See also Yogi Amrit Desai's biography.

Also, following this article there is an eloquent Definition of Yoga by B.K.S. Iyengar.

Diane: Gurudev, when did you begin to meditate?

Gurudev: I started meditation when I was 16 years old.

Diane: Did you feel that you were on a spiritual path from a young age?

Gurudev: Yes. Anything that was about personal growth, self-improvement or spirituality always attracted me from the beginning. Every time I heard something spiritual, I was always very quickly drawn into it. If it was a book, I would read it over and over again.

Diane: Do you feel you were born into spirituality?

Gurudev: I think it was carried over from my past lifetimes.

Diane: When did yoga come into your studies and learning.

Gurudev: My father was an athlete, and when I was 13 or 14 years of age he introduced me to exercise. I went with him to the gymnasium in my hometown and saw a chart of Hatha Yoga postures. I would try to practice by looking at the photographs. I didn't learn from anybody, I learned from the chart. So that's when it started.

As a child I was more interested in showing what I could do, but as I grew up and met my guru, it was really a spiritual thirst that awakened.

Diane: Patanjali has been given much credit for collecting information and writing what is known as the Yoga Sutras.[1] However, I know that yoga has been around much longer than that. How was yoga discovered?

Gurudev: When Shakti awakens the Higher Intelligence, or prana,[2] - when the kundalini awakens in the body - it automatically guides the body into different yoga positions and different yogic kriyas.[3] This happens directly, spontaneously, and automatically.

You see, right now, prana functions on a survival level, because our consciousness is not yet awakened. When the Yogi[4] moves into the deeper meditative states, he allows the Higher Intelligence in the body to function at an evolutionary level. Then, prana - which carries out involuntary functions, we call this ''wisdom of the body'' - begins to carry out the evolutionary processes in the body with the same intelligence. Those processes, such as yogic postures, pranayamas,[5] cleansing kriyas, and mudras,[6] are all the system of yoga that was originally born as a result of Kundalini awakening, where the Yogi allows the Higher Intelligence of prana to function from its evolutionary level.

One day in 1970, because of the awakening of this Higher Intelligence, my body went into automatic postures. Out of that I developed a whole new system of yoga which I called ''Kripalu Yoga,'' in honor of my guru. There are over four thousand yoga teachers who have been trained to teach Kripalu yoga, and possibly it is the most widely practiced and taught yoga today.

I now teach a system which I call ''Amrit Yoga,'' and I have added some powerful meditative techniques which I have developed over the last few years.

I just finished an Amrit Yoga teachers training attended by seventy students. Many of them were Kripalu teachers, and several were from other traditions. They were amazed at how deep they could go into meditation while doing the practice of yoga.

I call it ''meditation in motion.''

Diane: Yes. That is what yoga feels like for me. It moves me into a calm and slightly introverted state in myself, yet I do not have to sit still.

Gurudev: And it can be much more with the specific techniques and the tools I have introduced in Amrit Yoga, which allow people to go to the deepest levels of relaxation and restful awareness.

Diane: And this is because you are activating the innate intelligence within?

Gurudev: Yes. Most people think that the posture is complete when you finish holding the physical form. But I say that the other half of the posture actually begins after you finish the physical form. This is called the ''integrative state of consciousness.''

During the interim period, when people go to the Third Eye and focus their attention there, all the energy that has been released from the posture leads you to experience the deeper state of integration and unity in yoga.

When you give your total attention to those sensations, they grow, and the effect of the posture increases many-fold. During this period a person can enter the deepest level of relaxation very quickly. When I take them into this Third Eye experience, people experience deep meditative states where their mental monologue stops and they enter deeper states of tranquility.

The purpose of yoga is integration, experiencing unity where mind becomes absolutely silent, the body is deeply relaxed, and you enter restful awareness. This place can be so deeply silent that people can go into ecstatic experience.

This is the secret teaching of yoga that many people do not know and is what happens when you enter the sacred space of the Third Eye between postures. When you take your attention to the Third Eye, the energy that has been released automatically follows your attention. People see lights and colors, and miraculous experiences happen. When you go into that state of integration, inner healing happens spontaneously and naturally. All chakras come into alignment instantly. People become balanced very quickly and their mind, their emotions - everything - begin to calm down in an amazing way.

