Yoga and Detached Love: Gita II

Over waffles at brunch today my friends and I spent a large portion of our time on the topic of yoga. Gregory Gym has been offering free work out and yoga classes for the past week with today being the final day, and we decided it would be fun to take a yoga class later this evening. Out of the four girls with me, though, I found that only half of us enjoy yoga. The yoga skeptics feel that yoga classes are both too boring and difficult and do not create the intended calm feeling. Yet I think it is the necessary detachment from the outside world and from distracting thoughts which make the meditation aspects of yoga difficult for most people.

((A typical yoga pose))
The Bhagavad Gita discusses proper yoga practices, but I also found that the term “yoga” means more than just the meditation and stretching activity that my friends and I think of. Typing “yoga” and “gita” into Google, I found that there are three types of yoga. For this reason, the Gita was divided into three sections of six chapters each. Jhana yoga focuses on the path to knowledge. Karma yoga focuses on acting and duties. And Bhati yoga focuses on devotion to god. These three interlacing categories not only seem to mirror the popular trio of “mind, body, and spirit,” but also seem to cover most areas of life. Nevertheless, none of these so called yogas fit my idea of yoga. Upon further inspection, however, I found that there are very many different names for yoga and that the class I plan to take tonight is called Hatha yoga.

While all the names for the practice of meditation and stretching are confusing to me, I see that “yoga” in the Bhagavad Gita means a balance of the mind and being. Even more confusing is that, according to this text, detachment is necessary for spiritual well being and yoga. In terms of yoga and worldly detachment, I think back to a class I took during “activity period” in middle school in which we practiced yoga every Friday. When our minds started to wonder, my teacher suggested slowing repeating either a word or the Lord’s Prayer in order to remain detached from our physical surroundings. Krishna urges this exact detachment from material things when he says “they who thus fix their attention on the Absolute and Impersonal encounter great hardships; for it is difficult for those who possess a body to realize Me as without one” (99). I do think that too much love for “impersonal” and materialistic matters prevents me from caring about what is important in life and often create “illusions which surround me” (87). Caring about who has the better shoes, car, house etc become insignificant when faced with relationship and family issues and illnesses.

Flowing from this detachment from materialistic things, I begin to better understand the love with detachment which the Gita proclaims. Similar to the individualism Julie C speaks of, I think that this detachment ties back into the mind, body, and spirit of yoga in that we should base our self-esteem and view of ourselves on internal and transcendent qualities rather than our possessions or our relationships. Indeed as people mature I think they naturally become more self-actualized which can be seen in the progression from childhood through high school. Like someone said in class, small kids base their perception of the world on others: in hide and seek when they cannot see the seeker, then they think the seeker cannot see them. Progressing into middle school, kids become obsessed with what people think of them and peer pressure becomes a major issue. Slowly though, towards senior year of high school students seem to form their own identities. While people still remain influenced by fashion and drama, they still have their own opinions and ideas. The independence gained in college further encourages this self-esteem based upon internal qualities rather than opinions of others and material possessions. Someone who has “indifference; nonattachment to sex, progeny, or home; equanimity in good fortune and in bad” (107) is more successful in life since he has a sense of self worth.

((Making a good situation out of a bad one—making lemonade out of lemons))
Detached from the views of the world, it becomes easier to make lemonade out of lemons and to deal with emotional issues and conflicts. Thus I now see that when the Gita contains text about loving with detachment, I think that it does not mean to not fall in love or to not care about those around you. Just as Jessica hints at, love can hurt but it can also be great. And we can certainly love without basing out self-worth solely on those relationships.