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"Without
the practice of yoga, How could knowledge Set the atman
(soul) free? asks the Yogatatva Upanishad. Yoga:
union with the ultimate. Carl
G. Jung the eminent Swiss psychologist, described yoga as 'one of the greatest
things the human mind has ever created.'
Yoga
sutra consists of two words only: yogash
chitta-critti-nirodah, which may be translated: “Yoga
is the cessation of agitation of the consciousness.”
The word yoga
is derived from the root yuj, which means to unite or to join
together. The practice of yoga may lead to the union of the
human with the divine - all within the self. The aim of yoga is
the transformation of human beings from their natural form to a
perfected form. The Yogic practices originated in the
primordial depths of India's past. From this early period the
inner attitudes and disciplines which were later identified and
given orderly expression by Patanjali.
According
to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, the classical text on yoga, the
purpose of yoga is to lead to a silence of the mind (1.2). This
silence is the prerequisite for the mind to be able to
accurately reflect objective reality without its own subjective
distortions. Yoga does not create this reality, which is above
the mind, but only prepares the mind to apprehend it, by
assisting in the transformation of the mind – from an ordinary
mind full of noise, like a whole army of frenzied and drunken
monkeys – to a still mind.
Jean Varenne
author of Yoga and Indian Philosophy, observes: “The only
remaining testimony to the prestigious civilization of ancient
Egypt lies buried in archaeological remains; which meant that
the inhabitants of the Nile valley, converted to Islam thirteen
centuries ago, had to wait for Champollion to decipher the
hieroglyphics before they could know anything of the beliefs of
their distant ancestors. Yet during all this time Hindu families
continued, and still continue today, to venerate the selfsame
Vishnu who is celebrated in the archaic hymns of the Rig
Veda…”
Yoga is an
integral part of the Hindu religion. There is a saying: “There is no
Yoga without Hinduism and no Hinduism without Yoga." The country of
origin of Yoga is undoubtedly India, where for many hundreds of
years it has been a part of man's activities directed towards
higher spiritual achievements. The Yoga
Philosophy is peculiar to the Hindus, and no trace of it is
found in any other nation, ancient or modern. It was the fruit
of the highest intellectual and spiritual development. The
history of Yoga is long and ancient. The earliest Vedic texts,
the Brahmanas, bear witness to the existence of ascetic
practices (tapas) and the vedic Samhitas contain some
references, to ascetics, namely the Munis or Kesins and the
Vratyas.
Introduction
Historical Survey
Yoga Basics
Schools of Yoga
Lord Shiva - Maha Yogi
Yoga:
Taming the Body, Dissolving the Mind
Lord Krsna - Master of Yoga
Yoga:
The Royal Path to Freedom
Kundalini
- The Power of the Serpent
World wide popularity
to Yoga
Hostility to Yoga in
Church
Yoga in the Modern World
Conclusion
Introduction
"Living
souls are prisoners
of the joys and woes of existence
to liberate them from nature's magic
the knowledge of the brahman is necessary.
It is hard to acquire, this knowledge,
but it is the only boat,
to carry one over the river of Samsara
A thousand are the paths that lead there,
Yet it is one, in truth,
knowledge, the supreme refuge!
- Yoga Upanishad
***
From times
immemorial India has made creative efforts to explore the higher
dimensions of Existence and Consciousness for enrichment of
human knowledge and personality. In India, philosophy has been
more than a sheer speculative quest, linked as it is with a
living, creative and illuminating discipline which is known as
Yoga. Yoga is a unique scientific discipline that leads to inner
transformation and a definite psychological state of conscious
enlightenment. The secret lies in the awakening and development
of Yogic vision or higher perception through a sound and clean
methodology that brings a luminous, intuitive perception into
the truth of things. Divya Chakshu
is the divine prophetic eye, the power of seeing, what is not
visible to the naked eye.
"To thee,
I grant the Eye Divine,
Behold my Cosmic Splendor Line.
- Bhagavad Gita xl.8.
The word yoga
derives from a Sanskrit root meaning 'to join' suggesting the
fusion of the two principles atman and brahman, self and
totality. It is interpreted to mean the union of
individual consciousness or 'Jiva-atman' with Parmatma -
Universal Being or Over-Soul. It has been practiced since very early times in India
and is supported by engraved seals discovered at Indus-Saraswati
civilization. Its association with India is beyond doubt, and it
is certainly central to Hinduism.
An
ascetic, in the Yogasana pose. dated from 8th century.
(image
source; Museum of Trivandrum, Kerala).
***
Yoga,
derived from the root yuj (to yoke, to unite). A man who seeks
after this union is called a yogin or yogi. There are four manin
division of yoga: Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga and Raja
Yoga. Panini, the
grammarian, explains the meaning of yoga as union with the
Supreme. Patanjali, in his
Yoga Sutra, defines yoga as
'cessation of all changes in consciousness.' Yoga is the science
and praxis of obtaining liberation (moksha) from the material
world. It not only points the way to release, but offers a
practical means of arriving there. Yoga is a practical path to
self-realization, a means of attaining enlightenment by
purifying the entire being, so that the mind-body can experience
the absolute reality underlying the illusions of everyday life.
It is one of the most famous of Hinduism's philosophical
traditions, now practiced by Hindus, Christians, agnostics and
atheists alike. Yoga has many meanings and comes in many forms.
It is also based on an underlying philosophy that is linked to
other schools of Hindu thought. Vedantins interpret Yoga as
return of the individual atman to the Supreme. The Yoga with
which most Westerners are familiar is Hatha Yoga, consisting of
bodily exercises. The Philosophy of Yoga is called Raja Yoga,
(the royal path), or Patanjala Yoga, referring to Patanjali, the
reputed author of the Yogasutras, the basic Yoga manual. Because
of its close connection with the philosophical system of Sankhya,
it is also known as Sankhya-Yoga.
"This
they consider Yoga: the steady holding of the senses." - Katha-Upanishad
"Yoga is said to be the oneness of breath, mind, and
senses, and the abandonment of all states of existence."
-
Maitrî-Upanishad
"Yoga
is known as the disconnection (viyoga) of the connection (samyoga)
with suffering." - The Bhagavad
Gita
"Yoga is ecstasy (samâdhi)."
- Yoga-Bhâshya
"Yoga is said to be control." - Brahmânda-Purâna
"Yoga
is the control of the whirls of the mind."
- Yoga Sutra
Yoga literally
means "junction". In the Upanishads the term Yoga
signifies the union of the personal soul with the soul of the
universe. As a system of philosophy is codified in the
Yogasutras of Patanjali where Yoga is defined as the
"cessation of movements of the mind." Swami
Kuvalnanada and Dr. V. Vinekar have compared yoga to a Vina
"which gives heavenly music only when its strings are
attuned adequately and played upon harmoniously. One of the
principal meanings of yoga is sangati - harmony. Joy of positive
health depends on harmony between all bodily and mental
functions. True Yoga is in all things wise and calm.
Ordinarily a
man is lost in his own confused thought and feeling, but when
Yoga is attained the personal consciousness becomes stilled
'like a lamp in a windless place' and it is then possible for
the embodied spirit to know itself as apart from the
manifestations to which it is accustomed, and to become aware of
its own nature. Yoga is an ancient technique originating from India and
produces a union of body and soul. It is not only a good
exercise technique to cure the ills of the body and to keep in
good shape but it is also excellent for mental and spiritual
health. Practiced from time immemorial, different techniques of
yoga have evolved. The Kriya yoga is a system
consisting of yogic techniques that accelerate spiritual
development and bring on a deep state of serenity and
ultimately, communion with God and nature. In the yoga sutra of Patanjali, as long as the soul is
attached to sense enjoyment, it is called pratyag-atma.
The traditional yoga lifestyle strives toward the goals of
asceticism, which seeks to zero-out all desires, attachments,
emotions, and ego clinging. The goal of yoga is essentially to
cause the mind to become like zero. In fact, the goal of
meditation (the central feature of the yoga lifestyle) is to
zero-out thoughts, to zero-out the mind and realize the true
condition of reality... zero. To know
the supreme become like the supreme... zero.
“He who contemplates on sunya...is absorbed into space...
think on the Great Void unceasingly. The Great Void,
whose beginning is void, whose middle is void, [and]
whose end is void. . . By contemplating continually
on this, one obtains success [enlightenment].” - The Siva Samhita
[9].
The next step is to discover and see the localized form of
Vishnu, the plenary representation of Krishna, dwelling within
one's heart. One who seeks an improvement in health or aspires
after material perfection is no yogi. In fact, by practice of
yoga one becomes gradually detached from material concepts. This
is the primary characteristic of the yoga principle. The next
principle is that one becomes situated in trance or samadhi
which means that the yogi realises the Supersoul through
transcendental mind and intelligence, without any misgivings of
identifying the self with the Supersoul. Purusartha
sunyam means devoid of pursuits of religiousity, economic
development, sense gratification and the attempt to become one
with the Supreme in liberation. After the chitta-vritti-nirodha,
or material cessation, the pratyag atma manifests spiritual
activities or devotional service to the Supreme Lord.
Yoga,
is the union of the individual soul with the Supreme Soul.
Just as camphor melts and becomes one with the fire; just as a
drop of water when it is thrown into the ocean, becomes one with
the ocean, the individual soul, when it is purified, when it is
freed from lust, greed, hatred and egoism, when it becomes
Satvic, becomes one with the Supreme Soul.
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Historical
Survey
Yoga has a long
history. It is an integral subjective science. The very
earliest indication of the existence of some form of Yoga
practices in India comes from the Harappan culture
which can be dated at least as far back as 3000 B.C. A number of
excavated seals show a figure seated in a Yoga position that has
been used by the Indian Yogis for meditation till the present
day. One of the depicted figures bears signs of divinity
worshipped as the Lord of Yoga. At the time of excavations at
Mohenjadaro, Stuart Piggot wrote: "There can be little
doubt that we have the prototype of the great god Shiva as the
Lord of the Beast (Pashupati) and prince of Yogis."
The seeds of the yoga system may be discovered in the Vedic
Samhita because the Vedas are the foundation of Indian culture
philosophy and religion. Hiranyagarbha of the earliest Vedic and
Upanishadic lore is spoken of as the first Being to reveal Yoga:
hiranyagarbha yogasya vakta nanyah puratanoh. It indicates that mental Yoga
exercises were known and played a substantial part in the
religious and philosophical outlook of the epoch. The
philosophy of Yoga was ancient and was based on the Upanishads.
The Svetasvatara Upanishad
says: "Where fire is churned or produced by rubbing (for
sacrifice), where air is controlled (by Yoga practices), then
the mind attains perfection. In the Katha Upanishad, yoga is
likened to a chariot in which the reasoning consciousness is the
driver, and the body is the cart. Mastery of the body is thus
achieved by control of the senses. This text is an early example
of the basic yogic belief that the mind and body are not
inherently separate but linked. The Upanishads accept the Yoga
practice in the sense of a conscious inward search for the true
knowledge of Reality. One if the most famous Upanishads, the Katha,
speaks of the highest condition of Yoga as a state where the
senses together with the mind and intellect are fettered into
immobility.
Western
scholars have generally underestimated the antiquity of Yoga.
However, examining the Rig Veda from the point of view of
spiritual practice, the British vedicist Jeannie
Miller has concluded that the practice of meditation
(dhyana) as the fulcrum of Yoga goes back to the Rig Vedic
period. She observes: "The Vedic bards were seers who saw
the Veda and sang what they saw. With them vision and sound,
seership and singing are intimately connected and this linking
of the two sense functions forms the basis of Vedic
prayer." Vedic Indians knew how to celebrate life, but they
also had a penchant for deep thought, solitary concentration,
and penance. Dating from a period of the Aryans in India,
Yoga has had an enormous influence on all forms of Indian
spirituality, including Hinduism, Buddhist, and Jain and later
on the Sufi and Christian. The teaching of Buddhism which arose
in India are similar to those of yoga: striving toward nirvana
and renouncing the world. Indeed, some kind of meeting between
yoga and early Buddhism certainly took place, and one of the
Buddhist schools is actually called Yogachara (practice of
Yoga). Indian Buddhism spread throughout Asia, some ideas from
Yoga were carried into Tibet, Mongolia, China, and from there on
into Japan. Indeed, Zen is a specific form of Yoga's dhyana or
'transcendental meditation' and the word Zen (like the Chinese
tchan) is a simple phonetic development from Sanskrit dhyana.
Yoga can be said to constitute the
very essence of the spirituality of India. Yoga, the
science and the art of perfect health, has come down to us from
time immemorial.
Ancient
seal: A pose of a yogi.
***
Within the
broad spectrum of Hindu philosophy, Bharatiya Darsana, there are
generally considered to be six schools, the Sadarsanas or
systems of opinion. The six systems are the Vedic schools of
Mimamsa, Vedanta, Nyaya, Vaiseshika, Sankhya, and Yoga. All of
these are of classical Hindu origin and expounded by the finest
minds.
Sri
Aurobindo said: "All life is Yoga." It
means human life itself is yoga because many things are united
in human organism.
Thomas Berry
has observed: "As a spirituality, Yoga is intensely
concerned with the human condition, how man is to manage the
human condition, to sustain his spiritual reality in the midst
of life's turmoil and to discipline his inner awareness until he
attains liberation. Yoga can be considered among the most
intensely felt and highly developed of those spiritual
disciplines that enable man to cope with the tragic aspects of
life. The native traditions of India are all highly sensitized
to the sorrows inherent in the world of time and the need to
pass beyond these sorrows. Hinduism sought relief in the
experience of an absolute reality beyond the phenomenal order.
Buddhism is particularly indebted to Yoga tradition for its
basic mental discipline."
L
Adams Beck has observed:
"The true
yogin is really the exponent of a wonderful and ancient system
of psychology, one far more highly developed than any known in
the West. He is the man who in mastering the secrets of the
phenomenal life of the senses prepares us for the approach
through death to Reality. In this matter, India took her
straight and fearless flight to the innermost and outermost
confines of thoughts and experience. "
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Yoga
Basics
The aim of Yoga is the transformation of human beings from
their natural form to a perfected form. Yoga is a precise practical method of spiritual training
which goes back to very ancient times. These methods have, of
course, been progressively developed and thoroughly tried over
the centuries, and are collectively known as Yoga. Yoga is one
of the many paths leading to release. It adopts numerous guises
and techniques. Perhaps it is more of a praxis for salvation
than a philosophy.
Certain elements of Yoga are found in Vedic texts but an even
greater antiquity than that has been attributed to the system.
The various ascetic and practical theories were drawn up into a
darsana, which became orthodox in the Vedantic period, called
Yoga. It is the complimentary darsana to the Sankhya and has
special application to the Hatha Yoga. But the Yoga is theistic
whereas the Sankhya is not.
Several Upanishads mention Yoga, for example the Taittiriya
Upanishad and especially the Katha which defines it as “the
firm restraint of the senses.” The purpose stated in the
Yogasutras is the same for all the Yogas, namely, to free
oneself from the determinism of transmigration. The final aim of
Yoga is identification by means of knowledge, with the Absolute.
By suppression of the passions and detachment from all that
is exterior to him, the ascetic attains superior states of
unshakeable stability which eventually end in mystical
communion, in a state of Samadhi, with the essence of his soul.
The state of Samadhi is the culmination of Yoga and beyond it
lies release. It is a suspension of all intellectual processes
that lead to instability. Samadhi, then, is a “state without
apprehension”. The life of the soul is not destroyed but is
reduced to its “unconscious and permanent” essence. Yoga is,
properly speaking, union with the self.
When thus “isolated”, mind is the same as purusa when it
is freed from mental impressions “like a precious stone
isolated from its veinstone.”
 The
aim of Yoga is to tear the veil that keeps man confined within
the human dimension of consciousness. Yoga is
radically different from the normal consciousness of human
beings. This is a point of paramount importance of every seeker
of Yoga to bear in mind. The various aspects of this alteration
have been clearly brought out by the Indian adepts. "I have
realized this great Being who shines effulgent, like the sun,
beyond all darkness," says the author of Svetasvatara
Upanishad (3-8). "One passes beyond death only on realizing
Him. There is no other way of escape from the circle of births
and deaths." Here is one of the most prominent signs of
genuine experience of the Self. The fear of death and
uncertainly about the Beyond is over. "O Goddess, this
embodied conscious being (the average mortal) cognizant of his
body, composed of earth, water and other elements, experiencing
pleasure and pain," says Panchastavi (5.26) "even
though well-informed (in worldly matters ), yet not versed in
thy disciplines, is never able to rise above his egoistic
body-consciousness. This another noteworthy sign. Close
association of consciousness with the body leads to the fear of
death, as it precludes the possibility of the self-awareness, as
an incorporate Infinity, beyond the pale of time, space, birth
and deaths.
Yoking the Horses of the Mind
"Yoga is
restraining the mind-stuff from taking different forms," says
Swami Vivekananda. The mind-stuff may be imagined as a calm,
translucent lake with waves or ripples running over the surface
when external thoughts or causes effect it. These ripples form
our phenomenal universe - i.e. the universe as it is presented
to us by our senses. If we can make these ripples cease, we can
pass beyond thought or reason and attain the Absolute State.
Yoga represents
a central and pivotal concept in Indian culture and some
understanding of this is essential for those who wish to grasp
the deeper significance behind Hinduism. The relationship
between the Brahman and Atman, between the all-pervasive
divinity and its reflection within individual consciousness, is
the main concept behind Vedantic philosophy. Spiritual
realization involves in some way a joining of the Atman and the
Brahman in its broadest sense. Yoga represents both the process
as well as the goal of this union.
Yoga fall into categories as according to the spiritual path
one chooses at the outset but the end remains the same. The
thousand years old experience of the Hindus lead them to
classify Yoga adepts into several kinds.
The Stages of Yoga
The upward progress of the Yogin towards the supreme end is
made up of eight stages, known in the Sutras as Yogangas. They
are as follows: 1.Yama (moral virtue); 2. Niyama (rules and
observances); 3. Asana (bodily postures); 4. Pranayama (control
of the life force); 5. Pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses far
from the external world); 6. Dharana (memory); 7. Dhyana
(meditation); 8. Samadhi (total concentration).
The other Yogangas
Pratyahara: the Yogin withdraws his senses from the
temptations of the outside world. Dharana: a true
conception of things.Dhyana: meditation in one of the asanas.
Without meditation nothing is possible.
Samadhi: this is the final stage which the Yogin reaches when
he has attained complete spiritual fulfillment. Without Samadhi
it is impossible to know Truth.
The ancient doctrines of Yoga are broken up into the Hatha
Yoga (the asanas and pranayama are its chief elements), Mantra
Yoga, Laya Yoga, Raja Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Jnana Yoga.
Only when he has practiced the different disciplines common
to all the Yogas does the Yogin begin to reap the fruit of
dhyana or “meditation” in the form of absolute
concentration. Scholars trace the origins of Laya Yoga in the
Samaveda but its full explanation is to be found in the
Chandogya Upanishad.
In the Bhagavad Gita the Lord says:
“”This unfaltering Rule I declared to Vivasvat; Vivasvat
declared it to Manu, and Manu told it to Ikshvaku.
“Thus was this Rule passed down in order, and kingly sages
learned it; but by length of time, O affrighter of the foe, it
has been lost here.
“Now is this ancient Rule declared by Me to thee, for that
thou are devoted to Me, and friend to Me; for it is a most high
mystery.”
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Schools
of Yoga
Sankhya and
Yoga are regarded as twins, the two aspects of a single
discipline. Sankhya provides a basic theoretical exposition of
human nature, enumerating and defining its elements, analyzing
their manner of co-operation in the state of bondage (bandha),
and describing their state of disentanglement or separation in
release (moksha), while Yoga treats specifically of the dynamics
of the process of disentanglement, and outlines practical
techniques for the gaining of release, or
"isolation-integration" (kaivalya). The two systems in
other words supplement each other and conduce to the identical
goal.
The
Sankhya System
Founded
by the rishi or Sage Kapila,
Sankhya offers freedom from the pain and misery of samsara.
Sankhya philosophy is scientific in treatment and, perhaps, the
most appealing to the mind of our technological age. Sankhya
also falls under two groups marshalled behind the two great
exponents of the school of thought, Kapila and Patanjali.
Kapila's philosophy does not take into consideration the
God-principle, while Patanjali adds to the fundamental factor of
his doctrine the concept of Isvara. On this bases these
philosophies are termed Nirisvara (without God principles)
Sankhya and Saisvara (belief in God principle) Sankhya.
Sankhya
is derived from the word "Sankhya" which means
numbers.
