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Yoga is a way of life. It is predominantly concerned with maintaining
a state of equanimity at all costs. All yoga
schools of thought emphasize the importance of the mind remaining
calm, because as the saying goes, only when the water is still can
you see through it. Yoga Darshan or Yoga
Philosophy also happens to be a valid discipline of Indian metaphysics
(Brahma Vidya). It is the result of human wisdom and insight
on physiology, psychology, ethics and spirituality collected together
and practiced over thousands of years for the well being of humanity.
The basic idea of yoga is to unite the atma or individual
soul with the paramatma or the Universal Soul. According
to Yoga philosophy, by cleansing one's mind and controlling one's
thought processes one can return to that primeval state, when the
individual self was nothing but a part of the Divine Self. This
is the sense encapsulated in the term samadhi. The aim of
the yogi is to be able to perceive the world in its true
light and to accept that truth in its entirety.
In Sanskrit, the term 'yoga' stands for 'union'. A yogi's
ultimate aim is to be able to attain this 'union' with the Eternal
Self with the help of certain mental and physical exercises. It
is often said that Hiranyagarbha (The Cosmic Womb) Himself
had originally advocated the traditional system of yoga, from which
all other yoga schools have evolved. But for all extant knowledge
of yoga and its practices,
such as yogasanas
and pranayama, the
entire credit goes to Maharishi
Patanjali.
Patanjali systematized the various yogic practices and traditions
of his times by encapsulating them in the form of aphorisms in his
Yoga Sutra. In this momentous
work, he describes the aim of yoga as knowledge of the self and
outlines the eight steps or methods of achieving it. These are:
