“Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 2 is a Lakṣaṇa Sūtra in that it
describes the characteristics of Yoga as Citta Vṛtti Nirodha.”
– TKV Desikachar on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 2

“Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 2 is not Yoga Sarva Citta Vṛtti Nirodha.
This is a relative Sūtra, which allows for a gradual evolution.”
– TKV Desikachar on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 2

“The mind is like a fluid,
which can modify into different things.
A sense of change.
Thus restraining modifications is cnannelising.”
– TKV Desikachar on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 2

“Yoga arises from
the containment of,
our propensity to fluctuate.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 2

“At all other times we identify with
the fluctuations within the mind.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 4

“The mind modifies perception.
Though you might even say that,
the mind muddifies perception.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 4

“These fluctuations fall into five groups
and can be helpful or unhelpful.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 5

“Rāja Yoga is the relationship we have with our thoughts,
notably those that afflict, as in knock down or weaken, us.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 5

“In this Sūtra Patañjali states that there are two ways
to discipline the five types of mental activity.
They are Abhyāsa and Vairāgya.
Abhyāsa is practice.
Vairāgya is to disconnect or sever the link
between the Citta and external objects.
These two, Abhyāsa and Vairāgya,
always go together as a pair.”
– T Krishnamacharya commentary on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 12

“The perception that something is desirable is Sukha.
This perception sets in motion an urge to possess it.
This is Rāga.
Whether what is desired will give a lasting happiness is a different matter.”
– T Krishnamacharya’s commentary to Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 7

“How to relate with the inner conundrum that we are
thinking or feeling we are changing every 5 minutes.
Yet, from within that seeming flux we can observe that
we are only appearing to be changing every 5 minutes.
This implies that there is something else, not obvious,
yet constantly abiding within our psychic fluctuations.
Yoga offers a journey towards a direct experience of that
which perceives within our coalesced sense of “I” Am-ness.
In other words, how to be with that we call awareness or
the observer within the seeming seduction of the observed,
given that both mind and senses are part of the observed?”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 18

“You have to practice in such a way that
day to day the breath gets longer and subtler.”
– From T Krishnamacharya’s composition,
the Yoga Rahasya Chapter Two verse 30

“In Yoga it is said that everything that happens is from the mind.
Citta is the mindstuff, the perceptual mechanism.
That which makes us see and remember.
Vṛtti is the activity, transformation, motion, modification, that is caused in Citta.
The mind is the main function for seeing,
without it the senses are useless.
The mind can develop words or ideas.
The mind can remember.”
– TKV Desikachar Madras December 8th 1979 on Sāṃkhya and Yoga

“Yoga is the experience of stillness,
within the fluctuations of mind,
rather than the experience of stillness,
of the fluctuations of mind.”

“Yoga is more about exploring
the movement of the mind, whilst
Āsana is more about exploring
the movement of the body.
The vehicle common to exploring both
is the movement of the breath.
The yoking of all three is towards the goal of
experiencing the source of all movement.”

Links to Related Posts:

• Compendium of Quotes from TKV Desikachar on the Yoga of T Krishnamacharya……
• Principles behind why Krishnamacharya only taught adults 121……
• Sound – A Means Beyond Āsana and Prāṇāyāma……
• TKV Desikachar talks on Śraddhā in the light of the Yoga Sūtra……
• We must respect the practice involving the body…….