योग
Yoga
yoga
In simple words
Yoga comes from a root meaning 'to yoke' or 'to join'. In Indian philosophy it means a disciplined path of transforming the mind and life, not only physical postures. Different texts use it in quite different ways.
What is it?
Yoga names both a darshana — Patanjali's system for stilling the mind — and a general word for spiritual discipline. The Gita speaks of the yogas of action, knowledge, meditation and devotion, and defines yoga as equanimity and as skill in action. Hatha yoga texts add bodily and breath practices aimed at the same inner goals. Buddhist, Jain, Shaiva and Tantric traditions all have their own yogas.
Scholar’s note
The Yoga Sutras define yoga as the stopping (nirodha) of the fluctuations of the mind (chitta-vritti) and lay out eight limbs (ashtanga). Gita usage is broader and debated: Shankara reads karma yoga as preparatory to jnana; Ramanuja integrates karma, jnana and bhakti; Swami Ramsukhdas presents karma, jnana and bhakti yoga as each independently able to lead to God. The pairing of 'yoga' with 'union' (with God or Brahman) is Vedantic and devotional; for Patanjali the goal is kaivalya, isolation of the seer.How its meaning differs
Yoga is the stilling of the mind's fluctuations, practised through eight limbs, so that the seer rests in its own nature.
Yoga practices purify and steady the mind, but liberation itself comes from knowledge of the Self; meditation prepares for that knowledge.
Yoga culminates in loving union with or service to God; devotion is often called the highest yoga.
Tantric yogas work with body, breath, mantra and subtle energy as means of realising identity with divine consciousness, within a ritual and contemplative framework.
Buddhist meditative disciplines (often called bhavana, cultivation) develop calm and insight; the term yoga is used especially in Yogacara, 'the practice of yoga'.
In the Bhagavad Gita — as Sadhak Sanjivani explains it
Summary based on Sadhak Sanjivaniसाधक-संजीवनीपर आधारित सारSwamiji points out that the Gita defines yoga as equanimity — 'samatvaṃ yoga ucyate' (2.48) — and as the ending of our contact with sorrow (6.23). Our contact with the world and body is only assumed; ending this assumed contact reveals the union with our true nature that was always there (6.23). He puts it plainly: we are not really joined to the world, and never separated from God; taking the world as ours and God as far away is the biggest mistake (6.23). Unlike Patanjali's yoga of restraining mental activity, the Gita calls the natural state of evenness itself yoga, and every seeker of God is eligible for it (2.48). 'Yoga is skill in action' means that yoga turns actions, which naturally bind, into actions that free (2.50).
स्वामीजी बताते हैं कि गीता समताको योग कहती है — 'समत्वं योग उच्यते' (२।४८) — और दु:खोंके संयोगके वियोगको भी योग कहती है (६।२३)। संसार-शरीरसे हमारा सम्बन्ध केवल माना हुआ है; इस माने हुए सम्बन्धका वियोग करते ही स्वरूपके साथ जो नित्ययोग है, उसकी अनुभूति हो जाती है (६।२३)। संसारका योग नहीं है और परमात्माका वियोग नहीं है; संसारको मिला हुआ और परमात्माको अलग मानना ही सबसे बड़ी भूल है (६।२३)। पातंजलयोगदर्शन चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधको योग कहता है, पर गीता स्वत:सिद्ध सम-स्वरूपमें स्थितिको योग कहती है, जिसके सब भगवत्प्राप्ति चाहनेवाले अधिकारी हैं (२।४८)। 'योग: कर्मसु कौशलम्'का अर्थ है — जो कर्म स्वभावसे बाँधनेवाले हैं, वे ही मुक्ति देनेवाले हो जायँ (२।५०)।
संसारका योग नहीं है और परमात्माका वियोग नहीं है अर्थात् संसार हमें मिला हुआ नहीं है और परमात्मा हमारेसे अलग नहीं है।Where it appears in the Gita
Evenness itself is Yoga
समत्व ही योग है
योगस्थ: कुरु कर्माणि सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा धनञ्जय।
Giving up attachment, staying even in success and failure, established in Yoga, do your work — for evenness is called Yoga.
आसक्तिका त्याग करके, सिद्धि-असिद्धिमें सम होकर, योगमें स्थित हुआ कर्म कर; क्योंकि समत्व ही योग कहा जाता है।
2.50Yoga is the true skill in action
कर्मोंमें योग ही कुशलता है
बुद्धियुक्तो जहातीह उभे सुकृतदुष्कृते।
One endowed with evenness is freed from both merit and sin here itself; so devote yourself to Yoga — Yoga alone is skill in action.
समतायुक्त मनुष्य यहीं पुण्य-पाप दोनोंसे मुक्त हो जाता है; अत: योगमें लग जा, कर्मोंमें योग ही कुशलता है।
5.2Both paths lead to the good — karma-yoga is better
दोनों कल्याणकारक हैं, पर कर्मयोग श्रेष्ठ है
सन्न्यास: कर्मयोगश्च नि:श्रेयसकरावुभौ।
Sankhya-yoga and karma-yoga both surely lead to one's highest good; but of the two, karma-yoga is superior to renunciation of action.
संन्यास (सांख्ययोग) और कर्मयोग—दोनों ही कल्याण करनेवाले हैं; परन्तु उनमें भी कर्मसंन्याससे कर्मयोग श्रेष्ठ है।
6.1अनाश्रित: कर्मफलं कार्यं कर्म करोति य:।
कर्मफलका आश्रय न लेकर जो कर्तव्य कर्म करता है, वही संन्यासी तथा योगी है और (केवल) अग्निका त्याग करनेवाला (संन्यासी) नहीं होता तथा (केवल) क्रियाओंका त्याग करनेवाला (योगी) नहीं होता।
6.23तं विद्याद्दु:खसंयोगवियोगं योगसञ्ज्ञितम् ।
जिसमें दु:खोंके संयोगका ही वियोग है, उसीको ‘योग’ नामसे जानना चाहिये। (वह योग जिस ध्यानयोगका लक्ष्य है,) उस ध्यानयोगका अभ्यास न उकताये हुए चित्तसे निश्चयपूर्वक करना चाहिये।
Where else it appears
Follow this idea
Trace the idea from one source to the next.
- 1Textकठोपनिषद्Katha UpanishadOne of the first texts to describe yoga as steady control of the senses.
- 2Gita verseBhagavad Gita 2.48Yoga as equanimity in success and failure.
- 3Gita verseBhagavad Gita 2.50Yoga as skill in action.
- 4Textयोगसूत्रYoga Sutras of PatanjaliPatanjali's systematic definition and eight limbs.
- 5Textहठयोगप्रदीपिकाHatha Yoga PradipikaThe body and breath as instruments of inner discipline.
- 6TextराजयोगRaja YogaA modern exposition that shaped how yoga is presented worldwide.
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