Yoga as we know it today is the product of thousands of years. It belongs to the earliest manifestations of India’s cultural heritage. It refers to that enormous body of spiritual values, attitudes, precepts, and techniques that have been developed in India over at least five millennia and that may be regarded as the very foundation of the ancient Indian civilization. Yoga is thus the generic name for the various Indian paths of ecstatic self-transcendence, or the methodical transmutation of consciousness to the point of liberation from the spell of the ego-personality. It is the psychospiritual technology specific to the great civilization of India.
Definition:
The word “YOGA” is first mentioned in the Vedas, the earliest and most treasured sacred scriptures of India, some of which dates back to 5000 to 4500 B.C., and etymologically derived from the verbal root “YUJ” (Sanskrit word) meaning “to bind together” or “to join”. It is joining of the individual self with the universal self. It is an expansion of the narrow constricted egoistic personality to all pervasive, eternal and blissful state of reality.
Around the year 150 A.D to 200 A.D., Maharishi Patanjali, one of the greatest yogis(seers) complied the essential features and principles of yoga in the form of “Sutras” (aphorisms) and made a vital contribution in the field of yoga. According to him “YOGASH-CHITTA VRITTI NIRODHA” (yoga sutra 1.2), meaning “YOGA IS THE STATE OF CESSATION (NIRODH) OF ALL FLUCTUATIONS (VRITTI) IN THE PSYCHIC, THE MENTAL BEING(CHITTA)” OR “YOGA IS A CONSCIOUS PROCESS OF GAINING MASTERY OVER MIND”. One of the major contributions of Patanjali’s sutras is the eight-limbed (steps) yoga, popularly known as “Astanga Yoga”, which gives a comprehensive and systematic approach for developing or to master over the mind. The steps are:
1. YAMA, the moral restraints or disciplines viz.,
(a) Ahimsa (observance of non-injury through thought, word and deed)
(b) Satya (truthfulness)
(c) Brahmacharya (all round self-control)
(d) Aparigraha (non-acceptan
(e) ce of non-essential free gifts)Asteya (non- stealing)
The external congenial atmosphere like, the disturbance in the mind due to fear, anxiety, fatigue or tiresomeness can be overcome by the practice of Yama.
2. NIYAMA, the injunctions or spiritual observations viz.,
(a) Saucha (internal and external purity)
(b) Santosha (contentment),
(c) Tapas (austerity)
(d) Svadhyaya (self-study) and
(e) Isvara-pranidhana (surrender to god).
The internal serenity of the mind is developed by the practice of Niyama.
3. Asana : postures
4. Pranayama : regulation of breath
5. Pratyhara: withdrawal of mind from external objects
6. Dharana : concentration on one object
7. Dhyana : Meditation
8. Samadhi : Supreme Harmony.
According to different texts, yoga is also defined as :-
(a) “ Manah: Prasmanopayah yoga ityabhidhiyate”. Meaning - Yoga is a skillful method to calm down or to control over the fluctuations of the mind – Yoga Vasistha.
(b) “ Yujyate anena iti Yogah:” meaning – Yoga is that which joins in higher terms. (Yoga unites body & mind, mind & intelligence then body, mind & intelligence with the soul) – Yoga Yajnavalka.
(c) “Yogah: Samadhi:” meaning – Yoga is the state of Ecstasy. – Yoga Vyasa.
(d) “Yogah: Karmasu Kausalam” – Bhagawat Gita meaning - Yoga is dexterity in action.
(e) “ Siddhyasiddhyoh samo bhutva samatvam yoga uchyate” – Bhagawat Gita. meaning - Staying even minded in successes or failure, the harmonium (equanimity) is verily yoga.
(f) “Tam yogamiti manyane sthiram indriya dharnam” – Kathopanisat.
Yoga is the state in which all the senses are beheld steadily i.e., a state of mastery over senses and mind.
(g) Yoga is integration and harmony between thoughts, words and deeds or integration between head, heart and hands. – Swami Sivananda.
(h) Yoga is an all-round personality developments; at the physical, mental, intellectual, emotional and spiritual levels. – Sri Aurobindo
Yoga is always concerned with three integrated components of ourselves – body, mind and consciousness. It is in fact a methodical effort towards self perfection by the development of potentialities latent in the individual. |
