Yoga Health Studio
Introduction To Yoga
Yoga is a form of mysticism that developed on the
Indian subcontinent in the Hindu cultural context. Its origin is impossible
to trace, because it dates back to before recorded history.
Yoga comes in many forms specifically designed to
suit different types of people. As a result, some forms of yoga have
gained significant popularity outside India, particularly in the West
during the past century.
Introduction To Yoga
The word Yoga originates from the Sanskrit word "Yuj"
("to yoke") and is generally translated as "union"
or "integration". According to Yoga experts, the union referred
to by the name is that of the individual soul with the cosmos, or
the Supreme.
Yoga has both a philosophical and a practical dimension.
The philosophy of yoga ("union") deals with the nature of
the individual soul and the cosmos, and how the two are related.
The practice of yoga, on the other hand, can be any
activity that leads or brings the practitioner closer to this mystical
union - a state called self-realization.
Over thousands of years, special practical yoga techniques
have been developed by experts in yoga, who are referred to as Yogis
(male) and Yoginis (female).
These Yoga techniques cover a broad range, encompassing
physical, mental, and spiritual activities. Traditionally, they have
been classified into four categories or paths: the path of meditation
(Raja Yoga), the path of devotion (Bhakti Yoga), the path of selfless
service to the Divine (Karma Yoga), and the path of intellectual analysis
or the discrimination of truth and reality (Jnana Yoga).
The most conspicuous form of yoga in the West, Hatha
Yoga - consisting of various physical and breathing exercises and
purification techniques - is actually the third and the fourth stages
of Ashtanga Yoga of Yoga Sutras by Patanjali.
Yoga Terminology
Due to its Indic roots, Yoga philosophy makes heavy
use of Sanskrit. Because these Sanskrit terms reflect a specific world-view
and historical development of thought, many Sanskrit terms do not
have precise equivalents in other languages, and consequently are
translated in various ways.
As differences in translation can be confusing, it
is often more expedient and precise to use the original Sanskrit terms.
Most yoga guidebooks include glossaries of these terms with local
language explanations.
Yoga Philosophy
Yogic philosophy is primarily Upanishadic with roots
in Samkhya, and some scholars see some influence by Buddhism. It is
a universal philosophy that enjoins the practitioner to pursue his
or her own path to enlightenment, depending on personality and inclination.
It is very much in line with its Vedic roots and the traditional pluralism
of Hinduism.
For this reason, it is easy for a "Christian",
for example, to see Jesus the Christ as his or her own ishta-devata
(personal deity). "Christ the Yogi" is not an uncommon concept
in the world of Yoga today. Most religions, when viewed through their
ethical and spiritual standpoints without the trappings of dogma,
are easily reconcilable with Yoga philosophy in general because of
its transcendental message.
Is Yoga a Religion?
In the context of Hinduism, yoga is one of the six
major schools of Hindu philosophy and as such means specifically Raja
Yoga. In light of this and yoga's Indic origins, some people consider
it to be a part or subset of Hinduism, implying that all yoga practitioners
are Hindus.
Although opinions on this may vary, most yogis would
probably agree that there is nothing inherently religious about most
yoga techniques. The sole exception to this is Bhakti yoga, which
is a special yoga path designed for practioners who are religiously
inclined.
Even Bhakti yoga, however, does not prescribe any
particular form of worship and specifically allows for and encourages
its practice in the context of any religion, including but not limited
to Hinduism.
Seminal Works on Yoga
Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad Gita is the archetype of Yoga scripture.
Capturing the essence and at the same time going into detail about
the various Yogas and their philosophies, it was the groundstone to
Yogic thought, and constantly refers to itself as such, the "Scripture
of Yoga" (see the final verses of each chapter).
