The word 'Yoga' is derived from the Sanskrit root 'Yuj', meaning 'to unite; ’to join' or 'to yoke’.

So yoga means union, but we don’t see a lot of uniting going on with trikanasana these days do we?

Have we lost the point of yoga, or have we never found unity to be the point?

As per Yogic scriptures, the authentic practice of Yoga leads to the union of Individual consciousness - The Self, with that of Universal Consciousness - also referred to as God.

The desired outcome is to achieve perfect harmony between the mind and body, humans and nature, heaven and earth. In other words - it all becomes whole again. And Wholeness is in fact the true meaning of healing - to ‘return to wholeness’.

So, back to the word ‘yoke’ and unity.

In Hinduism yoga leads to oneness with all that is, non-duality, Self-realisation.

Yet, how many of us are really, truly surrendering to the union of Mind, Body and Soul, irrespective of our spiritual or religious leanings.

From what we see at an average yoga class, and there are many, I think perhaps the Soul has been mostly left out of the trilogy.

For those cultures and religions devoted to and practicing the true art of yoga, it must be very frustrating to see what’s been going on here in the west with this ancient and sacred practice over the past 50 or so years.

“Om shanti shanti shanti” are often chanted during yoga classes as a call to peace. In the Buddhist and Hindu traditions, the word “shanti” repeated three times represents peace in body, speech and mind.

Here today to help us to find peace in body, speech and mind, by using ancient practices appropriate for most of us today is Brad Hays.

Brad has been a dedicated student and practitioner of Ayurveda, Yoga and Tantra for more than three decades. He has devoted over 4000 hours to formal training in acclaimed institutions and with highly recognised teachers in the US and Australia.

His website says his mission and passion lies in imparting the most relevant, powerful, and practical life skills from the ancient Vedic Sciences of Ayurveda, and Tantra Yoga. His niche is making these powerful, ancient, esoteric teachings highly accessible to modern life and real situations.

Brad says these 5000-year-old Vedic Sciences continue to change his life for the better – and intends for us to experience the same.