4. Yoga and its Roots - Strengthen Your Body, Mind and Spirit

Yoga and its Roots - Strengthen Your Body, Mind and Spirit
By M. M. DIVAKARAN

What is Yoga? According to Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev, Yoga means to be in perfect tune of your body, mind and spirit and existence are in absolute harmony. When you fine tune yourself to such a point where everything functions so beautifully within you, the best of your abilities will just flow out of you. Yoga activates your inner energies in such a way that your body, mind and emotions function at their highest peak.

Bhagavad Gita says, the state of severance of union with sorrow is known by the name of Yoga. Being steadfast in Yoga, perform actions, abandoning attachment, remaining unconcerned as regards success and failure. Yoga is not for him who eats too much or too little - nor for him who sleeps too much or too little. When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering like the flame of a lamp in a windless place. [It is mentioned in the Yoga Sastra that "Half the stomach for food and condiments, the third-quarter for water, and the fourth should be reserved for free motion of air".]

Yoga is the cessation of the modifications of the mind as well as the practice of awareness of mind. Anybody can do the Yoga because it never asks what your faith or belief is. One should practice Yoga in order to obtain spiritual strength. Regular practise of Yogasanas strengthens and activates the nervous system thereby helps in developing concentration. Yogasanas are also a boon to humanity.

Yoga or Yogasana is equivalent to meditation. Meditation dissolutes of thoughts in eternal awareness or pure consciousness without objectification, knowing, merging finitude in infinity. Buddha says the meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom. Prayer is also connected to meditation because daily prayer and meditation are all wonderful therapeutic agencies in building up peace and happiness within an individual.

Meditation is from moment to moment. The eyes see, the ears hear, the organs function. There is no concentration, no introversion, no withdrawing of the sense. Those who do the meditation don't go into the old habits of withdrawal. Go in the directionless expansion, the spaceless space.

When we raise ourselves through meditation to what unites us with the spirit, we feel something within us that is eternal and unlimited by birth and death. Once we have experienced this eternal part we can no longer doubt its existence. Meditation is thus the way to knowing and beholding the eternal, indestructible, essential centre of our being.

Who is Yogin? A Yogin is connected to the Yoga. According to Swami Vivekananda, the man who seeks after this kind of union is called a Yogin and as such a worker is called the Karma-Yogin. Who is the greatest Karma-Yogin? The sun itself stands for all the ideals of everything. Hence, the sun is the greatest Karma Yogin. He who seeks the union through mysticism is called the Raja-Yogin. And he who seeks it through love is called the Bhakti-Yogin. He who seeks it through philosophy is called the Jnana-Yogin. So the word Yogin comprises them all.

Sri Ramakrishna said the Great Yogin has child-like natures because before God they are always like children; no pride. Their strength is the strength of God. They have nothing to call their own. They are firmly convinced of that.

Sri Sathya Sai Baba gives a vast explanation about Dharma and Karma Yoga. Five types of Dharma (duties) have been laid down for man. One is Kula Dharma (duties relating to his occupational group). The second is Desa Dharma (duty to the nation). The third is Matha Dharma (duty pertaining to his religion). The fourth is Gana Dharma (duties relating to society). The fifth is Aapad Dharma (the duty when he faces danger). All these five types of duties are related to one's life in the phenomenal world and are not concerned with the Supreme Reality. All your perplexity has arisen from the delusion that you are the doer, from your ego and the sense of "mine". Know the Brahman; take up all tasks but renounce the consequences giving up the fruit of activity itself.

Karmayoga is far superior to Karmasanyasa. Sanyas is the part of Yogin as well. Vedandta extols the Sanyas is the fourth and the final stage of life. It is the stage of surrendering and realising. The renunciation of Kamya actions according to Bhagavad Gita, the sages understand as Sanyasa; the wise declare the abandonment of the fruit of all works as Tyaga.

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