16/09/2019
"You would say that Iyengar Yoga is a ‘Parampara’.
I would say our foremost 'Parampara' or 'Dharma' , our foremost characteristic is to be a human being. Yoga Paramapara is one part but if you trace back, the oldest one(Parampara) is to be a human being. So yoga has to do that.
The scriptures say that a person should be like a ‘Padma Patraami Vambhasa’. That means you should live like the leaf of the lotus plant. You see the lotus plant grows in muddy water, so the leaf touches the muddy water, but if you see - the leaf is never soiled. The leaf never gets dirty, the flower is beautiful. So in the world, we should live like that. That's what the scriptures tell us.
Whatever yoga that you learn has to make you a better human being. That's our foremost Dharma and Iyengar Yoga definitely is meant for that -ultimately! But you can't start with that. You won't join a yoga class because you want to live like a lotus flower. You will join a yoga class because you want to get rid of pain, you want to improve your flexibility. So with any aim you can come to a yoga class but once you start your classes; you attend the classes regularly; you take up practice; changes will happen automatically on their own. You just have to have an open mind to see that in hindsight.
Five years, six years down the line you look back and you realise this change has happened. Oh! I was more reactive, but now a days my responses are controlled. Oh! I used to be lazy, but now I'm not. So this happens in hindsight. Then you realize how Iyengar Yoga has touched you.
But you cannot start with that aim. A common man starts with the aim to gain the health but later once you accept it, yoga makes the transformation possible."
Abhijata Sridhar Iyengar