Iyengar family. He had a difficult childhood. Iyengar's home village of Belur, Karnataka, India, was in the grips of the influenza pandemic at the time of his birth, leaving him sickly and weak. Iyengar's father died when he was 9 years old, and he continued to suffer from a variety of maladies in childhood, including malaria, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and general malnutrition.
At the age of 15 Iyengar went to live with his brother-in-law, the well-known yogi, Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya in Mysore. There, Iyengar began to learn asana practice, which steadily improved his health. Soon he overcame his childhood weaknesses.
With the encouragement of Krishnamacharya, Iyengar moved to Pune to teach yoga in 1937. There his practice developed as he spent many hours each day learning and experimenting in various techniques. As his methods improved, the number of students at his classes increased and his fame spread. In Pune, his brothers introduced him to Ramamani, whom he married in 1943.
In 1952, Iyengar met and befriended the famous violinist Yehudi Menuhin. Menuhin arranged for Iyengar to teach abroad in London, Switzerland, Paris and elsewhere. This was the first time that many Westerners had been exposed to yoga, and the practice slowly became well known. The popularity of yoga in the West can in large part be attributed to Iyengar.
In 1966, "Light on Yoga," was published. It gradually became an international best-seller and was translated into 17 languages. Often called “the bible of yoga,”[citation needed] it succeeded in making yoga well known throughout the globe. This was later followed by titles on pranayama and various aspects of yoga philosophy. Mr. Iyengar has authored 14 books.
In 1975, Iyengar opened the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune, in memory of his departed wife. He officially retired from teaching in 1984, but continues to be active in the world of Iyengar Yoga, teaching special classes and writing books. Iyengar's daughter Geeta and son Prashant have gained international acclaim as teachers.
Iyengar has been named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine.
He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1991, and the Padma Bhushan in 2002.
B.K.S. Iyengar was born into a poor Hebbar Iyengar family. He had a difficult childhood. Iyengar's home village of Belur, Karnataka, India, was in the grips of the influenza pandemic at the time of his birth, leaving him sickly and weak. Iyengar's father died when he was 9 years old, and he continued to suffer from a variety of maladies in childhood, including malaria, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and general malnutrition.
At the age of 15 Iyengar went to live with his brother-in-law, the well-known yogi, Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya in Mysore. There, Iyengar began to learn asana practice, which steadily improved his health. Soon he overcame his childhood weaknesses.
With the encouragement of Krishnamacharya, Iyengar moved to Pune to teach yoga in 1937. There his practice developed as he spent many hours each day learning and experimenting in various techniques. As his methods improved, the number of students at his classes increased and his fame spread. In Pune, his brothers introduced him to Ramamani, whom he married in 1943.
In 1952, Iyengar met and befriended the famous violinist Yehudi Menuhin. Menuhin arranged for Iyengar to teach abroad in London, Switzerland, Paris and elsewhere. This was the first time that many Westerners had been exposed to yoga, and the practice slowly became well known. The popularity of yoga in the West can in large part be attributed to Iyengar.
In 1966, "Light on Yoga," was published. It gradually became an international best-seller and was translated into 17 languages. Often called “the bible of yoga,”[citation needed] it succeeded in making yoga well known throughout the globe. This was later followed by titles on pranayama and various aspects of yoga philosophy. Mr. Iyengar has authored 14 books.
In 1975, Iyengar opened the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune, in memory of his departed wife. He officially retired from teaching in 1984, but continues to be active in the world of Iyengar Yoga, teaching special classes and writing books. Iyengar's daughter Geeta and son Prashant have gained international acclaim as teachers.
Iyengar has been named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 256 reviews
November 24, 2012
I practiced Hatha yoga for 14 years before becoming a convert to Iyengar yoga in 1987. Iyengar is the only yoga discipline I know of where the teachers are trained in anatomy and physiology. I have heard Mr. Iyengar criticized for not having a "spiritual bone" in his body. My repartee is that when you get deep into yoga you move beyond this dualistic thinking and see the body/mind/spirit/soul as one. This book is good for reading but it is highly advised you have a trained teacher guide you in the asanas (poses) and their various modifications. I love the preface by Yehudi Menunin. Namaste.
September 30, 2010
Iyengar outlines Pantanjali’s eight limbed path in a way that is clear and understandable by illustrating the steps in an applicable manner to the modern reader, yet intertwining concepts that are so true to his own style. I especially liked his quote, "Is it through the alignment of my body that I discovered the alignment of my mind, self, and intelligence. Alignment from the outermost body or sheath to the innermost is the way to bring our own personal Reality into contact with Universal Reality." This book sparked in me an interest and appreciation for Iyengar yoga, all the while bringing to light the eight limbs and the many layers that make up the yogic journey. Iyengar describes the yogic journey as a hard journey stating there are no short cuts, but encouraging the reader by letting them know it is worthwhile and attainable by anyone. This is one of those books I will be re-reading multiple times. There are too many concepts to grasp all at once, and I feel I will always gain something new from his teachings as my practice progresses.
May 7, 2013
This book is truly enlightening on all the finer aspects of yoga I have ever wondered about and which others (mostly online blogging yogis) have barely touched upon with any greater depth.
Iyengar thoroughly explains the layers of experience that we learn to inhabit and cultivate while maintaining a disciplined asana practice. He uses many apt and articulate analogies that highlight the connectedness of yogic philosophy and physical practice in all of its esoteric complexity. I finally learned exactly what I wanted to know and then some on how yoga affects the nervous system and how it reorients the brain both in physiological terms and in more esoteric terms (i.e. the difference and correlations between mind, brain, and natural intelligence working together.) He explains what it is I am really doing when I extend my limbs in an asana from the gross physiological perspective to the finer cellular perspective that goes beyond the boundaries of my body in the current space it occupies.
As well, he explores the roll of time in terms of how the mind processes experience and offers philosophies on the right use of memory and what it means to be always present but to move forward with pure and focused will. He also explores the elements of nature and how asana practice helps us to embody and understand the merging and shaping of these elements within us.
The practice of yoga is now more fully appreciated as a vast exploration of inner space from which to live and act. There is much spirituality in this book, with Iyengar making references to the sayings of Jesus and integrating ideas about ego, which I assume are intended for the Western reader. In Hindu culture, problems of the ego are seen more as psychic interference that arise and accumulate from a lack of self-awareness. Yoga provides a comprehensive and superior meditative practice to help meet, understand, and calm the interferences, eventually allowing one to begin to encounter the everlasting presence of the soul.
This is a book I am going to hang on to for a long time as it is a synthesis of a greater body of yogic wisdom imparted by one who has studied and lived it.
Iyengar thoroughly explains the layers of experience that we learn to inhabit and cultivate while maintaining a disciplined asana practice. He uses many apt and articulate analogies that highlight the connectedness of yogic philosophy and physical practice in all of its esoteric complexity. I finally learned exactly what I wanted to know and then some on how yoga affects the nervous system and how it reorients the brain both in physiological terms and in more esoteric terms (i.e. the difference and correlations between mind, brain, and natural intelligence working together.) He explains what it is I am really doing when I extend my limbs in an asana from the gross physiological perspective to the finer cellular perspective that goes beyond the boundaries of my body in the current space it occupies.
As well, he explores the roll of time in terms of how the mind processes experience and offers philosophies on the right use of memory and what it means to be always present but to move forward with pure and focused will. He also explores the elements of nature and how asana practice helps us to embody and understand the merging and shaping of these elements within us.
The practice of yoga is now more fully appreciated as a vast exploration of inner space from which to live and act. There is much spirituality in this book, with Iyengar making references to the sayings of Jesus and integrating ideas about ego, which I assume are intended for the Western reader. In Hindu culture, problems of the ego are seen more as psychic interference that arise and accumulate from a lack of self-awareness. Yoga provides a comprehensive and superior meditative practice to help meet, understand, and calm the interferences, eventually allowing one to begin to encounter the everlasting presence of the soul.
This is a book I am going to hang on to for a long time as it is a synthesis of a greater body of yogic wisdom imparted by one who has studied and lived it.
