ŷ������

“Usually, when people hear the term Yoga, many of them associate it with various physical exercises where they need to twist, turn and stretch their body in complex ways that are known as Asanas, but this is only one type of Yoga, called “Hatha-Yoga��. In reality, Yoga is an umbrella term for various physical and mental exercises that lead to the overall well-being of a person.
By origin, Yoga has mainly five forms:
1. Raja Yoga - The realization of divinity through intense meditation
2. Karma Yoga �� The realization of divine bliss through your own daily activities and duties
3. Hatha Yoga �� The realization of divine well-being through various physical exercises
4. Jyana Yoga �� The realization of inexplicable bliss in the pursuit of knowledge
5. Bhakti Yoga �� The realization of ecstasy through love and devotion for your Personal God
The purpose of all Yogas is to set your consciousness lose into the vast domain of the unknown, where your brain circuits simulate various fascinating mental states that are usually unimaginable and unattainable in your everyday consciousness. But the whole yoga thing has nothing to do with God or something of that sort. It is all about various states of the human mind.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Autobiography of God: Biopsy of A Cognitive Reality

“While aesthetic richness has prevailed in Indian spiritual life form ancient times, there has also been a parallel puritanical aspect among Indian people. This puritanism was prevalent in various traditions of monks, and evolved into the systems of Buddhism and Jainism. Monks of these two religious paths prohibited the use of objects that were pleasing to the senses, and prescribed forcible control of the mind and senses, suppression of the emotions and instincts, and renunciation of worldly enjoyments. Those monks who became experts in this austere type of penance often developed supernatural psychic powers like telepathy and hypnotism. Even though Patanjali denounced the attainment of such powers (siddhis) as being impediments to liberation (Yogasutra, IV.36-37) still they tended to have considerable influence on people from all walks of life. Brahmanic thinkers were inflienced as well, but wisely accommodated the ideals and practices of these monks by placing them into the renunciatory and seclusionary periods of a practitioner’s later lifetime (the third and fourth stages which follow the student and householder stages).

Tantric theologians did not accept puritanism. Instead they propagated a spiritual path that focused on the simultaneous attainment of enjoyment (bhukti), and liberation (mukti). They accepted both of them as the goal of human life, and developed philosophies and methods that could be followed equally by both monks and householders. They did not approve of any form of forcible control or repression of the mind, emotions, and senses, but rather emphasized that such practices could create adverse reactions that might simply deepen a practitioner’s bondage.

�� B. N. Pandit, Specific Principles of Kashmir Shaivism (3rd ed., 2008), p. 118.”
― Balajinnatha Pandita, Specific Principles of Kashmir Saivism [Hardcover] [Apr 01, 1998] Paṇḍita, BalajinnaÌ"tha

“Și totuși, Cosmosul, Viața au o funcție ambivalentă. Pe de-o parte, ele îl proiectează pe om în suferință și, grație karmei, îl integrează ciclului infinit al transmigrațiilor; pe de altă parte, îl ajută, indirect, să caute și să găsească „mântuirea�� sufletului, autonomia, libertatea absolută (mokșa, mukti). Cu cât omul suferă mai mult, așadar cu cât este mai solidar cu Cosmosul, cu atât crește în el dorința eliberării, cu atât îl frământă mai mult setea de mântuire.”
― Mircea Eliade, Patanjali and Yoga

“Yoga is pure science, and Patanjali is the greatest name as far as the world of yoga is concerned. This man is rare. There is no other name comparable to Patanjali. For the first time in the history of humanity, this man brought religion to the state of a science..

Yoga says experience. Just like science says experiment, yoga says experience. Experiment and experience are both the same, their directions are different. Experiment means something you can do outside; experience means something you can do inside. Experience iS an inside experiment

Yoga is not a philosophy. It is not something you can think about. It is something you will have to be; thinking won't do. Thinking goes on in your head. It is not really deep into the roots of your being; it is not your totality. It is just a part, a functional part; it can be trained.
Yoga is concerned with your total being, with your roots. It is not philosophical. So with Patanjali we will not be thinking, speculating. With Patanjali we will be trying to know the ultimate laws of being: the laws of its transformation, the laws of how to die and how to be reborn again, the laws of a new order of being. That is why I call it a science.

Patanjali is like an Einstein in the word of Buddhas. He is a phenomenon. He could have easily been a Nobel Prize winner like an Einstein or Bohr or Max Planck, Heisenberg. He has the same attitude, the same approach of a rigorous scientific mind.

And if you follow Patanjali, you will come to know that he is as exact as any mathematical formula. Simply do what he says and the result will happen. The result is bound to happen; it is just like two plus two, they become four. It is just like you heat water up to one hundred degrees and it evaporates.

That's why I say there is no comparison. On this earth, never a man has existed like Patanjali.”
― Osho, Yoga: the Alpha and the Omega, Volume 1

“I told you, he (Patanjali) is just Einstein plus Buddha - a very rare combination. He has the inner witnessing of Buddha and the mechanism of the mind of an Einstein.”
― Osho, Yoga: the Alpha and the Omega, Volume 1