Summary

The article "Demystifying Yoga - Part 1" redefines yoga beyond physical postures and breathing techniques, presenting it as a comprehensive toolkit for achieving a balanced and enriched life, with the potential for spiritual enlightenment.

Abstract

The article "Demystifying Yoga - Part 1" challenges the modern misconceptions of yoga as merely physical exercises or esoteric practices for the select few. It emphasizes that yoga, as outlined in ancient Vedantic philosophy, is a practical and scientific system designed to enhance daily life with peace and happiness while also setting one on a path to spiritual growth. The author, inspired by A. Parthasarthy's 'Vedanta treatise,' argues that yoga is accessible to all and is not about attaining supernatural powers or isolating oneself from the world. Instead, it is about mastering the art of living, which naturally leads to success and fulfillment in the material world and aligns one with higher consciousness. The article suggests that yoga's principles, which predate all religions, are now being validated by modern psychology and offers a method to remain composed in the face of life's vicissitudes. It also critiques the current education system for focusing on external knowledge without teaching individuals how to connect with their inner selves for true happiness and success.

Opinions

Yoga is mistakenly equated with just asanas and pranayama in the modern world, which is a reductionist view.
The true essence of yoga extends beyond physical practices to include mental and intellectual disciplines, aiming for a union with higher consciousness.
Yoga is not an exclusive practice for a select few but is intended for everyone, seekers and non-seekers alike.
The article criticizes the way yoga is often taught, either as mere physical exercises or as rituals shrouded in mystery, which can obscure its true purpose.
Consistent practice of yoga is said to lead to success and happiness in the material world, regardless of whether one achieves spiritual enlightenment.
The principles of yoga are seen

Demystifying Yoga -Part 1

What is Yoga? The concept of yoga and meditation prevalent in the modern world has robbed yoga of its real essence.

This article aims to share how yoga can be used in everyday life to achieve enriching happiness and success in the material world while advancing spiritually in parallel. This article is inspired by A. Parthasarthy’s ‘Vedanta treatise,’ which I have found to be the most practical and the most scientific commentaries on Yoga.

What Yoga is Not

Let’s start with an explanation of what yoga is not….

In the Modern world, there are two sets of interpretations that yoga has been reduced to, thanks to the two prevalent schools of thought.

The first is the school of thought that has reduced it to mere asanas- physical postures and pranayama-breathing techniques which it promises will magically bring you closer to the divine. Yoga is not just a set of physical exercises! Meditation is not a stress buster!! And none of these practices in their current form is mystically going to help you attain nirvana!!!

There is a second school of thought which realizes that yoga is much beyond the exercises for the physical body, and their teachings dwell into yoga practices for the subtle body as well, which is the mind and the intellect. The purpose of this school of thought is to achieve union with the higher consciousness (or God). But the teachings, unfortunately, are shrouded in rituals, and it is set aside strictly for the cult, with each faction propagating its own personal version of Yoga.

Both are wrong!!!! Yoga is not merely a form of physical or breathing exercises that gives you supernatural powers to realize God-consciousness, and neither is it a privilege of the chosen few, on a secret path to spiritual enlightenment.

What is Yoga

Yoga is a set of tools and techniques for living a better life, a vibrant life of action while enjoying peace and happiness within.

Isn’t that what we all are seeking?

Yoga is for everyone, the seekers, and the non-seekers both.

As you move on this path, you not only make your day to day life more peaceful and happy, it also sets you on the path of spiritual enlightenment (irrespective of whether you are seeking it, aware of it, or not). You don’t have to sit under a tree, or go to a mountaintop, or abstain from what the world has to offer to achieve God-realization. As you learn the art of living, you will attract higher consciousness and enlightenment in your life. You accomplish the unknown from the known.

The key to understanding here is that whether or not you reach that state of perfection to attain enlightenment, consistent practice of yoga will definitely put you on a path to success and happiness in the material world.

If I reflect on all the self-help books that I have read from modern authors, their teachings are a subset of what is enumerated in yoga. It seems to be the source of all the knowledge that we have today about life.

Yoga has its origin thousands of years ago, long before the first religion or faith was born. Reference to yoga is found in folk traditions, Indus valley civilization, Vedic and Upanishadic heritage of the Hindu philosophy, Buddhist, and Jain traditions. Most of the life principles expounded in yoga are now being proven right by modern Psychology.

Our external environment will put us through diverse life-situations, some good and some bad. Life moves because we have an inherent nature, which is an amalgamation of our thoughts and desires at any point in time. Usually, when our desires are met, we feel good, even elated, but when we don’t achieve what we want, it leads to negative emotions like sadness, disappointment, and even envy and hate. Our actions get colored by these emotions, and thus the cycle keeps repeating.

Yoga teaches us how to be unfazed by these ups and downs of the external world and maintain composure in all life situations.

This is called ‘dispassionate passion’ for everything we do in life, leading to happiness and success.

The science of yoga is based on the logic that It is not the world that distresses you or causes suffering, but how you relate to it. Hence, there are two essential components that we need to understand — the world and ourselves. While we spend half our youth studying and learning about the external world, there is hardly any time we spend on understanding and learning about how we relate to our outer world and how to strike a better connect with the world to live a happier life. The education system of today saturates our minds with objective data about the world without explaining how it is applicable to our subjective lives. We walk out of schools stuffed with worldly knowledge but no skills which teach us how to relate to the ever-changing world; consequently, we are unprepared and live under stress and strain while there is abundance around us!

Yoga is the science of our inner world. It teaches us, scientifically, how to build up our inner character/personality such that we relate to the external world in a way that promotes growth, happiness, and fulfillment. We spend years studying for an external job qualification and building our expertise in it because we believe it will give us material returns. We don’t realize that if we don’t spend the same amount of time and practice on our inner qualification, we are only half prepared for the game of life.

It is only when a person spends the same (or maybe more) amount of time on his internal growth that a person achieves material returns which are enriching and also give happiness and peace.

In my next article, I will enunciate the Foundation of Yoga and the approach we should take towards yoga to become a yoga practitioner.