nytoday.com: The Meaning of Yoga
Behind the word is a whole lifestyle.
VALERIE REISS
02/02/2001
Yoga was, in a way, the Ritalin of ancient India. Spiritual seekers who couldn’t focus enough to deeply meditate, experimented with postures and breathing techniques to calm the body and the mind. The practices they developed—inspired by nature and spontaneous impulse—fit into a wide context of beliefs and practices, more concerned with attaining enlightenment than tight abs.
Despite the West’s fixation on yoga as physical exercise, the word yoga literally means union. “It brings all aspects of our being into harmonious union” and allows us to “experience our connection with everything,” explains Swami Ramananda, president and director of Integral Yoga Institute in Manhattan. Physical (hatha) yoga was traditionally only one of several types of yoga—bhakti is the yoga of devotion, karma is the yoga of duty or action and jnana is the yoga of knowledge—that comprised a lifestyle for the serious spiritual seeker. Though removed from its roots, practicing yoga in the West is still significantly different from sweating it out on the Stairmaster in front of blaring TVs.
“What distinguishes an asana [yoga posture] from a stretch or calisthenic exercise is that we focus our mind’s attention completely in the body,” writes Donna Farhi in her book, “Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit: A Return to Wholeness.” Yoga, says Farhi, reverses people’s tendency to move out of habit. Ramananda agrees, “Each movement [in yoga] is mindful,” he says. “It means you choose how you behave.”
The upshot of focusing so carefully on the body is what some call the yoga-mat-as-mirror concept: by being completely aware for a few moments a week, you can learn scads about your inner self. For instance, practitioners may find themselves holding their breath with a grin-and-bear-it attitude when something is difficult, or they may push past the pain until they’ve injured themselves.
Just as practicing yoga helps people become open aware of their body habits, it also generates compassion and flexibility in life. “If someone begins to feel an inner stability, the need to protect themselves or demand from others decreases and the desire to give to others increases,” says Ramananda. Indeed, devotees say a regular yoga practice provides them with awareness, relaxation, balance and a deeper connection to their spiritual life.
Since yoga functions on so many levels, it’s important to recognize that becoming a human pretzel is not the goal. “The practice is the reward,” writes Farhi. “The goal of asana practice is to live in your body and to learn to perceive clearly through it.” Sri Swami Satchidananda, founder of Integral Yoga, sums up yoga this way, “Easeful body. Peaceful mind. Useful life.” Beat that, Stairmaster.