 Sankhya-Yoga is possibly the oldest among the Indian systems. It
has become, in one form of another, part and parcel of most
major religions of India: hence we find Samkhya-Yoga combined
with Vaisnavism, Saivism, and Saktism, and most of the Puranas
contain numerous chapters on Sankhya-Yoga as a path to
salvation. Sankhya ideas may be found already in the cosmogonic
hymns of the Rig Veda, in sections of the Atharvaveda, in the
idea of the evolution of all things from one principle, dividing
itself, in the Upanishads and also in the Upanishadic attempts
to arrange all phenomena under a limited number of categories.
The oldest traditional textbook of the school is the Sankhya-karika of Isvara Krsna. The
Sankhya Karikas begins with
the aphorism: "From torment by three-fold misery the
inquiry into the means of terminating it."
(image
source: Vishwa Hindu Parishad of
America. Inc - 2002 calendar).
No philosophy
has had greater influence on Ayurveda than Sankhya’s
philosophy of creation, or manifestation. According to Sankhya,
behind creation there is a state of pure existence or awareness,
which is beyond time and space, has no beginning or end, and no
qualities. Within pure existence there arises a desire to
experience itself, which results in disequilibrium and causes
the manifestation of primordial physical energy.
This energy is
the creative force of action, a source of form that has
qualities. Matter and energy are closely related: when energy
takes form, we tend to think of it in terms of matter rather
than energy. The primordial physical energy is imponderable and
cannot be described in words. The most subtle of all energies,
it is modified until ultimately our familiar mental and physical
energy unite for the dance.
Pure existence
and primordial energy unite for the dance of creation to happen.
Pure existence is simply “observing” this dance. Primordial
energy and all that flows from it cannot exist except in pure
existence or awareness. These concepts of awareness are central
to the ancient philosophy of Ayurveda and, ultimately, to
maintaining health in human beings.
Sankhya, like
all other Indian philosophical systems, aims to offer help in
gaining freedom from suffering. In order to do so, it has to
analyse the nature of the world in which we live and identify
the causes of suffering. Sankhya postulates a fundamental
dualism of spirit (purusa) and matter (prakrti), and locates the
cause of suffering in a process of evolution that involves
spirit in matter. Kapila's philosophy is entirely
dualistic, admitting only two things. Purusa (the spirit) and
Prakrti (inert matter) as pradhanam, the main factor of the
creation of the world. Purusa, energy, is eternal, caitanya or
pure intelligence is the cause of the world; while Prakrti is
the subject of existence. Prakrti is
constituted by three principles (gunas) which are in an unstable
equilibrium:
a. sattva, or
lightness
b. rajas, or impetus
c. tamas, or inertia
In the state of
dissolution (pralaya) these three qualities are quiescent,
evenly balanced, and there is no creation. But, once the
equilibrium is disturbed, creation takes place.
In The
Philosophy of ancient India, Richard
Garbe (1857-1927) expresses great admiration
for Kapila, saying, “In Kapila’s doctrine, for the first
time in the history of the world, the complete independence and
freedom of the human mind, its full confidence in its own powers
were exhibited.” Arthur Anthony Macdonell
(1854-1830) asserts that for the first time in
the history of the world it “asserted the complete
independence of the human mind and attempted to solve its
problems solely by the aid of reason. Dr.
S Radhakrishnan (1888-1975) wrote: "When the
self realizes that it is free from all contacts from nature, it
is released." As per Will Durant
(1885-1981) the last word of Hindu religious thought is moksha,
release - from first desire, then from life."
The
Yoga Sutra of Patanjali
Patanjali defines Yoga as the “cessation of movements of
the mind.”
- "Yoga Citta Vritti Nirodha"
Ignorance consists in attributing permanence,
Subjectivity, homogeneity and pleasurability to
What is impermanent, non-substantial, non-
homogenous and painful.
- Yoga Sutra
2,5).
 The
other part of the Sankhya darsana is Patanjali's yoga. The
sutras on yoga are propounded by Patanjali and Maharishi Vyasa
is known to be its main commentator. Here they have introduced
the principle of God (Isvara) as Pranidhanam and that is why it
is also known as Sa-Isvara Sankhya.
Patanjali's introductory aphorism
(sutra) defining Yoga
The term yoga,
according to Patanjali's definition, means the final
annihilation (nirodha) of all the mental states (cittavrtii)
involving the preparatory stages in which the mind has to be
habituated to being steadied into particular types of graduated
mental states. This was actually practiced in India for a long
time before Patanjali lived; and it is very probable that
certain philosophical, psychological, and practical doctrines
associated with it were also current long before Patanjali.
Patajali's work is, however, the earliest systematic compilation
on the subject that is known to us.
(image
source: Vishwa Hindu Parishad of
America. Inc - 2002 calendar).
The Patanjali
Yogasutra explains more fully how the subtler senses and organs
can be developed by men who seek God who is none other than
their own true innermost spirit. To achieve this end, a whole
science of yoga has been developed, and the Yoga Darsana is the
most useful 'darsana' for a sadhaka (spiritual aspirant).
This is the
second of the systematic or integral expositions of the Yoga
technique that have been preserved from ancient times. The term
Yoga, according to Sage Patanjali's definition, means the final
annihilation (nirodha) of all the mental states (cittavrtti)
involving the preparatory stages in which the mind has to be
habituated to being steadied into particular types of graduated
mental states. The Yoga doctrine taught by Patanjali are
regarded as the highest of all Yoga (Rajayoga), as distinguished
from other types of Yoga practices, such as Hatha yoga or
Mantrayoga.
If Sankhya
describes the evolution of matter, its diversification into a
manifold, Yoga describes the process of reducing multiplicity to
Oneness. Yoga is not mere theory, although it is one of the
philosophical systems. It also implies physical training, will
power and decisions. It deals with the human condition as a
whole and aims at providing real freedom, not just a theory of
liberation. The Yogasutras are a short work containing 194 brief
aphorims arranged in four parts entitled: a. samadhi
(concentration) b. sadhana (practice) c. vibhuti (extraordinary
faculties) d. kaivalya (ultimate freedom. The Yoga described in
the Yogasutras has also been described as astanga yoga,
'eight-limbed Yoga.'
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The
Wheel of Yoga
The heritage of
Yoga was handed down from teacher to pupil by word of mouth. The
Sanskrit term for this transmission of esoteric knowledge is
parampara, which means literally "come after another"
or "succession." The Indian Yoga tradition has not
ceased to change and grow, adapting to new sociocultural
conditions. This is borne out by Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga,
a unique modern approach that is based on traditional Yoga but
goes beyond it by incorporating our contemporary understanding
of biological evolution.
The
Wheel of Yoga: Different approaches to God-realization in
Hinduism.
(image source: Yoga: The Technology of Ecstasy - By Georg
Feuerstein).
***
Types
of Yoga
R.
S. Nathan in his book, Hinduism
That is Sanatana Dharma p. 57, writes: "Hinduism
has taken into consideration the fact that people are of
different tastes, temperaments, predilections, and bent of mind,
and therefore has accepted the need for different paths for
different individuals to suit their requirements. Thus four
different paths have been laid down: Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga,
Karma Yoga and Raja Yoga. Followers of all the four paths have
the common goal of merging with the Supreme Reality. While the
Jnana Yogin aims at reaching his goal by the realization of his
identity with the Supreme Reality, the Bhakti Yogin surrenders
his individuality at the feet of the Lord, his beloved; the
Karma Yogin realizes his goal by work unattached to the fruits
thereof and the Raja Yogin soars ahead by physical and psychic
control culminating in 'merging' through Samadhi.
1.
Jnana Yoga - is the way of wisdom. 
The Jnana Yoga
is monist. The aim of asceticism is to reach Knowledge and gain
access to noumenal truth. The word jnana means
"knowledge", "insight," or
"wisdom". Jnana-Yoga is virtually identical with the
spiritual path of Vedanta, the tradition of nondualism. Jnana
Yoga is the path Self-realization through the exercise of
understanding, or, to be more precise, the wisdom associated
with discerning the Real from the unreal.
The term jnana-yoga
is first mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita, where Lord Krishna
declares to his pupil Prince Arjuna: "Of yore I proclaimed
a twofold way of life in this world, o guileless Arjuna - Jnana
Yoga for the samkhyas and Karma Yoga for the yogins."
(III.3). Jnana Yoga represents the knowledge of the self in
general. Self is present everywhere and all bodies are
perishable. The self never perishes. It never dies even though
body is killed. The Yoga of knowledge represents the knowledge
of the self, and the self is eternal, omnipresent, imperishable
and omniscient.
Jnana Yoga is the most arduous way, reserved
for an elite and in it the Yogin must go beyond the plane of
Maya. Jnana Yoga
leads to an integration through knowledge, gnosis. Also, there
is dhyana yoga. The Sanskrit dhyana becomes Ch'an in Chinese
which becomes Thom in Vietnamese, Son in Korean, Zen in
Japanese. This yoga is specifically what gets called the yoga of
meditation. All these
constitute the Buddhi yoga of the Bhagavad Gita, that is, the
yoga of integrated intelligence and will.
2.
Bhakti Yoga - is the way of exclusive devotion to God. 
Bhakti Yoga is
the supreme devotion to the Lord. Bhakti is intense attachment
to God who is the Indweller in all beings, who is the support,
solace for all beings. Bhakti yoga is
integration through love or devotion. It teaches the rules
of love, for it is the science of the higher love; it teaches
how to direct and use love and how to give it a new object, how
to obtain from it the highest and most glorious result, which is
the acquisition of spiritual felicity. The Bhakti Yoga, does not
say "abandon" but only love, love the Most
High".
3.
Karma Yoga - is the
way of selfless work. 
To exist is to
act. Karma yoga
means the discipline of action or integration through
activity. Karma Yoga is the Yoga of self-surrendered
action. Even an inanimate object such as a rock has movement.
And the building blocks of matter, the atoms, are in fact not
building blocks at all but incredibly complex patterns of energy
in constant motion. Thus, the universe is a vast vibratory
expanse. Karma Yoga is selfless service unto humanity. Karma
Yoga is the Yoga of action which purifies the heart and prepares
the heart and mind for the reception of Divine Light or the
attainment of Knowledge of the Self. But this has to be done
without attachment or egoism. The karma yoga of The Gita is a unique philosophy of
action and it declares that nature has given the right of action
to man only and the right of the result of action is under the
authority of nature. But the action is a duty of man; therefore
he should perform actions without the desire of fruit. Lord
Krishna says: "Not by abstention from actions does a man
enjoy action-transcendence, nor by renunciation alone does he
approach perfection." (III, 4). Then God Krishna, who
communicates these teachings to his pupil Arjuna, points to
himself, as the archetypal model of the active person: "For
Me, O son of Pritha, there is nothing to be done in the three
worlds, nothing ungained to be gained - and yet I engage in
action." (III.22).
4.
Raja Yoga - The
Respelendent Yoga of Spiritual Kings 
This refers to
the Yoga system of Patanjali, is commonly used to distinguish
Patanjali's eight-fold path of meditative introversion from
Hatha Yoga. Psycho-physical
practices for mind and cure have been part of Hindu medical
science in the ancient times and no wonder Dr. freud and other
modern psychologists are just the beginners in the field
discovering the age-old science. Sri
Aurobindo observed: "Indian yoga is experimental
psychology. Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, the Upanishads - these and
the Saiva Siddhanta treatises - furnish pioneering examples of
experimental psychology." "In Indian psychology they
proceed from the basis of the supremacy of mind over matter and
postulate Atman as the ultimate Reality of the universe
unification with which is the basic purpose of this yoga."
Romain
Rolland 1866-1944) French Nobel laureate, professor
of the history of music at the Sorbonne and thinker. He authored
a book Life and Gospel of Vivekananda,
calls this yoga as the experimental psycho-physiological method
for the direct attainment of Reality which is Brahman. Many
serious seekers have successfully tried direct realization of
the Supreme through the mind control without waiting for
indefinite births to take place. This great methodology was
developed by the great classical theorist Rishi Patanjali who
sought to attain ultimate knowledge through the control and
absolute mastery of the mind thus cutting down the endless path
of the soul for perfection through future births. The whole
thrust is on the concentration and control of mind after
shutting it out of all worldly objects to reach the Ultimate
Reality.
"The
powers of the mind are like rays of dissipated light; when they
are concentrated they illumine. This is the only means of
Knowledge. The originality of Indian Raja Yoga lies in the fact
that it has been the subject for centuries past of a minutely
elaborated experimental science for the conquest of
concentration and mastery of the mind. By mind, the Hindu Yogi
understands the instrument as well as the object of knowledge,
and in what concerns the object, he goes very far, farther than
I can follow him."
Swami
Vivekananda (1863-1902) was the
foremost disciple of Ramakrishna and a world spokesperson for
Vedanta. India's first spiritual and cultural ambassador to the
West, said: "The science of Raja Yoga proposes to
lay down before humanity a practical and scientifically worked
out method for reaching the truth."
Other
Forms of Yoga
There are
several other forms of yoga, such as Hatha Yoga, Mantra
Yoga,
and Laya Yoga. The purpose
of Hatha Yoga is to destroy or transform all that which, in man,
interferes with his union with the universal Being. It is a
"Yoga of strength" which lays particular stress on
physical exercises that even permit the adept to perform
physiological feats that are normally beyond human capacity.
Once a Yogin
has obtained purification by the different disciplines of the
Hatha Yoga the Yogin must recite a series of mantras or
"prayers" which make up the Mantra Yoga. The aim of
Laya Yoga is to direct the mind upon the object of meditation.
All these are branches or subdivisions of the
four main divisions of yoga stated above. All branches of yoga
have one thing in common, they are concerned with a state of
being, or consciousness. "Yoga is ecstasy" says
Vyasa's Yoga-bhashya (1.1). (image source: Yoga: The Technology of Ecstasy - By Georg
Feuerstein).
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Lord
Shiva - Lord of Yoga
Yoga is a
supra-human (apaurusheya) revelation, from the realm of the
gods; mythologicaly, it is said that the great God Shiva himself
taught Yoga to his beloved Parvati for the sake of
humanity. Shiva (the Benign one), is mentioned as early as
in the Rig Veda. He is the focal point of Shaivism, that is, the
Shiva tradition of worship and theology. He is the deity of
yogins par excellence and is often depicted as a yogin, with
long, matted hair, a body besmeared with ashes, and a garland of
skulls - all signs of his utter renunciation. In his hair is the
crescent moon symbolizing mystical vision and knowledge. His
three eyes symbolize sun, moon, and fire, and a single glance
from this eye can incinerate the entire universe. The serpent
coiled around his neck symbolizes the mysterious spiritual
energy of kundalini. The Ganga River that cascades from the
crown of Shiva's head is a symbol of perpetual purification,
which is the mechanism underlying his gift of spiritual
liberation bestowed upon devotees. The tiger skin on which he is
seated represents power (shakti), and his four arms are a sign
of his perfect control over the four cardinal directions. His
trident represents the three primary qualities (gunas) of
Nature, namely tamas, rajas, and sattva.
Shiva:
The
Lord of Yoga meditating on Mount Kailasa in the Himalayas.
(image
source: The Elements of Hinduism - By
Stephen Cross p. 77).
***
Shiva - The
Lord of Yoga is typically pictured as meditating on Mount Kailasa in the
Himalayas with his divine spouse Parvati (she who dwells on the
mountain). In many Tantras, he figures as the first teacher of
esoteric knownledge. As the ultimate Reality, the Shaivas invoke
him as Maheshvara (Great Lord). As the giver of joy or serenity
he is called Shanakara and as the abode of delight he is given
the name Shambhu. Other names are Pashupati (Lord of the
beasts), and Mahadevea (Great God). He is
iconographically portrayed as covered in ashes, with a third eye
with which he burned Desire (Kama) and his matted hair, a
crescent moon in his hair, the Ganges pouring down from his
locks, garlanded by a snake, and sacred rudra beads, seated upon
a tiger skin and holding a trident. The ashes on the body
symbolizes him as a Yogi, who has burnt all his evil desires and
rubbed himself with the ashes of the ritual fire.
Shiva
Sutra - The Yoga of Supreme Identity
Saivism has
been the most remarkable contribution of Kashmir to Indian
philosophy. It existed in Kashmir in the prehistoric period of
the Indus Valley Civilization. There are two schools of Saivism
which exist in India today. One is the dualistic school of South
India and the other is the monistic school of Kashmir. The
monistic school of Kashmir is also known as Trika-Sastra or
Rahasya-Sampradaya. Recent excavations in the Indus Valley and
the Middle East reveal that Saivism has been one of the oldest
sect of India.
The philosophy
of Saivism had basically originated in the Himalayan area near
Kailasa. Tryambakaditya, a disciple of Sage Durvasas, was the
first teacher of this school. The Shiva
philosophy and Yoga is known as Agama. According to
Siva-Sutras, One who experiences the delight of Supreme
I-consciousness in all the states of consciousness becomes the
master of his senses.
Saivism
stresses the possibility of realizing the nature of self through
opening of the third eye or inward eye in meditative trance.
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Yoga:
Taming the Body, Dissolving the Mind
Svetasvatara
Upanishad say:
"When the
yogi has full power over his body then he obtains a new body of
spiritual fire that is beyond illness, old age and death."
Patanjali's
Yoga sutra defines:
"Yoga is
controlling the ripples of the mind."
Swami
Vivekanada (1863-1902) was the
foremost disciple of Ramakrishna and a world spokesperson for
Vedanta. India's first spiritual and cultural ambassador to the
West, came to represent the religions of India at the World
Parliament of Religions, held at Chicago in connection with the
World's Fair (Columbian Exposition) of 1893. He said:
"Yoga is a
science which teaches how to awake our latent powers and hasten
the process of human evolution." "It is restraining
the mind-stuff from taking different forms."
(source:
Yoga and the Bhagavad Gita - By Tom
McArthur p. 12-14).
Sri
Aurobindo (1872-1950) most
original philosopher of modern India. He has observed:
"The yoga
we practice, is not for ourselves alone, but for the Divine; its
aim is to work out the will of the Divine in the world, to
effect a spiritual transformation and to bring down a divine
nature and a divine life into the mental, vital and physical
nature and life of humanity. Its object is not personal mukti,
although mukti is a necessary condition of the yoga, but the
liberation and transformation of the human being."
(source: The
Yoga and Its Objects - by Sri Aurobindo p. 1).
Henry
David Thoreau (1817-1862) American Philosopher,
Unitarian,
social critic, transcendentalist and writer. It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who
aroused in him a true enthusiasm for India. He was dazzled by Indian spiritual texts, especially the
Bhagavad-Gita. He kept a well-thumbed copy of the Gita in his cabin at
Walden Pond, and claimed wistfully that “at rare
intervals, even I am a yogi.”
(source:
Fear
of Yoga - By Robert Love - Columbia
Journalism Review- December 2006).
 Yehudi
Menuhin (1916-1999) had one of the longest and most
distinguished careers of any violinist of the twentieth century.
He was among
the first in the West to espouse yoga and the principles of
organic food.
"The
practice of yoga induces a primary sense of measure and
proportion. Reduced to our own body, our first instrument, we
learn to play it, drawing from it maximum resonance and
harmony."
(source:
Yoga and the Bhagavad Gita - By Tom
McArthur p. 12-14).
"Yoga"
means "union." Its goal is union with the
infinite, a goal which can be reached by any number of routes;
but just as there is one ending, so there is one beginning, the
asanas of Hatha Yoga, which are the precondition of every
advance. It would be possible to make yoga a life's occupation,
giving up more and more of one's time to its refinement. For me
yoga is primarily a yardstick to inner peace. In
my life yoga is an aid to well-being, permitting me to do more
and to do better."
(source:
Unfinished
Journey - By
Yehudi Menuhin
p. 250 - 268).
Yoga
touched every dimension of Yehudi Menuhin’s life.
He wrote about Yoga:
“Yoga
made its contribution to my quest to understand consciously the
mechanics of violin playing.” “Yoga taught me lessons it
would have taken me years to learn by other means. Yoga
was my compass.” He was a genius at peace - a
peace, he said, that came from yoga.
(source:
Hinduism
Today July/August/September 2003 p. 40-41).
Sir
John Woodroffe
(1865-1936) the well known
a Hindu scholar, Advocate-General of Bengal and sometime
Legal Member of the Government of India.
author of several books including The
Serpent Power. He had a a prolific output as a scholar of
Tantra. Had
it not been for him, we might still share that general prejudice
regarding Tantra. Woodroffe boldly disregarded the hostile attitude towards
Tantra. He wrote:
"That
which is the general characteristic of the Indian systems, and
that which constitutes their real profundity, is the paramount
importance attached to Consciousness and its states.. And
whatever be the means employed, it is the transformation of the
'lower' into 'higher' states of consciousness which is the
process and fruit of Yoga."
