The Essential Yoga

Part of a public lecture given by Hari Prasad Shastri

The original conception of yoga is recorded in the Upanishads, which are the most authoritative classics on the subject. Here the word yoga means mystic union. It is derived from the root yuj, to unite. Now comes the question, union of what? It is the union of the individualised spirit with the cosmic spirit, as one might speak of the union of the space enclosed in this room with the cosmic space in which all the worlds and universes have their being.