The new Light on Life is probably Iyengar's last book, as he is now by my count 87 years old (though he can still stand on his head for half an hour). It is a hybrid - part inspirational biography, part manual for living, and part philosophical text. In it, Iyengar goes into detail about the philosophical underpinnings of yoga and how students can use yoga to navigate the path to (possibly) eventual enlightenment.
Light on Life is divided into five sections, each corresponding to one of the yogic kosas, or bodies - Stability: The Physical Body, Vitality: The Energy Body, Clarity: The Mental Body, Wisdom: The Intellectual Body, and Bliss: The Divine Body. Iyengar also describes in detail the eight petals of yoga (a subject touched on briefly in the introduction to Light On Yoga); ethical disciplines (yama), internal ethical observances (niyama), poses (asana), breath control (pranayama), sensory control and withdrawal (pratyahara), concentration (dharana), meditation (dhyana), and blissful absorption (samadhi). If this all seems absurdly recondite, well, it does start that way.
But Iyengar is a deep thinker with a lifetime's experience to draw upon and over the course of the book explains the place for all these frankly bizarre concepts within the larger context of the yogi's search for samadhi. Even for someone like me (who is not a particularly spiritual person), Light on Yoga contains some important pearls of wisdom. While reading Iyengar's section on the need for detachment from worldly things, I understood for the first time grief as a selfish feeling - being sad for one's own loss, not for the departed, who are beyond caring.
In short, Light on Life presents, like Light on Yoga, a rigorous and demanding course of action for improving the body and mind of the practitioner. But where Light on Yoga was terse and pithy, Light on Life is circular and discursive, allowing Iyengar to dwell on topics he feels most important to the reader, such as the slippery nature of dharana, dhyana and samadhi.
Those who will get the most out of this book are aspiring yoga students who are prepared to accept the spiritual (or more properly, inner) aspects of yogic philosophy. Without that context, Iyengar's words are, for all their unpretentious charm, just another self-help guide on how to live a richer life. This is not necessarily a bad thing; some people find solace in Chicken Soup For the Soul, some in the Bible, and some in the Baghavad Gita. It all depends on what brand of wisdom your mind is ready to receive.
Article comments
1 - DrPat
Thanks for the reminder that there's more to yoga than staying limber and being able to sit comfortably on the floor!
2 - Steve Kersker
I opened my normal chakras to include crown chakra by mistake 18 years ago while doing a 15 hour biofeedback meditation in a hospital. It was really strange: but I had good people to guide and direct me for the past 18 years. It was like being reborn again as a baby. I've been growing up for 18 years. It seems I'm in my teens while actually 55.
I've now opened (about 3 years ago) my body chakras and can do some really weird yoga stretches -- flexibility, strength, agility and perfect balance.
My life for 18 years has centered around meditation and physical yoga. Yoga saved my life from numerous disabilities -- actually changed them into abilities.
Has anyone else moved beyond BKS and his traditional yoga? Steve Kersker
3 - Christoph
sounds like a good book thanks!