Concept and Meaning of Yoga

There is no simple and easy way to explain yoga, Yoga is vast and complex, with many meanings and inturpications. Yoga dates back thousands of years and today yoga is still considered the best form of maintaining a healthy mind, body, spirit and better quality of life. The following is just a brief look into what yoga is.  

Yoga is one of the six fundamental systems of Indian thought collectively known as Darsana (darsana means sight, view, or a certain way of seeing). Darsana yoga comes from the Vedas, the oldest record of Indian culture. This is where Patanjali’s yoga sutra’s come in. There is some uncertainty as to who Patanjali was. Some think of him as the divine incarnation of the serpent Ananta who supported the whole universe, however we can assume that Patanjali did not originate the yoga teachings but inherited them from the Vedas. Patanjali identified all the teachings in the Vedas about the mind and presented them in this precise organized form known as the Yoga Sutra’s, in short, the Sutra’s are about the mind and how to reduce human suffering. 

Another way to look at Yoga is “to attain what was previously unattainable”. The practice of yoga enables us to look inside ourselves. The more we practice the more we are able to see our true nature, to be able to recognize ourselves better. Yoga is a process and is different for everyone. The practice of yoga should start at where person is at and slowly move through the process, never forcing anything.  

Yoga, in general, is a spiritual practice or discipline that helps the individual unify his/her body, mind and heart.  

Yoga is a direct experience of the vast interrelatedness of all life and of all things. You will feel at peace at the end of a yoga class because there is a natural realignment of your body, which leads to a natural realignment of your perception of life and of who you are.

You will need to develop discipline and there can be hard work involved especially when you first begin.

Through steady practice, you will manifest less self-importance, less material attachment, more capacity for joy, less judgmental-ness, and more tolerance toward others.

Yoga is about transformation, not hamstrings, but along the way we have to take care of them.  This is not dogma, but a direct experience. Yoga will open your eyes to things you have not experienced before. It will take you beyond the mundane survival level and into a whole new appreciation of life.

Genuine yoga will change your life, your habits, your body, your health, your mind, your breathing patterns, your attitudes, and your outlook. Yoga is about learning from direct experience. You will develop wisdom of how your body works most efficiently. You will learn how your conscious and unconscious mind can either support or harm you, and then later, a deeper wisdom naturally gets revealed. The benefits of Yoga will come to those who have a regular practice.

 Yoga is about much more then just physical exercise. There are many benefits to gain from the physical side of Yoga (asana) and much more from the emotional and spiritual side, however unfortunately over the years confusion has been created over the many different ‘styles’ and brandings of Yoga. Yoga is Yoga.  Most of the ‘styles’ of Yoga are just tools of the same Yoga. Time and time again I see people approaching their Yoga practice in a way that is possibly causing all sorts of long term injuries and harm.

(Peace)