Yoga, which is a sanscrit word meaning "unity" or "to unify" refers to this strange discipline that has been practiced by people, mostly in India, who have a very specific goal in mind. Why would yogis, as they are referred to, go through the arduous discipline of practicing the most bizarre and unnatural positions for hours on end?
On the surface of it, Yoga is an occult science and ancient protocol dictates that it needs to be initiated by a recognized master. One of the great past masters, Paramahansa Yogananda, wrote in his autobiography about Kriya Yoga: "Because of certain ancient yogic injunctions, I may not give a full explanation of Kriya Yoga in a book intended for the general public". A bit further he suggests that one should consult a kriyaban or a kriya yoga master if one wants to learn this type of yoga.
In another article, also posted on EzineArticles, where I explained what Ashtanga Yoga is about, I wrote about the Eight Limbs of practice. Suffice it to say that the seven first limbs only serve to prepare and build up to reach the eight and last limb which is what initiates refer to as attaining the state of "samahdi", or unity.
So let me try to explain what samahdi is, even though words cannot really fully shine any light on it, in the hope that it will bring you a little closer to understanding why so many individuals devote their lives to pursuing it. For samahdi is elusive and only given to the very few.
There is of course the metaphor to help us, for example: samahdi is like being that drop of rain that falls into the ocean and suddenly realises it is no longer a drop of water but the ocean itself. For most people, it will be a nice idea, but an utterly useless one.
To take a more cartesian approach, let me start by asking a few basic questions. Do you know why you were born, other than the fact that your parents conceived you and that your mother gave birth to you? Why are you alive? What purpose does your life have, other than knowing that one lives a limited amount of time and when that time is up, the body dies?
What mysterious force keeps us alive? Why? And why does a life have a beginning and an end?
Yogis believe firmly that when they reach the state of samahdi, all the answers to these type of questions will be known. In other words, while in a state of samahdi, the yogi elevates his awareness of life, his consciousness, to such a high level of harmony with creation that it is given to him to understand it completely.
One could say that the yogi in a state of samahdi is "logged on", or in direct contact with that force which is referred to as "life". Just like a PC that is logged on to a site on the Internet with total privilege, meaning, the user can open any available page, so can the yogi perform a query or search in his mind while in samahdi and the answer will come to him, whatever the question or its subject.
The best comparison I could make, ant it is spectacular, that I do admit, is that the yogi in samahdi logs on to and creates a direct link with God. Does this make the yogi omniscient and omnipotent? I will speculate that while in samahdi, yes, the yogi is exactly that. Being that the yogi is aware of God and God is aware of the yogi, both are in unison and both are, at that moment, only one.
So, in conclusion, yogis are rooting for unity or a direct conscious link to creation, or God, for lack of a better descriptive of creation, without yoga being a religion. Yoga only prepares and trains the individual to create the link so he can log on to creation and know for himself what truth is, what reality actually is, without the limitations that were built by the mind or emotions.
Once this is understood, it is easy to see why so many practice yoga. Our teachers and philosophy do not provide us with answers, they only provide postulates. Some of these do sometimes truly stimulate logic and imagination, but none offer proof. The yogi wants proof of creation and so he accepts the extreme discipline that is required to prepare himself to create the conditions that will allow him to obtain it.
Joe is webmaster for mahasaya.com and yogi4u.com where he pursues his passion for spiritual work, self-growth and self-realization. He is happy to make available his experience and 30 years of intense personal research, meditations and in-depth questioning around the three subjects mentioned hereabove and strives to create a network of like minded adepts. You can post on his two sites, either mahasaya.com mahasaya.com or the blog at yogi4u.com yogi4u.com and he looks forward to your contributions.
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