Desikachar helps us realize that what is essential in the practice of yoga is the breath because each pose, each movement, originates from there. - T.K.V. Desikachar

The breath relates directly to the mind and to our prāṇa, but we should not therefore imagine that as we inhale, prāṇa simply flows into us. This is not the case. Prāṇa enters the body in the moment when there is a positive change in the mind.

Another meaning of the word yoga is “to tie the strands of the mind together.

In 1939 and 1940, Krishnamacharya was visited by a French medical team who wanted to verify that an experienced yogi could deliberately stop his heartbeat. For Śrī Krishnamacharya, this muchmarvelled-at examination was a rather bothersome demonstration, one that he undertook out of feeling responsible to validate yoga in the eyes of the skeptical scientific world.