Yoga
From Free Encyclopedia of Thelema
The word Yoga, which originates from the Sanskrit word "Yuj" (literally, "to yoke"), is generally translated as "union". The union referred to is that of the individual soul with the cosmos, or the Supreme. Historically, yoga referred to one of the six major schools of Hindu philosophy and as such meant specifically Raja Yoga (see below). As the term is used today, however, its meaning is much broader. Specifically, yoga can refer either to a philosophy or a practice. The philosophy of yoga ("union") deals with the nature of the individual soul and the cosmos, and how the two are related. The practice of yoga, on the other hand, is any activity that leads or brings the practitioner closer to this union with the true essence of reality - a state called self-realization.
As a practice, Yoga can mean any or all of a broad range of techniques encompassing physical, mental, and spiritual activities. Traditionally, these practical methods are classified into four categories or paths: the path of meditation (Raja Yoga), the path of devotion (Bhakti Yoga), the path of selfless service to others (Karma Yoga), and the path of intellectual analysis or the discrimination of truth and reality (Jnana Yoga). The most conspicuous form of yoga (and most well known in the West), Hatha Yoga - consisting of various physical and breathing exercises and purification techniques - is actually a part of Raja Yoga.
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Yoga Terminology
Yoga philosophy makes heavy use of Sanskrit. A man who practices Yoga is called a Yogi (also spelled Yogin), a woman Yogini. Because these Sanskrit terms reflect a world-view and historical development of thought drastically different from that prevalent in the West, many Sanskrit terms do not have precise equivalents in Western languages, and consequently are translated in various ways. As differences in translation can be confusing, it is often more expedient and precise to use the original Sanskrit terms. Most yoga guidebooks include glossaries of these terms with English explanations.
Yoga and Religion
In the West, yoga is sometimes associated with Hinduism and its spiritual dimension is sometimes confused with religion. Actually, yoga in its essence has nothing to do with Hinduism, nor is yoga a religion per se. Yoga is not concerned with any specific manifestations of the Supreme Being (Purusha), and advanced yoga practitioners are generally instructed (by Patanjali, among others) to meditate on the Supreme (Ishwara) in any form that appeals to them. Thus, the spiritual dimension of yoga is open to all believers regardless of religious affiliation or lack thereof, and the practice of yoga is an aid or path to deepen one's experience and knowledge of the spiritual level of one's own existence, not an affiliation with any particular religion.
Integral to the concept of yoga is the idea that yoga can be practiced on many levels. Practitioners are urged to practice on the level that is natural to them. Thus, if one is a non-believer, this is no obstacle to yoga practice. Yoga is not conditional upon any belief or act of faith. One need not believe anything in order to start practicing yoga. The learning of yoga is experience-based, rather than faith-based. As the practitioner gains experience, the spiritual dimension of yoga unfolds. There is no requirement that the practitioner "believe" in anything without having first experienced it.
That said, Patanjali (considered the classic authority on yoga) does call for the yoga practitioner to develop and foster shraddha, or confidence. In its essence, shraddha is confidence in one's own true Self and one's chosen path to realization of the Self. Various practitioners may place emphasis on different aspects of yoga for their practice of shraddha. They may develop confidence in their chosen deity, their yoga teacher (guru), ancient scriptures on yoga, a particular yoga path or school, etc. and this choice is a matter of personal preference or, for some, religious necessity. Shraddha is considered by Patanjali to be one of the fundamental and necessary pillars upon which progress in yoga is founded, but he does not go into specifics, leaving this to the practitioner's choice and preference.
Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad Gita is the archetype of Yoga scripture. Capturing the essence and at the same time going into detail about the various Yogas and their philosophies, it was the groundstone to Yogic thought, and constantly refers to itself as such, the "Scripture of Yoga" (see the final verses of each chapter).
It is spoken in the format of Lord Krishna, self-identified as a manifestation of Brahman (the impersonal, supreme force of the cosmos, the Divine Ground), to Arjuna, a warrior and friend who is loathe to go to battle that would involve his killing his own gurus (teachers) and family members. The book is contained within the Mahabharata, and is thought to have been written some time between the 5th and the 2nd century BC.