Diane: Let's talk more about meditation. Most people think that meditation means having to sit still. And many, such as myself, have a very hard time doing that.

Gurudev: I would say you're right. Most people, when you tell them about meditation, think that meditation means sitting still and that movement is counter-productive. In traditional meditation this is true.

But what most people do not know is that active meditation is possible also. Yoga can be done in the spirit of meditation-in-motion, where you remain the Witness to all your bodily sensations of pleasure or pain that arise. You do not hold yourself for or against whatever you're experiencing in any given moment. This allows you to practice yoga with inward focus and meditative attention.

In Buddhist traditions there is what is called ''walking meditation.'' It's the same thing I am calling ''meditation in motion.'' They are practicing meditative, Witness consciousness, and walking in a slow and steady pace that allows them to maintain their inward focus.

I have integrated similar principles in the practice of Amrit Yoga. Then the yoga practice becomes very deeply relaxing as well as physically powerful, because when people are relaxed they stretch beyond their ordinary limits more easily than when they try to do the same posture forcefully, attempting to push beyond their boundaries. As I guide people to enter the posture, relax and let go and cross the boundary consciously rather than forcefully or aggressively, they enter even deeper levels of flexibility than ever before.

That is the power of meditation. Meditation allows you to cross your boundaries without having to fight. ''You win without fighting. So why should you fight to win?''

Diane: Gurudev, as you've been speaking to me, I'm remembering my last yoga class. As a beginner, I watch what the teacher is doing while trying to move into the posture, relax, and keep my focus, all at the same time. When I'm able to do this, there is definitely an awareness that the body does become more flexible.

Gurudev: You see, what happens is that throughout our waking hours, no matter what we are doing, there is always a constant mental monologue that is going on all the time. ''Yoga mat'' is not any different. People do the yoga postures while doubting themselves, or criticizing, comparing, or competing with others.

This is completely opposite to the practice of yoga. On a physical level they are practicing yoga postures, and on a mental level they are practicing conflict. Mind chatter takes away from the yoga practice.

The power of the body is very limited compared to the power of Mind. When you combine these two forces it becomes extremely powerful. In Amrit Yoga, you combine mind, body, heart, and Soul. Combining these with the meditative inward focus makes it even more powerful.

When you are witnessing your own performance rather than comparing, doubting, and fearing, there is a whole new dimension to the practice that opens up.

The system that I teach has a whole new way-of-being in the practice of yoga postures. That's why people go into ecstasy. Because I have integrated some of the techniques in the practice that allow them to go deeper into their own inner experience. Then, whether a person is flexible or not doesn't matter - they go so deep and release so much stress. When you go into a meditative state, you're not only working on your physical body, you're working on the mental and emotional bodies. That's where tension comes from.

In other words, the physical body doesn't produce tension, but mental and emotional bodies do, and the tension then gets lodged in the body. A body-centered practice cannot automatically eliminate unconscious programming.

Diane: So inflexibility or even pain in the body is not necessarily a product of the body, but more of the mental and emotional aspects?

Gurudev: Right! Watch the way animals live in their bodies. They don't have minds like humans do. They don't introduce tension from their mind into their body. That's why they are so relaxed. A cat doesn't think, ''Oh I should be like that big cat over there'' or ''I should have been white like that other cat, I hate being this color.'' Animals don't do this. Only human beings do this.

Yoga means ''integration.'' Of what? All aspects of our being, which is our physical body, our energy body, our mental, and our emotional body. When they all function harmoniously during the practice of yoga, then there is integration. Without that, there is no yoga.

If you walk from one room to the other, you don't just walk with your legs only. Your whole body, your organs and limbs take part in it. Right?

So many people try to isolate only the physical aspects, and then it's no longer yoga, it's a workout. It has its own benefits. There's nothing wrong with it. But that's not yoga.

Diane: How could we apply this principle of integration to meditation?

Gurudev: Meditation is the highest dimension of any spiritual practice in any religion, in any part of the world, because it anchors all of the forces that are below it - the physical, mental and emotional bodies.

