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Yoga is one of the six darshanas (schools) of Vedic/Hindu philosophy, and as such specifically refers to Raja
Yoga, the royal path of divine meditation on the one Brahman. A man who has
taken up successful practice of Yoga is called a Yogi (also spelled Yogin), a woman Yogini. Several other forms of yoga exist
within Hinduism including those of selfless action (Karma Yoga), selfless
love (Bhakti Yoga), and discriminatory contemplation (Jnana Yoga).
Yogic philosophy is primarily Upanishadic with roots in Samkhya, and many scholars see some influence by Buddhism. It is a universal philosophy that enjoins the practitioner to pursue his or her own path to
enlightenment, depending on personality and inclination. It is very much in line with its Vedic roots and the traditional
pluralism of Hinduism. For this reason, it is easy for a "Christian", for example,
to see Jesus the Christ as his or her own ishwar-devata. "Christ the Yogi" is not an uncommon concept in the world of Yoga today.
Most religions, when viewed through their ethical and spiritual standpoints without the trappings of dogma, are easily
reconcilable with Yoga philosophy in general because of its transcendental message.
Beginning with the arrival of Swami Vivekananda in 1893, there has been a steady flow of learned teachers that have brought
the transcendental message of Yoga to the West. While the influence of these Yogins is deeply inscribed into the surface of the
modern yogic ethos, both in India and America, a proliferation of 'yoga clinics' and non-spiritual yoga systems has been seen in
the West, especially in the United States. While many Americans view it as an exercise system that simply enhances one's health,
a much greater number in India (and a minority in America) still see it as it has been for over 5,000 years, whether in the
Bhagavad Gita, the Yoga Sutras, the writings of the Dalai Lama, or the "Yoga Boom" of the twentieth century, a system of
spirituality universal in its application.
Cappeller's Sanskrit-English Dictionary defines Yoga as: m. collection or concentration of the mind,
meditation, contemplation ([1] )
History of Yoga
Pre-Vedic (ca. 6000 - 3000 BCE [?])
The history of yoga may go back anywhere from five to eight thousand years ago, depending on the perspective of the historian.
It evolved wholly in the land of India, and while it is supposed by some scholars that yogic practices were originally the domain
of the indigenous, non-Aryan (and pre-Vedic) peoples, it was first clearly expounded in the great Vedic shastras (religious texts).
Pre-Vedic findings are taken, by some commentators, to show that "yoga" existed in some form well before the establishment of
Aryan culture in the north Indian subcontinent.
- A triangular amulet seal uncovered at the Mohenjo-daro archeological excavation site depicts a male, seated on a low platform
in a cross legged position, with arms outstretched. His head is crowned with the horns of a water-buffalo. He is surrounded by
animals (a fish, an alligator, and a snake) and diverse symbols. The likeness on the seal and understandings of the surrounding
culture have led to its widely accepted identification as "Pashupati", Lord of the Beasts, a prototype and predeccesor
of the modern day Hindu god Shiva. The pose is a very familiar one to yogins,
representing Shiva much as he is seen today, the meditating ascetic contemplating divine truth in "yoga-posture."
- (Ref. 1 , 2
)
Vedic (ca. 2000-1500 BCE)
David Frawley, a Vedic scholar, writes: "Yoga can be traced back to the Rig Veda itself, the oldest Hindu text which speaks
about yoking our mind and insight to the Sun of Truth. Great teachers of early Yoga include the names of many famous Vedic sages
like Vasishta, Yajnavalkya, and
Jaigishavya."
Ideas of uniting mind, body and soul in the cosmic one, however, do not find real yogic explication until the most important
mystic texts of Hinduism, the Upanishads or Vedanta, commentaries on the Vedas.
Upanishadic (ca. 800-100 BCE)
Explicit examples of the concept and terminology of yoga appear in the Upanishads (primarily thirteen principal texts of the Vedanta, or the "End of the Vedas," that are the
culmination of all Vedic philosophy)
In the Maitrayaniya Upanishad (ca. 200-300 BCE) yoga
surfaces as:
- "Shadanga-Yoga - The unitive discipline of the six limbs (shad-anga), as expounded in the Maitrayaniya-Upanishad: (1) breath
control (pranayama), (2) sensory inhibition (pratyahara), (3) meditation (dhyana), (4) concentration (dharana), (5) examination
(tarka), and (6) ecstasy (samadhi)."
