Yoga & Holistic Development: An exploration through the lens of sri aurobindo

Yoga is a very popular word nowadays. People starts their days with the practice of yoga. Yoga improves physical structure, mental atmosphere and spiritual development of a person. Therefore it is admitted that yoga is a therapy for holistic development.According to Patanjali, the founder of the Yoga system, yoga is a spiritual effort to attain perfection through the control of sense organs, gross body, subtle mind, intellect and ego. It guides to achieve the highest wisdom through the spiritual realization. Yoga Philosophy discusses how to practice spiritual union of the individual soul with the supreme soul. This philosophy is considered as a mean of achieving freedom or mukti. Now today’s world accepts the yoga as a way of living. Yoga refers to the goal, unity and harmony with oneself and others, but also to the methods by which that goal is achieved. In a broader sense, yoga is a lifestyle that involves practicing awareness and achieving harmony using a variety of methods. This is the connection between Yoga and holistic development. There are many other ways to prove this connection between Yoga and holistic development. This article will explore this connection through the lens of Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga. Integral yoga is not altogether a new yoga, but a new interpretation of the elements of the traditional Yogas. The traditional Yoga systems are based on a vision which aims at the release of the soul from matter. The final goal is liberation, and this goal has to be gained by freeing the soul from matter, life and mind. In contrast to the traditional Yogas, Integral Yoga does not seek liberation, but to speak about the total transformation of a man into a divine life. Thus, with the practice of integral yoga holistic development can be occurred.