I love this quote by spiritual teacher Ram Dass, who had a beautiful way of explaining Vedic concepts in a down to earth and relatable way. In the West we tend to equate yoga with moving and stretching the body in different postures, yoga asana is one facet of yoga and there is so much more to it. 

Yoga is a much broader concept and methodology than yoga asana. As the quote alludes to, in the Vedic tradition yoga means union of individual consciousness with universal consciousness. What does this mean? The Vedic worldview and our direct experience as Vedic meditators teaches us that beyond our thoughts there exists a field of pure consciousness. It's a place of pure awareness, silence and stillness. We don't each have our own field of pure consciousness, it's the one same field. This field, also known as Being, is imbued with qualities such as infinite organising power, infinite creativity, pure knowledge, unboundedness. Every time we come close to this field, we imbibe its qualities. 

Yogic practices such as pranayama, yoga asana, or my personal favourite - nishkam karma yoga, are all designed to take those of us with busy minds and busy lives from a place of illusion to a place of union with our universality and with all life. Nishkam karma yoga, the style of meditation that I teach, translates to union through action hardly done. As someone who tends to be on the lazy side when it comes to moving my body regularly, finding a technique that entailed sitting comfortably and closing my eyes in order to move beyond suffering was a big win! There is nuance to the technique which teachers like myself are trained to teach, but nothing I've ever practiced as a way of improving my life has ever been as effortless or enjoyable.

Every time we meditate and make contact with Being, the illusion through which we've experienced our life dissolves in grades. This is what yoga was designed to do, as cognized by the Vedic rishis (seers) many thousands of years ago. 

What is the illusion? The illusion is that we are separate from each other and the world around us. The illusion is that we're separate from nature. The illusion is that we are just a body and a mind with a never ending myriad of thoughts. The illusion is that we're in control of our life and that there is no higher organising intelligence authoring our experiences. 

Moving beyond the illusion without a systematic yogic technique is possible, though typically more challenging and not very common. An example of someone who literally woke up enlightened in the absence of a regular practice is Eckhart Tolle; this is why many people enjoy his books but don't find them particularly helpful for attaining their own enlightenment. Tolle is wonderful at describing what it's like to be enlightened; what his literature does not offer as much of is practical steps to gain enlightenment since he did not practice any such technique himself.

I continue to be amazed by the style of yoga, Vedic Meditation, that I have the honour of teaching. Through action hardly done, we have direct experience of union of our individuality and our universality. As the qualities of the unified field of consciousness imprint on our individuality, the illusion of separateness fades away.