Yoga is not merely for good health. That's one of the side effects. The primary purpose of practicing yoga is to attain the kingdom of God at death.
Liberation from the cycle of birth and death is seen in different ways by different seekers, according to their culture and religion. The practice of yoga is perhaps the oldest path known to humanity by which aspirants have sought spiritual awakening and a path to eternal paradise.
And this yoga path has 8 steps to it, thus called "ashtanga" yoga. Ashta = eight, and anga = limbs. These 8 steps are as follows:
Yama = what to do
Niyama = what not to do
Pranayama = breath control
Asana = yoga and sitting postures
Pratyahara = sense withdrawal
Dharana = concentration/focus
Dhyana = meditation/absorbtion
Samadhi = bliss/perfection
These are the 8 steps to perfection or mastery of yoga and my translations may be slightly different from others, especially the last four because it's hard to capture what is meant by these esoteric concepts using the English language.
This is the original ancient practice of yoga, and as you can see, the postures are just one of 8 parts to complete yoga practice. It's not about good physical health alone. Modern yogis may not be aware of the real path of yoga if they're not informed.
Without proper behavior and habits as a foundation, seen in the first two steps, the rest is incomplete. And the last four steps are very advanced levels of body and mind control and take years to perfect, if at all.
This process of using ashtanga yoga to gain liberation or the kingdom of God, is like climbing a ladder with our own effort, trying to teach the top. It's hard work and success is not guaranteed. In fact in this day and age it's largely impossible to succeed at this practice. We're too far fallen now.
The process today is no longer that of climbing this ladder by our own merit, ability or skill. We no longer have the skill or purity to succeed at this ascending process. Astanga yoga is from a past era.
In this era, in our now degraded condition, the process is a descending one. All we can do is pray for the mercy to descend from God to us, for our liberation, so to speak. It's not by our skill but by the mercy of the divine source that we can hope to achieve this goal of yoga - liberation from material bondage and access to the kingdom of God.
So practice yoga if you like, but don't expect to get it right in this lifetime. Not unless you have all 8 steps in place from the start. And perhaps if you spend a lifetime practicing. But certainly not at the local yoga studio in your stretchy yoga pants for an hour before or after work every day.
Patanjali's Yoga Sutras are thousands of years old and we simply don't have the capacity to do it properly in our modern world. What we can do, however, is be of service to the divine source or God, and also pray for the mercy, while also practicing yoga and meditation.
All cultures and religion recommend prayer, contemplation, meditation, worship, sacrifice, austerity, self-discipline and humbly begging God for blessings. Only a fool or an atheist thinks that they are the controller, that they can buy their stairway to heaven. Or climb up and crash the doors of heaven. The rest of us are humbly begging for the mercy to be let in, despite our lack of qualification.
Pride comes before the fall, and sometimes after it too.
Bhagavad Gita ch4:28
dravya-yajñās tapo-yajñā
yoga-yajñās tathāpare
svādhyāya-jñāna-yajñāś ca
yatayaḥ saṁśita-vratāḥ
SYNONYMS
dravya-yajñāḥ—sacrificing one's possessions; tapo-yajñāḥ—sacrifice in austerities; yoga-yajñāḥ—sacrifice in eightfold mysticism; tathā—thus; apare—others; svādhyāya—sacrifice in the study of the Vedas; jñāna-yajñāḥ—sacrifice in advancement of transcendental knowledge; ca—also; yatayaḥ—enlightened; saṁśita—taken to strict; vratāḥ-vows
TRANSLATION
There are others who, enlightened by sacrificing their material possessions in severe austerities, take strict vows and practice the yoga of eightfold mysticism, and others study the Vedas for the advancement of transcendental knowledge.
PURPORT
These sacrifices may be fitted into various divisions. There are persons who are sacrificing their possessions in the form of various kinds of charities. In India, the rich mercantile community or princely orders open various kinds of charitable institutions like dharmaśālā, anna-kṣetra, atithi-śālā, anathalaya, vidyāpīṭha, etc. In other countries, too, there are many hospitals, old age homes and similar charitable foundations meant for distributing food, education and medical treatment free to the poor. All these charitable activities are called dravyamaya-yajña. There are others who, for higher elevation in life or for promotion to higher planets within the universe, voluntarily accept many kinds of austerities such as candrāyana and cāturmāsya. These processes entail severe vows for conducting life under certain rigid rules. For example, under the cāturmāsya vow the candidate does not shave for four months during the year (July to October), he does not eat certain foods, does not eat twice in a day and does not leave home. Such sacrifice of the comforts of life is called tapomaya-yajña. There are still others who engage themselves in different kinds of mystic yogas like the Patañjali system (for merging into the existence of the Absolute), or haṭha-yoga or aṣṭāṅga-yoga (for particular perfections). And some travel to all the sanctified places of pilgrimage. All these practices are called yoga-yajña, sacrifice for a certain type of perfection in the material world. There are others who engage themselves in the studies of different Vedic literatures, specifically the Upaniṣads and Vedānta-sūtras, or the sāṅkhya philosophy. All of these are called svādhyāya-yajña, or engagement in the sacrifice of studies. All these yogīs are faithfully engaged in different types of sacrifice and are seeking a higher status of life. Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is, however, different from these because it is the direct service of the Supreme Lord. Kṛṣṇa consciousness cannot be attained by any one of the above-mentioned types of sacrifices but can be attained only by the mercy of the Lord and His bona fide devotee. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa consciousness is transcendental.
Reference: Bhagavad Gita As It Is, translation and commentary by Swami A C Bhaktivedanta, original MacMillan 1972 edition, freely available at prabhupadabooks.com.
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