At the present moment we are in subtraction—God minus myself. I have no sense of God; therefore I am in minus condition. So yoga means God plus I. That is the real meaning of yoga. So long I was God-minus, now God-plus. But you must always remember: in the spiritual, absolute sense, God plus me He is also God, and God minus me He is also God. When I am minus, that does not mean God has lost some of His capacity. No. He is full. And when I am plus, it does not mean that God has increased in some capacity. No. The very good example is given, āpūryamāṇam acala-pratiṣṭha (BG 2.70). Just like the ocean, Atlantic Ocean. In the . . . during summer season, rainy season, millions of tons water is evaporated by the sun to make . . . to create cloud, but if you see the Atlantic Ocean, it is the same. Similarly, after rainy season, millions of tons of water are poured into the ocean by overflow of rivers, but still, you see the ocean is the same. In the material world, if you can find out such things that an ordinary ocean . . . I say "ordinary" because there are millions of oceans floating in the air.
Therefore we should not be very much astonished to see the Atlantic Ocean. Within this space, even within this material space, you have got millions and trillions of ocean like Atlantic. Just like a drop of water or less than that, an atomic portion of water, they are floating in the air. So that is the potency of God.
So yoga . . . yoga means God plus myself. Plus myself. The system is: those who are too much engrossed with this bodily conception of life, for them, yoga system is very good because it is a practice to withdraw the senses from their engagement in the external world to the inside. Pratyāhāra. And yama, niyama, asana, prāṇāyāma, dhyāna, dhāraṇā, pratyāhāra, samādhi—there are eight different stages of yoga practice. The first practice is yama. Yama, niyama. Under regulative principle one has to try, endeavor, to control the senses about eating, about sleeping, about working. These are called yama-niyama. Then there are different kinds of sitting posture. They are called āsana.
So yama-niyama means the first principle of yoga is to abstain from sex life. That is real yoga. Those who are indulging in sex life, intoxication and so many nonsense things, they have no chance for any success in yoga. There . . . this is called yama-niyama.
And then, after controlling, after sitting, then one has to sit nicely in a secluded place, in a sanctified place, and sit straight, with your neck, head and body in one straight line. Then you have to see the tip of your nose without closing your eyes and not opening your eyes. If you open your eyes, then all this material manifestation will disturb you. And if you close your eyes, then you snap.I have seen, so many yogīs are doing that, sleeping.Yes. So these are the process.
Then dhyāna, then concentration of the mind. Then what is the purpose of concentrating the mind? Just to find out myself, where I am within this body, and then find out where is Lord. This is the perfection of yoga. Simply that I am doing all nonsense whole day and night and I am attending yoga class, paying five dollars to the class, and I am thinking, "Oh, I am a great yogī"—this is all nonsense. Yoga is not so easy thing. You see? So simply this . . . this is the simply exploitating, the so-called society. I tell frankly they are society of the cheater and the cheated. This is not the process of yoga.
So yoga process is very difficult at the present moment. Yoga . . . because it is stated in the Vedic literature, that is a approved method. That's all right. But that method is very difficult in the modern age to perform. And what to speak of us, even five thousand years before, when the circumstances were more favorable and people were not so polluted and they were advanced in so many things, still, at that time a personality like Arjuna, he refused. When Kṛṣṇa asked him that "You become a yogī like this," he said: "It is not possible for me. It is not possible for me." So this is an over endeavor, to practice yoga in this age, which was refused by a personality like Arjuna.
So yoga is not at all possible. It was possible in the Satya-yuga, when every man was in the modes of goodness. Every man was highly elevated. The yoga process is meant for the highly elevated personalities, not for ordinary man. So even that yoga practice is done very nicely and perfectly, that cannot take you to the Supreme Lord. That is denied here. What to speak of this pseudo yoga process, even if you perform it rightly, even if you do it nicely, perfectly, still, you cannot reach God. That is denied here. Na sādhayati māṁ yogaḥ na sāṅkhya. Sāṅkhya means just discriminate what is spirit and what is matter. That is called sāṅkhya. Samyak khyāpayate.
So by philosophical speculation this process is . . . now, what is that philosophical speculation? What is this material world? They are divided into twenty-four parts, this material world. What are those? Now, the first thing is that what we see, the five material elements: the earth, water, fire, air, ether. These are material elements. These are studied. Then finer than the ether is the mind, then finer than the mind is the intelligence, and finer than the intelligence . . . mana, buddhi, ahaṅkāra. Ahaṅkāra means ego, ego, false conception: that "I am this matter." These are eight elements.