An Introduction to Yoga

dom and sagacity. The world is meant for the unfolding of the Self The eternal, divine essence or soul within every individual.: why should you then seek to run away from it? Look at Shrī Krshna A major deity in Hinduism and the divine teacher who delivered the Bhagavad-Gītā. Himself in that great Upanishat Ancient Sanskrit texts containing philosophical concepts; here, the Gita is described as an "Upanishad of Yoga." of Yoga, the Bhagavad-Gītā. He spoke it out on a battlefield, and not on a mountain peak. He spoke it to a Kshattriya The social class of warriors and rulers, whose duty was to act in the world. ready to fight, and not to a Brâhmana The social class of priests and scholars, often associated with quiet study. quietly retired from the world. The Kurukshetra The physical battlefield of the great war in the Mahabharata, symbolizing the struggles of daily life. of the world is the field of Yoga A disciplined method for spiritual growth and union with the divine.. They who cannot face the world have not the strength to face the difficulties of Yoga practice. If the outer world outwearies your powers, how do you expect to conquer the difficulties of the inner life? If you cannot climb over the little troubles of the world, how can you hope to climb over the difficulties that a Yogī One who practices yoga or has achieved spiritual mastery. has to scale? Those men blunder, who think that running away from the world is the road to victory, and that peace can be found only in certain localities.

As a matter of fact, you have practised Yoga unconsciously in the past, even before your Self-consciousness had separated itself, was aware of itself, and knew itself to be different, in temporary matters at least, from all the others that surround it. And that is the first idea that you should take up and hold firmly: Yoga is only a quickened process of the ordinary unfolding of consciousness.

Yoga may then be defined as the "rational application of the laws of the unfolding of consciousness in an individual case." That is what is