- Reference: http://www.orientalia.org/term3923.html
In the Katha Upanishad yoga surfaces as:
- "When the five instruments of knowledge stand still, together with the mind and when the intellect does not move, that is
called the Supreme State. - III.10
- This, the firm Control of the senses, is what is called yoga. One must then be vigilant; for yoga can be both beneficial and
injurious. - III.11"
- "Having received this wisdom taught by the King of Death and the entire process of yoga, Nachiketa became free from
impurities and death and attained Brahman. Thus it will be also with any other who knows, in this manner, the inmost Self. -
III.18"
Commentary:
- "In the Kathopanishad there is a hint given to us as to how we can practise Yoga. There are one or two verses in the
Kathopanishad which give the sum and substance of the practice of Yoga, which is also the same Yoga explained in greater detail
in the system of Patanjali. The Kathopanishad says, in these verses, that the subtle essences of objects are superior to the
sensory powers, they are higher in their degree and in quality. Higher than these essences of objects is the mind; higher than
the mind is the intellect; higher than the intellect is the cosmic intellect called Mahat. It is also called Hiranyagarbha.
Higher than that is the peaceful undifferentiated causal state called Avyakta. Higher than that is supreme Absolute, Purusha. The
same Upanishad mentions the system of practice in another verse. The senses have to be rooted in the mind. The mind has to be
centred in the intellect. The intellect has to be fixed in the Cosmic Intellect, and the Cosmic Intellect has to be united with
the Peaceful Being. Sometimes this Peaceful Being, Shanta-Atman, is identified with the Isvara of the Vedanta. This is how we
have to control the mind."
- Reference The Essence of The Aitareya and Taittiriya Upanishads by Swami Krishnananda The Divine Life Society Sivananda
Ashram, Rishikesh, India [2]
- See also: Wikisources - Aitareya Upanishad , Wikisource - Taittiriya Upanishad
While protracted discussions of the ultimate, infinite Self, or Atman, and realization of Brahman, are the true legacy of the
Upanishads, the first principal Yoga text was the Bhagavad Gita ("The
Lord's Song"), also known as Gitopanishad.
The Bhagavad Gita is the archetype of Yoga scripture. Capturing the essence and at the same time going into
detail about the various Yogas and their philosophies, it was the groundstone to Yogic thought, and constantly refers to itself
as such, the "Scripture of Yoga" (see the final verses of each chapter).
It is spoken in the format of Lord
Krishna, self-identified as a manifestation of Brahman (the impersonal, supreme force of the cosmos, the Divine Ground), to
Arjuna, a warrior and friend who is loathe to go to battle that would involve his
killing his own gurus (teachers) and family members. The book is contained within the Mahabharata, and is thought to have been written some time between the 5th and the 2nd century BC.
Krishna summarizes the Yogas through eighteen chapters. Yoga can fundamentally be said to comprise four main streams: Raja Yoga (psycho-physical meditation), Bhakti Yoga (devotion and love), Karma Yoga (selfless action), and Jnana (pronounced gyaan in
the Northern states and jnyaana in the South of India) Yoga (self-transcending knowledge). Other forms that exist today
sprang up long after the Bhagavad Gita and Yoga Sutras (to be discussed below) and are all essentially forms of Raja Yoga.
While each path differs, their fundamental goal is one and the same: to realize Brahman (the Divine Ground), as being the only
truth, that the body is temporal, but the soul (Atman) is infinite and one with Brahman. Yoga's aim (nirvana, moksha) is
essentially to escape from the cycle of reincarnation through realization of oneness with the ultimate reality.
Here are some quotations from Lord Krishna that make up history's first real yoga text and give comprehensive definitions of
the four principal Yogas:
On all Yoga in general
- "When the mind comes to rest, restrained by the practice of yoga, and when beholding the Self, by the self, he is content in
the Self." (B.G., Chapter 6, Verse 20) | " He who finds his happiness within, his delight within, and his light within, this yogi
attains the bliss of Brahman, becoming Brahman."
