It is necessary, at the outset, to clear certain misconceptions in regard to Yoga, prevalent especially among some sections in the West. Yoga is not magic or a feat of any kind, physical or mental.
Yoga is based on a sound philosophy and deep psychology.
It is an educational process by which the human mind is trained to become more and more natural and weaned from the unnatural conditions of life. Yoga has particular concern with psychology, and, as a study of the self , it transcends both general and abnormal psychology, and leads one to the supernormal level of life. In Yoga we study ourselves, while in our colleges we are told to study objects. Not the study of things but a study of the very structure of the student is required by the system of Yoga, for the known is not totally independent of the knower. There is a mysterious process by which we come to know the world, and life is an activity of such knowledge.