The true meaning of yoga

I feel yoga is the most misunderstood and often abused term these days. Most people misunderstand yoga with yog asanas which is just one of the eight main parts of yoga to keep the body fit. People use yoga as an option to work out in the gym or to lose weight or to look good. Which is so wrong on so many levels.

Yoga is a way of leading your life. It means discipline, awareness, practise and seeking knowledge. When you start following these things then your journey towards the path of yoga begins .

Yoga teaches you how to enhance the right emotions and also control the negative feelings which are all within your consciousness. Truth, trust, compassion, non violence, respect and so many other satvik or pure emotions as well as lust, greed, envy, jealousy, anger, hate and other tamsik or negative emotions that are forever affecting us .yoga makes you aware of them and helps you deal with them with the right knowledge and consciousness.

For instance, I do yoga in the morning. But it does not start immediately by doing some body stretches. It starts by feeding some crows that come to my window . Now after a few months two of them have started taking their biscuit from my palm itself. And that means I have been able to develop a bond with them and they know that they can trust me and that I won’t harm them. This in itself is a progress in my yogic journey.

Ditto is the awareness towards the food you eat, where it comes from, who grows it, how it finally comes to your plate and you eat it and it gives you life .. How little violence or exploitation can you involve in that process. What is the right way of cooking it and what is the right time to eat a particular type of food. What are seasonal foods and what effects they have on your body.The awareness itself is again a part in the yogic journey.

The right breathing as breath is the ultimate difference between life and death. The right knowledge of the consciousness and who you are. The difference between your inner self and your body which is just a structure that holds your self . These are all yogic thoughts and when they start playing in your mind then you are truly on the path of yoga.

It does not make any difference if you can do the handstand or some complicated yoga asan posture . That too will happen with practise and even if it doesn’t it just means that your body still requires work.. But yoga is also a workshop for yourself, your thoughts, your emotions and your spiritual being. When you combine everything in the right proportions, then only your tryst with yoga starts. Not just by doing some stretches superficially and thinking that you have become a yogi!