The Yoga of the Soul  

Every year now on June 21st the world celebrates the “International Yoga Day” a powerful reminder of how grassroots movements do changes our global focus. 

I recall when I was about 5 years old, my mother taught me yoga, and even meditation. She had traveled through the Himalayas and carried me in utero through India, together with my father, on their global quest to find new frontiers, knowledge and wisdom from across the globe.

Did you know that the word Yoga comes from the ancient Sanskrit root “yuj”, which means “to yoke,” “to join,” or “to unite?”

At its core, Yoga means union,  the union of the individual self (Atman) with the universal consciousness (Brahman). Yoga is ultimately about realizing that we are not separate from the greater Whole. that our Soul is intrinsically connected to the Source of All life.

This union can be experienced in different ways, which is why Yoga has many branches, including:

• Hatha Yoga, the most well known form, which focusses on the physical body.
• Then there is Raja Yoga, the royal path of meditation.
• There is also Bhakti Yoga, the path of the heart, and evolution through devotion.
• And finally something for anyone, Karma Yoga, the path of selfless action.

When I was in my teens I was drawn to Jnana Yoga , the path of wisdom and knowledge. And my favorite book,  Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras,  as translated by MSI, Yoga is beautifully defined as: “Yogas chitta vritti nirodhah” Yoga being the reunion of the soul with its Source, a state of blissful, eternal awareness.  

In the above video, I share about the Yoga of the Soul, the deeper dimension of yoga that connects us beyond the body and mind, into pure consciousness. Yoga, as MSI points out in his translations of the Yoga Sutras by Patajali, is far more than just physical postures. Hatha Yoga, which we know as the normal Yoga, is only one of the eight limbs of Yoga.   The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by MSI, a luminous transmission of the soul’s journey toward Self-realization. 

What is Consciousness? A Mystery Beyond Mind and Matter

The question “What is consciousness?” stands as one of the greatest enigmas of human inquiry. As we watch AI advancing its computing capacity logarithmically, it is most important that we discover for ourselves what Soul and consciousness mean. We stand on the brink of an era that might confuse the ability to compute with consciousness, and thereby seduce us into believing that we are the result of the computing power of our brain cells. We are not. Let that be clear. We now need to find solid ground as humanity, not just sages among us, and know ourselves.

Consciousness is the very essence of our being and of all beings, and yet, like the eye trying to see itself, it eludes clear definition.

It is why I got started studying philosophy in the first place. I had read Kierkegaard’s thoughts, trying to discover something that lies beyond what thought can discover in and of itself. I had read Hesse’s Siddhartha Book which deeply inspired me at age 16. I had studied Rudolf Steiner’s books on consciousness and the training of Super Awareness. And eventually I realized that it is something you have to discover from within, and you cannot get it from a book,

Throughout history, philosophers, mystics, and scientists have attempted to approach this mystery. But none have been able to offer a final, universally accepted answer.

Let’s explore just for a moment, a few brief perspectives, from Western philosophy, Eastern metaphysics, and spiritual traditions, all of which point to one truth: consciousness is something beyond the physical.

• Plato sees Consciousness as Soul Remembering the Eternal

In the dialogues of Plato, consciousness is linked to the immortal soul, a being that existed before birth and carries within it the memory of eternal truths. What we call learning, said Plato, is really remembering what the soul already knows. To him, consciousness is not created by the brain, but is the essence of the soul that precedes and survives physical life.

• Advaita Vedanta (India) seeing Consciousness Is All That Exists

In Advaita Vedanta, the non-dual tradition of India, consciousness is not something we possess, it is what we are.
Known as “Chit”, one of the three aspects of ultimate reality (Sat-Chit-Ananda, Existence, Consciousness, Bliss), it is limitless, unchanging, and self-aware. The physical world is seen as an appearance within consciousness, like waves on the surface of a vast ocean. The seers of Advaita say: “You are not the body. You are not the mind. You are the witness, but pure awareness, without beginning or end.”

• Religious and Mystical Views seeing Consciousness as the Divine Spark

In many religious traditions, consciousness is the breath of the Divine, the sacred spark placed within every living being.

• • In Christian mysticism, the “Kingdom of Heaven is within you” suggests that divine awareness dwells in the soul.

• • In Sufism, consciousness is the mirror through which God sees Himself.

• • In Buddhism, although the self is seen as empty of substance, awareness (vijnana) continues beyond death, traveling from life to life.

In all these perspectives, consciousness is not reducible to brain chemistry, it is the field in which experience arises, and possibly the source of creation itself.

Yoga as Divine Union, being Consciousness Entering the Eye of the Needle

At the heart of Yoga lies a mystery far greater than just stilling the mind or even perfecting a posture. The mystery lies in the union itself, the sacred alchemy that arises when two become truly one. I write in detail about the journey of awakening in a fun-to-read book: “Dolphins, Love & Destiny,” Yoga for the Soul.

Indeed, as I wrote about how we can rise through the eye of the needle by merging two centers of awareness into unity, we realize that this union is not limited to claming our bodd and/ or our own breath, as if often taught, but it is possible to enter this magial eye of God by the meeting and merging of two centers of awareness, two souls, two points of consciousness, that merge so completely, they create a singularity. Out of this oneness, something mysteriously greater is born, something super luminous and beyond the mind that takes our breath away, so to speak!

It is as if we pass through the eye of the needle, leaving behind duality, identity, and separation, and entering a realm of pure unified consciousness, what mystics have called the Eye of God.

This union can be experienced:

• • in deep meditation, when we merge either with an inner guide or the presence of the Divine itself, looking back at us,

• • in the sacred intimacy of a soul-to-soul connection, with a beloved, not necessarily in marriage, but in a union where no space remains for separation.

When two souls meet in such surrender, we experience our identity going asunder, exploding into a third presence that is greater than the sum of the two. It is divine consciousness born through relationship, through devotion, through Yoga of the Soul.

This is the Yoga of the Soul:
The art of merging so fully that we awaken to the One behind all forms

May the light of yoga illuminate your heart.

#YogaDay #YogaOfTheSoul #Patanjali #MSI #LivingFromVision

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