What does the word “yoga” mean?

Samadhi

In my yoga classes, every now and then I ask the question, “what do you understand by the term yoga”? The most common answer that I get is, “yoga is the union of mind, body and the soul”.

Some other answers are:

• Union of mind and body
• Union of mind, breath and body
• Oneness with the universe
• A few more …

The key theme in these statements is that yoga is “union” of two or more entities. If they are asked to explain these concepts a little more, most begin to fumble and are unable to add much more to these basic statements. The main question is whether yoga indeed implies union of two or more entities.

In this article, I’d like to dig a little deeper and understand what the word yoga means, especially when it is applied to our yoga practice.

The word yoga is a Sanskrit word. In Sanskrit, most of the words, be it a noun or a verbal construct, are derived from their respective root words. From the point of view of Sanskrit grammar, all the root words have been grouped into 10 categories, called “ganas”. The word “yoga” is derived from the root word “yuj (य़ुज्)”. As per the Sanskrit dictionary, the word yuj appears in four of these ten ganas. The meaning for each gana is as follows:

• (gana 1P) to control, unite
• (gana 4A) to concentrate as in ‘samadhi’
• (gana 7U) to unite, yoke
• (gana 10U) to control

So, the question is which of the above meanings is applicable in the context of the practice of yoga. Most of us who practice yoga follow the concepts of yoga as given by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras. Let us try to understand the meaning of “yoga” in the context of Yoga Sutras.

In sutra 1.2, Patanjali defines yoga as –

योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः॥२॥ yogaś-citta-vr̥tti-nirodhaḥ ॥2॥

“The restraint of the modifications of the mind is Yoga.”

The state of the mind wherein all the fluctuations have been stilled, is known as the state of ‘samadhi’. As we know, Vyasa is considered to be the original and most authentic commentator of the yoga sutras. In his commentary on sutra 1.1, he states, “yogah samadhi” – that means yoga is nothing but samadhi. Thus, of the different meanings of the word “yuj” given above, the most appropriate meaning is “to concentrate as in samadhi”.

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, which is one of the six ‘darshanas’ or Indian systems of philosophy, is a dualistic philosophy. Two of these systems of philosophy which are closely related are Samkhya and Yoga.

Patanjali, in developing the main concepts of yoga, has taken some of the basic tenets from the Samkhya philosophy and built the philosophy, psychology and methodology of yoga based on those Samkhya principles. One of the key principles in Samkhya is the presence of two independent entities Purusha and Prakriti. In common parlance, Purusha can be understood as the soul and Prakriti the material aspect of this creation which includes our body/mind complex. Since these two are separate and independent entities, there is no question of their union. In fact, the false identification of purusha with prakriti is the root cause of all human sufferings. As mentioned by Patanjali in the yoga sutras, the goal of yoga is to eliminate suffering and attain the state of “kaivalyam” which is freedom of purusha from prakriti.

The concept of suffering presented in the yoga sutras is very similar to the Four Noble Truths as given in Buddhism:

1. Life is suffering (Dukkha)
2. There is a cause for this suffering
3. We can put an end to this suffering
4. Here is the eight-fold path to follow to end suffering

Patanjali’s approach to the causes and elimination of suffering is presented in the following four-fold approach:

1. Heyam (that which must be prevented) = future suffering
   2. Sutra 2.16: हेयं दुःखमनागतम्॥१६॥ heyaṁ duḥkham-anāgatam ॥16॥
      “Pain that has not yet come is avoidable.”
2. Heyahetu (cause of suffering)
   2. Sutra 2.17: द्रष्टृदृश्ययोः संयोगो हेयहेतुः॥१७॥ draṣṭr̥-dr̥śyayoḥ saṁyogo heyahetuḥ ॥17॥
      “The cause of that avoidable suffering is the union of the Seer (Purusha, soul) and the seen (Prakriti or the mind/body complex).”
3. hānaṁ (that state which is free of suffering)
   2. Sutra 2.25: तदभावात् संयोगाभावो हानं तद् दृशेः कैवल्यम्॥२५॥ tad-abhābāt-saṁyoga-abhāvo hānaṁ taddr̥śeḥ kaivalyam ॥25॥
      “Without this ignorance (of min-identification between Purusha and Prakriti), no such union occurs. This is the independence (liberation) of the Seer.”
4. hānopāyaḥ (means to attain the above state)
   2. Sutra 2.26: विवेकख्यातिरविप्लवा हानोपायः॥२६॥ viveka-khyātir-aviplavā hānopāyaḥ ॥26॥
      “Uninterrupted discriminative discernment (of separation between Purusha and Prakriti) is the method for its removal.”

Coming back to the question whether we should understand the word Yoga to mean union or not, look at the sutra 2.17 above. It clearly states that it is the apparent “union” of the soul (Purusha) with the mind-body complex (Prakriti) which is the root cause of all human suffering. In stura 2.26 it states that the way to eliminate this suffering and attain the state of liberation (Kaivalya) is to develop a deep discriminative understanding that Purusha and Prakriti are eternally separate.

The commonly understood meaning of yoga as “union” possibly comes more from a Vedantic point of view. In this view, the individual soul (atma) is identical with the supreme consciousness (paramatma or Brahman). However, even in the Vedanta philosophy, the concept is “oneness” not “union”. Two of the most important statements in the Upanishads, called Mahavakyas (great sentences) are – “aham brahmasmi” (“I AM Brahman” and NOT “I am united with Brahman”) and “tat tvam asi” (“you ARE that” and NOT “you are united with that”). In fact, in the Vedantic philosophy, all is ONE, termed ‘brahman’. When all is ONE, there is no question of UNION. When we talk of UNION, we are already talking of separation of two things which need to be united. In Vedanta, no such separation exists.

To summarize, then, in the context of Yoga Sutras, the word “yoga” does NOT mean “union”. In fact, as explained above, it means just the opposite – separation of Purusha from Prakriti. The word “yoga” must be understood in the context in which it is used. We want to definitely stay away from blindly saying that “yoga is the union of body, mind and soul”.