Why yoga
🕉️ Why Yoga?
Returning to the Self through the Wisdom of the Upanishads
In a world driven by speed, achievement, and external validation, yoga offers something radical: a return inward. But beyond the poses and breathwork lies an ancient purpose—a spiritual path to realize the true Self (Atman), as illuminated by the Upanishads.
"Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the Self."
— Bhagavad Gita, echoed in the Upanishads
The Upanishads, ancient Indian texts written thousands of years ago, describe yoga not as exercise—but as a method for inner liberation. Yoga is a means to transcend the illusion of separateness (maya) and remember that beneath our thoughts, fears, and identities, there is a stillness—pure consciousness (Brahman).
What the Upanishads Teach Us About Yoga:
Union: Yoga means yuj, to unite. It’s the union of breath with body, mind with heart, and self with spirit.
Stillness is the portal: “When the five senses are stilled, and the mind is at rest... this is the highest state.” — Katha Upanishad
The Self is already whole: We don’t do yoga to become better—we do it to remember who we are beneath all distractions.
This blog will explore yoga as a sacred path back to wholeness—not just through philosophy, but through practice, meditation, and the timeless insights of the sages.
In every ancient tradition, there is a whisper: “You are not what you think you are." In the Indian yogic lineage, this whisper becomes a thunderous call to remember—to peel back the layers of illusion and return to the Self. This is the heart of yoga.
Long before yoga became a wellness trend or a way to tone the body, it was a sacred path of liberation. The earliest blueprints of this path are found in the Upanishads—a collection of mystical texts composed between 800 BCE and 200 BCE that form the philosophical core of the Vedas.
🪶 The Upanishads: The Original Call to Stillness
The Upanishads are not instructional manuals in the modern sense. They are experiential poetry—records of the direct transmissions between teacher and student, sage and seeker. These texts ask the deepest questions:
Who am I? What is the nature of reality? What exists beyond death?
Yoga, as revealed in the Upanishads, is a means to move inward, past the senses and surface mind, into the silence where the Self (Atman) is realized to be identical with universal consciousness (Brahman).
“When all desires that dwell in the heart are gone, then a mortal becomes immortal and attains Brahman.” — Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
This was the original yoga—not movement, but absorption; not striving, but stillness; not the body, but pure being.
🔥 From Inner Inquiry to Embodied Practice: The Rise of Hatha Yoga
As centuries passed, the teachings of the Upanishads were preserved in the hearts of forest sages and ascetics. But as more seekers entered the path, a need arose for methods that could stabilize the body and purify the energy system to support deep meditation.
This gave rise to the Hatha Yoga tradition—a powerful system developed between the 9th and 15th centuries, detailed in texts such as the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and the Gheranda Samhita.
Hatha Yoga introduced:
Asana (postures) — to strengthen and align the body
Pranayama (breath control) — to direct and purify prana (life-force)
Bandhas (energetic locks) and mudras — to seal, circulate, and elevate energy
Shatkarma — cleansing practices to detoxify the body and mind
Unlike modern yoga’s fitness emphasis, Hatha was not about flexibility or aesthetics. It was a preparation for stillness—for meditation, for the rising of kundalini energy, and ultimately for samadhi, the ecstatic union with divine consciousness.
“Success in yoga is not by wearing special clothes or talking about it, but by persistent effort, cleansing, and inner discipline.” — Hatha Yoga Pradipika
Hatha yoga is sometimes translated as “forceful yoga,” but more accurately, it refers to the union of solar (ha) and lunar (tha) energies—the balancing of active and receptive, effort and surrender.
🌕 Modern Yoga: Remembering the Roots
Today, yoga is widely practiced across the globe—but much of its depth has been diluted. We focus on shapes over states, alignment over awareness, sweat over stillness.
Yet the original call remains:
Yoga is not something we do. It is who we are.
To practice yoga in the spirit of the Upanishads and Hatha tradition is to remember that:
The body is sacred, but it is not the goal.
The breath is a bridge, but the Self is the destination.
True yoga is not performance—it is presence.
✨ A Living Tradition
At its essence, yoga is a tool for integration—uniting the fragmented parts of ourselves, balancing the polarities of energy, and reconnecting with the still, eternal truth beneath all activity.
In each breath, each pose, each pause, we touch this lineage—stretching from the silent forests of the Upanishads to the disciplined power of Hatha, to the mat beneath your feet today.
Yoga is not ancient history. It is a living tradition that begins again every time you return to yourself.