If you are asking someone to define yoga, better ask him to measure the ocean with a pitcher! Each one sees a new horizon in the path of Yoga. Yoga is supposed to provide you with good health, joy and happiness. But, what indeed is this happiness? It is such a baffling, most difficult to achieve state.  They say:

“Sages meditated for ages,
Wise men wrote millions of pages,
About joy and happiness,
That has eluded the mankind in the known human history,
What a profound mystery!”

And yet, the relentless pursuit of the mankind to seek happiness continues and Yoga is one of the important tools or procedure to achieve it.

Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit term ‘Yug’ which means ‘yoke’ or ‘unite’. Among the many definitions of yoga, an interesting one states that “ Efficiency in work is yoga”. Here, work means any type of work. What you do is not important. How you do, what you do, is important. Any action to fructify, needs to be done without the motivated desires.

Sage Patanjali of India, is the founder and father of yoga. He was a physician, philosopher and a grammarian. Earlier, many thinkers dismissed the revelations and writings of the Sages. They had no laboratories to test and conduct any experiments. They had no methods to prove what they believed. How can we accept that which is beyond the scope of verification? This is the argument of the mind-level thinkers. Your mind can experience and explain only the mind-level things. You need to cross the mind barrier to pursue the path of truth- pursue the path of yoga. And mind you, the Sages who lived a simple life in forests and who ate fruits and vegetables for their subsistence, had no compulsions to tell you lies. They had no business expansion plans. They were not competitors to anyone. The spiritual level teachings related to yoga have to be understood in this context.

Patanjalai lived around 3000 years B.C. His well known book on yoga is, “Patanjali Yoga Sutras.”
It deals with the methods to realize the ‘Self’. The man, to experience real happiness, has to free himself from the fetters of the mind. The mind bird has to be released from the cage. His yoga sutras also explain the methods of regulated breathing that help to reach the level of concentration.

Study of the spiritual literature purifies the mind and surrender annihilates the ego for march towards  divinity. It is a threefold attempt. Firstly, the body needs to be strengthened and purified through many practices, yoga asanas and the breathing exercises. Secondly, the mind needs to be cleansed of the gross thought currents, to make it ready for higher flights. Thirdly, spirituality will lead you to the threshold of divinity.

The Yoga of Patanjali comprises of 8 limbs, popularly known as Asthanga Yoga. They are, Yama,       Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyashara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi. The level of truth to be achieved as per yoga is not opportunistic. Your thought, word and deed are one. They all live in ‘one room’. Speak the truth and speak it pleasantly, in a way that is agreeable to others.

With the commencement of the yoga principles and practices, you are igniting the Light Missile within you. This Light missile is not subject to any range. As it penetrates deeper and deeper, you discover more and more about yourself and thus you become happier and happier. This missile is not meant for destruction, it is meant to achieve constructive dynamism. Yoga gives a new meaning to our life, and provides us with the total, not the partial meaning of life. Rather, it is an integrated approach towards a complete life of bliss.

Hatha Yoga is another important Branch of Yoga. It has been divided into 7 heads. They are Bodily purification, Asanas, Musras, Pratyahara, Pranayama, Dhyana, Samadhi. Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, and Bhakti Yoga are the other important branches.

Regular practice of yoga, means an improvement on both the fronts- your standard of living and the standard of life. Yoga is the universal remedy for all types of diseases. This is just not a sweeping statement. As you study more about yoga and practice in the regular way, the benefits will be obvious.

The real objective of yoga is not renunciation of action; it is proper participation in action. It aims towards molding and creating a dynamic individual besides providing various health benefits!