The term Yoga has its verbal root as युज् (Yuj) in Sanskrit. Yuj means joining, युज्यते अनेन इति योगः (Yujyate Anena iti yogah). Yoga is that which joins. What are the entities that are joined? In the traditional terminology it is joining of जीवात्मा (JivAtmA) - the individual self with परमात्मा (ParamAtmA) - the universal self. It is an expansion of the narrow constricted egoistic personality to an all pervasive, eternal and blissful state of reality.
Patanjali Yoga is one among the six systems of Indian Philosophy known as Sat Darshanas. One of the great Rishis (seer) of the lore, Patanjali, compiled the essential feautures and principles of YogA (which were earlier interspersed in YogA Upanishads) in the form of Sutras or aphorisms and made avital contribution in the field of Yoga. According to Maha Rishi Patanjali, Yoga is a conscious process of gaining mastery over the mind.
The scope of Yoga as portrayed in Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads is far more comprehensive. As Swami Vivekananda puts it "YogA is the means of compressing one's evolution into single life or a few months or even a few hours of ones bodily existence". In general, there is a growth process due to interactions with nature in all creation. But it may take thousands and millions of years for this natural growth; that is the long instinctive way in animals.
Man, endowed with discriminative power, conscious thinking faculty the बुद्धि (Buddhi or Intellect) and well-developed voluntary control systems, aspires to accelerates his growth. Yoga is that systematic conscious process which can compress the process of man's growth greatly.
Sri Aurobindo, emphasizes an all-round personality development; at the physical, mental, intellectual, emotional and spiritual levels. He means Yoga a methodical effort towards self-perfection by the development of potentialities latent in the individual. It is a process by which the limitations and imperfections can be washed away resulting in a Super human race.
Thus, Yoga is a systematic process for accelerating the growth of a man in his entity. With this growth, man learns to live at higher states of consciousness. Key to this all-round personality development and growth is the culturing of mind.
