Feb 1, 2004, 08.48pm IST
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev.
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev.
The term ‘yoga’, for many, means physical postures , and that too twisted, impossible ones. But that’s not what we’re referring to as yoga .
Yoga means to be in perfect tune . Your body, mind, spirit and existence are in absolute harmony . When you fine-tune yourself to such a point where everything functions beautifully within you, the best of your abilities will just flow out of you.
When you’re happy, your energies always function better. In fact, when you’re happy, you have endless energy. Even if you don’t eat or sleep, it doesn’t matter; you can go on and on. So just knowing a little happiness liberates you from your normal limitations of energy and capability.
Yoga is the science of activating your inner energies in such a way that your body, mind and emotions function at their highest peak. If I don’t sleep for two days, you won’t notice any difference in me. I can still have a full day of activity.
When your body and mind function in a completely different state of relaxation and a certain level of bliss, you can be released from most suffering. You come to your office, and you have a nagging headache.
Your headache isn’t a major illness, but it takes away your capability for that day. The throbbing pain takes away everything. But with the practice of yoga, your body and mind will be kept at their highest possible peak.
When you activate your energies, you can function in a different way. As you’re sitting, you consider yourself to be a person. You’re identified with many things, but what you call as “myself” is just a certain amount of energy.
Modern science tells you that the whole of existence is just energy manifesting itself in different ways. It follows then that you’re also just a little bit of energy functioning in a particular way. In science, this same energy which you call as ‘myself’ can be here as a rock, lie there as mud, stand up as a tree, bark as a dog, or sit here as you. Everything is the same energy, but functioning at different levels of capabi-lity. Though all of us are made of the same energy, we don’t function at the same level of capability. What you call capability, talent, ability or creativity, these are just a particular way in which your energy functions.
The same energy, in one plant, creates rose flowers; in another, it creates jasmine. By gaining a bit of mastery over your own energies, you will see things that you never imagined possible, you will do them simply and naturally.
The same mud with which we construct huge buildings, is also used to build little huts. What you call a computer is dug out of the earth. We thought we could only dig mud and make pots or bricks out of it. Now we dig the earth and make computers, cars, and even spacecraft out of it. It’s the same energy; we have just started using it for higher possibilities. Our inner energies, too, are like that.
There is a whole techno-logy of applying this energy for higher possibilities. Each one of us must explore and know this. Otherwise, life becomes limited and accidental; you get to do only what you’re exposed to. Once you start activating your inner energies, your capabilities happen in a different sphere altogether. Yoga is a tool to find ultimate expression to life.