The ultimate purpose of yoga is to align the system- body, mind, nervous system and the soul. Asanas and pranayama help this process. However, this is not the whole purpose. The jivatman, at some stage in life, realizes the futility of its embodiment and seeks to get liberated through yoga.The soul is the 'photon', an energy particle that has entered the earthen material (soil and water/bhuti or gross material) to create a life-form like an earthworm. The DNA of the humans is 60% the DNA of the earthworm. The jiva is what the atman has woven around itself, hence it is known as the Jivatman.
Apart from the hype, the International Yoga Day, the programs for awareness, it is important to know about the need for alignment- of the body, mind, the nerves and neurons (nervous system) and the soul, rather to be established with the Self, the Atman. Right from the day 1, the jiva arrived on this earth, breathes the air, and takes the food obtained from the earth (soil) and acquires gunas of nature (prakruti svabhava), and thus, it is in a state of mundane existence. The svabhava or nature is of the prakruti, not the jiva. It undergoes change with nature, physical and cultural environment and goes on adjusting itself to the external world. Its (jiva's) existence is tuned to the external world; it finds no time or need to look inward and see for itself the very purpose of existence! Hence, the jiva looks to some relief! Yoga comes to help in such cases where the jiva looks for emancipation, liberation, mukti or moksha. Thus, the real purpose of yoga is to get the suffering jivas (due to ignorance) out of the clutches of nature, prakruti.
The Eight-fold path of Yoga (ashtanga yoga) prepares the jiva for emancipation step by step. These formulae demand the jiva to strictly adhere to the stipulated regulations such as satya, astheya, shoucha and other preliminary requirements so that purity of the jiva is attained. Eating junk food and performing yoga will not do. When the sadhaka comes to the third step of pratyahara and the fourth step of Ishvara pranidana , the person is already half-way through to emancipation. In pratyahara, the sadhaka withdraws his mind and senses from worldly affairs and by Ishvara pranidana, the jiva has already reached the state of surrender to the higher power, supreme state of Self. The next steps of asana and pranayama may as well be dropped! The next higher steps like dhyana, dharana and samadhi will take care of these physical exercises. When a person reaches the state of asamprajnya samadhi state, he/she has already become one with the Higher self and will not take birth on this earth again! These are assured as per the phalashruti, and scriptures have clearly stated these. We will quote the scriptural sayings in the next few updates.
Thus, the purpose of yoga is to attain to divinity. Divinity is inherent in the jiva. It is the main purpose of the jiva to visualize the Creator and become one with Him.
There is not much time available to the suffering jivas to look to yoga. Much of childhood and youth is spent in settling in life and there is no time to breathe! When the middle age passes, the real problems start. As the ageing process starts, the body starts losing its strength. The jiva starts losing interest in external mundane things and starts its inward journey, provided there is divine intervention, divya anugraha (divine grace), purva punya and, there is an earnest desire in the jiva to get rid of the clutches of Maya- limitations enforced by nature (time, distance, causation). Then, yoga becomes more meaningful.
Apart from the hype, the International Yoga Day, the programs for awareness, it is important to know about the need for alignment- of the body, mind, the nerves and neurons (nervous system) and the soul, rather to be established with the Self, the Atman. Right from the day 1, the jiva arrived on this earth, breathes the air, and takes the food obtained from the earth (soil) and acquires gunas of nature (prakruti svabhava), and thus, it is in a state of mundane existence. The svabhava or nature is of the prakruti, not the jiva. It undergoes change with nature, physical and cultural environment and goes on adjusting itself to the external world. Its (jiva's) existence is tuned to the external world; it finds no time or need to look inward and see for itself the very purpose of existence! Hence, the jiva looks to some relief! Yoga comes to help in such cases where the jiva looks for emancipation, liberation, mukti or moksha. Thus, the real purpose of yoga is to get the suffering jivas (due to ignorance) out of the clutches of nature, prakruti.
The Eight-fold path of Yoga (ashtanga yoga) prepares the jiva for emancipation step by step. These formulae demand the jiva to strictly adhere to the stipulated regulations such as satya, astheya, shoucha and other preliminary requirements so that purity of the jiva is attained. Eating junk food and performing yoga will not do. When the sadhaka comes to the third step of pratyahara and the fourth step of Ishvara pranidana , the person is already half-way through to emancipation. In pratyahara, the sadhaka withdraws his mind and senses from worldly affairs and by Ishvara pranidana, the jiva has already reached the state of surrender to the higher power, supreme state of Self. The next steps of asana and pranayama may as well be dropped! The next higher steps like dhyana, dharana and samadhi will take care of these physical exercises. When a person reaches the state of asamprajnya samadhi state, he/she has already become one with the Higher self and will not take birth on this earth again! These are assured as per the phalashruti, and scriptures have clearly stated these. We will quote the scriptural sayings in the next few updates.
Thus, the purpose of yoga is to attain to divinity. Divinity is inherent in the jiva. It is the main purpose of the jiva to visualize the Creator and become one with Him.
There is not much time available to the suffering jivas to look to yoga. Much of childhood and youth is spent in settling in life and there is no time to breathe! When the middle age passes, the real problems start. As the ageing process starts, the body starts losing its strength. The jiva starts losing interest in external mundane things and starts its inward journey, provided there is divine intervention, divya anugraha (divine grace), purva punya and, there is an earnest desire in the jiva to get rid of the clutches of Maya- limitations enforced by nature (time, distance, causation). Then, yoga becomes more meaningful.
Almost 60,000 ways of yoga are enumerated by Osho, an expert on yoga.Accordingly, the very existence is yoga.Yoga starts with the foetus contemplating on its self! Every now and then we go into trance without our awareness and that is yoga, yuj, being in the natural state. Vijnyana Bhairava of Kashmir Shaivism enumerated 112 methods of dharana and even one will bring unity, oneness! To be with one's self, established in one's self is the natural state, brahmn, the ultimate reality
What is all propagated in the name of yoga is not oriented to redemption, liberation of the embodied soul. The embodied soul, like the spider caught in its web, its own creation, craves for liberation. It looks for emancipation, freedom from the shackles of repeated births and deaths. This has been explained in Kashmir Shaivism. Shiva becomes jiva and accumulates mala, pollutants such as desire, attachments, triguna (tamas, rajas, and sattva), and arishadvargas. Thus gets entangled in the mundane things forgetting its true nature (sat-chit-ananda); Then, realizing its predicament, the jiva takes to yoga and attains its divine status, Shiva. Shiva is the only truth! Satyam shivam sundaram.
There are a number of texts that describe yoga. The Patanjali yoga sutra, the Shandilya yoga sutras, the yoga explained in the Bhagavad-Gita by Lord Shree Krishna are some of the most important ones. All these aim at total renunciation, karma sanyasa yoga and attainment of oneness with the supreme, Atma paramatma bhavaikyata.
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