December 2, 2008
I'm on my SECOND read in a row! This never happens to me. I've just started over at the beginning. Again, I'm learning with every sentence. I'm a yoga instructor and there's so much here for each serious student of yoga to understand... NO, EVERYONE who reads this book will learn so much about themselves. This book delivers on it's title promise.
May 27, 2010
I love yoga, so I figured I would love this book. And if you already know chakras, yamas and niyamas, Patanjali, the sutras, and all that good stuff then this will be a worthwhile read. Sometimes I find Iyengar to be a bit misogynistic, but I've been told time and again that he's old school, from another culture, etc. etc. so I'm trying not to include too much of that in my opinion of this book. Yogis: read this, it will deepen your practice. Non-yogis: I don't think this is a good place to start. The second half of the book - reaching enlightenment - was a little beyond me at this point. Its a book I'll come back to for reference, but probably not read again cover to cover.
July 7, 2012
B.K.S. Iyengar is one of the most influential yogis in the world today. He’s written a large number of books on yoga and yoga-related subjects.
I love yoga, and have many different yoga books. Most of them are about the asanas or poses. “Light on Life” is completely different from these. Iyengar’s interested in talking about what yoga really is; he also wants to remove certain myths about yoga that people mistakenly believe.
For Iyengar, yoga is a way of living; yoga includes poses, breathing (pranyama), disciplining of the mind, ethics, meditation and much, much more. I can’t begin to explain how full of insight “Light on Life” is. Nor can I explain how thoroughly Iyengar discusses so many different aspects of yoga. “Light on Life” took me almost two years to read. I bought it as a special gift to myself two (or was it three?) Christmases ago, and I’ve been reading it ever since. There is so much here... I am almost stumped about what to include here in my review.
Perhaps I’ll start with his discussion of “asana practice.” Iyengar is determined in this chapter to make it clear that asanas aren’t just a series of exercises. Westerners have turned to yoga to get fit, and to get beautiful bodies. If they diligently practice yoga, they will achieve both. But for Iyengar, yoga is primarily a spiritual practice. One of his famous phrases is “Yoga is meditation and meditation is yoga.” Every time a person does yoga, he/she practices meditation. You cannot do yoga without becoming aware of your body, your moods, your passing thoughts, your desires, your emotional aches and pains, your physical aches and pains etc....
Doing yoga changes a person because asanas give us the gift of awareness. It doesn’t happen instantly, but over a long period of time, and with diligent and long practices. Did I mention that Iyengar believes in LONG practices and REGULAR practices. Going once a week to a yoga class doesn’t cut it. You have to set up a regular routine in which you tune into your body daily. This requires huge discipline, but it doesn’t have to happen overnight. He suggests starting with a mere 10 minutes in the morning. Once you’ve managed to do this over a period of time, you can practice for 12 minutes. Change needs to be that gradual.
In the asana chapter, Iyengar also spends a long time discussing what needs to be happening mentally and physically during a yoga practice. Physically, you need to sweat. I’ve had trouble with this one, since I don’t sweat easily. In fact, it takes a lot to make me sweat, especially in the wintertime. But beginners, he says, usually have this problem. We don’t work hard enough in the poses to sweat. After a period of time, a ‘wet’ practice starts to happen. Hence the usual yoga instruction to bathe before and after your practice. Okay. You have to work hard in the poses. But what happens mentally? The main thing is awareness. Let’s say you’re doing triangle pose. Good yoga practice means thinking all the time about a) how your feet are positioned b) what’s going in with your legs - which way are they turned c) how the insides of your body are expanding, contracting, filling space etc.... It’s a very active, demanding practice.
This book challenges me. It’s written from decades of experience. The pictures of Iyengar and age 88 something doing incredible yoga postures are unbelievable. Wow! How can he do them? His answer is just regular practice. What an inspiring man. I may never have the chance to meet Iyengar (though I’d like to), but I feel very grateful for his inspiring words and instructions!
Get this book if you’re interested in expanding your yoga practice. It’s very inspiring!
I love yoga, and have many different yoga books. Most of them are about the asanas or poses. “Light on Life” is completely different from these. Iyengar’s interested in talking about what yoga really is; he also wants to remove certain myths about yoga that people mistakenly believe.
For Iyengar, yoga is a way of living; yoga includes poses, breathing (pranyama), disciplining of the mind, ethics, meditation and much, much more. I can’t begin to explain how full of insight “Light on Life” is. Nor can I explain how thoroughly Iyengar discusses so many different aspects of yoga. “Light on Life” took me almost two years to read. I bought it as a special gift to myself two (or was it three?) Christmases ago, and I’ve been reading it ever since. There is so much here... I am almost stumped about what to include here in my review.
Perhaps I’ll start with his discussion of “asana practice.” Iyengar is determined in this chapter to make it clear that asanas aren’t just a series of exercises. Westerners have turned to yoga to get fit, and to get beautiful bodies. If they diligently practice yoga, they will achieve both. But for Iyengar, yoga is primarily a spiritual practice. One of his famous phrases is “Yoga is meditation and meditation is yoga.” Every time a person does yoga, he/she practices meditation. You cannot do yoga without becoming aware of your body, your moods, your passing thoughts, your desires, your emotional aches and pains, your physical aches and pains etc....
Doing yoga changes a person because asanas give us the gift of awareness. It doesn’t happen instantly, but over a long period of time, and with diligent and long practices. Did I mention that Iyengar believes in LONG practices and REGULAR practices. Going once a week to a yoga class doesn’t cut it. You have to set up a regular routine in which you tune into your body daily. This requires huge discipline, but it doesn’t have to happen overnight. He suggests starting with a mere 10 minutes in the morning. Once you’ve managed to do this over a period of time, you can practice for 12 minutes. Change needs to be that gradual.
In the asana chapter, Iyengar also spends a long time discussing what needs to be happening mentally and physically during a yoga practice. Physically, you need to sweat. I’ve had trouble with this one, since I don’t sweat easily. In fact, it takes a lot to make me sweat, especially in the wintertime. But beginners, he says, usually have this problem. We don’t work hard enough in the poses to sweat. After a period of time, a ‘wet’ practice starts to happen. Hence the usual yoga instruction to bathe before and after your practice. Okay. You have to work hard in the poses. But what happens mentally? The main thing is awareness. Let’s say you’re doing triangle pose. Good yoga practice means thinking all the time about a) how your feet are positioned b) what’s going in with your legs - which way are they turned c) how the insides of your body are expanding, contracting, filling space etc.... It’s a very active, demanding practice.
This book challenges me. It’s written from decades of experience. The pictures of Iyengar and age 88 something doing incredible yoga postures are unbelievable. Wow! How can he do them? His answer is just regular practice. What an inspiring man. I may never have the chance to meet Iyengar (though I’d like to), but I feel very grateful for his inspiring words and instructions!
Get this book if you’re interested in expanding your yoga practice. It’s very inspiring!
February 3, 2010
It's too bad this title sounds so much like the other thousands of books out there on yoga, self-improvement, etc. This one brings clarity to the confused, contradictory, flimsy info on yoga's vision of the self, mind & spirit, and Iyengar is always looking out for ways to make the information transferable to a western experience. His thoughts on vanilla ice cream are particularly enlightening.
("This one is different" is just as familiar as the title, I know. But it is different.)
And also, I just love Iyengar. Look at that smile!
("This one is different" is just as familiar as the title, I know. But it is different.)
And also, I just love Iyengar. Look at that smile!
May 19, 2017
This will stay on my nightstand for the rest of my life, along with the Gita. Currently reading forever!
July 7, 2024
Iyengar does not teach yoga poses (asanas) or breathing (pranyama) or meditation in this book. Please read Light on Yoga for asanas, or Light on Pranyama for pranyama.
I am a 200h RYT yoga teacher in the UK, and I would highly recommend this to advanced students of yoga looking for a developed view beyond the 8 limbs (or petals) of yoga. You should already have a familiarity with yoga practice and a background on what the 8 limbs of yoga are, because they are not clearly outlined here. If you do not have these, I would highly recommend The Heart of Yoga by Desikachar, as it is excellently structured for beginners to yoga theory/philosophy.
