Swarupa Iyengar Yoga

01/01/2020

Darshan at Swarupa Iyengar Yoga
1st January 2020.
May the Divine Blessings of God & Guru guide our path.

10/11/2019

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/military/sd-me-yoga-pain-20170803-story.html

In the middle of a prescription painkiller overdose crisis in the United States, a San Diego VA study finds that veterans with chronic pain would be well-served to put down the pills and pick up a yoga mat.

31/10/2019

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 realize 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

11/09/2019

Mark Tully (former BBC’s India correspondent) visited Pune in 1999. The result of this visit was a memorable interview with BKS Iyengar and the BBC Radio 4 production “Head to Toe“. The BBC producer, Vanessa Harrison, has kindly given some of the interview transcripts to Dipika. This is a sect...

11/09/2019

https://iymv.org/geeta-iyengar-on-yoga-for-women/

Mark Tully (former BBC’s India correspondent) visited Pune in 1999. The result of this visit was a memorable interview with BKS Iyengar and the BBC Radio 4 production “Head to Toe“. The BBC producer, Vanessa Harrison, has kindly given some of the interview transcripts to Dipika. This is a sect...

07/09/2019

Geeta Iyengar, Anusthasanam 2014
"If you understand simple asanas, you will understand complicated asanas too... Don’t appreciate those people who just bend back. Whenever there was a time, a chance for me, I watched Guruji... But what I noticed, perhaps you might not notice – you would say, “Oh, he bends very nicely.” I never said “Oh, you are bending very nicely.” I never appreciated him in that manner... Guruji watched me when I was doing to see whether real appreciation had come. We never had a verbal teaching. Guruji never taught me verbally what had to be done.”
After this, Geeta gave a long verbal explanation/ demonstration of many back bending adjustments and actions that Guruji showed her but did not explain. This was one of Geetaji’s many great gifts: to translate into words, for us, the hows and whys of Guruji's profound understanding.

02/09/2019

Many a time in the lectures, Guruji said that the āsana has to go into you. It’s not “I perform Śīrṣāsana.” If I say “I’m going to perform Śīrṣāsana,” then I myself am separate from the Śīrṣāsana. But Guruji said “Every āsana I used to practice would go into me and that Self in me expressed the āsana.” This is the meditative process, when myself, or I, vanishes. I am in that āsana and that āsana is in me...
Not everything is not going to happen at once. At a meal, several dishes are there and you can’t eat all the dishes at once. And that’s why you have to taste this one, that one... “Let me feel the lord within. Let my breath become established. Let me sit properly.” Go on in that manner. My explanation, “Sit straight, keep your legs quiet, back erect, head straight etc.” all these things will become meaningful to you. It’s not just said for the sake of saying. Understand that.
Geeta Iyengar, Yoganusthasanam 2014

30/08/2019

I’ll start by saying if you are looking for and happen to find a good yoga teacher stick to them, like you’d look for a really good quality piece of clothing that’s going to stand the test of time …

05/08/2019

30/07/2019

"Why do you think of violence in the world? Why don't you think of the violence in you? Each one of us has to train himself or herself, for without discipline we cannot become free, nor can there be freedom in the world without discipline. Discipline alone brings true freedom. If you have to gain health, do you think you can do so without discipline? Moderation in living is essential. This is why yoga starts with a code of conduct which each individual has to develop.
The circumstances of life are there for our evolution, not for our destruction. Yoga works on your conscience. Yoga works on your consciousness. Yoga works on your intelligence. Yoga works on your senses. Yoga works on your flesh. Yoga works on your organs of perception. Thus, it is known as a global art. "

~ Guruji BKS Iyengar, The Tree of Yoga