Ordinarily, they are all in conflict. But when you practice meditation, it is a way to reduce conflict and bring harmony to all these bodies.

In the Witness state of meditation you do not participate in your personal reactions to whatever is present. Whatever your experience, you are neither for nor against it. When you don't react, then you are dismantling your pre-programmed, personalized self-image that says, I like this, I don't like this, I'm attracted to this, I hate this!, I'm addicted to this, I'm afraid of this. This is how the personality manifests. Meditation with Witness consciousness is a systematic way of dismantling self-image, self concepts, belief systems and personal bias, attractions, and repulsions.

Diane: So it sounds to me as though you learn to come from a state of acceptance of what is.

Gurudev: Exactly! You said in one sentence everything about meditation - one hundred percent embracing of what is. To be in a Witness state means I do not react to what I'm facing. Ordinarily, I would react. I will either like it or dislike it, and that means I will judge what is happening. Instead, I will remain in a Witness state.

What I tell my students is, ''Fire the judge and hire the Witness.''

Diane: So it sounds as though, if we can live our lives in a state of witnessing and nonjudgment, then we can achieve a state of peace in everything we do - even when we are not meditating or practicing yoga.

Gurudev: Exactly. That's why I teach that yoga is not something that you practice on a yoga mat alone, and that the Witness state is not something that you practice only on a meditation pillow. You practice there. But you apply it in all aspects and interactions in life.

Without that, meditation remains impotent. What good is relaxation and quietness if you don't develop the ability to carry it into life?

Diane: Is it necessary for someone to go through the quiet states of yoga and sitting?

Gurudev: It depends upon the personality. A person can quietly sit and meditate and go into it very deeply - that's perfect. But if they cannot, then they can do moving meditation. There, movement is not a deterrent to meditation. It is not an obstacle, it is an asset.

Meditation is about how to encounter your physical, mental, and emotional blocks consciously, so that instead of reacting, you can interact with them.

You see, whenever you encounter physical blocks on a yoga mat, it has a psychological component that goes with it. For example, if you're doing a posture and you feel pain, that pain is usually not real pain. Some of it is the memory of pain from the past.

If you can let go of the monologue that the mind gets into about the pain and the fear it created, you discover your body to be much more flexible than you originally thought.

If you're experiencing pain in the body, there is usually a fear right behind it. That is why many people will not go beyond certain limits, because their mind says, Danger - don't go that far because you might hurt yourself. Then, yoga is stopped by memory of fear - not by the body.

There is some pain in the body that is real pain - but there is also fear pain, too. What fear does is introduce tension. It is an unconscious way of protecting yourself from hurt - which is the function of the fear. So the fear is trying to protect you, but it also prevents you from exploring your highest potential in all areas of life. You learn how to break through that on a yoga mat.

Diane: Is there anything else that you would like to say about yoga, meditation, and the Witness state?

Gurudev: Yes. I'd like to share something that I have written about the Witness state.

Witness empowers me to let go of who I am not and allows me to embody all that I am. It creates the freedom for my spirit to be all that it is. Witness overcomes obstacles of my self-image and simultaneously creates an opening for my being to manifest in its pure pristine purity, beauty and glory.

The Witness overcomes evil without fighting it. It enhances good without grabbing it. Witness is the way of Divine Unity. It stays above all duality, embracing all opposites with equality. It takes no sides, therefore there is no resistance, strife, or struggle in Witness. It is all- embracing, all-encompassing, omnipresent, timeless Presence.

Witness has nothing to win, nothing to lose. It remains undivided. It craves not for more, and holds no fear of less. It exists beyond duality and polarity in the perpetual state of timeless being or timeless unity. It has no need for time, it exists as a Presence.

You cannot be in Witness and be in the past or future. It exists in a timeless space of being present. Ego mind can project into the future or live in the memory of the past. Witness stands in the Oneness transcendent state beyond time. Its presence penetrates everything. There is no place, no time where it is not. It is omnipresent. It has nowhere to go. It is everywhere. It needs no time because it is present in the past. It is present in the future. It is the Presence we call God.

