Yoga
For many people today, yoga refers to an Indian-derived form of physical exercise--based on the famous postures (asana)--which may or may not include a spiritual component. In this form yoga has spread all over the world, in ever-increasing variety.
More fundamentally, "yoga" refers to a family of voluntary spiritual practices, together with their attendant texts and teacher-student lineages (guruparampara), aimed at release from the cycle of rebirth (samsara). This liberation is given various Sanskrit names:
- moksha ("liberation")
- mukti ("release," i.e. from bondage)
- kaivalya ("aloneness")
- samadhi ("equipoise")
- nirvana ("extinction" or "snuffing out," as with a candle, of egoism and delusion. Chiefly Buddhist, however cf. Bhagavadgita 2:72)
Its underlying assumption is that by stilling or concentrating the mind, the yoga practitioner can see through "Maya" or Illusion and perceive things as they really are. Then, and only then, is it possible to achieve the 'Union" which is referred to below.
"Yoga" in this sense is practiced within the religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. In fact, it can be practiced by anyone who believes in One Eternal Absolute Entity.
In Indian philosophy, "Yoga" is the name of one of the six "orthodox" (i.e., Veda-affirming) schools, while "Yogacara" ("Yoga Practitioners") is an important school of thought within Mahayana Buddhism.
The Name: its Meaning and its Practice
From Sanskrit yoga (योग) meaning "union." Derived from yugam, a cognate of the modern English "yoke" (via Latin iugum). Its Proto-Indo-European forebear is speculated to be *yugom, from the root *yeug- (Sanskrit yuj-) meaning "to join" or "unite".
The term is attested since the Rg Veda in the sense of "act of yoking, joining, attaching, harnessing" but also "undertaking, business, performance". A mental sense of "exertion, zeal, diligence" is attested since the Mahabharata, and the spiritual or mystical sense of "abstract contemplation, meditation" likewise appears in the Mahabharata as well as in the Upanishads.
A practitoner of yoga is called a "yogin" (masculine), "yogini" (feminine), or most commonly, a "yogi" (unisex). In this form it has become the nickname of Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra, the celebrated baseball player for the New York Yankees; who in turn inspired the name of cartoon character Yogi Bear.
Without this spiritual component, the "Union" which is the basis of Yoga cannot exist. Therefore, regardless of how popular the physical aspect of modern westernized Yoga practice has become, this form of practice can not be called Yoga.
Most would-be Yogis begin their practice of Yoga by learning some form of Hatha Yoga. For most of these students, the practice consists of learning the Asanas or poses.
The purpose of these Hatha Yoga Asanas is not to make its students more flexible, in-of-itself. It is to make them healthier by enabling their Prana or Internal Energy flow more freely and evenly. Greater flexibility just happens to be a by-product of this freer energy flow.
Indeed, the name Hatha is a compound Sanskrit word comprised of the words Ha and Tha.
Ha represents a person's Solar or masculine energy and Tha represents their Moon or feminine energy.
Practicing all aspects of Hatha Yoga will give a student the chance to balance these two energies and open up their center nadii or energy channel, the Suhsumna, which runs up the center of their spine.
Only balanced energy can flow through this channel. Its opening ensures the student an almost limitless source of purified energy. It can also lead to the awaking of a person's Kundalini Shakti.
Kundalini Shakti is a person's Feminine energy and is located at (coiled around) the base of the spine at the Muladhara Chakra.
A Chakra is an Internal Energy or Prana center. It is shaped like a wheel and it spins around itself. It can open and close like the lens of a camera. When it is open, it can send and receive energy and nerve impulses freely. When it is closed, nothing enters or leaves it easily.
There are Seven Chakras located along the spine. As they are purified, they open; and, this opening enables one's Kundalini to rise to that Chakra. When the top most Chakra, the Sahasrara, located at the Crown or top of one's head opens, it enables one's Kundalini to travel all the way up the Sushumna from the Muladhara Chakra to the Sahasrara Chakra.
The opening of the Crown or Sahasrara Chakra and the resulting flow of Kundalini up into it, leads one to Moksha or enlightenment and liberation.
The Crown Chakra is the seat of our Cosmic Principle which is Masculine in nature. So once again, when the Feminine unites with the Masculine and "Union" or Yoga occurs, great things are possible.
Origins
A soapstone seal soapstone seal from the Indus Valley archeological site of Mohenjo-Daro depicts a horned figure (or, a figure wearing a headdress) surrounded by four animals, and seated on a throne in what may be interpreted as a yogic or meditative posture. (The soles of his feet are pressed together.) The figure is often identified with Shiva, perhaps in his role as Pashupati ("Lord of Animals").
If the identification is accepted, this suggests that something like yoga was known in the Indian subcontinent from 2600 to 1900 B.C.
Yoga in Hinduism
Vedas
The word "yoga" is found in the Rg Veda [t.k.], mentions "yoga" as a kind of discipline.
The fifteenth book of theAtharva Veda, the Vratya Kanda, connects it with pranayama (breath control), for the purpose of improving the musical quality of hymns sung to Rudra.
Upanisads
The Maitrayaniya Upanisad (2nd or 3rd century BC) defines yoga as "The oneness of the breath and mind, and likewise of the senses, and the relinquishment of all conditions of existence" for the purpose of uniting Brahman with Atman. It presents a sixfold path including
- (1) pranayama ("breath control")
- (2) pratyahara ("withdrawal of the senses from objects")
- (3) dhyana ("meditation")
- (4) dharama ("concentration")
- (5) tarka ("contemplation")
- (6) samadhi ("absorption")
Note the similarity to Patanjali's Yogasutras.
Yoga in Buddhism
Yoga in Jainism
Yoga as exercise
In 1893, Swami Vivekananda spoke before the World Parliament of Religions, mentioning the need for a Raja Yoga (i.e. a more spiritual or universalistic) approach to religion. While Vivekananda's allegiance lay with Vedanta, Western interest in yoga soon grew.
By the twentieth century, a new (and arguably nationalistic) emphasis on sport and "fitness" led to hatha yoga being understood in these terms, both in India and in Western countries. Yogis were made objects of scientific research which showed them to be able to, inter alia, regulate supposedly involuntary activities such as heart-rate, blood pressure, or body temperature.
B.K.S. Iyengar
Sri Yogendra
Swami Kuvalayananda
See also
References
Alter, Joseph S. Yoga in Modern India: The Body Between Science and Philosophy. Princeton UP, 2004.
Feuerstein, Georg.
Love, Robert. "Fear of Yoga." Originally published in Columbia Journalism Review (Issue 6, Nov/Dec 2006).
Sparrowe, Linda. "The History of Yoga." Exerpt from Yoga: A Yoga Journal Book