What Benefits Come from Practicing Yoga?

Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash

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Great things are done when men and mountains meet.
- William Blake

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This blog post is part of our Yoga Sutras series.  
​Want to start at the beginning?
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Yoga Sutras
Book Three: Vibhuti Pada

Now we come to Book Three of The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.  From hereon, Patanjali tries to explain both the process and fulfillment of meditation, which he calls samyama (the three-step process of concentration, meditation and enlightenment that BKS Iyengar describes as “the art of integration” (175)) and the benefits that one achieves through the eight-limbed path of Raja Yoga and specifically, the culminating three steps of that path. 

​However, because the last steps in Raja Yoga go beyond the mind, it is difficult for anyone (even a yoga master) to describe what happens in words.  

This chapter is a famous one because it describes the siddhis or superhuman Patanjali says develop as one masters samyama.  Iyengar writes in his introduction to this pada (book) that the siddhis may present a crisis to the modern yogi, who lives in the rational, scientific world.  He says, “this is because we feel obliged to believe or disbelieve in them.  If we disbelieve, and consider them to be a fantasy left over from a mythical and superstitious culture, this can lead us to have serious doubts about the validity” of Patanjali’s greater argument (175).  In doing so, “we are underestimating the subtlety of Patanjali’s intentions.” (176)  
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Iyengar reminds us that The Yoga Sutras are for everyone interested in pursuing yoga, from the beginner through the master.  The description of these siddhis is actually a warning to practitioners as they advance.  Although these abilities may come with practice, they are not to be coveted, as they are obstacles toward the true goal of yoga, which is absorption into the Universal Spirit.

The essence of what he is saying is this: when we strive mightily for a goal on our path, gratifying rewards and results incidentally come in our way.  We can easily become so enamored of what we have accidentally acquired, that we mistake it for the goal itself.
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• -BKS Iyengar (176)

Makunda Stiles tells us that according to Krishnamacharya (one of the great yogis who brought yoga into the modern era), this pada was for Patanjali’s student Mastakanjali, “who had mastered his physical body and developed his power of concentration sufficiently…revealing the full range of mind and consciousness.” (xvii)  This chapter can prepare the advancing practitioner for experiences that might be frightening or pride-inducing and give them perspective on how to move beyond their ego and these mental phenomena.
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The first several months of this year, we will simply discuss the practice of concentration, which leads to meditation, enlightenment and total tranquility and refinement of the mind.  In September, I will briefly list the possible siddhis Patanjali says the practitioner may experience through samyama.  The final months of this year, we will discuss how to overcome these siddhis and move into Patanjali’s explanation of the true goal of yoga, which is the emancipation of the spirit.

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What benefits have you experienced from practicing yoga and meditation?  Do you get physical benefits from yoga?  What are they?  Do you get mental benefits from practicing meditation?  Spiritual benefits?  What have you achieved through the practice of yoga?