What is yoga| Meaning of Yoga as per Indian ancient scripture.

TABLE OF CONTENT.

• Introduction
• Definition of Yoga as per Indian ancient scripture.
• Explanation of the mind characteristics
• Definition from Yoga sutras of Patanjali.
• Definition of Yoga from ancient  Hatha Yoga text.
• Conclusion.

What is yoga? what is the higher purpose of yoga?  What does it actually mean when someone says self of finding self or self-realization?

Yoga is the cessation of the changing mode of mind consciousness, We know the literal meaning of yoga is union, which comes from the Sanskrit word 'Yuj' but union with what, what are we trying to connect here with, some people say the definition of yoga is connecting the body, mind, and soul, so are we connecting these three elements together? Is that what yoga means, we know very well that our body and mind are constantly connected, you can see that at times like when you are stressed out when you have anger in you, it shows up in your body, and your heartbeat increases, your hand scramble, it shows that very well in your body, so your body and mind are constantly connected, so what are we trying to connect here with, are we trying to connect the mind-body complex with the soul, Does it what it means, we need to think deeper in this regard, let's see the definitions as given by ancient Indian scriptures to understand what exactly yoga means, what is it mean to find your own self, what is self-realization.

Definitions of Yoga as per ancient scripture.

There are simple definitions, and there are complex definitions, we are going to see three important definitions today, The first definition is from Bhagavat Gita. It says 'Samatvam Yoga Ucyate' means Evenness of mind is yoga, our mind is constantly reacting to what is happening around us when there is a happy occasion it brings out a happy feeling from us and the body reacts accordingly the same time whereas there is a sad experience then we go to a detached state, we don't talk to people, we don't do our daily chores, the mind goes to that body reacts to this kind of situation, so the job of the mind is to constantly monitor you, constantly mind you and your experiences and react or manifest in the form of three things, which is our thoughts, words, and actions.

Let us take an example,

Assuming you are in a traffic situation where you are driving a car or any other vehicle and there is a traffic violator, according to you the other person is the violator, so you get into so much anger, that you are not able to accept that situation so this reaction, this temperament in your body has to be shown, exhibited right? so one option, you either show that in the form of action, like you immediately call the police or you get into fight yourself, some kind of action is exhibited, assuming you have good control on that, you are not showing up any action then people would do in the form of words like,, you yell at them or like you show harsh words, something to exhibit your anger assuming you have a fair amount of control on that also, you didn't create any action, you didn't do any shouting at that person but still, the thoughts which you can't escape with, you have these thoughts bombarding, when there is an unacceptable situation, if you have accepted that then there is no disturbance, when it is an unacceptable situation then the thoughts comes so much that your state of mind is disturbed, your evenness of mind is disturbed, this is what Bhagavat Geeta says, if you have the ability to keep the mind in a state of evenness, in a state of balance then you are said to be in a state of yoga, your mind can be controlled  at the body level using Asana practice, your mind can be controlled at the breathe level using pranayama practices and your senses and your mind and your mind afflictions are all controlled using several stages of meditation.  

The mind is made up of three characteristics, Those are Rajas, Tamas, and Satva.

RAJAS.

Rajas is the one who gives us the energy to do some stuff, like run around, to do work but at the same time when the Rajas is very high, it goes out of balance then it becomes restless in the mind, and you tend to take decisions hastily, you tend to react to situations in the form of thoughts, words or actions, you become restless in the mind and you not be able to sit in one place.

TAMAS.

Tamas stands for inertia, you can sit in one place because of the tamas you have, and you can sleep at night because of the tamas, so we all need all these three gunas but which one is dominantly based upon your mind actually reacts on that particular situation, so when the tamas is high, what happens is that you feel very lethargic, very dull at mind, you don't feel to do any stuff, you sit in one place for a longer period, you become a couch potato, you don't have any inclination to any work, that is a state of tamas.

SATVA.

Satva stands for illumination, if you are high in Satva then your mental clarity is high, you can make decisions wisely  choose your words and actions wisely, and the reaction to the experiences happening around you will be with a lot amount of care, you will be able to do things very effectively so when the Satva  is high, that is dominant, then that is the Gunas that we are all seeking, of course, we need all these three Gunas, we need a good amount of rajas to get some work done  but to do that work effectively, more efficiently you need Satva, so how do we achieve that, assuming like you are high in rajas  when you are high in rajas when you do a good amount of asanas practice your rajas come down, then what you are left with is tamas and Satva so to bring the tamas down, you do a good amount of pranayama practices the tamas also comes down, so what you are left with is a good amount of Satva, you become Satva dominant, so if you are Satva dominant then achieving evenness of mind is very easy as given by the definition of yoga, the mind reaches state of evenness without the polarities, without reacting to the situation , the mind reaches a state of calmness.

Definition from yoga sutras of Patanjali.

Patanjali yoga sutra no 2 in chapter one says  'Yogah Chitta Vritti Nirodhah' which means yoga is the ability to restrain the activities of the mind, here the activities mean the thought patterns that arise due to various reasons, let us take this definition of yoga 'Chitta Vritti Nirodhah' word by word, the first word is 'Chitta' which means mind but it has got a much deeper meaning, the words 'Chitta' comes from the root word 'chit', chit means inner consciousness, the mind plays several roles when it represents the chit that is inner consciousness, then it is called as 'Chitta', the very definition of 'Chitta states,' Chitto Bhava Cittam' , due to close proximity to the chit mind is like a screen which is very closely attached to the chit, it behaves as it is the chit, whereas it is not the inner consciousness where our mind is just like an instrument or central processing unit, processing all the information that you receive through your senses, it is the software of the physical brain.

