If we want to bring about sustainable peace and harmony in our world, we must start from ourselves. It is critical that we develop and cultivate a healthy and aware relationship with love. With determination and discipline, yoga practice can allow us to do that.
Yoga means union – the union between the Self and the higher consciousness or God. And although love must be experienced to be understood, love is often described as the higher consciousness, God or divine. (One does not have to be Christian to appreciate the biblical description by John 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.) Yoga is a practice that gives us the space and tools to go inward, to become aware of the source of love within, to love ourselves and to relate to all that is around us from a state of love.
However, one must be determined to follow this path with the understanding that this is the way to a peaceful and harmonious world. To be in the state of love or not to be in the state of love is the choice of every individual. We do not have the power to change others and at times do not have the power to change what happens to us, but we can decide how to relate to others and the situations we find ourselves in. In every given moment and situation we encounter it is up to us to respond from a state of love or not.