Light on Life feels like Iyengar's autobiography and final words on yoga. Iyengar was one of the three main people who first brought yoga to the West and standardized contemporary yoga practice (Iyengar, Jois, Desikachar). He is also sadly one of few yoga gurus who was not at some point accused of ethical misconduct, which in my view makes his principles particularly worth defending. He also has a good sense of humour, an enduring love for his wife, and an overarching view of yoga, all of which are accommodating to his teaching principles for yoga.
Light on Life focuses on discussing the 5 Kosas view of yoga, which according to yoga history in The Roots of Yoga, is one of the most historically recent views of conceptualizing yoga (which fascinatingly has no clear historical lineage). Light on Life is interested in how to integrate yoga in life, about living yoga off the mat.
This book excels in the asana and pranyama sections, has helpful passages describing examples of yama and niyamas (which are often difficult to define!), but is harder to follow for the other limbs. The kosa view is also very new and is something I still need further grounding in, but I found myself less engaged in later parts of the book perhaps because my journey is still young and I am yet to systematically explore and understand the mental experience toward a kundalini awakening/enlightenment.
Potential criticisms are Iyengar's perspective is a bit prescriptive (his system of yoga is that there are correct and incorrect ways of doing things). If that is not aligned with your view, I encourage Desikachar's approach or those of many others, but Iyengar's fans praise his delineation and approach to using unified sensation to guide progession in yoga. Another cricitism might be that Iyengar also moves into what I call "old Indian man" mode in the latter part of the book (you will relate if you have Indian relatives) when trying to explain how the brain works, where his confidence oversteps our knowledge of neuroanatomy. As a recent PhD graduate of neuroanatomy, a lot of yoga theory about brain function is overly reductive and not based on evidence, and I've found it better to see these as overstated poetic descriptions rather than evidence-based claims. Iyengar also might seem sexist, but relative to Indian men of his generation I assure you he is very progressive! Defense for him in this is his dedication to his wife, his explicit statement that he tries to keep female practitioners away from him so as to avoid sexual immorality, and in small side points such as in the next sentence. In savasana there is a shedding identities, where he mentions that even gender identity falls away in meditation, which to me showed Iyengar sees all genders as welcome and as a conscious construct somewhat aligned with Judith Butler's views on queer theory (he also reiterates that 'yoga is for all' in introduction sections to all of his books).
All in all, this is good for someone already invested in yoga, not for someone who has not thought outside of asana and pranyama, and certainly not for someone who has just started or is new to yoga. But it is a canonical text for the future of yoga philosophy and so I cannot give it any less than 5* for innovating this special and still underdefined thing we call yoga.
I am a 200h RYT yoga teacher in the UK, and I would highly recommend this to advanced students of yoga looking for a developed view beyond the 8 limbs (or petals) of yoga. You should already have a familiarity with yoga practice and a background on what the 8 limbs of yoga are, because they are not clearly outlined here. If you do not have these, I would highly recommend The Heart of Yoga by Desikachar, as it is excellently structured for beginners to yoga theory/philosophy.
Light on Life feels like Iyengar's autobiography and final words on yoga. Iyengar was one of the three main people who first brought yoga to the West and standardized contemporary yoga practice (Iyengar, Jois, Desikachar). He is also sadly one of few yoga gurus who was not at some point accused of ethical misconduct, which in my view makes his principles particularly worth defending. He also has a good sense of humour, an enduring love for his wife, and an overarching view of yoga, all of which are accommodating to his teaching principles for yoga.
Light on Life focuses on discussing the 5 Kosas view of yoga, which according to yoga history in The Roots of Yoga, is one of the most historically recent views of conceptualizing yoga (which fascinatingly has no clear historical lineage). Light on Life is interested in how to integrate yoga in life, about living yoga off the mat.
This book excels in the asana and pranyama sections, has helpful passages describing examples of yama and niyamas (which are often difficult to define!), but is harder to follow for the other limbs. The kosa view is also very new and is something I still need further grounding in, but I found myself less engaged in later parts of the book perhaps because my journey is still young and I am yet to systematically explore and understand the mental experience toward a kundalini awakening/enlightenment.
Potential criticisms are Iyengar's perspective is a bit prescriptive (his system of yoga is that there are correct and incorrect ways of doing things). If that is not aligned with your view, I encourage Desikachar's approach or those of many others, but Iyengar's fans praise his delineation and approach to using unified sensation to guide progession in yoga. Another cricitism might be that Iyengar also moves into what I call "old Indian man" mode in the latter part of the book (you will relate if you have Indian relatives) when trying to explain how the brain works, where his confidence oversteps our knowledge of neuroanatomy. As a recent PhD graduate of neuroanatomy, a lot of yoga theory about brain function is overly reductive and not based on evidence, and I've found it better to see these as overstated poetic descriptions rather than evidence-based claims. Iyengar also might seem sexist, but relative to Indian men of his generation I assure you he is very progressive! Defense for him in this is his dedication to his wife, his explicit statement that he tries to keep female practitioners away from him so as to avoid sexual immorality, and in small side points such as in the next sentence. In savasana there is a shedding identities, where he mentions that even gender identity falls away in meditation, which to me showed Iyengar sees all genders as welcome and as a conscious construct somewhat aligned with Judith Butler's views on queer theory (he also reiterates that 'yoga is for all' in introduction sections to all of his books).
All in all, this is good for someone already invested in yoga, not for someone who has not thought outside of asana and pranyama, and certainly not for someone who has just started or is new to yoga. But it is a canonical text for the future of yoga philosophy and so I cannot give it any less than 5* for innovating this special and still underdefined thing we call yoga.
March 8, 2012
Life changing ... I am really enjoying how it is changing my perspective on how I move through the world.
June 4, 2021
A book I'm no doubt going to have to come back to for many many years. The read beautifully complements my observation of my own yoga practice, and deepens my understanding of it by multitudes. There are a lot of aspects I am perhaps too inexperienced in life and practice to connect to yet, which is when the re-reads may come in handy.
August 8, 2008
This is an excellent addition to B.K.S Iyengar's Light on Yoga. Seriously everyone who is searching for something "more" should consider the relativeness of yoga--not just as stretching, but as a spiritual practice toward's growing into your full potential.
I started this book last night, and I'm having a hard time putting it down.
Oh my goodness, I can't even begin to explain how amazing this book has been for me. As I said before, this book is relatable to anyone, even if they've never done a yoga pose in their life. It is easy to read, and Iyengar is very real with his philosophies about compassion, pain, healilng, forgiveness, ego, knowledge, intelligence...I am changed because of this book.
If you are struggling with something and you are wanting to work through it and gain knowledge from your journey, but you just don't know where to begin...I would recommend you read this book.
I started this book last night, and I'm having a hard time putting it down.
Oh my goodness, I can't even begin to explain how amazing this book has been for me. As I said before, this book is relatable to anyone, even if they've never done a yoga pose in their life. It is easy to read, and Iyengar is very real with his philosophies about compassion, pain, healilng, forgiveness, ego, knowledge, intelligence...I am changed because of this book.
If you are struggling with something and you are wanting to work through it and gain knowledge from your journey, but you just don't know where to begin...I would recommend you read this book.
January 12, 2013
Really quite good. Nothing astonishingly new if you have read Buddhist, Hindu or Yoga philosophy but he presents it in a clear and well organized manner.
Certainly plenty of quotable bits as well as moments where you are inspired to pause and thing about it. And, of course, like any such work moments that don't quite resonate with you as well - for me the comments about Yogi's not dreaming clashed with my Shamanistic bent. ;-)
But still very much worth reading if you have a more than passing interest in the spiritual basis of yoga and its applications in asana practice and life in general.
Certainly plenty of quotable bits as well as moments where you are inspired to pause and thing about it. And, of course, like any such work moments that don't quite resonate with you as well - for me the comments about Yogi's not dreaming clashed with my Shamanistic bent. ;-)
But still very much worth reading if you have a more than passing interest in the spiritual basis of yoga and its applications in asana practice and life in general.