Krishna summarizes the Yogas through eighteen chapters. Yoga can fundamentally be said to comprise four main streams: Raja Yoga (psycho-physical meditation), Bhakti Yoga (devotion and love), Karma Yoga (selfless action), and Jñana (pronounced gyaan in the Northern states and jnyaana in the South of India) Yôga (self-transcending knowledge). Other forms that exist today sprang up long after the Bhagavad Gita and Yoga Sutras (to be discussed below) and are all essentially forms of Raja Yoga.
While each path differs, their fundamental goal is one and the same: to realize Brahman (the Divine Ground), as being the only truth, that the body is temporal, but the soul (Atman) is infinite and one with Brahman. Yoga's aim (nirvana, Moksha) is essentially to escape from the cycle of reincarnation through realization of oneness with the ultimate reality.
Here are some quotations from Lord Krishna that make up history's first real yoga text and give comprehensive definitions of the four principal Yogas:
On all Yoga in general
- "When the mind comes to rest, restrained by the practice of yoga, and when beholding the Self, by the self, he is content in the Self." (B.G., Chapter 6, Verse 20) | " He who finds his happiness within, his delight within, and his light within, this yogi attains the bliss of Brahman, becoming Brahman."
On Raja Yoga
- " Establishing a firm seat for himself in a clean place... having directed his mind to a single object, with his thought and the activity of the senses controlled, he should practice yoga for the purpose of self-realization. Holding the body, head and neck erect, motionless and steady, gazing at the tip of his own nose and not looking in any direction, with quieted mind, banishing fear, established in the brahmacharin vow of celibacy, controlling the mind, with thoughts fixed on Me, he should sit, concentrated, devoted to Me. Thus, continually disciplining himself, the yogin whose mind is subdued goes to nirvana, to supreme peace, to union with Me." (B.G., Chapter 6, Verses 11-15)
On Bhakti Yoga
- ".... those who, renouncing all actions in Me, and regarding Me as the Supreme, worship me... of those whose thoughts have entered into Me, I am soon the deliverer from the ocean of death and transmigration, Arjuna. Keep your mind on Me alone, your intellect on Me. Thus you shall dwell in me hereafter." (B.G., Chapter 12, Verses 6-8) " And he who serves me with the yoga of unswerving devotion, transcending these qualities [binary opposites, like good and evil, pain and pleasure] is ready for absorption in Brahman." (B.G. Chapter 14, Verse 26)
On Karma Yoga
- " With the body, with the mind, with the intellect, even merely with the senses, the yogins perform action toward self-purification, having abandoned attachment. He who is disciplined in yoga, having abandoned the fruit of action, attains steady peace..." (B.G. Chapter 5, Verses 11-12)
On Jnana Yoga
- " When he perceives the various states of being as resting in the One, and from That alone spreading out, then he attains Brahman. / They who know, through the eye of knowledge, the distinction between the field and the knower of the field, as well as the liberation of beings from material nature, go to the Supreme." (B.G. Chapter 15, Verse 31 / Verse 35)
Raja Yoga is, in general, stilling of the mind and body through meditative techniques, geared at realizing one's true nature. Bhakti Yoga is simply love and devotion, epitomized today in such practices as worship of various Hindu deities, finding salvation in love of Christ, etc. Karma Yoga is essentially acting, or doing one's duties in life, without desire or expectation of reward, a sort of constant sacrifice of action to the Supreme. It includes, but is not limited to, dedication to one's chosen profession and its perfection to God and all sorts of community service, since they are inherently done without thought of personal gain. Jnana Yoga is a process of learning to discriminate between what is real and what is not, what is eternal and what is not eternal.
Darshanas
One of the six darshanas (schools) of Vedic/Hindu philosophy, and as such specifically refers to Raja Yoga, the royal path of divine meditation on the one Brahman.
