The International Yoga Day: Real meaning of practising Yoga

Yoga is the coming together of the various divided fragments of the mind. Yoga is not about having a fit body, or about enlightenment, or other worldliness or freedom from this world, or transcendental experiences, or divine sparkle. Yoga means – How do I live? What do I do with my relatives? How do I treat my wife? Yoga means – If I need to invest everything in a conflict, would I risk my son's life? These are the very questions that an Arjun faces. Finding practical, real solutions to real situations of life is Yoga. Yoga is not about the mat or having a fit body

Yoga is not about feeling special. Yoga is not being in a great state of consciousness. Yoga is about 'not' having a lot of things that we usually have. Yoga is to be free of all feelings.

Yoga is not to place any demand on any kind of thought or feeling. We do not know the charm of needlessness. When you do something needlessly, reason-lessly, there is a particular beauty about it. That beauty is Yoga. To live without a reason, to love without a cause, to act without greed and desire, that is Yoga.

Total purposelessness is Yoga. Yoga is freedom from all 'Whys?'. Yoga is freedom from all questions. Yoga is freedom from all concepts and theories and sutras. Yoga is simply the statement, "I am alright."

What is the need for Yoga?

Yoga is needed only when a man experiences contradictory forces. When a mind feels that it is divided between various segments of influence, and the segments are contradicting and competing with each other; then that which brings peace and resolution to the mind is called Yoga. Yoga, hence, is the only thing relevant to anybody who is mired in strife, tension, indecision, attachment, grief, memories.

Society, media, religion, in fact, the entire gamut of experiences of the past influence the mind. The biology inherent in one's cells and tissues also influence the mind. The country you come from, the system you have experienced, in terms of politics, economy, even ecology, is all what constitutes the mind. The mind is the bundle of influences. And these influences do not agree with each other. Hence, the contradiction and strife that makes our life a battlefield.

That is human suffering. That is grief.

Yoga is to have a composite mind — to return to one's primal purity, in which the mind is not conditioned or stained at all.

(The author of the Article is Famous Vedanta Teacher& National Best Selling Author)