What is Yoga? An Ever-Evolving Perspective at Yoga Pod Tucson.

It’s another iconic day in Tucson, Arizona. Piercing blue skies with a breeze that barely brushes the skin. A new day has begun, and I’ve arrived at St. Philip's Plaza, a seemingly midtown oasis filled with lush trees and beautiful gardens adorned with colorful walkways, fountains and the delight of birdsong. I look up ahead and see the Yoga Pod Tucson. I know that I’m right where I belong — at my symbolic home where all that has happened before or the possibilities of later dissolve into the present now. Yoga Pod Tucson is simply my happy place. It’s a place where I connect with myself, the growing community and to that something else — that isn’t quite definable. It’s a place where through yoga — I perceive a glimpse of yoga. 

Yoga is a word that has been assimilated into the very fabric of our daily lives. The mere mention of Yoga conjures up various images — like numerous standing and seated postures, rhythmic breathing as well as concepts or ideals like mindfulness, peacefulness and oneness. For millions around the globe, yoga is not a belief, but rather a system of practice; faith here simply lies in the trust that yoga is worth a try. However in the ever evolving context of today, what exactly is yoga?

Yoga as a word is elusive to define. In the Sanskrit lexicon alone, it has a wider range of meaning than nearly any other word. In our western cultural landscape, yoga, in its multiple methods of practice, has popularly been translated as unity — or to unite. Traditionally however, canonical texts from the Indic region, or the Indian subcontinent, illuminate held truths that yoga varies between a state or goal — to a disciplined action or practice. In this sense, yoga is equated to a practice that brings about a state of awareness for the purpose of liberation, which begins by controlling the mind.  In ancient Hindu literature, the horse and chariot are often used to symbolize this type of discipline. As a skilled charioteer is able to drive a chariot with grace and ease, so too a yogi is able to master their mind and gracefully navigate with ease the twists and turns of an embodied life. 

The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali, a classical text of world thought dated around 4 CE, is a primary text of the Yoga school — one of the now six classical schools of Indian philosophy. Here, Patañjali defines yoga as chitta vritta nirodha, or yoga is the stilling of the changing states of the mind. Overall, this classical yoga is distinct through its detached discipline — that is consistently practiced over an extended period of time. 

Through deep meditative contemplation, obstacles to concentration are removed and one slowly begins to progress through the eight auxiliaries, or limbs, of yoga where a state of moksha, liberation or freedom, from suffering is obtained. Traditionally, moksha is transcendence; it represents not only a freedom from an external identification with worldly objects but also an internal freedom from the mental and physical pain believed inherent with embodied life.

Though the early threads of yoga were practiced by renunciants — who aimed to transcend the fluctuations of their mind through seated stillness, overtime yoga as a method of practice has changed. These adaptations, which draw widely from different traditions, have always been a part of how yoga — as a means of practice — develops. Although yoga may be described as a science, its effects are not easily measured. Simply, what method of practice works from one — may not work for others, and this is in part why there are so many means of practice. Historically, the state of yoga may be achieved through the practice of devotion (bhakti yoga), selfless service (karma yoga), effort (hatha yoga), etc. Today, this could be equated to the various rhizomatic-like practices of modern postural yoga. Like the days of old, there is not one singular approach to yoga but a range of responses to the ever changing conditions of the mind, body and environment. The commonality here both past and present is not in its method — but rather that it’s a method that requires practice.

From a time unknown, the concept of yoga has inspired ascetics to householders — for reasons perceived only by them. Though some may have sought liberation or transcendence, others may have sought an elixir to worldly life. Today, common initial inspirations include improving physical health, mental health and seeking peace in response to life’s challenges. For this reason, yoga isn’t defined by who practices it; it can be practiced by all. It isn’t defined by its reason for practice; one’s journey in this adventure called life is unique to the Self. Nor is yoga defined by how it's practiced; what’s authentic and true for one is different from another. 

What’s timelessly tangible is yoga as a state of refining awareness. This inner experience, an ah-ha moment of insight and evolution of the self that manifests through practice, gives rise to truth (satya), which crosses all perceived borders, boundaries and binds. In the words of Iyengar:

The Light that yoga sheds on Life is something special. It is transformative. It does not just change the way we see things; it transforms the person who sees.

As both a method and its outcome, yoga may be perceived to have otherworldly objectives, but enlightenment, transcendence, liberation, freedom — are all glimpses beyond the dimensions of one’s personal dialogue that exists in the here and now. T.K.V. Desikachar once wrote:

Whether [yoga] leads to liberation from a karmic cycle of life and death may be a matter of belief. Unquestioned is the possibility of obtaining freedom from the confusion and sorrows of the life we may be certain is at our disposal.

Through the practice of yoga, if we have just one cessation of thought, one moment where the ebbs and flows of life become still, and the beat of our heart and breath of our being create a spark of an ardent hope, trust, faith that this journey of life — is beyond our wildest imagination, that’s yoga.