July Focus of the Month
The Path of Yoga

“...The way of establishing the mind in the Self should be known as yoga.
An aphorism of Patanjali, the great sage and founder of the science of yoga, makes this clear:
yogash chitta vritti nirodhah
(yoga is the process of ending the definitions of the field of consciousness).

The means by which the mind is directed towards the Self and prevented from going towards outside objects is what is known as yoga, as a hymn of the Katha Upanishad affirms: tham yogam iti manyante sthiram indriya dharanam (Yoga is considered to be the steady fixing of the senses). Here, the means to establishing the sense organs in the Indweller, and thus to prevent them from going towards external objects, is called yoga. Therefore, the word yoga signifies the means to the realization of one's true nature.

...It is only through the control of the mind and sense organs that we come to know our true nature, and not through intellectual knowledge, or by putting on the garb of a yogi.

Hence an aspirant, by the grace of his Guru and constant practice of yoga, can someday realize, before casting off his mortal coil, the Indweller that is of the nature of supreme peace and eternal bliss, and the cause of the creation, sustenance, and destruction of the universe. Otherwise, an aspirant will be unable to see anything in this world but turmoil."

- Shri K. Pattabhi Jois, excerpted from Yoga Mala, 1999