CHAPTER 3: Why Yoga is important
Yoga is very important because it is the only way for us to achieve our ultimate goal, Liberation from misery and sorrow, also known as Moksha, Mukti, Nirvana or Enlightenment. Yoga helps us unite with the Divine and thereby, blesses us with a life of peace and tranquillity.
Once united with the Divine, Yoga blesses us to live a life without fear, regret, worry, tension, and anxiety. It helps us live a life of complete Surrender, accepting the Divine Will, realizing that life on earth is just a cosmic show. We come and we go.
Yoga is the way to transcend ego, mind, and body. It helps us overcome the ignorance in which we live. Most people live a life of myth due to the cosmic illusion called Maya. Being in union helps transcend Maya, overcome ignorance as it busts the myth and reveals the truth.
We human beings are unable to see beyond a point. We see the projections on this earth plane but we don’t see the Divinity that is behind it.
A student of Yoga once asked his Master, when they were about to go for a spiritual movie, “Why is it that the world misunderstands Yoga and doesn’t see the Divine truth?” As the movie was playing, the master asked the student, “What do you see?” The student replied, “I see monks praying.” He was again questioned, “What do you see behind that?” He replied, “I see the monasteries.” The master again asked, “What do you see beyond that?” He replied, “I see mountains.” He was asked again, “What else do you see?” He said, “I see the sky and the clouds and nothing else!”
Just then, the movie was paused for an intermission and the Master asked the student, “What do you see now?” In response, the student said, “I see nothing, just a blank screen.”
Then explained the Master, “Because we are not in Yoga, we see all the illusory projections in this world, but we don’t realize the Truth behind. We are so much in ‘Bhoga’, or indulgence in the passion that we are unable to see beyond and realize the Divine Truth.”
Yoga is the way to Live with the Realization of the truth. Just like the student was ignorant till he saw the screen, and then he realized that whatever he saw was just a projection, we human beings need Yoga to overcome Maya or the cosmic illusion. We tend to believe everything happening in this world is real. We forget that this is transitory, because in the end, when we face death, nothing is real, nothing belongs to us, nobody is truly ours. Yoga blesses the true Yogi to remain in a state of consciousness, awake, aware and conscious of the Divine truth. Yoga helps overcome the ignorance of our dreamlike existence.
Suppose, in our dream, our neighbour borrows one million from us. When we wake up, will we go ask him for that one million? Definitely not! We know that it was only a dream. Unfortunately, we human beings think that the dream is only a dream, but whatever happens in our waking state is real. Yoga helps a Yogi understand that even what is happening in this waking world is transitory like a dream. In the end, when it is “Game over,” nothing matters! Yoga helps achieve this state of Realization. As children we often played the board game ‘Monopoly’ where we bought certain stations and built hotel and homes, collecting cash. But in the end, we put everything back in the box because it was only a game.
Yoga helps us understand that the game of life is not real. It is just like a drama, a puppet show, a movie or theatre. Those who do not realize the truth about Yoga, fight with each other, even kill each other out of sheer ignorance. It is only the realized Yogi, who understands the true meaning, the importance of Yoga, and who uses Yoga to achieve the ultimate goal of life, liberation, and unification with the Divine.
Yoga helps us realize the Truth, that we are not the body or the mind that we seem to be. We are the Divine Soul. When we are conscious of our reality and are in union or Yoga with the Divine, we are able to transcend the ego, mind, and body and have that intuitive experience of who we truly are. Yoga works in two ways. First, it helps us realize the Truth, and for the Divine Soul who has realized the Truth, it helps in being liberated. Without Yoga, neither realization nor liberation is possible.
The fact is that we are embodied Souls, not the body or mind. The physical body will die and return to dust. Even science believes that a human being may look like physical matter, but in reality, we are nothing but energy. There is energy in the millions of cells that constitute the human body. However, we are ignorant of who we truly are. We think we are the mind, but where is the mind we cannot find. We can find our nose, our eyes, our ears and we can also see x-rays of our heart, kidney, and brain. But nobody has seen the mind. We are embodied Souls and it is through Yoga that we become conscious about it. Being conscious, Yoga further helps us unite with the Divine and achieve our ultimate goal of life, liberation.
Without Yoga, our life is full of ignorance. We live under the spell of Maya or the cosmic illusion, thinking we are the body and mind. True Yoga creates Enlightenment that wipes out the darkness of ignorance that sweeps our life. A Yogi overcomes the ignorance, just as he watches Maya in its Divine play as a cosmic drama making a true Yogi blissful, no matter what. When we live in Yoga, then we realize the Truth that we are the Divine Soul as our Soul connects with the Cosmic Consciousness.
Yoga helps us live fearlessly because it is about uniting with the Divine. When there is such a powerful Divine connection, then where is the necessity to worry and be anxious about anything?
Therefore, Yoga is the key to achieving our Ultimate Goal, Liberation, Moksha or Nirvana. However, as we have already understood, Yoga is not about physical exercises or breathing techniques. This is not Yoga in any way. Yoga is a difficult discipline because it calls for us to use our intellect to control the mind from its constant wandering, from its constant jumping like a monkey, from one thought to another till we make it into a silent monk. Yoga is also about controlling the senses of the body which constantly desire and crave. True Yoga deactivates the passion of the senses through discrimination, dispassion, and renunciation.
Once the practice of Yoga starts, then it accelerates to take a true Yogi to reach the ultimate goal of liberation. This, however, starts with Purification and then goes on to Illumination. Once Yoga creates liberation, then we reach the ultimate phase of unification with the Divine.
Yoga is not a game,
Misunderstanding it is a shame.
It is the Divine Union of the Soul,
That is our life’s Ultimate Goal.