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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.
***
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.
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 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 pre-Vedic 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."
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.
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
(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).
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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.
***
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).
***
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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of Page
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
***
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 w | 
