What is the true essence of yoga?  What is its purpose and what can it offer us?

True, it can offer us a nice, healthy lean figure which is arguably why many people in the West practice the asanas.  But yoga is so much more than a lithe, healthy body.  It can be a path to finding out the truth.  It is a way of life.  It is the liberation of the mind to unite with the Self, God, the infinite Universe and thus the doorway to ultimate happiness.  This is quite a boast so we need to examine this in much deeper detail.

Let's start with the definition of the word yoga as most yoga books do.  The Sanskrit root 'yuj' means to join or connected and is related to the English word 'yoke' or to harness. In essence, this is the union of our true inner self with the Supreme Self (as Patanjali stated) or with God as the Advaita Vedanta School of Yoga would say.  In order to do this, according to the most ancient philosophy text, the Yoga Sutras, we have to still the mind from its endless chatter and quieten it down in order to liberate it and thus bring forth its power. Only then can the true self find real happiness, clarity and righteousness in all thoughts and actions with absolute inner knowledge.  

​

Yoga also means right action which is thereby achieved when we are connected to the universal consciousness and no longer adrift in a chaotic world.  This is no easy task, however.  The human nature of the mind is driven by desires and attachment to outcomes, fear and the ego.  The Katha Upanishad explains man's nature as the eternal spirit as the driver of the chariot (body).  The driver is reason and the mind is the reins.  The horses are the senses and the roads are our selfish desires.  The practice of yoga helps find balance and steadiness in all things in order to travel life's journey smoothly.  When we have achieved a deep spiritual connection with the self and the universe with balance and non-attachment to outcomes and have tamed our ego then we behave correctly in all situations and our life journey is clear.  We can weather the storms that life brings, drive our chariot safely and purposefully, reach our destination smoothly and know true happiness beyond the illusion of desires quelled by short term material gain or selfish behaviour.  When we lack this balance, we are unable to control the mind and our senses are like wild horses running in all directions in search of other more short term measures to satiate our desires, needs and ambitions.  We end up feeling short-changed, unhappy and on the quest again.  This unhappiness brings with it the four horsemen of our personal apocalypse: frustration, anger, anguish and despair which, if left unchecked, can lead to disease of the mind and body.  This, in turn, leads us to search for our truth and a way to salve our four horsemen. 

​

Man's endless quest to find the truth follow the four basic questions of Tantric Yoga: Who am I?  Where have I come from?  Where am I going? and Why am I here?  It is man's ability to question these truths that set him aside from the hive mind mentality. Mark Forstater in his book The Spiritual Teachings of Yoga uses the analogy of ants' behaviour as an analogy of life purpose.  The ants don't stray from the collective goal path in search of individual goals and don't appear to question the collective goals or deviate from them.  Humans will do so.  An ancient yogi saying offers the answer to these aforementioned four questions: There is one truth.  There are many paths.  But which path to follow?

​

The quest to unite our inner self with a higher power or God is offered by most religions and many find salvation there.  Those of us with a leaning to a more atheist or secular viewpoint might simply conform to the conditioning and learning from our parents or those around us to shape our understanding and opinion on such matters without ever questioning it fully ourselves.  Or we may simply continue to search for happiness by endlessly pursuing material gains, outward goals and ambitions to gain approval and thereby creating our social standing in the world by these means.  But the same issues arise again and again.  Karmic debt and past life lessons unlearnt aside, looking at how yoga, the oldest spiritual path (perhaps, arguably, aside from shamanism) known to man, can offer the meaning of life to us, connecting us to a power much greater than ourselves and thus offering us liberation is surely a path worth exploring.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

But how can yoga really transform our lives? How can it get us to this point of true liberation or moksha if we use the Sanskrit term?  Yoga to most people in the west is simply a form of exercise to get fit and reduce our stress levels.  Performing the asanas will achieve that and the acclaimed yoga heavyweight B.K.S Iyengar promoted physical health as the pre-requisite to a healthy mind and nervous system.  As the yogi tradition does not see the mind as separate from the body, it is therefore essential to get the body into a healthy state.  The discipline of practising postures with right breathing (pranayama) and meditation will bring self-awareness in how our body works, aligns and moves and these changes will alter the mind and nervous system as yoga philosophy promotes.  It works both ways too.  We all want to lose a bit more weight, stop our bad habits such as smoking, eating too much chocolate etc. but this takes willpower and strength of mind.  So the mind has control over the body by the same token.  If the mind can control the senses it will become pure and we can reach our height of awareness and find wisdom according to the Amritabindu Unpanishad. 

​

We hold in our body much tension.  Negative emotions and mental anguish is held in the body.  Asana practice helps to open up the body and release these negative emotions.  The postures work mostly with the muscles which we can consciously control and move.  It is important to use the breath to ease ourselves into the postures as it softens the muscles and creates space in the spine and joints.  This in turn frees the body of tension.  The spine protects the central nervous system and so any benefit to the spine by releasing this tension will automatically be of benefit to the central nervous system.  It aids in the release of toxins stored in the tissues of the body also.  We should go gently with yoga asana practice, always listening to our bodies.  If we are at one with our practice (leaving our ego out of it) this knowledge will come automatically.  With repetitive practice, the body will slowly open up little by little but although we want the postures to become easier with practice, we must also be appreciative of our limitations and not force the body to perform miracles before it is truly able to do so - the miracles will come with dedication.  

