The goal is to transcend the limitations of the body and mind

When we say yoga, probably for many people, it means twisting yourself into some impossible postures. That is not what we refer to as yoga.

Yoga doesn’t mean impossible postures

Yoga means to be in perfect tune with yourself—your body, mind and inner nature are in absolute tune. When you fine-tune yourself to such a point where everything functions so beautifully within you, naturally the best of your abilities will flow out of you.

You may have noticed when you are happy, you seem to have endless energy on that day. Yoga is the science of activating your inner energies in such a way that your body, mind and emotion function at their highest peak. Yoga really is a ‘technology’ to create your inner situation the way you want it.

Yoga is not an exercise regimen

Yoga is not about just achieving physical and mental fitness. Health, physical fitness and mental fitness are only the side-effects of yoga. The goal of yoga, its true benefit, is about transcending the limitations of the body and the mind.

Yoga is not an exercise, it is a very subtle manipulation of your system to raise your perception to a completely different level. The physical yoga that you see is just a small part of it. I know people have made that popular, but of all the yoga sutras, only one sutra is dedicated to asanas. Somehow in today’s world, this one sutra has gained significance over everything else. Hatha yoga is not the peak—it is preparatory. If it is taught in a proper atmosphere, with a certain sense of humility and inclusiveness, it is a fantastic process. This is not about sculpting your body and showing it off. This is to make the body into a fantastic vessel. Hatha yoga is a powerful way of living—not power over someone else, power to access life. It is a way of shaping your system in such a way that this will become a receptacle for the divine.

Yoga is not something you practice only in the morning and evening

Yoga is not a morning-evening kind of practice. There is a practice, but that is not the important thing. Every aspect of your life, the very way you walk, breathe, interact— everything should become a process of yoga. Nothing is excluded from this.

If you cultivate your body, mind, emotions and energies to a certain level of maturity, a certain quality arises within you. That is yoga. Yoga is not something that you do. Yoga is something that you become. It is not an act, it is a quality. Does regular practice bring that quality? Definitely, but we do not teach it as some kind of an act that you do only for 10 minutes a day. It is a quality that arises within you, if you do it the right way.

Yoga doesn’t need any background music

Yoga is about turning inwards. Music will create outward focus and create a distraction.

If you take care of your garden well, there are flowers. In the same way, if you take care of what you call “myself” well, flowers will bloom. That means, being peaceful, happy or joyful is not determined by anything outside of you, it is determined by you. Yoga is a subjective tool for this to happen.

The only way to experience true well-being is to turn inward. This is what yoga means—not up, not out, but in. The only way out is in.

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev is a yogi, mystic, visionary, and a spiritual leader. He is the founder of Isha Foundation.