Sophie K. answered • 07/09/21
200-Hour Registered Yoga Teacher
Well, from my experience reading the Sutras, "Yoga" is a suggested path to take to realize Purusha. It is not just physical or spiritual. Those terms are maybe too limiting. It's a whole, all-encompassing life-path.
Also, the Sutras explain that there is Purusha and Prakriti. Everything is either Purusha or Prakriti. Prakriti is all of the things we can sense (or think we can sense) about the world around us from our bodies and minds. Prakriti confuses us, it produces 'Maya' which are the things we think are true because of how we sense Prakriti, but are not actually real. Purusha is our real selves and it is beyond Prakriti; it is unchanging, uncreated, eternal. Purusha is a big, big, life-changing idea; calling it 'spiritual' doesn't really get at its essence. Calling Prakriti 'physical' doesn't really get at its essence, either.
Yoga deals with both of these things, and it can utilize the 'spiritual' or 'physical' aspects of our lives to get us closer to realizing Purusha if those things are helpful to us on our path.
I hope that helps.
