What is the traditional meaning of yoga in the Yoga sutras?
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of the word yoga in patanjali yoga sutra answer in yoga sutra 1.2 yoga is defined as yogas chitta vritti nirodha yoga refers to that state of consciousness in which the material moments of consciousness stop so commentators explain that this refers to the state of samadhi. Samadhi can be of two term types asampragnyat and sampragnyat without seed and with seed that means one has some object of simply put that means has some object of meditation one doesn’t have any object of meditation so now the word yoga has meaning connection between the atma and the paramatma that is a traditional meaning but it is not exactly found in the yoga sutras it is a widely prevalent meaning it is cognate with english words just yoke and even with the word yuge yuge yuge they do connect to engage and two things are yoked together at that time they become connected so like that yoga becomes connected now the word yoga is used repeatedly in patanjali yoga sutra also in as a compound word when combined with other words such as kriya so kriya yoga rashtang yoga or there may also be smaller word which are more prefixes rather than full word that is samyoga and vinyoga now if you look at samyoga and vinyoga you see that they are both words that they talk about connection so samyoga means connection and there it is used in the sense that when this seer and the seeing become connected or united in the sense of attachment and identification that is the cause of suffering so in the bhagavad-gita 6 20 to 23 the section 23 24 the section where krishna talks about samadhi and yoga there he states that yoga Tam Vidya Dukh Sanyoga Vyogam Yoga Sangeetam Yoga Sangeetam, that is known as Yoga. What is Yoga? Tam Vidya.
Know that to be Yoga. What is that? Tam Vidya Dukh Sanyoga Vyoga. That the contact with distress, when that contact ends, when there is termination of our connection with distress, that is called as Yoga.
So here it is used in very generic terms, termination of the connection with distress. But what is that connection with distress? That can be understood from the broader context of the Gita, where it refers to Purusha Prakriti It states that the soul becomes bound in material existence because of the desire to enjoy material nature. So Dukh Sanyoga is the soul’s connection with material nature.
Vyoga refers to the soul’s disconnection from material nature. To the extent the soul becomes disconnected from the world, to that extent the soul rises up. Therefore the important thing for us is to understand that every one of us need Yoga in that sense.
For an alcoholic, their attachments cause distress. Their connection with alcohol is the cause of our distress. So Dukh Sanyoga Vyoga would mean the disconnection from the connection with distress.
In that context, the disconnection of alcohol. So Sanyoga is in that context called as, considered to be the source of misery. Now, consider other uses, Kriya Yoga and Ashtanga Varka Yoga.
Then it refers to specific practices. Ashtanga Yoga is a particular set of practices. Kriya Yoga is also a particular set of practices.
The Bhagavad Gita also uses the word Yoga many times. We have to look at each context to see what the exact meaning of the word is. But broadly speaking, traditionally it is understood that the practice of Yoga is meant to ultimately elevate and elevate us by disconnecting us from the distress of this world.
And Bhakti Yoga also talks about the positive reality in which we connect, by which we complete our liberation.