What Is Yoga?
Yoga is a way to see reality. It covers all aspects of everyday life, from the development of character to the choice of food. From physical exercise to spiritual exercise. It is a universal system intended for everyone, regardless of religion. The word yoga means “union”. Union with what? It depends on the level of your consciousness. It can be the union of the body, mind, and soul, the union of yourself with the people around. Even the union of your soul with the Supersoul.
What Is Not Yoga?
Yoga is not just a physical exercise that you do in the West. Yoga is experiencing a big boom in popularity these days. In the last century, several schools of yoga have developed from traditional hatha yoga – Iyengar, Vinyasa, Ashtanga, etc. Today, perhaps there is yoga for everything – yoga for pregnant women, “hot” yoga – and I would not be surprised if there was yoga for IT guys or beer yoga in the Czech Republic.
Can we call all these styles yoga? We can, but not the traditional one that Patanjali defined before Christ in his book Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The yoga defined by Patanjali is devoted to all aspects of life, not just the physical ones, as we are used to from today’s yoga classes.
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
If you are interested in the true essence of yoga, there is a short book that contains everything you need to know. This bible of yoga is called Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The book contains 196 aphorisms, or sutras, in the Sanskrit language, where each of the aphorisms deals with the path of enlightenment through yoga. These aphorisms are very brief, but their meaning is all the more profound and often extends beyond our comprehension.
The First Three Aphorisms From the Yoga Sutras
1.1 atha yoganusasanam
Yoga starts now.
1.2 yogah cittavrtti nirodhah
Yoga is about calming the movement of your thoughts.
1.3 tada drastuh svarupe avasthanam
Then, the seer resides in his true beauty.
Eight Limbs of Yoga (Ashtanga Yoga/Raja Yoga)
To simplify, Patanjali describes yoga as the so-called eight limbs, these are Yama (external disciplines), Niyama (internal disciplines), Asana (yoga positions), Pranayama (breath control), Pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses), Dharana (concentration), Dhyana (meditation) and Samadhi (union).
1. Yama – Restraints on Behaviour
Yama deals with how you treat your surroundings. It contains five moral disciplines, which can be found in other philosophies/religions, especially for their universality:
- Ahimsa – nonviolence, through your actions, thoughts, and words
- Satya – truthfulness
- Asteya – non-stealing
- Brahmacharya – appropriate use of energy – such as restricting sex for sexual pleasure
- Aparigraha – non-attachment, non-possessiveness, simple living
By adhering to these five values, you will contribute to the peace of your mind by ceasing to create more negative karma. Let’s compare negative karma to the waves on the lake, which are created by a boat ride. As long as the boat is active on the lake, the water level will never calm down. The same is true for your mind, as the negative karma is still present (1.2 yogah cittavrtti nirodhah).
2. Niyama – Spiritual Observance
As Yama deals with the world around you, Niyama turns inwards and focuses on how you treat yourself.
- Shaucha – purity, both body and mind
- Santosha – contentment with what you have
- Tapas – self-discipline
- Svadhyaya – self-study, study of sacred scripture
- Ishvara Pranidhana – surrendering to a higher power
Every change starts with you. Let’s be happy, let’s find more time for yourself, and thus, your behavior will change towards your surroundings. Yama and Niyama interact. The more you practice one, the more you improve in the other.
3. Asana – Seat, Physical Postures
Sitting, or physical postures (which are known to us from yoga classes) we call Asanas. Regular physical exercise of “yoga” leads back to the flexibility your body had as a toddler. A flexible body leads to a flexible mind, opening up energy pathways that were previously closed. It also eliminates physical problems such as back pain, joint pain, and overall prolongs your life.
4. Pranayama – Expansion of Vital Energy Through Control of Breath
The meaning of the word Pranayama was created by combining the words Prana – life energy and Ayama – extension. Yama means breath control. Pranayama is thus the extension of life energy through the control of the breath – inhaling, exhaling, and retention. Although Prana takes place all around us in the form of the five basic natural elements, pranayama focuses on receiving life force from the air.
5. Pratyahara – Withdrawal of Senses
You perceive the world through the senses. You believe in what you see, feel, hear, and these stimuli that constantly bombard your mind shapes “your reality.” You live in an external world and forget the world that is happening inside you. Pratyahara is about learning to divert your attention away from the senses that are looking outward and focusing it inward on yourself. Let’s become master of your mind, through the control of your senses. Let’s learn to perceive the world within by withdrawing attention from your senses.
6. Dharana – Concentration
The last step, before meditation, is to keep your attention. Once your mind is calm, your posture firm, your spine is straight, and your senses do not distract your attention, it is time to learn how to stay focused on one object. This object can be your breath, the voice of the person you are talking to, or anything else you do. You must focus your attention on one thing at a time, not on several things at once.
7. Dhyana – Meditation
If you have mastered all the previous stages and you are able to keep your attention on only one object for a long time, then concentration becomes meditation.
8. Samadhi – Complete Absorption
Samadhi is not only the last step of yoga but also its meaning which is union. Samadhi is the complete absorption of the object over which one meditates. This absorption, or union with the object, interrupts life in illusion, or in eternal duality, in which you perceive both yourself and that object. In the state of Samadhi, there is no difference between you and the object over which you meditate. When you attain Samadhi, you become one with the object. In this state, you take over all the properties of the object, and with that comes understanding. Understanding or realization that this is the reality. This is what the real world looks like.
Life Path
This is yoga as originally defined in the book Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. It is a life path described by eight, consecutive steps, which if gradually practiced, leads to the union – yoga. By skipping one of the steps, sooner or later you discover that you have trouble advancing on your path and need to return. If you decide to follow the path of yoga, there is no need to hurry. Yoga is a life journey with a goal that may not be reached. However, even without attaining the state of Samadhi, you can enjoy life more and more as you draw nearer the discovery of eternally hidden truth.
Yoga is here for everyone, especially for those souls who are lost and do not know what to do next. Yoga helps you to rediscover meaning in life and directs you to a path worth following.