Purna Yoga

An improvisation over the traditional Yoga systems of India, Purna Yoga or Integral Yoga is the art, wherein, people are taught to loving their own self by living from the heart. Just as the name suggests, 'Purna' which means 'complete', the Yoga aims at attaining a union of the body, mind and the spirit. It was thought that the traditional Yoga system revolved more around salvation and next life, rather than the present one. On the other hand, Integral Yoga lays more emphasis on the importance of Karma in our day-to-day lives.

Purna Yoga gives Yoga a positive and dynamic form. It suggests three levels of integration- the integration of the inner, the integration of the human psyche with its external environment and the integration of the psyche with its ultimate spiritual Ground. It not just brings optimism and positive energies to the body but also to the world at large. It is this united spirituality that proficiently combines self-transcendence with love, sympathy, and reverence for all living beings. It outs together the varied aspects of yoga, needed for transformation and healing.

Purna Yoga revolves around alignment-based asana, meditation and pranayama, along with nutrition and yogic living. According to the Integral Yoga the ultimate goal of life is complete self-integration. This self-integration involves other important elements like action, love, wisdom and peace. The yoga of love or devotion (Bhakti yoga) is perfectly right in affirming love as the fulfillment of life and as an essential ingredient of salvation. It is important to note that Purna Yoga does not separate love from wisdom and selfless action. Love in its spiritual essence is an attribute of wisdom.

Integral yoga points out that knowledge is inseparable from love and action, but that action is not merely a means to self-purification resulting in salvation. The main stages of Purna Yoga include aspiration for the Divine, surrender of the individual soul to the Universal Soul and rejection of all obstructions to the path of total transformation. The realization of the Divine is the first step of Purna Yoga. This can be attained through constant practice of concentration, meditation or prayer. Once a person has attained the realization of the Divine, the next step would be to extend this realization beyond entities of the subjective self.

Herein, the person realizes that the Divine is omnipresent, and that human beings have come from a common origin. The third stage of Purna Yoga comprises of a true recognition with the 'Transcendental Divine'. It is thence that a person realizes that the Divine is not restricted within the being of a single individual and is neither within any other constituents of existence. The ultimate goal of a person is to reach the higher consciousness, known as the 'Supramental Consciousness' to attain liberation of the soul.

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