Yoga is a word that is used in many ways and has various meanings. Yoga is discussed in various ancient texts including the Upanishads, the Bhagavad-Gita, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the Shiva Samhita, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and various Tantras. (Wikipedia, 2009) However when someone today says “I’m practicing yoga”. What they likely mean is they are moving their body through a sequence of physical postures that has some basis in the tradition of Hatha Yoga. Paramahansa Yogananda, the well-known author of Autobiography of a Yogi, responds to the question "What is Yoga?" in the text The Essence of Self-Realization:

"Yoga means union. Etymologically, it is connected to the English word, yoke. Yoga means union with God, or, union of the little, ego-self with the divine Self, the infinite Spirit. Most people in the West, and also many in India, confuse Yoga with Hatha Yoga, the system of bodily postures.”

Yogananda addresses here the common misconception regarding yoga. The yoga most people are practicing is considered the first stage in a process for the individual to connect with their body so that they can then mediate and eventually connect with the higher self or what is often referred to as GOD.

My first Yoga class was 14 years ago. Shortly thereafter I went to live in an Ashram to study yoga for a few months. At the time, telling someone that you were going to study yoga in an ashram led them to assume you were shaving your head and joining a cult. In short, yoga was nothing like the mainstream movement it has become. Today yoga is practiced by millions of people worldwide, it has it’s own celebrities; it’s own conventions and festivals and has become a commercial powerhouse. A small example is the yoga wear of choice-Lululemon-reported sales in excess $350 million in 2008 alone (despite the stalling economy they reported a sales increases over 117%). (Urstadt, 2009)

Currently Western culture is shaking off two millennia of belief that our body is sinful and must be repressed, ignored and rejected; therefore it comes as no surprise that people want to connect with their physical self. By sending awareness into the body through movement and breath we suddenly find that our bodies are a gateway to transcendence. We discover divinity and wisdom in every cell, and we learn that the trials of life (or the external world) may not be the serious business we once believed. And this knowledge, this freedom to really be in our bodies and to feel good about being alive is what everyone is seeking today. We’ve had enough of the philosophers, teachers, scientists, politicians and other leaders all telling us what life is. As the great mythologist Joseph Campbell once said “I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.”

Yoga has allowed millions of people to discover “the experience of being alive”. Life is found in the present, in the body and in the indulgence of living. Ultimately it appears that humanity is embracing life. By loving our body, we discover that, as the great keepers of the earth reminded us-

“Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”- Chief Seattle, 1854.

Through our bodies we connect to the body of the Earth, that is the body of us all. By going deep into the personal, we connect to the collective. This seems a paradox but all great knowledge is only grasped by way of apparent absurdity, this is why many religions eventually lead to mysticism (ie. Buddhism to Zen, Christianity to Gnosticism, and so on).

Still, it remains a puzzle to many that Yoga, a 5000-year-old philosophical practice from the Indus valley, has fast become a driving force in modern Western culture. We may consider yoga as but one of the pathways that has brought humanity to our current nexus. Everywhere today scientists, artists, politicians, religious leaders, elders, mystics, poets, visionaries, and everyone else all agree that- humanity is at a junction of massive significance. What we do NOW sends vibrations of transformation in all directions, throughout time and space.

So what part does this global yoga movement have to play in this time of major change? An important one, obviously. Yoga has planted the seed and tilled the ground for a new paradigm to take root in those who have really embraced the practice. In the beginning one may do yoga to improve one’s physical appearance or be motivated by other lower chakra desires. But over time, the practice creates openings in one’s consciousness and then yoga achieves its true goal of unifying the yogi with higher realms of awareness.

And once the yogi or yogini has progressed (some would say over lifetimes but we live in a highly accelerated time) the practitioner may be ready for the study of Tantra. Osho, in Tantra, Spirituality and Sex, said it best-

“In Yoga you have to fight with yourself to go beyond. In Yoga the world and the moksha, you as you are and you as you can be are two opposite things. Suppress, fight dissolve that which you are so that you can attain that which you can be. You must die for your real being to be born.  In the eyes of Tantra, Yoga is a deep suicide: you must kill your natural self-your body, your instincts, your desires, everything.

Tantra says accept yourself as you are. It is a deep acceptance. Don’t create a gap between you and the real, between the world and nirvana. Don’t create any gap! There is no gap. For your rebirth no death is needed; rather, a transcendence. For this transcendence, use yourself.”

Osho suggests here, and many would agree, that yoga is the path of will; drive through the self to attain liberation. Crush the ego, destroy the mind. However, during the struggle one may find that since the ego is illusory, then so must be the battle. The battle is ego-fighting-ego inside mind; therefore the fight is with only the self. Accepting this allows one to simply embrace what is left, pure experience. Delight in all the pleasures of life without judgment or the projection of ego self. Enjoy all that is, be fully alive, indulge in expression, in the body and in one’s connection to the entire universe. When we are all ONE, there is no other, no duality, ultimately nothing is outside us and we love everything and everyone, totally, absolutely and with our entire being. 

This is an advanced practice and we all must find our own way there. However, it is possible that yoga cannot only guide one to tantra; it can guide one through tantra. There exists a great tradition of Tantic Yoga, barely touched upon in the West; that is emerging thanks to information sources like the Tantric News and specific tantra teachers. So like humanity, yoga and tantra will continue to evolve. If you practice yoga I encourage you explore tantra, and if you practice tantra; discover what yoga can bring to your exploration to tantra. We all are co-creating this experiment together. Let’s rejoice in the blessings, wisdom and transcendence these practices are bringing to our lives.


Elias Arjan (B.Sc.) has been professional in the fitness and health industry for over 17 years. Starting as a fitness instructor, personal trainer and nutritional consultant while a competitive athlete in college. He quickly became interested in alternative medicine and traveled globally to study Yoga, Martial Arts, Dance, Energy Medicine, Hypnotherapy, and various other holistic modalities. During this time he started to adapt his movement skills to performance and eventually became a circus artist.

Currently he continues to travel widely, teaching, performing and lecturing on wide variety of subjects and to diverse audiences. As comfortable performing comedy to a room full of 6 year olds as lecturing on Quantum Physics and the Nature of Consciousness to academics; Elias is widely sought after for his playful, energetic and engaging teaching style.

For more info go to: Nomadicyogi.com or Eliasarjan.com