Heinrich
Zimmer (1890-1943), the great German
Indologist, a man of penetrating intellect, the keenest esthetic
sensibility.
He describes:
"The aim
of the doctrine of Hindu philosophy and of training in yoga is
to transcend the limits of individualized consciousness."
(source:
Yoga and the Bhagavad Gita - By Tom
McArthur p. 12-14).
Alain
Danielou (1907-1994)
founded the Institute for Comparative Music Studies in Berlin
and Venice, author of several books on the religion, history,
and art of India, defines:
"Yoga is
to silence the mind, leaving all mental activity is
Yoga."
Justin
O’Brien a well-known
writer, author of
Walking With The Himalayan Master, theologian, philosopher and a long time explorer in
‘wellness’ and human consciousness. A former Catholic monk,
he is also an ordained Pandit in the Himalayan tradition. He
lived with Swami Rama - the master of yoga, spirituality,
meditation and Ayurveda for over 20 years. He says:
"Yoga
is an experience of life and it is a path which offers dignity
and sacredness.'
Max
Muller
(1823-1900)
German philologist and Orientalist. He speaks of Yoga as of "the feeling of
wonderment." "I do not say that the evidence here
adduced would pass muster in a court of law. All that strikes me
is the simplicity on the part of those who relate this. Of
course we know that such things as the miracle related here are
impossible, but it seems almost as great a miracle that such
things should ever have been believed and should still continue
to be believed. Apart from that, however, we must also remember
that the influence of the mind of the body and of the body on
the mind is as yet but half explored; and in India and among the
yogins we certainly meet, particularly in more modern times,
with many indications that hypnotic states are produced by
aritificial means and interpreted as due to an inferference of
supernatural powers in the event of ordinary life."
(source: The
Story of Oriental Philosophy - By L Adams Beck
p. 100 - 101).
Howard
Kent author of several
books on yoga, including Yoga:
An Introductory Guide to Optimum Health for Mind, Body and
Spirit says:
"It is the
most complete synthesis of the realities of life and
living."
Mircea
Ellade (1907-1986) a native of Romania, lectured in
the Ecole des Hautes-Etudes of the Sorbonne. He observes:
"Yoga
constitutes a characteristic dimension of the Indian mind, to
such a point that whatever Indian religion and culture have made
their way, we also find a more or less pure form of Yoga. In
India, Yoga was adopted and valorized by all religious
movements, whether Hinduist or 'heretical.' The various
Christian or syncretistic Yogas of modern India constitutes
another proof that Indian religious experience finds the
yogic methods of "meditation" and
"concentration" a necessity.
"Yoga had
to meet all the deepest needs of the Indian soul. In the
universal history of mysticism, Yoga occupies a place of its
own, and one that is difficult to define. It represents a living
fossil, a modality of archaic spirituality that has survived
nowhere else. Yoga takes over and continues the immemorial
symbolism of initiation; in other words, it finds its place in a
universal tradition of the religious history of mankind."
"From the Upanishads onward, India has been seriously
preoccupied with but one great problem - the structure of the
human condition. With a rigor unknown elsewhere, India has
applied itself to analyzing the various conditionings of the
human being."
"The conquest of
this absolute freedom, or perfect spontaneity, is the goal of
all Indian philosophies and mystical techniques; but it is above
all through Yoga, through one of the many forms of Yoga, that
India has held that it can be assured."
"Yoga is
present everywhere - no less in the oral tradition of India than
in the Sanskrit and vernacular literature....To such a degree is
this true that Yoga has ended by becoming a characteristic
dimension of Indian spirituality."
(source: Yoga:
Immortality and Freedom - By Mircea Ellade p. xvi
- xx
and 101 and 359-364).
Joseph
Campbell (1904-1987) was one of the foremost interpreters of myth in our
time and a prolific writer.
'
Yoga, in the broadest sense of the word, is any technique
serving to link consciousness to the ultimate truth.
One type of yoga I have already mentioned: that of stopping the
spontaneous activity of the mind stuff. This type of mental
discipline is called Råja Yoga, the Kingly, or Great Yoga. But
there is another called Bhakti Yoga, Devotional Yoga; and this
is the yoga generally recommended for those who have duties in
the world , tasks to perform, and who cannot, therefore, turn
away to the practice of that other, very much sterner mode of
psychological training. This much simpler, much more popular,
yoga of worship consists in being selflessly devoted to the
divine principle made manifest in some beloved form. Bhakti
Yoga will then consist in having one's mind continually turned
toward, or linked to, that chosen deity through all of one's
daily tasks."
(source: Joseph
Campbell Foundation For more on Joseph Campbell refer to Quotes1-20).
"Verily,
this entire (world) is the Absolute (brahm). Tranquil, one
should worship It (through), for one comes forth from It."
***
Thomas
Berry
"Yoga
is a spirituality rather than a religion. As a spirituality it
has influenced the entire range of Indian religion and spiritual
development. In a specific and technical sense, Yoga is counted
as one of the six thought systems of Hinduism."
(source:
Religions of India - By Thomas Berry
p. 75).
Alan
Watts (1915-1973)
a professor, graduate school dean and research fellow of Harvard
University.
"In the
beginning of the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali described yoga which
means union as spontaneously stopping the agitation of
thinking."
For the
intellectual type there is the Gnana Yoga, the way of thought;
for the feeling type there is Bhakti Yoga, the way of love; for
the worker there is Karma Yoga, the way of service. But for
those exceptionally gifted, there is a fourth which comprises
the other three – Raja Yoga, the royal way, and this contains
not only the trinity of thought, love and service, but also that
mainly psychic form of yoga known as Hatha…..so great are the
powers which it develops that they are only safe in the hands of
those of the highest moral discipline, those who can be trusted
to use them without thought of personal gain.
(source: The
Wisdom of Asia – by Alan Watts p. 27-28)
"It is almost certain,
however, that Taoist Yoga was derived in great measure from
India, and it is here that we must look for the greater wealth
of information."
(source: The
Legacy of Asia and Western Man - By Allan Watts
p.1-2 and 28-29 and 85).
Richard
Hittleman (1927 -1991)
founded his first school in Florida and pioneered Yoga
instruction via television with the "Yoga For Health"
series, which premiered in Los Angeles. These programs,
televised throughout the United States and in many foreign
countries, have been instrumental in generating the significant
growth of Yoga practice in the western world.
"For many
thousands of people dreams of new life, a return to second
youth, a beautiful, strong and trim body, through which radiates
health and vitality, a wonderful peace of mind, have come true
through my yoga instruction."
(source:
Yoga and the Bhagavad Gita - By Tom
McArthur p. 12-14).
Usha
Chatterji has written:
"Yoga
prepares the way which leads to spiritual enlightenment and
ultimately to salvation. This is, Yoga undertakes to give to the
spirit the supreme good, whereby material obstacles become
auxiliaries to such an extent that Nature herself is shorn of
her light and retires beaten from the field."
(source: Comprendre
La Religion Hindoue - By Usha Chatterji Paris
1954 p. 88).
Tom
MacArthur
who ran courses
on yoga for the University of Edinburgh, says:
"Many
people look to yoga as a kind of Eastern promise, but there are
in fact a variety of good reasons, apart from an interest in
health or mysticism, for studying yoga and its background. For
example, the very antiquity of the subject. There are precious
few human traditions that extend in an unbroken line through
thirty centuries or more - effectively from the Bronze Age
to the Space Age - without losing their ability to attract,
alter..."
"There
are no Egyptian pharaohs now, but when Cleopatra lived there
were yogis, and there are yogis still. The Greek philosophers
and the Roman legions are no more, the Arab-Muslim expansion has
come and gone, and the European maritime empires on which the
sun wasn't supposed to set have all been dismantled. Some kind
of yoga was there when all that was happening, and many kinds of
yoga are here now - some even being considered for use abroad
starships. That is continuity and it is worth a little thought.
Yoga is embedded in the literature of the Hindus as well as in
their age old practices, and that literature is in turn one of
the richest seams of recorded language anywhere on the planet.
The sheer volume of stories, treatises, and commentaries
challenges the imagination. "
(source:
Yoga and the Bhagavad Gita - By Tom
McArthur p. 12-14).
Har Bilas Sarda
states:
"The Yoga
Philosophy is peculiar to the Hindus, and no trace of it is
found in any other nation, ancient or modern. It was the fruit
of the highest intellectual and spiritual development. The
existence of this system is another proof of the intellectual
superiority of the ancient Hindus over all other peoples."
(source: Hindu
Superiority - By Har Bilas Sarda p. 294).
Carl
G. Jung (1875-1961) the eminent Swiss psychologist in 1935,
described yoga as 'one of the greatest
things the human mind has ever created.' Harold
Coward says that the main basis of Jung's understanding of karma
came from his study of Patanjali's
Yoga Sutras. Jung formulated his archetypes in terms of
the karma theory. Says Jung: "We may accept the idea of
karma only if we understand it as 'psychic heredity' in the very
widest sense of the word." In his later thought Jung saw
karma as the motivation for knowledge that leads from past life
into this life and onto future lives.
Michael
Pym author has observed:
"Yoga is a deadly serious business, requiring more
courage, more intelligence, more will-power, and even more solid
common sense than most of us possess. There is more to it than
vague speculation or iridescent dreams. Not less but more, hard,
daily grind; not less but, at times, more discouragement and
flatness; not less but more, study, more patience, more
self-control. Modesty, purity, complete and unostentatious
sincerity, that inward loveliness which perfumes the whole being
– that is something of yoga. Nothing is more quickly felt,
more remarkable, than the intense sweetness, the touching
simplicity of the true yogi."
(source:
The Power of India
- By Michael Pym
p. 168-169).
Brahaspati,
the God of the Planet Jupiter. Orissa. 12th century.
(image
source: The Wonder that was India - By A L Basham
p. 199).
***
Georg
Feuerstein founder-director of the Yoga Research and
Education Center in Northern California, has describes:
Yoga as a "spectacularly
multifaceted phenomena". Yoga is thus the
generic name for the various Indian paths of ecstatic
self-transcendence, or the methodical transmutation of
consciousness to the point of liberation from the spell of the
ego-personality. It is the psycho-spiritual technology specific
to the great civilization of India."
"The
desire to transcend the human condition, to go beyond our
ordinary consciousness and personality, is a deeply rooted
impulse that is as old as self-aware humanity. But nowhere on
Earth has the impulse toward transcendence found more consistent
and creative expression than on the Indian peninsula. The
civilization of India has spawned an almost over whelming
variety of spiritual beliefs, practices, and approaches. These
are all targeted at a dimension of reality that far eclipses our
individual human lives and the orderly cosmos of our human
perception and imagination. That dimension has variously been
called God, the Supreme Being, the Absolute, the
(transcendental) Self, the Spirit, the Unconditional and the
Eternal."
(source: The
Yoga Tradition: History, Religion, Philosophy and Practice - by Georg
Feuerstein p xxv - 3
and Yoga: The Technology of Ecstasy - By Georg Feuerstein
p. 15). For more on Georg
Feuerstein refer to Quotes121-140).
David
Frawley also known as
Pandit Vamadeva Shastri,
the eminent teacher and
practitioner of Ayurvedic medicine and Vedic astrology, founder
of American Institute of Vedic Studies in Santa Fe, New Mexico writes:
"Ayurveda
and Yoga can be called sister sciences of 'self-healing and
self-realisation'. Both evolved from a Vedic background in
ancient India, based on the same philosophy, sharing many
practices. Ayurveda, the 'yogic form of healing', is aimed at
bringing us back into harmony with our true Self or Atman. The
great Ayurvedic teacher Charaka defines Ayurveda as the harmony
of body, prana, mind and soul. Patanjali defines yoga as
controlling the mind in order to realise the Purusha."
"Yoga
is the spiritual aspect of Ayurveda. Ayurveda is the therapeutic
branch of Yoga."
(source:
Ayurveda
& Yoga: Healing Touch - by David Frawley and
Ayurveda
and the Mind - by David Frawley p.5).
Emma Hawkridge states:
"Yoga is a philosophy, and a stern and relentless one. The
word yoga means yoke - to yoke or harness the wild horses of the
senses or to join the individual to the All. Yoga intends not
merely to expound a theory, but to practice it to the extreme
conclusion. It is a philosophy plus a technique believed to give
intuitive realization. Yoga follows more nearly the Sankhya
which saw Creator and Creation as separate realities, like a
dancer and his audience. Yoga believed that matter - which is
real - and mind stuff - which is also real though changeful and
sorrowing - enmesh the unchanging soul."
(source : Indian Gods and Kings - by
Emma Hawkridge p. 5-53).
Stefano De Santis
(1957 - ) author of Nature and Man, writes:
The system of Yoga, which follows the main Sankhyan views,
the real being of man is the spirit, and that the spirit is
free. The system of Yoga, which follows the main Sankhyan
ontological principles, is a discipline meant to help man
realize his spiritual nature and discover his own freedom. The
living conditions of the man-in-the-world are seen by Yoga, man
gets lost in the effort to acquire more and more things, in
becoming more powerful, in gaining more appreciation and love.
So he alienates his freedom in exchange for objects of
gratification. In this way he gets entangled in the world nexus.
Yoga says that discipline is the path to freedom. It does not
propose a discipline that leads man away from nature, but a
discipline leading man away from the alienating attachments to
false natures, i.e., away from his mental projections falsely
imposed over reality. This means that yoga is a discipline which
enables man to discover his true Nature. Because, according to
Yoga, man’s essence is spiritual; and his true nature may be
described as freedom.
Yoga literally means “junction”. As is the case with
Sankhya, Yoga concepts are present in the Upanishads, where the
term Yoga signifies the union of the personal soul with the soul
of the universe. Among all the different formulations of Yoga,
Patanjali’s system is the closet to Sankhya’s doctrines, and
his Yoga Sutras are universally acknowledged as the highest
authority on Yoga as a darsana.
When Yoga was already well established in the Indian
subcontinent, the “humanistic” and “rationalist” Greeks
had not yet arrived at a solution to their problem of whether to
consider the psyche as being made of air or of water, or if it
were a kind of “shadow” present inside the bodies.
(source: Nature and Man: The Hindu
Perspective - by Stefano De Santis volume I p 73 - 85). Also
Refer to Yogaunveiled.com
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Lord
Krsna - Master of Yoga
"The
supreme bliss is found only by the tranquil yogi, whose passions
have been stilled. His desires washed away, the yogi easily
achieves union with the Eternal. He sees his Self in all beings,
and all beings in his Self, for his heart is steady in
Yoga."
~ The Bhagavad Gita
The
Bhagavad Gita, the most popular and authoritative work on the
subject of transcendence in India. Most
of the principles of Hindu philosophy are summed up in the
Bhagavad Gita as the sermon of Lord Krishna to Arjuna on the
battlefield of Kurukshetra. The Gita, as it is commonly known,
is a poem of seven hundred verses spread over 18 chapters in the
great Hindu epic of the Mahabharata which narrates the story of
the descendants of King Bharata, popularly known as Kauravas and
Pandavas, who fought a destructive civil war about five thousand
years ago.
The greatest
book on Yoga, the Bhagavad Gita was delivered by Lord Krishna on
the eve of one of the fiercest battles fought on Indian soil. The Gita is
held to be the textbook of theistic Yoga par excellence. Each
chapter propounds a different type of Yoga. Lord
Krishna has been addressed as Mahayogi in the Mahabharata. Lord
Krishna's teaching in the Bhagavad Gita have inspired some of
the greatest mystics of the Hindu tradition. Simply stated, the
human being only achieves union with God in all of His aspects
through a fusion of contemplation and action. God is after all
both Eternal Being and Eternal Becoming; in contemplative
knowledge of our eternal identity with Brahman, we rest in God's
Being, like a drop of water in the all-surrounding ocean; in
enacting the divine will selflessly, we participate in the
transforming activity of God.
The
Bhagavad Gita is sometimes described as being in some sense a
book of yoga. It emphasizes self-discipline and control over the
senses as essential techniques of a yoga that it defines as the
"balance" of the individual and universal
consciousness. "The wavering, restless mind goes wandering
on", Krishna advises the despondent Arjuna: "you must
draw it back and have it focused every time on the soul...Yoga
is a harmony, he later continues, "a harmony in eating and
resting, in sleeping and keeping awake: a perfection in whatever
one does." The yoga that Lord Krishna expounds in the Gita
is the karma (action) yoga of self control, and bhakti yoga -
the way of "devotion". In the Bhagavad
Gita, Krsna explains to Arjuna the various routes by which to
achieve full consciousness of Atman and therefore perfect unity
with Brahman. Lord Krishna was called Yogesvara
because he was able to think of Yoga as means of
achieving the goal by way of self realization.
"This
immutable Yoga I proclaimed to Vivasvat. Vivasvat imparted it to
Manu, and Manu declared it to Ikshvaku. Thus handed down from
one to another, the royal seers learned it."
The Gita
suggests four important ways to attain moksha - salvation. These
four ways are four yogas: Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga, Raja Yoga and
Bhakti Yoga. Jnana is the ultimate state, but it has to be
reached with the help of other yogas such as Raja Yoga, Karma
Yoga and Bhakti Yoga, the latter two being more popular. Even
each of these yogas are independently capable of getting moksha
to the practicant; but as the aspirant proceeds in his yogic
experience, he necessarily tends to acquire elements of the
other yogas and attains perfection because perfection is the
ultimate goal of all the yogas.
Lord
Krishna - The Master of Yoga
Refer
to Deva
Premal music - Dakshina
***
Lord
Krsna says:
"Fix
your mind on me, Arjuna, practice this yoga, and trust me.
Listen, and you'll start to realize just what I am."
"Of all the endless thousands of men, only one here and
there seeks enlightenment, and among those few there are even
fewer who know me as I really am."
"There
are three states in nature, three strands, three gunas - and
they come from me. They are the virtuous sattva, the passionate
rajas and the dark and heavy tamas. They are in me, but I am not
in them. They serve to snare and delude the whole world, which
can't perceive that I lie beyond them, unchanging and undying.
Out of these gunas is woven my maya, a power that is hard to
escape. Only those that trust me can get beyond that uncanny
force."
The Bhagavad Gita speaks about very high level of reality.
The basic setting of the Gita is a battle ground. In the middle of the most significant battle of his life, on
the field of dharma (responsible action), Arjuna, who is by type
and deep inclination a warrior, is confused about right action
and about his responsibility in the face of the conflicting
demands of the different levels of dharma. He turns to Krishna,
now acting as his charioteer, for help and instruction. The
Bhagavad Gita, which means song of the Blessed One, contains the
teaching given by Lord Krishna to Arjuna in his hour of crisis of
conscience.
"Fix
your mind on me, Arjuna, practice this Yoga, and trust me.
Listen, and you'll start to realize just what I am"
The
Bhagavad Gita, a world beloved, timeless classic was treasured
by American writers from Emerson to T S Eliot.
(image
source: Philosophy of Hinduism - By
Galav p. 94).
***
It is clear right from the very beginning of the book that
the teaching is about dharma. Dharma is essentially at all
scales; at the scale of the entire cosmos, of society, of the
family, and of the individual. The central subject of the Gita
is dharma and the part we have in maintaining order – at all
scales! Thus the Gita is a dialogue between the Dark Lord and
the white pupil, between the Infinite and the finite, between
the Unknown Mystery of the other shore and a wayfarer setting
out from this shore, apprehensive and unsure. It is an exchange
between different levels, within ourselves as well as outside.
Krishna himself says ‘From me is all this world (BG 7:7), or
‘This whole cosmos is strung on me like pearls on a string’,
and ‘I reside in the heart of every being’ (BG 13:2). In
these and in similar expressions, Krishna indicates that he
operates at the largest scale and at the highest level. Arjuna,
on the other hand, is confused about action in a particular
situation, at a very different scale and level.
The
general outlook of the Gita is that every action, even the
smallest, has a cosmic background, even though we may not be
aware of it. The idea that a human being has the possibility -
not the actuality but the possibility of being a microcosmic
image of the whole cosmos is an idea which is central to Indian
thought. A human being is called a Kshudra Brahmanda, a small
Brahmanda, the little egg of the Vastness. The whole universe is
Brahmanda (the egg of Brahman, the Vastness) and a human being
is a small Brahmanda. Arjuna must do on his human scale what
Krishna does on a cosmic scale namely, he must assume
responsibility for the maintenance of order.
