A science, yoga is. That is important to understand. Yoga is a science, not a nebulous, hazy imagining or drifting. Yoga is not a new discipline, and it has been studied and practiced in many nations over the past century, despite the fact that the west has only just been familiar with the practice. Yoga is an applied science, a codified set of rules used to achieve a certain goal.
It takes the psychological laws that govern how a person’s entire awareness develops across all planes and dimensions and applies them logically to a specific situation. The same principles that govern how rational applications of the laws of consciousness’s unfolding work in
Every day, you are surrounded by examples of applications in different scientific fields. Many of the techniques utilized in yoga are also used in more recent developments in psychology and even medical physical exercise fields.
As one ages, one discovers that the workings of intelligence are as “natural” as everything else, and that man’s intelligence, working in tandem with nature, can greatly speed up “natural” processes. The yoga practice not only incorporates this sense of “cosmos,” but it also strengthens the bond between man and the universe on a deeper level. Because human intelligence may influence how natural laws operate, we distinguish between “rational” and “natural” growth, and practically speaking, it is a real distinction.
When it comes to yoga, we belong to the same branch of applied science as, say, the scientific farmer or gardener who uses natural selection laws in breeding. The rules of nature cannot be overridden by a farmer or gardener, nor can they be resisted. He just has the universal rules that govern how nature evolves forms around us to work with, yet he accomplishes in a matter of years what nature may take thousands or even millions of years to accomplish.
This can b done by applying human intelligence to choose the laws that serve him and to neutralize the laws that have a negative effect on the goal of the farmer. The farmer brings the divine intelligence in man to utilize the divine powers in nature that are working for general rather than for particular ends.
Yoga is something that can make a real change in people’s lives, we have seen this many times, from the physical practice of yoga to the philosophical implications, through the knowledge of the science of yoga, all that is yoga combines into a bigger, complete discipline that is beneficial for humanity. For some calling yoga is a way to allow this to pass as an acceptable means of physical development, for others it seems like it contradicts the very spiritual nature of yoga, the different faces of yoga, as its different uses sometimes create the illusion of one single use.
