Yog is taught all over the world in all forms possible, from hot yoga to Patanjali Ashtang yoga (which would be a learning for Patanjali also) to dog yoga...You name it or should I say, create a demand and you will have people running to teach you...If I may take some examples, if you have a problem with your body, even if the problem is just in your mind, then there is Ashtang yoga for you...which, of course, has nothing to do with the eight limbs of yoga as propagated by Sage Patanjali...

Or if you have a body ailment, then you have engineering yoga...where the only defect being rectified is the teacher’s bank balance...Or if you have fancy for day dreaming and love to see yourself in the heavens then you have many modern forms of meditational yoga techniques which promise to take you to the heavens and then bring you back also....unchanged and as empty as you were. Or if you have been taught some advanced “mantras and poojas” for materialising thoughts or flying in the air and actually you are as confused and dissatisfied as ever...then it is just foolishness, not yoga.

I can assure the reader that yoga is a journey and that also your inner journey, learning and doing techniques and worrying about the way you look and for having visions which your subconscious shows you or to harm others or to make more money... All this is an utter waste of time, money and effort. If you are doing yoga, then the signs are clear - your Guru is happy with you (without physical favours), there is a change in you (for the better), you are satisfied and happy with what you have and the way you look (without changing your physical self ), your life is happy and contented and you are forever in peace and harmony, you never fall sick, you develop vak shakti and chitt shakti, ie, what you think and what you want happens, this is yoga and can only happen through a Guru and His/Her kripa.

Businessmen selling you courses and you howling and crying out of pure love..or whatever you may call it, when you see some white clad gentleman or lady with flowing hair and a beautiful dyed beard (only in the case of men, the women would have had her facial hair removed by lasers), would only leave you poorer in the bank and ready for howling at the next one, whom you may decide to meet to fulfill your desires.

Spirituality today has become the buzzword. There has been a mass exodus towards the spiritual sciences. No, this is not indicative of evolution. This is a direct result of commercialising spirituality and selling these sciences as a panacea to all of the world’s problems. Ironically, the very science of detachment has been tied with attachments of money and fame, feeding on the misery of helpless people who have no other alternative to look up to. Shamelessly these business propositions have been disguised and packaged as Yoga.

The effect of maya is powerful. The present age, kaliyug, was predicted to witness the downfall of dharma. Today with the adulteration of the pious sciences and the propagators, looking for Brahma, the Supreme Consciousness, is the same as looking for a needle in the haystack. However the only way to evolution in this kaliyug is to keep on moving undeterred by attractions holding the hand of Guru. With constant tapa and sadhna, a seeker develops so much magnetism in him that the needle gets attracted to him on its own, no matter how much the hay.

For a yogi, the entire Creation unfolds as drama. The ultimate purpose is to realise the drama and not get affected by scenes and acts. The need is to rise above karma. Lord Krishna emphasized on the same through his leela, not getting affected or attached with the play. This is called nishkama karma or karma free of attachment, that is, free of pain and pleasure. This is the underlying message of the Gita.

Only when a being has attained a certain level of detachment can they access the subtler forces of Creation through specific practices prescribed in Yog and Tantra. One such technique is the Agnihotra. Agnihotra is performed at the time of sunrise and sunset, the prime chant being idam na mam (all this is not mine, indicating detachment). To perform this havan one requires a level of detachment from the aspects of maya that intoxicate the five senses. 

A person who performs this havan has to be in vairagya, the samidha and samagri should be of the highest levels of purity and all those sitting should have a high level of purity in their achar and vichar. Exactly at the time of sunset and sunrise a specific shade of the sun’s prana is awaited and as it appears the havan starts, the entire havan is normally completed in a minute or two.