The past only happens in the memory, and the future only happens in projections. The present is perpetual. Other than in the human perceptual experience, it's All Presence. That's meditation. Meditation is to go beyond time and space limitations. And mind operates within it. So in meditation, you transcend your mind - therefore, you transcend time and space also.

So that's why it's called the experience of Unity, or yoga.

Diane: Thank you Gurudev, that was a pleasure!

Gurudev: It was lovely to speak with you again.

Yogi Desai is an internationally-recognized authority on yoga and holistic living. Widely acknowledged for carrying the authentic voice of yoga to the world, he has been honored with such rare awards and titles as: Doctor of Yoga, Jagadacharya (Universal Teacher), and Vishwa Yoga Ratna, awarded by the President of India.

Yogi Desai began teaching yoga in 1960, and became one of the earliest pioneers of yoga in America. Following a profound, life-transforming Kundalini awakening, he developed a methodology that altered the popular notion of yoga as a physical discipline and re-introduced a spiritual dimension to the practice of Hatha Yoga. He named this approach in honor of his guru, calling it Kripalu Yoga: Meditation in Motion. The yoga society Yogi Desai founded eventually grew to become Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, one of the largest centers of its kind in America. The methodology he developed has become widely adopted and is taught and practiced by thousands around the world.

Yogi Desai continues to develop and teach his innovative approach in the form of Amrit Yoga. He frequently leads seminars at the Chopra Center for Well Being and the Bikram Yoga Colleges of India. He is a faculty member of MyPotential - an interactive website co-founded by Mallika Chopra, where he serves as an expert on yoga and spirituality. A prolific author, his books include Kripalu Yoga books I and II, A Yogic Perspective on the 12 Steps, and Amrit Yoga. As well, his chanting has been captured on Ecstatic Chanting, a compact disc of high-energy chants.

Yogi Desai's teachings contain a powerful, experiential component that creates profound shifts for those who are ready, receptive, and open. He has integrated ancient wisdom into an impactful, practical methodology for dealing with the challenges of modern life.

To contact Yogi Amrit Desai and for information on upcoming Amrit Yoga Teacher Trainings, contact: www.amrityoga.com. Amrit Yoga, Box 549, Sumneytown, PA 18084, 215-234-6842.

Definition of Yoga

by B.K.S. Iyengar

From the introduction to Iyengar's classic book

Light on Yoga, edited from the ''English" style.

What Is Yoga?

The word Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj meaning ''to bind, join, attach and yoke, to direct and concentrate one's attention on, to use and apply.'' It also means ''union'' or ''communion.'' It is the true union of our will with the will of God.

''It thus means,'' says Mahadev Desai in his introduction to the Gita according to Gandhi, ''the yoking of all the powers of body, mind, and soul to God; it means the disciplining of the intellect, the mind, the emotions, the will, which that Yoga presupposes; it means a poise of the soul which enables one to look at life in all its aspects evenly.''

Yoga is one of the six orthodox systems of Indian philosophy. It was collated, coordinated, and systematized by Patanjali in his classical work The Yoga Sutras, which consists of 185 terse aphorisms. In Indian thought, everything is permeated by the Supreme Universal Spirit (Paramatma, or God) of which the individual human spirit (jivatma) is a part. The system of Yoga is so-called because it teaches the means by which the jivatma can be united to, or be in communion with, the Paramatma, and so secure liberation (moksa).

One who follows the path of Yoga is a yogi or yogin.

In the sixth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, which is the most important authority on Yoga philosophy, Sri Krishna explains to Arjuna the meaning of Yoga as a deliverance from contact with pain and sorrow. It is said:

When his mind, intellect and self [ahamkara] are under control, freed from restless desire, so that they rest in the spirit within, a man becomes a Yukta - one in communion with God. A lamp does not flicker in a place where no winds blow; so it is with a yogi, who controls his mind, intellect and self, being absorbed in the spirit within him. When the restlessness of the mind, intellect, and self is stilled through the practice of Yoga, the yogi by the grace of the Spirit within himself finds fulfillment. Then he knows the joy eternal which is beyond the pale of the senses, which his reason cannot grasp. He abides in this reality and moves not therefrom. He has found the treasure above all others. There is nothing higher than this. He who has achieved it, shall not be moved by the greatest sorrow. This is the real meaning of Yoga: a deliverance from contact with pain and sorrow.

