Yoga can mean different things to different people.

For many it
is a way of life. For others it is a way to keep the body free from
different ailments. For some it involves the practice of relaxation
and meditation. However, according to the theory of Yoga, the
teaching to which I have been exposed, and from my own
experience, Yoga is, more than anything, a way of unfolding our
hidden qualities and awakening our dormant faculties.
The word "yoga" literally means "to unite", and people interpret
this unity in different ways. Some say it is the uniting of
individual consciousness with higher consciousness. Others
believe it to be a state of realisation. However, practically
speaking it is a state of unity, balance and equilibrium between
body and brain, brain and mind, mind and spirit. When all the
aspects of personality are in balance our personality expresses
itself in a different way.
The fluctuating mind
We hear a lot about altered slates of consciousness, but have we
really thought about what this means? Any change in the normal
behaviour of the mind can be said to be an altered state. When
we get angry it is an altered state of consciousness, when we go
to sleep it is another altered state, and when we express
ourselves we create altered states. There are some experiences
which bring the mind down towards the gross, instinctive and
rational plane, and other experiences that go beyond the
instinctive and rational level, which are probably best expressed
by the term "intuitive states of mind."
Yoga helps us with the different situations and experiences with
which we are confronted. Some are very pleasing and we feel
elated, but when we are confronted with depressing situations
we let them get us down. During our whole life from birth till
death, our mind fluctuates between these two extremes. One
such extreme is of happiness, satisfaction, joy. The other .
extreme is of sadness and frustration- Our thoughts, emotions,
feelings, behaviour and attitudes are always fluctuating, moving
from one side of the scale to the other, and during these
fluctuations our energies become unbalanced.
By saying "unbalanced" I do not mean that we lose control over
ourselves, but that we are unable to harness the potential of our
personality, and our mind stays in a state of dissipation, unable
to concentrate, unable to become one-pointed or focussed. It is
at this time that, by practising yoga we are able to gain a better
control over our intellect, emotion and behaviour.
The physical aspect of yoga
Of course, there are three aspects of yoga. One is the physical
aspect where we try to harmonise the body and become aware
of the different types of imbalance within the physical structure
which cause various types of stress and tension. Due to
muscular and physical stress, a state of imbalance occurs which
becomes the cause of different aches and pains, psychosomatic
and somopsychic disorders, where the harmony of the body is
distorted.
For example, how many types of physical movements do we go
through during the day? Just try to imagine. We sit in a chair;
our body is bent. We sit on the door; our body is bent. We sit on
the bed; our body is bent. Most of the movements that the body
experiences in the hours of our waking state create a lot of
physical tension. How many times do we actually stretch our
body? How many times do we actually provide traction to the
body during the day? Very few. How many times do we twist our
body in a controlled way without any jerk? Very few. How many
times do we make a conscious effort to curve the body
backward ? Very rarely. We can say that, apart from sleeping
flat in bed, most of the time we spend in a forward bend
posture. Right now you are bending forward. Your spine may be
straight and upright but your legs are bent. This type of posture
creates some type of tension.
This imbalance creates a definite distortion in the functioning of
the internal organs and systems. The digestive system is
affected without doubt, unless we have a very powerful
digestive tract. The physical aspect of yoga aims to eliminate
this imbalance by prescribing various postures or asana. Asana
are smooth, controlled movements which are done slowly and
with awareness, to provide the maximum stretch to the body in
every direction.
When we begin yoga we do not start with difficult practices like
the head stand, but with very simple practices like moving the
fingers and toes, the hands, wrists and arms, just to gain a
deeper understanding about the state of our body, about our
muscular, nervous and skeletal systems. Thus we become aware
of where we are stiff, where we are tight and how best we can
remove that stiffness and tightness. It is this gradual working
with the body that leads to the discovery of the body, which is
the main object in the physical aspect of yoga. Here we are not
talking about any specific yoga, such as Hatha or Raja yoga, but
the physical aspect of Yoga in general.
Apart from the physical structure, within our body we
experience levels of energy. When we wake up we feel fresh,
energetic but by the end of the day we are feeling down, low in
energy, tired. If we again relax for some time and the body is
able to recuperate, again the level of energy rises and we feel
okay. The stale of tiredness decreases. The level of energy also
increases with the state of physical relaxation and decreases
when the body is in a state of tension.