Yoga - Your Biggest Helper At Workplace and Beyond

This year the world is celebrating the 10th anniversary of ‘International Day of Yoga’ and its UN theme for the year is, ‘Yoga for Self and Society’.

Most people think that Yoga means twisting your body in some impossible physical postures, but this is not true, If we go by its literal meaning and its definitions from its ancient technical manuals. We would derive three equations mentioned below from the ancient teachings of Yoga.

a) Yoga = Cessation of modifications of thoughts in Mind (Chitta) (Reference: ‘Patanjali Yoga Sutra 2.5’ योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः)

b) Yoga = The Art of Working Skillfully (Reference: ‘Gita 2.50’ (योग: कर्मसु कौशलम)

c) Yoga = Union (Literal Meaning as per the language Hindi and Sanskrit)

Hence as per equations a, b & c…

Cessation of modifications of thoughts in Mind = The Art of Working Skillfully = Union

One can spend his or her entire life span in diving deep into these equations and find/experience the relationship between these three facts. They are interrelated indeed, and the seed of human wellbeing is hidden inside them.

Some people feel this is something religious, but this has nothing to do with any kind of religion or belief system, this is pure science. It’s technical manuals which are ancient texts never used any word such as belief or God, they rather are full of descriptions of experiments.

Whether you have faith or not, if you undergo a certain ‘Yaugik’ process then certainly you will experience wonderful insights and elevation in the states of mind which shall lead you to greater states of bliss and inner well-being.

Following is a brief explanation of these definitions of ‘Yoga’

a) Yoga is Cessation of modifications of thoughts in Mind/Chitta (योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः): What we call worry, anxiety, over thinking or mental stress all these are undesirable and uncontrolled modifications of thoughts in Human mind or in Chitta.

‘Chitta’ is a Sanskrit word for Mind although it means more than Mind. As per Yoga tradition Chitta includes mind, ego (sense of one’s identity), intellects, and consciousness altogether, I feel this can be described as a canvas of our consciousness on which various modifications of our mind activities and feelings take place. So, Yoga is an ability to direct the Chitta or mind toward any object, goal or activity and sustain that direction peace and blissfully without any distraction.

b) Yoga is The Art of Working Skillfully (योग: कर्मसु कौशलम)): After understanding the first equation it perhaps is not very difficult to grasp the second one. When all elements of your mind are in your control then obviously you will be able to utilize all your skills to your work in an artistic manner, then achieving goals will be a fun. The working will no more be a stress or burning out activity.

c) Yoga is the Union: this is the literal word meaning of the term Yoga.

What is this Union?

Here, the above two equations tell us about the abilities of Yoga but the questions arise how to achieve this incredible amount of control over one’s mind process. To understand this we would require to understand this third equation, ‘The Union’.

This is the toughest to describe in words; to me this is the most advanced form of the technology I have ever utilized. This is the unmatched, unlike other technologies which deal with material things, “Yoga” deals with your own very being, your own existence, your own life process. It is amazing because with the help of Yoga, for the first time in your life experience you get the ability to understand your own life system in a very systematic manner, no outer world adventure can compete with the experience of ‘Yoga’

But How?

There is a fact that man cannot live by bread alone. For us human beings life is not about just survival. For other creatures on earth, life means just fulling their stomach but for us humans there are so many desires, why?

Because as per the Yoga tradition being human is a possibility, it’s not the destination and aim of Yoga to accelerate human evaluation on individual level, your desires and trying to get something more is an indication that something is missing, that’s why no matter from which country we belong, what lifestyle we live, what kind of mental state we have but one thing we all have in common is that we all want something extra to happen in our lives  and when that something happens we want the next thing to happen and this process goes on.

We always want something more, there is nothing wrong in aspiring for better, we always want something extra and enhanced. Yoga tradition says that this is not the desire of something more but it’s the desire of everything, we literally want the highest, the finest which is wholesome and eternally fulfilling. 

And Yoga is the technology of achieving this everything. If we try to achieve it by physical means, it would be like using your car to travel to the space, no matter how good you in driving is but your car is a wrong vehicle for a space travel. Similarly, trying to acquire everything through your limited physical means is just impossible, so you need to go beyond your physical limitations and Yoga is the art of going beyond your self-made physical limitations

Technically what stops us from going beyond our limitations? Yoga teaches only our self -limiting beliefs are stopping us.

These beliefs consist of our own past experiences. Actually, our habits, behaviours, thoughts are all inside us in the form of a blueprint and our life runs according to them, this is called Karma, Karma does not mean reward or punishment. This is a technical term used to denote imprints of specific kind of experienced memories.

Suppose, years ago your boss reprimanded you or someone harassed you, the bad memories of such incidents remain settled deep inside your subconscious mind. If a similar situation would arise again, you would re-live that old subconscious fear and pain yet again as it would resurface. This will be the reason for your pain not your present circumstances. These subconscious memories of experiences are called Karmic imprints or simply ‘Karma’.

Yoga works to erase the imprints of these memories. Now what are these imprints? how are they generated? Where are they stored? This is a deeper subject.

In short, there is a part of you which is called life energy, you can feel it by increasing your sensitivity a little. Yoga increases the amount of this energy and removes the remnants of the experiences stored inside you, along with it your bad experiences, fears and sometimes even your illnesses also get removed and then you start feeling completely refreshed, you start handling your personal or professional responsibilities very well.

Technically Yoga works on your spine and brain. There is a lot of research available on its effects. You can search for studies like “Sanskrit effect” or “Maharishi effect”, but how this happens is a very deep subject. But yes, one thing is sure that it increases the pace of your development, you become a better person, people around you do not get troubled because of you, your family members and colleagues stay happy.

I was going through one writeup “Equipping Managers & Employees to Handle Stressful Work Situations” and something very painful flashed into my memory.

In last a few years I have lost some of my former colleagues. They had no problems, they were not sick and neither did they have any family, relationship or money related problems, yet they were living in a fatal state of mental depression, and I feel Yoga is something which can be proven very effective on issues like depression and anxiety. When your thoughts and life energies are in your control then you can manage your life in more effective manner.