Is yoga a cure-all?

Transcript

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Hare Krishna. Is yoga a cure-all? Answer, it depends on what meaning of the word yoga we use.
Today, most people use yoga to refer to one limb of one type of yoga. Among the various kinds of yogas, there is one yoga called Ashtanga Yoga. And in Ashtanga Yoga, one stage is Asana.
Asana means postures. So, Asana, physical postures, is often considered to be the totality of yoga today. And that is a serious misunderstanding.
So, is sitting in certain physical postures or stretching the body according to certain postures, is that a cure-all? No, there is no cure-all at a physical or a mental level. And in that sense, the claims of yoga can sometimes be exaggerated. At the same time, we should know that yoga does have significant health benefits.
People all over the world, millions, have adopted yoga not because it’s a part of their culture, it’s a part of their tradition or they have been forced to practice it by certain political pressure groups or anything like that. People all over the world have started practicing yoga because it has benefited them. So, certainly, there are many maladies and disorders which are often curable much more harmoniously and naturally through physical postures than they might be cured through certain intrusive forms of medicines, of medication, whether they be surgery or there will be ingestion of antibiotics or whatever.
But the point is that it is not that yoga can cure everything. We need to recognize that there are higher truths in life. And all of us, based on the way we have acted in the past, will get certain results.
Sometimes some people go to the practice of yoga with such inflated expectations and they expect that just by the practice of yoga, every problem that I have will be cured. And when that is not cured, then they start thinking that this whole yoga thing is bogus. That sort of utopian positive expectation is undesirable.
It comes from an oversimplification where we don’t understand that we also have done certain karma and as a reaction to certain karma, we will get certain diseases whether we practice yoga or not. So, considering yoga as a cure-all is a mistake. And at the same time, deriding yoga as entirely a hoax, that is, letting the pendulum go to the other extreme and imagining that there is no benefit at all.
So, yoga at the level of physical postures can certainly help one to take care of one’s body and to achieve better health in less intrusive ways. But that does not mean that yoga can be used as a cure-all or for that matter can be used as a substitute for any and every kind of malady. Now, each seeker, each person, each patient needs to individually check what aspects of one’s own being can be improved by the practice of yoga and adopt that.
And wherever it’s necessary or it’s appropriate, one can take alternative form of treatment. As far as taking care of the body is concerned, one needs to be pragmatic. Whatever works in the best way for us, that is what we can adopt.
Now, yoga at a higher level means connection. So, in the Bhagavad Gita, from 6.20 to 6.23, Krishna talks about the process of yoga and he says that, that, Dukkha Sanyoga Viyogam Yoga Sangeetam So, Dukkha Sanyoga, the contact or the union with misery, Dukkha Sanyoga Viyogam, separation from that, Yoga Sangeetam, that is called as yoga. So, separation from misery is called as yoga, Krishna says.
What this means is that when we practice yoga, in terms, not of physical postures, but in terms of spiritual connectedness, then our consciousness rises above the bodily level and it comes to the spiritual level and at the spiritual level, when we get connected with God, who within the bhakti tradition of India is known by names like Krishna, Ram, Vishnu, when we connect with God, we connect with that infinite consciousness in love, then by that connection, we experience such extraordinary higher fulfillment. yam labdhva cha param labham manyatena dikam tatha yasmin sthito dukhena gurunapi na vichalyate Krishna says that, yam labdhva cha param labham that having experienced this, one realizes that there is nothing more to experience, there is nothing higher to gain, this is the highest gain. and yasmin sthito dukhena and having been situated here, dukhena, no misery, gurunapi na vichalyate no misery can disturb a person.
Why is that? Because one experiences such extreme fulfillment in one’s life. So thus, by raising one’s consciousness to the spiritual level, one can experience sublime fulfillment in one’s life. And thus, no material achievement can offer this, such satisfaction that one wants nothing more.
And such security that no misery can threaten. That’s what is offered when one comes to the summit of yoga. When one raises one’s consciousness to the spiritual level, when one becomes united in love with the Supreme, then that is the greatest achievement.
And that achievement, which can be had most easily by raising our consciousness through mantra yoga, through the practice of mantras, that can catapult us to a state where we become free from misery. So that elevation of our human consciousness to the spiritual level, that is the ultimate cure-all. That will free us from all misery.
Thank you. Hare Krishna.