Yogic philosophy is primarily Upanishadic with roots in Samkhya, and some scholars see some influence by Buddhism. It is a universal philosophy that enjoins the practitioner to pursue his or her own path to enlightenment, depending on personality and inclination. It is very much in line with its Vedic roots and the traditional pluralism of Hinduism. For this reason, it is easy for a "Christian", for example, to see Jesus the Christ as his or her own ishwar-devata (personal deity). "Christ the Yogi" is not an uncommon concept in the world of Yoga today. Most religions, when viewed through their ethical and spiritual standpoints without the trappings of dogma, are easily reconcilable with Yoga philosophy in general because of its transcendental message.
Yoga and Tantra
Yoga is often mentioned in company with Tantra, but the two are not the same. The principal difference is that Yoga sees body consciousness as the root cause of bondage and rising above body consciousness as the goal, while Tantra views the body as a means, rather than as an obstruction, to understanding. For more information see the article on Tantra.
While the Bhagavad Gita, Yoga Sutras and Hatha Yoga Pradipika are clearly founded on Upanishadic and Brahmanical thought, much of Yoga has been influenced by and expanded into Tantra. Tantra is more ritual based, having its roots in the first millennium CE, and incorporates much more of a deist base. Almost entirely founded on Shiva and Shakti worship, Tantra visualizes the ultimate Brahman as Param Shiva, manifested through Shiva (the passive, masculine force of Lord Shiva) and Shakti (the active, creative feminine force of his consort, variously known as Ma Kali, Durga, Shakti, Parvati and others). It focuses on the kundalini, a three and a half-coiled 'snake' of spiritual energy at the base of the spine that rises through the chakras until union between Shiva and Shakti (also known as samadhi) is achieved.
It views the body as means, rather than as obstruction, to understanding, and as such incorporates mantra (Sanskrit prayers, often to gods, that are repeated), yantra (complex symbols representing Shakti in her various forms through intricate geometric figures) and rituals that range from simple murti (statue representations of deities) or image worship to meditation on a corpse! While much tantra certainly, through its many texts (see kaularvatantra, mahanirvana tantra) and teachers (e.g. Abhinava Gupta, Ramakrishna, a saint who practiced Kali bhakti, Advaita Vedanta and tantra, etc.) seems odd and highly arcane at times, it is transparent as being completely yogic. Also, injunctions are made that most people are not suitable for Tantra, especially those of pashu-bhava (animal disposition). This implies that anyone who has not observed celibacy, honesty, respect of elders, bodily cleansing, ritual cleansing through prayer, and various other processes for up to twelve years at a time, and still retains base desires, greed, sexual motivations, etc. one is not fit to practice Tantra. For this reason, even more stringently than other Yogas, Tantra, both Hindu and Buddhist, remains a strictly Guru-initiated system that as yet finds few true adepts outside of India.
The Yoga Sutra and its followers
While meditative practices like asanas (postures) and pranayama (breath control) existed long before Patanjali, his brilliant eight-limbed system was what became the standard for almost all yoga schools that followed. Raja Yoga, being difficult to achieve (one must be focused on the Supreme), several Guru (teacher) lines came to make firm methodologies of realizing it.
- A side note on the Guru: Emphasized by all schools of yoga as indispensable, the Guru takes on quasi-divine proportions. Acknowledged as a siddha (adept) who has attained the eight siddhis (powers) afforded by yoga (they range from transportation of the mind to anywhere into the universe to the only truly desirable power, samadhi), the Guru guides the shisya (student) through yogic discipline from the beginning. When doing yoga, the student is urged to look long and hard for a sadguru (True Teacher) and then devote himself to imbibing that Guru's learning.
The most famous of the traditional Hindu schools of yoga, and the basis for nearly all modern systems, is Hatha Yoga. It is representative of all non-Bhakti-Karma-Jnana Yoga that has become so popular in the west today.
