Yoga is based on facts. That's something to keep in mind. Yoga is a science, not just a dreamy, vague way of thinking. Even though yoga has only been popular in the west for a relatively short time, it is not a new discipline and has been studied and practised in many places over the last 100 years. Yoga is an applied science. It is a systematised set of laws that are used to reach a certain goal.
It uses the rules of psychology, which apply to the development of a person's whole consciousness on every plane and in every world, and applies them in a logical way to a specific situation. This logical use of the laws of consciousness unfolding works on the exact same principles that you see used every day in other areas of science. Yoga uses a lot of the same techniques that are used in more recent psychological or even medical forms of exercise.
As you get older, you learn by observing the world around you how much the intelligence of man, working with nature, can speed up "natural" processes. This is because the way intelligence works is as "natural" as anything else. The yoga way not only combines this "cosmos" feeling, but it also works below the surface to strengthen the connection between man and the universe. We make this distinction, and it is a real one, between "rational" and "natural" growth because human intelligence can guide the way natural laws work. When it comes to Yoga, we are in the same field of applied science as, say, a scientific farmer or gardener who uses the natural laws of selection to breed plants. The farmer or gardener can't change nature's laws, and he or she can't go against them either. He only has the universal laws of nature to work with, but he does in a few years what might take nature hundreds of thousands of years to do.
This can be done by using the farmer's intelligence to choose the laws that help him reach his goal and get rid of the laws that hurt him. The farmer uses the God-given intelligence in people to use the God-given powers in nature that work for the good of all, not just for a few specific goals.
Yoga can really make a difference in people's lives. We've seen this happen many times. From the physical practise to the philosophical implications to the science of yoga, everything about yoga comes together to make a bigger, more complete discipline that is good for everyone. Some people think that calling this "yoga" is a way to make it seem like a good way to improve your body, but for others, it seems to go against the spiritual nature of yoga. Its many uses sometimes give the impression that it has only one use.