It is spoken in the format of Lord Krishna, self-identified
as a manifestation of Brahman (the impersonal, supreme force of the
cosmos, the Divine Ground), to Arjuna, a warrior and friend who is
loathe to go to battle that would involve his killing his own gurus
(teachers) and family members. The book is contained within the Mahabharata,
and is thought to have been written some time between the 5th and
the 2nd century BC.
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Yoga is also 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, which was
codified by the sage Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras.
Hatha Yoga Pradipika
The most famous of the traditional Hindu schools of
yoga, and a basis for nearly all modern systems, is Hatha Yoga. It
is representative of all non-Bhakti-Karma-Jnana Yoga that has become
so popular over the past century. The seminal work on Hatha Yoga is
the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, written by Swami Svatmarama.
Natya Shastra
The guide to Natya Yoga was written by Bharata Muni.
Sage Narada along with Gandharvas were the first to practise Natya
Yoga, which compraise all the four main yoga's. Natya Yoga was practised
by the medieval devadasis, and is currently taught in a few orthodox
schools of Bharatanatyam and Odissi.
Yoga and Tantra
Yoga is often mentioned in company with Tantra, but
the two are not the same. The principal difference is that Yoga sees
body consciousness as the root cause of bondage and rising above body
consciousness as the goal, while Tantra views the body as a means,
rather than as an obstruction, to understanding.
While the Bhagavad Gita, Yoga Sutras and Hatha Yoga
Pradipika are clearly founded on Upanishadic and Brahmanical thought,
much of Yoga has been influenced by and expanded into Tantra. Tantra
is more ritual based, having its roots in the first millennium CE,
and incorporates much more of a deist base.
Almost entirely founded on Shiva and Shakti worship,
Tantra visualizes the ultimate Brahman as Param Shiva, manifested
through Shiva (the passive, masculine force of Lord Shiva) and Shakti
(the active, creative feminine force of his consort, variously known
as Ma Kali, Durga, Shakti, Parvati and others).
It focuses on the kundalini, a three and a half-coiled
'snake' of spiritual energy at the base of the spine that rises through
the chakras until union between Shiva and Shakti (also known as samadhi)
is achieved.
It views the body as means, rather than as obstruction,
to understanding, and as such incorporates mantra (Sanskrit prayers,
often to gods, that are repeated), yantra (complex symbols representing
Shakti in her various forms through intricate geometric figures) and
rituals that range from simple murti (statue representations of deities)
or image worship to meditation on a corpse!
While much tantra certainly, through its many texts
(see kaularvatantra, mahanirvana tantra) and teachers (e.g. Abhinava
Gupta, Ramakrishna, a saint who practiced Kali bhakti, Advaita Vedanta
and tantra, etc.) seems odd and highly arcane at times, it is transparent
as being completely yogic. Also, injunctions are made that most people
are not suitable for Tantra, especially those of pashu-bhava (animal
disposition).
This implies that anyone who has not observed celibacy,
honesty, respect of elders, bodily cleansing, ritual cleansing through
prayer, and various other processes for up to twelve years at a time,
and still retains base desires, greed, sexual motivations, etc. one
is not fit to practice Tantra.
For this reason, even more stringently than other
Yogas, Tantra, both Hindu and Buddhist, remains a strictly Guru-initiated
system that as yet finds few true adepts outside of India.
Teachers Of Yoga
Traditionally, knowledge of yoga has been passed down
through the generations from teacher to student. In Sanskrit, the
teacher is called the guru, and a disciple is called shishya.
Emphasized to varying degrees by all schools of yoga,
in some the Guru takes on quasi-divine proportions. The Guru guides
the shisya (student) through yogic discipline from the beginning.
When doing yoga, the student is urged to look long and hard for a
sadguru (True Teacher) and then devote himself to imbibing that Guru's
learning.
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. Although 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.
Great Modern Yogis
First brought into America as early as the 1890s by
the great yogi 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 yogis
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 yogi to come to America and
be subjected to the scrutiny of modern science. Among other things,
he stunned doctors by stopping the beat of his heart completely for
several minutes.
