Dear friends, here are some quotes of Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois. We hope you will find them inspiring. These simple statements clarify the essence of Ashtanga Yoga.
- “Yoga is 99% practice and 1% theory.”
- “So whether you do your first downward dog at 14 or 44, it’s not your history but your presence on your mat that counts.”
- “Why fear?”
- “Simply be present with your own shifting energies and with the unpredictability of life as it unfolds.”
- “Yoga is good for man because the physical body improves, the nervous system improves, the mind improves, the intellect improves—so, how can yoga not be good?”
- “I was disappointed to find that so many novice students have taken Ashtanga yoga and have turned it into a circus for their own fame and profit.”
- “If we practice the science of yoga, which is useful to the entire human community and which yields happiness both here and hereafter – if we practice it without fail, we will then attain physical, mental and spiritual happiness, and our minds will flood towards the Self.”
- “Yoga is not easy!”
- “Awake my dear be kind to your sleeping heart take it out into the vast fields of Light and let it breathe.”
- “The full ashtanga system practiced with devotion leads to freedom within one’s heart.”
- “Practice and all is coming.”
- “When the breath control is correct, mind control is possible.”
- “Body is not stiff. Mind is stiff.”
- “The whole purpose of Hatha yoga is to purify and control our senses. It is the ultimate science of helping us discover what lies behind the apparent reality of body and mind.”
- “The title “Power Yoga” itself degrades the depth, purpose and method of the yoga system that I received from my guru, Sri. T. Krishnamacharya. Power is the property of God. It is not something to be collected for one’s ego.”
- “You can take practice. Don’t talk.”
- “Yoga is for internal cleansing, not external exercising. Yoga means true self-knowledge.”
- “Discipline means you can take yoga practice. Stamina comes first in the body. Strength comes first in the body. Body means there are three types of body: external body, internal body, spiritual body. Those are the three types of body strength.”
- “Breathing is very important. Without breathing, the spiritual mind and body are not coming. There is a method to breathing. That is Vinyasa.”
- “I was disappointed to find that so many novice students have taken Ashtanga yoga and have turned it into a circus for their own fame and profit.”
- “In Order to be effective, truth must penetrate like an arrow-and that is likely to hurt.”
- “When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bounds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”
- “Yoga, as a way of life and a philosophy, can be practiced by anyone with inclination to undertake it, for yoga belongs to humanity as a whole. It is not the property of any one group or any one individual, but can be followed by any and all, in any corner of the globe, regardless of class, creed or religion.”
- “The Ashtanga yoga system should never be confused with “power yoga” or any whimsical creation which goes against the tradition of the many types of yoga shastras (scriptures). It would be a shame to lose the precious jewel of libiration in the mud of ignorant bodybuilding.”
25. “Yoga is possible for anybody who really wants it. Yoga is universal…. But don’t approach yoga with a business mind looking for worldly gain.”
