What is Yoga? How does one attain inner peace?
by Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda (Swamiji)

The central idea of yoga is to live happily. That happiness is inherent in everybody and everything. Who doesn't want to be happy? Everybody wants that. But many people are looking for happiness outside of themselves in the external world. In the end they are disappointed.

Yoga means more than doing a headstand or having a good figure. Comprehensive as it is, Yoga actually includes those things too. Rather the aim of yoga is discovering inner peace, inner harmony, realizing one's Self, and finding the answer to the question, "Who am I?" We suffer because we don't know who we really are. Finding out who we really are, discovering our reality, is the true purpose of yoga.

Westerners have one problem. They see a book about yoga full of nice photos showing yoga asanas. Impressed by these, they want to look like that too and come to the instructor with the question, "How long will it take before I master all this? How much will it cost? Is there any way of perfecting it sooner?"

It's all a mistake. Yoga is not a car, a train or an aeroplane to take you to your destination in one go. Yoga is something that develops slowly, something that will last you the rest of your life.

The mountain may look nice, you may want to start climbing to the top, but you must know how and where to start climbing. It's not possible to reach the top immediately, you need to prepare. In the same way one must prepare the body systematically for yoga. With this in mind I set up a system called 'Yoga in Daily Life'.

'Yoga in Daily Life' is based on the authentic traditions and teachings of yoga, however its structure is designed specifically for the modern mind and western lifestyle. The practices and techniques guide one from the beginning stages to the more advanced, firmly basing the practitioner in the fundamentals before progressing to the next stage. The result is that the practitioner of 'Yoga in Daily Life' has a sure-footing, and is securely anchored in the teachings and practices that provide one the necessary experience in order to traverse all of life's terrains. Yoga is not just exercise, nor is it a religion and neither is yoga reserved just for the young, physically fit and healthy. Verily, yoga is a way of life for everyone.

This is an excerpt from a public lecture, published in the book "Meetings with a Yogi," by Swami Paramhans Maheshwarananda (Swamiji), the founder of the Yoga in Daily Life System.