What is Yoga

Nobody knows the timeless, primeval absolute one, nor when the world came into existence. God and nature existed before man appeared, but as man developed he cultivated himself and began to realise his own potential. Through this came civililsation. Words were evolved with this, concept of God (purusa) and nature (prakriti), religion (dharma) and yoga developed.

Since it is so difficult to define these concepts, each man has to interpret them according to his understanding. When man was caught in the web of worldly joys, he found himself separated from God and nature. He became a prey to the polarities of pleasure and pain, good and evil, love and hatred,the permanent and the transient.

Caught in these opposites, man felt the need of a personal divinity (purusa), who was supreme =, unaffected by afficitions, untouched by actions and reactions, and free from the experience of joy and sorrow.

This led man to seek the highest ideal embodies in th eperfect purusa or God. Thus the external being, whome he called Isvara, the lord, the guru of all gurus, became the focus of his attention, and of his concentration and meditation. In this fundamental quest of reaching him, man devised a code of conduct where by he could live in peace and harmony with nature, his fellow beings and himself.

He learnt to distinguish between god and evil, virtue and vice, and what was moral and immoral. Then arose a comprehensive concept of right action (dharma) or the science of duty. Dr. S. RadhaKrishnan wrote that 'it is Dharma which upholds, sustains, support's and guides mankind to live a higher life irrespective of race, caste, class or faith.

Man realised that he should keep his body healthy, strong and clean in order to follow dharma and to experience the divinity within himself. Indian seers in their search for light distilled the essence of the vedas in the Upanisads and Darsanas (mirror of spiritual perception). The darshanas or schools are : samkhya, yoga, nyaya, vaisesika, purva mimamsa and uttara mimamsa.

Samkhya says that all creation takes place as a product of the twenty – five essential elements (tattvas) but does not recognise the creator (Isvara). Yoga recognises the creator. Nyaya stresses logic and is primarily concerned with the laws of the thought, relying on reason and analogy. It , too, endorses the Nyaya view of God. Mimamsa, which deals with the general concept of the Deity but stresss the importance of action (Karma) and rituals ; and uttara mimamsa, which accepts God on the basis of the Vedas, but lays special stress on spirutual knowledge (jnana).

Yoga is the union of the indiviual self (jivatma) with the universal self (Paramatma). The samkhya philosophy is theoretical while yoga is practical. Samkhya and yoga combined give a dynamic exposition of the system of thought and life. Knowledge without action, and action without knowlegde do not help man. They must be intermingled. So samkhya and yoga go together.

According to yoga, yajnavalkya smrti, the creator (Brahma) as Hiranyagarbha (the golden foetus) was the original propounder of the yoga system for the health of the body, control of the mind and attainment of peace. The system was first collected and written down by patanjali in his yoga sutras or aphorisms. These are directive rather than distridtive, revealing the means and the end. When all the eight disciplines of yoga are combined and practised, the yogi experiences oneness with the creator and loses his identity of body, mind and self. This is the yoga of integration (samyama).

The Yoga sutras consists of 195 aphorisms divided into four chapters. The first deals with the theory mind and lays down what they should do to maintain their poise. The second chapter on the art of yoga initiates the beginner into his practices. The third is concerned with internal discipline and the powers (siddhis) he gains. The fourth and the last chapter deals with emancipation or freedom from the shackles of the world.

The word 'Yoga' is derived from the sanskrit root 'yuj' which means to bind, join, attach and yoke, to direct and concentrate the attention in order to use it for meditation. Yoga, therefore, is the art which brings an incoherent and scattered mind to a reflective and cohetent state. It is the communication of the human soul with divinity.

In nature's heritage to man are the three characteristics or equalities (gunas), namely, illumination (sattva), action (rajas) and inertia (tamas). Set on the wheel of time (kalachakra : kala = time, chakra = wheel), like a pot on the potter's wheel (kalachatkra), man is moulded and remoulded in accordance with the predominating order of these three fundamental intermingling characteristics.

Man is endowed with mind (manas). Intellect (buddhi) and ego (ahamkara). Collectively known as consciousness (citta), which is a source of thinking, understanding and acting. As the wheel of life turns, Consciousness experiences the five miseries of ignorance (avidya), selfishness (asmita), attainment (raga), aversion (dvesa) and love of life (abhinivesa). These in turn leave the chitta in five different states which may be dull (mudha), wavering (ksipta), partially stable (viksipta), one – pointed attention (ekagra) and controlled (niruddha). Chitta is like fire, fuelled by desires (vasanas), without which the fire dies out. Chitta in that pure state becomes a source of enlightenment.

Patanjali evolved eight stages on the path of realisation, which are dealt with in the next chapter. Chitta in a state of dullness is purified through yama, niyama and asana through which the mind is spurred to activity. Asana and pranayama bring the wavering mind to a state of some stability. The disciplines of pranayama and pratyahara make the chitta attentive and focus its energy. It is then restrained in this state by dhyana and samadhi. As it progresses the higher stages of yoga become predominant, but the preceding stages which lay the foundation should be neither ignored nor neglected.

Before exploring the unknown 'atma', the sadhaka has to learn about his known body, mind, intellect and ego. When he knows the 'known' in its totality, these merge into the 'unknown' like rivers merging into the sea. At that moment he experiences the highest state of joy (ananda).

First, yoga deals with health, strength and conquest of the body. Next, it lifts the veil of difference between the body and the mind. Lastly, it leads the sadhaka to peace and unalloyed purity.

Yoga systematically teaches man to search for the divinity within himself with thoroughness and efficiency. He unravels himself from the external body to the self within. He unreveals himself from external body to the self within. He proceeds from the body to the nerves, and from the nerves to the senses he enters into the mind, which controls the emotions. From the mind he penetrates into the intellect, which guides reason. From the intellect, his path leads to the will and thence to consciousness (chitta). The last stage is from consciousness to his self, his very being (atma).

Thus, yoga leads the sadhaka from ignorance to knowlegde, from darkness to light and from death to immortality.

References

The above mentioned information is added from the book called LIGHT ON PRANAYAMA by B.K.S. IYENGAR.