Learn Something From Each Road

I worshipped God regularly while growing up, following the guidance of my Catholic family. I attended church every Sunday and memorized my prayers. When I started my restaurant, I immersed myself fully in the project and enjoyed the act of working and learning lessons from it.

During those years, I discovered a book that satisfied my thirst for understanding the principles behind life—the meaning of it all. With increased knowledge, I became a bit wiser, resulting in improved reactions, behaviors, and choices in life.

This led me to invest time in developing my mental capacities, cultivating attention, willpower, and a calmer mind through meditation. With a focused mind, I became better at absorbing knowledge and expanding my perspective on life.

After getting injured and unable to play my favorite sport, I became interested in yoga, the physical postures, and even became a certified yoga teacher. This journey also made me delve deeper into the science of physical well-being, focusing on proper breathing and caring for my body to live a healthy, strong life. Without a healthy body, making progress in other aspects of life would be incredibly difficult.

In a way, from the Yogi philosophy perspective, I’ve been involved in its several paths without explicitly calling them by such names.

The Yogi science teaches that different paths exist to reach the ultimate goal of development, growth, and unfolding. Each of us chooses a path based on personal preferences, temperament, abilities, personality, circumstances, and the environment we grow in. What works for you may not necessarily work for another.

• If you wish to grow into a union with the One Life through the influence of love and devotion, you follow the path of Bhakti Yoga.

Even if you’ve never felt devotion to God in a religious setting, you may have cultivated devotion to a cause, project, or idea and experienced or witnessed how devotion can be a powerful force, as I was devoted to my restaurant for 10 years. Devotion is powerful because it’s an expression of love and can motivate like nothing else.

• If you wish to learn and grow by performing your duty well in this world, expressing yourself creatively, working for work’s sake, and without attachment to the outcome, you follow the path of Karma Yoga.

• If you wish to develop by “knowing”—studying the fundamental principles and wonderful truths underlying life—you follow the path of Gnani Yoga.

• If you wish to develop your willpower and mental faculties, unfolding inner senses and latent powers, you follow the path of Raja Yoga.

• If you wish to first develop, control, and strengthen your physical body to make it a fit instrument for the Higher Self, you follow the path of Hatha Yoga.

And so, you see, all human beings are, in some way or another, engaged in one or several of the Yogi paths.

Progress in one area enhances your capacity for growth in others, and one thing leads to the next, just as it happened to me. Now, I strive to practice and learn from each branch of this vast science.

The Yogis teach that you must develop on all your many sides, learning something from each road, giving preference, of course, to those paths that appeal more strongly to you.

So, it’s up to you to decide which path to take—whether to stick to one or explore all of them. Keep an open mind and avoid becoming one-sided. The more well-rounded you are, the better. In the end, the journey itself is what matters, and the experiences collected along the way shape you into who you are.

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