There is a maxim in Latin – Mens Sana in Corpore Sano which means sound body and sound mind go together.
This is a notable memorandum for our age because we are living through an age of anxiety.
Our problems are grown on all sides and they have become so complicated that we don’t get either peace of mind or soundness of health.
We are constantly worried about boredom, distraction, confusion and tension.
Bearing all these things in mind our national leaders and spiritual teachers like Swami Vivekananda, Maharshi Dayanand and others have turned our attention towards the ancient Hindu system of Yoga which is the greatest contribution of India to the world.
The word Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit verb root Yuj meaning to unite.
The English word Yoke also has a similar meaning. In the ancient past, the word Yoga stood for the union of the soul or Atman with God or Paramatman.
The sage Patanjali of 4th century BC expounded the principles of Yoga in his book Yogasutra. He said Yoga is the control of sensations of the mind (chittabrutti nirodha).
The Bhagavad Gita has given a different definition of Yoga. It says Yoga is the easiest means to adopt for action (Yoga Karmasu Kaushala) which implies the practice of meditation.
Meditation is the concentration of one’s mind on God or a divine object. Through meditation, one can be free from diversions outside and tensions within.
The sage Patanjali had worked on the Yogic process into eight consecutive stages those are detailed as follows:-
- Yama:- Self-restraint:- It implies the acceptance of five-fold constraints namely
Ahimsa or non-violence, adhering to the truth (satya), free from stealing (asteya), attaining brahmacharya and avoidance of greed (aparigraha). - Yama is followed by Niyama which means culture and cleanliness of mind and self-regulation.
- The third and fourth stages are important that are prescribed for common men. These are asanas or physical exercises and pranayama or regulation of breath.
- The fifth stage is pratyahara which means the withdrawal of the mind from externalities so that the mind is turned within.
All these five stages are concerned with the control of the body while the other three stages are made for the sages and Yogis who aim for spiritual liberation.
The other three stages are Dharana or concentrated attention, Dhyana or meditation and Samadhi or union with the super soul.
Samadhi is the greatest state to attain at the end of Yoga. Thus we see the loss of peace in modern times has no physical remedies except the control and regulation of mind through the practice of Yoga and meditation.
Meditation may be directed to God if one has a spiritual bent of mind or it may be focused on the purity of thoughts.
So, we should be aware and spread awareness among people to practice Yoga which is surely born from womb of the Indian tradition and cradled well in the laps of epic scripts like the Gita where considerable prominent people had mentioned it.
It is proving to be the most important and useful contribution of our country to this entire world which not only has helped its natives to live a healthy and successful life but also has aided wonderfully to the lives of people scattered over the entire globe.
It renders everyone with mental peace and soundness of health.
To conclude, Yoga is the panacea for the literally everything.
It feels relaxing when your pen bleeds your emotions over papers and everything stuffed within is just automatically jotted down and need of a person to express yourself gets reduced.
That’s something nice ??
Lord Krishna said: O mighty-armed son of Kunti, what you say is correct; the mind is indeed very difficult to restrain. But by practice and detachment, it can be controlled.
Totally got illuminated.?
Happy yoga day guyss!
Truely beautiful
Amazing work!