LUX PHARI YOGA

What is Yoga?

We, as the souls within a human body, have been given a gift and task in our lifetime. The gift is the beauty of this world. This includes the natural world, the cosmos, the inner world, our minds, and our relationships with other souls. We have the ability to experience love, joy, happiness, and gratitude, but we also have the ability to feel fear, jealousy, sadness, and anger. Without the latter, we would be incapable of recognizing and appreciating the former.

However, it’s not all fun and games, as we have been tasked with a critical mission. Patanjali begins the Yoga Sutras with “Atha Yoga Anuskasanam,” meaning “Now continues the practice of Yoga.”

Here, Atha means now, and Anuskasanam can be translated as instruction or systemic teaching; it implies discipline or the continuation of adherence to a method. The now or Atha symbolizes the current moment or lifetime for our soul or our current reincarnation. The current lifetime continues the lessons, challenges, and growth from previous lives. It builds on the progress of its prior lives.

Yoga for Patanjali is the process of achieving the union of the individual (jivatman) and the universal consciousness (paramatman). Each lifetime allows us to practice yoga. Anuskasanam is the process through which a soul learns, grows, and evolves. Because of our human ability to reason and experience a variety of states of mind, as well as our ability to make choices, we are thus tasked with the practice of yoga.

But again what is yoga?

Patanjali defines yoga as “yoga chitta vritti nirodha,” meaning “yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind.” It is a path to spiritual liberation through the eightfold path of Ashtanga Yoga. The path involves the ethical guidelines of the Yamas (ahimsa, satya, asteya, brahmacharya, aparigraha) and the Niyamas (saucha, santosha, tapas, svadhyaya, isvara pranidhana), as well as asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, and samadhi.

The Yoga Sutras do not describe any yoga asanas we are familiar with in our yoga practice. The physical aspects of yoga that we practice today are comparatively a modern invention. They are a tiny part of what yoga is. Yoga is the result of a series of wisdom and practices that evolved from ancient times to contemporary times and continues to evolve. No one owns yoga; at the same time, everyone takes part in it.

The word yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root “yuj,” meaning “to yoke” or “unite.” It is a spiritual, mental, and physical practice that stills our minds and brings us back to the realization of our divine light.

“Tada drastuh svarupe vasthanam” – “The seer then abides in their own true nature.”

The Light of the LightHouse – Lux Phari Yoga

In Latin, lux means light. It is symbolic of illumination, clarity, and divine inspiration. Spiritually, it represents enlightenment, knowledge, and the soul’s light. The concept of light is universal in all religions and spiritual traditions across the globe, from ancient Sun Gods (Ra, Helios, Apollo, Sol, Mithras) and Goddesses (Amaterasu, Arinna, Saule, Sekhmet, Sunnnu) to more modern versions, where Jesus was referred to as the “Light of the World” (John 8:12).

Phari is derived from the Latin word pharus, meaning lighthouse. The lighthouse thus symbolizes guidance and safety, and, most importantly, it represents our spiritual home. It is within our spiritual home that we may recognize our divine light within. Our spiritual home is a “safe harbor” for us to recognize and live our true selves without the constraints of the modern world. Here, we feel safe, protected, self-sufficient, and capable of enlightenment and transformation. Within ourselves, we seek guidance from the darkness and challenges of the Kali Yuga.

We hope you can find the Light of the LighHouse within.

Namaste