Yoga Date: 2004-07-14 Author: Kalacakra Krsna das Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev. Today something interesting struck my mind in the morning, when suddenly the words "prayoga" and "upayoga" caught my attention. These two words are so very commonly used everyday especially in the Indian languages with the general meaning, "Application" and "Utilization". If we see, the root for both the words is "yoga". We all know by Srila Prabhupada's mercy that yoga means "the linking process", more clearly, "linking with the Supreme Lord." In the word "prayoga", the prefix "pra" means "completely". So the word "prayoga" essentially means that " we have to use everything exclusively in the service of the Lord." In other words, it refers to "yukta-vairagya ". The word 'upayoga' also means pretty much the same, may be slightly different. But what essentially we can understand from this analysis is that, all these words like prayog, upayog etc were originally coded in relation with performing bhakti to the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna. With the passing of years, the meanings got twisted around and we can see that these words are used in so many places in so many ways without any relationship with Krishna or Bhakti. Another interesting extension of this same root is the word "prayojana". "yojana" comes from the root "yuj" which again means "linking". This word is also very commonly used in most of the Indian languages with the general meaning of "necessity", "gain", "use" etc generally in statements like "What is the use ?". The shastras also use this word with the same meaning but centered around Krishna. We can see one example from Srila Prabhupada's purport for SB 10.8.45. "Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu explained to Sanatana Goswami that there are three purposes in the Vedas. One is to understand our relationship with Krsna (sambandha), another is to act according to that relationship (abhidheya), and the third is to reach the ultimate goal (prayojana). The word prayojana means "necessities," and the ultimate necessity is explained by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. prema pum-artho mahan: the greatest necessity for a human being is the achievement of love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead." Another most common but slightly different reference to this word we can see in the Bhagavatam verse 1.2.7: vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ janayaty āśu vairāgyaṁ jñānaṁ ca yad ahaitukam By rendering devotional service unto the Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna, one immediately acquires causeless knowledge and detachment from the world. In the word-word Srila Prabhupada translates "prayojitaḥ", as "being applied". In other words, Bhakti is meant to be applied. Therefore Srila Prabhupada so beautifully translated the word Bhakti as "devotional service". We can see how nicely these words were originally meant to be used and understood and how far away have we gone in their usage, what to speak of understanding them? Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev, Kalacakra Krsna das..