What is the true meaning of yoga?

Learn how the various members of yoga, pranayama, asana and meditation,. The word “yoga” comes from the Sanskrit word, yuj or yoke.

Yoga

means “linking”, “connecting” or “joining with”. AiR's new book talks about yoga and its connection to life as most people know it.

While it is considered a divine and mystical Indian concept that gives instant peace, it goes far beyond that. People say that it is the union of body, mind and soul. But is this what yoga really is? The general understanding of yoga is limited to being a magical exercise that promises good health and well-being through proper body exercise and modulation of breath control. Whereas, in reality, yoga has very little to do with physical and breathing exercises.

In fact, yoga is about transcending the body and mind. Unfortunately, many think of Yoga as a physical activity that helps improve the body and have become prisoners of thought, although in reality, Yoga is a Union with the Divine. There is no doubt that, as part of the entire yogic experience, some proclaimed gurus advocate certain body postures and breathing exercises to be part of the general practice of Yoga, but these are definitely not Yoga by themselves. While this is true, since physical fitness and flexibility are natural consequences of the constant practice of yoga, the real purpose and importance of yoga are much deeper and more absolute.

Yoga is the key to unlocking life's ultimate goal, “liberation,” but to do so, one must understand the true meaning of yoga. To finish this mythical story of Yoga and realize the true meaning of this Divine activity, one must stop using the term Divine Yoga in vain.

practice

(abhyasa) means choosing, applying effort and performing those actions that produce a stable and calm state (sthitau). And before that it would be what I see as true yoga and that is Tantra with several schools of thought such as Shaivism in Kashmir.

When you think something and stop thinking, it doesn't mean that chitta-vritta-nirodha has been reached, because you may be stopping the process of thinking about a particular thing due to pressure from another side that also catches your eye. You need to adopt such means of action by which the rajasic and tamasic potentials of prarabdha are effectively mitigated. With more people than ever practicing yoga, it's surprising that few people know what it really means. The first branch is Yamas, which refers to the moral qualities that individuals need to cultivate in order to reconnect with their true unified nature.

Not just 2 billion people as reported, but rather the 8 billion people in the world should learn the art of yoga, not yoga as it is understood today, but the true form of yoga. In contemporary times, yoga as a practice has been renamed and labeled in many ways, which has led to the discipline losing its essence and its true meaning. However, understanding the true meaning of Yoga remains elusive for most Westerners, even for many who “practice yoga regularly. The great sage Maharshi Patanjali systematized and codified the then-existing yoga practices, their meaning and their related knowledge through a series of ancient texts known as the Yoga Sutras.