The origin of yoga

ASANAS

Stage three, ASANA (right posture) instructs how the body should be prepared for meditation [YS 2,46].

It is the first stage of physical ascetism. Its aim is to immobilize the body with the only goal of helping concentration.

Their purpose is NOT, as is commonly believed, to confer health, fitness and relaxation to the body but to be a physical support for meditation. Each asana has a fundamental purpose.

Padmasana (the lotus posture) for instance, ensures that the spiritual cord, the sushumna, is in a vertical position to facilitate the upward movement of the subtle female kundalini energies [shakti] awakened in the muladhara chakra at the base of the spine, through five other psychic energy centres to unite with the male power centre [shiva] located in the forehead chakra, climaxing in the sahasrara or crown chakra at the top of one’s head in a cosmic orgasm.

Each chakra [lit. wheel] or spinning energy centre corresponds to a Hindu guardian deity and is associated with its mantra and governing cosmogonical element as elaborated here [Chakra/ Guardian deity/ Mantra/ Cosmogonical element]:

muladhara/ Brahma/ lam/ Earth; svadishtana/ Vishnu/ vam/ Water; manipura/ Maharudra/ ram/ Fire; anahata/ Ishvara/ yam/ Air; vishuddha/ Sadashiva/ ham/ Ether; ajna/ Shiva/ om or aum; sahasrara or crown chakra.

Once kundalini reaches the last chakra, it returns to its primordial union with the impersonal Ultimate Reality.

PRANAYAMA

The fourth stage PRANAYAMA* [YS 2,49-51] means the ‘refusal of breath’ following the ‘refusal of movement’ by performing the asanas. Breathing is an involuntary action and pranayama seeks to control it as a voluntary action.

Ancient Hindu seers believed that just as psycho-mental tension affects the rhythm of breath, the stilling of breath can contribute to stilling the “modifications of the mind” and that by controlling the activity of breathing, they would also control the flow of prana [universal force or subtle energy] that supposedly gives life to the human body.

As psycho-mental activity is itself generated by prana, and breathing is the main channel for the influx of prana into the body, it has to be strictly controlled in order to attain control over the mind.

Prana (crystallisation), Vyana (circulation), Samana (assimilation), Udana (metabolism) and Apana (elimination) are the five aspects of the universal prana , by controlling which the yogis seek to operate from a higher level of consciousness.

‘Senses control’ follows ‘breathing control’. *Plenty on Pranayama in my report on “SURYA NAMASKAR AND YOGA…”

Stage five is PRATYAHARA, ‘withdrawal of the senses’ from external objects and thoughts and becoming completely engrossed within [YS 2,54-55]. At this stage the senses do not disturb the mind anymore, so it becomes shut down from all outside impressions.

Once this is achieved, the sixth stage, DHARANA or concentration of the mind [YS 3,1] on one single purpose becomes feasible. It is a slowing down of mental activity by focusing it on a particular object of meditation.

YOGA IS : BECOMING ONE WITH BRAHMAN

Sustained dharana, unbound by time and space becomes DHYANA, contemplation or meditation, which is an “uninterrupted flow of the mind towards the object of meditation” [YS 3,2].

This leads to the final stage of yoga which is SAMADHI, enstasis, absorption or Self-realisation, the realisation that the self is the Self; the sense of identity of the self is lost, and the yogi has attained a unitive oneness with the cosmic consciousness. The jivatman (individual soul) has merged with the paramatman (Universal Over-soul).

Now the yogi can proclaim ‘Aham Brahmasmi ’ (I am Brahman);

and his guru can confirm to him ‘Tat Tvam Asi ’ (Thou art That).

Through the continuous practice of the last three stages together called samyama, the siddhis or psychic powers appear. Some siddhis phenomena mentioned in chapter 3 of the Yoga Sutra are knowledge of the previous birth, invisibility of the body, entering another’s body, levitation, astral travel etc.

YOGA IS : SALVATION BY WORKS

Whichever way you approach it, yoga is a system of salvation by works.

The goal of the ancients was to find a solution to SAMSARA, the eternal cycle of birth-death-rebirth, which they believed operated as a consequence of the LAW OF KARMA (repaying the debts of one’s actions in past lives through successive purgative reincarnations).

Believing that the answer to this problem could be provided by man himself, they sought MUKTI or MOKSHA, liberation, and in the search for this common goal, many yogas- different forms of yoga or margas (paths) evolved.

KUNDALINI YOGA follows a tantric view, stressing the awakening of the dormant spiritual energy kundalini and its final reunion with Shiva.

LAYA YOGA is complete absorption in any mental concept of the divine, such as the vibration of the chant ‘om’ or ‘aum’.

MANTRA YOGA consists of union with the divine origin through chanting loudly, softly or mentally the root word sounds.

KARMA YOGA [best stated in the Bhagavad Gita] purposes the attainment of union through good work and right activity completely detached from personal interests and desires which may complicate one’s karma.

BHAKTI YOGIS stress on devotion to personal deities.

JNANA YOGA in Vedantic ideology aims to find liberation by one’s efforts to achieve a monistic view of reality through knowledge or enlightenment, resulting in the realization of one’s own divinity. The phenomenon of individuality created by maya (illusion) is overcome.

A yogi [one who practices yogic disciplines] so enlightened has succeeded in breaking the chain of purgative recycling.

