We talk a lot and sermonise about yoga these days. We talk of yoga as a sublime regimen of mind and body. We refer to it as the path to accretion of knowledge, strength and skills.
All of this is true. But yoga as a term drawn from our primeval cosmic scriptures called the Vedas means the above and much more. Yoga means summation, literally.
But how does the process of summation facilitate all-round human development? This is important to know. Yoga is the summation of mind and intellect. The human mind is the driver of all human senses—cognitive and karmic.
It is the instrument of imagination and determination. The human intellect is the instrument of discernment—between right and wrong, between truth and falsity, between moral and immoral, between proper and improper. Together, the mind and intellect constitute the most important twin entity in a human being.
The human being is essentially the animate soul who seeks fulfilment and liberation from sorrow. But how does this desire get fulfilled? Through the medium of mind and the intellect. The soul which is the animate entity—the essence of the human being—works primarily through the mind and intellect.
If these two entities are used properly and well combined with true knowledge, all human desires—mundane or spiritual—can be fulfilled and the human soul can reach its ultimate destination of salvation. Yoga is the means to do it. Backed by true knowledge, if the human being (or human soul) uses its intellectual f.