​

Vinyasa means movement with breath and that is the chief aim of the asanas because if the breathing is done correctly, the posture will become easier.  The breathing technique called 'ujjayi' or ' victorious breath is a detoxifying force in itself.  The secret is that movement and breath become one and become synchronised but, as mentioned above, remember that our bodies are all different and we must respect our limitations. Yoga is a lifelong journey and pretzel shapes will come with practice but probably not overnight so to get the benefits described by Iyengar of 'bringing lightness and an exhilarating feeling in the body and the mind and a feeling of oneness that the asanas can offer there is no time like the present!  It must be noted however that chronic physical and mental difficulties are more to do with the mind and so we must work with the mind also to free ourselves from these negative samskaras.  The asanas work from the outside and focus on the breath aids us to meditation which works on the mind, which if we still and calm, allowing the senses to withdraw leads to the state of samadhi, our spiritual bliss and peace.  The asanas also prepare the body to sit for long periods of time comfortably in a meditation pose in order to achieve this stillness.  

​

The power of pranayama cannot be underestimated.  Apart from aiding in the release of toxins, The Hatha Yoga Pradipika describes 72,000 energy channels (nadis) in the body with the sushuma nadi or central channel being the greatest of these is allowing the flow of the highest form of life energy (prana).  All pranayama practice focuses on getting the life force moving through the central column leading to the spiritual awakening within.  The Tristana method of Ashtanga Yoga uses the breath, pose, and gaze to free the body completely so that spiritual energy can flow within.  When this happens, the bonds of negative samskaras burn away and liberation can come.  Due to the repetitive sequencing of Ashtanga yoga asanas which invite the yogi to learn this sequence by heart frees the yogi's mind.  This enables the mind to meditate through pose, breath and gaze and thus to spiritual awakening.   Classical Hatha yoga practices holding postures for a longer time, thereby allowing the body and mind to synchronise and integrate. 

​

Yoga reveals a new vision of everything around us.  It opens the heart and therefore our compassion for everyone and everything with a feeling of connectedness with the universal consciousness.  If everyone in the world practiced yoga, there might well be Utopia on Earth.  Liberation is revealing our higher Self free of all the rubbish stuck to it and clogging up the system - the conditioning, prejudices, memory, fear of failure and death as well as physical toxins etc.  The list goes on. 

​

Looking at our unliberated self, the self of fear, ego, insecurities etc.  Bad posture, poor diet, selfishness and meanness, lack of self-worth and other mind and body polluting samskaras is a state of being.  This state simply serves to hurt ourselves as well as others and brings suffering and pain. Ancient Indian philosophers believed that the universe has no beginning and no end and life is cyclical.  We have to learn the lessons in this life in order to have an easier time in the next.  Karmic debt must be repaid.  However, this never-ending cycle of samsara can be broken if we liberate ourselves.  People who follow a religious doctrine will hold that some kind of salvation will come through faith.  Others who simply believe ashes to ashes, dust to dust is the endpoint literally may believe life is a game of chance where you make your own luck.  This is all well and good when the going is good but leaves cold comfort when the going gets tough.  Most people hold a positive view that we can change our world and this is where East meets West.  The material progress of change in the West with spiritual progress in the East.  Positive mental attitude, all the same, to bring about improvement.  Could this meeting of East and West change the world?

​

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali may hold the key to this.  The sutras or 'threads' in linking thoughts were written during the 4th and 3rd century BCE by Patanjali after a history of the information being handed down orally for many, many more years before that.  Patanjali was a dualist believing in two opposing realities - Nature and Spirit.  Like the Taoist Yin and Yang or using the subjective and objective parameters.  The Nature can be described as the body, mind and senses which change over time while the Spirit is our inner self, formless and eternal.  Patanjali realised that when these two forces work together through life experience, we discover the true reality.  Other Yoga schools such as the Advaita Vedanta are monist and believe that yoga seeks to unite the Self with the Supreme Self, Brahman or God.  God or Brahman is the true reality and so we must wake up from our dream illusion and discover this which allows us to self realise our true self or Atman.  Their aim of yoga is for the Atman and Brahman to unite and be one. The Christian ethos fits with this quite well too. If we are all children of God then we can realise 'God made man in his image'.  It all fits the holy trinity idea. 

​

Whichever path you choose to find your bliss, it is the discipline of practice and sincerity to continue to work with the Self both physical and spiritual which will ultimately bring the yoga practitioner to this goal.  It is not an easy path: at times frustrating.  But through perseverance, we are promised deliverance from ignorance in all things - to be at one with God and find our bliss.  And that, perhaps, is the true essence of yoga.  The father of Ashtanga Yoga, Sri K Pattabhi Jois famously said 'practice and all is coming'.  How exciting is that?  And if you get a fit and healthy body with the serenity of mind to boot - who can argue with that?

​

​

​

Read more about:

​

​