The Most Important Yoga: Philosophy & Purpose of Your Practice Relating to Life (With Captions)

This is the wonderful video made by brilliant photographer Alessandro Sigismondi some years ago in India of me practising and talking about my the philosophy and purpose of my practice and how that relates to the philosophy and purpose of our lives. Many people have asked me for the transcription of what I say in the video, so I have that below and I have republished the video here with embedded captions to make it easier to understand. This video has been viewed almost one million times if you include the original version on Alessandro’s site at as well as a number of copies on Facebook and elsewhere. Thank you to everyone who has commented and shared this so far. This was just an unrehearsed stream of consciousness talk and I have a lot more to say about the relationship between the philosophy purpose of your practice and your life. For more on this please see my site at EDITED VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: “For me, yoga is a way of life. I live by the first two stages of yoga, Yama and Niyama. Yama for me, says to practice and to live in a way which is gentle, balanced, giving of nourishment and freedom. Gentle is Ahimsa. Balanced is Satya. Giving the opposite of taking is Asteya. And for me, Brahmacarya means not to not make love, but rather to nourish relationships. And Aparigraha, non-attachment means to be free. Niyama means to me, the passionate inner quest to remove the obstacles of happiness and loving connection. Saucha is to clean or, for me, to remove the obstacles that block the movement of energy inside us. We need to tense less, stretch less, or make our body move more balanced, breathe less. Fitness is when you learn to do things while breathing less, do more things while breathing less. Think less, concentration, focus more. Santosha is sometimes said to be contentment, but actually, it’s the choice to feel how you want to feel. Santosha is the choice to be happy, not to wait to be happy, to recognize that happiness is not something that you wait for, but rather happiness is something you choose and you can choose misery as well. But happiness is a good choice if you want it. Tapas is not just ardour or austerity. It’s more the burning desire, the passionate desire to do your best. Svādhyāya is not just study, but it’s inner study, a study of self, find out what you’re here for, why we’re here, who we are, why we are. Īśvarapraṇidhāna is not just devotion to an external god, but it’s the recognition that we’re all connected, connected like a mother and child in love. For me, it’s the devotional recognition, the recognition that we live in an ocean of love. I try and live by three principles, enjoy your life, look after your body and help other people enjoy their lives. Enjoy your life sounds selfish, but you could enjoy your life as a choice. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing or how you are, enjoying it a choice and it’s a good choice. Look after your body because without looking after your body, you can’t do much in your life. And the most important thing, perhaps, to do with your body is to help other people enjoy their lives. And if the world lived like this, the world would be a better place, I think. Therefore, I think it’s our personal commitment to every day, do something, some personal practice, your yoga, your meditation, your walk, whatever you do, some people don’t even want to call what they do yoga, but allow that personal time to connect with yourself, to give some love to yourself, to appreciate yourself, to give some space, time and energy to yourself. Once you’ve given to yourself and you know what gentle loving care for yourself feels like, then you can share it with the others. Give it to yourself first, look after your own body first, your own health first and once you’ve done that a little bit every day, then give it to the world, share it with your family, your friends, the people you love, the people you don’t know, even the people you don’t like and make it the most important yoga, the yoga of connection. To connect with others, connect with the world and to eventually recognize and appreciate and make full use of the fact that we’re fully connected as one family, one universe in love. I think this is the most important yoga.” – Simon Borg-Olivier ***** Thank you for watching: PLEASE LIKE SHARE & SUBSCRIBE ***** If you like this stuff you may also consider coming’ to join me at If you subscribe on my list at I can send you further information in my next newsletter Much love and best wishes Simon ***** If you want to learn more please consider trying our online courses at For more comprehensive training, you can register interest in our YogaSynergy 200 hour Online Teacher Training Course with Simon Borg-Olivier and Bianca Machliss at