Raja Yoga is a system of knowledge and meditation practices to empower
us to experience our own inner greatness and happiness and for creating
positive change in society at large. It suggests that
happiness is our true nature.
At present the tendency of relying on
the external world to make us happy makes us more and more dependent on
the outside world and that tendency creates a corresponding sense of
emptiness in the self. This life of dependency promotes more dependency
and misery. The Raja Yoga method of meditation is aimed at
helping us to get in touch with our original inner happiness.
The reason for our loss of happiness is
that we are challenging some basic laws of
nature. Nature has a beautiful system of drawing
attention to danger or the wrong direction by causing
discomfort. For example, a wrong posture will cause discomfort
before it damages any joints. The discomfort is meant to give
a message. The same mechanism is at work in more complex
discomforts like pain, illness and emotional sorrow.
Wisdom lies in learning before the pain
message comes. When we come back to the greatness of the self
and then interact with the world outside, such a life is both
emotionally rich and healthy.
This knowledge is the highest knowledge
because it is based on wisdom. It frees us from dependency and
makes us the master (Raja). The knowledge and its practice can
free us from all forms of sorrow and allow our original state of peace,
happiness and compassion to re-emerge.