A Yoga Definition Beyond Your Body

Yoga is the practice of quieting the mind. (~ Patanjali)

What is the best yoga definition?  Patanjali said “Yoga is the practice of quieting the mind”.   Yoga is the oldest yet highly developed science for healthy living through mastery of the body and mind.  Any Yoga definition is ultimately inspired by nature and perfected by practice across thousands of years, yoga surfaced from a human tendency to express the inexpressible.

To spiritual shoppers today, yoga is the key to staying in shape amidst a bean bag culture of fashion capitals and over-the-clock culture of corporate jungles, and to the more intelligent others, it is the most powerful tool for holistic excellence in personal, professional and spiritual pursuits.

Let’s look at a clearer yoga definition, ‘yoga’ is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘Yuj’ (yoke as the English derivative, meaning harness). Yuj indicates ‘union’ or one that connects. The practice of this union in the form of asanas dissolves the limited mind-body complex into the big, non-dual universal mind. Asanas are the bodily postures that guide the body into a graceful fusion of movement and stillness, with awareness on the flow of breath. The body and the mind thus dissolve into serenity and experience oneness with the self inside.

Many definitions have been attributed to yoga-experiential and conceptual, both varying at their levels of understanding.

The classical Hindu scripture on yoga, the Bhagwad Gita, interprets yoga in versatile definitions, for instance, equanimity of mind through success and failure, discretion in work, annihilator of misery and uprooter of pain, and as the bestower of infinite happiness. It further connotes yoga as the supreme secret of life, and as serenity.

Patañjali, a Hindu sage and the compiler of The Yoga Sutras (2000 years ago), expresses a yoga definition as “Yogascittavrttinirodhah” in Sanskrit meaning, yoga is “complete control over patterns or modifications of the mind”.

To refine the above definitions for a non-practitioner to feel the connection, yoga-asanas promote a disease-free body and higher levels of personal energy, equanimity in success or failure, a higher creative quotient, and the most practical way to attain Samadhi-the state of highest consciousness that is free from the layers imposed by external sensory stimulants or painful impressions and in harmony with the absolute cosmic intelligence.

In refinement to yoga’s generic definitions at a finer level, yoga-asanas uncondition the mind of a sincere practitioner from botherations, insecurities, entanglements, negative emotions, and small mindedness, and thus engenders effortless positivism, all-round fulfillment, self-appreciation, inner strength, sensitivity to the environment through heightened consciousness.

In the absence of a personal yoga definition, a global propensity towards unhealthy food habits and a stressed lifestyle, the body gradually sinks into inertia and accumulates toxins that make it vulnerable to chronic diseases. Consequently, conflicts also surface in the body-mind complex. This impedes professional, personal and spiritual growth.

Thus, beyond all intellectual definitions, yoga is a non-negotiable, experiential asset for today’s generation who want quick-fix, all-in-one, holistic solutions to life, and a symmetry between suppressed inner tendencies and overdose of outer influences.

To me and to millions of strong and happy people, a yoga definition defines the inspiration to a better standard of life, a higher happiness quotient, a more fulfilling spiritual journey from limited and tiring outward experiences towards the vast and rejuvenating inner experiences. In the end, yoga defines how intensely you celebrate life. Yoga redefines you! That is a yoga definition for you.

“… Be even tempered in both success and failure. This mental evenness is what is meant by Yoga. Indeed, equanimity is Yoga!”
- Bhagavad Gita – (Ch.2, V.48)