Teachers
Beginning with the arrival of Swami Vivekananda in 1893, there has been a steady flow of learned teachers that have brought the transcendental message of Yoga to the West. While the influence of these Yogins is deeply inscribed into the surface of the modern yogic ethos, both in India and America, a proliferation of 'yoga clinics' and non-spiritual yoga systems has been seen in the West, especially in the United States. While many Americans view it as an exercise system that simply enhances one's health, a much greater number in India (and a minority in America) still see it as it has been for over 5,000 years, whether in the Bhagavad Gita, the Yoga Sutras, the writings of the Dalai Lama, or the "Yoga Boom" of the twentieth century, a system of spirituality universal in its application.
The Great Modern Yogins
First brought into America as early as the 1890s by the great yogin and disciple of Shri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, the Hindu representative in the Chicago Parliament of World Religions, Yoga has also been transported in the arms of many other great yogins and formed into stratified schools seeking to propagate Yoga in its great spiritual context. But these teachers have made their imprint in both India and America, and continue to serve as modern embodiments of Yoga.
Swami Rama Tirtha, who came from a deep yoga tradition in the Himalayas of India, was the founding spiritual head of the Himalayan Institute. He was the first yogin to come to America and be subjected to the scrutiny of modern science. Among other things, he stunned doctors by stopping the beat of his heart completely for several minutes.
Many modern schools of Hatha Yoga derive from the school of Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, who taught in Mysore, India from 1924 until 1947, at which time he moved to Madras, where he taught until his death in 1989. Among his students prominent in popularizing Yoga in the West were Sri K. Pattabhi Jois famous for popularizing the vigorous Ashtanga Vinyasa style, B.K.S. Iyengar who emphasizes alignment and the use of props, Indra Devi and Krishnamacharya's son T.K.V. Desikachar who developed the Viniyoga style. Desikachar founded the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram in Madras (now Chennai), with the aim of making available the heritage of yoga as taught by Krishnamacharya.
Other great yogins are Paramahansa Yogananda, practitioner of Kriya Yoga who arrived in America as a powerful example of the universality of Yoga. Sporting a cross, he came to the U.S. with the Hindu Bhagavad Gita in one hand and the Christian New Testament in the other, speaking to his disciples in pluralist ideology with Yoga as the binding force.
Sri Aurobindo, referred to as Aurobindo Ghosh by those who consider him as merely a philosopher rather than an Avatar, was not simply an intellectual genius born in West Bengal and educated in the best university in England. His masterful translations and interpretations of Hindu and Yogic scriptures are mystic and esoteric, and often are the opposite of what you will find in Max Muller's and other purely intellectual translations of the sacred Sanskrit texts, among which his translations/commentaries on the Hindu texts of the Upanishads and Gita are mystic in nature, and his epic Hindu/Yoga poem Savitri is a treasure of Hindu Yogic literature, formally being the longest poem ever written in English. Beyond this, his personal life is a fascinating testimony of the life of a true yogin. After the goddess Sri entered his being, he became Sri Aurobindo. Besides his influence and scholarly writing on Yoga, he also founded Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, that continues to propagate the practice of Integral Yoga, which is a Tantric synthesis of the four main Yogas (Karma, Jnana, Bhakti and Raja).
Gopi Krishna was a Kashmiri office worker and spiritual seeker who was born in 1903, and wrote autobiographical accounts of his spiritual experiences with Yoga. His most famous one is "Kundalini": Path to Higher Consciousness." Gopi Krishna's graphic accounts of his experiences stand out as among the clearest journals documenting a spiritual transformation. They are highly recommended as reading for anyone interested in Yogic phenomena.
Swami Sivananda (born in Pattamadai, Tamil Nadu, India in 1887), one of the greatest yoga masters of 20th century has authored over 200 highly inspiring books on yoga. Sivananda has also established Sivananda ashram of Rishikesh, India and is the founder of Divine Life Society. His disciple, Swami Satyananda (born in Almorah, Uttar Pradesh, India in 1923), has established International Yoga Fellowship movement, Bihar School of Yoga and Bihar Yoga Bharati, world's first university on yoga. The university is now headed by his disciple, Swami Niranjananda. Another deciple of his, Swami Vishnu-Devananda, has founded the international yoga vedanta centers in the west.
