Swami Prakashanand Saraswati reveals the true essence of yog as more than physical practices for health. He explains that real yog means uniting the heart and mind with one’s personal Beloved God, the source of eternal love and bliss. He reminds us that while asanas and pranayam serve the body, only devotion connects the soul to God.
According to Swami Prakashanand Saraswati:
Those of you who are here are mostly involved in yog practices, so I will give you a brief light on the meaning of yog. The word yog means to join. Join what to what? That is what one has to understand. Joining both your heart and mind to your supreme Beloved God, that is yog.
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Every soul is desiring for perfect happiness, perfect love, perfect peace, perfect life. The form of perfect happiness is only God. Raso vaisah. Sah word is only for a personal form of God, not impersonal form of God. Sah means Vishnu, Krishn, Ram, Shiva, Durga – any form of God that you choose. That personal form of God is your Divine Beloved. The Beloved of your heart, mind, and soul. Just believe this, practice this, and you are a yogi. If not, and you are doing some yog practices, then you are doing that for your physical health. So yog is for physical health, and yog is for God realization, both. In yog practice for physical health there are asanas (postures), pranayam (breathing processes), neti dohti (cleaning processes). These are all for health and they have no concern with God or God realization.
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God is always in personal form. Think of that very deeply and very carefully. In the last 5,000 years, we had four supreme acharyas. They are called Jagadgurus: Shankaracharya, Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya, and Nimbarkacharya. All the acharyas introduced devotion to a personal form of God. Only Shankaracharya explained about impersonal aspect, and he explained about ashtang yog, not asana yog. Asana and pranayam, are the preliminary for health.
Ashtang yog starts directly from meditation. The first sutra of ashtang yog says, “First stop the fickleness of the mind, then start yog.” How can you stop it? Impossible! When you try to think of God your mind thinks of chocolate. You try to think of God, and you think, “My friend is over there.” The path of that kind of meditation and samadhi is not for the people of kaliyug. Only the one who has no attachment in the world can proceed on that path. Shankar-acharya said if you don’t have that kind of complete detachment and renunciation, then do what I am doing. So, what was he doing? Sitting near the Ganges river in the Himalayas, drinking only the water of the Ganges river and meditating, lovingly thinking and crying in tears of love of Krishn. That’s what he did himself. For how long? For his whole life. So he said, “Oh souls, if you want God realization, do what I am doing. The path of ashtang yog is not for you. If someone is qualified, he can follow, but not in general.”
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So you see, all the acharyas propagated and advocated devotion to the personal form of God. This is what we teach at our Barsana Dham to anyone who comes here. When a person comes and says, “What is this path, what is it called?” It is called bhakti (devotion), prapatti, raganuga bhakti, sharanagati; all of these names are for the same thing. How to do? Krishn said in the Gita, “Love Me in your mind.” How to love? We all know. We love someone in the world. Just as you love someone in the world develop the same feeling of personal affinity, personal attachment with Krishn. That is yog – joining your heart and mind with the love of Krishn. He says, “If you want to worship, worship Me. Do whatever you do for Me.” That is bhakti. In this way, this path of bhakti is very popular among the true devotees of God, because of the feeling of heart and mind which you offer to your Beloved God, the feeling of love, dedication and humbleness. Between God and you only one barrier is there, vanity and attachment. Bhakti is the path of humbleness. That is the true yog.
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Conclusion
As Swami Prakashanand Saraswati explains, yog reaches its highest truth in devotion. By humbly surrendering through bhakti, the soul overcomes vanity and attachment, joining in eternal love with Krishn. This union of love and surrender is the path of true yog for seekers in this age.
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