June 8, 2009
Practicing yoga throughout the years, I longed for background....loved Iyengar's take on the physical body, the energy body, the mental body, the intellectual body and finally living in freedom.
January 15, 2017
“If you take up any noble line and stick to it, you can reach the ultimate. Be inspired but not proud. Do not aim low; you will miss the mark. Aim high; you will be on the threshold of bliss.” (p. x)
“…human life has always had the same hardships and the same challenges- making a living, raising a family, and finding meaning and purpose. These have always and will always be the challenges that we humans face. As animals, we walk the earth. As bearers of a 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 the earth while striving for something more permanent and more profound. So many seek this greater Truth in the heavens, but it lies much closer than the clouds. It is within us and can be found by anyone on the Inward Journey.” (p.xiii)
“Life itself seeks fulfilment as plants seek the sunlight. The Universe did not create Life in the hope that the failure of the majority would underscore the success of a few. Spiritually at least, we live in a democracy, an equal opportunity society.” (p.xiv)
“Yoga does not look on greed, violence, sloth, excess, pride, lust, and fear as ineradicable forms of original sin that exist to wreck our happiness- or indeed on which to found our happiness. They are seen as natural, if unwelcome, manifestations of the human disposition and predicament that are to be solved, not suppressed or denied. Our flawed mechanisms of perception and thought are not a cause for grief (thought they bring us grief), but as an opportunity to evolve, for an internal evolution of consciousness that will also make possible in a sustainable form our aspirations toward what we call individual success and global progress.” (p.xv)
“Yoga has a threefold impact on health. It keeps healthy people healthy, it inhibits the development of diseases, and it aids in the recovery of ill health.” (p.23)
“There is an exercise of will, but the brain must be willing to listen to the body and see what is reasonable and prudent within the body’s capacity. The intelligence of the body is a fact. It is real. The intelligence of the brain is only imagination. So the imagination has to be made real.” (p.29)
“Slow motion allows reflective intelligence. It allows our minds to watch the movement and leads to a skillful action. The art of yoga lies in the acuity of observation.” (p.31)
“The goal of all asana practice is doing them from the core of your being and extending out dynamically through the periphery of your body.” (p.33)
“When most people stretch, they simply stretch to the point that they are trying to reach, but they forget to extend and expand from where they are. When you extend and expand, you are not only stretching to, you are also stretching from.” (p.33)
“While stretching, you must always create space and extend from your center. Compression is bondage, and expansion is freedom.” (p.35)
“Let your eyes be like flowers, blossoming. Feeling is looking; looking is feeling. You have to feel with your eyes open. If the eyes are outward rather than inward, there is no integration.” (p.39)
“We are seeking the balance of polarity, not the antagonism of duality.” (p.41)
“..the three qualities of nature, which are called the guna…is made up of three complementary forces. They are: tamas (mass or inertia), rajas (vibrancy or dynamism), and sattva (luminosity or the quality of light).” (p.44/45)
“Only when there is pain will you see the light. Pain is your guru. As we experience pleasures happily, we must also learn not to lose our happiness when pain comes. As we see good in pleasure, we should learn to see good in pain. Learn to find comfort even in discomfort. We must not try to run from pain but to move through and beyond it.” (p.47)
“…practice is not just about pleasurable sensations. It is about awareness, and awareness leads us to notice and understand both the pleasure and the pain.” (p.48)
“Asana practice is an opportunity to look at obstacles in practice and life and discover how we can cope with them.” (p.51)
“Pain comes to guide you. When you have known pain, you will be compassionate. Shared joys cannot teach us this.” (p.52)
“Do not be afraid. Do not be attached to your body. Even if fear comes, accept it and find the courage to come through it. When you experience fear, you must practice without attachment to the body, thinking of it objectively and as an opportunity for creative work. When fear is not there, you can treat the body more subjectively, as a part of yourself that nonetheless requires practice and cultivation.” (p.55)
“An asana is not a posture that can ever be assumed mechanically. It involves thought and therefore innovation and improvisation, at the end of which a balance is achieved between movement and resistance. Never repeat: A repetition makes the mind dull. You must always animate and create interest in what you are doing.” (p.57)
“Know your capacities and continually improve upon them.” (p.60)
“We all receive God-given talents, and it is our duty to develop them energetically to realize their full potential, otherwise it is as if we are turning our nose up at the gifts of life. But more than that, our talents, however much they may vary from individual to individual, when realized to the full, provide the link that will take us back to a reunion with the divine.” (p.61)
“You must do an asana with your soul. How can you do an asana with your soul? We can only do it with the organ that is closest to the soul- the heart. So a virtuous asana is done from the heart and not from the head.” (p.63)
“Prana is also often called wind, vital air. The Bible begins its description of Creation with the sentence, “God’s breath moved upon the waters.” Prana is God’s breath. Prana is the energy permeating the universe at all levels. It is physical, mental, intellectual, sexual, spiritual, and cosmic energy.” (p.66)
“Watching the flow of breath also teaches stability of consciousness, which leads to concentration. There is no finer method.” (p.72)
“Most Westerners try to solve their emotional problems through intellectual understanding. Emotional issues can, however, be resolved only through emotional understanding.” (p.84)
“Yoga is against bondage. Bondage is being tied to patterns of behavior from which we cannot withdraw. Repetition leads to boredom, and eventually boredom is a form of torture.” (p.93)
“When you stare at a sunset, you are filled with its beauty, but the sunset remains as beautiful as ever. When you resent the happiness of others, you lose even the little that you have.” (p.95)
In Sanskrit, pratyahara literally means ‘to draw toward the opposite.’…Pratyahara, then, implies going against the grain, a difficult retraction…” (p.100)
“You will not reach Knowledge of the Divine Self without passing through self-knowledge. Your practice is your laboratory, and your methods must become ever more penetrating and sophisticated. Whether you are in asana or doing pranayama, the awareness of the body extends outward, but the senses of perception, mind, and intelligence should be drawn inward.” (p.102)
“Yoga points out how we generally react to the outside world by forming entrenched patterns of behavior that doom us to relive the same moments endlessly, though in a superficial variety of forms and combinations.” (p.111)
“The French philosopher Descartes said happiness does not consist in acquiring the things we think will make us happy, but in learning to like the things we have to do anyway.” (p.112)
”What we call consumer choice is not a choice but a selection. It offers only an illusion of freedom. The choice to consume has already been made.” (p.114)
“It is the consciousness of being conscious that makes us human. Trees are conscious too; a clump of oaks harmoniously spreads its limbs for the benefit of each leaf, each individual tree in the group. But they are not consciously conscious. The consciousness of nature is unconscious. The history of humankind can be described as a journey from unconsciousness to conscious consciousness or self-awareness.” (p.125)
“It is through the acute awareness and speed of action that we cultivate in asana and pranayama that we can reform ourselves.” (p.140)
“If repetition is taking place, then memory retards the path of evolution. Do not live in memory. Memory is only the means to know whether we are fully aware and evolving. Never think of yesterday. Only go back if you feel that you are doing something wrong. Use yesterday’s experience as a springboard. Living in the past or longing to repeat past experience will only stagnate intelligence.” (p.144)
“Our cells die by the million every minute, but at least if we bring life to them, they live before they die.” (p.145)
“All that makes me up is now known, and I live in the awareness of the sum of its parts.” (p.150)
“The loving intention behind cooking is to sustain, nourish, and uphold others. This intention can be transmitted best through a pure or clean consciousness. Clean body, clean mind, clean hands, and clean pots and pans equal a happy, healthy, loving family.” (p.151)
“The true poet had his feet on the ground. Never mind the idea, write it down.” (p.157)
“By cultivating intelligence and learning from mistakes, we weed out what is wrong. Any gardener will tell you that weeds grow back, but at least they are easier to dig up if we catch them before they are fully grown.” (p.164)