This 'Chitta' has several faculties, they are : 

Manas

Manas is the outermost part of the mind 

Ahamkara

Ahamkara is the part of the mind that represents the ego 

Buddhi

The intellectual part of the mind.

When you see an object, the outermost part of the mind is first activated, For example, 

You see a car, and as soon as you see the car, you receive information regarding its color, its model, and its features so all those things are received at the outermost part of the brain which is the 'Manas' then the inputs enter the second level which is called as ' Ahamkara' in the stage ahamkara every experience and every object is attached with an I ness, I looked at the car and I said this is my car, I selected this color, I know everything about this feature, I earned money and I got this car, so attaching I ness to that particular object, then the third level reaching the most innermost level of the mind which is the 'Buddhi ' level, where it analysis the logical explanations or any kind of analytical skills all those happens at the 'Buddhi' level, sometimes the Ahamkara is overpowering, then the inputs doesn't reach the Buddhi at all, that is why sometimes the decisions are made at egoistic rather at the Buddhi level.

The next word in the definition of 'Yogah Chitta Vritti Nirodhah' is the second word ' Vritti'.

Vritti means that through patterns of the mind, mental modifications of the mind, or mental fluctuations due to various things that happen around us, as per the research done in the laboratory of neuroimaging, at the University of Southern California, an average man has about 48.6 thoughts per minute which accounts to about 60 to 70 thousand thoughts per day, so these Vrittis that is the thought patterns has to be controlled, the Vrittis are of several kinds, it could be because of the direct perception, it could be right or wrong through the senses and the inferences one makes, the 'Vrittis' could be as a result of something that happened in your life earlier which comes from your memory, it could be something that is going to happen in your future which is called as 'Vikalpa ' the imagination, you imagine what is going to happen in the future, it is the kind of mental fluctuations that are arising due to deep sleep, that is called ' Nindra' once you understand the different types of ' Vrittis' then you kind of look into how you control it .

The third word in the definition is ' Nirodhah'.

'Nirodhah' means complete restraining from any activities of your mind if one gets the ability to restrain the entire activities of the mind then at that point in time the inner consciousness shines through the screen of 'Chitta'. If one follows the 'Chitta Vritti Nirodhah' if one can restrain the activities of the mind then the inner self shines through them, this 'Chitta' the mind has several states of existence, They are called 'Chitta Bhumis' as per Vyasa commentary for Yoga Sutra, Vyasa has given different states of mind because the mind is not the constant thing, it keeps on changing because it is a product of matter, it keeps on changing. 

Different states of mind, the ' Chittah Bhumis'.

Ksipta 

Ksipta means a very disturbed mind, it's called a monkey mind, continuously thinking about one object to another, the mind doesn't stay with one particular work, assuming you have like five different works and you keep changing the jobs that you have to do, finally, you won't get any of the jobs done, so that is the state of mind, its called 'Ksipta' very disturbed mind, when the mind is full of 'Rajas' this is how the temperament of the mind exists.

Mudha

'Mudha' means a state where you are completely in lethargy ness, your mind is very lazy, your mind is not able to think or not able to concentrate, and you do not have any inclination to any job so that is a state of mind called ' Mudha '.

Viksipta 

Viksipta means you are partially distracted, partially concentrated, being in a state of concentration fully and sometimes being distracted.

Ekagrata

Ekagrata means a state of one-pointedness, in spite of so many distractions, assuming you are able to hold your attention completely to the chosen object with effort then that stage is called 'Ekagrata'.  Ekagrata is applied when we sit for meditation practice.

Nirodhah 

'Nirodhah' is a complete restraint of all the activities of the mind. your focus becomes one with that particular object, it becomes one with a chosen object, you forget about yourself, this is the complete state and the highest state, this is what it means 'Chittah Vritti Nirodhah'. Nirodhah here means you completely restrain any activities in your mind and become one with the chosen object of meditation, if the chosen object is your soul then you become one with that particular soul. 

Definitions of yoga from ancient hatha yoga text.

Why yoga is called a union state? 

Yoga is the culmination between the inner consciousness, ' Jivatma', and the higher consciousness, which is Paramatma'. 

For example;

 Imagine the higher consciousness as a light pervading the entire universe, and imagine the inner consciousness as a small light bulb, this light bulb is surrounded by a glass screen and this glass screen is nothing but our mind, the glass screen is very clear but the mind is not like this, it is constantly polluted by several impurities, impurities due to our mental afflictions, due to our 'vritti's' that is the thought patterns in our mind and all the experiences causing impressions in our mind, all those things are acting as a pollutant and it is covering this glass screen which is entirely smoked, and you are not able to see the inner chit, the inner chit is not visible and there is no opportunity for the inner chit to merge with the universal consciousness but when you start on the 'Chitta Vritti Nirodhah' or when you start working on clearing all these impurities from this mind what happens the inner chit that is the bulb merges, that light merges with the universal chit , this is what they called it culmination of  Jivatma inner consciousness with the Paramatma  the universal consciousness. 

 From all these definitions we understand that Yoga is nothing but reaching a state of mind, reaching a state of mind, reaching a balanced state of mind where you take the mind to the purest form like a crystal so that the inner consciousness shines through it, Bhagavat Gita rightly says yoga is the journey of the soul through the soul to the soul, when you start working on the impurities of the mind, then the yogic journey continues.