- " Establishing a firm seat for himself in a clean place... having directed his mind to a single object, with his thought and
the activity of the senses controlled, he should practice yoga for the purpose of self-realization. Holding the body, head and
neck erect, motionless and steady, gazing at the tip of his own nose and not looking in any direction, with quieted mind,
banishing fear, established in the brahmacharin vow of celibacy, controlling the mind, with thoughts fixed on Me, he should sit,
concentrated, devoted to Me. Thus, continually disciplining himself, the yogin whose mind is subdued goes to nirvana, to supreme
peace, to union with Me." (B.G., Chapter 6, Verses 11-15)
On Bhakti Yoga
- ".... those who, renouncing all actions in Me, and regarding Me as the Supreme, worship me... of those whose thoughts have
entered into Me, I am soon the deliverer from the ocean of death and transmigration, Arjuna. Keep your mind on Me alone, your
intellect on Me. Thus you shall dwell in me hereafter." (B.G., Chapter 12, Verses 6-8) " And he who serves me with the yoga of
unswerving devotion, transcending these qualities [binary opposites, like good and evil, pain and pleasure] is ready for
absorption in Brahman." (B.G. Chapter 14, Verse 26)
On Karma Yoga
- " With the body, with the mind, with the intellect, even merely with the senses, the yogins perform action toward
self-purification, having abandoned attachment. He who is disciplined in yoga, having abandoned the fruit of action, attains
steady peace..." (B.G. Chapter 5, Verses 11-12)
On Jnana Yoga
- " When he perceives the various states of being as resting in the One, and from That alone spreading out, then he attains
Brahman. / They who know, through the eye of knowledge, the distinction between the field and the knower of the field, as well as
the liberation of beings from material nature, go to the Supreme." (B.G. Chapter 15, Verse 31 / Verse 35)
Raja Yoga is, in general, stilling of the mind and body through meditative techniques, geared at realizing one's true nature.
Bhakti Yoga is simply love and devotion, epitomized today in such practices as worship of various Hindu deities, finding
salvation in love of Christ, etc. Karma Yoga is essentially acting, or doing one's duties in life, without desire or expectation
of reward, a sort of constant sacrifice of action to the Supreme. It includes, but is not limited to, dedication to one's chosen
profession and its perfection to God and all sorts of community service, since they are inherently done without thought of
personal gain. Jnana Yoga is a process of learning to discriminate between what is real and what is not, what is eternal and what
is not eternal.
Classical (ca. 200 CE)
Patanjali's Yoga Sutras
After the Bhagavad Gita, the next seminal work on Yoga is the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The Yoga Sutras are a compilation of Yogic thought that is largely Raja Yogic in nature, it was codified some
time between the 2nd century BC and the 3rd century by Patanjali, and prescribes adherence to
"eight limbs" (the sum of which constitute "Ashtanga Yoga") to quiet one's mind and merge with the infinite. These eight limbs
not only systematized conventional moral principles espoused by the Gita, but elucidated the practice of Raja Yoga in a more detailed manner. Indeed, his "eight-limbed" path has formed the
foundation for Raja Yoga and much of Tantra Yoga (a Hindu deific, Shiva-Shakti yoga
system) and Vajrayana Buddhism (Buddhist Tantra Yoga) that came after. It goes as
follows:
- Yama (moral codes)
- Niyama (self-purification and study)
- Asana (posture)
- Pranayama (breath control)
- Pratyahara (sense control)
- Dharana (concentration)
- Dhyana (meditation)
- Samadhi (absorption)
Patanjali, whose own life is virtually unknown, had the impact of further
spreading in compact form the essence of Raja Yoga. Some legends speak of his being Adinaga, the first snake, the lower half of
his body being that of a snake, upon which the great Hindu God Vishnu reclines. Many say that he was the same Patanjali who wrote
commentaries on Panini's singular masterwork on Sanskrit grammar. Others speak of the legends of his birth. A few even dispute his existence and attribute the
Yoga Sutras to many authors, but this is highly unlikely due to the
structural, linguistic and stylistic uniformity of the short work. His base is Hindu Samkhya philosophy and shows itself to have been highly influenced by the Upanishads.
