Today, I wish to honor the great teacher, B.K.S. Iyengar by exploring his text, "Light on Yoga".
According to Iyengar, the word YOGA is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj which means to bind, join, attach and yoke. It also means union or communion. Yoga is "the true union of our will with the will of God".
Yoga is one of the six orthodox systems of Indian philosophy. It was collated and systematised by Patanjali in his classical work , "The Yoga Sutras" which consists of 185 terse aphorisms.
In Indian thought, everything is permeated by the Supreme Universal Spirit (Paramatma or God) of which the individual human spirit (jivatma) is a part. Yoga teaches the means by which the jivatma can be united to the Paramatma.
In the second aphorism of the first chapter of the "Yoga Sutras" Patanjali describes yoga as "chitta vritti nirodhah" which translated into English means "Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind".
According to Iyengar, the word YOGA is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj which means to bind, join, attach and yoke. It also means union or communion. Yoga is "the true union of our will with the will of God".
Yoga is one of the six orthodox systems of Indian philosophy. It was collated and systematised by Patanjali in his classical work , "The Yoga Sutras" which consists of 185 terse aphorisms.
In Indian thought, everything is permeated by the Supreme Universal Spirit (Paramatma or God) of which the individual human spirit (jivatma) is a part. Yoga teaches the means by which the jivatma can be united to the Paramatma.
In the second aphorism of the first chapter of the "Yoga Sutras" Patanjali describes yoga as "chitta vritti nirodhah" which translated into English means "Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind".