Yoga allows us to move forward in our lives.
“Is not the greater challenge and greater fulfillment to be found living in the world with its tribulations and temptations, and at the same time to maintain balance and self-control in everyday life? To be spiritual, one must not deny or forget the body. Throughout the journey to the spiritual goal, the body must be kept active. Yoga is as old and traditional as civilization, yet it persist in modern society as a means to achieving essential vitality. But Yoga demands that we develop not only strength in body but attention and awareness in mind. The yogi knows that the physical body is not only the temple for our soul but the means by which we embark on the inward journey toward the core. Only by first attending to the physical body can we hope to accomplish anything in our spiritual lives. If a man or woman has aspirations to experience the divine, but his or her body is too weak to bear the burden, of what use are their aspirations or ambitions? That’s all the more reason, therefore for the vast majority of us who suffer physical limitations and debilities to some degree to start Yoga as soon as possible so that we may fit ourselves for the journey ahead of us. Yoga offers us techniques to become aware, to expand and penetrate, and to change and evolve in order to become competent in the lives we live and to initiate sensitivity and receptivity toward the life of which we are still only dimly aware.” Yogacharya BKS Iyengar, Light on Life, p. 21-22.