The similarity…

Yoga is a Sanskrit word that translates as yoke, or union. Advaita is a Sanskrit word that translates as not-two, or non-duality. Both describe the same condition, same experience, the same state of satchitananda, or being-consciousness-bliss.

The difference…

…in essence, is this: one says you have to do a lot of work. The other says you don’t. Yoga describes a challenging path towards non-duality. Non-duality says there is no path to where you already live.

The destruction of concepts

Most modern non-dual teachers are concept-destroyers. They challenge your intellectual understanding, your paradigms, your pre-suppositions. Sometimes they succeed in shattering them, and when they do, you may find yourself experiencing the world differently. Non-dualy. This can be mind-blowing.

It can also be short-lived.

Now, it may happen, as it did to Ramana Maharshi, that your non-dual awakening will permanently change you. It may happen that you need to sit in a cave for years until the overwhelming glory of the divine settles down in your earthly vehicle to the point where you can at least eat with your own hands while you transmit enlightenment to others via your silent, loving gaze.

But that is highly unlikely.

It’s possible you will end up like Eckhart Tolle, mind blown, unable to do anything but sit on a park bench for six months, marveling at the wonder and beauty of the you in the world that you always thought was other, seeing God’s face in everyone and everything. It could happen.

It’s just highly unlikely.

What’s likely is you will have a brief glimpse of non-duality. It may last for a moment. It may last for a long while. But it will fade. Probably quicker than you’d like.

Even Eckhart Tolle got up off his park bench, eventually.

Which brings us back to Yoga

Some call it a science. Some call it a practice. Some call it hard work that takes months, or years, to master. Whatever you call it, the point of Yoga is to make non-duality stick.