Q: What is silence? A: Silence is an austerity. You control your desire to talk. By talking, people try to impress others, which you can't do if you … - Baba Hari Dass

Yoga is defined as a method – the process of nirodha (mental control) – by which union (the goal of yoga) is achieved. Yoga is therefore both the process of nirodha and the unqualified state of niruddha (the perfection of that process). The word yoga (union) implies duality (as in joining of two things or principles); the result of yoga is the nondual state..., or as the union of the lower self and higher Self. The nondual state is characterized by the absence of individuality; it can be described as eternal peace, pure love, Self-realization, or liberation.

Q: Did you start life like us with lots of demands, and what spurred you to give it up?
A: When I was six or seven, I would feel I was inside a box of earth and sky, and I would weep. Once I asked my mother: "Take me out of this box of earth and sky." She said, "I can't." Then I said, "I'm going."

The Self is beyond birth, death, gender, class, and religion - only the body wears those labels.