“Yoga is a thoroughly tested technique whereby the Will, working through an intelligence that can choose and a self-aware consciousness, can free us from inevitability. By these means, we can walk deliberately toward an individual emancipation and, by the grace of Heaven, a universal freedom.” (p.170)
“We say intelligence has insight. We should complement that by saying that the soul has an ‘outsight;’ it is a beacon shining out.” (p.173)
“One should be natural, like a happy, confident child. The soul seeks nothing more than to expand to fill our whole being. But still we maintain an internal cringe, a sense of unworthiness, which often we mask by a projection of an arrogant, false personality.” (p.173)
“Ego aids and abets all flaws of intelligence.” (p.177)
“…you cannot meditate from a starting point of stress, or bodily infirmity.” (p.183)
“Do not confuse Aloneness with loneliness. Loneliness is separation from the cosmos. Aloneness is to become the common denominator of the Cosmic All.” (p.184)
“It is ignorance, or the fundamental misapprehension of Reality, that underpins and feeds all the other afflictions.” (p.200)
“We have to keep on questioning ourselves, or else transformation will not take place. Advance with faith, yes, but always call yourself into question. Where there is pride there is always ignorance.” (p.202)
“…inside the microcosm of the individual exists the macrocosm of the universe.” (p.203)
“Tension results from clutching tightly to life- and in turn being held by the myriad invisible threads that tie us to the known world, the known ‘I,’ and the known environment in which it operates.” (p.232)
“Truth is the soul communicating with the conscience. If the conscience transmits this to consciousness and then turns it into action, it is as if our acts become divine, because there is no interruption between the vision of the soul and the execution of its acts.” (p.251)
“Wealth that is not redistributed will stagnate and poison us. Wealth is energy, and energy is intended to circulate.” (p.254)
“…human life has always had the same hardships and the same challenges- making a living, raising a family, and finding meaning and purpose. These have always and will always be the challenges that we humans face. As animals, we walk the earth. As bearers of a 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 the earth while striving for something more permanent and more profound. So many seek this greater Truth in the heavens, but it lies much closer than the clouds. It is within us and can be found by anyone on the Inward Journey.” (p.xiii)
“Life itself seeks fulfilment as plants seek the sunlight. The Universe did not create Life in the hope that the failure of the majority would underscore the success of a few. Spiritually at least, we live in a democracy, an equal opportunity society.” (p.xiv)
“Yoga does not look on greed, violence, sloth, excess, pride, lust, and fear as ineradicable forms of original sin that exist to wreck our happiness- or indeed on which to found our happiness. They are seen as natural, if unwelcome, manifestations of the human disposition and predicament that are to be solved, not suppressed or denied. Our flawed mechanisms of perception and thought are not a cause for grief (thought they bring us grief), but as an opportunity to evolve, for an internal evolution of consciousness that will also make possible in a sustainable form our aspirations toward what we call individual success and global progress.” (p.xv)
“Yoga has a threefold impact on health. It keeps healthy people healthy, it inhibits the development of diseases, and it aids in the recovery of ill health.” (p.23)
“There is an exercise of will, but the brain must be willing to listen to the body and see what is reasonable and prudent within the body’s capacity. The intelligence of the body is a fact. It is real. The intelligence of the brain is only imagination. So the imagination has to be made real.” (p.29)
“Slow motion allows reflective intelligence. It allows our minds to watch the movement and leads to a skillful action. The art of yoga lies in the acuity of observation.” (p.31)
“The goal of all asana practice is doing them from the core of your being and extending out dynamically through the periphery of your body.” (p.33)
“When most people stretch, they simply stretch to the point that they are trying to reach, but they forget to extend and expand from where they are. When you extend and expand, you are not only stretching to, you are also stretching from.” (p.33)
“While stretching, you must always create space and extend from your center. Compression is bondage, and expansion is freedom.” (p.35)
“Let your eyes be like flowers, blossoming. Feeling is looking; looking is feeling. You have to feel with your eyes open. If the eyes are outward rather than inward, there is no integration.” (p.39)
“We are seeking the balance of polarity, not the antagonism of duality.” (p.41)
“..the three qualities of nature, which are called the guna…is made up of three complementary forces. They are: tamas (mass or inertia), rajas (vibrancy or dynamism), and sattva (luminosity or the quality of light).” (p.44/45)
“Only when there is pain will you see the light. Pain is your guru. As we experience pleasures happily, we must also learn not to lose our happiness when pain comes. As we see good in pleasure, we should learn to see good in pain. Learn to find comfort even in discomfort. We must not try to run from pain but to move through and beyond it.” (p.47)
“…practice is not just about pleasurable sensations. It is about awareness, and awareness leads us to notice and understand both the pleasure and the pain.” (p.48)
“Asana practice is an opportunity to look at obstacles in practice and life and discover how we can cope with them.” (p.51)
“Pain comes to guide you. When you have known pain, you will be compassionate. Shared joys cannot teach us this.” (p.52)
“Do not be afraid. Do not be attached to your body. Even if fear comes, accept it and find the courage to come through it. When you experience fear, you must practice without attachment to the body, thinking of it objectively and as an opportunity for creative work. When fear is not there, you can treat the body more subjectively, as a part of yourself that nonetheless requires practice and cultivation.” (p.55)
“An asana is not a posture that can ever be assumed mechanically. It involves thought and therefore innovation and improvisation, at the end of which a balance is achieved between movement and resistance. Never repeat: A repetition makes the mind dull. You must always animate and create interest in what you are doing.” (p.57)
“Know your capacities and continually improve upon them.” (p.60)
“We all receive God-given talents, and it is our duty to develop them energetically to realize their full potential, otherwise it is as if we are turning our nose up at the gifts of life. But more than that, our talents, however much they may vary from individual to individual, when realized to the full, provide the link that will take us back to a reunion with the divine.” (p.61)
“You must do an asana with your soul. How can you do an asana with your soul? We can only do it with the organ that is closest to the soul- the heart. So a virtuous asana is done from the heart and not from the head.” (p.63)
“Prana is also often called wind, vital air. The Bible begins its description of Creation with the sentence, “God’s breath moved upon the waters.” Prana is God’s breath. Prana is the energy permeating the universe at all levels. It is physical, mental, intellectual, sexual, spiritual, and cosmic energy.” (p.66)
“Watching the flow of breath also teaches stability of consciousness, which leads to concentration. There is no finer method.” (p.72)
“Most Westerners try to solve their emotional problems through intellectual understanding. Emotional issues can, however, be resolved only through emotional understanding.” (p.84)
“Yoga is against bondage. Bondage is being tied to patterns of behavior from which we cannot withdraw. Repetition leads to boredom, and eventually boredom is a form of torture.” (p.93)
“When you stare at a sunset, you are filled with its beauty, but the sunset remains as beautiful as ever. When you resent the happiness of others, you lose even the little that you have.” (p.95)
In Sanskrit, pratyahara literally means ‘to draw toward the opposite.’…Pratyahara, then, implies going against the grain, a difficult retraction…” (p.100)
“You will not reach Knowledge of the Divine Self without passing through self-knowledge. Your practice is your laboratory, and your methods must become ever more penetrating and sophisticated. Whether you are in asana or doing pranayama, the awareness of the body extends outward, but the senses of perception, mind, and intelligence should be drawn inward.” (p.102)
“Yoga points out how we generally react to the outside world by forming entrenched patterns of behavior that doom us to relive the same moments endlessly, though in a superficial variety of forms and combinations.” (p.111)
“The French philosopher Descartes said happiness does not consist in acquiring the things we think will make us happy, but in learning to like the things we have to do anyway.” (p.112)
”What we call consumer choice is not a choice but a selection. It offers only an illusion of freedom. The choice to consume has already been made.” (p.114)
“It is the consciousness of being conscious that makes us human. Trees are conscious too; a clump of oaks harmoniously spreads its limbs for the benefit of each leaf, each individual tree in the group. But they are not consciously conscious. The consciousness of nature is unconscious. The history of humankind can be described as a journey from unconsciousness to conscious consciousness or self-awareness.” (p.125)
