69.The Meaning of Yoga

 

On  June 14,2024,  Prof.  R.Ram Murthy of  Queen’s  University  Canada  delivered a lecture on  the  Meaning of Yoga    at  NIT Calicut. The following are  extracts from the  slides  displayed by the professor  during  his lecture.

The root meaning of Yoga

*The word yoga is derived from the Sanskrit word  ‘Yuj’ which means to yoke or to unify.

*In a larger sense it refers to the integration of personality, and is the method of achieving ‘union within, union without, and union with the ultimate ground.’

*The average human being has a multitude of thoughts, emotions  and energies that are often discordant. Yoga is the method of self-integration.

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Later developments of Patanjali’s  Yoga Sutras

*Patnjali’s  Yoga Sutras are an early attempt at the scientific study of the human mind.

*Patanjali  cautions that  the approach  must be scientific, guided by reason and experience.

*Its methods and techniques can be applied by everyone.

*Later this system was absorbed into Vedanta as part of the four-fold yoga.

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The synthesis of the yogas

*Krishna makes a final appeal, echoing his earlier message of verses 30 and 31  of the  3^rd chapter.

*Mayi sarvani karmani samnyasya dhyatmacetasa nirasir nirmamo bhutra yudhasra  rigatajvarah

*Ye me matam idam nityam, anutisthanti manavah sraddhavanto nasuyanto  mucyante te’pi karmabdhih

 

*”Resigning all your works to Me, with your consciousness fixed in the Self, being free from desire and egotism, fight, free from any  mental fever. This is my philosophy of life, and whoever follows this teaching will also be released from the bondage of work.”

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The essence of the Gita

*These two verses contain the essence of the Gita.

The human mind has four faculties: thinking, feeling, willing  and  restraining. Just as thinking can be taken to a higher state as illumined reason, so also feeling, willing, restraining can be taken to higher levels.

*The method for raising  each faculty to a higher state is called yoga. The four yogas, Jnana, Bhakti, Karma and Raja, correspond to the four faculties of the mind, namely  thinking, feeling, willing and restraining.

 *When Krishna refers  to ‘my philosophy of life’  he means the four-fold combination of all these  yogas.

 *This is his masterly stroke. This is his magnificent synthesis of all philosophical thought. The human brain should not be developed in a one sided fashion but must be exercised in this four-fold  way giving a higher expression  to each of its four faculties.