Most of us have a sense of what yoga means, but we can all learn something when our host, Colleen Saidman Yee, sits down with her friend, master teacher Richard Freeman. Richard takes us back to the earliest, pre-Buddhist Upanashads to explore the true meaning of the word yoga. As Richard explains, the meaning of yoga is union, or linking: the point of communication where two things meet, where the nature of reality seems to be revealed.

When Colleen wonders if this meeting, this moment, could be called love, Richard agrees, but explains: “Love is not a mechanical process, it’s not the result of a casual process, but you can kind of arrange for it. There’s no guarantee. And it’s when you mistakenly think, ‘Oh, there’s a guarantee’ or ‘There’s a method’ that you know the ego is involved, which is clinging to method, clinging to point of view, clinging to a particular way that things are.”

In this first segment of our much longer interview with Richard, you’ll also hear about the need for communication and connection, not just correlation; narada; and the idea that where traditions meet, creativity in the yoga world follows.