For the average Westerner, yoga is India.  Because the traditional yoga system is described in eight steps, it is sometimes called ashtanga yoga, “the eightfold path”, but it is more commonly known as hatha yoga.  The word “yoga” comes from the Sanskrit root yuj, which means “to link up with, to combine.”  It is similar to religio, the Latin root of the word “religion,” which means “to bind together.” Religion and yoga, then, have the same end in mind: combining or linking with God.

Yoga was systematized in medieval India by Patanjali in his yoga sutras, a text that explains methodical processes whereby one can learn to control the body and mind, with the ultimate goal to then utilize this finely tuned material instrument in the service of the Lord.  In yoga, the body is viewed as the temple of the soul.  By means of postures (asanas) and breath control (pranayama), the process of yoga provides practitioners with physical health and mental wellbeing that help to strengthen the “temple”.  In the West, the physical fitness part of it has become an end in itself.  According to the traditional yoga system, however, this was merely the first step on the path of God-realization.

Just as the deep spiritual foundation of yoga is generally overlooked in the West, Indian yogic practitioners can be distracted from the ultimate goal by their emphasis on the attainment of siddhis, or “mystic perfections”.  These are described in chapter three of Patanjali’s Yoga-Sutras.  There are eight kinds of mystic yogic perfections, among which are the capacity of miniaturization (anima-siddhi), the ability to float in air or on water (laghima-siddhi), and the power to immediately acquire things from far-off distances (prapti-siddhi).

All of the yoga-siddhis are ultimately material achievements, as attainable through materialist science as through yoga.  For example, laghima-siddhi, the ability to float on air or on water, is also possible by means of an airplane or boat.  Vashita-siddhi, which enables one to bring someone under his/her control, can also be achieved through hypnosis.

Unlike these yogic perfections, bhakti-yoga, a system of enhancing man’s relationship with the Supreme, has no material counterpart.  This is mentioned in the Bhagavad-Gita, whose sixth chapter ends with Arjuna’s rejection of conventional meditative yoga as too difficult.  Ultimately, Krishna in effect tells Arjuna not to worry because he, Arjuna, is already the best of yogis.  Krishna tells him that of all yogis – including hatha-yogis, gyana-yogis, dhyana-yogis, karma-yogis and bhakti-yogis, the best is the bhakti-yogi.  He also explains the essential element of bhakti-yoga that distinguishes it from all the rest:  “Of all yogis, the one with great faith who always abides in Me, thinks of Me within himself and renders transcendental loving service to Me --- he is the most intimately united with me in yoga and is the highest of all.”