His Yoga Sutras espouse a trifold system for attainment of samadhi through tapas
(austerities; discipline; literally "heat"), swadhyaya (self-study) and ishwar-pranidhana (contemplation of God).
While Patanjali accepts the idea of what he terms "ishta-devata" (worship of deities as manifestations of the single Brahman),
his overall "ishwar" is not a conventional God with personal form and speaks more to a universal, attributeless Brahman, an
impersonal, unknowable, infinite force that is all and transcends all.
Together, the Bhagavad Gita and Yoga Sutras form the theoretical and philosophical base of all yoga. However, as far as Raja
Yoga (meditational yoga) goes, it is most precisely captured by Patanjali's Yoga-Sutras.
450 - 850 CE
The Yoga-bhasya, Veda Vyasa's commentary on the Yoga Sutras of
Patanjali could have been written as early as 450 CE. Professor J. H. Woods, places the date of the Yoga-bhasya between 650 CE to
850 CE. Trevor Leggett places the date closer to 600 CE based on a commentary to the Yoga-bhasya published in Sanskrit in 1952 in
the Madras Government Oriental Series #94 by Polakam Sri Rama Sastri and S. R. Krishnamurti Sastri. Evidence strongly suggests that this sub-commentary was
written by Sankara who lived about 700 CE.
Vacaspati Mishra's
Tattva Vaisharadi, a commentary on the Yoga-bhasya was written in ca. 850 CE. An authoritative translation of
this work can be found in "The Yoga System of Patanjali" by Professor James Haughton Woods.
- Reference: "Sankara on the Yoga Sutras" Trevor Leggett, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, Delhi, ISBN: 81-208-1028-7
- Reference: "The Yoga System of Patanjali" James Haughton Woods, Harvard Oriental Series, 1914, (out of print)
ISBN:81-208-0577-1 (reprint: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, Delhi)
1350 - 1400 CE
Hatha Yoga Pradipika In the West, outside of Hindu culture, "yoga" is usually understood to refer to "hatha
yoga." Hatha Yoga is, however, a particular system propagated by Swami Swatamarama, a yogic sage of the 15th century in
India.
After the Bhagavad Gita and Yoga Sutras, the most fundamental text of Yoga is the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, written by Swami
Swatamarama, that in great detail lists all the main asanas, pranayama, mudra and bandha that are familiar to today's yoga
student. It runs in the line of Hindu yoga (to distinguish from Buddhist and Jain yoga) and is dedicated to Lord Adinath, a name
for Lord Shiva (the Hindu god of destruction), who is alleged to have imparted the secret of Hatha Yoga to his divine consort
Parvati. It is common for yogins and tantriks of several disciplines to dedicate their practices to a deity under the Hindu
ishta-devata concept (see Patanjali's Yoga Sutras) while always striving to achieve beyond that: Brahman. Hindu philosophy in the
Vedanta and Yoga streams, as the reader will remember, views only one thing as being ultimately real: Satchidananda Atman, the
Existence-Consciousness-Blissful Self. Very Upanishadic in its notions, worship of Gods is a secondary means of focus on the
higher being, a conduit to realization of the Divine Ground. Hatha Yoga follows in that vein and thus successfully transcends
being particularly grounded in any one religion.
Hatha is a Sanskrit word meaning 'sun' (ha) and 'moon' (tha), representing opposing energies: hot and cold, male and female,
positive and negative, similar but not completely analogous to yin and yang. Hatha yoga attempts to balance mind and body via
physical exercises, or "asanas", controlled breathing, and the calming of the mind through relaxation and meditation. Asanas
teach teach poise, balance & strength and were originally (and still) practiced to improve the body's physical health and
clear the mind in preparation for meditation in the pursuit of enlightenment. "Asana" means "immovable", i.e. static, and often
confused with the dynamic 108 [natya karana]s described in [Natya Shastra] and, along with the elements of Bhakti Yoga, is
embodied in the contemporaty form of Bharatanatyam .
