Yoga is primarily a mental exercise. Most people wrongly see it as a physical one and thereby miss out on the vast benefits it offers.
Let me start with an analogy: that of owning a car. Personally, the point of my owning a car is for me to get from one point to another. The reason for me to own a car is not to spend time and money maintaining it in good working condition. Maintaining the car is a necessary effort to keep it ready to move me when I need to and is not an end in itself. Similarly, the point of yoga is to move my mind from a “normal state” that most people experience to one that is at peace (and thus unconditionally happy). Keeping my body healthy and working well is not the point of yoga. The effort to maintain my body is needed to enable my mind to work well enough to follow the guidelines of yoga. This is not how most of the world understands Yoga. Yoga is mostly seen as physical exercises that keep a person healthy. That’s it. And this logic is as absurd as owning a car just to maintain it.
As explained in my earlier article, the objective of Yoga is to bring complete peace to the mind. And in another article, I have talked about why a mind that is not in a state of peace is incapable of achieving true happiness. In the latter article, I have also pointed out that one needs to actively work to move the mind from a “normal” state to one that is at peace, and thus unconditionally happy. This work is the essence of yoga.
So how can one go about performing yoga? In my understanding, there are two ways to start. First (what I call “Indirect Yoga”) is for any person who is getting started on yoga. The second is more ambitious and difficult, but faster (I call this “Direct Yoga”). Both ways aim to bring complete peace and stillness to the mind.
The Three Paths of Indirect Yoga
Ancient Indian texts lay out three paths for (Indirect) Yoga.1 These are meant to help accommodate the different individual preferences of people. These three paths are:
- Gyan Yoga or the path of knowledge: This is about acquiring an understanding of spiritual (yoga) principles and of how they can be put into action through meditation. This would usually include reading and reflecting upon foundations books like Bhagwad Gita and Yogasutra.
- Bhakti Yoga2 or the path of worship: A favourite of many who firmly believe in prayer, this is about building a level of personal connect with God that transcends desire for anything or anyone other than Him.
- Karma Yoga or the path of action: The preferred path of those who are action-oriented, this is ultimately about working as matter of selfless service and not for personal gain.
It is easy to get started on Indirect Yoga since a person has multiple options to start doing something that aligns with her preferences. And she can also decide how she would like to go about it, including the activities that she would want to do. The advantage here is that it becomes easy to weave this indirect yoga into our daily lives.
These three paths of yoga flow from the power of humans to do three things: the power to know (Gyan yoga – the path of knowledge), the power to believe (Bhakti yoga – the path of worship), and the power to act (Karma yoga – the path of action).3
The Path of Direct Yoga
This is the more advanced and ambitious path; and it also demands a strong routine. In return, it delivers much faster progress and benefits. At its best, it involves combining an understanding of the mind with the regular practice of deep meditation.4 However, it can start from either. People inclined towards meditation can start from there and those who prefer analytical reasoning can start from an understanding of the mind. For the undecided, I would recommend the meditation path.
Progress here can quickly hand over significant control over one’s mind to the person. She becomes more self-aware of the forces at play inside her mind and also gains the means to control them to push the mind towards higher state of happiness and peace.
But this direct yoga path may not be the right one for everyone to start off on. Meditation is not something that everyone likes to do. Many may be averse to it or simply not interested. And this path needs considerable objectivity combined with self-awareness as well as some level of analytical understanding (to objectively observe oneself and call out what’s happening in the mind). Then there is the need to meditate regularly (preferably 30 minutes daily) and try and apply the same breathing skills outside of meditation time (to practice).
The Destination
The change in the working of the mind that both indirect and direct yoga seek is for it to become a lot more peaceful. Such a mind does not let events disturb it. It finds and remains grounded in a reservoir of peace within and thus remains unconditionally happy in the midst of disturbances. The outside world may not notice and the person may not act very differently, but inside she becomes happy, peaceful, and engaged.
Closing note: Some callouts for Indirect Yoga
A few points that need to be especially mentioned here:
- These paths of indirect yoga are not mutually exclusive. In truth, they are likely to complement each other and often overlap. A person would not progress only on one to the exclusion of the others. For example, a person may start with an understanding of yoga’s spiritual principles (path of knowledge) and this could moderate his attachments and expand some of his actions into service of others (path of action). Meanwhile, as part of his path of knowledge, his readings of descriptions of God (personified) in ancient Indian texts could make him feel a personal connect with God (moving on path of worship).
- None of the indirect yoga paths is easy and desires and habits of mind repeatedly create roadblocks along the journey. But for persistent yoga practitioners, the journey also includes early glimpses of the peace and happiness that keep them engaged and motivated. The level of peace and happiness increases with time and with practice and soon the practitioners realize that yoga significantly raises their quality of life and level of happiness.
- The path of action is said to be essential for any yoga aspirant. Ultimately, the learning and inspiration from others paths need to be converted into service of a larger purpose.
- Bhagwad Gita provides guidance on how a person can travel along each of the yoga paths. It is the one book that any yoga aspirant must read, reflect upon, and act on.
Footnote
1: When ancient texts like Bhagwad Gita are read, these are the primary paths that appear to be presented. But Gita also teaches advanced meditation techniques that have the potential to accelerate the progress of yoga. I call that “Direct Yoga”.
2: The original meaning of yoga is the union of the individual soul and the universal soul.
3: Ref: Gita by Ramsukh Das.
4: Some schools of thought would call “Direct Yoga” Raja Yoga.
