True yoga means reconnecting the eternal soul with God through detachment and fixed concentration, surpassing all temporary material worlds.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Prabhupāda: ...rāṇi saṃyamya mano hṛdi-nirudhya ca mūrdhny ādhāyātmanaḥ prāṇam āsthito yoga-dhāraṇām [Bg 8.12] [The yogic situation is that of detachment from all sensual engagements. Closing all the doors of the senses and fixing the mind on the heart and the life air at the top of the head, one establishes himself in yoga.] We have been discussing about the transmigration of the soul. There are different kinds of transcendentalists who are called yogī: jñāna-yogī, dhyāna-yogī and bhakti-yogī. All the yogīs, they are eligible to be transferred to the spiritual world.
The yoga system is meant for linking our connection. We are eternally connected with the Supreme Lord. Somehow or other, we are now in material contamination. The..., the process is that we have to go back again.
So that linking process is called yoga. Yoga, the actual translation of the word yoga means plus, plus, just the opposite of minus. Now, at the present moment, we are minus God, or minus Supreme. So when we make ourself plus, connected, then our human form of life is perfect. So at the time of death we have to finish that perfection.
So long we are alive, we have to practice how to approach that point of perfection, and at the time of death, when we give up this material body, that perfection has to be realized. So for the last three days we have been discussing. Prayāṇa-kāle manasā 'calena [Bg 8.10]. [One who, at the time of death, fixes his life air between the eyebrows and in full devotion engages himself in remembering the Supreme Lord, will certainly attain to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.] Prayāṇa-kāle means "at the time of death." Just like the students, they prepare two years, three years, five years in their college education, and the final test is their examination. And if they pass in the examination, they get the degree.
Similarly, in our living condition, if we prepare for the examination at the time of death and we pass the examination, then we are transferred to the spiritual world. So prayāṇa-kāle. The whole thing is examined at the time of death. Just the other day I recited one Bengali prov..., proverb. This is a very common saying in Bengal.
They say, bhajan kara pūjān kara mṛtyu-kāle haya[?]: "Our, whatever you do for perfection, at the time of your death it will be tested." At the time of..., tested. So Bhagavad-gītā is describing what should we do at the, at the point of our death, when we are giving up this body, this present body. So for the yogīs, dhyāna-yogīs, this prescription is recited here, sarva-dvārāṇi saṃyamya mano hṛdi-nirudhya ca. Sarva-dvārāṇi means... This system is called pratyāhāra.
In the technical language of yogic system it is called pratyāhāra. Pratyāhāra means "just the opposite." Now, the senses, my eye, my eyes are engaged in seeing the worldly beauty. Now I have to retract from enjoying that beauty, and I have to see inside the beauty. That is called pratyāhāra.