Yoga shastra

 

Scope of Yoga :

Now-a-days, many are attracted towards yoga. In fact,in many western

countries, learning yoga has become a fad. Now-a-days, even in India,

everyone is slowly turning to yoga. 21stJune is being celebrated as

the International Yoga Day and therefore it is imperative for us to know

the scope of yogaand understand what precisely yogais all about.

Yoga - An Art:

Life is an art of living. Yoga raises the standard of living. Therefore study

of yoga is also an art. Its practice leads to towering thoughts of

the practitioner and helps the person to wade through the difficult times of

life bravely. Therefore Shri Krishna calls Yogahkarmasu kau alam or

an art of living. It helps in the conservation and promotion of qualities

like objectivity, friendship, devotion, happiness, satisfaction,

concentration and non-accumulation of what is not needed and results in

the formation of a virtuous and ideal human being.

Yoga A Science:

Just as intoner fields of science, there is importance of observation and

experimentation in yoga too. Yoga has a great scope for research. Yoga is

the science of body and mind in which one gains control on mind by

restraining the body. Practice of Yoga results in healthy and happy life. By

achieving balance between the body and the mind, the path to self

realization gets well laid. This balance in life is achieved through yoga by

skillful and systematic practice.

Yoga A Philosophy:

Ordinarily, man is very emotional in nature. He is often troubled and

tormented by the duality of sadness-happiness, insult-praise, and

 failure success affecting his mind and body. But a practitioner's minds

unaffected by such tumults of life. This is because he acquires the

teaching of being unfazed by such emotional drama in life and maintains

equanimity in all situations.

Yoga is a philosophy that elevates a person in search of the ultimate truth,

from the mundane sensual world to the spiritual sphere in a systematic

way. Such is the universality of application of yoga.

Definitions of Yoga :

1) Yog scittavrtti nirodhah:

Yoga means arresting of all the mental activities. Such is the definition given in the secondaphorism(sutra) of Samadhu pada, the first  chapter in the Patanjali's yogadarsana.

2) Swaswarupé samasannata'

This definition of yoga is given in Vedanta.

3) 'Yujyate anéna iti yogah'

Yoga is a process of joining/uniting. It is the union of individual

consciousness with the universal consciousness. It is the realization of

non-duality of all existence.

4) 'Manah prashamanopayah yoga i (3.9.32)

Yoga is the technique of calming the mind.

5) Samatvam yoga uccate . (Bhagavad Gita 2.48)

Yoga is equanimity.

6) Yogah karmasu kausalam (Bhagavad Gita 2.48)

Yoga is the skilfulness in action. Yoga means the ability to act effectively.

Thus a variety of definitions of yoga are given by different sages, the

Vedas and the Gita.

Today there can be seen many currents and trends inYoga but the most

ancient and the most widely accepted one is the Patanjali Yoga dar an.

In addition to it, the treatises of Hatha yoga namely, Hatha yoga Pradipika and Ghérañda Samhita  are also popular. Among them, we are going to study Patanjali Yoga Darsan in detail.