I was a big quote collector when I was younger. I didn’t keep my favorite quotes just in my journals, although they were covered in quotes. I also wrote them in different fonts and colors all over my shoes, jeans, and backpacks. I still have one of those backpacks today, broken zipper and all, and the only quote that has survived the repeated washing is Freddie Mercury’s
“fat bottom girls, they make the rockin’ world go ’round.”
I still find inspiration from quotes, and the yogis have a plethora! These quotes come both from teachers of this and recent generations, but also from ancient yogi texts. That’s one of my favorite things about yoga — it gives us these little pearls of wisdom and tools and advice for thriving with this very human condition that we all find ourselves in. The magic is the at their core, the problems we deal with today are exactly the same problems that humanity has been wrestling with for centuries. How can we live from our highest and our best? How can we exist together in harmony? How can we stand in our truths and be unswayed by external events? How can we overcome fear and approach life more authentically? The rest are just details. Here are a few of my favorite nuggets of yogi wisdom. What are yours?
Yogi Bhajan Quotes –
“Your heart has not to open to others. Your heart has to open to yourself.”
“If you cannot see God in all, you cannot see God at all.”
“When the time is on you, start, and the pressure will be off.”
Other inspiring yoga quotes:
“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” ~Anais Nin
“Yoga is like music. The rhythm of the body, the melody of the mind and the harmony of the soul create the symphony of life.” ~BKS Iyengar
“When the breath wanders the mind also is unsteady. But when the breath is calmed the mind too will be still, and the yogi achieves long life. Therefore, one should learn to control the breath.” ~Hatha Yoga Pradipika
“We are not going to change the whole world, but we can change ourselves and feel free as birds.” ~Swami Satchidananda
“Inhale, and God approaches you. Hold the inhalation, and God remains with you. Exhale, and you approach God. Hold the exhalation, and surrender to God.” ~ Krishnamacharya
“Samskara saksat karanat purvajati jnanam. Through sustained focus and meditation on our patterns, habits, and conditioning, we gain knowledge and understanding of our past and how we can change the patterns that aren’t serving us to live more freely and fully.” ~ Yoga Sutra 3.18
“Everything in the universe is a singular, pulsing fabric of unbounded creative Conciousness, every part of the great spectrum of life’s diversity is considered a gateway to the exstatic realization of one’s inherent unity with the power of pure Conciousness.” ~Douglas Brooks
“Plunge fully into every aspect of life as a way to penetrate the divine essence of all things.” ~Douglas Brooks
“This that irks – Thy sense-life, thrilling to the elements – bringing thee heat and cold, sorrows and joys, tis brief and mutable! The soul is not moved. The soul that with a strong and constant calm takes sorrow and takes joy indifferently lives in the life undying!” ~Bhagavad Gita
With life, with heart, with mind, nay, with the help of all five sense – letting selfhood go – yogins toil ever towards their souls’ release. The perfect yogin acts – but acts unmoved by passions and unbound by deeds – setting results aside.” ~Gita