The
Bhagavad Gita preaches reintegration through the way of action
(karma yoga). Having removed all attachment and established
oneself in the path of realization, one should remain in action,
keeping an even mind, whether, one's actions bear fruit or not.
It is this equanimity of mind which is named yoga. The
Blessed Lord said: "Fearlessness, cleanness of life,
steadfastness in the Yoga of wisdom, alms-giving,
self-restraint, sacrifice and study of the Scriptures, austerity
and straightforwardness; Harmlessness, truth, absence of wrath,
absence of crookedness, compassion to living beings,
uncovetousness, mildness, modesty, vigor, forgiveness, purity,
absence of envy or pride..."
The Bhagavad
Gita Yoga may be called 'Anasakti-Yoga' - the Yoga
of non-attachment. Lord Krishna speaks again and
again of the evil of contact with externals and exhorts all to
cut down the tree of worldliness with the axe of non-attachment.
The world is sustained by desire and affection for things
perishable. Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, three primordial properties
of Prakriti, constitute the stuff of the world of the senses.
Lord Krishna is the Supreme Self, and everyone should seek
shelter under Him, this is the path to Perfection, to
Immortality.
The gist of
Krishna's teaching is given in the following stanza:
"Steadfast in Yoga perform actions, abandoning attachment
and remaining the same in success and failure, O Dhananjaya.
Yoga is called 'even-ness' (samatva) (BG II.48).0. The
advice of Krishna is designed to draw the attention of the
devotee from the external to the inner world, for the Lord, the
intangible and ineffable "Knower", the wonder of
creation, resides in us. The crude material
instruments of science, however delicate, precise, and sensitive
they might me, cannot reach this holy of holies, this Knowing
principle which, lying disguised in the savants, is himself
their inventor, designer and architect. It is no material
science, but a loftier discipline that alone can hope to explore
this most mysterious inner universe.
Yet, like a
modern teacher, Krishna, the God incarnate, does not impose this
doctrine on his disciple or on his audience, for that matter. He
only counsels Arjuna, and after giving all his lecture, in the
end, He tells that "It is my opinion; you are at liberty to
do whatever you think is right for you."
This
is the greatest example of the freedom in God worship in
Hinduism when the Lord God Himself does not compel people to
have faith in only Him or incite in them fears of doom and
damnation as punishment for disbelieving.
The
Royal Path of Devotion
Sri Krishna
said:
"Whatever
I am offered in devotion with a pure heart - a leaf, a flower,
or water - I partake of that love offering. Whatever you do,
make it an offering to me - the food you eat, the sacrifice you
make, the help you give, even your suffering. In this way you
will be freed from the bondage of karma, and from its results
both pleasant and painful. Then, firm in renunciation and yoga,
with your heart free, you will come to me."
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Yoga:
The Royal Path to Freedom
Ascetic
- yogic exercises having attained a detachment of senses which
makes him impervious to the surrounding snow and ice in the
Himalayas.
(source: India
- By Adrian Mayer p. 40).
***
"Yoga
means control of the contents of your mind. When your thoughts
are stilled, your consciousness experiences only itself. But
when thoughts begin to flow, you get caught up in them and the
images they place before you."
Patanjali's
Yoga Sutra says" Yoga consists in the intentional stopping
of the spontaneous activities of the mind-stuff. The mind, by
nature, is in constant agitation. According
to Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, the classical text on yoga, the
purpose of yoga is to lead to a silence of the mind. This
silence is the prerequisite for the mind to be able to
accurately reflect objective reality without introducing its own
subjective distortions. Yoga does not create this reality, which
is above the mind, but only prepares the mind to apprehend it,
by assisting in the transformation of the mind - from an
ordinary mind full of noise, like a whole army of frenzied and
drunken monkeys - to a still mind.
According
to the Hindu theory, it is continually transforming itself into
the shapes of the objects of which it becomes aware. Its subtle
substance assumes the forms and colors of everything offered to
it by the senses, imagination, memory, and emotions. It is
endowed, in other words, with a power of transformation, or
metamorphosis, which is boundless and never put at rest. The
protean, ever-moving character of the mind, as described both in
Sankhya and in Yoga, is comparable to Emanuel Swedenborg's
(1688-1772) idea that "recipients are images," ie.
that the receptive organs assume on the spiritual plane the form
and nature of whatever objects they receive and contain. (refer
to Divine
Love and Wisdom - by E. Swedenborg p. 288).
The
mind is thus in a continuous ripple, like the surface of a pond
beneath a breeze, shimmering with broken, ever-changing,
self-scattering reflections. Left to itself it would never stand
like a perfect mirror, crystal clear, in its "own
state," unruffled and reflecting the inner man; for in
order that this should take place, all the sense impressions
coming from without would have to be stopped, as well as the
impulses from within; memories, emotional pressures, and the
incitements of the imaginations. Yoga,
however, stills the mind. And the moment this
quieting is accomplished, the inner man, the life-monad stands
revealed - like a jewel at the bottom of a quieted pond.
The
aim of yoga is the transformation of human beings from their
natural form to a perfected form. Through yoga a person can
become samskrita (literally, well made, well put together) and
thus no longer be wholly at the mercy of natural forces and
inclinations. The undertaking of yoga concerns the entire
person, resulting in a reshaping of mind, body and
emotions.
The
aims of the royal or Raja Yoga, as it is called, are high and
noble even from the physical side; and they are wide and high.
The body and mind must be brought to heel as an obedient dog,
the reasoning and logical mind the same.
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Kundalini
- The Power of the Serpent
 In
Sanskrit, the coiled serpent is used to represent Kundalini, the
energy that rises from the sacrum -- the bone at the base of the
spine -- and results in enlightenment when it properly reaches
the crown of the head through the practice of Kundalini yoga,
which channels the energy along the six chakras, or energy
centers, that correspond to the number of intersections of the
serpent on the caduceus. Literally, Kundalini means "The
Serpent Power." In the Caduceus - The Winged Staff, the
serpents intersect each other at six points. i.e. the six
Chakras. The term Kundalini means "she who is coiled".
This symbolism simply suggests that the Kundalini is normally in
a state of dormancy or latency.
The
most significant aspect of the subtle body is the
psycho-spiritual force known as the Kundalini-Shakti. What is
this mysterious presence in the human body? The Kundalini in
course of its ascension unfolds a perceptual flash of
revelation. According to Kundalini Yoga, inner perception is
possible by stimulating an eye center (ajna-chakra) in which the
latest conscious energy is locked. It is located between the
eye-brows, in the middle of the forehead. By
unlocking this energy the inward eye is opened and the Yogi has
a vision of Shiva and Shakti and also of the truth of
things.
According
to Indian tradition, Kundalini is not merely the energy system
in the human body designed for the evolution of the brain and
the rise to a higher dimension of consciousness, but also as the
instrument of cosmic life energy, the stupendous power behind
the ceaseless drama of life and the eternal motion of the
stellar universe. The secret of the Serpent Power was known in
Mesopotamia and to the Native Americans. Frank
Walters author of Mexico
Mystique, says: "The now famous Hopi Snake
Dance in which the priests dance with snakes in their mouths is
the most dramatic ritual still emphasizing the serpent."
Considering the complex and rare nature of the phenomenon of
Kundalini it is unlikely that its knowledge could have developed
independently in different parts of the world. The more likely
position is that it must have travelled from one original
source, where it was initially developed for centuries by a
growing civilization, to other places on the earth. It is
reasonable to conclude that the practices connected with this
hidden force must have penetrated to America from India during
the Vedic or pre-Vedic periods.
(For more information, refer to chapter India
on Pacific Waves?). From very early times we see
the portrait of the Lord of Serpents or Kundalini with Shesha-Nag,
forming the couch of Lord Vishnu on the Ocean of Milk. The
picture has come unaltered from the remote past, perhaps from
the time of the Vedas, and is a superb allegoric representation
of the Serpent Power and the state of consciousness to which it
leads. The word Patanjali in Sanskrit literally means "one
fallen in the palm of the hand." There is another legend
that he fell as a small snake in the palm of Panini. Lord Shiva
has the crescent moon and serpent symbol on the head and so did
the Pharaoh Ramses II with serpent symbol on the headress.
Traditions
of Saints
Gorakhnath,
(10-11th century C.E.) the great siddha of medieval age, holds that an individual can
have an access to higher planes of consciousness through
awakening of kundalini.
Bhartrihari,
the royal saint in Vakyapadiya
(I.38) states: "The words of those
who, with their divine vision see things which are beyond the
senses and unknowable, cannot be set aside by reasoning."
"The knowledge of the past and the future of those whose
insight has manifested itself and whose mind stuff is not
tainted, differs in no way from perception."
Kabir
(1398-1518) Indian Mystic Philosopher declares:
Sufism
insists on quest of the One Supreme Eternal through "inner
perception" and good conduct. Imam
Ghazali the great Persian scholar refers to the pure
eye of the heart without which the spiritual world cannot be
seen. He makes a specific reference to it: "An eye is
created within the mind of every man but it is covered by him
with passions and earthly desires and nothing of the spiritual
world can be seen with that eye of heart unless the screen over
it is removed."
Intuition
as integral insight in its essence is attributed to the Divine
Mind. Galileo Galilei
(1564-1642) scientist, condemned of heresy by the Church for his
belief that the Earth rotates round the sun, says: "We proceed in step-by-step discussion
from inference to inference, whereas He conceives through mere
intuition."
Giordano
Bruno (1548-1600) philosopher
was excommunicated and suffered a cruel death for his dangerous
ideas. He
was kept in a dark dungeon for eight years by the Church and
roasted to death by fire. He observes: "The divine mind
contemplates everything in one simple act at once and without
succession, that is, without the difference between the past,
present and future; To Him all things are present."
However,
the Divine is not alien to man but in a sense identical to man. Meister
Eckhart (1260-1328) Christian
mystics declares:
"The
eye with which we see God is the same as the eye with which God
sees us."
Joseph
Leeming (1897-1968) -
In a recent publication, Yoga
and the Bible: the yoga of the Divine word, has
endeavored to show that the basic teachings of the New Testament
and some parts of the Bible are essentially similar to the
fundamental truths taught for ages by the teachers of Shabad
Yoga; Shabad, meaning divine or inner sound, refers to the power
which in the Bible is called the Word or Logos. The
Yoga of the divine word, or Shabad Yoga, is a system of
meditation and other spiritual practices, which takes its
followers to the highest attainable states of spiritual
consciousness.
Jacob
Boehme (1575-1624) Christian
Gnostics says:
"When
both the intellect and the will are quiet and passive, the
eternal hearing, seeing and speaking shall be revealed in
thee."
Evelyn
Underhill (1850- 1941) mystic
states:
"Superhuman
knowledge is obtainable by illumination."
Samuel
Coleridge (1772-1834) the well known British poet and
critic says:
"The
soul in man is his proper being, his truest self, the man in the
man...Nothing is wanted but the eye which is the eye of this
soul."
Ralph
Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) the eminent American
transcendentalist, and writer states:
""Standing
on the bare ground - my head bathed by the blithe air, and
uplifted into infinite space, - all means egotism vanishes. I
become a transparent eyeball. I am nothing: I see all; the
currents of the Universal Being Circulate through me; I am part
or particle of God."
For
more on Emerson, refer to chapter Quotes
1-20).
The
inner perception or the divine eye - Divya Chakskhu is a vehicle
of poise and perfection, prophecy and power, bliss and
benevolence and of tremendous self-development and supreme
fulfillment. Modern science, by narrowing the vision and
attitude of man to the sensible domain and by neglecting the
claims of the innermost being, has released only a lop-sided
view of life and the universe. This has stopped man's evolution
from instinctual-intellectual to intuitional-psychic level. Yoga
brings about inner discipline and inner equilibrium.
(source:
Divya Chakshu Yoga:
Exploring the Divine Eye - By Bhim Sen Gupta Ajit
Publication. Chandigarh 1991
p. 61-65 and Hinduism
- By Linda Johnsen p. 42 and India
and World Civilization - By D P. Singhal
chapter III p. 291).
Center
or Lotuses
(image source: The Serpent Power - By Sir John
Woodroffe).
***
Chakras
In
Yoga there are Chakras or certain psychic centers in our body
which are connected with certain paranormal powers latent in
Man. These powers or "Miraculous faculties" are called
Siddhies, in a perfected Yogi or a Master known as "Siddha."
The
yogi who has attained complete mastery over the technique of
breathing, and who has been able by this means to isolate
himself totally from the external world, succeeds in
"seeing" the interior of his body or, in other words
acquires intuitive knowledge of the secret mandala that his
subtle body forms. Rather
like electricity, the life force (prana) condensed in the subtle
body travels along pathways called nadi, in Sanskrit. The nadis
are energy currents. Commonly, the Yoga scripture mention 72,000
nadis in all. Having unraveled the tangled web of the
nadis (currents/pathways), he reaches the end of his journey of initiation and penetrates
to the most inward part of himself, at the base of the trunk,
where there is a cave located at the foot of the cosmic
mountain. In this cave the yogi perceives three things: a fire
of glowing embers, a sleeping serpent, and the threefold orifice
of the three principal channels, the ida, the pingala, and the
sushumna:
"The
divine power,
like Kundalini shines
like the stem of a young lotus;
like a snake, coiled around upon herself,
she holds her tail in her mouth
and lies resting half asleep
at the base of the body."
The
great task is to awaken this serpent,
which means, in symbolic terms, to achieve
conscious awareness of the presence within us of shakti or
"cosmic power" and begin to use it in the
service of spiritual progress.
Seven
Chakras are located within the subtle body. They are
arranged vertically along the axial channel.
-
Muladhara
- situated at the base (mula, root) of the trunk
-
Svadhisthana
- located at the level of the sexual organs
-
Manipura
- located on the latitude of the navel
-
Anahata
- at the level of the heart
-
Vishuddha
- level of the throat
-
Ajna
- located at the level of the forehead
-
Sahasrara
- or thousand rayed. it is a simple circle of which we are
told only that it radiates splendor.
By
forcing the life energy (prana) along the axial energy until it
rushes upward like a volcanic eruption, flooding the crown
center and thereby leading to the desired condition of blissful
ecstasy (samadhi). The life force which is responsible for the
functioning of the body-mind, and the Kundalini-shakti are both
an aspect of the Divine Power or Shakti. It we compare the life
force to electricity, the Kundalini can be likened to a high
voltage electric charge. Or if we regard the life force as a
pleasant breeze, the Kundalini is comparable to a
hurricane.
Sir
John Woodroffe (1865-1936) the well known
British scholar and
author of several books including The
Serpent Power has
noted that Shakti is Power, or cosmic Capacity, and as such is
Bliss (ananda), Supraconsciousness (cit), and Love (prema). Some
authorities call it "Divine Intelligence." For
more on Sir John Woodroffe refer to chapter on Quotes
251-270).
Also
Refer to Yogaunveiled.com
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World
wide popularity of Yoga
As many as 20
million Americans practice yoga in pursuit of physical or mental fitness, with a
little Om along the way.
Recent surveys
reveal that more than eleven million Americans currently do yoga
on a regular basis - in YMCAs, health clubs, private studios,
senior centers, living room floors, and retreat centers around
the country. The Miami Dolphins and the Chicago Bulls are doing
it. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are doing it. Sting,
Madonna, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Raquel Welch, Woody Harrelson,
Jane Fonda, and Ali McGraw are doing it. With almost alarming
rapidity, practices whose secrets have been handed down for
thousands of years from adept to student, have landed on Main
Street USA.
(source: Yoga
and the Quest for the True Self - By Stephen Cope
p. xi).
Sachin Tendulkar, football's
Eddie George, Shannon Sharpe and Amani Toomer; baseball pitchers
Barry Zito and Al Leiter, star hockey goalie Sean Burke and NBA
superstar Kevin Garnett and Shaquille O'Neal, as well as pro
golfers and tennis player, Pete Sampras,
Leander Paes, Venus Williams, Serena Williams, John McEnroe,
Madonna, Cameron Diaz, Jamie Lee Curtis and Raquel
Welch of whom are enthusiastic yoga practitioners.
(Refer to Sachin
Tendulkar takes up Yoga - BBC and Athletes
Practicing Yoga).
Yoga
makes headway in business schools
Walk
through the halls of the
University
of
Chicago
's Graduate School of Business during the school
year, and along with students cramming facts for macroeconomics
and operating strategy you may encounter some students
stretching their bodies and doing something really unusual for
business school students: relaxing. They're members of
Chicago
's yoga club, a student group founded earlier this year by two
GSB students and which last term attracted 15 to 35 regular
attendees to classes in the school's
Harper
Center
. The classes are "time to shut your brain off," says
Jody Kirchner, one of the group's founders.
Yoga
is also on the radar at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management,
where Matthew McGarvey, a rising second-year student, wants to
start a yoga class during Sloan's Innovation Period, a week in
the middle of each semester that allows students to explore
outside interests.
At
Harvard
Business
School, restorative yoga, a form of yoga designed to
promote relaxation and stress relief, has become more popular
among MBA students, according to Carolyn Gould, the program
manager for Shad Hall, the gym for HBS students and faculty.
"We live such fast-paced lives," Gould says.
"It's something everyone wants and needs everywhere. It's
not specific to Harvard." At
Northwestern
University
's Kellogg School of Management, rising second-year
MBA student Priti Mody is the president of the Yoga at Kellogg,
which has more than 200 subscribers on its listserv.
(source: Yoga
makes headway in business schools - By
Andrea
Castillo The
Economic Times July 17, 2008).
Yoga Asanas
(image
source: Living Yoga - By Christy
Turlington).
Notable
Western students of Yoga have included the British writers Major
Francis Yeats-Brown (1886–1944), Aldous Huxley, and
Christopher Isherwood; the Romanian-born writer on religion
Mircea Eliade, and the British violinist Yehudi Menuhin
.
***
According to BBC
News, "Madonna
is a big fan. So is Gwyneth
Paltrow, Sting, Mariel Hemingway, Uma Thurman and
Christy Turlington. Aldous Huxley
(philosopher), J. Krishnamurthy (philosopher), Queen Mother of
Belgium, Clifford Curzon (pianist) were all famous pupils of
B.K.S. Iyengar - the famous yoga teacher and author of Light
on Yoga (1964). An increasing number of people have taken up the
ancient eastern health and fitness practice." Kristin Davis gives youth yoga high marks.
"Yoga has been around 5,000 years. It doesn't matter if actresses are doing
it. People are responding to yoga on a deeper level. It's not a fad." Actor-turned-Health Minister Shatrughan
Sinha was today all praise for Yoga and said his
practicing of the physical exercise for nearly two
decades has kept him fit.
Pregnant
Women in Los Angeles are turning to Yoga for Exercise and Comfort, according to
LA Times. Washington Times says that from suburban recreation rooms to the halls
of justice, people in the Washington area are experiencing the benefits of a
full-body workout with yoga while calming their minds. Even Supreme Court
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, according to this report, asked that yoga be taught
at the court.
Doctors
study the health benefits of yoga - Physicians in the U.S. and abroad are
conducting a variety of studies gauging whether yoga offers health benefits
beyond general fitness and can relieve symptoms associated with serious medical
problems. Early results suggest that a regular yoga regimen -- involving a
variety of postures, deep breathing and meditation exercises -- can offer relief
for patients suffering from asthma, chronic back pain, arthritis and obsessive
compulsive disorder, among other problems. Most of the research has taken place
in India where yoga originated 5,000 years ago. But today, several reputable
American doctors are pursuing randomized yoga studies, and the National
Institutes of Health is funding clinical trials of yoga for treating insomnia
and multiple sclerosis. Mental health: Doctors and researchers are increasingly
intrigued by yoga's potential to treat mental-health problems. One study,
published in CNS Spectrums, a peer-reviewed psychiatric medical journal,
examined 22 adults who suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder, an
often-disabling condition that causes odd compulsions, such as excessive
counting. Half the group used standard meditation, while the other half used "Kundalini
yoga," which requires patients to focus both eyes on the tip of
their nose, press their tongues to the roof of their mouths, open their jaws and
breathe through their noses for at least six minutes. After three months, the
yoga group posted a 40 percent improvement, compared with 14 percent in the non-
yoga group. Later both groups received the yoga treatment, and after a year
posted an average improvement of 70 percent.
Yoga gives immune boost to
breast cancer survivors
In breast cancer survivors, the Iyengar method of
yoga not only promotes psychological well-being, but seems to
offer immune system benefits as well, according to research
reported Monday at the American Physiological Society meeting in
Washington
,
DC
.
