Yoga is practiced in many ways around the world. However, many of them have little to do with yoga in nature. Here, through the words of Saduguru, we seek to unravel many misunderstandings that have arisen in the name of yoga.
Yoga does not mean an impossible posture
Saduguru: When we say yoga, perhaps for many, it means twisting into some impossible postures. It’s not what we call yoga. Yoga means being in perfect harmony with yourself. Your body, mind, and inner nature are in absolute harmony. When you tweak yourself to a point where everything works so beautifully in you, it’s no wonder that the best of your abilities flow out of you.
When you are happy, you may suddenly find that your energy works very well. You seem to have infinite energy that day. It doesn’t matter if you don’t eat or sleep. Knowing a little happiness frees you from the usual limits of energy and abilities.
Yoga is a science that rejuvenates your inner energy so that your body, mind and emotions function at their highest peaks. If I don’t sleep for a day or two, you won’t notice my difference. I will continue to do the same all day long. This is because it functions with some bliss in a state of relaxation where the body and mind are completely different. This frees you from many things that people usually struggle with. Yoga practice keeps your body and mind at the highest possible peak. This is a technique that creates your inner situation the way you want.
Yoga is not an exercise therapy
Sadhguru: Yoga is more than just achieving physical and mental health. Health, physical fitness and mental health are just side effects of yoga. The true benefit of yoga, the goal of yoga, is to push the boundaries of your body and mind.
Yoga is not an exercise. Raising perception to a completely different level is a very delicate operation of the system. It’s the whole technique to enhance one’s perception. The physical yoga you see is just one part of it. I know people make it popular, but of all yoga sutras, only one is dedicated to asanas. For some reason, in today’s world, this one scripture is more important than everything else.
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Hatha yoga is not the peak of preparation. It’s a great process if taught with some humility and inclusiveness in the right atmosphere. This is not about sculpting and showing off your body. This is to make the body a fantastic vessel. Hatha yoga is a powerful way of life, not the power to control someone else, not the power to access life. This is how to shape the system so that it is the saucer of God.
Yoga does not require background music
Saduguru: Music becomes aerobics, so I don’t use it for asana or yoga practice. I would like you to concentrate completely. Yoga Sana is a very delicate process. They should not be practiced as exercises. Practice requires some awareness, but only then can it be called yoga sana. So music is not necessary.
Yoga is not just practiced in the morning and evening
Saduguru: Yoga is not a practice like morning and evening. There is practice, but it’s not important. Every aspect of your life, the very way you walk, breathe and interact, should be the process of yoga. Nothing is excluded from this.
If you grow your body, mind, emotions and energies to a certain level of maturity, there will be certain qualities within you. That is yoga. Yoga is not what you do. Yoga is what you are. It’s not an act. It’s quality. Does practice bring that quality? Of course, I don’t teach it as an act of only 10 minutes a day. If you do certain things in the right way, it’s the quality that happens within you.
If the garden is well cared for, the flowers will bloom. Similarly, if you take good care of what you call yourself, flowers will bloom. In other words, being peaceful, happy, or joyful is not determined by anything outside of you, but by you. This is what every human being has to do for himself. Yoga is a subjective tool to achieve this.
