Yoga: The Dexterity of Action

Published on the occasion of International Day on June 21

By Ranjit Kakati

(The writer is a yoga practitioner and can be reached at ranjitkakatinlp@gmail.com)

Yoga has a universal appeal as a profound way of life. With its 5,000-year long history in Indian philosophy, yoga is an art of living, the practical system of self-culture. It is an exact science which aims at the harmonious growth and development of the body, mind and soul.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while delivering his maiden lecture at the 69th session of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and while appealing to the world community to adopt the International Yoga Day, stated, “Yoga is an invaluable gift of India’s ancient tradition. It embodies unity of mind and body; thought and action; restraint and fulfillment; harmony between man and nature; a holistic approach to health and well-being. It is not about exercise, but to discover the sense of oneness with ourselves, the world and the nature. By changing our lifestyle and creating consciousness, it can help us in well-being.”

There are a multiple number of texts in India which highlight the definition of yoga. The Kathopanishad defines yoga as a “state of steadiness and control of the senses, as well as the mind and the intellect, which, when attained, makes an individual completely faultless and unoffending”. There are many other references in the yoga text, where highly developed masters of yoga are found mentioned. The Shvetashvetara Upanishad advocates that the body of a yoga practitioner becomes supple and healthy, his mind devoid of greed and full of peace and satisfaction. This Upanishad even advocates that disease, old age and death do not come to the yoga practitioner in the true sense. Though such kinds of advocacies are points of controversy, it is true that a person’s mind and body become pure by the practice of yoga. It can be experienced by everyone if he practices the mental and physical processes of yoga faithfully for his holistic development.

Maharishi Patanjali systematized the practice of yoga, elevating it to a philosophical ideology. It is now universally recognized as the science and art of healthy living – physically, mentally, morally, spiritually and socially. Patanjali defines yoga as yoga chitta vritti nirodhah – “mastery over the modification of mind”. Swami Vivekananda translates the sutra as “Yoga is the restraining the mind stuff (chitta) from taking various forms (vritti)”, while IK Tamini translates it as “Yoga is the inhibition (nirodha) of the modification (vritti) of the mind (chitta)”.

Patanjali classifies the practice of yoga in ashtanga or eight limbs. They are the following. (1) Yama: the five abstentions of social discipline – Ahimsa or non-violence or non-harming other living beings, Satya or truthfulness or non-falsehood, Asteya or non-stealing or non-covetousness, Brahmacharya or celibacy or fidelity to one’s partner or moderation in sex, and Aparigraha or non-avarice or non-possessiveness. (2) Niyama: the five observances of individual discipline – Sauca or purity or clearness of mind, speech and body, Santosha or contentment or acceptance of others and of one’s circumstances, Tapas or persistent meditation or perseverance or austerity, Svadhyaya or study of self or self-reflection, and Ishvar Pranidhana or contemplation of the Supreme Being or True Self. (3) Asana: this literally means to sit, which implies the practice of postures for attaining physical discipline. (4) Pranayama: breath control to achieve mental discipline (prana – breath, ayama – to stretch, extend, restrain). (5) Pratyahara: abstraction or withdrawal of sense organs from external objects. (6) Dharana: concentration or fixing the attention on a single object or concentration of physical attributes. (7) Dhyana: meditation or intense contemplation of the nature of the object of meditation, the power of which enables us to resist all that which induces to us slavery of nature. (8) Samadhi: liberation or merging in consciousness with the object of meditation; it is the realization of the territorial or worldly existence and the complete and real meaning of life.

The Bhagavad Gita, which appears as a true management science rather than a religious scripture, is perhaps the most popular among the authoritative treatises on yoga. According to the first definition of yoga, the Gita talks of samattvam yogah uchyate – “the evenness of mind is yoga”. It signifies that yoga is not a religion but a way of life. The scientific methodology of yoga makes it possible for one to live in a constant state of happiness, harmony and fulfillment. It provides a sense of inner balance. It rewards the yoga practitioner a state of equipoise wherein opposites like success and failure or loss and profit make little difference.

Going further, the Gita, in its second definition, says, “Yogah karmasu kausalam.” This means “yoga is the dexterity of action”. This definition of yoga signifies that the practitioners of yoga attain the capacity to work for the good of humanity. Persons practising yoga do not get elated or overjoyed if their works bring success. Similarly, such persons get never dejected when they fail to obtain good results. This is because their activities are not aimed at producing limited results. They continue to work but renounce any enjoyment of the consequences.

Similarly, the Gita says that a practitioner of yoga can remain undisturbed even in the wake of the severest misery. The verses of the scripture, from 21 to 23 of its sixth chapter, define yoga as a “state of separation from sorrow”. These verses explain thus: “When the mind, absolutely restrained by the practice of concentration, attains quietude, one is satisfied with his own self, when he feels that infinite bliss – which is perceived by the purified intellect and which transcends the senses and established wherein he never departs from his real state, and having obtained which, he is not moved even by heavy sorrow, let that be known as the state, called by the name of yoga – a state of severance from the contact of pain. This yoga should be practised with perseverance, undisturbed by the depression of heart.”