The World Celebrates Yoga
International Day of Yoga 21-June
Yoga is science that teaches restrain, control, discipline, concentration, truthfulness, non-violence and balance in life. Yoga promotes peace and harmony in society. Yoga is cure for all problems of humanity. - Vikas Sood
योग वह विज्ञान है जो जीवन में संयम, नियंत्रण, अनुशासन, ध्यान, सत्यनिष्ठा, अहिंसा और संतुलन सिखाता है। योग से समाज में शांति और सामंजस्य बढ़ता है। योग मानवता की सभी समस्याओं का समाधान है। - विकास सूद
Yoga, derived from the root yuj (to yoke, to unite). A man who seeks after this union is called a yogin or yogi. There are four manin division of yoga: Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga and Raja Yoga. Panini, the grammarian, explains the meaning of yoga as union with the Supreme. Patanjali, in his Yoga Sutra, defines yoga as 'cessation of all changes in consciousness.' Yoga is the science and praxis of obtaining liberation (moksha) from the material world. It not only points the way to release, but offers a practical means of arriving there. Yoga is a practical path to self-realization, a means of attaining enlightenment by purifying the entire being, so that the mind-body can experience the absolute reality underlying the illusions of everyday life. It is one of the most famous of Hinduism's philosophical traditions, now practiced by Hindus, Christians, agnostics and atheists alike. Yoga has many meanings and comes in many forms. It is also based on an underlying philosophy that is linked to other schools of Hindu thought. Vedantins interpret Yoga as return of the individual atman to the Supreme. The Yoga with which most Westerners are familiar is Hatha Yoga, consisting of bodily exercises. The Philosophy of Yoga is called Raja Yoga, (the royal path), or Patanjala Yoga, referring to Patanjali, the reputed author of the Yogasutras, the basic Yoga manual. Because of its close connection with the philosophical system of Sankhya, it is also known as Sankhya-Yoga.
"This they consider Yoga: the steady holding of the senses." - Katha-Upanishad
"Yoga is said to be the oneness of breath, mind, and senses, and the abandonment of all states of existence." - Maitrî-Upanishad"
Yoga is known as the disconnection (viyoga) of the connection (samyoga) with suffering." - The Bhagavad Gita
"Yoga is ecstasy (samâdhi)." - Yoga-Bhâshya
"Yoga is said to be control." - Brahmânda-Purâna
Yoga is the control of the whirls of the mind." - Yoga Sutra
Yoga literally means "junction". In the Upanishads the term Yoga signifies the union of the personal soul with the soul of the universe. As a system of philosophy is codified in the Yogasutras of Patanjali where Yoga is defined as the "cessation of movements of the mind." Swami Kuvalnanada and Dr. V. Vinekar have compared yoga to a Vina "which gives heavenly music only when its strings are attuned adequately and played upon harmoniously. One of the principal meanings of yoga is sangati - harmony. Joy of positive health depends on harmony between all bodily and mental functions. True Yoga is in all things wise and calm.
Ordinarily a man is lost in his own confused thought and feeling, but when Yoga is attained the personal consciousness becomes stilled 'like a lamp in a windless place' and it is then possible for the embodied spirit to know itself as apart from the manifestations to which it is accustomed, and to become aware of its own nature. Yoga is an ancient technique originating from India and produces a union of body and soul. It is not only a good exercise technique to cure the ills of the body and to keep in good shape but it is also excellent for mental and spiritual health. Practiced from time immemorial, different techniques of yoga have evolved. The Kriya yoga is a system consisting of yogic techniques that accelerate spiritual development and bring on a deep state of serenity and ultimately, communion with God and nature. In the yoga sutra of Patanjali, as long as the soul is attached to sense enjoyment, it is called pratyag-atma.
The traditional yoga lifestyle strives toward the goals of asceticism, which seeks to zero-out all desires, attachments, emotions, and ego clinging. The goal of yoga is essentially to cause the mind to become like zero. In fact, the goal of meditation (the central feature of the yoga lifestyle) is to zero-out thoughts, to zero-out the mind and realize the true condition of reality... zero.
To know the supreme become like the supreme... zero.
think on the Great Void unceasingly. The Great Void,
whose beginning is void, whose middle is void, [and]
whose end is void. . . By contemplating continually
on this, one obtains success [enlightenment].” - The Siva Samhita [9].
The next step is to discover and see the localized form of Vishnu, the plenary representation of Krishna, dwelling within one's heart. One who seeks an improvement in health or aspires after material perfection is no yogi. In fact, by practice of yoga one becomes gradually detached from material concepts. This is the primary characteristic of the yoga principle. The next principle is that one becomes situated in trance or samadhi which means that the yogi realises the Supersoul through transcendental mind and intelligence, without any misgivings of identifying the self with the Supersoul. Purusartha sunyam means devoid of pursuits of religiousity, economic development, sense gratification and the attempt to become one with the Supreme in liberation. After the chitta-vritti-nirodha, or material cessation, the pratyag atma manifests spiritual activities or devotional service to the Supreme Lord.
