When yoga was introduced to the West at the dawn of the 20th century, it quickly developed a reputation as a peculiar practice for cosmopolitan occultists of questionable sanity.
By the time I got interested in yoga, it was seen as a fashionable accoutrement of counter-culture exotica for flower children who wanted to expand their headbands.
Now, yoga is a health and wellness regimen that’s so mainstream it qualifies as a humanizing brand narrative in corporate ad campaigns.
What was once exceptional is now commonplace; suspicion has given way to trust and resistance has dissolved into acceptance.
Much of that trust and acceptance is due to mysticism having given way to modern science. The authority once held by yoga’s foundational literature has been transferred to research studies that measure practical benefits.
The keyword being “practical,” which means a focus on solving problems related to the mind and body.
Such “practical benefits” have made yoga more relatable to people who are interested in physical fitness and stress reduction rather than supernatural attainments of mystic perfection. And there’s certainly nothing wrong with trying to improve our everyday lives, a project modern science has plenty to contribute to.
But there’s a problem in seeking yoga’s validation through modern science: it confines yoga to the realm of the measurable.
And yoga is the science of the immeasurable: consciousness.
The fact that consciousness can’t be measured is what makes it the “hard problem” of modern science.
In the Bhagavad-gita, Krishna juxtaposes the temporary characteristic of the material body with the eternal—and immeasurable—nature of the embodied soul:
This distinction between the perishable physical body and the eternal self within is the foundational premise of yoga as a whole.
When this premise gets lost in a sea of research studies on physical wellness and mental health, the practical benefits of this beautiful and profound teaching gets lost with it.
Here are some of those practical benefits:
- Eases the Fear of Death – Understanding that the immeasurable self within the body is indestructible provides comfort and a sense of continuity beyond the inevitable end of our time in this body.
- Encourages Acceptance of Aging – Knowing the difference between the spiritual self and the material body can make it easier to accept aging as a natural progression rather than clinging to the aging body and lamenting, “I am getting old.”
- Reduces Attachment to Bodily Limitations – Identifying less with the physical body can help us let go of expectations rooted in egoism and focus on amplifying our inner resources.
- Promotes Inner Peace and Strength – Recognizing that pain and illness affect the body, not the true self, fosters inner contentment, stability, and resilience when we face the inevitable discomfort of a body that’s subject to the ravages of time.
- Inspires a Purposeful Life – If this life is one chapter in a longer journey, we’re free to greet every day as an opportunity to do something meaningful rather than just run and run to catch up with the sun as it races around to come up behind us again.
Yoga’s baseline teaching on the difference between the eternal self and the temporary body invites a shift in perspective from loss to continuity, from fear to peace.
For yoga teachers, the key is to make these teachings life-affirming by advancing the idea that our true nature is untouched by time; that as the body changes, the self remains luminous and free.
We can gently normalize the conversation about impermanence by avoiding rigid philosophical statements like “you are not your body,” which can feel dismissive of people’s lived experience, and use personal inquiry instead. We can ask questions like:
- “Have you ever felt like you were the same person, even though your body has changed over the years?”
- “Have you ever had a moment of peace, where you felt like something inside you was unshaken by everything going on around you?”
- “Have you ever noticed how your awareness is different from everything you’re aware of, and how everything you’re aware of changes but your awareness itself always remains the same?”
This way, we can frame the conversation in a supportive and uplifting way.
Stepping beyond the realm of the measurable means stepping into the world of the mystical. And the greatest practical benefit of the mystical aspect of yoga might be that it fosters a sense of connection to something greater than ourselves.
Gaining a sense of the distinction between the eternal self and the temporary body opens the heart up to trust in something sublime and the possibility of divine grace.
Wishing you all good fortune,
– Hari-k