“In the Yoga state we experience what is beyond the mind.”
– TKV Desikachar on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 3

“Yoga is about cultivating a profound discernment
of the difference between
the Nature of our Being and
the Being of our Nature.”
– Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verses 12-16

“Yoga is about recognising change and
recognising that which recognises change.”
– Commentary around Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 16

“Citta and Puruṣa are distinct.
They are in association like heat and water.
Water which is cold becomes
warm in association with heat.
Then we use the term hot water.”
– T Krishnamacharya’s commentary to Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 6

“Similarly, because of the proximity of Citta and Puruṣa,
what is the quality of one is taken to be of the other.
In our convention they are often taken as one
and not two distinct entities with different natures.
This state is Asmitā.”
– T Krishnamacharya’s commentary to Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 6

“The witness cannot be witnessed.”
– Yoga Sūtra Chapter Four verse 18

“‘Who’ is it that identifies
that we misidentify?”
– Reflection on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Four verse 18

“What is it that weapons do not cleave?
That fire does not burn?
That waters do not wet?
That wind does not whither?”
– Commentary on Bhagavad Gītā Chapter Two verse 23

“When the mind thinks it is seeing rather than the Puruṣa
there is Avidyā, and this is the beginning of Duḥkha.”
– TKV Desikachar Religiousness in Yoga Chapter Six Page 85

“There is no death for the Puruṣa
because there is no change for it,
and what is death but change.”
– TKV Desikachar Religiousness in Yoga
Chapter Six Page 87

“Prāṇa is simply the expression of Puruṣa in all parts of the body and beyond.”
– TKV Desikachar Religiousness in Yoga Chapter Ten Page 135

“Prāṇa is simply the expression of Puruṣa in all parts of the body and beyond.
This Prāṇa has an intimate relationship to the mind
because the Puruṣa sees only through the mind.
Thus Prāṇa, mind and breath are interrelated.
Whatever happens in the mind influences the breath.”
– TKV Desikachar Religiousness in Yoga Chapter Ten Page 135

“There is a relationship between Pariṇāma, Tāpa and Saṃskāra.
When you recognise this phenomena there is something that recognises it.
That something is not part of the phenomena.”
– TKV Desikachar Madras December 8th 1979 on Sāṃkhya and Yoga

“Yoga is when the mind is completely absorbed in the great force within.”
– TKV Desikachar France August 1983

“In meditation,
one must make the transition
from the gross, that which has form
and which can be seen by the mind,
to the subtle, the formless.”
– TKV Desikachar Madras December 19th 1988

“In each one of us there is something that experiences.”
– TKV Desikachar introducing the Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2001

“If the Saṅga is at the Puruṣa level it will stay;
if it is at the Prakṛti level it will change.”
– TKV Desikachar speaking with his senior Western students London 1998

“The ten senses or Das Indriya are the gateway between the inner and the outer,
in the twin roads of this phenomena we call experience or action.
The five senses that transport experience from the outer to the inner
are called the Jñāna Indriya, or the senses through which we receive the world.
The five senses that transport actions from the the inner to the outer
are called the Karma Indriya, or the senses through which we put out into the world.”

The co-ordinator of this remarkable interface is known as Manas.
The identifier in this remarkable process is known as Ahaṃkāra.
The discerner in this remarkable trinity is known as Buddhi.
The observer in this remarkable play of experience and action is known as Cit or Puruṣa.”

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