Yoga has been defined in many ways. Some say Yoga is the meeting of the mind with the divine. Ego is the barrier, the moment you drop the ego you are joined to the divine. You were already joined; only because of the ego it appeared that you were disjoined.
Patanjali's definition is the most scientific: Yoga is the cessation of mind. Yoga is the state of no-mind.
The word mind covers everything – your egos, your desires, your hopes, your philosophies, your religions, your scriptures. Whatsoever you can think, is mind. All that is known, all that can be known, all that is knowable, is within mind. Cessation of the mind means cessation of the known, cessation of the knowable. It is a jump into the unknown. When there is no mind, you are in the unknown. Yoga is a jump into the unknown. It will not be right to say unknown, rather, the unknowable. What is the mind? Ordinarily we think that the mind is something substantial inside the head. Patanjali doesn't agree – and no one who has ever known the inside of the mind will agree. Modern science also doesn't agree. Mind is not something substantial inside the head. Mind is a function, an activity. What is walking? Walking is nothing substantial; it is an activity. So while you are sitting, no one can ask, “Just now you were walking. Where have you put your walking?” You will laugh, “Walking is not something substantial. I can walk and I can stop. It is an activity.” Mind is also activity. It is better to call it minding – just like walking. Mind means thinking. It is an activity. When there is no mind, you are in Yoga; when there is mind you are not in Yoga. You may do all the postures, but if the mind goes on functioning, if you go on thinking, you are not in Yoga. Yoga is the state of no-mind. It has happened to many without doing any postures, and it has not happened to many who have been doing postures for many lives. The basic thing to be understood is: when the activity of thinking is not there, you are there; when the activity of the mind is not there, when thoughts have disappeared like clouds, your being, just like the sky, is uncovered. It is always there – only covered with clouds, covered with thoughts. How to stop minding, how to be a no-mind, how to be without thinking? Try it! The very effort is coming from the mind. You can sit in a posture and you can try some chanting, mantra – or you can just try to sit silently, try not to think. But then you go on saying, “I am not to think; don't think; stop thinking.” This is all thinking. Try to understand. When Patanjali says no-mind, cessation of mind, he means complete cessation. He will say, “Simply stop!” You will ask, “How? The mind continues.” Even if you sit, the mind continues.
