What is Yoga? How Yoga Helps Us to be Happy?
My name is Sadhu sri, I’m a philosophy teacher at Himalayan Yoga Association in Rishikesh. Today, we are going to discuss what is yoga. Yoga is the most confusing word in the yoga world itself.
What is Yoga?
Yoga comes from its root word ‘yuj’ and as you all know that in Sanskrit language, the root word is very important. So from the root word, there are different different meanings comes so we found yoga in a different meanings. Let’s try to see the three common meaning and the uses of word yoga.
First one is very common. yoga means union.
Union between mind body and the soul. Union between me and the gods, and the union between higher self and myself. Union between all the world that exit outside and Inside.
Yoga is to control.
Yoga is to control of which when I practice the yoga as
control asana, I try to control the posture when I try to do the pranayama, I try to control my prana, and when I do practice meditation, I try to control my senses and the mind.
So yoga is to control the posture, the prana, and the minds along with these senses.
The third meaning of yoga is samadhi.
Samadhi is the stillness of mind so in meditation, when the mind is still, free from all the conditioning thought process coming and going, that particular state, we call it yoga. So then the question comes –
where do we find the definition of yoga? Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and Bhagavad-Gita talk about yoga in a very specific talk. It is to stop the modification all the activity of mind.
People say no what is the use of controlling the mind? We say that like Bhagavad-Gita says the mind is the enemy, but minds at the same time, is your best friend. So yoga is a whole science to control the mind and channelize this energy so we can live the life with purity, peace, and serenity, and make this world more beautiful. Now, the question comes.
How can I apply yoga as a way of life?
So we have Yama and niyama, morally ethically social and personal observation along with the restrictions. Yama ahimsa brahmacharya parigrap try not to kill, injure or harm living beings, try to be truthful ,try not to steal, and try to live a moderation life. Not too much, not too less, and minimalism. Try to live very simple life. Remember the purpose of Yama and niyama is to calm the mind. I’m sure most of you have practiced when you try to meditate without prerequisite other practices, it’s not easy to control the mind and focus the mind along with the physical body, so then comes the Myanmar contentment –
Conscious Living. Purity soldier try to live a life that is free from all the disturbance. I know it’s not easy in the modern time, but still we can make very wise choices. Nowadays, #consciousliving. So yoga is nothing but conscious way of living. Mindfully, you are fulfilling all your duties but at the same time, you are living conscious life along with yoga. So yoga help us to study our own self like swadhyaya. Every day, spare some time to study the scriptures scriptures, it provide us the theory. Theory in the sense what you practice you have to understand, and then comes the ishwar pranidhana – surrender to the God and also comes Tapas – the austerity, or here not austerity in the sense you go to the jungle instantly, but here endure the duality of the world whatever the world throws at you, you practice it with a positive state of mind so yoga as a way of life, and we welcome all of you to come and practice the yoga as a way of life with us and make this world more beautiful by freeing yourself from all the suffering and conditioning.
