🧘 Yoga Doesn't Mean Union. It Never Did.

If physical stretching exercises and breathing techniques are what you think of when you hear the word “Yoga”, then you have been a target of the “yoga industrial complex”. Moreover, if you think of Yoga as “union” of some sort, like the union of the individual soul with the universal soul, or the union of the body and mind, then you are just as much a victim of the “yoga industrial complex”. So then, what is Yoga?

Sage Patanjali, author of the Yoga Sutras, is considered the systematizer of the Yoga school of Indian Philosophy. Yoga school builds on the metaphysical infrastructure laid by Sankhya school and adds a practical framework for achieving liberation. This is why Bhagavad Gita talks about Sankhya and Yoga together as one integrated system in its second chapter. Yoga school has been criticized for its metaphysics, but everyone, critics included, has directly or indirectly accepted its practical framework.

Sankhya school developed an elaborate metaphysics with teleological evolution of the world but they didn’t provide any practical method through which one can achieve escape from the cycle of birth and death. It is for a reason that Sankhya didn’t offer any practical method. For Sankhya, there’s no real bondage from which one needs to be liberated. Purusha just needs to realize its true nature, that it is not its reflection in Prakriti and is indeed nitya-mukta (eternally liberated). Thus, from Sankhya’s perspective, there’s no real problem to solve and no real solution to achieve. One can try to look for a light switch in a dark room but if the room’s darkness is because the person has closed their eyes, then all they need to do is open their eyes.

Yoga school, on the other hand, treats bondage as a real problem. For them, the room is indeed dark and the light switch is indeed there. Yoga holds that Purusha can only realize its true nature if mental modifications (Chitta vrittis) are stopped. Yoga defines Chitta as a combination of Mahat, Ahamkar, and Manas (loosely translated as intellect, ego, and mind respectively). It is only when the Chitta is clean and calm that the Purusha can see truth as it is.

Thus, Yoga stands for Chitta-vritti-nirodha, which means “cessation of mental modifications”. Yoga is the practice through which this objective can be achieved and is also the state of being when this objective is achieved. There’s no union of anything in Yoga. It simply refers to the state in which the mental fluctuations have stopped.

There are two types of Chitta-vrittis: Klishta and Aklishta. Klishta vrittis are the ones that arise from mental afflictions like ignorance, and they cause bondage. Yoga calls these mental afflictions “Kleshas”. Kleshas are of five types: Avidya (ignorance), Asmita (egoism), Raga (attachment), Dvesha (aversion), and Abhinivesha (fear of death). From these, arise various thoughts, emotions, desires, opinions, and beliefs. These are the Klishta vrittis. The person now acts on these vrittis.

As an example, a person who is attached to money (Raga) thinks about how to earn more money and then acts based on those thoughts. If the person is successful in her endeavours, then she gets more attached (Raga) to money and the cycle continues. If she doesn’t succeed, she gets frustrated and repulsed by her circumstances that failed to meet her desires (Dvesha). She might start hating her job or her manager. Thus, Kleshas (mental afflictions) lead to Chitta-vrittis (mental modifications) which drive actions. The results of those actions fuel more Kleshas and the cycle perpetuates itself. This is the cycle of bondage as per Yoga philosophy.

To escape from this cycle, one needs to break it. Yoga school recommends breaking it by stopping the mental modifications (Chitta-vrittis) that arise from Kleshas. Thus, Yoga is the path of chitta-vritti-nirodha. The path they suggest is the well-known “Astanga Yoga” or the “Eight Limbs of Yoga”.

Very briefly, the eight limbs are: Yama (ethical restraints), Niyama (self-culture), Asana (physical postures), Pranayama (breath control), Pratyahara (withdrawal of senses), Dharana (concentration), Dhyana (meditation), and Samadhi (absorption). The first two are the ethical and moral practices, followed by two stages of physical practices. Then we have two stages of mental practices and the last two are spiritual practices. Thus, Yoga is a comprehensive system that addresses the ethical, physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of human life.

But here’s the real question: Why is there a need to be ethical for liberation? Isn’t morality an outcome of liberation rather than a prerequisite for it? Even if you force yourself to be ethical, you are just fooling yourself because that is not your true nature. It’s just a mask you have put on. I believe it is this superficial morality that leads people to think of themselves as “holier than thou”. Restraining and acting ethically make people feel good about themselves but it means that they are not in touch with their real self anymore. And how can you work on yourself truly if your imagined self is so different from your real self? It is such masks that are the biggest obstacle on the path of realization.

