What is Yoga?
The final purpose of all forms of yoga is to lead the practitioner into complete integration with the outer objective Reality, creating a harmonious and conscious union at all levels of cosmic manifestation. The main objective is always to act in perfect accord with the superior cosmic harmony, to fully awaken the latent power of consciousness, and to find the eternal dimension of the Spirit. In this way, the human being returns to the original state of absolute purity and attains a permanent condition of wisdom and subtle beatitude known in yoga as Samādhi.
Through practicing yoga techniques, the field of consciousness is greatly expanded, and superior perceptive senses are awakened, amplified, and developed to their maximum. The essence of this approach is that we only use a very small part of our potential. We have within us a very big and hyper-complex organization, yet we have only the most superficial understanding and use of it. In western countries, yoga is famous rather that understood and practiced. Nowadays, very few people can offer authentic theoretical and practical information, based upon personal experience, about this ageless discipline.
Yoga is simultaneously a system of knowledge and a system of action. It can help you to act and think differently, to have a better, healthier life and to achieve an accelerated spiritual evolution even if you have a very hectic life. Combining the knowledge with the practice, you can change how you are in yourself on a daily basis. Genuine yoga confronts people with the fascinating and ineffable mysteries of their own inner world, with the eternal questions: “Who am I?”, “For what reason was I born?”, “Where do I come from?”, “Where am I going after death?” Have you ever asked yourself these questions? Can we really live our life to its fullest without finding the correct answers to these questions? Obviously not.
Nowadays, most people blindly follow the conventions of an increasingly artificial society, without attempting to discover the meaning of their life. Some of them even think it has no meaning. Precisely this ignorance of the inner nature of man, of his connection with the environment, of his purpose on Earth, is responsible for the great confusion in which we live, for the want of moral values, for the great conflicts that occur between individuals and between nations.
The original purpose of yoga is therefore to teach how to ask effectively and meaningfully the above-mentioned questions and how to discover the ultimate truth about human beings, life, and the Universe. An ancient text says: “He/She who realizes the truth of his/her own being can then come to know the truth of the Universe.” (Kularnava Tantra)
The answers that yoga helps you to discover through a controlled expansion of consciousness, are experienced in your own inner Universe. The indispensable conditions for such a discovery are to approach this Science with an open mind, and regular practice under the guidance of a competent instructor.
Yoga brings about the deepening of self-knowledge, the complete awareness of what you are and what you can become. Through yoga, the human being attains a total inner freedom and a perfect control over the enigmatic inner energies that animate his visible and invisible body.
The word “yoga” means “to tie up”, “to fuse (with a cosmic center of energy).” Yoga is thus a form of resonance between the beneficent, superior aspects of the Universe, and the human being, seen as an identical copy, at a smaller scale, of the outer world. In other words, all that exists in the Universe exists also, in a certain form and proportions, in the human being.
This idea of reintegration into the original Source of Life was the very essence of all world religions. The word religion comes from the Latin ‘re-ligere’, which means to re-connect (man and Universe). Even though yoga is not a religion in the modern sense of the word, it contains the nucleus of all religions.
Yoga, even though discovered many thousands of years ago, perfectly fits the necessities of modern civilization. Anxiety, stress, nervous breakdown, chronic fatigue, loss of vitality, obesity – all these problems are gradually resolved through a perseverant yoga practice. Among other things, yoga quickly removes tiredness: five minutes of complete and profound relaxation are much more restorative than a few hours of good sleep. Yoga also prevents the premature aging of the body and mind, resulting in an exceptional vitality even at a very old age The yoga system of psycho-physical exercises is unique.
The brain, the muscles, the nerves, and all other organs and tissues of the body are invigorated, balanced and energized. All chronic diseases are gradually ameliorated and sometimes even completely cured. The physical postures (asana-s) make the body supple and powerful and the spine flexible. Sexual energy is controlled and amplified. (The resonance yoga school)
The highest state of spiritual enlightenment is attainable through the techniques revealed in this program. Mukti, or spiritual liberation, does not mean deliverance from the manifested world but a close and permanent identity with the Supreme Consciousness, which is the true nature of one’s own self. Liberation is only possible by realizing one’s own close connection and even identity with the Universe; this state though is NOT to be attained after death or in another dimension of Reality, but HERE and NOW: “Only liberation in this life (jīvanmukta) is authentic liberation.” Spanda Pradipika
Numberless centuries ago, Patanjali, a great Yogin and Sage, defined eight stages of the yoga Science in a book called Yoga Sutra, which is the most precise and scientific text ever written on yoga.
