Today around the world yoga is practiced as a format of physical fitness with an added feature of mental relaxation. The scientific studies about Yoga have further promoted it as a substitute to various physical cultures like gym or aerobics for its fascinating health benefits. Yoga has also been attested as a system of alternative medicine with its ability to manage diseases like hypertension, diabetes, asthma etc. No doubt yoga does it all, but it is much more than that. The word yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root ‘yuj’ meaning union and connotes to ‘Yujyate Anena Iti Yogaḥ’ i.e. that which unites is yoga. Than what is united to what? It is the union of the narrow, individualistic and egoistic consciousness of an individual with the all-pervasive universal Consciousness. This is known as Self-Realization.
In technical terminology, it is the union of ‘jīvātmā’ (individual self) with ‘paramātmā’ (universal self). This simply means that yoga is a process of expansion of an individual personality to cosmic dimensions, making an ordinary man divine. In practice, yoga is about calming of the mind. At the more apparent level it is about harmonizing the body with the mind through the means of various yoga techniques like postures (āsana), breathing practices (prānāyāma) and meditation (dhyāna). In the state of harmonious integration of personality, a person is said to be in yoga.