The Iyengar method, created by
B. K. S. Iyengar, "is considered to be one of the more
active forms of yoga," lead researcher and presenter Pamela
E. Schultz from Washington State University, Spokane, told
Reuters Health. "It still has the meditative component, but
it's been shown to have a physical output equivalent to a
moderate-intensity exercise," she explained. Psychosocial
tests showed that the "demands of illness," which
reflects the burden of hardship of being a breast cancer
survivor, fell in the yoga participants. "Psychosocial
variables indicated improved quality of life with Iyengar
yoga," Schultz said. Importantly, these improvements
correlated with decreased activation of an important immune
system protein called NF-kB, which is a marker of stress in the
body. "So it's possible," Schultz said, "that
decreased activation of NF-kB indicates decreased stress in the
body, which would be a positive thing. NF-kB can be activated by
any type of stress in the body, like physical stress and mental
stress. "Schultz plans to continue her research by looking
at different immune system proteins to see if they too show
changes for the better, "which would confirm immune and
psychosocial benefits of Iyengar yoga."
(source:
Yoga
gives immune boost to breast cancer survivors - yahoonews.com).
 Indian
Military gurus turn to yoga - India's
military research industry is to launch experiments with yoga to sharpen the
skills of troops in modern warfare and help cope with the stress of battling
domestic insurgencies. "Yoga
reduces wear and tear of the heart and on our objective scientific scales we
have seen it produce mental tranquility, greater alertness, flexibility and
enhanced tolerance to cold."
From Crime to
Divine - Prison Yoga an alternative solution to anger, fear and violence - South
Indian Yoga Master Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev is conducting yoga programs in prisons
in the United States and India that transforms hardened criminals into beings
becoming aware of their divine nature.Even the country credited with the
development of the ancient science of yoga resisted opening its prison doors to
the practice – at first. But the longing to offer himself to an often
forgotten segment of humanity propelled Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, a yogi, realized
master and mystic from South India, to persist in an eight-month vigil in 1992
to obtain the opportunity to conduct his first yoga program in the Coimbatore
Central Prison. From the amazing results of his initial contact with 67
life-term criminals grew the successful yoga programs that are currently offered
in all prisons in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu at the request of prison
authorities.
(source:
PRWeb).
Cambodia
Rediscovers Yoga
Cambodia
was home to one of the greatest Hindu empires, until the fall of the Khmer
empire in 1431. Ancient carvings in local temples show yogis in deep meditation.
The art is long forgotten, but today, yoga studios in the capital are
increasingly reaching out to disadvantaged communities to share the health
benefits of this healing practice. (Refer to chapter on Sacred
Angkor).
"Yoga
Cambodia
" started a training initiative in January 2007 to help remedy the lack of
yoga studios here. Their objective is to train Cambodians in the meditation
techniques and exercises of yoga, enabling them in turn to teach others,
particularly through outreach activities to poor communities who might not
otherwise have access to yoga and meditation-based support. Their students are
feeling the benefits of this ancient practice which is so popular abroad.
(source: Helping
the Needy,
Cambodia
Rediscovers Yoga - hinduismtoday.com).
Yoga and meditation in Tihar Jail in
India - India has seen how humane means cut through better than the crack of a
whip.
Yoga new
‘mantra’ for pilots - Yoga
may soon become the new “mantra” for Indian Air Force (IAF)
pilots to cope with the stress of flying fighter planes.
The
proposal for introducing yoga in the IAF has been mooted by none
other than the IAF Chief, Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy
himself. Addressing the International Conference on Aerospace
Medicine in Delhi recently, the Air Chief, noting that yoga is a
great stress reliever, lamented the fact that it was not being
used as extensively as it should be in India to grapple with
various mental and psychological problems.
Quoting
examples from some Western Air Forces manuals, the Air Chief
said they had included yoga as a stress buster. “India,
which gave this scientific art to the world, is unfortunately
neglecting it" he added. Air Chief Marshal
Krishnaswamy felt it was high time that the IAF pilots practiced
the “asanas” to combat gravitational pull related problems.
(source: Yoga
new ‘mantra’ for pilots
-
Tribuneindia.com).
Exercise,
yoga can help multiple sclerosis patients: Study
Researchers at the
Oregon Health and Science University(OHSU) have found that yoga
or exercise assists multiple sclerosis (MS) patients
with fatigue. The study was conducted and funded within the
Oregon Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in
Neurological Disorders (ORCCAMIND) at OHSU.
(source: Times
of India April 4. 2003).
Thoppu
Karanam - Super brain Yoga
The
mental and physical health benefits of the ancient Hindu
practice of “Thopukarranams”
Thopukkaranams
(in Tamil) and Sanskrit
“Dvau-bhuja-karnam were traditionally performed by
Hindus in front of the deity of Lord
Ganesha, as part of the worship ritual. This
practice involved crossing the arms in the front of the chest,
and holding the right ear lobe
with the left hand and the left ear
lobe with the right hand, and performing a series of
squats in front of Lord Ganesha, in the temple or the puja room
at home.
It
was also widely used in Hindu schools, especially in the old
times, as form of punishment for a erring child. The misbehaving
child, or one who has neglected to do his or her homework, would
be asked by the teacher to stand in the corner and do series of
Thopukkaranams.
Doing
Thopukarranams in the front of Lord Ganesha (Lord of Wisdom).
Super Brain Yoga - Now, the western scientists have found that
this practice stimulates the brain, and increases and improves
intelligence, reduces behavioral
problems in children, and minimizes the risks of
age-related Alzheimer's disease
and Dementia.
Refer to
The theft of yoga - By Dr. Aseem Shukla - Hindu American Foundation
***
Now, the western
scientists have found that this practice stimulates the brain,
and increases and improves intelligence, reduces behavioral
problems in children, and minimizes the risks of
age-related Alzheimer's disease
and Dementia. The scientific findings were reported
in the CBS news in the
US
, and can be watched at youtube. Most of our Indian/Hindu kids have done (and still
continue to do) this exercise (or prayer) before Lord Ganesha
(especially in our younger days -- just before important
occasions or final exams). If an American does the same thing,
we say "It is Super Brain Yoga".
(source: The
mental and physical health benefits of the ancient Hindu
practice of “Thopukarranams”
).
Yoga
craze in UK offers new avenues for Indian designers
Yoga
has been in vogue for some time among the likes of pop queen
Madonna and celebrities like Sadie Frost but this month, it
officially goes mainstream in Britain. It's a come-on cue for
yoga instructors in India and fashion designers like Rohit Bal,
Adarsh Gill and Ritu Beri. Yoga
expert Aina Wethal attracts at her Pineapple Fitness centre at
Covent Garden in London, disciples who are as keen on fashion as
much as they are on yoga. She believes that clothes must flow
when one is doing yoga, so they must be light and breathable. High
Street chains led by Marks and Spencer (M&S) have apparently
realised not only the craze for yoga in the celebrities for "inner
strength and realisation of peace"...M&S are
about to launch a Yoga and Pilates range of nifty clothes,
called Mind and Body, in stores throughout Britain. Apart from
M&S, other chains from French Connection to Gap and even
family friendly brands like Boden, are featuring clothes in
their ranges that are apt for yoga. They now join the sportswear
brands like Nike's and Adidas.
(source: Yoga
craze in UK offers new avenues for Indian designers - The
Hindustan Times Date: May 28, 2003).
Got Stress?
Try Yoga, Study Suggests
Many
people turn to yoga to relieve stress, and new study findings
suggest they're doing the right thing. U.S. researchers
discovered that after a single session of yoga, levels of the
stress hormone cortisol dropped, even in people who were trying
yoga for the first time. During the study, Dr. George Brainard
of the Center of Integrative Medicine of Thomas Jefferson
University in Philadelphia and colleagues measured levels of
cortisol in the blood of 16 healthy yoga novices before and
after a 50-minute period of rest.
(source: Got
Stress? Try Yoga, Study Suggests - newsyahoo.com -
June 19 2003).
Yoga
festival attracts 1,500 at Loire Valley in France
An
estimated 1,500 people from twenty countries are currently
participating in a nine-day 26th Annual Yoga Festival here with
its main theme "the spirit of India." The
Festival began with the display of Kundalini Yoga, a healing
meditation and introductory classes for first-time participants.
(source: Yoga
festival attracts 1,500 at Loire Valley in France -
hindustantimes.com)
Yoga
Festival in Egypt - http://www.egyptyogafestival.com/
For the
first time in Egypt and the Middle East, T.E.N Tours Egypt is
organizing Egypt's First International Yoga Festival during
the time between March 1 to 7 2006. With an early start for
Yoga and Meditation, and with healthy, delicious vegetarian
foods, we will offer you a perfect chance for a life giving
and renewing break in one of the magical cities on the Red
Sea, Hurghada.
Top
of Page
Yoga's
real threat to the prophetic monolatrous revelatory
religions
***
Hostility
to Yoga in Church
Prophetic
monotheism and Sanatana Dharma
 Dr.
Koenraad Elst
(1959 - ) Dutch historian, born in
Leuven, Belgium, on 7 August 1959, into a Flemish (i.e.
Dutch-speaking Belgian) Catholic family. He graduated in
Philosophy, Chinese Studies and Indo-Iranian Studies at the
Catholic University of Leuven. He is the author of several books
including The
Saffron Swastika, Decolonising
The Hindu Mind - Ideological Development of Hindu Revivalism
and Negationism
in India: Concealilng the Record of Islam.
He has written about the
threat of yoga to prophetic religions thus:
"In
fact, prophecy is radically different
from yoga: it means allowing an outside entity, which
in the case of monotheism is called Yahweh/God/Allah, to blow
certain consciousness contents into your mind. Consciousness is
not turned inward, but is (or believes it is) communicating with
another Being. Moreover, the mind is not being emptied of
its contents and made to rest in itself, as it is in yoga; on
the contrary, it is being filled with a message beyond one's
control. The prophet receives a certain information: prophecy is
like talking, though with an unusual partner via an unusual
channel; but yoga is silence.
Lastly, if it is correct that
prophethood is a
mental aberration and a delusion,
then that makes it the very antithesis of yoga, which is an
undisturbed and realistic awareness of pure consciousness.
"
Yoga
is not an erratic and disturbing experience, which befalls you
and drives you to tirades of doom and to outbursts against your
fellow men. It is a systematic discipline and makes the
practitioner calm and serene. The word yoga means
discipline, control (it is also translated as
"uniting": not the soul with an outsider called God,
but the mind with its object, (i.e. concentration). Since
its field of working is consciousness, it is not interested in
outward experiences such as recognition and glorification, or
martyrdom. There is nothing dramatic about yoga, in stark
contrast to the dramas enacted and encountered by the prophets.
The
most remarkable difference between the prophets' discourse and
that of the rishis, is certainly this. The
prophets all talk about themselves a lot. They think they are
very special, this one person in this one body is different from
the rest and has an exclusive relationship with the Creator. But
the rishis talked about a universal way, a world order in which
we all participate, a state of consciousness we can all achieve.
If God is defined as that
which transcends all worldly differences, the One above the
Many, then this universalism is far more divine than the
prophets' exclusivism."
(source:
Psychology
of Prophetism: A Secular Look at the Bible
- By Koenraad Elst - voiceofdharma.org).
Dr.
Koenraad
Elst writes:
"It is Christian fundamentalists
who warn people of the Satanic Hindu
character of these seemingly innocuous breathing and mental
exercises."
(source: Bharatiya
Janata Party vis-a-vis Hindu Resurgence - By Koenraad Elst
p. 15).
 David Frawley
(Pandit Vamadeva
Shastri) has observed that:
A few years ago the Pope issued a proclamation telling Catholics, particularly
monks and priests, to avoid yogic practices and mixing Catholicism with Eastern
traditions like the Hindu and Buddhist.
(source: Hinduism:
The Eternal Tradition (Sanatana Dharma) - By David Frawley Voice of
India. ISBN 81-85990-29-8 p. 233-234).
In the book Pope
John-Paul II on Eastern Religions and Yoga: a Hindu-Buddhist
Rejoinder (1995) was occasioned precisely by one of the Pope's
statements (Crossing the Threshold of Hope, 1994) condemning
the incorporation of yogic practices in the spiritual discipline
of Christian clerics and laymen.
(source: Decolonising
The Hindu Mind - Ideological Development of Hindu Revivalism
- By Koenraad Elst Rupa & Co. January 2001 ISBN
8171675190 p. 282).
The Theft of Yoga
Delinking Yoga from
Hinduism
Western World's Churlish
and petty
behavior in not recognizing Yoga's Hindu Roots?
Yoga is Hinduism's gift to humanity
***
Christians
Trying to Hijacking Yoga
 Dr.
Subhash
Kak has written:
"For
example, in the US, almost every YMCA teaches yoga, although it
is a different story that some Churches are speaking of
Christian yoga, without mentioning the origins of this
tradition.
This yearning for wisdom was expressed by
Zimmer over fifty years ago when he said, 'We of the Occident
are about to arrive at a crossroads that was reached by the
thinkers of India some seven hundred years before Christ. This
is the real reason, why we become both vexed and stimulated,
uneasy and yet interested, when confronted with the concepts and
images of Indian wisdom.'
(source: Globalization
and the Knowledge Industry - By Subhash Kak - rediff.com).
Refer to
Shamefully Stealing Yoga from Hindus -
No OM Zone: A No-Chanting, No-Granola, No-Sanskrit Practical Guide to Yoga -
By Kimberly Fowler
Note:
This
tendency of Christianity to absorb spiritually ‘dangerous’
practices is an old trick of theirs. To speed the assimilation
of the European pagan religions in the Middle Ages, the church
specifically chose dates for Christian holidays that coincided
closely with pagan holidays. Why do you think we celebrate
Christmas so close to the winter solstice every year? You got to
love the hypocrisy of Christians. They deny the knowledge,
wisdom and mere existence of pre-Christian practices, but as
we’ve seen throughout history that doesn’t stop them from
completely ripping them off. “Yule tide?”. Yule is a
Germanic pagan holiday.
Acknowledgement
of yoga as one of Hinduism's great gifts to the World
 Folks
still don't get that it's not at all about ownership, but about origins. It's
not about branding, but about acknowledgement. It's not about conversion, but
about self realization. It's about understanding that yoga is but one of
Hinduism's great
contributions to humanity.
Perhaps some of the confusion is a result of the many ingredients of our modern
lives -- mass marketing, crass consumerism, the worldwide Web and a Twitter-soundbite
culture. It's a toxic cocktail that can lead to quick and faulty conclusions.
It started back in 2008, with the
Yoga Journal. The
summer issue was not particularly different from any other -- the mantra of the
month, the sacred Hindu symbol, Om, sprinkled throughout the magazine,
advertisements for products like bottom-shaping yoga pants and sticky yoga toe
socks, and, of course, feature articles offering advice, insight and wisdom on
yoga. What we did not find, however, was any reference to Hinduism. In fact,
Buddhism, Christianity and Judaism were more overtly associated with the
discipline.
It was as if the Yoga Journal, as well as
much of the $6 billion yoga industry, had agreed to some sort of unwritten
covenant to use code words rather than what they deemed the unmarketable
"H-word." Vedic, yogic,
Sanskritic, ancient Indian and Eastern were the pseudonyms of choice to source
key elements of Hindu teachings: bhakti, karma and moksha, even the Bhagavad
Gita, one of Hinduism's most revered scriptures.
After writing a letter to the editor, HAF's suspicions were confirmed when,
during a follow up phone call, the young woman answering said, "Yeah,
they [the editors] probably avoid it [Hinduism]. Hinduism does, like, you know,
have a lot of baggage." Really? Hinduism has baggage and the world's other
religions don't?
As an advocacy group seeking to provide a progressive Hindu American voice and
to promote a better understanding of Hinduism, we were compelled to act. And so
started a quest to bring awareness to the Hindu roots of yoga and, in turn, gain
acknowledgement of yoga as one of Hinduism's great gifts.
Hindus across America, including my school-aged boys, face ridicule,
discrimination and uninvited proseltyization as a result of
caricature, misinformation
and false judgment about our "religion." Idol worshipper, cows, caste, dowry,
many gods (lower case "g") -- these are the terms that more commonly define
Hinduism in Western popular culture. Thanks to Deepak Chopra, we can
add "one-eyed" and "tribal" to the list too. At the same time, 15 million
Americans, from all religions and no religion, are turning to the power and
healing benefits of yoga; some are even going beyond the physical to study
Vedanta and the Gita or other "yogic" texts.
(source:
The origins
and ownership of yoga – by Suhag A Shukla - huffingtonpost.com).
Refer to
In U.S. Schools, Yoga Without The Spiritual
- hinduismtoday.com
The rape of Yoga
Apart from
distorting it beyond recognition, the proponents of America's $ 6 billion Yoga
industry deny Yoga's inseparability with the Hindu way of life. The philosophy
behind Yoga must be extolled
The burgeoning the Yoga industry, built off of $108 Yoga pants contoured to bind
and sculpt the body, $185 Yoga studio membership fees and $100 yoga mats custom
designed to decrease slippage from sweaty palms, continues to skyrocket in
popularity. The latest fad at a spinning studio round the corner: "combination
spin and Yoga", where the goal is to burn fat and loosen thigh muscles -
ostensibly to decrease that pesky sore hamstring. But that shouldn't be
surprising when there already exists Yoga in the nude, yoga and food, and even "Doga"
- i.e. yoga with one's pet dog.
Welcome to Yoga 2010 sweeping the United States @ $ 6 billion per year, where it
is legit to pair Yoga with just about anything, including faith. Apart from the
aforementioned distortions of a 5,000-year-old science, we now see the rise of
"Christian Yoga", "Muslim Yoga", "Kabbalah Yoga" and what have you.
Each of these "nuanced faith-yogas"
have appropriated the knowledge of countless yogis without so much as a nod of
gratitude towards Hinduism, the faith that gifted them this treasure.
Hinduism today is identified overseas more
with holy cows than Gomukhasana, the arduous twisting posture and exotic
and erotic gods rather than the unity of divinity of Hindu tradition - that God
may manifest and be worshiped in infinite ways; as a religion of
incomprehensible ritual rather than the spiritual inspiration of Patanjali, the
second century BC commentator and composer of the Yoga Sutras, that has
formed the philosophical basis of practical Yoga for millennium.
As Yoga becomes more "mainstream", its
Hindu roots continue to be buried further and further by studios, practitioners
and the media. While magazines such as Yoga
Journal are replete with references to ancient India, new age blather
and even Buddhism, it is only logical to ask why is there so much resistance to
openly acknowledging Yoga's inextricable links with Hinduism.
Firstly, perhaps because not all of the great Hindu Yogis who introduced the
West to this ancient philosophy took the uncompromising path of a
Swami Vivekananda
in his open assertion and embrace of his Hindu faith
From Ayurveda to meditation and Yoga to pranayama and riya, the path of least
resistance for acceptance in the West is seen to simply indulge the consumer
with homilies to wellness, holistic healing and rewiring the mental hard drive
without eliciting the baggage of that pariah term: "Hinduism."
As these gurus highlight only the universal nature of Yoga while discarding
overt references to Hinduism. They end up grabbing the transcendent
philosophical fruits of the ancients, leaving Hinduism with stereotyped detritus
of incomprehensible ritual and the cliched "caste, cows and curry." As the
popularity of Yoga has skyrocketed and spiritual practice has morphed into a $6
billion industry, this delinking has become so prevalent and commonplace that
many in the western yoga community are outraged
that any faith, particularly one that is now largely associated with
colorful rituals and multi-headed gods, could dare claim to be the mother of
Yoga.
Even more baffling are the practitioners who learn to master
asanas such as Hanumanasana or Natarajasana while
simultaneously denying the Hindu roots of Yoga.
Lord Nataraja's eternal dance
precedes creation of this universe itself, but when will the Deepak Chopras of
the world concede that the spiritual tradition moving to His divine rhythms is
what we all accept as Hinduism?
(source:
The Rape of Yoga - By Dr. Aseem Shukla and Sheetal Shah - dailypioneer.com).
If you have the root of Hinduism, then the stem is Hinduism, and the flower is
Hinduism.
Yoga uncoupled with a moral construct leads nowhere, except towards being more
physically fit. Hinduism provides that moral construct.
It is wrong to
deny that yoga's Hindu origin
 Dr.
