Whenever the word 'yoga' is heard, the mind becomes calm and quiet, and we have hope of illuming the darkness. Yoga will not eliminate the need for doctors, but it will help greatly to solve and reduce many medical problems. First, hatha yoga helps the body to maintain health. Then the practices of sensory withdrawal, concentration and meditation, pratyahara, dharana and dhyana, help to realize the deeper nature of yourself, to unite with your own atman.
Do you know who you are and what you are? How can you even think about it with a mind that is confused? How can you imagine your real wealth, your true nature, with this mind so full of conflicts, cobwebs and schizophrenia? Your mind must be properly purified and when the slate is clean, you can close your eyes and contemplate your real nature.
Yoga begins with hatha yoga and ends with union between the lower consciousness and the higher consciousness, jivatma and Paramatma. Yoga means complete equanimity within yourself and with everybody else, with the vast nature and the whole cosmos.
Yoga is complete acceptance of anything in life, whether pain or pleasure, defeat or victory, disease or death. Yoga brings about a complete understanding of the whole process of creation.
22 February 1977, Indian Embassy, Kathmandu, Nepal