RAJA [royal] YOGA combines all that is deemed best in the higher forms of yoga, giving attention mainly to the last 4 stages.
HATHA YOGA

Hatha yoga is a system of physical exercises that render the body fit to receive the high-voltage cosmic or universal energy that is god.

Given its deep religious background, Hatha yoga must not be understood as a mere harmless physical training as is often claimed. The foremost writing of this school, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika [HYP] clearly states that it has to be taught only in order to reach the Raja yoga level [1,2] which is “the integration of mind in a state where the subject-object duality does not exist” [4,77], in other words, only for merging the self with the impersonal Absolute.

The attention given to the body in the asanas has a single purpose with a spiritual goal: for getting total control over the mind and thus liberating itself, uniting one’s individual consciousness to the ‘cosmic consciousness’.

The steps to be followed to attain liberation are similar to the Ashtanga yoga of Patanjali.

They are dhauti (cleansing practices), asanas, and pranayama [HYP 1 & 2]; bandha (locks) which temporarily restrict local flows of prana, and mudra (hand gestures) which regulate the flow of prana [HYP 3]. [The khecari mudra requires a progressive sectioning of the tongue fraenum until the tongue is able to get down the throat and block breathing].

They combine body postures, breath control and concentration. And samadhi [HYP 4] that combines the last four stages of Patanjali’s yoga. “When the sleeping kundalini awakens by favour of a guru,then all the chakras are pierced.” [HYP 3,2]

OTHER ASPECTS OF YOGA

All yogic literature without exception insists on the guidance of a guru as the awakening of kundalini is full of potential dangers for the aspirant.

Yoga’s vegetarian diet is based on the precept of ahimsa with particular reference to the slaying of animals which, like humans, are endowed with the same atman (spiritual essence).

Belief in reincarnation is intrinsic to yogic philosophy. “Some souls enter into a womb for embodiment; others enter sthanum (stationary objects, plants…) according to their deeds and their thoughts” [KU 2, 2].

Through the symbol that each asana (posture) represents [locust, crocodile etc.] a change of personality is involved and is prescribed by the guru according to the spiritual needs of his disciple so that he may more easily surpass his ignorant condition.

Yoga cannot be reduced to a mere form of psycho-physical therapy. It has always been considered a path towards transcendence, a way of surpassing the world of illusion and reaching the Ultimate Reality. Its character, content and aspirations were and will always be religious. This aspect has never been doubted by its Eastern practitioners.

Despite Western modifications, its goal has never changed. It still aims to annihilate man’s psycho-mental life and anything that can define personhood.
Contrary to poular belief about the yogic breathing exercises, reducing the rate of respiration in pranayama is known to induce conditions of hypoxia, the decrease of oxygen concentration in the blood below health safety limits.

Increase in its carbon dioxide content produces hallucinatory and psychic phenomena associated also with aushadi [taking of drugs], tapas [severe austerities], repetition of mantras, as well as with yogic performances. This is clearly recorded in the Yoga Sutra [4, 1] itself. Yoga Sutra chapter 3 enumerates various siddhis [powers] that result from the practice of yoga.

From a naturalistic point of view, many are nothing more than illusions produced by the stilling of breathing or by meditating. Other knowledge supposedly thus attainable [of the solar system, physiology of the body, YS 3, 27 and 30] was obtained by scientific research. So, if knowledge was truly achieveable, and [siddhis like] levitation or out-of-body experiences etc. really possible, why has nothing been revealed or documented till now ?

The question begs an answer especially since yoga has been practiced by millions of people for thousands of years.

It is a fact that the same psychic powers [knowledge of past and future, knowledge of the mind of others, superhuman strength etc.] attained by yogis practicing samyama* [YS 3, 16, 19 and 25] are available to those involved in the occult.
YOGA IS : MEDITATION

The Vatican Document, “Letter to the Bishops… on Christian Meditation” warns of the dangers of yoga [see pages 32-39].

Yoga and meditation are synonymous. Yoga courses are never advertised without highlighting yoga’s meditation component.

Meditation is a key element in any Eastern path towards liberation, sef-transcendence, self-realization.

Like physical fitness may be a consequence of performing asanas, relaxation may be a result of samyama [*meditation exercises], but it must be understood that they are only by-products on the way to liberating the self from reincarnation. Along with the repeating of mindless [though some are associated with Hindu deities] mantras, the common element in meditation is the annihilation of critical thought and normal state of consciousness which is considered essential for liberating the self. However, shutting down the mind in order to grasp non-rational ‘higher’ realities and giving up critical discernment opens the way for possession by spiritual beings.
Since yoga is a spiritual discipline, it is essential to remember that there are no neutral powers in the spiritual world. The practice of yoga can lead to a quite different end from that much-advertised fitness and relief from stress, as documented in letters received by this ministry.

At a 2004 seminar in Bandra, Mumbai, the shocking testimony of a person once involved in yoga exercises and meditation did infinitely more to convince the audience of its grave dangers than this writer’s talks.

Yoga requires the suspension of one’s will and the silencing of one’s mind [YS 1, 1-3].

But the Word of God exhorts us to “have the mind of Christ” [1 Corinthians 2:16].

The Christian is enjoined to “be transformed by the renewal of your mind that you may prove what is the will of God” [Romans 12:2], “gird up the loins of his mind” [1 Peter 1:13], “sing [God’s] praises with the mind” [1 Corinthians 14:15].