Links to Related Resources & Longer Articles:

• Sometimes Yoga is called Darśana Vijñāna……
• Trumperies and Tactics for the Discerning Gardener……

Collated Related Short Posts & Quotes:

“Dhyāna is not simply to still the mind.
It involves our ability to reflect afresh,
to discover what we had not known before.”
– TKV Desikachar on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Three verse 2

“How can we distinguish
the actual state of Dhyāna
from infatuation with an object
that pleases and fills the mind?”
– TKV Desikachar on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Three verse 2

“Intelligent Yoga practice invites you
into the field of the Heart within which
resides the mystery of its meaning.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Three verse 34

“The Yoga of knowledge and special knowing.
How to discern knowledge of the highest.”
– Paul Harvey on Bhagavad Gītā Chapter Seven

“We need Jñānam to
refine our Skill in Actions.
We need Vijñānam to
Link to the Highest.”
– TKV Desikachar on Bhagavad Gītā Chapter Seven verse 2

“Jñānam is the wisdom of
‘I am that‘.
Vijñānam is the discernment that
‘I am not this‘ ‘I am not that‘.”
– TKV Desikachar on Bhagavad Gītā Chapter Seven verse 2

‎”Yoga uses an Intelligent approach
which is applied to all things
and during all the day.”
– TKV Desikachar England 1976

Principles behind the Practice of Āsana
“In technique, as stated by Patañjali,
we must apply effort, but not force.
That effort must be intelligent.
The difference in effort and
force can cause a reaction.
Perhaps more reaction than action?”
– TKV Desikachar Switzerland 1978

Principles behind the Practice of Āsana
“With step by step
intelligent application,
less effort is required.
In other words, effort
that will reduce effort.”
– TKV Desikachar Switzerland 1978

Principles behind the Practice of Āsana
“The test for intelligent effort
is the response of the breath.
Therefore, the technique is
proper and intelligent effort
and the response of the
breath to that effort.”
– TKV Desikachar Switzerland 1978

“Sometimes Yoga is called Darśana Vijñāna.
Vijñāna means ‘to know things in detail,
which involves also the techniques, the process of knowing, etc’.
It mean that not only we see things, we also know how to apply”
– TKV Desikachar 1981

“Yoga is a mirror of ourselves.
It is Darśana Vijñāna,
the science of observation,
not just doing Āsana.
In teaching Yoga this implies:
– that we may not transmit exactly the way we have been taught.
– that we may not teach what we ourselves are doing.”
– TKV Desikachar 1981

“The Yoga of Patañjali, presented in very brief pithy statements,
asserts that all human problems emanate from the mind
and can be resolved by changing the quality of this mind.
Not only can they be resolved, but a person can also
utilise this refined mind for every use possible,
including comprehending the divine mystery.”
– TKV Desikachar Madras 1996

“An intelligent relationship with the
breath in the Āsana can evolve into
a systemic relationship between the
spine and the breath in the Āsana.
From this, an interrelation between
the spine and the breath in the Āsana
can be developed and can mature with
a symbiotic outcome between the two.
This interaction can be experienced as
an intimacy of movement in stillness,
inseparable from stillness in movement.”
– 108 Postural Practice Pointers

“Yoga offers me an intelligent way
to come out of my mistakes.”
– 108 Study Path Pointers

Fire in the Belly – Peace in the Mind.
“From a traditional Yoga viewpoint the yoking
of seemingly contrasting qualities or natures
within the body and mind have long been a goal.
According to Yoga, two of these contrasting qualities
are seen through the lens of the body and of the mind.
Known through opposite symbols, as in the Sun or
Surya, to be lived as the fire in the belly, and as in
the Moon or Candra, to be lived as peace in the mind.
Cultivating an intelligent relationship between these
two qualities can offer a model for our practice as well
as a means to better embrace the challenges in daily life.”
– 108 Yoga Study Path Pointers

na iti na iti – not this, nor this
“Defining our relationship with spirit,
is an inquiry into re-defining our relationship with matter.”
– Paul Harvey on Bṛhad Āraṇyaka Upaniṣat IV.5.15
– 108 Study Path Pointers