Athah Yoganushasnam : Now the discipline of Yoga begins.

                Athah Yoganushasnam : Now the discipline of Yoga begins.

                Yoga chit vritti nirodah: Yoga is the cessation of waves of mind

The above two sentences are known as sutras written in the most ancient language of the world - 'Sanskrit'. Sutras in sanskrit language is called 'condensed thought'. It was a tradition in India to write and transmit our knowledge in the form of sutras.  It was for the student to critically reflect on these sutras to find out the meaning behind them. Yoga is a Sanskrit word which means, 'to unite', in sanskrit we also call it 'Samadhi'. It is a powerful method which helps us to unite with our source. Yoga boldly declares that our source or 'God' is not outside of us, 'It is within us'.

What is the use of getting connected with our source?

The Yogis say that, 'there isn't any joy that can be co-related with the Joy of 'Self'.  All of us want to be happy and contended, but in our pursuit we make a mistake. We yearn for happiness outside our self, we seek happiness in 'relationships, in materialistic possessions like car, house, etc., we seek happiness in sense gratification, in sex' and we do find happiness in these things but the Yogis say that this happiness is 'illusionary'. They declare that happiness is always derived from within. 'Husband is not dear to the wife for the sake of husband, wife is not dear to the husband for the sake of wife. It is for the sake of Self that the husband is dear to the wife and wife, dear to the husband'. In other words, it is our own self that gets reflect back to us through different media - be it money, wife, sense gratification, sex, etc.

There is this famous musk deer that is found in India. It is famous for its beautiful smell. All throughout its life, this deer keeps moving to find the source of this beautiful smell but it never discovers that the source of the smell was within it. Such is the case with us, we are running around to seek happiness and joy without even stopping to think that the joy is always within us. 'As the seeds when burnt, never become plants again. In the same way the fire of knowledge burns all our desires and sets us free'. It is Ignorance of our true self that gives us pain and sorrow. The Yogis say that 'Our real nature is Sat - Chid - Ananda i.e. existence, knowledge and bliss absolute'. 'Why do you cry my dear friend for you are the omnipotent one'.

Yogis do not deny the existence of sin, but they declare to the world the existence of much greater truth than the sin. They say that what you call sin is illusionary and unreal. It is out of ignorance that a man wants to find joy outside himself and thus makes a mistake. The tragedy of human existence is that somehow we have forgotten our real nature and we are assuming that we have to depend on external things to be joyful and happy. The one who experiences the joy of self can never sin.

Yoga is not a belief system, it is the only system in the world which is not based on any personality, it demands us to be critical and analytical, as we would be while practising any form of science. If we want to learn chemistry we will have to perform some experiments to discover the truth about the elements. Similarly, if we want to learn Yoga we will have to practice the discipline of Yoga to find out what it says is true or not. Yoga destroys all miseries and the fear of death and rebirth.

Forms of Yoga

Do you know that there are many forms of Yoga or in other words many ways to unite with our source. Though there are many forms of Yoga but in general we can categorize Yoga in four ways viz.

1. Karma Yoga i.e the yoga of action

2. Jnana Yoga i.e. the yoga of knowledge

3. Bhakti Yoga i.e the yoga of devotion

4. Raja Yoga i.e the yoga of mind control

That which is popular all over the world is Raja yoga. Asanas(yoga postures) and pranayams(breathing exercises) are a part of Raja yoga. However Raja yoga is more demanding that just performing asanas and pranayamas. In our next blogs we will write more about different forms of yoga and how we can utilize them to make our life better. We shall also write about Yogis of India.

Thank you for reading this blog. We salute your real nature i.e. Sat - chid - ananda