Freedom from Pain
There are other paths to free your life of pain but we’ll focus on yoga here. Pain come in two forms: mental and physical.
Addressing physical pain is what the 3rd limb (Asanas) is all about. As a new yogi, you may not have known this when you first stepped onto your mat but the postures, flows and breath of Hatha Yoga (3rd and 4th limbs) are designed to improve your physical health now and into the future eliminating pain now and into the future.
Freedom from mental pain is addressed by first gaining the skills to control your mind through ‘Control of the Senses’ and ‘Concentration’ (5th and 6th limbs). Once you gain control of your mind you can use meditation (7tyh limb) to ‘awaken’ to find your true self and the true nature of existence. Once you no longer experience the conflict of what you think is and what actually is then your mental pain is eliminated.
Freedom from Illusion
I hate to refer to a movie by evoking the concept of the ‘matrix’ but it’s a useful shortcut. Our true identity is divine & eternal but when we enter physical life on earth we are overlayed with a ‘matrix’ programming that makes us believe that what we see is all there is and is true. However, what we experience in the physical world is an illusion. This illusion is veiling our potential. For thousands of years, people in India have revered yogis who have seen through the veil and tapped into their potential to do amazing things that the rest of us can’t do (telekinesis, going without food and drink, levitation, physical feats etc). The 8th limb is when we free ourselves from the ‘matrix’ illusion and from the pain it causes.
If we think ,remember and trust our gut, there are many clues and indications that this physical life is not all it seems to be. People see auras and energy fields. People can tap into energy to manifest. People ‘feel’ others and can be connected over distance. People can forecast the future and commune with the dead. People can reach into the Akashic Records to retrieve knowledge and information they should otherwise have no reason to posses. For thousands of years there have been mystics and wise elders who have touched the truth and passed down their esoteric knowledge. Yoga is one of these esoteric systems to pierce the veil and reveal the truth.