“It is through the acute awareness and speed of action that we cultivate in asana and pranayama that we can reform ourselves.” (p.140)
“If repetition is taking place, then memory retards the path of evolution. Do not live in memory. Memory is only the means to know whether we are fully aware and evolving. Never think of yesterday. Only go back if you feel that you are doing something wrong. Use yesterday’s experience as a springboard. Living in the past or longing to repeat past experience will only stagnate intelligence.” (p.144)
“Our cells die by the million every minute, but at least if we bring life to them, they live before they die.” (p.145)
“All that makes me up is now known, and I live in the awareness of the sum of its parts.” (p.150)
“The loving intention behind cooking is to sustain, nourish, and uphold others. This intention can be transmitted best through a pure or clean consciousness. Clean body, clean mind, clean hands, and clean pots and pans equal a happy, healthy, loving family.” (p.151)
“The true poet had his feet on the ground. Never mind the idea, write it down.” (p.157)
“By cultivating intelligence and learning from mistakes, we weed out what is wrong. Any gardener will tell you that weeds grow back, but at least they are easier to dig up if we catch them before they are fully grown.” (p.164)
“Yoga is a thoroughly tested technique whereby the Will, working through an intelligence that can choose and a self-aware consciousness, can free us from inevitability. By these means, we can walk deliberately toward an individual emancipation and, by the grace of Heaven, a universal freedom.” (p.170)
“We say intelligence has insight. We should complement that by saying that the soul has an ‘outsight;’ it is a beacon shining out.” (p.173)
“One should be natural, like a happy, confident child. The soul seeks nothing more than to expand to fill our whole being. But still we maintain an internal cringe, a sense of unworthiness, which often we mask by a projection of an arrogant, false personality.” (p.173)
“Ego aids and abets all flaws of intelligence.” (p.177)
“…you cannot meditate from a starting point of stress, or bodily infirmity.” (p.183)
“Do not confuse Aloneness with loneliness. Loneliness is separation from the cosmos. Aloneness is to become the common denominator of the Cosmic All.” (p.184)
“It is ignorance, or the fundamental misapprehension of Reality, that underpins and feeds all the other afflictions.” (p.200)
“We have to keep on questioning ourselves, or else transformation will not take place. Advance with faith, yes, but always call yourself into question. Where there is pride there is always ignorance.” (p.202)
“…inside the microcosm of the individual exists the macrocosm of the universe.” (p.203)
“Tension results from clutching tightly to life- and in turn being held by the myriad invisible threads that tie us to the known world, the known ‘I,’ and the known environment in which it operates.” (p.232)
“Truth is the soul communicating with the conscience. If the conscience transmits this to consciousness and then turns it into action, it is as if our acts become divine, because there is no interruption between the vision of the soul and the execution of its acts.” (p.251)
“Wealth that is not redistributed will stagnate and poison us. Wealth is energy, and energy is intended to circulate.” (p.254)
December 30, 2025
Iyengar is truly one of the greats. Cannot recommend this book enough. I feel like so many concepts finally clicked for me.
August 26, 2010
This book was a lot more spiritual than I was expecting it to be, which was awesome. I think maybe I got this book mixed up with Light on Yoga, one of Iyengar's earlier works, which I also want to read. Anyway, I loved this book. Iyengar goes step by step describing how yoga benefits the body, the emotions, the mind, and the spirit, helping the yogi to become a peaceful person united with the Divine. I really feel like I learned a lot and that this book helped me in my practice. Plus Iyengar's so feisty in his prose. He's working with these big concepts of love and honesty and consciousness and ego, and so it seems like he works hard to make that relatable, to bring it back to how this stuff is applicable in daily life when you're stopping at the grocery store on the way home from work. When he does this, it's both easy to understand and kind of hilarious. Here's an example:
He goes on to describe how the ice cream is tempting and the ego wants it but if we use our conscious intelligence we will withstand the temptation. But, man, when that ice cream showed up looking so serious at the end of that paragraph, I near laughed out loud on the train.
The book definitely isn't all humorous like that (and I don't even think he intended it to be humorous)--there are just little gems scattered throughout the book that made me smile and kept me on my toes. Overall, though, this wasn't an easy book to read. I've been reading it since late June. But it was really good material to wrestle with, and I might want to reread it again sometime.
Now I want to describe how mind, ego, and intelligence collaborate (or not) in a trivial everyday situation. We have the model in our mind's eye of consciousness as a circle.... This is static, which the world certainly is not, so we shall launch a challenge to consciousness in the form of an external sense object. This will be a very large tub of vanilla ice cream. (p128)
He goes on to describe how the ice cream is tempting and the ego wants it but if we use our conscious intelligence we will withstand the temptation. But, man, when that ice cream showed up looking so serious at the end of that paragraph, I near laughed out loud on the train.
The book definitely isn't all humorous like that (and I don't even think he intended it to be humorous)--there are just little gems scattered throughout the book that made me smile and kept me on my toes. Overall, though, this wasn't an easy book to read. I've been reading it since late June. But it was really good material to wrestle with, and I might want to reread it again sometime.
June 23, 2013
Light on Life completely blew me away. It's no wonder this is often required reading for Yoga teacher certification programs. It was the very reason I found myself eagerly devouring this magnificence.
Don't let the cover fool you. This smiling fellow, the great Mr. Iyengar, not only knows his stuff, he keeps it real so you don't need a philosophy degree to know what the heck is going on.
This is a book any Yogi should read.
I strongly feel that Light on Life is so valuable that it should be read repeatedly throughout the course of one's life. You would be hard pressed to find any work with so much wisdom in one place.
Iyengar's writing – his points, analogies, emotions, and practicalities – were immaculate. Coupled with simple revelations, each page delivers inspiration without fail.
And after pouring so much insight, Iyengar ends with a quote from Goya: "Aun aprendo." I am still learning.
Brilliant.
Britt Skrabanek
http://brittskrabanek.com
Don't let the cover fool you. This smiling fellow, the great Mr. Iyengar, not only knows his stuff, he keeps it real so you don't need a philosophy degree to know what the heck is going on.
This is a book any Yogi should read.
I strongly feel that Light on Life is so valuable that it should be read repeatedly throughout the course of one's life. You would be hard pressed to find any work with so much wisdom in one place.
Iyengar's writing – his points, analogies, emotions, and practicalities – were immaculate. Coupled with simple revelations, each page delivers inspiration without fail.
And after pouring so much insight, Iyengar ends with a quote from Goya: "Aun aprendo." I am still learning.
Brilliant.
Britt Skrabanek
http://brittskrabanek.com
October 1, 2015
Light on Life is a philosophical approach to yoga from Iyengar and the last book he wrote before his death at the age of 95 in 2014.
Yoga these days is incredibly mainstream. We see yoga classes in TV shows even commericals like AFLAC have latched onto the Eastern study of the union of mind and body.
Over the past couple decades, I've tried most of the branches of yoga and I've found the older I get the more I return to Iyengar's adherence to form. Flow, heat, etc. are all fine. The Americanization of yoga has made the practice universal-- something all can jump into, depending on the branch you're looking for.
Light on Life is, as I said above, a philosophical book, not an exercise book; it also provides autobiographical details of Iyengar's life, my favorite being when Pope Paul asked to have Iyengar teach him yoga, but the lessons never happened because the Pope was fearful that the planned clandestine classes would get leaked and he'd appear a heretic.
Yoga these days is incredibly mainstream. We see yoga classes in TV shows even commericals like AFLAC have latched onto the Eastern study of the union of mind and body.
Over the past couple decades, I've tried most of the branches of yoga and I've found the older I get the more I return to Iyengar's adherence to form. Flow, heat, etc. are all fine. The Americanization of yoga has made the practice universal-- something all can jump into, depending on the branch you're looking for.
Light on Life is, as I said above, a philosophical book, not an exercise book; it also provides autobiographical details of Iyengar's life, my favorite being when Pope Paul asked to have Iyengar teach him yoga, but the lessons never happened because the Pope was fearful that the planned clandestine classes would get leaked and he'd appear a heretic.
