Amongst the many traditions of Vedic era, Yoga stands out for its prominence and endurance. What is it about Yoga that makes it an enormously popular tradition?
A likely reason for Yoga’s widespread adoption is its all-pervasive reach in the human endeavor called life. The greater purpose of Yoga is to be able to tune into, and get one with the cosmic consciousness. Hence, the term Yoga, which translates to union. An individual can reach a state of inner-self awareness and union pursuing one or more paths of Yoga. These can be as simple as chanting, or silent contemplation, or work in the outer world or working on the inner-self. Those approaches can be broadly categorized into four important aspects of life – knowledge, devotion, service, and the physicality.
Four prominent paths of Yoga are:
- Bhakti Yoga (भक्ति योग) is about devotion to divinity and cultivating a love for it.
- Karma Yoga (कर्म योग) is about selfless-service in the outer physical world.
- Gyaan Yoga (ज्ञान योग) is focused on cultivating knowledge of the self and developing insights.
- Hatha Yoga (हाथ योग) is about controlling the energies of the physical body and the senses.
A prominent school of thought in the Dharmic tradition believes that the overall philosophy of life is multi-faceted. Therefore, it incorporates Bhakti, Karma, and Gyaan into a holistic approach. This is know as Raja Yoga. The premise is that focusing on the internal aspects such as Bhakti, Karma, and Gyaan (Raja Yoga) that works on the mind is different from focusing on the external aspects (body) is Hatha Yoga, which works on our us physically. Of Raja Yoga, Swami Vivekananda says, “The object is internal, the mind itself is the object, and it is necessary to study the mind itself, mind studying mind.”.
Regardless of the path one chooses in Yoga, the idea is to get oriented with nature, which is known as prakriti (प्रकृति). In prakriti there are three qualities or gunas (गुण) that operate in the background:
- Sattva (सत्त्व): calm, devotion, light, harmony, intelligence
- Rajas (रजस): passion, agitation, movement, change
- Tamas (तमस): darkness, dullness, status, inertia
The goal of Yoga is to develop sattva in our food, behavior, relationships, work, and spiritual practices, and to reduce rajas and tamas within us. The biggest goal of Yoga is to reduce the suffering that inflicts every human life. It identified these sufferings as five kleshas (क्लेश), or “factors of affliction”. These are:
- Avidya (अविद्द्या): ignorance of our true nature
- Asmita (अस्मिता): egoism or false identification of our inner being with the body and mind
- Raga (राग): attraction to factors that bring us personal happiness
- Dvesha (द्वेश): repulsion by the factors that bring us personal pain
- Abhinivesh (अभिनिवेश): clinging to bodily existence
The goal of Yoga is to end all kinds of suffering – physical, psychological, and spiritual and aid the attainment of moksha (मोक्श). This is why Yoga is also called as the Moksha Dharma. Simply put, Yoga is a reclamation activity, which ultimately leads to end of suffering. Dr. Hiro G. Badlani said, “Hindu seers have always maintained that all disorders and diseases are caused because an individual walks out of the cosmic order into disharmony and discord.”
Yoga is a sorting activity. Sort important things up in your list.
Vaisesika Dasa
At its core Yoga is a spiritual practice, called sadhana (साधना). The physical aspects of yoga called asanas (आसान), such as pranayama, had always existed alongside. But these were secondary to the purpose of union with the consciousness.
In Sanskrit literature, sutras (सूत्र) are the considered to be the summarization of vast bodies of knowledge on any topic. Yoga has its own, and was compiled by Patanjali about 300 BC. It is called the Yoga Sutra. As again is the case with the vast body of ancient Sanskrit canon, no one person or one body of text dominated the narrative. Yoga Darshana came into existence when Hiranyagarbha compiled it. Vasishta, as a successor of Hiranyagarbha, contributed several yogic texts as well. