Mr Iyengar considered yoga as uniting the body and the mind, and taking the body and mind together.
Yoga is a code of discipline, and instilling discipline in yoga practice of asanas, meditation, etc is a question of interpenetration rather than a question of threshold of pain, where we have the outer body, inner body and innermost body.
The yogis have divided the body into the five constituents: physical, physiological, psychological, intellectual and space bodies, as every cell in the body system has its own intelligence and memory.
As God inhabits various forms in universal existence in everything, yogis do many different asanas to enjoy the various shapes of the body.
When he is doing yoga, he doesn’t do it as a physical yoga, but rather experience an opening in the inner body, whereby he practises awareness (horizontal expansion of intelligence) and attention (vertical growth of intelligence), which are interconnected to each other.
Pranayama may affect the mind because many of the people take the ratio of 1 to 4, so if one takes an inhalation for 6 seconds, they have to hold two times – 12 seconds of inhalation and 24 seconds of exhalation.
In yoga, soma and psyche are one, and both go together, hence psychosomatic scientists use Patanjali’s teachings since a long time ago.
The skeletal body is in contact with the circulatory system, which is in contact with the nervous system, which is connected to the indirect unconscious mind.
Hence, many of his students are relieved from anxiety, depression and stress through doing the poses in yoga practice.
Mr Iyengar wanted others to benefit from yoga just as he himself has benefited through personal practice, and it is encouraging to see his legacy of yoga training and its holistic benefits being continued through yoga teachers and practitioners today.
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