Ramesh Nagraj Rao ( ) is Human Rights
Coordinator for the Hindu American Foundation, and professor and chair,
Department of Communication Studies and Theatre, Longwood University, US. He has
expressed his views on the theft of yoga thus:
"Yoga has been
shamelessly rebranded to make it more
acceptable to western culture, but this is based on a lie
But as yoga became more popular, and as the industry grew to be worth nearly
six billion dollars, and as a variety of
savvy marketers begin branding their "special" yoga techniques, it was hard not
to notice that few yoga teachers and journals mentioned the origins of the
practice and its connection to Hinduism. Yoga was "secularised" to rid it of any
taint of a "pagan" tradition. The practice,
the savvy marketers claimed, was "a spiritual path, but not a religious one", to
calm the committed Christian who wanted to hang on to Jesus while doing the "surya
namaskara" (obeisance to the Sun).
Hindus are an accepting lot, and they believe that each should be able to follow
whatever spiritual path they chose, according to one's "ishta" (desire) and "adhikara"
(qualifications). And as one scholar elegantly put it,
Hinduism itself was "a rolling conference of conceptual spaces, all of them
facing all, and all of them requiring all", enabling it to
accommodate everyone in this grand cosmic munificence, label or no label.
Hinduism which is a
"rolling conference of conceptual spaces" got neatly pigeon-holed as a religion
– a religion, very soon marked and demonised as "heathen", "pagan", "kafr", and
so on.
Thus, when a neophyte yoga student, hanging on to Jesus, anxiously queried, "Is
yoga part of Hinduism?", the savvy marketer
claimed that the origins of yoga were lost in myth
and mystery and that there "was no indication that
it was ever part of an organised religion", accomplishing two things
simultaneously – reifying Hinduism as a "religion" in the sense of "Abrahamic
religions", and denying it as the fount and foundation of yoga.
Joining these local marketers were the Indian-origin
marketers, with the lead being taken by the savvy Deepak Chopra – the
glib, red-sneakers-and-red-designer-glasses-wearing Hollywood guru who would
make PT Barnum proud. Thus, when Aseem Shukla of the Hindu American Foundation
wrote an essay in The Washington Post in April this year arguing that there had
been a deliberate attempt to represent yoga as separate from its origins in
Hinduism,
Chopra came pouncing. Ironically, he was joining hands with those demonising
Hinduism and disemboweling it of its grand traditions. And when
The New York Times, in a
front-page article, recently commended the Hindu American Foundation for its
intelligent activism, the nay-sayers screamed:
"Hindu fundamentalists!"
But what do Hindus, not the deracinated variety, actually want?
It is simply to urge the world to acknowledge that yoga
has its roots in the millennia-old Indian traditions now known as Hinduism.
There is no demand that those who do yoga profess any attachment to Hinduism,
let alone become Hindus! There is no tithe to be paid, no conversion sought, no
allegiance to a land and its people demanded.
Great teachers like T Krishnamacharya, K Pattabhi Jois, and
BKS Iyengar – all doing their morning and evening prayers to their chosen
Hindu deities, and proudly wearing their Hindu identity on their foreheads.
What should also be acknowledged is that most of the yoga that is taught and
practiced in the West is "hatha yoga", and that the focus on the body was only a
very minor aspect of yoga delineated by the great compiler of the yoga
aphorisms, Patanjali. In fact, of the 196 sutras in Patanjali's Yogasutras, only
three focus on the body. The primary aim of yoga,
Patanjali stressed in the second sutra, is to still the mind for a
transformation of consciousness. Yoga is a complete psychological system, with
clear and definite answers to explain the human condition and relieve us of our
psychological burdens.
Alas, in the modern, westernised, noise-making world, the
argument presented by Hindus is under attack from the
professional anti-Hindu brigades, homegrown and foreign, whose aim is
to proclaim yoga as "anaatha" – an orphan."
(source:
It is wrong to deny that yoga has its origins in Hinduism - By Ramesh Rao -
guardian.co.uk).
Allergic to the H-word? Hinduism
***
(Note:
It was as if the
Yoga Journal, as well as
much of the $6 billion yoga industry, had agreed to some sort of
unwritten
covenant to use code words rather than what they deemed the unmarketable
"H-word." Vedic, yogic,
Sanskritic, ancient Indian and Eastern were the pseudonyms of choice to source
key elements of Hindu teachings: bhakti, karma and moksha, even the Bhagavad
Gita, one of Hinduism's most revered scriptures. After writing a letter to the editor, HAF's suspicions were confirmed when,
during a follow up phone call, the young woman answering said, "Yeah,
they [the editors] probably avoid it [Hinduism]. Hinduism does, like, you know, have a lot of baggage."
Really?
Hinduism has baggage and
the world's other religions don't? - Try thinking
of
Dark Ages, Crusades, The Inquisition, Witch Hunt, Slavery,
Colonization of Africa, Asia, America and Australia, Imperialism, World Wars,
Holocaust, Bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, destruction and conversion of
Native cultures to Christianity, Drugs, School shootings in American schools,
Gun violence, Racism, Clergy sex Abuse, Jehad and terrorism...
).
Honor Thy
Heritage - Dr. Deepak Chopra
 Chopra
claims that
anyone who says that
Yoga is a part of Hinduism is a Hindu fundamentalist and Yoga did not originate
from Hinduism but “pure consciousness.”
Chopra is
perhaps the most prominent exponent of the art of "How to Deconstruct, Repackage
and Sell Hindu Philosophy Without Calling it Hindu!"
To Larry King, he has described himself as an "Advaita Vedantin"--one of the
major philosophical schools of Hinduism. Yet none of the plethora of his book
titles, that include several devoted to Jesus and one entire book devoted to the
Buddha, even skirt the word "Hindu."
The rishis did
not call themselves Hindu. The moniker "Hinduism" is of relatively recent
origin, but it is accepted today as a handy substitute for the perhaps more
accurate but difficult to pronounce name, Sanatana Dharma, the eternal religion.
(source:
Honor Thy Heritage - Dr. Deepak Chopra - By Dr Aseem Shukla -
hinduismtoday.com
and
Snake-oil salesman Deepak Chopra - indianrealist.com
and
Deepak
Chopra does it again - sandeepweb.com.
Refer to
Al Jazeera reports on Hijacking
of Yoga
Christian Yoga
is an Oxymoron?
“There is no physical yoga and spiritual yoga. If it is
exclusively physical, it won’t be yoga. Yoga is dealing
with the entirety; it is a union.” –
Prashant Iyengar, son of B.K.S Iyengar
***
A
Hindu Yogi Speaks: "There is no Christian Yoga."
 Yogi
Baba Prem, who is a Hindu Yogi, a Vedavisharada
trained in the traditional gurukural system.
"It
was quite astonishing to see on the flyer 'Christian Yoga!"
I could feel the wheels spinning in my brain. 'Christian Yoga,'
I thought. Now while Christians can practice yoga, I am not
aware of any Christian teachings about yoga.
Yoga
is not a Judeo/Christian word!
It is not a part of
the Roman Catholic teachings and certainly not a part of
protestant teachings. It is not found within the King James
Version of the bible.
It
is a Hindu word, or more correctly a Sanskrit
word from the Vedic civilization.
So
how did we get 'Christian Yoga'? From this I could conclude that
“Christian Yoga” could only indicate one of two
possibilities:
1) Christianity is threatened by
yoga and is attempting to take over this system that “invaded
their turf” pertaining to spiritual teachings and techniques.
2) Christianity is subconsciously
attempting to return to the spiritual roots of
civilization—the Vedic civilization.
I thought to myself, “why would they want to take
over yoga?”
Could it be due to the decline of members within the
Christian church within the last 60 years? Is this an
extensive marketing plan cooked up in some New York marketing
guru’s head? Is it an attempt to water down the
teachings of yoga and import their own teaching. I think the best reason might be that yoga, and eastern
spirituality, offered answers to the spiritual questions that
the spiritually hungry masses had. It offered a practical,
rational, logical, and truthful approach to spirituality. It
did not contain any form of self-righteous condemnation,
but offered love and acceptance to all. It did not
prey upon victims with terms such as “Sin” and “eternal
damnation”. But most importantly, it had
answers! It offered a practical approach to cultivating a
relationship with divinity. It offered a systematic
approach and an abstract approach to meet the varying
temperaments of the spirituality hungry.
The second possibility was that Christianity was itself
looking for answers. A small book
filled with judgment, inflexibility, and condemnation was no
longer fulfilling the needs of the masses or the leaders of the church.
Offering yoga classes allowed the Christian to secretly practice
Hinduism without having to renounce their Christian tradition.
Possibly by embracing the technology of yoga and meditation, the
Christian church could finally return to the idea of love and
acceptance that it believed it was founded upon. It is
ironic that one religion would need to look to another religion
to teach them about love, peace, harmony, and forgiveness. If
successful, it could embrace these ancient teachings and save
itself from the fate it planted over the last few thousand
years.
But possibly in their wisdom, the current fathers of the church
realized that their time was coming to a close. So within
America they must absorb yoga before they are absorbed by it.
This is a common religious view that has appeared numerous times
within world history. Then they would immediately move their
resources to India. Taking over the country would allow
them to own all the spirituality, and then ‘pick and chose’
which tasty spiritual treats they would share. After
all they have 2000 years practice with this. Indians
being a loving, peaceful people, openly embraced their brothers
from the west. They looked the other way as their temples
were torn down. They accepted it as karma as their
families were torn apart over differing religious beliefs.
The Indians thought it was thoughtful of the missionaries to
dress up just like swami’s, to be “just like them” and to
share in their kindred spirit.
Modern day scholars from India frequently present the
attitude of “let them have yoga, I am interested in protecting
Hinduism.” I have heard this sentiment on numerous
occasions, but the reality is that yoga is a part of Hinduism.
Allowing one part to be taken from Hinduism opens a door for the
distortion of the teachings. We
must remember that the roots to modern day yoga comes from Vedic
Yoga. The same Vedic
Yoga that is the authority of Hinduism. Allowing one
branch to be severed from the tree of knowledge will not
necessarily kill that tree, but it can produce strain and have
an unbalancing effect upon the tree.
Hinduism should reclaim its full heritage and not allow
other groups to rename its sacred teachings under their banner,
especially when they have no history of those teaching within
their own system. If they wish to ‘borrow’ and say
this comes from our brothers and sisters in Hinduism, then that
is another thing. But frequently groups attempt to
privatize the information and present themselves as the original
authority. Hinduism should guard against its sacred
traditions becoming distorted and taken away. Scholars
at universities should take the stand that yoga is part of
Hinduism, though one is one required to be a Hindu to practice
yoga. It is important to acknowledge the roots of the tradition;
after all we are expected to give credit to the orginial sources
within books and research papers, but yet Hindu scholars have
ignored this fundamental western view when it comes to their own
heritage.
(source:
A
Hindu Yogi Speaks: "There is no Christian Yoga.").
We
hope that Thomas Nelson, who publishes Yoga for Christians, American
Family Association, who sells Holy
Yoga, and emerging leader, Doug
Pagitt, who offers it at his church, will all read this
article by Yogi Baba Prem.
Vatican sounds New
Age alert: The Roman
Catholic Church has warned Christians against resorting to New
Age therapies to satisfy their spiritual needs. Publishing
the results of a six-year study of practices such as yoga,
feng shui and shamanism, the Vatican said that whatever the
individual merits of such therapies, none provided a true answer
to the human thirst for happiness. "I want to say simply
that the New Age presents itself as a false utopia in answer to
the profound thirst for happiness in the human heart,"
Cardinal Paul Poupard, head of the Pontifical Council for
Culture, said at the news conference. Many
people, the report acknowledges, have rejected organised
religion because they feel it fails to answer their needs. Our
correspondent says that the report makes clear that the Vatican
basically dislikes fuzzy spirituality.
(source: Vatican
sounds New Age alert - BBC news.com - Feb 4'
2003). Watch
An
Invasion through Conversion
- videoyahoo.com
Refer to
Al Jazeera reports on Hijacking
of Yoga. Refer to
Another Indian “intellectual” (Meera Nanda) prostituting herself in White Man’s
flesh market - indianrealist.com
and
Meera Nanda’s Ignorance Revisited -
sandeepweb.com
New age yoga: Old age theft
and surrender
- By Swami
Param
New Age Yoga (NAY) is: Hot Yoga, Power Yoga and Gentle Yoga, to name few. There
are especially arrogant individuals who even attach their own names to these
Hindu disciplines. There are so-called 200 hour Certified Yoga Teachers and Yoga
Therapists.
Imagine treating Baptism and Communion as an Underwater Therapy and Wine Tasting
business! Envision a Fitness Rabbi, Diet Pope and Gaming Imam! Picture Hot
Baptism (at your local gym), Power Mass and Gentle Genuflecting! How about a 200
hour Certified Communion Teacher greeting students with Hallelujah and denying
any Christian connection? How about marketing Baptism pants to display one’s
physical accomplishments! As ridiculous as this seems, this is exactly how
callous, absurd and insulting is the NAY crusade.
How many also realize that, factually, the following are sacred Sanskrit/Hindu
terms: Namaste, Karma, Mantra, Guru, Swastika and Chakras? How many are aware
that Hindus invented the all-important zero? Along with Yoga, these Hindu terms
have been co-opted and distorted beyond recognition. Unfortunately, not a week
goes by that the press and Madison Avenue do not aid in reinforcing the abuse of
these religious terms. NAY is bringing in big money.
In the “NAYsayers” dogma, Yoga is everything but religion. To them, Yoga is a
physical exercise and, perhaps, an elite universal spiritual practice. The
thoughtless cliché: “I am spiritual but not religious,” is a common deception.
It is in this pseudo-spirituality that NAY gets very bizarre.
Covertly indoctrinating one into any religion is abusive. Scattering Hindu terms
and displaying Hindu images into a so-called Yoga class should be cause for not
only questioning the religion of the teacher but also the intent. And,
“naturally,” it costs money for these “spiritual teachings.” Those who feel
superior to the more religious should remember everyone is free to go into any
religious service.
There are many established religions. Of course, a truly creative individual may
come up with something new.
However, stealing from an existing religion (and/or culture), then denying it,
and profiting from it is the M.O. of the usurper. Repeated invasions of India
have left many Hindus in a state of confusion, at best. Hindus have historically
been “an easy mark” and are at fault for not learning and protecting their
religion. Some Hindus simply give up: “If you can’t beat them, join them.”
Divorcing any aspect of Yoga from its Hindu roots is dishonest and a grave
insult to a great world religion and it adherents. Presently, the Yino flock to
their studios and completely shun Hindu Temples/Ashrams and teachers.
Ironically, qualified Hindu teachers have been denied teaching Hatha Yoga in a
public setting not only because it is religion but also because they did not
have a Western Yoga Certification! The “Certified Yogis/Yoginis” are, actually,
clueless not only to the facts of Yoga but also to the austere and devoted
lifestyle of the true Yogi.
If one wants to learn Hinduism/Yoga (and perhaps become a Hindu), do that. If
one wants to stretch and relax, be thoughtful and considerate and don’t call it
Yoga.
(source:
New age yoga: Old age theft and surrender
- By Swami
Param - thecoastnews.com).
The Audacity of
Ignorance?
***
What is Take Back Yoga?
Nanda concedes
that American yogis say “Namaste,” quote from the Gita and play Kirtan music.
Why then is she so bothered by TBY? TBY makes three key contentions:
1. Yoga is more
than just asana
2. Yoga is rooted
in Hinduism
3. The asana-based
practice of yoga found in many Western yoga studios is inspired by the Hindu
Hatha yoga tradition
 Meera
Nanda's (of
the Jawaharlal Nehru University - JNU) Open
story alleging that Hindu texts have few asanas and that the yoga master
Krishnamacharya borrowed most from European gymnastics is the latest salvo
against
HAF’s
position, and mimics a similar rebuttal by Wendy
Doniger. Nanda’s criticism of HAF’s ‘Take Back Yoga’ (TBY) campaign
as being based on a false, non-existent history misrepresents TBY and maligns
HAF as a casteist, sleazy political operation (Indo-American Lobby? HAF is
neither Indian nor a political lobby). Perhaps, as William Dalrymple said, Nanda
is “overtly hostile to many expressions of religiosity.”
Whatever her agenda, her audacious
and flippant claims are both stunning and flawed.
Obfuscate, Confuse and
Create a Strawman
Nanda
repeatedly fails to acknowledge that “Take Back Yoga” (TBY) is all about the
willful blindness in the West to the Hindu roots of Yoga, even the spiritual
side of it.
Disguised Hinduphobia
'Scholars' of Nanda’s ilk have always disliked Swami Vivekananda. Being
profoundly alienated from their heritage and considering anything traditional as
mere superstition, they are no doubt discomfited that a Sanyasi who proudly
called himself Hindu was able to convey Vedanta in a manner that the West loved,
and in immaculate English to boot.
Nanda gratuitously
advises Hindu Americans to, “take a deep breath and get over it.” So, in the
same spirit, here is mine: Nanda should learn to get her facts about the Hindu
tradition straight, and from original sources. And learn to accord the same
respect to Hinduism as to other religions. The days of
the Hindu community cowering before self-appointed pseudo-scholars are over.
(source:
Rebuttals to Take Back Yoga Attacks
- Hindu American Foundation).
Refer to
Another Indian “intellectual” (Meera Nanda) prostituting herself in White Man’s
flesh market - indianrealist.com
and
Meera Nanda’s Ignorance Revisited -
sandeepweb.com
Modern
Yoga Migrates to China
Google
“Beijing Yoga” and, surprise – dozens of links to Yoga
retreats and events in Beijing! Next, go to www.yogafinder.com,
click on “Find Yoga classes” and city “Shanghai.” From
the way the list reads you might think you were in California.
What is compelling is not only the array of options but the
degree of cross-national integration: Yoga teachers in
California are holding programs in China in cooperation with
Chinese yogis. China’s 1980’s policy to teach English in
elementary schools, is paying off big time today. Political
tensions still bristle between nations, but China’s youth are
all open arms.
While
US-style holistic health jargon dominates the website blurbs, we
were happy to note in one article from Beijing’s www.cityweekend.com.cn
a “full disclosure” that the “Vedas
of Hinduism are the source of other teachings, including
Upanishads and Karma. Modern Yoga is based on the four Vedic
texts, the Rig, Yajur, Sama and Arthava Veda.”
(source:
Hinduism Today - July/August/September
2005 p. 6).
According to Father
Jeremy Davies, exorcist for the leader of Catholics
in the
UK, yoga
puts people at risk from devils and the occult is closely
associated with the scourges of “drugs, demonic music and
pornography” which’re “destroying millions of young people
in our time”.
Father Davies has argued in his new book ‘In Exorcism:
Understanding Exorcism In Scripture And Practice’ published by the Catholic Truth Society, that people
who practice yoga may end up afflicting themselves by demons, British newspaper the ‘Daily Mail’ has reported.
(source:
Yoga
leads to possession by devils? - expressindia.com).
Chanting
Om can cause Moral Deviations? says Vatican
The
Vatican, in a letter approved by Pope John Paul II, warned
Christians Thursday against spiritual dangers deriving from
Eastern methods of contemplative meditation used in Yoga and Zen
Buddhism.
It said the symbolism and body postures in such meditation ''can
even become an idol and thus an obstacle to the raising up of
the spirit of God.'' It warned that to give ''a symbolic
significance typical of the mystical experience'' to sensations
of well-being from meditation can lead to ''a kind of mental
schizophrenia which could also lead to psychic disturbance and,
at times, to moral deviations.''
(source:
Pope
in 1989 - Eastern Religions are Moral Deviations).
Watch
An
Invasion through Conversion
- videoyahoo.com
According
to the Rev. Peter E. Prosser,
who is both a priest at Galilee
Episcopal Church in Virginia Beach and a Christian
history professor at Regent University’s divinity school says,
“Yoga
is designed to bring you into a spiritual realm of demonic
powers.”
(source:
Christians
try to Hijack Yoga).
Refer to
The theft of yoga - By Dr. Aseem Shukla - Hindu American
Foundation
Yoga is Evil -
says the Vatican
 Vatican’s
chief exorcist has claimed that practicing yoga and reading ‘Harry Potter’
brings evil.
Father Gabriel Amorth,
who has carried out more than 70,000 exorcisms in the past 25 years after being
appointed by the late Pope John Paul II, surprised delegates at a conference by
revealing his dislike
for yoga and ‘Harry Potter’.
“Yoga is the Devil’s work. You thing you are doing it for stretching your mind
and body but it leads to Hinduism. All these oriental religions are based on the
false belief of reincarnation,” he said.
(source:
Yoga is evil - says Vatican
-
telegraph.co.uk
and
foxnews.com).
Watch
Mark
Driscoll on Yoga and refer to
SNAP
Yoga effective
in treating psychiatric disorders
Yoga, whose
all-round benefits are increasingly being accepted across the world, has now
been found useful in treating mental and psychiatric disorders, a number of
scientific studies have found.