Many modern schools of Hatha Yoga derive from the
school of Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, who taught in Mysore, India
from 1924 until 1947, at which time he moved to Madras, where he taught
until his death in 1989.
Among his students prominent in popularizing Yoga
in the West were Sri K. Pattabhi Jois famous for popularizing the
vigorous Ashtanga Vinyasa style, B.K.S. Iyengar who emphasizes alignment
and the use of props, Indra Devi and Krishnamacharya's son T.K.V.
Desikachar who developed the Viniyoga style.
Desikachar founded the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram
in Madras (now Chennai), with the aim of making available the heritage
of yoga as taught by Krishnamacharya.
Other great yogis are Paramahansa Yogananda, practitioner
of Kriya Yoga who arrived in America as a powerful example of the
universality of Yoga. Sporting a cross, he came to the U.S. with the
Hindu Bhagavad Gita in one hand and the Christian New Testament in
the other, speaking to his disciples in pluralist ideology with Yoga
as the binding force.
Sri Aurobindo, referred to as Aurobindo Ghosh by those
who consider him as merely a philosopher rather than an Avatar, was
not simply an intellectual genius born in West Bengal and educated
in the best university in England.
His masterful translations and interpretations of
Hindu and Yogic scriptures are mystic and esoteric, and often are
the opposite of what you will find in Max Muller's and other purely
intellectual translations of the sacred Sanskrit texts, among which
his translations/commentaries on the Hindu texts of the Upanishads
and Gita are mystic in nature, and his epic Hindu/Yoga poem Savitri
is a treasure of Hindu Yogic literature, formally being the longest
poem ever written in English.
Beyond this, his personal life is a fascinating testimony
of the life of a true yogi. After the goddess Sri entered his being,
he became Sri Aurobindo. Besides his influence and scholarly writing
on Yoga, he also founded Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, that
continues to propagate the practice of Integral Yoga, which is a Tantric
synthesis of the four main Yogas (Karma, Jnana, Bhakti and Raja).
Gopi Krishna was a Kashmiri office worker and spiritual
seeker who was born in 1903, and wrote autobiographical accounts of
his spiritual experiences with Yoga. His most famous one is "Kundalini":
Path to Higher Consciousness." Gopi Krishna's graphic accounts
of his experiences stand out as among the clearest journals documenting
a spiritual transformation. They are highly recommended as reading
for anyone interested in Yogic phenomena.
Swami Sivananda (born in Pattamadai, Tamil Nadu, India
in 1887), one of the greatest yoga masters of 20th century has authored
over 200 highly inspiring books on yoga. Sivananda has also established
Sivananda ashram of Rishikesh, India and is the founder of Divine
Life Society.
His disciple, Swami Satyananda (born in Almorah, Uttar
Pradesh, India in 1923), has established International Yoga Fellowship
movement, Bihar School of Yoga and Bihar Yoga Bharati, world's first
university on yoga. The university is now headed by his disciple,
Swami Niranjananda. Another disciple of his, Swami Vishnu-Devananda,
has founded the international yoga vedanta centers in the west.
Shrii Shrii Anandamurti, Bengal, India, 1921-1990
is a great master of tantric yoga. His teachings incorporated full
system of Raja Yoga with advanced meditation techniques from the tantras.
Social movement Ananda Marga is based on his teachings called Ananda
Sutram given in traditional form of slokas (aphorisms) in sanskrit
language.
Mahamandaleshwar Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda (Swamiji)
comes from Rajasthan, India, and has been living in Vienna, Austria
since 1972. Swamiji is the author of the scientific master-system
Yoga in Daily Life and founder of the International Sri Deep Madhavananda
Ashram Fellowship and Yoga in Daily Life ashrams and centres worldwide.
He also inspired the foundations of the Yoga in Daily Life Youth Union
and the Ayurveda Academy of Yoga in Daily Life.
Source: Wikipedia