By balancing two streams, often known as ida (mental) and pingala (bodily) currents, the sushumna nadi (current of the Self) is
said to rise, opening various chakras (cosmic powerpoints within the body, starting from the base of the spine and ending right
above the head) until samadhi is attained. Ida and pingala are represented in the dynamism of natya yoga by lasya (female) and tandava
(male) aspects, and bear direct reference to the Taoist dualism.
By forging a powerful depth of concentration and mastery of the body and mind, Hatha Yoga practices seek to still the mental
waters and allow for apprehension of oneself as that which one always was, Brahman. Hatha Yoga is essentially a manual for
scientifically taking one's body through stages of control to a point at which one-pointed focus on the unmanifested brahman is
possible: it is said to take its practicer to the peaks of Raja Yoga.
In the West, hatha yoga has become wildly popular as a purely physical exercise regimen divorced of its original purpose, and
thus, devoid of its original efficacy. Currently, it is estimated that about 30 million Americans practice hatha yoga. But in the Indian subcontinent the traditional practice is still to be
found. The guru-shishya (teacher-student) relationship that exists without need for sanction from non-religious institutions, and
which gave rise to all the great yogins who made way into international consciousness in the 20th century, has been maintained in
Indian, Nepalese, and some Tibetan circles.
In India, whose Hindu population combines to a staggering 800 million, Yoga is a daily part of life. It is common to see people
performing Surya Namaskar (a yogic set of asanas and pranayam dedicated to Surya, the Hindu God of the Sun) in the morning or
speaking about food diets and body therapy entirely based on Yoga or the Hindu healing system of Ayurveda. The age-old tradition
of Yoga has continued uninterrupted by the its popularity in the west (although more established schools like the Bihar School of
Yoga work from within India to produce Yoga texts to send abroad).
In addition, hundreds and thousands sanyasins (renunciates) and sadhus (Hindu monks) wander in and out of city temples, village
country sides and are to be found smattered all across the Himalayan and Vindhya (in Central/South India) foothills. For India's
holy-men, Yoga is as fundamental as lifeblood. To see a man meditating at the steps of a temple, or even wondering
contemplatively on the roadside, is not uncommon even to the more Westernized crowds. It is the same in Tibet, where the Buddhist
establishment's lifestyle is permeated with the Yoga or yogic practices, which is ultimately not a once-a-day routine, but a
constant immersion in self-discovery.
- See also: Wikisource - Hatha Yoga Pradipika
The Yoga Sutra and its followers
While meditative practices like asanas (postures) and pranayama (breath control) existed long before Patanjali, his brilliant
eight-limbed system was what became the standard for almost all yoga schools that followed. Raja Yoga, being difficult to achieve
(one must be focused on the Supreme), several Guru (teacher) lines came to make firm methodologies of realizing it.
- A sidenote on the Guru: Emphasized by all schools of yoga as indispensable, the Guru takes on quasi-divine proportions.
Acknowledged as a siddha (adept) who has attained the eight siddhis (powers) afforded by yoga (they range from transportation of
the mind to anywhere into the universe to the only truly desirable power, samadhi), the Guru guides the shisya (student) through
yogic discipline from the beginning. When doing yoga, the student is urged to look long and hard for a sadguru (True Teacher) and
then devote himself from imbibing that Guru's learning.
The most famous of the traditional Hindu schools of yoga, and the basis for nearly all modern systems, is Hatha Yoga. It is
representative of all non-Bhakti-Karma-Jnana Yoga that has become so popular in the west today.
The Great Modern Yogins
First brought into America as early as the 1890s by the great yogin and disciple of Shri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, the Hindu
representative in the Chicago Parliament of World Religions, Yoga has also been transported in the arms of many other great
yogins and formed into stratified schools seeking to propagate Yoga in its great spiritual context. But these teachers have made
their imprint in both India and America, and continue to serve as modern embodiments of Yoga.
Swami Rama Tirtha, who came from a deep yoga tradition in the
Himalayas of India, was the founding spiritual head of the Himalayan Institute. He was the first yogin to come to America and be
subjected to the scrutiny of modern science. Among other things, he stunned doctors by stopping the beat of his heart completely
for several minutes.