January 15, 2018
I have read this book three or four times before. I listened to it read by Patricia Walden. I remember listening to it for the first when my first marriage was falling apart slowly and painfully. I was hiking to the top of Mt. Burdell, a trail I took from the high school in Novato, CA where I held my first teaching job. The book itself is so dense with spiritual material that I could listen to it 100 times and still take something away the 101 time. This book all those years ago helped me to crack open a mystery I’d been poking at for a while, a topic that obsessed me and that would become the cornerstone for my autobiographical novella, Hallelujah . I think I’m going to listen to it again next January.
October 3, 2015
For anyone serious about a spiritual journey/path/transformation, and the rigor and discipline required, regardless of tradition. Beautiful wisdom, insight, and guidance from a truly humble and committed guru. I will read this several times over.
April 11, 2019
There is the saying 'how you do anything means everything'. Likewise, how we do yoga is how we will engage life in general. That seems to be the gist of this book. However there is so much wisdom here that I enthusiastically recommend it to anyone, whether they practice yoga or not.
January 15, 2008
I read and re-read this book. . .I don't think it will ever belong to the shelf.
December 12, 2015
Leerzaam boek over de praktijk en filosofie van yoga. Bevat zowel goede ideeën als helaas ook achterhaalde, en soms zelfs klinklare onzin. Dat vergt van de lezer een actieve alerte geest, precies wat yoga nastreeft ;-)
Transformatie
Iyengar schrijft: "Het leven van een gezinshoofd is niet makkelijk - dat is het nooit geweest. De kost verdienen, een gezin opvoeden en een zin en doel in het leven vinden." Yoga verandert niet alleen de manier waarop we dingen zien; het transformeert de persoon die ziet. Ik denk dat dat niet alleen geldt voor gezinshoofden, maar ook voor andere mensen ;-)
Waarschuwing vooraf: hoofd erbij houden
Iyengar schrijft dat veel mensen tot yoga komen om praktische redenen: lichamelijke klachten, behoefte aan meer gezond- en fitheid, en dergelijke. Hij is positief over mensen die geworteld zijn in het dagelijkse leven, met een gezond verstand. Ik vind het jammer als hij dan toch met dit soort zinnen komt: "Spirituele realisatie is het doel dat in ieder van ons leeft op de zoektocht naar onze goddelijke kern." Volgens mij staat daar alleen maar mystieke prietpraat. Iyengar gaat uit van de apocriefe mystieke elementen in de natuur: aarde, water, vuur, lucht en ruimte. Iyengar betoogt dat zelfs ons lichaam is opgebouwd uit de apocriefe elementen, wat natuurlijk onzin is. Hij zet ook de veranderlijke Natuur tegenover de eeuwige en onveranderlijke Hemel cq kosmische geest (echt!). Wat nou als zo'n ziel helemaal niet bestaat? Daarbij beoogt yoga onwetenheid op te heffen met het inzicht dat alles één is, en toch blijft Iyengar onderscheid maken tussen natuur en geest (hoezo één?). Tenslotte vind ik het jammer dat yoga zich bedient van een heel eigen yogajargon (een heel stelsel van begrippen, categorieën en opsommingen, veelal in Sanskriet), waardoor juist het mystieke wordt benadrukt. Kortom, als we dit boek serieus en met interesse lezen, moeten we er wel ons hoofd bijhouden; precies wat yoga beoogt ;-)
Volledig leven
Voor yoga is het lichaam 'drager' van nog vier andere 'subtiele lichamen'. Alle vijf in volgorde: fysiek lichaam (stabiliteit) - energetisch lichaam (vitaliteit) - mentaal lichaam (helderheid) - intellectueel lichaam (wijsheid) - gelukzalig lichaam / ziel (gelukzaligheid). Het onderscheid tussen deze 'lichamen' of 'lagen' is niet fysiek in ons aanwezig en bedoeld om over de impact van yoga te kunnen denken en praten. Ik zie het didactische nut van dit soort mentale constructies, maar ook dat het schuurt met de fysieke beleving en innerlijke ontdekkingstocht die yoga propageert. Het streven van yoga is het gevoel van zin en bestemming, 'volledig leven' in (psychologische) vrijheid en met zuivere menselijke relaties (over de mate waarin er zoiets bestaat, zie ook: Franzen, Kahneman, Krishnamurti).
'Gewaar-zijn' en gezondheid
Een belangrijk begrip in yoga is gewaar-zijn (awareness): aanvoelen, zintuigelijk. Door asana en pranayama, de lichamelijke oefeningen en ademhaling, wordt het lichaam sensitiever, meer 'gewaar'. "De meeste mensen verlangen van hun lichaam alleen dat ze er geen last van hebben." Dit lijkt zoooo waar als je om je heen kijkt, op je werk, in de stad... Volgens yoga is gezondheid niet alleen afwezigheid van lichamelijke ziekte, maar ook de ervaring van schoonheid en vrijheid in jezelf. Daarbij is er bij asana geen sprake van wedijver, geen vergelijking. Bij asana wordt beweging in ontspanning uitgevoerd. Dat moet wel omdat aangespannen spieren de beweging hinderen - met frustratie en blessures tot gevolg. In het lichaam overheerst massa, stabiliteit, traagheid, in de geest dynamiek en levendigheid. Door oefening komt er meer dynamiek in het lichaam en meer rust in onze geest.
Alles is energie blabla
In het hoofdstuk over vitaliteit vliegt Iyengar wat mij betreft volledig uit de bocht. Hij gooit alle energie op één hoop: warmte, licht, elektriciteit, zwaartekracht, spierenergie en mentale energie... Het is allemaal hetzelfde, uitingen van het goddelijke: Prana, Qi, Ki, de Heilige Geest, allemaal hetzelfde... En die prana verbindt ons met 'de kosmische intelligentie'. "Tijdens het vasthouden van de adem na de uitademing ervaar je het leven na de dood." Wat een onzin allemaal.
Intelligent observeren
Iyengar schrijft uitgebreid over het uitstellen van oordelen en kwalificaties. Dus, neutraal observeren zonder oordeel. Volgens yoga bestaat het bewustzijn uit 'geest' (wispelturig, kan geen keuzes maken), intelligentie (maakt onderscheid tussen goed en kwaad, juist en verkeerd) en ego (persoonlijkheid). Volgens Iyengar is de geest van de mens gericht op korte termijn behoeftenbevrediging: plezier herhalen en pijn vermijden. Die korte termijn-gerichtheid is één van de redenen waarom mensen zo moeilijk hun gedrag veranderen. Volgens yoga leven veel mensen in 'onwetendheid', een identificatie met het ego. Het ego noemt Iyengar een uitputtende, veeleisende en onverzadigbare reisgenoot, een paranoïde, opgeblazen tiran. We herkennen hem veel eenvoudiger bij anderen dan bij onszelf. Iyengar presenteert intelligentie (bespiegeling en keuzes maken) als oplossing (Kahneman komt tot vergelijkbare conclusie). Het gewaar-zijn waar yoga naar streeft, uit zich als intelligentie die geconditioneerde reflexen herkent en 'ingrijpt' wanneer die zich voordoen. Het zorgvuldig uitvoeren van asana en pranayama oefent deze scherpzinnigheid. Laatste element in intelligentie is het geweten: het waarnemen van de gevolgen van denken en handelen.
Onwetend
Onwetend in yoga-termen = je weet niet wat werkelijk is en wat niet. The Matrix. Dit begrip maakt het onderzoek naar 'normaal' mogelijk (zie ook Coelho, 'Veronika besluit te sterven'). Onwetendheid is de meest fundamentele 'aandoening van de geest' en vader van nog vier andere: trots (buitensluitende zelfzucht), gehechtheid (eigenaarschap ipv dankbaarheid), afkeer (tegenpool van gehechtheid) en angst voor de dood (angst om vergeten te worden, betekenisloos te zijn).
Levensdoelen en ethiek
Volgens Yoga zijn er vier levensdoelen: deugdzaam leven, onafhankelijkheid in levensonderhoud, genoegens van liefde en menselijke relaties, vrijheid. Als invulling van deugdzaam verlangt yoga: niet schaden / geweldloosheid, eerlijkheid, niet stelen, onthouding / celibaat, niet begeren / gematigdheid.
