What is Yoga?

When most people hear yoga, they picture mats and physical poses.

In its truest form, yoga is much deeper than a physical exercise - it is the science of harmonising the mind, body and spirit and joining the spirit-Self to the divine.

The word yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root "yuj" meaning "to unite". Yoga refers to both union and the path to that union.

Swami Nirmalananda Giri explains, "What do we join through yoga? Firstly, we join our awareness to our own essential being, the spirit whose nature is pure consciousness. In yogic philosophy, this is called Atman or the Self. Next, we join our finite consciousness to the infinite consciousness, God, the Supreme Self (Paramatman). In essence, they are eternally one.

The individual Atman-spirit (jivatman) originally dwelt in consciousness of that oneness but thorugh descent into the material world, the spirit lost both its awareness of the eternal union and the capacity to manifest it on a practical level. Through yoga, the lost consciousness can be regained and actualised in the Yogi's practical sphere."

Regarding this science, an influential scholar and master of Yoga, Dr Iqbal Kushen Taimni, commented in his book The Science of Yoga: According to the yogic philosophy it is possible to rise completely above the illusions and miseries of life and to gain infinite knowledge, bliss and power through enlightenment here and now while we are still living in the physical body...No vague promise of an uncertain postmortem happiness this, but a scientific assertion of a fact verified by the experience of innumerable yogis, saints, and sages who have trodden the path of yoga throughout the ages."

The foundational text of yogic philosophy is the Yoga Sutras (also called Yoga Darshana), scribed by the great sage Maharishi Patanjali, a Nath Yogi of ancient India.