Defining Yoga: What is Yoga and Why Do We Do It?

Introduction

First, we introduce the topic of defining yoga by considering a variety of perspectives:

• There are many meanings of the word yoga; why might that be so?
• What is the definition of the word yoga according to its Sanskrit origins?
• From what context does yoga philosophy originate?

In the next sections of this lesson, we go on to:

• Bring together a collection of expert comments on the meaning of yoga.
• Distinguish the definition of yoga from why we practice it, offering some specific commentary on the purpose of practice.

A Variety of Perspectives

Multiple Meanings

• Here we bring together a wealth of considerations and perspectives on yoga.
• While the word “yoga” is used in many ways, it’s generally describing 1) a philosophy and/or 2) a discipline or set of practices and techniques.
• Since there are so many ways that people describe yoga we might first question why yoga can have so many meanings. The scholar Mircea Eliade explains:

YOGA IS MANY THINGS

In the Moksadharma [a book in the Mahabarata], Yoga does not mean cittavrtti-nirodha, as it does to Patanjali; it simply designates any practical discipline…  In the majority of cases this activity is equivalent to restraining the senses, asceticism, and various kinds of penance. Only occasionally does Yoga have the meaning that Krsna gives it in the Bhagavad Gita — ‘renunciation of the fruits of one’s acts.’ This fluidity in the meanings of the word has been brought out by Hopkins in an exhaustive study. “Yoga” sometimes means “method,” sometimes “activity,” “force,” “meditation,” or “renunciation,” etc. This variety of meanings corresponds to a real morphological diversity. If the word “yoga” means many things, that is because Yoga is many things. For the epic is the meeting place of countless ascetic and popular traditions, each with its own “Yoga”— that is, its particular mystical technique. – Mircea Eliade

Sanskrit: To Yoke or Bind

• The word “yoga” comes from the Sanskrit word yuj meaning to yoke or bind.
• It’s often interpreted as “yoking,” “union,” “joining together” or a method of discipline that serves to connect or unify.

ANY JUNCTION, CONJUNCTION, CONNECTION

The word yoga has the central meaning of “joining things together,” or “hooking up…” Yoga can refer to any junction — in astronomy and astrology, a conjunction of the stars or planets; in grammar, the connection of words together; in arithmetic, addition, sum, total. In alchemy or chemistry, mixing different materials together is yoga. In spirituality, yoga can mean the union of the soul with matter, the union of the individual soul with the universal soul, and the disciplines that serve this union. – Lorin Roche PhD

Sanskrit: To Contemplate

• The translation of yuj is so often repeated as “to yoke.” However, highly qualified scholar Edwin F. Bryant expresses the following qualifier and counterpoint:

The commentator Vacaspati Misra traces the etymology of yoga to one of the meanings of the root yuj, to contemplate, which, he points out, is the correct etymology here. The more established etymology from the perspective of modern historical linguistics is, of course, derived from the same Indo-European root as the English word, “yoke” … While this translation of the term is popularly found (and may be apt in other contexts such as the Gita, IX.34), it is best avoided in the context of the Yoga Sutras, since… the goal of yoga [in the Sutras] is not to join, but the opposite: to unjoin, that is, to disconnect purusa from prakrti. If the term is to mean “yoke,” it entails yoking the mind on an object of concentration without deviation. – Edwin F. Bryant 

The Origins of Yoga Philosophy

The origins of yoga philosophy are traced back to the The Vedas of India, estimated to have been written between 3,000 and 6,000 years ago.

• In The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga, Deepak Chopra and David Simon explain, “Yoga is the practical aspect of Vedic science.”
• Thus, to truly understand what the teachings are trying to convey, and to honor those who kept the teachings alive, students are advised to study Yoga Origins & Sources.