Yoga — a radio interview
Radio Station WLUZ, Bayamon, Puerto Rico
The programme is broadcast from 5:00 to 5:20 p.m and the interviewer is the well-known Puerto Rican radio personality Senor Jose Miguel Agrelot. He later invites Sri Chinmoy to be a guest on his programme whenever the Guru visits the Island.
Senor Agrelot: What is actually meant by Yoga?
Sri Chinmoy: Yoga means union. This union is between man and God. Yoga tells us that we have a divine quality called Aspiration within us and that God has a divine quality called Compassion. Yoga is the common link between our Aspiration and God’s Compassion.
Question: Can anybody practise Yoga?
Sri Chinmoy: Yes, anybody can practise Yoga and it can be practised irrespective of age. But we must understand what Yoga really involves. Unfortunately in the West, there are many people who think that Yoga means physical postures and breathing exercises. This is a deplorable mistake. These postures and exercises are preliminary and preparatory states, leading towards concentration and meditation which alone can take us to a deeper, higher and fuller life.
Yoga is not something unnatural, abnormal or unearthly. It is something practical, natural and spontaneous. Right now, we do not know where God is and what God looks like. But by practising Yoga, we see Him at first hand. As in the material world, we achieve success in our chosen activity by constant practice, so also in the spiritual world, by practising Yoga, we achieve the goal of Goals — God-Realisation.
Question: Can Yoga help us in our everyday life?
Sri Chinmoy: Certainly. Yoga helps us in our everyday life. As a matter of fact, it is Yoga that can serve as the Supreme Help in our daily lives. Our human life is full of doubt, fear and frustration. Yoga helps us to replace fear with indomitable courage, doubt with absolute certainty and frustration with golden achievements.
Question: Can a person remain in his own religion and at the same time practise Yoga?
Sri Chinmoy: It is quite possible. It is always easier and safer, in fact, for one to practise Yoga at the beginning while remaining in his own religion. But once one has reached God by practising Yoga, he transcends all barriers of religion. God-Realisation reveals to him that each religion is nothing but a river that ultimately has to merge into the boundless Ocean. The ultimate aim of each religion is God-Realisation. And here also, Yoga comes as an inevitable aid, to transport the finite human being into the Infinite Divine Self.
Religion is Inspiration. Yoga is Aspiration. Divinity is Perfection. Inspiration, Aspiration and Divinity can easily and fruitfully blossom here on earth in transcendental harmony.
Published in AUM – Vol. 3, No. 1, 2, 27 Aug. – Sep. 1967
