Yog, also known as Yoga, is the latest buzzword in all sections of society. Everyone seems to have been caught by its charm and the promises made by its proponents. Everyone is looking towards it with the hope of finding solutions to all problems, from a common cold to diabetes, from blood pressure to cancer and AIDS. Can Yog solve these and other problems of mankind??

Is Yog the philosophers stone whose touch can rid mankind from all sufferings and miseries? Will Yog bring self-realisation to man and help him in finding the answer to his eternal question: Who am I?

The answer is yes and no.

No, if we are talking about the Yog that is known to the world, which consists of some breathing exercises and body postures known as Pranayam and various yoga asanas.

Yes, if we are referring to the Yog imparted by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, which is not known to the world.

The former Yog has been practised by numerous persons over the millennia but it has not saved anyone from sorrow, old age and death. It has not helped them find answer to the question: Who am I? The Yog imparted by Lord Krishna, however, can not only free a person from stress, diseases, old age and death and make him a Supreme Imperishable Being, it can also make him realise that he and all other beings are forms of God or they all are God, not I or men/women.

At the very beginning of His teachings to Arjun, Lord Krishna revealed that all bodies are embodied by the all-pervading Indestructible, that is by God. He further revealed that all beings are eternal living beings who neither die nor cease to exist but only keep changing their bodies birth after birth. If a being is an eternal and indestructible God, who leaves one body to go to another, why cant he save his body from perishing and live in same body forever? He can, says Lord Krishna in the Gita:

The Purush who is not disturbed by these [sense contacts], who is same in joy and sorrow, who is of steady intellect is fit for immortality. Chapter 2:15

Having crossed over these three attributes arising from the body, the dweller in the body is completely freed from birth, death, old age and sorrow and attains immortality.Chapter 14:20

The Yoga comprising Pranayam and body postures can improve the health of the practitioner like any other fitness programme but it cannot free him from sorrow, old age and death and make him immortal. As against this, the person who practises the Yog imparted by Lord Krishna can be completely liberated from sorrow (stress, worries, diseases), old age and death and become immortal. He will then stop changing bodies but dwell in the same body forever.

Yog has two branches: Buddhi Yog and Karma Yog. Buddhi Yog is a discipline of the intellect and consists of renouncing the results of all actions to God. Karma Yog is a discipline of the mind and consists of mentally renouncing all actions to God, while performing them. Lord Krishna has asked us to renounce the fruits and actions to God since this unites us to God and frees us from the bonds of actions.

Buddhi Yog is based on the scriptural ordinance that we do not have the right to the fruits of actions (Verse 2:47). Lord Krishna therefore asks us to engage in actions without motive and renounce the fruits of actions to God. To unite with God by Buddhi Yog, a person does not have to bring any change in his lifestyle and actions. He has to continue to perform all his usual actions and enjoy all the sense objects as before. All he has to do is to steady his intellect on the thought that the fruits of actions (success, failure, gain, loss, material possessions) are of God and God is experiencing the joys and sorrows. This frees the being from desire and the ego and endows him the state of Brahm, attaining which he becomes a non-perishable being.

Those who contemplate the objects and perform actions with an eye on the fruit lead themselves to death and re-birth:

A man contemplating the objects develops attachment with them. From attachment arises desire and from desire arises anger. Chapter 2:62

From anger arises delusion, from delusion confusion of memory, from confusion of memory loss of intellect, from the loss of intellect he perishes.Chapter 2:63

It may thus be seem that a person dies due to a loss of intellect that is caused by a chain reaction that starts with the contemplation of objects while performing actions. Those who seek the fruits of actions have been called unintelligent; they fail to attain peace and happiness and eventually perish due to the loss of intellect:

Mere action is far inferior to Buddhi Yog [union by intellect]. O Dhananjay, take refuge in the Buddhi Yog; unintelligent are those who seek the fruit. Chapter 2:49

There is neither intellect nor Bhavana [feeling for God] for the ununited, and to one devoid of Bhavana, there is no peace. To the one without peace, how can there be happiness? Chapter 2:66

We can also unite ourselves to God by Karma Yog, which is a discipline of the mind. It consists of mentally renouncing the actions to God while performing the actions by saying within that God is (or God You are) performing the action. Karma Yog is based on the truth revealed in the Gita that actions are performed by Nature, and not by the beings: