What is Yoga?
The term ‘Yoga’ is derived from the Sanskrit root ‘yuj’, meaning union - the union of body, mind and spirit or consciousness. It’s a way of uniting different aspects of what we are.
Yoga isn’t merely yoga postures, it isn’t just physical exercise of the body, as is often misconstrued; it encompasses something vast and varied that impacts the gross body and the subtle layers as well, invigorating the mind and soul. If you read the ancient treatise of yoga – Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras – you will know that Yoga is a way of life. It needs to be imbibed at all levels of human existence in order for mankind to find both spiritual and material joy.
Just as water comes in many forms – steam, ice and liquid and has multiple uses –Yoga has many forms and each form has a particular role to play in every aspect of life: relationships, family, career, health and environment.
Everyone can do Yoga. It is not acrobatics. Yoga comes naturally to us.
Three blind men came to an elephant. One person touched
the tail and said the elephant is like a broom,
the second man touched the leg and thought it’s like a tree and
the third person touched the trunk and thought it’s similar to a pipe.
People come to yoga thinking it’s only asanas or breathing
or meditation, but the whole is always bigger than its parts.
Yoga is much more that what one perceives it to be.
Did You Know
That yoga is not only asanas or exercises but also
- Fun and play
- Silence
- Dispassion
- Love
- Self
Fun and Play
When you follow fun, misery follows you.
When you follow Knowledge, fun follows you.
Yoga is a way of reaching out to that fun and play in each situation - ordinary or extraordinary and moving toward equanimity and abundance.
The first step is realization and once you are on this yogic path, you’ve already realized and made yourself aware of what is. After that, it’s only a spiral upward.
Silence
Prayer within breath is silence.
Love within infinity is silence.
Wisdom without word is silence.
Compassion without aim is silence.
Action without doer is silence.
Smiling with all the Existence is silence!
And all of the above are yoga.
Dispassion
Dispassion is not apathy. Dispassion does not take away joy from you. Dispassion gives the joy that nothing else can give. Dispassion does not divide you, in fact, it connects you. It connects you to the present moment so totally, so you can be 100 percent in anything you do.
Practice of yoga brings wisdom or knowledge, which in turn lead to dispassion. A broader understanding of the transient nature of things brings a state of non-attachment to all the events, objects, people or situations that lets you remain calm and unperturbed in any and every situation.
Love
Love is your nature.
In the process of its expression, you often get caught up in the object. This is when your sight is caught outside. To return back to your nature, you need insight.
Pain is the first insight.
It takes you away from the object and turns you toward your body and mind.
Energy is the second insight.
A bolt of energy brings you back to your Self.
Divine Love is the third insight.
A glimpse of Divine love makes you so complete and overrules all the relative pleasures.
Trance is the fourth insight.
An elevation of consciousness and partial awareness of the physical reality around is Trance. Non-dual existence - that all is made up of one and only one, is the fifth insight.
When love glows, it is bliss,
When it flows, it is compassion. An amalgam of all is yoga.
The Self
Feelings change, thoughts change, ideas change, body is undergoing changes all the time. But the thirst deep within us is for something that is not changing, that is eternal, that is always, that is the Self. The Self is not just the mind-body complex. Neither the body nor the mind is the Self. The only purpose for this body to exist is to make you aware of how beautiful you are and to make you aware that it is possible to live all the values you cherish and create a world of divinity around you.
Yoga gives you that lens to view the world from inside out instead of having it the other way around.
Source : www.artofliving.org