Yoga, is the union of the individual soul with the Supreme Soul. Just as camphor melts and becomes one with the fire; just as a drop of water when it is thrown into the ocean, becomes one with the ocean, the individual soul, when it is purified, when it is freed from lust, greed, hatred and egoism, when it becomes Satvic, becomes one with the Supreme Soul.
Yoga Basics
The aim of Yoga is the transformation of human beings from their natural form to a perfected form. Yoga is a precise practical method of spiritual training which goes back to very ancient times. These methods have, of course, been progressively developed and thoroughly tried over the centuries, and are collectively known as Yoga. Yoga is one of the many paths leading to release. It adopts numerous guises and techniques. Perhaps it is more of a praxis for salvation than a philosophy.
Certain elements of Yoga are found in Vedic texts but an even greater antiquity than that has been attributed to the system. The various ascetic and practical theories were drawn up into a darsana, which became orthodox in the Vedantic period, called Yoga. It is the complimentary darsana to the Sankhya and has special application to the Hatha Yoga. But the Yoga is theistic whereas the Sankhya is not.
Several Upanishads mention Yoga, for example the Taittiriya Upanishad and especially the Katha which defines it as “the firm restraint of the senses.” The purpose stated in the Yogasutras is the same for all the Yogas, namely, to free oneself from the determinism of transmigration. The final aim of Yoga is identification by means of knowledge, with the Absolute.
By suppression of the passions and detachment from all that is exterior to him, the ascetic attains superior states of unshakeable stability which eventually end in mystical communion, in a state of Samadhi, with the essence of his soul. The state of Samadhi is the culmination of Yoga and beyond it lies release. It is a suspension of all intellectual processes that lead to instability. Samadhi, then, is a “state without apprehension”. The life of the soul is not destroyed but is reduced to its “unconscious and permanent” essence. Yoga is, properly speaking, union with the self. When thus “isolated”, mind is the same as purusa when it is freed from mental impressions “like a precious stone isolated from its veinstone.”
The aim of Yoga is to tear the veil that keeps man confined within the human dimension of consciousness. Yoga is radically different from the normal consciousness of human beings. This is a point of paramount importance of every seeker of Yoga to bear in mind. The various aspects of this alteration have been clearly brought out by the Indian adepts. "I have realized this great Being who shines effulgent, like the sun, beyond all darkness," says the author of Svetasvatara Upanishad (3-8). "One passes beyond death only on realizing Him. There is no other way of escape from the circle of births and deaths." Here is one of the most prominent signs of genuine experience of the Self. The fear of death and uncertainly about the Beyond is over. "O Goddess, this embodied conscious being (the average mortal) cognizant of his body, composed of earth, water and other elements, experiencing pleasure and pain," says Panchastavi (5.26) "even though well-informed (in worldly matters ), yet not versed in thy disciplines, is never able to rise above his egoistic body-consciousness. This another noteworthy sign. Close association of consciousness with the body leads to the fear of death, as it precludes the possibility of the self-awareness, as an incorporate Infinity, beyond the pale of time, space, birth and deaths.
Yoking the Horses of the Mind
Yoga represents a central and pivotal concept in Indian culture and some understanding of this is essential for those who wish to grasp the deeper significance behind Hinduism. The relationship between the Brahman and Atman, between the all-pervasive divinity and its reflection within individual consciousness, is the main concept behind Vedantic philosophy. Spiritual realization involves in some way a joining of the Atman and the Brahman in its broadest sense. Yoga represents both the process as well as the goal of this union.
Yoga fall into categories as according to the spiritual path one chooses at the outset but the end remains the same. The thousand years old experience of the Hindus lead them to classify Yoga adepts into several kinds.
The Stages of Yoga
The upward progress of the Yogin towards the supreme end is made up of eight stages, known in the Sutras as Yogangas. They are as follows: 1.Yama (moral virtue); 2. Niyama (rules and observances); 3. Asana (bodily postures); 4. Pranayama (control of the life force); 5. Pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses far from the external world); 6. Dharana (memory); 7. Dhyana (meditation); 8. Samadhi (total concentration).
The other Yogangas
Pratyahara: the Yogin withdraws his senses from the temptations of the outside world. Dharana: a true conception of things.Dhyana: meditation in one of the asanas. Without meditation nothing is possible.
Samadhi: this is the final stage which the Yogin reaches when he has attained complete spiritual fulfillment. Without Samadhi it is impossible to know Truth.
The ancient doctrines of Yoga are broken up into the Hatha Yoga (the asanas and pranayama are its chief elements), Mantra Yoga, Laya Yoga, Raja Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Jnana Yoga.
Only when he has practiced the different disciplines common to all the Yogas does the Yogin begin to reap the fruit of dhyana or “meditation” in the form of absolute concentration.
“He who contemplates on sunya...is absorbed into space...
"Yoga is restraining the mind-stuff from taking different forms," says Swami Vivekananda. The mind-stuff may be imagined as a calm, translucent lake with waves or ripples running over the surface when external thoughts or causes effect it. These ripples form our phenomenal universe - i.e. the universe as it is presented to us by our senses. If we can make these ripples cease, we can pass beyond thought or reason and attain the Absolute State.
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