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SUMMARY Paramahamsa Niranjanananda
There are no major differences between God-realization and yoga. Both paths are the same and on this path we have to reach the truth through the body. We differentiate saying the body is separate, the mind is separate, and that chitta and buddhi (intellect) and ahamkara (ego) are separate. We differentiate between annamaya kosha, pranamaya kosha, etc., saying that they are different and that beyond these dimensions lies the state of truth. But it is not so.
From this body to the truth, the technique which can illuminate the path is called yoga. In the end we experience or we get the knowledge that this complete world is a major center of energy and power and that God Himself is the source of this energy and superpower. From this center, this source, God's energy expands as willpower and this invisible, unexpressible energy takes on a form, a name, an expression or thought.
After taking up a name, a form and a thought, the existing manifest world is experienced. When name, form and the thought process are removed from the manifest universe, then this state again becomes invisible and unexpressible. In this unexpressed state God is experienced. Therefore, all the exercises or techniques of yoga through which we balance and control our body, whether they be asanas or shatkarmas, combined with the different methods of concentrating and calming the mind to make our manomaya state more alert and awake, to improve or expand the pranas of vijnanamaya kosha and to experience anandamaya kosha will, in the last stage of yoga, help us reach the truth for which man has been seeking for ages immemorial. Therefore, it is appropriate to say that there is no difference between spirituality and God, and between body, being and God. And the process of knowing the Self is called yoga.
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