A Meeting of Minds

From self-realisation to spiritual initiation and enlightenment, yoga takes us on a spiritual journey where practitioners strive for 'Supreme Union'.

In sanskrit (a classical language of India), yoga means addition. For those who aspire to become spiritually enlightened, yoga is not only 'addition', it means unification too. For example, where two apples are added to another two apples, the total would add up to four and the nature and characteristics of each apple would remain unchanged. Unification, on the other hand, occurs when the addition of one substance to another changes the very form of the resultant product, much like when sugar is added to water and dissolves to become one with the fluid.

Yoga is a type of unification. Starting with aesthetic taste or aesthetic science, the culminating point is when you become unified with the 'Supreme Entity', whose seat is above the pinnacle of existence.

In Yoga, the 'finite' merges with the 'infinite'. The human physical and physic structure is most suitable for this purpose, having both limited and unlimited instincts powering the conscious and subconscious. While animals and plants act according to inborn instincts, humans are affected by social processes, external disciplines and the environment - we live, love and learn. Human psycho-spiritual movement cannot be suppressed.

There lies the speciality of human nature. Mysticism is the never-ending endeavour to find the link between the 'finite' and 'infinite' - between the 'self' (limited) and the 'super self' (unlimited). Human beings are never satisfied with something which can be limited - in the quest for the unlimited (or 'infinite'), seekers first come into contact with aesthetic science.

It has been noted that aesthetic science is that which one can express in a subtle way, and when it reaches the most subtle point, that point is the pinnacle of human glory. Enjoying something with aesthetic taste (like a beautiful work of art) is within the capacity of every human being. Yoga is considered the most developed and valuable form of human expression and it is through practice of this ancient discipline that we can become connected with our subconscious, our unlimited spirit, to bring us closer to the 'Supreme Entity', peace and enlightenment.