by Stephen Austen

Created on: February 03, 2009

What Is Yoga?

The word "yoga" has become so familiar to us today that I suspect for the vast majority of people, including those who attend yoga classes, the term has lost its meaning. For myself, on the one hand I applaud the great interest in Eastern mysticism that has been spreading rapidly throughout the western hemisphere since the 1960's, but I despair concerning the adulteration of it to western tastes and likings.

There are many branches of the Yoga system and these have been cultivated in western soil and have in turn rooted and branched out into their own westernised forms of yoga. It is now very trendy to witness celebrities displaying their grip on these tricky Eastern postures and we even see glossy magazines disporting images of muscled pseudo-gurus wearing bandanas and dripping in sweat so that yoga will appeal as yet another sexed-up tool for getting what you want and being attractive to others.

But is this yoga? Let us examine the actual meaning of the word: "Yoga" comes from the Sanskrit (an ancient Indian language) which means literally "Union", and specifically this refers directly to union with God. There are principally four main methods of attaining this union with God through the systems of Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga and Jnana Yoga.

Karma Yoga involves the individual becoming engaged in unselfish service to mankind;

Bhakti Yoga is the path of devotional service to God, to the guru and to religion;

Raja Yoga is a process of focussing the mind in contemplation, introspection and meditation;

Jnana Yoga is the way of the student of scriptural wisdom who studies the nature of the true inner Self and gains spiritual knowledge thereby.

All of these paths either practiced individually or simultaneously lead the earnest Yoga practitioner back to the Godhead. Through these systems he or she attains union with the Divine. Because yoga means to bind, join or yoke together it is this imagery that one must ever bear in mind and heart when performing a posture, when holding that posture and concentrating on the special breathing techniques employed in yoga. The truest method of practicing yoga is the meditative method where the posture is held and the mind goes inward. Hatha Yoga is perhaps the purest form of the ancient Indian schools of yoga because its goal is to control, regulate and direct the mystical Prana and hence surmount the vices of the physical body and lower nature. Yet what we see in many western countries now are so-called "Astanga

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>