Time and again, sages and saints have tried to get people out of the grip of such superficial masks. There’s a story from Guru Nanak’s life where he goes to a mosque with the mosque’s Qazi. The Qazi wanted to prove to Nawab Daulat Khan that Guru Nanak didn’t really believe in his own teaching that Hindus and Muslims are all one and that he respects and loves all religions equally. As per the Qazi, Guru Nanak was just putting on a show. So, they are in the mosque and when everyone had to bow down at the end of the prayer, Guru Nanak just stood there. The Qazi thought he had caught him. When the Qazi and the Nawab asked Guru Nanak why he didn’t bow down, Guru Nanak asked the Qazi what was going on in his mind when he was bowing down. The Qazi honestly confessed that he was thinking about his foal back home and hoping it doesn’t fall into his well. Guru Nanak had made his point. Spirituality isn’t an external show. It’s an internal revolution. You can’t act ethically and hack your way to liberation. Morality should come naturally and organically on this path.

While I do see the utility of the other practices of Yoga, I personally don’t think that the first two limbs of Yoga are necessary for spiritual growth. One could argue that a person who behaves ethically, even if they’re doing it superficially, should still have a better chance at stopping their chitta-vrittis than a person who doesn’t. A person who acts unethically will always be in a state of greed and fear. If this were the case, then ethical people would never be depressed or anxious. But do we find that in reality? Psychologists suggest that Mother Teresa’s letters describe symptoms that closely mirror clinical depression or dysthymia (persistent depressive disorder). In her letters, she wrote phrases like, “The place of God in my soul is blank,” and described her public smile as a “mask” or a “cloak that covers everything.”

Anyway, Buddha and Mahavira also emphasised right conduct as necessary along with right knowledge on the path to liberation. But then Buddha also didn’t allow women in his monastic order until his stepmother asked him to and Ananda, his chief attendant, interceded on her behalf. Thus, right conduct doesn’t seem like a universal moral code that is applicable everywhere and at all times. Instead, it gets revised as societies evolve.

Now, when a Yogi attains Kaivalya, do they stop having mental modifications altogether? That would mean a liberated being has no thoughts, ideas, or opinions. They do have chitta-vrittis, but unlike Klishta-vrittis, the chitta vrittis for a liberated being arise from knowledge and not from Kleshas. These are known as Aklishta vrittis and they don’t cause bondage as they don’t lead to actions driven by Kleshas. Krishna also asks Arjuna to do Nishkama Karma in Bhagavad Gita, which is action not motivated by Kama (desire).

You can ask here, is it even possible to act without being driven by desires, aversions, or fear? When you go out for a walk, is there some desire or fear behind it? You might use the same path for the walk that you also take every day when going to work. But in one case, you are doing the actions because the action itself is the fruit and in the other case, your action is propelled by some other desire. The same path gives you pleasure when going for a walk but it doesn’t give you the same pleasure when going to work.

Yoga also talks about the concept of Chitta Bhumis, which are five different levels of Chitta. They maintain that not all Chitta Bhumis are conducive to yoga and only two of them allow the chitta to really focus and concentrate at the level required for Yoga. When the chitta is dominated by Rajas, it is distracted and restless. When governed by Tamas, it is dull and lethargic. Only when the chitta is dominated by Sattva is it calm and clear enough to focus on the path of Yoga.

The Chitta Bhumis give a practical reason why the preparatory limbs (Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara) exist. You can’t just sit down and do Dharana if your chitta is in a Kshipta (scattered) or Mudha (dull) state. The third Chitta Bhumi, Vikshipta (occasionally distracted), is the state most people are in when they think they’re meditating. The mind settles for a moment, then wanders. It’s Rajasic but looks Sattvic on the surface. Only when your chitta is in an Ekagra (one-pointed) or Niruddha (restrained) state can you truly meditate and focus without interruption. These preparatory limbs exist to get your chitta into the right state for meditation. They are not just physical exercises or breathing techniques but tools to calm and focus your mind.

So the next time someone tells you Yoga is about touching your toes or uniting your soul with the cosmos, you know better. It’s about cleaning up the mess inside your head. The path to get there is debatable, and I’m clearly not sold on all eight limbs, but the destination is hard to argue with. In a future post, I’ll get into Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi, the three limbs where the real inner work begins.