Knowledge, Practice, and Healing
In chapter 5 of Light on Life, B.K.S. Iyengar reaches the impurities that can remain inside intelligence after the more obvious disturbances of the mind have quieted. He has just reminded the reader that “the five afflictions (klesa) taint every level of our being, except the pristine Soul itself,” and then he quotes the Bhagavad Gītā:
“As the hot coal is covered by smoke, mirror by dust, embryo by the amnion, so the intoxicated intelligence covers the Self.”
(Bhagavad Gītā 3.38, as quoted in Iyengar, Light on Life, p. 176)
He follows the verse with a question that opens the discussion: why sound a warning here, when intelligence has been presented as an unalloyed good, “suggesting that even here its imperfections have to be sifted and only the diamonds retained?” (p. 176).
The verse comes from Kṛṣṇa’s teaching in the Gītā’s third chapter on kāma, desire. In a standard translation, the passage reads:
“As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror by dust, as an embryo by the amnion, so is this [knowledge] covered by that [desire]. Knowledge is covered by this constant enemy of the wise, in the form of desire, which is an insatiable fire.”
(Bhagavad Gītā 3.38–39)
Three images describe three degrees of concealment: smoke around a flame, dust on a mirror, and the membrane around an embryo. In each case, the underlying reality remains present while its visibility changes. The passage also holds two fires: the fire of knowledge, hidden by smoke, and the fire of desire, which can never be filled. One fire covers the other.
Kṛṣṇa then names where desire lives:
“The senses, the mind and the intelligence are said to be its seat. Through these it deludes the embodied soul by covering its knowledge.”
(Bhagavad Gītā 3.40)
A text speaks differently when we read it with its commentators, its language, and its living tradition.
Iyengar’s rendering applies the covering to intelligence itself, and verse 3.40 supports him: intelligence, buddhi, is one of desire’s seats. This fits his point in the chapter: the subtle distortions arise inside the very faculty that is supposed to discriminate. He lists them in the pages that follow, “base or mixed motivation, selfish intentions, pride and the pursuit of power” (p. 177), and he continues:
“Intelligence can be clouded by its own subtle distortions. What intelligence does not do well is pick up on its own motivations that are quietly infiltrating from ego. These motivations must be seen and set aside if the Self is to become visible.”
(Iyengar, Light on Life, p. 177)
Such wishes arise in me too, from time to time: to be seen, to be recognized, to be admired. I regard them as childish thoughts, the kind everyone has. Seen this way, they lose their grip. A child’s wish can be met with a smile, and then set aside.
The same smoke drifts through research. A scholar can collect evidence that protects a preferred conclusion, just as Iyengar describes. Research has its own practices for clearing it. One is triangulation: approaching a question from several methods and sources, so that no single view decides the answer. Another is peer review: inviting other eyes to read the work and question it. Both bring in a perspective from outside one’s own intelligence. In the language of the Gītā, they let the wind carry the smoke away, so that the fire can be seen.
The practical teaching is gentle. Many practitioners reach a stage where the louder forms of restlessness have eased. What remains is quieter: the habit of arranging experience so that it confirms an existing self-image. The Gītā’s image names the situation with kindness. The smoke is distinct from the fire, and while it lingers the fire is hard to see. Iyengar’s suggestion is to notice the smoke with patience, and he supplies the tools in the pages that follow: the ethical code, concentration, self-study (svādhyāya), and the sting of conscience.
In my classes, the first distortion students meet is often the gap between what they feel as alignment and what alignment actually is. Discovering that gap sparks their curiosity, and they begin to research for themselves: where is the center line? Then come thoughts like “I can’t do it” and “I’m not strong enough.” And then they do it. The experience itself clears the distortion. The body shows what the mind had covered, and the fire was there all along.
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Bhagavad Gītā live course begins April 2027 → Readers can approach the Bhagavad Gītā as a psychological text, a philosophical text, or a religious
Bhagavad Gītā live course begins April 2027 → The first essay in this series ended with Arjuna collapsed on his chariot seat, and with
Bhagavad Gītā live course begins April 2027 → The Bhagavad Gītā opens with action. The Yoga Sūtras open with a definition: yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ, “yoga
Agi Wittich is a yoga practitioner since two decades, and is a certified Iyengar Yoga teacher. Wittich studied Sanskrit and Tamil at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, completing a PhD with a focus on Hinduism, Yoga, and Gender. She has published academic papers exploring topics such as Iyengar yoga and women, the effects of Western media on the image of yoga, and an analysis of the Thirumanthiram yoga text.
