In
the words of Sri Aurobindo, the mystic Indian philosopher, YOGA
means a methodized effort towards self perfection by the
expression of the potentialities latent in the being and a union
of the human individual with the universal and transcendent
Existence we see partially expressed in man and in the cosmos.
The
beginnings of the Yoga system
are to be found in the Upanisads (ca 800 BCE). It is the
conviction of the Upanisad writers that
1
The
Yoga method gives directions how to refine the mind and
improve the mirror, keep it clean by keeping out what is
peculiar to the individual.1
YOGA
- LIFE OF SPIRIT
SAME
YESTERDAY, TODAY AND FOREVER.
Yoga
means the discipline by which we can train ourselves to bear
the shocks of the world with the central being of our soul
untouched. It is the method or the instrument (upaya),
by which the end can be gained.
The
Yoga writers introduce the concepts of the subconscious and
the unconscious mind as determining instinctive tendencies,
and also as showing how, by the process of yoga, the efforts
of the conscious mind can dominate over the subconscious and
the unconscious...
When yoga is defined as suppression of the modifications
of the mind-stuff, it must be understood not only as the stoppage of the
flow of presentations but also as the eradication of
those potencies or latent
tendencies that generate new streams of thought and new lines
of action..
The
first chapter of the Gita (The hesitation and despondency of
Arjuna) ends in dejection
and sorrow
and this is also called YOGA,
as this
darkness of the soul
is an essential step in the progress to spiritual life.
(Photo:
Source: www.peakware.com
Photo Credit: Michael Jardine)
