Essays

Yoga is a way of life. It is virtually concerned with maintaining a state of equanimity at all costs. The Yoga emphasize the importance of the mind remaining calm, because as the saying goes, only when the water is still you can see through it.

The basic idea of Yoga is to unite the atma or individual soul with the Paramatma or the Universal Soul. According to Yoga philosophy, by cleansing one's mind and controlling one's thought one can achieve the state, when the individual self was nothing but a part of' the Divine Self The aim of the yogi is to be !  Capable to perceive the world in its true light and lo accept that truth in its entirety.

In Sanskrit, the term 'Yoga' stands for 'union'. A yogi's ultimate aim is to be able to attain this 'union' with the Eternal Self with the help of certain mental and physical exercises. For all extant knowledge of Yoga and its practices, such as yoagasanas and pranayama, the entire credit goes to Maharishi Patanjali.

'Patanjali', the founder and father of Yoga. systematized the various yogic practices and traditions of his times by encapsulating them in his Yoga Sutra. In this momentous work, he describes the aim of Yoga as knowledge of the self and outlines the eight steps or methods of achieving it. These are -

1. Yamas or eternal vows,

2. Niyamas or observances,

3. Yogasanas or yoga postures,

4. Pranayama or breath control exercises,

5. Pratyahara or withdrawal of the senses from distractions of the outside world.

6. Dharana or concentration on an object, place or subject,

7. Dhyana or the continuance of this concentration-meditation, and

8. Samadhi or the ultimate stage of Yoga meditation.

Patanjali's collection of these eight steps is known as Ashtanga Yoga.

Patanjali, lived around three centuries before Christ. and was a great philosopher and grammarian. He was also a physician and a medical work is attributed to him. However this work is now lost in the pages of time.

Patanjali's Yoga has essentially to do with the mind and its modifications. It deals with the training of the mind to achieve oneness with the Universe. Incidental to this objectives are the acquisition of siddhis or powers.

The aim of Patanjali's Yoga is to set man free from the cage of matter. Mind is the highest form of matter and man freed from this dragnet of Chitta or Ahankara (mind or ego) becomes a pure being.

The mind or Chitta is said to operate at two levels: intellectual and emotional. Both these levels of operation must he removed and a dispassionate outlook replace them. Constant Vichara (enquiry) and Viveka (discrimination between the pleasant and the good) are the two means to slay the ego enmeshed in the intellect and emotions. Vairagya or dispassion is said to free one from the pain of opposite's love and hate, pleasure and pain, honor and ignominy, happiness and sorrow.

The easiest path to reach this state of dispassion and undisturbed tranquility is the path of Bhakti or Love. Here, man surrenders his all-mind, soul, ego-to the Divine Being and is only led on by the Divine will. Self-surrender the Diving Name. Such repetition must not be mechanical but one-pointed and full of favor. For this,

concentration is necessary. Concentration can be there only if man has practiced to fix his attention on a particular object without letting it dwell on anything else.

Concentration also calls for regulation of conduct if Bhakti must develop. Good cheer, compassion, absence of jealousy, complacence towards the virtuous and consideration towards the wicked must be consciously cultivated.

There are also methods of regulated breathing which help to reach concentration.

Yoga is an art and takes into purview the mind, the body and the soul of the man in its aim of reaching Divinity. The body must be purified and strengthened through various practices. The mind must be cleansed of all gross and the soul should turn inwards if a man should become a yogic adept. Study purifies the mind

and surrender takes the soul towards God.

The human mind is subject to certain weaknesses which are universal. Avidya : wrong notions of the external world, Asmita : wrong notions of the external world, Asmita ; wrong notions of oneself, Raga : longing and attachment for sensory objects and affections, Dweshada is like and hatred for objects and persons, and abinivesha or the love of life are the five defects of the mind that must be removed. Constant meditation and introspection eradicate these mental flaws.

The human body is a vehicle for journeying this life. It must be kept in proper form if the mind should function well. For this, there are practices too, but Patanjali does not elucidate on them.

Results of several researches

Academy of Research in Physical Culture, Warsaw, conducted studies and investigations on physiological and psychological aspects of Yoga system of exercises. The result of these investigations lead us to the conclusion that the judicious and progressive follow-up of yogic practices brings about higher and higher conditioning of limbic system which is thought to be responsible for regulation of ANS, endocrinal system and the practitioners gradually begin experiencing greater and greater volitional control over the metabolic and the autonomic functions of the body which leads to the recovery of homeostatic dysfunction in the case of the sick and towards perfection of biological equilibrium in the case of normal persons. How such changes are brought about is still not so very clear and requires further investigations regarding the mechanism through which yogic exercises produce physiological and mental effects.

Yoga has been gaining immense popularity now-a-days due to the short-term as well as long-term benefits that it provides. The aims of the Yoga practitioners an extremely varied. Some are particularly inspired by the Spiritual Element that Yogi provides; others by the increased Fitness and Flexibility that it results in. Some

people find solutions to suffering from varied Health Disorders and there are often who achieve an All Round Development of a calm, stress-free mind and a fit body.

Whatever may be the reason, it is proved beyond doubts that Yoga gives one inner satisfaction, mental calmness, good health and long life.

Vocabulary

1. equanimity—composure, presence of mind, self-possession;. 2. emphasize—spotlight, play up, feature; 3. vow—oath, pledge, promise; 4. dispassionate—unmoved, unexcited. unexcitable; 5. ignominy—infasmy, ignobleness, scandal; 6. tranquility—calmness, placidity, composure; 7. divine—holy, sacred, sanctified; 8. dwell—expatiate on, elaborate on; 9. meditation—musing, pondering, consideration; 10. eradicate—uproot, remove, extirpate; 11. elucidate—comment on, annotate, gloss; 12. conclusion—finish, close, halting;   13. volitional—exercising   or   capable   of   exercising   will; 14. Introspection—observation of one's own thoughts, feelings, or mental state.