Yoga and Life

During the first week of YTT, Master Sree asked what is yoga? I was pretty blown away. I never really thought about what Yoga mean. My answer was perhaps, is a type of exercise which can work on each part of your body and brings you inner peace in both mind and heart.

So, let me ask you, what came to your mind with word “Yoga”? Is it just another form of exercise? Is it a religion, a philosophy, an ideology? Or is it something else entirely? I cannot give you a certain answer to it. As there is no absolute right or wrong answer to these questions.

Basically, ‘Yoga’ is derived from the Sanskrit root ‘Yuj’, meaning ‘to join’ or ‘to yoke’ or ‘to unite’
Therefore, Yoga literally means “union”. And the practice of Yoga leads to the union of individual consciousness with that of the Universal Consciousness, indicating a perfect harmony between the mind, body, and nature.

After going through YTT, I now can truly understand the meaning of “Yoga is an art, a science, and a philosophy. It touches the life of man at every level: physical, mental, spiritual. It is a practical method for making one’s life purposeful, useful and noble.” – B.K.S Lyengar

Yoga is like building blocks. Step by step, one by one build yourself up, experience your very own yoga journey.  If you ask me, is yoga suitable for everyone. The answer is an absolute yes! Very much like life, you go through your own life journey which only you can answer for it and nobody else can. You create your own kind of life that you want, and no one should judge it or even compare with it. Just like yoga, we can never compare who is better as there is no ground for comparison to begin with. As our body are all different when we are first born. It does not matter what happened in the past about you, all is matter is the future. And what you do in the present brings the kind of future you want.

We are all unique individual who going through our own karma and kriya. We will get better at whatever we are practising if we do not give up and keep doing. I believe the end of YTT is the true start of my yoga journey. Thankful for such eye-opening experience within me, life changing.