Shrii Shrii Anandamurti, Bengal, India, 1921-1990 is a great master of tantric yoga. His teachings incorporated full system of Raja Yoga with advanced meditation techniques from the tantras. Social movement Ananda Marga is based on his teachings called Ananda Sūtram given in traditional form of slokas (aphorisms) in sanskrit language.
Mahamandaleshwar Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda (Swamiji) comes from Rajasthan, India, and has been living in Vienna, Austria since 1972. Swamiji is the author of the scientific master-system Yoga in Daily Life and founder of the International Sri Deep Madhavananda Ashram Fellowship and Yoga in Daily Life ashrams and centres worldwide. He also inspired the foundations of the Yoga in Daily Life Youth Union and the Ayurveda Academy of Yoga in Daily Life.
Some modern styles of Yoga popular in America, Australia, Europe, India:
- Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga - the style taught by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois.
- Iyengar Yoga - pioneered by B.K.S. Iyengar
- kundalini Yoga
- Viniyoga
- Kriya Yoga - yoga of internal movement
- Nada Yoga - yoga of sound
- Indra Devi
- Paramahansa Yogananda
- Yoga Nidra - yoga of divine sleep (a la Vishnu)
- Sahaja Yoga
- Yoga in Daily Life - The system
- Anusara Yoga
- Isha Yoga [1]
History of Yoga
See History of Yoga
See also
- Hinduism
- Hindu Philosophy
- Sahaja Yoga
- Natya Yoga of Bharatanatyam and Odissi
- Ashtanga Yoga
- Brahman-Atman Yoga
- prana
- chakra
- Seven stages
- Siddha Yoga
- Yoga (alternative medicine)
- Yoga in Daily Life
- Bikram Yoga
References
- Wikipedia (2005). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga Yoga]. Retrieved March 19, 2005.
External links
- Yogadex Directory of yoga teachers and classes
- Yoga Research and Education Center
- Research and Educational site offering instruction in Hatha and Raja yogic pranayama
- Yoga Unveiled Documentary
- International Yoga Dictionary
- 3ho.org: Kundalini Yoga
- Foundations of Yoga An exposition on the prerequisites for Yoga
- 'Sacred Space' Kundalini Meditation
- patanjali.ch
- Sahaja Yoga
- Krishna.com All about Krishna and Bhakti-yoga. Info, books, MP3s, images, radio. . .
- Bhakti Yoga in Bharatanatyam
- Collection of streaming videos illustrating Natya Yoga
- Religiousbook.net article on Hatha Yoga
- Sanskrit, Indian philosophies, Mantra, Hata Yoga
- Aspects of Yoga Articles on meditation, japa, and other facets of Inner Life
- Yoga Weight Loss
- More information about yoga and practicing methods
- Pablo Stafforini's Yoga page. Suggests a daily routine of asanas, with images and detailed description of postures.
| Topics in Hinduism | |
| Primary Scriptures: |
Vedas | Upanishads | Mahabharata | Bhagavad Gita | Ramayana |
| Other texts: |
Puranas | Tantras | Sutras | Smritis | Hatha Yoga Pradipika |
| Deities: |
Brahma | Vishnu | Shiva | Rama | Krishna | Ganesha | Indra | Gayatri | Lakshmi | Sarasvati |
| Concepts: |
Avatar | Brahman | Dharma | Ishta-Deva | Karma | Moksha | Maya | Murti | Reincarnation | Samsara | Trimurti | Turiya |
| Schools & Systems: |
Early Hinduism | Samkhya | Nyaya | Vaisheshika | Yoga | Mimamsa | Vedanta | Tantra | Bhakti |
| Traditional Practices: | |
| Rituals: |
Aarti | Bhajans | Darshan | Mantras | Puja | Satsang | Stotras | Yagnya |
| Major Sects: | |
