Yoga and Union
My teacher always said there is fear/panic/anxiety on one side and trust/calm/spirit on the other. If you practice and keep building up the surrender/relax side you feel more of a symbiosis with your life, more connected to what is happening. It is an easier way than fighting it, for sure.
In the Bhagavad Gita, the great yogi warrior and Godhead of the Indian bhakti movement, Krishna emphasizes that yoga is union, love, the source of all things:
He who is rooted in oneness
realizes that I am
in every being, wherever
he goes, he remains in me.
When he sees all beings as equal
in suffering or in joy
because they are like himself,
that man has grown perfect in yoga. (BG 6.29-32)
In the yoga sutras, Yoga is set out as :
Yogah Citta Vritti Nirodahah— which is translated as follows by Georg Feuerstein: Yoga is the restrictions of the fluctuation of consciousness.
The term yoga is derived from the literal meaning of “yoking together” (horses) but came to be applied to the “yoking” of mind and body. Certainly, when your mind is focused, and you go beyond the distractions and drama in life, you feel more connected to everything, more plugged in. This is a nice way to affirm that concept: “The way to become one with the universe is to trust it”
Rana Waxman is a registered yoga therapist ERYT-500, with 20 years of teaching experience. Rana is a freelance writer and social media expert in addition to leading yoga workshops internationally and teaching alignment focused private and group Yoga Lessons in Hoboken and Jersey City NJ.