Many modern schools of Hatha Yoga derive from the school of Sri
Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, who taught in Mysore, India from 1931 until his death in 1993. Among his students prominent in popularising Yoga in the West were Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, B.K.S. Iyengar, Indra Devi and Krishnamacharya's son
T.K.V. Desikachar.
Desikachar founded the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram in Madras (now Chennai), with
the aim of making available the heritage of yoga as taught by Krishnamacharya.
Other great yogins are Paramahansa Yogananda,
practitioner of Kriya Yoga who
arrived in America as a powerful example of the universality of Yoga. Sporting a cross, he came to the U.S. with the Hindu
Bhagavad Gita in one hand and the Christian New Testament in the other, speaking to his disciples in pluralist ideology with Yoga
as the binding force.
Sri Aurobindo, referred to as Aurobindo Ghosh by those who consider him as merely a philosopher rather than an Avatar, was not simply an intellectual genius born in West Bengal and educated in the best university in
England. His masterful translations and interpretations of Hindu and Yogic scriptures are mystic and esoteric, and often are the
opposite of what you will find in Max Muller's and other purely intellectual translations of the sacred Sanscrit texts, among
which his translations/commentaries on the Hindu texts of the Upanishads and Gita are mystic in nature, and his epic Hindu/Yoga
poem Savitri is a treasure of Hindu Yogic literature, formally being the longest poem ever written in English. Beyond this, his
personal life is a fascinating testimony of the life of a true yogin. After the goddess Sri entered his being, he became Sri Aurobindo. Besides his influence and scholarly writing on Yoga, he also
founded Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, that continues to propagate the practice of Integral Yoga, which is a Tantric
synthesis of the four main Yogas (Karma, Jnana, Bhakti and Raja).
- Note: The 1946 ed. of Autobiography of a Yogi is in the Public Domain and can be downloaded from: Gutenberg
Gopi Krishna was a Kashmiri office worker and spiritual seeker who was born in 1903, and wrote autobiographical accounts of
his spiritual experiences with Yoga. His most famous one is "Kundalini: Path to Higher Consciousness." Gopi Krishna's graphic
accounts of his experiences stand out as among the clearest journals documenting a spiritual transformation. They are highly
recommended as reading for anyone interested in Yogic phenomena.
- Also see Swami
Sivananda and Swami
Satyananda
Some modern styles of Yoga popular in America:
While the Bhagavad Gita, Yoga Sutras and Hatha Yoga Pradipika are clearly founded on Upanishadic and Brahmanical thought, much
of Yoga has been influenced by and expanded into Tantra. Tantra is more ritual based, having its roots in the first millennium
CE, and incorporates much more of a deist base. Almost entirely founded on Shiva and Shakti worship, Tantra visualizes the
ultimate Brahman as Param Shiva, manifested through Shiva (the passive, masculine force of Lord Shiva) and Shakti (the active,
creative feminine force of his consort, variously known as Ma Kali, Durga, Shakti, Parvati and others). It focuses on the
kundalini, a three and a half-coiled 'snake' of spiritual energy at the base of the spine that rises through the chakras until
union between Shiva and Shakti (aka samadhi) is achieved.
It views the body as means, rather than as obstruction, to understanding, and as such incorporates mantra (Sanskrit prayers,
often to gods, that are repeated), yantra (complex symbols representing Shakti in her various forms through intricate geometric
figures) and rituals that range from simple murti (statue representations of deities) or image worship to meditation on a corpse!
While much tantra certainly, through its many texts (see kaularvatantra, mahanirvana tantra) and teachers (e.g. Abhinava Gupta,
Ramakrishna [a saint who practiced tatnra], etc.) seems odd and highly arcane at times, it is transparent as being completely
yogic. Also, injunctions are made that most people are not suitable for Tantra, especially those of pashu-bhava (animal
disposition). This implies that anyone who has not observed celibacy, honesty, respect of elders, bodily cleansing, ritual
cleansing through prayer, and various other processes for up to twelve years at a time, and still retains base desires, greed,
sexual motivations, etc. one is not fit to practice Tantra. For this reason, even more stringently than other Yogas, Tantra, both
Hindu and Buddhist, remains a strictly Guru-initiated system that as yet finds few true adepts outside of India.
See also
External links
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