Kortom
Kortom, dit boek is een 'mixed bag'. Veel interessante inzichten voor een beter leven; vooral de verbinding van deugdzaamheid met individuele beleving heeft potentieel in een wereld waarin veel mensen individueel levensgeluk bevechten ten koste van anderen. Verder ook veel mystiek die we heel kritisch moeten benaderen om het niet te zien als een volgende religie met dogma's, voorgangers, volgelingen en de belofte van leven na de dood.
"Ouderdom kan ons vermogen tot zondig handelen doen verminderen, maar niet ons vermogen tot zondige gedachten of bedoelingen. Oorlogen worden weliswaar uitgevochten door jonge mannen, maar de aanzet ertoe wordt gegeven door oude mannen."
"Je leest boeken en artikelen over wat je het beste kunt eten en hoe je moet oefenen, leesmateriaal dat ieder wild dier zou verachten. Maar je weet niet hoe je moet leven, alleen waar je naar verlangt. Het instinct is afgestompt."
"Mensen vergeten dat we op onze zoektocht naar de ziel eerst de oorspronkelijke genoegens van het dierenrijk herwinnen, die van gezondheid en instinct, vol kracht en leven."
January 26, 2026
Always an excellent read! I get something new out of this thought-provoking book every time I read it. I also recommend BKS Iyengar's Light on Yoga. Light on Life takes the human desire for freedom even further and tells us how to get there through intelligent action. My yoga heritage is Iyengar, and I have learned so much from this excellent teacher. With tremendous gratitude. “It is through the alignment of the body that I discovered the alignment of my mind, self, and intelligence.”
"You must observe and correct the body position (adjusting it from both sides) with the help of the trillions of eyes that you have in the form of cells. This is how you begin to bring awareness to your body and fuse the intelligence of brain and brawn. This intelligence should exist everywhere in your body and throughout the asana. The moment you lose the feeling in the skin, the asana becomes dull, and the flow or current of the intelligence is lost."
"You must observe and correct the body position (adjusting it from both sides) with the help of the trillions of eyes that you have in the form of cells. This is how you begin to bring awareness to your body and fuse the intelligence of brain and brawn. This intelligence should exist everywhere in your body and throughout the asana. The moment you lose the feeling in the skin, the asana becomes dull, and the flow or current of the intelligence is lost."
May 16, 2024
B.K.S. Iyengar spells out the true meaning of yoga that is often misunderstood and hard to put into words.
As a yogi, this is my favorite book i’ve read about yoga so far with so many profound analogies, metaphors, and eye opening quotes. I already know I’ll read this many more times through out my life.
As a yogi, this is my favorite book i’ve read about yoga so far with so many profound analogies, metaphors, and eye opening quotes. I already know I’ll read this many more times through out my life.
April 10, 2024
More applicable insights on the yogic path. Real, clear examples of philosophical concepts. Lots of reference to Gandhi as a holy man…
July 2, 2018
This book was "fruity" in the best sense - ripe with sweetness and integrity. Just look at the cover - what a happy man!
Iyengar espouses a philosophy that emphasizes unity, and integrity through action - similar to other human ideas, such as Christianity or stoic philosophy. Yet he is different in the soft, natural metaphor he continually employs, to hint at your intuition. I found myself sometimes examining what he was saying with a wary eye, but knew what he was trying to get at.
It's because his metaphors sometimes read like this: Life is like a bowl of spaghetti. If someone placed a bowl of spaghetti in front of you, and you were trying to take one string and trace it back to the whole bowl of spaghetti, you could not. But you know all the separate strings of spaghetti are united to compose the bowl of life.
He actually does say, which I rather quite liked: "Spiritual values are not the sauce on the dish of material life, perhaps only to be indulged in on Sunday. They are the main dish, that which nourishes and sustains us." (p.193)
Another way his philosophy is different from Christianity/other monotheistic religions, is in the personification of evil; the Devil. He makes the accurate observation that the Devil in Western society possesses an intelligence that is used for evil. In contrast, the Devil in yogic philosophy is not intelligence misused; it is ignorance. All evil is a result of ignorance to the underlying impulse of creation: unity.
The concept of unity and timelessness as the cosmic impulse reminded me (perhaps ironically), of the former US motto, still on our US dollar bill: "E pluribus unum", or "Out of many, one." This meaning is transformative not only for society, but on an individual basis. When we unify mind, body and soul, which is the aim of yoga, we live fully and are our best selves. Likewise, when we unify diversity in government, a society is able to flourish. As with both individuals and society, easier said than done. But that struggle is what we are made for.
Iyengar espouses a philosophy that emphasizes unity, and integrity through action - similar to other human ideas, such as Christianity or stoic philosophy. Yet he is different in the soft, natural metaphor he continually employs, to hint at your intuition. I found myself sometimes examining what he was saying with a wary eye, but knew what he was trying to get at.
It's because his metaphors sometimes read like this: Life is like a bowl of spaghetti. If someone placed a bowl of spaghetti in front of you, and you were trying to take one string and trace it back to the whole bowl of spaghetti, you could not. But you know all the separate strings of spaghetti are united to compose the bowl of life.
He actually does say, which I rather quite liked: "Spiritual values are not the sauce on the dish of material life, perhaps only to be indulged in on Sunday. They are the main dish, that which nourishes and sustains us." (p.193)
Another way his philosophy is different from Christianity/other monotheistic religions, is in the personification of evil; the Devil. He makes the accurate observation that the Devil in Western society possesses an intelligence that is used for evil. In contrast, the Devil in yogic philosophy is not intelligence misused; it is ignorance. All evil is a result of ignorance to the underlying impulse of creation: unity.
The concept of unity and timelessness as the cosmic impulse reminded me (perhaps ironically), of the former US motto, still on our US dollar bill: "E pluribus unum", or "Out of many, one." This meaning is transformative not only for society, but on an individual basis. When we unify mind, body and soul, which is the aim of yoga, we live fully and are our best selves. Likewise, when we unify diversity in government, a society is able to flourish. As with both individuals and society, easier said than done. But that struggle is what we are made for.
August 19, 2017
Hands-Down one of my favorite books. If you could see my cooy, it is completely defaced; highlited, written in, pages folded down, tabs stuck in it all the way around!! He has a very direct style, unlike a lot of the yogis that I read. He does not come off as "warm and fuzzy" AT ALL, but you still cannot help but love him. His wise words were enormously comforting at a time when I desperately needed it. His non-pitying approach was exactly what I wanted to hear. I finished this book quite awhile ago, and I still refer to it. As a matter of fact, I am on vacation right now and I brought it with me to flip through 😊...I also loved that it was conversational. No long descriptions of poses in sanskrit, just straightforward advice and observations from a very wise man who has lived a very full and interesting life.
August 16, 2020
If you are an Indian, start by reading this book with pronunciations of Yog as 'Yogah' or simply 'Yog'. Don't pronounce it as Yoga. Now see the magic unfold.
I always thought of Yog as more of an exercise thingy. It's not. It's just a means to an end. The end being knowledge of oneself. I had heard a lot about BKS but know I know about him. And man, I'm glad I read this book.
BKS takes you to the journey of what Yog means and what is the smallest of the element(s) in the building of Yog as a philosophy of life. His journey (his childhood) tells you the possibilities of a change via Yog.
A must-read for people like me who believed, until recently, that 'Yog' is just another exercise.
PS: I wish the quality of writing was intriguing. I had to push myself to read it like I had to while reading the Theory of Machines.
I always thought of Yog as more of an exercise thingy. It's not. It's just a means to an end. The end being knowledge of oneself. I had heard a lot about BKS but know I know about him. And man, I'm glad I read this book.
BKS takes you to the journey of what Yog means and what is the smallest of the element(s) in the building of Yog as a philosophy of life. His journey (his childhood) tells you the possibilities of a change via Yog.
A must-read for people like me who believed, until recently, that 'Yog' is just another exercise.
PS: I wish the quality of writing was intriguing. I had to push myself to read it like I had to while reading the Theory of Machines.
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