India is the birthplace of yoga, an invaluable gift to the humanity. The practice of yoga is believed to have been started almost 5000 years ago. The reference of yoga is found in the earliest scriptures available for the mankind, Rig Veda, oldest of all the vedas - Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharv veda.
The sanskrit word ‘Yoga’ has been derived from the root word ‘Yuj’ which means to yoke, to harness or to join together. In this sense, yoga is defined as union of body, mind and soul. Spiritually, it is defined as union of individual soul and the Supreme Soul. Psychologically, it can be elaborated as Union of individual consciousness with the Supreme Consciousness. During the contemporary period of Buddhism and Jainism, Maharshi Patanjali has defined technically Yoga as ‘Chitta Vritti Nirodah Yogah’ which means cessation of fluctuations of the mind, in his compilation of 196 Yoga Sutras in his renowned classical yoga text called Yoga Darshan.
In Bhagwad Gita, yoga has been defined as ‘Samattvam Yoga Ucchtte’ which means yoga is equanimity of mind, in success and failure (BG II 48). Bhagwad Gita has futher defined Yoga as ‘Yogah Karmesu Kaushalam’ (BG II 50) which means yoga is skillful in action without any attachment with the fruits of the actions.
The above definitions of yoga has mention of ultimate aim of life which is much beyond asanas and pranayamas. They reflect the ultimate aim of life through the yoga, i.e. self realization, kaivalaya and nirvana. This is the state in which one is ultimately free from sufferings of life.
So, yoga has four main different paths to achieve the ultimate aim of life:
(i) Janana Yoga (Path of Knowledge through the philosophy of vedanta and self introspection)
(ii) Bhakti Yoga (Path of devotion through surrender and acceptance)
(iii) Karma Yoga (Path of selfless service without attachment to its fruits).
(iv) Raja Yoga (King of all Yoga, as it inherits all the features /qualities of other paths. It is also called ashtanga yoga).
The ashtanga yoga is most renowned in the world owing to its 2 parts - asanas and pranayamas. But the Sage Patanjali had outlined the following eight steps covering every aspect of human life:
A.(i) Yama (ii) Niyama - These are the most important but forgotten jewels of yoga in the new age world.
Yama means social ethics. Sage Patanjali had suggested 5 yamas:
a. Ahimsa - Non violence in thought, word and actions
b. Satya - truthfulness to others but self also.
c. Asteya - Non stealing of material and non-material objects.
d. Brahmacharya - Celibacy, moderation in pleasures.
e. Aparigrah - Non possessiveness of physical and subtle objects
Niyama are the personal observances to be followed in Sage Patanjali’s Raja Yoga.
a. Shauch - Physical and mental cleanliness in thoughts and actions
b. Santosh - Contentment
c. Swadhyaya - self study
d. Ishwar Pranidharana - Surrender to God
e. Tapa - Austerities
B.(iii) Asanas (iv) Pranayamas
Though Sage Patanjali had defined asanas as Sthiram Sukham Asanam - posture is that state of body when there is stability and comfort. He has not mentioned about any asana and pranayama. However, hatha yoga propounders, Rshi Gherand Samhita, Swami Swatmaram in Hatha Yoga Pradipika and other books, Hatha Ratnavali have elaborated Asanas, pranayamas and mudras in details to bring stability of body and mind.
C. (v) Pratyahara - This is the link stage between the above bahiranga yoga (extrovert yoga) and antaranga yoga (introvert yoga) and this is withdrawal of senses/ sense organs from their respective objects just like tortoise withdraws its limbs.
D.(vi) Dharana (vii) Dhyana and (viii) Samadhi. These are the three steps of Antaranga Yoga.
Dharana is in simple words concntration on object, subtle or physical, place or thought to be established upon. It can be yantra, mantra or even a point on the wall.
Dhyana is where all the distractions in dharana fade away, and there is continuity of concentrated object only, then there dhyana (meditation) takes place
Samadhi - It is spiritual absorption. In both dharana and dhyana, there is meditator, object of meditation and process of meditation. In Samadhi, only object of meditation shines, the other two disappear.
