What is Yoga?

A short concept note for the uninitiated
by
Kamini Bobde

 Yoga is an ancient wisdom which has come to us from the God’s themselves as a knowledge given by Lord Shiva in answer to Parvati’s question on how to find liberation from the cycle of birth & death.  It has a whole history and heritage of Rishis, sages, sadhus and Sants who over the ages have preserved & contributed to this ancient experience-based knowledge right up to Patanjali and more recently Swami Satyananda Saraswati who has given to the world Yoga Nidra and Shankprakshalan.

Yoga, as any practitioner will experience, works on multi-dimensional levels of  your body. It is not something that will only tone up your muscles while  neglecting the other life sustaining organs like heart, brain etc. It works not only on the physical aspect but also on your mental, emotional and finally- spiritual state.

A person may be suffering from High BP may be short tempered and thus affecting his family life. As a Yoga Teacher you will be able to help him in not only managing his BP problem but without any re-course to psycho-analysis or any mental, intellectual sparring, help him alter his temperament through Yoga.

Yoga we can say works on the gross, subtle & causal. At the gross level it works on the heart, the digestive system, the endocrinal system, the hormonal glands as also the central nervous system. At the subtle level it works on the energy centres, the neural pathways, the vital life force, called prana. At the causal level it helps break free of ego, conflict, and the prison of one’s own limitations.

The corner-stone of Yoga is awareness. If you practice Yoga and do not emphasize on awareness then you are merely doing physical exercise not asanas, pranayama or Yoga. Yoga is not an ego-boosting indulgence of doing difficult postures to win the admiration and exclamations of the uninitiated. If you are looking to Yoga to contort your body in awe-inspiring poses, then you might as well go and join a circus and become a rubber doll.

 Normally, the body uses you. The sense organs lead you to over-eating, comforts, indulgences. The body uses you and the senses lead the mind. In Yoga, you use the body and the mind leads the senses. The idea is to free yourself of the body so as to experience beyond that which is known only through the senses. So, don’t get stuck with the pride of doing difficult asanas. The asanas are only to relieve you of your bodily discomforts, maladies, illnesses, etc so that you may be able to finally sit for hours in meditation to reach the ultimate goal of Yoga….your union with the Supreme.

Raja Yoga, also called the Royal Path of yoga, is ideally suited for people living, working, within the confines of the world. You need not give up anything or retire to the mountains to follow the path of Raja Yoga.

A daily therapeutic practice of Yoga involves limbering up asanas to begin with, then stretching, bending the spine laterally, forward, backward, twisting. This is to strengthen the spine and also clean up the central nervous system. Then there are other asanas which tone up the hormonal system, the endocrinal system, the digestive system.

Asanas, thus work on a multi-dimensional level on the body and get it into a good state, removing all blockages, maladies so that prana, the subtle life force can freely move in the whole body. Prana, is distinct from your breath. ( See Pranam to Prana... in this blog for more on Prana.) 

This is then followed up with pranayama which works on the subtle systems, like neural pathways & psychic centres of the body.

As one perfects the asanas, pranayama, you then introduce, subtler practices of Dharana ( Concentration) and Dhyana ( Meditation). This finally leading to Samadhi.

This is the progression in which Yoga works on you. 

Yoga is union. Further, it is Viyoga, that is separation. It is separation of energy from matter for the ultimate union of the self with the Supreme.

Hari Om!!