What is Yoga?
Answers from yoga experts and traditional texts.
When the senses are stilled, when the mind is at rest, when the intellect wavers not – then, say the wise, is reached the highest stage. This steady control of the senses and mind has been defined as Yoga. He who attains it is free from delusion.
(Kathopanishad, tr. B. K. S. Iyengar) The term yoga encompasses a variety of practices with different ends.
(Srivatsa Ramaswami) Yoga is ecstasy (Samadhi).
(Yoga-Bhashya 1:1, tr. Georg Feuerstein) Yoga is said to be the unification of the web of dualities.
(Yoga-Bija 84, tr. Georg Feuerstein) Yoga is said to be control.
(Brahmanda-Purana 2.3.10.115, tr. Georg Feuerstein) Yoga is an art and the asanas are a poetic expression of that art – symbols which can unlock the truth and lead us toward the Light.
(Shirley Daventry French) Yoga is a technique ideally suited to prevent physical and mental illness and to protect the body generally, developing an inevitable sense of self-reliance and assurance. By its very nature it is inextricably associated with universal laws: for respect for life, truth and patience are all indispensable factors in the drawing of a quiet breath, in calmness of mind and firmness of will.
(Yehudi Menuhin) Yoga is said to be the unity of exhalation and inhalation and of blood and semen, as well as the union of sun and moon and of the individual psyche with the transcendental Self.
(Yoga-Shikha-Upanishad 1.68-69, tr. Georg Feuerstein) Yoga is the Vedic science of Self-realisation that depends upon a well-functioning body and mind.
(David Frawley / Vamadeva Shastri) Yoga is the study of the functioning of the body, the mind, and the intellect in the process of attaining freedom.
(Geeta S. Iyengar) Yoga can be understood as a set of behaviours that develops a holistic experience of the body, heart, and mind. It is a process of fully inhabiting ourselves and our life in a radically engaging and inquisitive way.
(Sarah Powers) Yoga is not just repetition of a few postures. It is more about the exploration and discovery of the subtle energies of life.
(Amit Ray) |
Yoga chitta vrtti nirodhah - Yoga is the ability to direct and focus mental activity.
(Yoga Sutra of Patanjali 1:2, tr. T. K. V. Desikachar) Yoga is perfect evenness of mind.
(Bhagavad Gita 2:48, tr. Eknath Easwaran) Yoga is skill in action.
(Bhagavad Gita 2:50, tr. Eknath Easwaran) Yoga is first and foremost the discipline of conscious living.
(Georg Feuerstein) Yoga is integration and harmony between thoughts, words and deeds, or integration between head, heart and hands.
(Swami Sivananda) Yoga is the union of the individual psyche with the transcendental Self.
(Yoga Yajnavalkya 1:44, tr. Georg Feuerstein) Yoga and knowledge are the two methods for dissolving the disturbances of the mind. Yoga is control of the movements of the mind. Knowledge (jnana) is clear observation of them.
(Laghu Yoga Vasishta V.9.72, tr. David Frawley) The unity of prana and apana, or pranayama, is hatha yoga.
(Brahmananda, commentator on the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, tr. Srivatsa Ramaswami) What then is yoga? The word has many meanings: relation, means, union, knowledge, matter, logic, and so on. For now, let us say that the meaning of yoga is 'upaya', which means path, or way which we follow or by means of which we can attain something.
(Sri K. Pattabhi Jois) Yoga is the art of living at the highest level possible for a human being, in attunement with the larger life – Reality with a capital R.
(Georg Feuerstein) Yoga is an art, a science, and a philosophy.
(B. K. S. Iyengar) All the paths of yoga incorporate the same aim: physical health, mental peace and higher awareness.
(Swami Satyananda Saraswati) Yoga is not easy to define. In most general terms, the Sanskrit word yoga stands for ‘spiritual discipline’.
(Georg Feuerstein) Yoga is ‘prana-vrtti-nirodha’ – stilling the fluctuations of the breath.
(Hatha Yoga Pradipika, tr. B. K. S. Iyengar) Yoga is all those practices that enable us to discover health – which is not the absence of the symptoms of sickness, but which is wholeness and holiness, an inner state of being in which there is no division at all.
(Swami Venkatesananda) Yoga is the practice of observing yourself without judgement.
(T.K.V. Desikachar) |
Yoga is a disciplinary art which develops the faculties of the body, mind and intellect and whose purpose is to refine man.
(B. K. S. Iyengar) The meaning of Yoga is ‘union’, the bringing together of the various polarities within, in order to reach a state of balance and transcend our limited vision.
(Swami Sivananda Radha) The essence of yoga is neither descriptions, nor theories, nor suppositions, but direct personal experience.
(Swami Satyananda Saraswati) The word Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root 'yuj' meaning to bind, join, attach and yoke, to direct and concentrate one’s attention on, to use and apply. It also means union or communion. It is the true union of our will with the will of God.
(B. K. S. Iyengar) Yoga is said to be the oneness of breath, mind, and senses, and the abandonment of all states of existence.
(Maitri-Upanishad 6:25, tr. Georg Feuerstein) Yoga means the yoking of all the powers of the body and the mind and soul to God; it means the discipline of the intellect, the mind, the emotions, the will, which such a yoking presupposes; it means a poise of the soul which enables one to look at life in all its aspects and evenly.
(Mahadev Desai) What is yoga?
Yoga is a system of living with sense and science, of the realization of ultimate values and altruistic missions of life. Yoga evolves a harmonious order in mind, matter and man. Yoga is an absolute departure from basic animal tendencies. Yoga is a state of aloofness from the artificialities of life and relationship. Yoga is the culture of tomorrow! (Swami Satyananda Saraswati) Yoga is the separation of the Self from the World-Ground (prakriti).
(Raja-Martanda 1.1, tr. Georg Feuerstein) Yoga is the intelligence of prana seeking greater evolutionary transformations.
(David Frawley / Vamadeva Shastri) Ultimately, yoga is the union of the individual’s unit consciousness with the infinite consciousness.
(Shakta Kaur Khalsa) |
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