Why Philosophy Matters. Making Ancient Teachings Relevant in Modern Times

pooja

Have you ever found yourself stuck in traffic, gripping the steering wheel a little too tightly? Or maybe you’ve had one of those supermarket moments, where the queues are long, someone cuts in front, and you feel your patience levels getting shorter and short. We’ve all been there, we've all had those days.

This is where yoga philosophy becomes more than an ancient text, it becomes something relative, and deeply practical. They are timeless and a useful tool to help navigate life.

The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit root “yuj”, meaning to unite. It’s not just about being able to balance on your head or flowing through postures, it’s about uniting body, mind, and spirit so we can move through life with balance. The ancient sages understood that our minds are constantly pulled in different directions, and without tools to steady them, life feels heavy and overwhelming.

So, philosophy of yoga. Ideas like the five kleshas (mental obstacles), the gunas (qualities of nature), or the koshas (layers of being). They're kind of pathways in the journey of life.

Take the gunas for example:

• Rajas (activity, restlessness) is the energy we feel in a traffic jam when we’re fuming at the red light or impulsive retail therapy.

• Tamas (inertia, heaviness) might be that slump on the sofa when we feel stuck and unmotivated.

• Sattva (clarity, peace) is that rare but beautiful moment when we pause, breathe, and see things as they are.

  
  

Through yoga practice, we discover how to shift toward sattva. To take a deep breath in the car, to choose patience in the supermarket line, to meet life’s challenges with a sense of feeling grounded, instead of drowning in stress.

The ancient sages

cannot remove life’s traffic jams or busy queues, that is just life in this world. What they did give us are the tools to navigate them differently so we can step into life with more peace and more connection, both to ourselves and to this stunning world around us.

So the next time you find yourself in one of those everyday annoyances and irritations. Pause.

Come back to your breath.

Remember that yoga isn’t just something that happens in class, it’s a way of living. Yogic philosophy is the quiet anchor that helps us return back to ourselves, again and again and again.