As a well-cut diamond has many facets, each reflecting a different color of light, so does the word Yoga, each facet reflecting a different shade of meaning and revealing different aspects of the entire range of human endeavor to win inner peace and happiness.

The Bhagavad Gita also gives other explanations of the term Yoga and lays stress upon Karma Yoga (Yoga by action). It is said: ''Work alone is your privilege, never the fruits thereof. Never let the fruits of action be your motive; and never cease to work. Work in the name of the Lord, abandoning selfish desires. Be not affected by success or failure. This equipoise is called Yoga.''

Yoga has also been described as wisdom in work, or skillful living amongst activities; harmony; and moderation. ''Yoga is not for him who gorges too much, nor for him who starves himself. It is not for him who sleeps too much, nor for him who stays awake. By moderation in eating and in resting, by regulation in working, and by concordance in sleeping and waking, Yoga destroys all pain and sorrow.''

The Kathopanishad describes Yoga thus: ''When the senses are stilled, when the mind is at rest, when the intellect wavers not - then, say the wise, is reached the highest stage. This steady control of the senses and mind has been defined as Yoga. He who attains it is free from delusion.''

In the second aphorism of the first chapter of the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali describes Yoga as ''chitta vrtti nirodhah.'' This may be translated as ''the restraint (nirodhah) of mental (chitta) modifications (vrtti), or as suppression (nirodhah) of the fluctuations (vrtti) of consciousness (chitta). The word chitta denotes the mind in its total or collective sense as being composed of three categories:

1. Mind - manas: that is, the individual mind having the power and faculty of attention, selection and rejection; it is the oscillating, indecisive faculty of the mind;

2. Intelligence or reason - Buddhi: that is, the decisive state which determines the distinction between things; and

3. Ego - ahamkara: literally the I-maker, the state which ascertains that ''I know.''

The word vrtti is derived from the Sanskrit root vrt, meaning ''to turn, to revolve, to roll on.'' It thus means ''course of action, behaviour, mode of being, condition or mental state.'' Yoga is the method by which the restless mind is calmed and the energy directed into constructive channels. As a mighty river which when properly harnessed by dams and canals creates a vast reservoir of water, prevents famine, and provides abundant power for industry, so also the mind, when controlled, provides a reservoir of peace and generates abundant energy for human uplift.

The problem of controlling the mind is not capable of easy solution, as borne out by the following dialogue in the sixth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. Arjuna asks Sri Krishna:

Krishna, you have told me of Yoga as a communion with Brahman [the Universal Spirit], which is ever one. But how can this be permanent, since the mind is so restless and inconsistent? The mind is impetuous and stubborn, strong and willful, as difficult to harness as the wind.

Sri Krishna replies:

Undoubtedly, the mind is restless and hard to control. But it can be trained by constant practice [abhyasa] and by freedom from desire [vairagya]. A man who cannot control his mind will find it difficult to attain this divine communion; but the self-controlled man can attain it if he tries hard and directs his energy by the right means.

Footnotes

1. Yoga Sutras by Patanjali, topology.org/philo/yoga.html.

2. Prana is the Sanskrit word simply translated as ''energy,'' but it is more. In Japanese it is ''ki'' (as in the martial art aikido); in Chinese it is ''chi'' (as in t'ai chi). Prana is the vital life force energy that is the sum total of all the forces of the universe, mental and physical.

3. Kriyas are cleansing practices. Yoga kriyas refer to special yoga techniques, developed by the yogis, meant to cleanse the inner organs. Among several kriyas available in the yogic lore are six major ones called ''Sat Kriyas.''

4. A Yogi is someone who practices yoga - an ascetic.

5. Pranayamas are breathing practices for calming and focusing the breath. Pranayama is a slow breathing exercise that consists of forced left, right, or alternate nostril respiration.

6. In Sanskrit, mudra means ''seal,'' ''mark,'' or ''gesture.'' In Buddhism and Hinduism, a mudra is a meaningful gesture of the hands and fingers, used in meditation, ceremonies, and dance, and symbolically in sculpture and painting.