What is Yoga really is?

 As someone tells the word Yoga, we would start to get pictures of exercises. Isn’t it? The word Yoga in Sanskrit for "yoking" or "union", is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices that originated in ancient India. Yes, it is not only physical and mental practices but also a spiritual practice too. 

In ancient India, many people tried to understand the goal of life and were trying to find paths for enlightenment. They believe the ultimate goal as human beings is to attain a certain state of mind and thereby to reach the god or a supreme state. They strongly have believed humans are incarnated from low-sense creatures too to 6-sense humans. This might not be scientifically proven but we should agree we have evolved from the single-cell creature(obviously we should have evolved all the way from the single-sense creatures). As we have given a big boon called thinking, we raised several questions to reach the state where we are in our modern world. In the same way, they started thinking about the goal of life and the sufferings that prevails all over. 

Hence they devised four major paths to get answers for the above and to attain enlightenment: Karma marga, Bhakti marga, Jnana marga and yoga marga. Karma marga tells the compassion towards what you do makes you union towards it and finally, you attain enlightenment. Whereas Jnana marga tells the knowledge one receives through various means can understand everything surrounding and he who could get enlightenment through Gnana or knowledge. Bhakti refers to the devotion towards god, the unbreakable belief in god with benevolence leads to enlightenment.

Yoga marga is the one uniting the mind and body. The practitioner’s ultimate goal is to empty the mind which is composed of unnecessary thoughts by cutting those down. By achieving the still mind state the practitioner(this can be achieved after samadhi) would attain enlightenment.  

In ancient India, these were all experienced by various Rishi's and they have documented the same. Pathanjali is one among them who have written Yogasutras. In the yoga sutra, he has mentioned eight limbs(Ashtanga Yoga) of Yoga. This includes yamas (abstinences), niyama (observances), asana (postures), pranayama (breathing), pratyahara (withdrawal), Dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (absorption).

These stages will take time for different individuals. Basically, the Yama and niyama direct one how to live by detailing like respecting all the living beings and to feel empathy for others and follow non-violence. Be compassionate to all the living beings surrounding us. 

The asanas are the ones usually that we refer to as Yoga, nothing but exercises. But there is a slight difference with normal exercises as the asanas main intention is to bring the mind close to your body to protect this body. Then the pranayama is nothing but breathing exercises. Usually, the asanas and the pranayama intercept as all the asana requires to consciously observe the breath. 

As per the Yoga sutras, if you follow Yama and niyama properly, your mind will be free from any suffering of the mind. And the next two will free the bodily sufferings/stress. This is the perfect stage for the yogis(the person who follow these limbs) to move to the next sadhana which is pratyahara. Pratyahara is a stage where practitioners withdraw their senses during the sadhana which will the helpful for the next stage Dharana(concentration). This is the pre-meditation stage. This is the stage where the practitioner reduces his thought density after the sense is withdrawn. If the practitioner wins this stage, he can practice the Dhyana and then Samadhi(we can say extreme Dhyana). 

Thirumoolar is a great sage(sitthar) and practitioners of yoga have written thirumanthiram which is having many tactics more about Dharana, Pratyahara, Dhyana and Samadhi. The person who achieves samadhi attains enlightenment.

So majorly the asanas and pranayama can be done for the well being of all humans. Many of us try meditation but usually many are still in pratyahara or in the Dharana stage as per the yoga sutras. Usually, these practices should be enough for those who would like to lead a sound living.