'Some believe
that yoga should be used only for prevention and health promotion and not as a
therapy for illnesses,' said B.N. Gangadhar, who heads the psychiatry department
at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) here.
'The reality is
that it is being increasingly used as a method for treating various disorders,
either alone or as in addition to other therapies, including psychiatric ones,'
Gangadhar, also director, Advanced Centre for Yoga at NIMHANS, told IANS.
(source:
Yoga effective in treating psychiatric disorders - samachar.com).
Yoga gives immune boost to breast cancer survivors
In breast
cancer survivors, the Iyengar method of yoga not only promotes psychological
well-being, but seems to offer immune system benefits as well, according to
research reported Monday at the American Physiological Society meeting in
Washington, DC.
The Iyengar method, created by B. K. S. Iyengar, "is considered to be one of the
more active forms of yoga," lead researcher and presenter Pamela E. Schultz from
Washington State University, Spokane, told Reuters Health. "It still has the
meditative component, but it's been shown to have a physical output equivalent
to a moderate-intensity exercise," she explained.
(source:
Yoga gives immune boost to breast cancer survivors - newsyahoo.com).
Doctors
study the health benefits of yoga
Yoga
is one of the hottest fitness trends sweeping the country. Now
many doctors think it can also cure what ails you. Physicians in
the
U.S.
and abroad are conducting a variety of studies gauging whether
yoga offers health benefits beyond general fitness and can
relieve symptoms associated with serious medical problems. Early
results suggest that a regular yoga regimen -- involving a
variety of postures, deep breathing and meditation exercises --
can offer relief for patients suffering from asthma, chronic
back pain, arthritis and obsessive compulsive disorder, among
other problems.
(source: Doctors
study the health benefits of yoga
- By
Tara
Parker-Pope, The Wall Street Journal).
Is
yoga bad for you?
The
Islamic Fatwa council are in good company with the Christian
fundamentalists in the
United States.
 Several
years ago, I developed something called arthrosis in my knees.
This is a first cousin to arthritis, and is extremely painful.
After a few months on painkillers, I enrolled in a yoga class
out of desperation. Initially, contorting my out-of-shape body
into the positions required by our teacher was very difficult,
but soon I managed to bully my joints into approximating the
postures our elegant instructor assumed so effortlessly. A few
months into this routine, I began to look forward to the
thrice-weekly yoga classes. In our darkened room, soft music
would play, while we were encouraged to empty our minds and hold
the positions for just a little longer each time. My body became
suppler, and crucially the pain in my knees disappeared.
Unfortunately, the timings of our class were changed, and I
could no longer pursue my new interest. Nevertheless, I have
nothing but pleasant memories of the year-long experience. Now,
as my creaking body protests each time I lower myself to pick up
something from the floor, I wish I could have continued my yoga
lessons. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that
Malaysia
's top Islamic body recently issued a
fatwa prohibiting Muslims from practising yoga due to
elements of Hinduism the ancient system
is supposed to contain.
According
to The Island, a Sri Lankan
daily, the Malaysian National Fatwa
Council's chairman, Shukor
Husin, has said that "many Muslims fail to
understand that yoga's ultimate aim is to be one with a god of a
different religion". I had no idea
that when our yoga teacher told us to empty our minds, she was
doing so with the aim of making space in that limited cavity for
a foreign god.
 But
the members of the fatwa council
are in good company, for Christian
fundamentalists in the
United States
have long opposed yoga classes
in schools, arguing that it violates the secular principle of
separating church from state. According to them, yoga's Hindu
roots conflict with Christian teachings. And
apparently,
Egypt
's highest theological body banned yoga for Muslims
in 2004.
So what planet are these fundamentalists on? And what century do
they live in? Surely everything that's good for us, or is fun,
cannot be declared un-Islamic on a whim?
And
if this kind of retrogressive mindset can hold sway in a
relatively modern Muslim country like
Malaysia
, just think what is going on in nations like
Saudi Arabia
and
Pakistan
.
Whatever
the reason, such desperate and ultimately futile measures only
serve to further marginalise Muslims. Already viewed as a
backward community by much of the world, Muslims risk
withdrawing from the rest of mankind at a time when
globalisation is breaking down barriers at a frenzied
pace. Where will this madness end?
It will end if and when Muslims decide that enough is enough,
and that they do not want to live in the sixth century.
Unfortunately, there is much confusion in the Islamic world,
with the result that uneducated mullahs issue half-baked edicts
on everything under the sun, and ordinary people, unsure of
themselves, pay lip service to these teachings. How
long will it take to yank fundamentalist Muslims like Abdul
Shukor Husin into the 21st century?
(source: Is
yoga bad for you? - By Irfan Husain - dawn.com).
Refer to Is
Yoga a Religion - By Georg Feuerstein.
Beware
the Yoga Demon! The Christian Right’s fear of self-realization
and spirituality
They’re
still at it. Those paranoid Christian
fundamentalists are again attacking yoga.
 On
On June 15, 2006, Agape Press
carried this article: Author Wants to
Enlighten Christians About Yoga's Demonic Influence Christian
author Dave Hunt, co-founder
of the Oregon-based ministry, The
Berean Call, has written a new book called Yoga
and the Body of Christ. In it, he contends that yoga
is a spiritually dangerous practice designed to expose people to
demonic influences.
Why
would Mr. Hunt fear “self-realization”? Why would he advise
“Christians” to avoid it?
Could
it be that if people achieve self-realization they will
recognize the sinister mind-control techniques of
“ministries” such as The Berean Call? Could it be that they
would also realize that if they develop a “personal
relationship with God,” there is no need for ministries? The
clergy would become little more than “middlemen” who, like
all middlemen, leech off others for their own
self-aggrandizement. In fact, the clergy would become “demonic
influences” interrupting, twisting and poisoning one’s
personal relationship with Divinity for their own power and
profit. It must be noted, however, that the Eastern spiritual
philosophies that spawn yoga do not advocate hatred toward or
the murder of gays, or anyone else. Fanatical Rev.
Fred Phelps has much in common with other dogmatic
monotheists, such as Muslim cleric Yusuf
Qaradawi who couldn’t decide whether gay people should
be “throw[n] from a high place” or whether “we should burn
them.” Not surprisingly, Yusuf Qaradawi is also a vocal
supporter of suicide bombers.
So
feel free to join the estimated 30 million Americans who
practice yoga, and beware those who argue against
self-realization and thinking for yourself.
(source: Beware
the Yoga Demon! The Christian Right’s fear of self-realization
and spirituality - By By
Mel Seesholtz, Ph.D.
- onlinejournal.com).
Yoga
violates Islamic Law: Cleric - The growing enthusiasm for yoga in
Egypt has received a setback with a mufti reportedly issuing an
edict declaring it un-Islamic. The
edict signed by mufti Ali Gomoa, considered the highest
theological authority, says: "Yoga is an ascetic Hindu
practice that is forbidden for use in any manner - neither for
exercise or for worship", local media reported quoting an
Al-Hayat report.
"It is an aberration" whose practice in any form is
"forbidden under Islamic law", the edict says.
Yoga centres are said to have sprung up at all the tourist
resorts in Egypt and is said to be very popular among western
tourists.
(source:
Yoga
violates Islamic Law: Cleric - sify.com).
Indian
Christians Protest Yoga in Schools
The practices of a majority religion should not be imposed on other
minority religions, said an Indian archbishop, reacting sharply
to a decision of an Indian state government. A Jan. 15 interview
with the Indian Catholic, the Internet news service of the
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, Archbishop
Pascal Topno of
Bhopal
said that he had nothing against “Surya
Namaskar” or other Hindu rituals, but questioned the Madhya Pradesh
government's decision to make the practice compulsory in all
government schools and colleges.
(source: Don’t
impose religious practices, Indian archbishop says of yoga
measure - catholic.org).
US pastor says
yoga 'demonic', sparks row
Ever seen a demon in padmasana?
A pastor in Seattle, US, is seeing millions of them.
Mars Hill Church
pastor
Mark
Driscoll's
statement that
yoga
is an agent of Hinduism, and hence demonic, has many yoga gurus seething and
practitioners confused.
Adding fuel to the fire, The
Seattle
Times newspaper last week quoted
R Albert Mohler
Jr, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
in Kentucky, as saying that yoga was against Christianity. Some see the
statements as acknowledgement of the popularity of yoga, which has been growing
as rapidly as religions once did.
A system of meditation and exercise passed down generations in
India,
yoga has been found to give physiological, psychological and therapeutic
benefits. An estimated 15.8 million people practice yoga in the US, where yoga
studios are proliferating in every city. Contesting the pastor relating yoga
with Hinduism because of use of Sanskrit words, Brenin said:
"I suspect that there's a bit of racism and nationalism coming from church
leaders, who harp on language issues and images of Hindu deities which for many
studios are mere decorations or at most stories that inspire and challenge.
There is no worship in a US yoga studio."
While many Indians in the US see in Driscoll's sermon a conspiracy against
Indian culture, Hari Gopinathan, an
Oracle
employee in
San Francisco,
finds streaks of rebellion in Christian yoga practitioners, especially women.
"With an increasingly nuclearised society, women, at the first chance of a free
choice, rebel. Yoga started off as one such sub-culture avenue for rebelling. It
cuts out middle-men when it comes to spiritualism and offers freedom of
expression and minimal diktats on things like sex and gender equality. Add to
this the health benefits, and you have a potent adversary to organised
religion," says Gopinathan.
(source: US
pastor says yoga 'demonic', sparks row - timesofindia.com).
A Hindu view of
'Christian Yoga'
Christian Yoga - an oxymoron
 While
yoga is not a "religion" in the sense that the Abrahamic religions are, it is a
well-established spiritual path. Its physical postures are only the tip of an
iceberg, beneath which is a distinct metaphysics with profound depth and
breadth. Its spiritual benefits are undoubtedly available to anyone regardless
of religion. However, the assumptions and consequences of yoga do run counter to
much of Christianity as understood today. This is why, as a Hindu yoga
practitioner and scholar, I agree with the Southern Baptist Seminary President,
Albert Mohler, when he speaks of the incompatibility between Christianity and
yoga, arguing that "the idea that the body is a vehicle for reaching
consciousness with the divine" is fundamentally at odds with Christian teaching.
This incompatibility runs much deeper.
Yoga's metaphysics center around the quest to attain liberation from one's
conditioning caused by past karma. Karma includes the baggage from prior lives,
underscoring the importance of reincarnation. While it is fashionable for many
Westerners to say they believe in karma and reincarnation, they have seldom
worked out the contradictions with core Biblical doctrines. For instance,
according to karma theory, Adam and Eve's
deeds would produce effects only on their individual future lives, but not on
all their progeny ad infinitum.
Karma is not a sexually transmitted problem flowing from ancestors. This view
obviates the doctrine of original sin and eternal damnation. An individual's
karmic debts accrue by personal action alone, in a separate and self-contained
account. The view of an individual having multiple births also contradicts
Christian ideas of eternal heaven and hell seen as a system of rewards and
punishments in an afterlife. Yogic liberation is here and now, in the bodily
state referred to and celebrated as
jivanmukti,
a concept unavailable in Christianity and in an afterlife somewhere else.
Ironically, the very same Christians who espouse reincarnation also long to have
family reunions in heaven.
Yogic liberation is therefore not contingent upon any unique historical event or
intervention.
The Abrahamic religions posit
an infinite gap between God and the cosmos,
bridged only in the distant past through unique prophetic revelations, making
the exclusive lineage of prophets indispensable. (I refer to this doctrine
elsewhere in my work as history-centrism.)
Yoga, by contrast, has a non-dual cosmology, in which
God is everything and permeates everything, and is at the same time also
transcendent.
The yogic path of embodied-knowing seeks to dissolve the historical ego, both
individual and collective, as false. It sees the Christian fixations on history
and the associated guilt, as bondage and illusions to be erased through
spiritual practice. Yoga is a do-it-yourself path that eliminates the need for
intermediaries such as a priesthood or other institutional authority. Most of
the 20 million American yoga practitioners encounter these issues and find them
troubling. Some have responded by distorting yogic principles in order to
domesticate it into a Christian framework, i.e. the
oxymoron, 'Christian Yoga.'
(source:
A Hindu view of Christian Yoga - By Rajiv Malhotra - huffingtonpost.com).
Yogi Astounds
Indian Scientists
Gujarat,
India: An 83-year-old Indian holy man who says he has spent seven decades
without food or water has astounded a team of military doctors who studied him
during a two-week observation period. Prahlad Jani spent a fortnight in a
hospital in the western India state of Gujarat under constant surveillance from
a team of 30 medics equipped with cameras and closed circuit television. During
the period, he neither ate nor drank and did not go to the toilet.
The long-haired and bearded yogi was sealed in a hospital in the city of
Ahmedabad in a study initiated by India’s Defence Research and Development
Organisation (DRDO), the state defense and military research institute. The DRDO
hopes that the findings, set to be released in greater detail in several months,
could help soldiers survive without food and drink, assist astronauts or even
save the lives of people trapped in natural disasters.
“We still do not know how he survives,” neurologist Sudhir Shah told reporters
after the end of the experiment. “It is still a mystery what kind of phenomenon
this is.” “If Jani does not derive energy from food and water, he must be doing
that from energy sources around him, sunlight being one,” said Shah. “As medical
practitioners we cannot shut our eyes to possibilities, to a source of energy
other than calories.”
Jani has since returned to his village near Ambaji in northern Gujarat where he
will resume his routine of yoga and meditation. He says that he was blessed by a
goddess at a young age, which gave him special powers.
(source:
Yogi Astounds Indian Scientists -
hinduismtoday.com).
India Will
Patent Yoga Asanas
New
Delhi, India. June 7, 2010: The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
has prepared patent formats of nearly 900 yoga asanas (postures), to prevent
European and American companies involved in fitness-related activities from
claiming them as their own. The asanas have been
collected from Patanjali’s
classic work on yoga, as well as other ancient classics like the
Bhagwat Gita.
These asanas will all be included in the digitalised Traditional Knowledge
Library, set up by the council to collect and record traditional treatment
therapy knowledge. Medicines and yoga asanas registered with it enjoy the status
of being patented. “Video recordings of the asanas are also being made and
recorded to prevent them from being stolen,” said TKDL director Dr. V.K. Gupta.
A number of countries have already laid claim to around 250 of these postures.
some foreign companies have even patented some of them, says Gupta.
(source:
India Will Patent Yoga Asanas - hindustantimes.com).
There is no Christian Yoga - Not
found in the bible
It was quite
astonishing to see on the flyer “Christian Yoga! This Thursday
night….” I could feel the wheels spinning in my brain.
“Christian Yoga”, I thought. Now while Christians can
practice yoga, I am not aware of any Christian teachings about
yoga. Yoga is not a Judeo/Christian word! It is not a part of
the Roman Catholic teachings and certainly not a part of
protestant teachings. It
is not found within the King James
Version of the bible. It is a Hindu
word, or more correctly a Sanskrit
word from the Vedic civilization. So how did we get “Christian
Yoga”?
From this I could
conclude that “Christian Yoga” could only indicate one of
two possibilities:
1) Christianity is threatened by yoga and is attempting to take
over this system that “invaded
their turf” pertaining to
spiritual teachings and techniques.
2) Christianity is subconsciously attempting to return to the
spiritual roots of civilization—the Vedic civilization.
I thought to myself, “why would they want to take over
yoga?” Could it be due to the decline of members within the
Christian church within the last 60 years? Is this an extensive
marketing plan cooked up in some New York marketing guru’s
head? Is it an attempt to water down the teachings of yoga and
import their own teachings into the system? Or is it that they
cannot stand not to own everything spiritual?
I think the best reason
might be that yoga, and eastern spirituality, offered answers to
the spiritual questions that the spiritually hungry masses had.
It offered a practical, rational, logical, and truthful approach
to spirituality. It did not contain any form of self-righteous
condemnation, but offered love and acceptance to all. It did not
prey upon victims with terms such as “Sin”
and “eternal damnation”. But most importantly, it
had answers! It offered a practical approach to cultivating a
relationship with divinity. It offered a systematic approach and
an abstract approach to meet the varying temperaments of the
spirituality hungry.
(source: There
is no Christian Yoga - conversionagenda.blogspot.com).
Church
protests, Croatia dumps yoga:
Croatia’s
education ministry has withdrawn its recommendation that
teachers take yoga classes after the Roman
Catholic Church accused it of trying to sneak Hinduism into
schools. Croatia’s bishops issued a fierce protest
of the planned yoga classes, calling it “unacceptable to
introduce into the schools topics that are in contradiction with
the generally accepted system of values and the European
cultural tradition.” “Hindu religious practice will be
brought into the schools under the guise of exercises,” the
bishops said.
(source:
Church
protests, Croatia dumps yoga -
timesofindia.com). Watch
An
Invasion through Conversion
- videoyahoo.com
Yoga
for Teachers Rouses Ire of Croatian Bishops - The
Croatian Bishops' Conference said the program would "make
an unacceptable favor to an organization and its founder who
wants to introduce Hinduistic religious practice in Croatian
schools." It said everything was being done under the guise
of exercise. A
Croatian yoga activist, who asked not to be named, said the
bishops were "irritated
by anything related to disciplines of oriental
origin."
(source:
Yoga
for Teachers Rouses Ire of Croatian Bishops -
reuters.com).
Fundamentalist Christians in Georgia
stopped the Toccoa-Stephens County Recreation Department from offering a Yoga
class. They claim that Yoga could lead to devil
worship. Christian conservatives and other rigid and dogmatic religious sects
have some serious issues with Yoga.
 An English (Reverend Derek Smith) vicar who is in charge of St Michael's Church
in the parish of Melksham in Wiltshire, decision to ban yoga classes from his church
hall has underlined the fragility of Britain's continuing
experiment with a multi-cultural society. Yoga is one of the fastest growing extra-curricular
activities in the United Kingdom with a following among all
sections of society.
A decade ago, it was actively promoted by
one of India's most popular diplomats in Britain, High
Commissioner H C Apa Pant, who delighted his friends by balancing on
his head.
In London a spokesman for Britain's
Anglican Church backed the right of clergymen to take a stand
against any practices which "do not square with Christian
teachings". "Yoga is
used as a kind of generic term for exercise and stretching, but
there are many different types of yoga. Some have a more
spiritual basis as handed down from Eastern religions. Last November another vicar in a
different part of the country in Henham, Essex, took the same
step. The British Wheel of Yoga, the governing body recognized
by Sport England, condemned Rev Smith's action as
"ignorant". "We Hindus are broadminded and
it is surprising for us to hear a Christian vicar say he will
ban yoga classes. "Most people practice yoga for
health benefits, but even if they were aware of the links with
Hinduism, what is the harm? There are many paths to God."
The 50-year-old vicar said he had
no regrets about his church hall's ban on the weekly yoga
classes, which were incompatible with Christianity. Rev Smith said that even if followers in the West
used it just for fitness, spiritual leaders in the East insisted
it was inseparable from Hindu devotional practice.
(source: rediff.com).
Gods in New Age film:
The
seemingly innocuous devices used range from Yoga meditation to a
belief in reincarnation. We are given an extraordinary inside
glimpse into an eerie world of cult mentality and mindless
obedience, and we see how an outright attack against traditional
American beliefs has been successfully launched, not only from
Hindu missionaries, but from unsuspecting Americans who have
accepted the surface manifestations of this religion as trendy
and fun. Many of these concepts, amazingly. have found their way
into American churches which, themselves, are the very target of
the attack. The film covers the chilling parallels between the
belief structure in today's New Age subculture and that in
Hitler's Third Reich two generations ago.
(source:
Gods
in New Age - http://www.marianland.com/newage01.html).
Yoga
in Aspen Public Schools Draws Opposition -
Yoga has become as trendy as this glamorous ski hamlet, so it
would not seem surprising that some local schools have added it
to the students' day. But some parents and religious leaders
here are objecting, saying that teaching yoga in school violates
the separation of church and state.
"We anticipate that the yoga classes will provide them with
some skills to learn how to better focus and be more
attentive," said the Aspen Elementary School principal,
Barb Pitchford. "More and more kids seem to have trouble
with their attention spans — which is about as long as TV
commercials." Leah Kalish, an author of the curriculum
being used in Aspen, said opponents took issue with any Sanskrit
words. One was "namaste," a word that she said was
used in yoga classes to say, "The light in you is the light
in me," or more generally, "to acknowledge our common
humanity." The students end class here by saying
"peace" rather than "namaste."
Mr.