New Age yoga has limited the scope of yoga to asanas and pranayamas. However, in real sense, yoga touches all aspect of our lives and even beyond this life also. Lets see how real yoga plays roles in our lives.
(i) Yoga plays an important in eliminating social evils of society.
If we keep glance on the first two steps of Raja Yoga - Yama and Niyama, following these ethics and observances transforms the personality of human kind to divinity. Despite our strong judiciary system and police system in our country and even other security systems across the world, the crimes statistics always rise every year. Aggression, rapes, violence, thefts, murders, burglaries are only because of over stimulation of mind and its distractions. Yama and niyamas have already solutions to prevent these crimes.
This happens because most of the populations are living in the consciousness lower than that of animals. Through kundalini yoga and chakra activations, one’s consciousness can be raised from lower levels of consciousness to higher levels of consciousness inculcating divine values and virtues. This comes under Kundalini Yoga.
Pratyahara practice helps the practioner to control his senses and the mind to easily restraint himself to do any kind of unsocial actions.
Negative energies are tuned and channelled to do creative work after one’s potential energy is transformed through dharana, dhyana and samadhi.
Yoga moves from competition to cooperation as it helps develop compassion and selflessness and altruism which nullifies the attitude of negative competition which is root cause of corruption and other social evils to get in the race of getting all materialistic achievements.
(ii) Yoga calms the body and mind.
Yoga nidra and progressive relaxation in Hatha Yoga trains the mind to relax with short time and which is as effective as 3 hours of sleep. Sattvic diet as yogic diet always keep the mind positive.
(iii) Yoga is therapeutic
a. We have five layers - Annamaya Kosha, Pranayama Kosha, Manomaya kosha, Vigyanmay kosha and anandmaya kosha. Yoga works on all these layers of human life and brings harmony and peace by rectifying all the layers.
b. Yoga helps in de-addiction by empowering the mind of the addict to restrain himself from the addictions and detoxifications under shatkarma.
c. 90% of diseases are psychosomatic in nature, meeting there by all these diseases are rooted in the mind. Through asanas leading to body awareness and emotional healing through yoga nidra and meditation, mind control through pranayama and pratyahara, most of the non-communicable diseases are cured through yoga therapy.
d. Yoga prevents ageing. Through proper attitude, meditations, telomere found in the nucleus of the cells are prevented from telomerase, an enzyme which is responsible shortening the length of the telomeres and thus ageing.
(iv) Yoga is secret to success and mind power. Through sankalpa / autosuggestions, one can imbibe the desired habits or sankalpa in the subconsciousness mind, and undesired habits are modified, transforming the whole personality.
(v) Yoga helps in crisis management, self management and stress management. All these terms are same and has same meaning if our self is managed at any time be it even adverse circumstance. Yoga empowers us with the eight powers of yoga and inculcates all the seven virtues of the soul.
(vi) Yoga is a tool for eugenics. Eugenics is a science which aims to improve the genetic quality of a human population by excluding certain genetic groups judged to be inferior, and promoting other genetic groups judged to be superior. To make India Super Power and the whole world Paradise, yoga in combination with mantra, ayurveda and diet in tradition of Garbha Sanskaras can bring in desired traits and characteristics inherited in future generations.
World Health Organisation has defined Health as physical, mental, and social well being, not only absence of infirmity or desease. Whereas yoga works beyond this definition of health, as it works on spiritual and emotional levels. WHO has recommended to add spiritual element in its definition, but it is yet to be done so. So, yoga is the discipline that works beyond health.
There are misconceptions of Yoga that needs to be corrected.
1. Yoga is only asanas and pranayamas
2. Yoga is religion or religious
3. Yoga cuts one from society
4. Yoga is exercises only.
5. One need to be flexible for yoga
Yoga has to be come purely scientific culture and it has to go beyond orthodox nature, religion, region and the country. Yoga in its wholeness and completeness has to be adopted. Only then the real objective of yoga will be attained. The real objective of yoga to make the whole world paradise and attainment of Moksha, Nirvana or ultimate freedom. This is the state of mind when it is forever free from pains, sorrows and sufferings of life.
Yoga has to be adopted as a way of life instead of just asanas and pranayamas. Yoga is discipline of life. Yoga is constitution of life, just like a constitution of any country.
