What is Yoga?

Yoga is an unusual phenomenon. It is not a religion, it is not a science, it is not an art form. Yet it deeply resembles them all. In its appeal to and ability to satisfy the deepest longings of the human heart it has a distinctly religious flavour. Yet it requires no, and contradicts no, article of religious faith. In its rigour and objectivity it has a distinctly scientific methodology. Yet it interests itself not with objective knowledge, but subjective experience. In its articulation it is full of beauty and grace. Yet its concerns are internal, not aesthetic.

Yoga is both a method and a disposition: a set of techniques and a way of life. Yet it is limited by neither technicalities nor styles of life. It is available to anyone, and is often present in the lives of those who have never heard the word. For the dynamic heart of yoga is deep inner experience. Its potent fruit is a life of understanding, compassion, harmony and peace. The peace to be found in yoga, is a peace that cannot but be shared with and by others.

The dynamic heart of yoga is a transformation of awareness. This transformation necessarily generates a transformation in attitude. This attitude necessarily generates a transformation in behaviour. At its heart is the recognition of the deeply interconnected nature of all phenomena, of all life in all its forms. The deep organic recognition of the unity within life’s diversity becomes a psychological imperative more potent than any culturally derived moral standard.

It leads not only to a compassionate sensitivity to all life, but to an inescapable recognition of the indivisible source, substance and significance of life. In religious terms this is simply recognising the inescapable Power and Presence of God. A recognition that while it depends not on any cultural presentation of that Presence and Power, neither denies nor contradicts them. Yoga is not a matter of establishing Faith in God on the basis of belief. It is a matter of being blessed with it on the basis of experience. Yoga, it could be said, is a deep invitation to the Grace of God. It is not a substitute for that Grace, nor a means to manufacture it. It is simply an invitation. In that sense Yoga is deeply akin to prayer, and generates similar feelings of reverence, humility and awe in the face of the depths and source of life.

However this does not take place arbitrarily. It is not a matter of technique. Yoga rests not on the technique being used, but on the manner of its use. The fundamental principle of yoga, laid down in the Yoga Sutras, is and must be AHIMSA. This sanskrit word is rich and potent with meaning, significance and applicability. Derived from the root HIM and the prefix A, it literally means the absence of violence. In practice this means the application of compassion or sensitivity to all ones actions. When AHIMSA is applied to the cultural practices associated with yoga it leads inevitably to the direct experience of the indivisible unity of life, and the interconnectedness of all phenomena. This begins in the body and mind, and it flowers in social relationships.

The power of the cultural practices associated with yoga (postural practices, breathing practices, stillness practices, silence practices) is the deep and lasting effect they have on the practitioners organism. By reintegrating the practitioners body and mind, inner harmony is established. This harmony is based on profound organic transformation. The effect is to generate a compassionate disposition towards all life and a reverent disposition towards its source. As such it becomes the basis for social interaction, oriented towards cooperation, understanding and harmony.

This transformation is unequivocally based on cultivating a deep, internal sensitivity to the responses and mechanisms of the body. This is the application of AHIMSA to practice. Through the regular cultivation of profound and subtle sensitivity, sensitivity becomes an innate disposition. A disposition that becomes the organic basis of the choices and actions that constitute behaviour. And so it is that many yoga practitioners give up eating meat, wearing leather, accumulating worldly goods, self-indulgently squandering natural resources. Instead they live a life of willing sensitivity and reverence from a deeply inviolable organic foundation.

This is the application of AHIMSA to life. Yet this does not involve any dogmatism of any kind. Nor does it involve espousing any particular belief. It is simply a matter of cultivating an honest and open sensitivity to the unity of life’s diversity. As this cultivation takes place on the basis of action undertaken within the body and mind, it is not a question of belief.

Yoga is a gift of love. One where self love is found, but not at the cost of love for others. For self love is found in the recognition of the deep and intimate relationship that the individual has with the whole of life. One where love of life is found, but not at the cost of denying its source. For love of life is found within a recognition of the source and sustenance of life’s irreducible indivisibility: the unity to which the very word yoga points.

GODFREY DEVEREUX, DIRECTOR DYNAMIC YOGA TRAINING CENTRE, IBIZA, SPAIN.
www.windfireyoga.com

We at the Kevala Centre are very grateful to Godfrey for his permission to reproduce his work.

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