Grant said yoga had become so commercialized that it no longer
was truly yoga. "Yoga has become an enormous fad and is
completely adrift from its mooring as an ancient and classical
tradition that has always been taught face to face with a
master," he said. A Roman Catholic priest in Aspen also
objected to yoga in the schools. "The ultimate goal of the
yoga is to balance the body, the mind, the soul and the
spirit," said the priest, the Rev. Michael O'Brien of St.
Mary's Catholic Church. "When you are talking about the
soul and the spirit, then aren't you in the realm of religion?
And if so, which religion?" Mr. Woodrow, a father of four,
said that even watered-down yoga incorporated aspects of Eastern
religions that believe in reincarnation and pluralism, which
conflict with his beliefs. "It's not fine, it's Hinduism,
and it's a completely different value system," he said.
(source:
Yoga
in Aspen Public Schools Draws Opposition
- by Mindy Sink - NewYorkTimes.com).
Shal-ohm!
Jews who yoga in Kansas City
 Despite its deep roots in Hinduism and Buddhism,
yoga is popping up as a trend not just among Jews in greater
Kansas City, but among people of many different religions all
over the world as a form of physical fitness and a means of
finding balance in life.
So
how do the traditionally Hindu beliefs of yoga and the Jewish
belief system fit together?
According
to Colbert, Jaffe and Kahn, Judaism and yoga fit hand and hand
with each other. In fact, yoga can fit with just about any
religion. In her book, "Anatomy of the Spirit,"
Caroline Myss explores how the seven chakras, or energy centers
that Hindus believe exist as an ethereal part of the body,
connect to basic principles of Judaism and Christianity.
BKS
Iyengar, one of the greatest yoga masters, said that yoga was
given to the human race, not just to Hinduism. After
the meditation, Kahn and Colbert both end with a gentle, "Namaste,"
a traditional Sanskrit
greeting meaning "I honor
the divine within you."
(source:
Shal-ohm!
Jews who yoga in Kansas City - Kansas City Jewish Chronicle
- February 4 2005).
Christian
Yoga - The new appropriation Strategy of delinking Yoga from
Hinduism
Jan Markell wrote an
article titled 'Eastern Mysticism and Christianity are
Incompatible' to counter the increasing
interest Christians are taking in 'Yoga'. Christian
Strategists are worried that Christians who benefited from Yoga
may further explore Hinduism and start appreciating that. This
sense of respect for other religions would play doom to the
evangelical Christianity which survives on generating ill will
and hatredness towards the 'lost people', i.e., the term used
for non-Christians.
(source: Christian
Yoga - The new appropriation Strategy of delinking Yoga from
Hinduism - christianaggression.com).
Also
Refer to Yogaunveiled.com
Let's
Take Yoga Back
I have
become keenly aware of an alarming trend that disassociates yoga
from its Hindu origins.
I regularly read Yoga
Journal at my gym and am continuously amazed at how
many times its editors blatantly avoid using the word
"Hindu." As I perused the April 09 issue, I found the Upanishads
described as "Tantric yoga texts." Exactly
one year ago, HAF
Hindu American Foundation
wrote to the editors of Yoga
Journal about the clear disregard for Hinduism. Our
letter was never published, and upon following up with them, HAF
was informed that the journal does intentionally avoid using the
word "Hindu" because it carries too much baggage, and
ultimately, their goal is to sell magazines! I immediately
requested my parents to discontinue their subscription.
These issues plagued me, but it
wasn't until I began furthering my own yoga practice that I
found this disassociation so stark. When I look around the yoga
studios I frequent, I am almost always the only Indian Hindu in
the room. If I lived in a small mid-Western town, this
observation may not be so surprising. But I reside in Manhattan,
one of the most diverse cities in the US, where Hindus abound
and yet, I can't seem to find any in my yoga classes.
So, perhaps
it's time for the Hindu community to look inward and accept our
share of the blame in losing the affiliation between Hinduism
and yoga. How can we maintain and promote the Hindu origin of
yoga if the majority of yoga studios don't have Hindu students,
forget the idea of Hindu yoga teachers? Our Hindu forefathers
understood the unique benefits of yoga and shared yoga with the
Western world. The West understood, fell in love with yoga,
morphed it into a physical and "spiritual" practice -
thereby removing any religious association - and proclaimed
their expertise.
In
an effort to avoid such a catastrophe, I urge you, as a Hindu
American, to reclaim yoga by once again becoming an expert in
its practice. We cannot lay claim to a practice if we as a
community don't follow it ourselves. As a proud Hindu, it is a
humbling experience to learn a practice originating in Hinduism
from so many non-Hindus.
(source:
Let's
Take Yoga Back - By Sheetal Shah - hinducurrents.com).
The Theft of Yoga -
Delinking yoga from Hinduism
The Los Angeles
Times last week
chronicled
this steady disembodying of yoga from Hinduism.
"Christ is my guru. Yoga is a spiritual discipline much like prayer, meditation
and fasting [and] no one religion can claim ownership," says a vocal proponent
of "Christian themed" yoga practices. Some Jews practice Torah yoga, Kabbalah
yoga and aleph bet yoga, and even some Muslims are joining the act. They
are appropriating the collective wisdom of millenia of yogis without a whisper
of acknowledgment of yoga's spiritual roots.
Not
surprisingly, the most popular yoga journals and magazines are also in the act.
Once yoga was no longer intertwined with its Hindu roots, it became up for grabs
and easy to sell. These journals abundantly refer to yoga as "ancient Indian,"
"Eastern" or "Sanskritic," but seem to assiduously
avoid the term "Hindu" out of fear, we can only assume, that
ascribing honestly the origins of their passion would spell disaster for what
has become a lucrative commercial enterprise. The American Yoga Association, on
its Web site,
completes
this delinking of yoga from Hinduism thusly:
"The common
belief that Yoga derives from Hinduism is a misconception. Yoga actually
predates Hinduism by many centuries...The techniques of Yoga have been adopted
by Hinduism as well as by other world religions."
(source:
The theft of yoga - By Dr. Aseem Shukla - Hindu American Foundation).
Refer to
Take Yoga Back -
Bringing to Light Yoga's Hindu Roots
- Hindu American Foundation
Top
of Page
Yoga
in the Modern World
The ground for
its introduction to the West was laid in 1893, with the arrival
from India of Swami Vivekananda, who gained notoriety when he
represented Hinduism at the world Parliament of Religions in
Chicago. Soon after, the West's awareness of Indian philosophy
grew, through the work of such groups as the Theosophical
Society, founded in the US by Madame Blavatsky. The Society
translated most of the ancient Indian philosophical texts
available at the time, including an interpretation of the Yoga
Sutras of Patanjali by the English novelist and playwright
Christopher Isherwood, a member of the Society. Other members of
the Society included some of the most prominent intellectuals of
the day such as Aldous
Huxley, Frank Lloyd Wright and W. B.
Yeats. For the next few decades, the West's interest in Indian
philosophy continued to grow. An important voice for the
universality of these teachings was the great philosopher and
teacher J. Krishnamurti. With awareness of the philosophy grew
an interest in the practice with which it was so closely linked
– yoga. In 1935, the eminent Swiss psychologist Carl
G. Jung even described yoga as 'one
of the greatest things the human mind has ever created.'
One of his most
distinguished pupils was the violinist Yehudi
Menuhin, who wrote the foreword for Iyengar's book Light
on Yoga, published in 1966. It wasn't long before people
from all over the world were travelling to India to discover
yoga and the Vedic philosophy from which it emerged. Then with
the Beatles' journey to India in 1968, to study Transcendental
Meditation with their Guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi that was Indian
became firmly part of the hippy culture. In his memoirs, Unfinished
Journey, he wrote: "On our first evening in
Delhi, challenged by Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru to show what I could do, I stood on my head in
a somewhat rickety fashion, under the critical gaze of his
daughter Indira, his sister "Nan" Pandit, and a few
members of the government. "Oh, that's no good!" said
Nehru in his sharp way. "I'll show you." He took off
his little Gandhi hat and very elegantly - although not more
elegantly than I can manage it now - upended himself on the
drawing room carpet. Dutifully I did my best to emulate my first
guru, and we were both on our heads when the splendid turbaned
and sashed butler threw open the door to announce that dinner
was served."
(source:
Unfinished
Journey - By
Yehudi Menuhin
p. 250 - 268).
According to Alan
Watts:(1915-1973) a professor, graduate school dean
and research fellow of Harvard University, drew heavily on the
insights of Vedanta. He well known in the 1960s as a pioneer in
bringing Eastern philosophy to the West.
"For the intellectual type there is the
Gnana Yoga, the way of thought; for the feeling type there is
Bhakti Yoga, the way of love; for the worker there is Karma
Yoga, the way of service. But for those exceptionally gifted,
there is a fourth which comprises the other three – Raja Yoga,
the royal way, and this contains not only the trinity of
thought, love and service, but also that mainly psychic form of
yoga known as Hatha…..so great are the powers which it
develops that they are only safe in the hands of those of the
highest moral discipline, those who can be trusted to use them
without thought of personal gain."
(source: The
Wisdom of Asia – by Alan Watts p. 27-28).
Sage
Patanjali. North facade garbhagraha - Melakkadormbur. South
Arcot. Sri. Amrtakatesvam temple.
(image source: French Institute of Indology. Pondicherry.
India).
***
In
a moving letter written to Yoga Journal magazine Ukrainian yogi
Andrey V. Sidersky tells how yoga is ameliorating the effects
from radiation exposure when the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
melted down. Sidersky writes, "Everything is soaked with
radiation. The immune system is undermined. One who practices
yoga can fight it. That is why yoga is so important here. My
blood is still impure, due to radiation, but not as much as it
could be. We are approaching death much more quickly than the
rest of humanity. Those who practice yoga have a much better
chance to get ready."
In recent
times, Sri Aurobindo saw a
new vision and possibility of advance in spiritual life. He
realized that it should and could be possible for a human race
as such to rise to a new and higher status of living, a
supramental in place of the mental which it now commands, but
which is subject to partiality, fragmentaries and division. A
supramental status of wholeness, sure of truth, is the
development called for and needed in the present situation of
human life. This, Aurobindo called "The Integral
Yoga", the yoga which should lift the integral nature of
man, by a wide integral process of growth to a new integral
consciousness. Integral Yoga was Aurobindo's answer to the
fragmentation of Yoga that it has suffered since its classical
period.
(source: Yoga
in Hindu Scriptures - By H. Kumar Kaul p. 6).
Yoga
and Science
The one central
insight into Truth to which all Indian wisdom points is the
oneness of all that exists. This truth has been stated in myriad
ways in the long history of India. In the Rig Veda, the earliest
text we find this in a cosmlogoical-theological form as the
various gods and natural forces transform themselves into each
other. In the Upanishads, the supreme identity of Atman and
Brahman discovered in meditation indicates the oneness of the
deepest level in a person with the subtlest level of the cosmos.
From Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita one hears that those who truly
know realize that all there is is Krishna. It is one and the
same Divine Energy that manifests itself in the various forms
engaged in the various forms engaged in the wonderful dance of
Prakriti (Nature, both manifest as well as un-manifest).
Ravi
Ravindra observes: "Over a period
of at least four thousand years - as reckoned by western
chronology - the sages in India have repeatedly said that there
is an underlying unity of all that exists, including everything
we call animate or un-animate, and that the cultivation of
wisdom consists of realization of this truth. Modern
science is not the only avenue to truth. The great spiritual
traditions have perspectives on reality, based on more direct
and and intuitive perception in purified states of
consciousness, which are either ignored or denied by science.
Among the examples of such insights in the spiritual traditions
is an acknowledgment of levels of being higher than the mind
which can be experienced but cannot be known by any mode of
knowledge that separates object and subject. The state of
consciousness in which the unitive insight is possible requires
a radical transformation of being brought about by spiritual
disciplines such as Yoga."
"Yoga is
as much religion, as science, and art since it is concerned with
being (sat), knowing (jnana) and doing (karma). The aim of Yoga,
however, is beyond all these three, and beyond any opposites
that they imply. Yoga aims at moksha, which is unconditional and
uncaused freedom, by its very nature this state of freedom is
beyond the dualities of being-nonbeing, knowledge-ignorance, and
activity-passivity. The way to moksha is Yoga, which serves as
the path or a discipline for integration."
(source: Yoga
and The Teachings of Krishna - By Ravi Ravindra p.
157-165). Also
Refer to Yogaunveiled.com
Top
of Page
Conclusion
Yoga,
as a 'science' of achieving this transformation of finite man
into the infinite One, has to be recognized as something intrinsically
Indian. Yoga has been called a living fossil. It has had
five thousand years of glorious history. It belongs to the
earliest heritage of India's humanity. The Indian liberation
teachings - the great Yogas of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism -
clearly represent an invaluable resource for contemporary
humankind.
The path ahead
is difficult and dangerous, but that is inevitable in any great
undertaking. The goal of individual salvation and collective
transformation may be far away, and may need man generations to
arrive. Let us recall that immortal verse from the Katha
Upanishad which exhorts us to arise, awake and move
onwards across the sharp and difficult razor-edged path laid out
by the great spiritual beings of the past ages:
Uttisthata jagrata prapya varan nibodhata,
Ksursya dhara nisita duratyaya
Durgam pathas tat kavayo vadanti.
Karel
Werner
writes: "The uniqueness
of Yoga and its great value for our time lie in the fact that it
is based on a living tradition that has remained efficient since
ancient times; that it has developed systematic methods for
pursuing and reaching its aim; and that these method can be
applied and studied today both on the popular level by people
with personal inclinations towards following a spiritual path
and on the academic level by research workers in various fields
such as comparative religion, philosophy, psychology,
psychotherapy, and physiology. All other forms of mystical
practice are, by contrast, largely a matter of the more or less
distant past (eg. the ancient Greek mysteries, Egyptian magic
practices, Gnosticism, various forms of shamanism, and medieval
Christian mysticism) or if they are partly alive, which some
might claim to be, they are closed systems accessible only to
believers."
(source: Yoga and Indian Philosophy - by Karel Werner
p. 98-99
).
George
Feuerstein
remarks: "But
nowhere on Earth ahs the impulse toward transcendence found more
consistent and creative expression than on the Indian peninsula.
The civilization of India has spawned an almost overwhelming
variety of spiritual beliefs, practices, and approaches."
(source:
The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and
Practice - By Georg Feuerstein p.
xxv).
Karel
Werner has observed:
"Unlike in
Europe, philosophy in India has always been concerned with the
individual, his existential situation, his destiny and
salvation, i.e. with the final solution to the riddle of man's
existence. The world or the universe - although the question of
its origin is the theme of one of the earliest Indian
philosophical texts (the hymn of Creation, RV 10, 129) - soon
appears to be viewed mainly as the stage on which the drama of
life is going on. The important and central problem of
philosophical investigation is the nature of man and the means
of transcending his present limited situation."
“According to
the Indian tradition, the ancient Vedic religion is not a
product of the imagination of primitive minds reacting to
natural phenomena by personifying, worshipping, and dreading
them, but on the contrary, is the creation of exceptional
individuals who had reached the fullness of mystical vision,
which gave them an understanding of and insight into the
problems of life and existence that may have amounted to the
final knowledge of the truth itself.” And some hymns of the
Rig Veda and Atharva Veda, if studied carefully, lead us to
admit that only deep experience based on efficient Yoga
technique could have produced the profound insights that we find
in them.”
"There is
a spirit of discovery about Yoga that is similar to that often
found in modern scientific research. In this field of activity
of the human mind Yoga also shares with science the
characteristic of a methodical and systematic approach to its
task."
(source: Yoga and Indian Philosophy - by Karel Werner
p.97 and 101 - 103).
L
Adams Beck has written:
"This subject of
Yoga is a high and difficult one. At points there is symbolism
that only the instructed can piece and reach the truth behind.
Remember also that Yoga is in many respects a key to the highest
teachings of the Indian philosophies, including that of the
Buddha." He has endorsed Yoga as a
gift to the West. We are only beginning to realize what great
gifts India brings us, gifts not to be feared but
welcomed.."
"The
philosophy of Yoga, though inchoate, was ancient when the
Upanishads were comparatively young. The Svetasvatara Upanishad
says: "Where fire is churned or produced by rubbing
sacrifice, where air is controlled (by Yoga practices) then the
mind attains perfection."
Dr.
S. Radhakrishnan who had a great respect for Yoga
wrote: "It is good to know that the ancient thinkers
required of us to realize the possibilities of the soul in
solitude and silence, and to transform the flashing and fading
moments of vision into a steady light which could illumine the
long years of life."
(source: The
Story of Oriental Philosophy - By L Adams Beck
p. 10w -107).
Yoga is to
transform the whole man, to discipline his body, to purify his
mind, to touch the very foundations of his being.
Books
used for this chapter:
1.
Yoga and The Teaching of Krishna - by Ravi Ravindra
2. Yoga As Philosophy And Religion - By Surendranath
Dasgupta
3. Yoga and Indian Philosophy - by Karel Werner
4. Essays on Hinduism - by Karan Singh
5. Yoga and The Bhagavad Gita - By Tom McArthur
6. Philosophy of Hinduism - By Galav
7. Yoga: The Technology of Ecstasy - By Georg Feuerstein
8. The Hindu Mind - By Bansi Pandit
9 Yoga and the Hindu Tradition - By Jean Varenne
10. Divya Chakshu Yoga - By Bhim Sen Gupta
11. Yoga and Ayurveda - By Satyendra Prasad Mishra
12. The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and
Practice - By Georg Feuerstein
13. Yoga: A Vision of its Future - By Gopi Krishna
14. Yoga Samhita - by Swami Sivananda
15. The serpent power: being the Sat-cakra-nir¯upana and P¯aduk¯a-pañcaka,
two works on Laya yoga, translated from the Sanskrit, with
introd. and commentary by Sir John Woodroffe aka Arthur Avalon
16. The Yoga and Its Objects - By Sri Aurobindo
For
more refer to The
Magic of Yoga
- By Jahnavi Sheriff - rediff.com).
Also Refer to Yogaunveiled.com
and Kayayoga.net
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of Page
 Did
You Know?
Shiva
Temple: The Only Hindu Temple Built by an Englishman in India
Lord Shiva rescued Lady Martin’s husband in Afghanistan
In 1879, when there was British were ruling in India, Lt.
Col. Martin of Agar Malva was leading the army in the war
against Afghanistan.
Col.
Martin used to regularly send messages of his well-being to his
wife. The war continued for long & Lady Martin stopped
getting messages. She was very upset.
 Once
riding on her horse, she passed by the temple of Baijnath
Mahadev. She was attracted to the sound of Conch
& Mantra. She went inside and came to know that the
Brahmanas were worshipping Lord Shiva. They saw her sad face and
asked her problem. She explained everything to them. They told
her that Lord Shiva listens to the prayers of devotees and takes
them out of difficult situations in no time. With the advice of
the Brahmanas she started the “Laghurudri Anushtthan” of the
Mantra: “Om Namah Shivaya”
for 11 days. She prayed to Lord Shiva
that if her husband reaches home safely, then she would get the
temple renovated.
On
the last of the “Laghurudri” a messenger came and gave a
letter to her. Her husband had written: “I was regularly
sending messages to you from the battle grounds but suddenly the
Pathans surrounded us from all sides. We were entrapped in a
situation where there was no scope of escaping death. Suddenly I
saw a Yogi of India with long hair, carrying a weapon with three
pointers (Trishul). His personality was amazing and he was
maneuvering his weapon with a magnificent style. Seeing this
great man, the Pathans started running back. With his grace our
bad times turned into moments of victory. This was possible only
because of that man of India wearing a lion skin & carrying
a three-pointer weapon (Trishul). That great Yogi told me that I
should not worry and that he had come to rescue me because he
was very pleased with my wife’s prayers.”
Tears
of joy were falling down the eyes of Lady Martin’s eyes while
reading the letter. Her heart was overwhelmed. She fell into the
feet of Lord Shiva’s statue and burst in tears.
After
a few weeks Col. Martin returned. Lady Martin narrated the whole
incident to him. Now both husband & wife became devotees of
Lord Shiva. In 1883 they donated Rs. 15,000 for renovating the
temple. The information engraved slab for the same is still
there in the Baijnath Mahadev Temple of Agar Malva. This is the
only Hindu temple built by the British.
When
Lady Martin left for Europe she said that they would make Shiva
Temple at their home and pray to Him till the end of life.
The
same Supreme Power is present in Lord Shiva… Lord Krishna…
Mother Durga… One only needs strong
faith....
(source: Yog-Yatra 4 of Sant Shri Asaramji
Ashram - http://www.ashram.org/satsang_eng/ladymartin.html).
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