How to Be a Yogi

 Yoga refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines that originated in India. The word is associated with meditative practices in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Major branches of yoga in Hindu philosophy include Raja Yoga (Patanjali, meditation and positive thinking), Karma Yoga (do good), Jnana Yoga (think about yourself), Bhakti Yoga (pray to God, the Guru or to your inner self), and Hatha Yoga (body exercises and meditation).^[1]

The Sanskrit word "yoga" has many meanings, and is derived from the Sanskrit root "yuj", meaning "to control" (self discipline), "to yoke" (egolessness) or "to unite" (live in a cosmic consciousness). Someone who practices yoga or follows the yoga philosophy to a high level of attainment is called a yogi or yogini. Yogini is the feminine form. In the following steps, you will learn how to start your journey to becoming a yogi or yogini.

Steps

1. 
   1
   Practice yoga for health, inner peace, or enlightenment. You are a yogi or a yogini if you practice yoga for health, beauty, strength, relaxation, or healing. You are a yogi or yogini if you practice yoga for inner peace, happiness and enlightenment. You are a yogi or yogini if you are enlightened. Enlightenment means to live in God, in the light, in a cosmic consciousness. ^[2] [3]
2. 
   2
   Be a theist or an atheist. In modern yoga, your religion can be your preference. Yoga teaches the unity of all religions. You can be a Yogi and a Hindu, a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist or an Atheist. An Atheist can be a yogi, if he or she wants to realize inner peace and happiness.

   • You can be a Christian yogi if you want. The most important Christian yogis were the Desert Fathers and Mothers ^[4] . Their enlightened master was the Holy Antonius ^[5] .
3. 
   3
   Practice yoga, meditation, and positive thinking. The three great books of yoga are the Yoga-Sutra from Patanjali,^[6] the Hatha-Yoga-Pradipika from Goraksha,^[7] and the Bhagawad Gita from Krishna.^[8] Therefore the basic yoga techniques are positive thinking (Patanjali), meditation (Patanjali), body work (Goraksha), praying (Krishna), and loving all beings (Krishna).
4. 
   4
   Learn the five basic features: truth, peace, love, self-discipline and happiness. Important modern yoga masters are Sri Sri Ravi Shankar^[9] , Jaggi Vasudev ^[10] , Swami Sivananda,^[11] Anandamayi Ma,^[12] Sai Baba,^[13] Amritanandamayi (Amma),^[14] and Mother Meera^[15] . They teach the basic features.
5. 
   5
   Get an initiation. It is a good idea to get an initiation^[16] from an enlightened master. He or she will open the doors of your enlightenment energy (kundalini-energy).^[17] However, realize that you have to practice and realize your enlightenment on your own. And have patience – enlightenment will appear when the time is right for you.
6. 
   6
   Purify yourself and become happy. Spiritually, human beings can be compared to onions. Tension and conflict must be dissolved layer by layer. When one layer is peeled away, the next quickly appears at the surface until the inner core is revealed. At this point, a lasting inner joy is found, and the yogi or yogini lives in the light (in spite of the reality that there is still much to be done).