🧘 What is Yoga?
Beyond the Buzzword: Rediscovering Its True Meaning
The word Yoga is one we hear frequently in daily conversation. Phrases like “He has good yoga” or “His yoga is unfavorable” are commonplace. Yet, despite its prevalence, the true meaning of yoga rarely crosses our minds. What does yoga actually signify? Is it just about fortune and fate? Or does it hold a deeper, spiritual relevance?
To uncover the essence of yoga, we must journey beyond popular sayings into the profound realms of scriptural wisdom and philosophical insight.
📜 Yoga in the Bhagavad Gita
A Multifaceted Definition from Lord Vyasa
In the Bhagavad Gita, authored by the sage Vyasa, all eighteen chapters are titled “Yogas”—whether the subject is sorrow, karma (action), or jnana (knowledge). But how can such vastly different topics all be considered yoga?
Interestingly, Vyasa offers different definitions of yoga throughout the text:
Yoga is skill in action.
Yoga is the state of mental balance.
Yoga is equanimity in happiness and sorrow.
Yoga gives both joy and sorrow.
Yoga is the absence of sorrow.
Yoga is the removal of suffering.
Yoga is the steady establishment in knowledge.
These definitions seem diverse—even contradictory. So, how can we reconcile them?
🧠 The Need for Harmony
Why Contradictory Definitions Must Be Unified
When definitions remain scattered or contradictory, they create confusion. And as long as confusion persists:
Harmony cannot be established.
True knowledge remains inaccessible.
Practice becomes ineffective.
Spiritual attainment (siddhi) remains out of reach.
Hence, a harmonizing principle is essential to bring clarity to the word yoga.
🔍 Tracing the Root of Yoga
Union as the Foundation
The word Yoga comes from the Sanskrit root “Yuj”, meaning union. But what does this union imply?
If both elements are imperfect, the union is futile.
If both are perfect, no union is needed.
Thus, union becomes meaningful only when one is imperfect and the other is perfect—when the limited merges into the limitless.
As the Upanishadic verse declares:
“Purnasya Purnamādāya Purnamevāvaśiṣyate”
(That which is perfect remains perfect, even when a part is taken from it.)
This is not just a poetic ideal but a philosophical truth that enables the human being to experience wholeness.
🌍 What Needs to Be Perfected?
Identifying the Source of Imperfection
The human mind is imperfect.
The world perceived by the mind is also imperfect.
Even the concept of God becomes limited when seen through the mind’s dualities.
Why? Because we perceive them all as special forms (visheshas). Anything special is, by nature, limited. Only the universal is truly infinite and perfect.
All special things—our thoughts, identities, perceptions—emerge from the universal, are infused by it, and ultimately dissolve back into it. Just as gold remains the essence behind various ornaments, so too is there an underlying reality behind our limited experiences.
💫 The One Universal: Consciousness
The Pure “I Am” That Permeates All
What unites the jiva (self), jagat (world), and Ishwara (God)?
It is the pure consciousness behind all experiences—the universal awareness of “Aham Asmi” — “I am.”
This is not ego.
Not identity.
Not emotion.
But the neutral, unconditioned awareness common to all beings.
This is the Self (Atman)—the silent witness, the immutable truth. In it, all movements of the mind, forms of the world, and even ideas of God merge and dissolve, just like waves vanish into the ocean.
🕊️ The Final Realization: Non-Dual Unity
From Imperfection to Perfection
When the self realizes its oneness with truth, duality disappears. There is no more striving, no more seeking. Only the undivided perfection remains. This state is Yoga.
This is the equality (samatvam) spoken of in the Gita.
Actions performed in this state become Karma Yoga, as they no longer bind.
The ego dissolves.
The mind quiets.
This is Chitta Vritti Nirodhah — the cessation of mental fluctuations, as defined by Patanjali.
🧩 The Yoga of Patanjali
The Eightfold Path to Stillness
According to Maharshi Patanjali—author of the Yoga Sutras and one of the six sages of Indian philosophy—Yoga is defined as:
“Yogah Chitta Vritti Nirodhah”
(Yoga is the cessation of the modifications of the mind.)
To attain this, Patanjali outlines the Ashtanga Yoga (Eightfold Path):
Yama – Ethical restraints
Niyama – Internal observances
Asana – Postures
Pranayama – Breath control
Pratyahara – Withdrawal of senses
Dharana – Concentration
Dhyana – Meditation
Samadhi – Complete absorption
This is a disciplined journey toward Self-realization and inner silence.
🧘♂️ The Ultimate Yoga
From Understanding to Realization
When this truth is understood intellectually, it is called spiritual knowledge.
When it is experienced directly, it becomes Self-realization.
At that point, all notions of anatma (non-self) dissolve. Nothing but the Self remains. This is not just the goal of yoga, but the final purpose of human life.
✅ In Summary:
Yoga is not just practice—it is the dissolution of separation.
It is the reunion of the limited self with the universal Self.
It is the end of all confusion, sorrow, and struggle.
It is the recognition that perfection is not to be achieved, but uncovered.
🌟 That is the yoga we must attain.
