Yoga is Eternal Science of Human Development

Yoga is an eternal practice and the latest technology - yes, both at once. I say eternal because it has existed, exists now, and will continue to exist in the future. When we look at even a random sampling of Yoga definitions across timelines - from the Vedas, Puranas, and Itihaasa - we see this truth reflected consistently.

Let us explore some key definitions that reveal yoga's profound depth:

1. The Fundamental Definition "Yujyate anena iti yogah" - This foundational definition describes yoga as the method through which individual consciousness (jivatma) unites with Universal Consciousness (paramatma). The path to this union can take various forms:

• Through action (karma yoga)

• Through devotion (bhakti yoga)

• Through other systematic approaches

2. Etymology in Panini's Dhathupatha The root word "YUJ" reveals multiple dimensions:

• Fourth group (divadi gana): To concentrate (vuj samadhau) - Patanjali's usage

• Seventh group (rudhadi gana): To unite (yujir yoge)

• Tenth group (curadi gana): To bind (yuj samyamane)

3. Amarakosha's Definition The ancient Sanskrit dictionary defines yoga as "Yogah sannahanopaya-dhyana-sangai-yuktishu," encompassing:

• Sannahanopaaya: An armor for higher pursuits

• Upaaya: A technique or method

• Dhyana: Concentrated meditation

• Samgat: Unity

• Yuktisu: Logical framework for union

4. From Sacred Texts

• Sage Vasistha: "Manah prasamanopayo yoga ityabhidhivate" - A skillful method to calm the mind

• Kathopanishad: "Tâm yogamiti manyante sthiramindrtyadharanăm" - Mastery over senses and mind

• Bhagavad Gita's perspectives:

  • "Samatvam Yoga uchyate" (BG 2.48): Evenness of mind between success and failure

  • "Yogah karmasu kausalam" (BG 2.50): Discretion in action with surrender to the Divine

  • "Tam vidyad duhkhasamyogaviyogam yogasamjnitam" (BG 6.23): Dissociation from sorrow

5. Patanjali's Classic Definition "Chitta Vritti Nirodhah" - Yoga is the tool to restrain mind's fluctuations, leading to effortless manifestation of our true nature.

In my classes, retreats, workshops, and teacher training sessions, I've witnessed something remarkable. When we introduce these definitions, participants experience an immediate sense of lightness, an unburdening. Their faces light up with hopeful recognition as they discover how many pathways are available to reach this safe, organic homeostasis.

The practice reveals itself not as a narrow tunnel but as a multi-dimensional approach:

• Top-down - (Intention Setting, Affirmations, Visualization, mindfulness) and bottom-up -(Asana, Pranayama)

• External (Yama, Nisama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara) and Internal ( Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi)-

• World-engaging(Yama) and Self-centering ( Niyama)

• Body-mind bidirectional practice - Asanas influence physiology and nervous system. Brain, the seat of mind receives these cases from body and relaxes the ever alert organ system. This provides the peaces and further helps body to restore and heal

What we're really exploring here are aspirations and intentions - seeing the world and ourselves without distortions. In that clarity lies the recognition of our Oneness with the Totality.

When I teach Patanjali's framework, we talk about how these pathways cane visualized and depending on each model, we access a different way of connecting to that. For example:

• A well rooted tree blossoming with fruits and flowers

• A ladder we climb at our own pace, each step giving a better view of ourself

• An eight-petalled flower, where each petal's opening creates space for the next

• Different entry points into the same highway

• Links in an interconnected chain where pulling one lifts the whole

  

1. Yama - Social Guidelines: Recognition of our social fabric, interconnectedness. "Whatever is disagreeable to yourself, do not do unto others"

2. Niyama - Personal Disciplines: Personal Behaviors - Building safe spaces, connecting self-growth to collective growth

3. Asana - Physical Strength: Safe base foundation for strength and ease

4. Pranayama - Energy Management: Managing, channeling and optimizing energy

5. Pratyahara- Interoceptive Feeling State: Dropping into our feeling state - Developing self-knowledge through inner attunement

6. Dharana(Focus), Dhyana(Deepening Awareness) and Samadhi(Total absorption): Moving from feeling to focused, absorbed states - Full engagement with any pursuit

This comprehensive science has validated itself through millennia of experimentation, yet remains perfectly suited to modern life. The model:

• Harmonizes all personality facets

• Applies across ages, geographies, and life roles

• Avoids bias against any aspect of personality

• Recognizes multiple paths to mental peace

• Is elegant, simple and universal

• Validates itself through millennia of experimentation

Let us move beyond calling this science merely "ancient" - a word that can mistakenly suggest something mysterious or disconnected from our modern lives. Instead, let us recognize yoga for what it truly is: an eternal science that renews itself in every era, speaking as clearly to us today as it did thousands of years ago. It's a living technology for human flourishing, personally relevant to each practitioner while remaining universally applicable.

The spiritual sages, the scientists of the Self, have been exploring, studying, learning about the very subject the Self, with their own, body, breath and mind. Through millennia of axioms, hypotheses, and lived experiences, debating, refining, enriching this body of knowledge and giving us the applied tools and made it relevant. When we truly grasp how this framework guides us to develop our full potential - leading us through a spiraling journey until we recognize our infinite self in everything - how can we not be moved by its profound vision?

Though the ultimate connection to Self emerges when mental fluctuations (vrittis) cease, yoga's beauty lies in offering us multiple pathways to reach this state - each one valid, each one true to the seeker walking that path.

When we study and practice yoga, we become both beneficiaries and channels of this timeless wisdom. Receiving this knowledge fills me with profound gratitude and an instinctive desire to share it, however new we might be on our own journey. Practice, experience, share, pass it on, reminisce and keep it going. As long as you practice you keep the flame of knowledge alive for future generations.