The Philosophical Foundations of Yoga

One may regard as the central objective of human life and the possible methodology that could be adopted in implementing this objective, and its realization. You must have heard a lot about what is known as yoga. And many a textbook, many a discourse must have given you varied information on this mysterious technique known as the art of the practice of yoga. In simple terms, without involving technicalities, if yoga is to be defined, it can be called the system of harmony. For example, what is called harmony in the English language, yoga is in Sanskrit. Yoga is nothing mystifying or beyond the conception of human understanding. But there is a great proviso in this simple definition of yoga as harmony. While it is true that harmony in every field of life is what we seek in our day-to-day existence, it is necessary to know what harmony actually means. And when the essential of that simple fact called harmony gets imbibed into our consciousness, our personality gets stabilized. Stability of personality, equilibrium of consciousness, harmony in all walks of life, is yoga.

Harmony implies an adjustment of oneself with an environment that is external to oneself. When there is no proper adjustment of one thing with another thing, we call it disharmony. When there is a proper adjustment, a smooth working of one principle, one fact, one object, one person with another, we regard it as harmony. Now, the question which may arise in our mind at the very outset is, why should harmony be the central objective. Why should harmony be regarded as the essential of life?

The reason is the very structure of the universe. The universe is a system of harmony. We, as human individuals, form part of this universe. We form part of it in such a way that we are integrally related to it. Before proceeding further, it would be profitable to know what it is to be integrally related to anything in the world. I shall try to give you an example from common experience. You must have seen heaps of stones on the roadside. A heap of stones is a group of small units of inanimate matter put together in one place. In that heap of stones, perhaps each stone is touching every other stone. Though each piece of inorganic matter called stone in that heap is connected by way of contact with every other stone in the heap, we cannot say that any particular stone is integrally related to every other stone in that heap. They are mechanically connected, not vitally related.

There is a difference between a mechanical connection and a vital, organic relationship. The contact of one stone with another stone in a heap is mechanical. There is no life in this connection. If one stone is taken from that heap, the other stones will not be affected in any manner. They will remain as they were. There will not be any kind of harm done to the remaining stones or a diminution in their structure if a few stones are removed from the heap. So, a mechanical group is that in which parts are so related to the whole that if some parts are removed from the whole, the remaining parts are not affected at all. That is what is meant by mechanical relationship. But But organic relationship is something different. We have the example of our body itself. We know very well that our physical body is made up of minute organisms called cells. These cells are so connected to one another that they give the appearance of a single whole called the body, similar to a heap of stones on the roadside, we may say, in one way. But what is the difference? While the removal of a few stones from the heap does not vitally affect the remaining stones, removal of a few limbs of our body vitally affects the whole body. We know what it would be to an individual, a human being, if the limbs are to be amputated —the legs or the arms removed. Remove a portion of the body of a person; what a difference it makes! The very existence of the body is seriously affected. To come to the point, the harmony of the body is disturbed. That is why when a limb of the body is cut off; there is intense pain, agony and a dislike towards it. We dislike any kind of interference with the limbs or organs of our body because the limbs are vitally connected as a living whole in the system of our personality.

Now you know the difference between a mechanical relationship and a vital relationship. What I mean to say is that we are vitally related to the cosmos, not mechanically connected. Our connection with the universe outside is not like the connection of a stone in a heap so that we may do anything we like without affecting the world outside. That cannot be. Our connection, our relationship with the world outside is such that it can be compared to the relationship of the limbs of the body to the whole system of the body. Any meddling with the system is neither warranted nor called for.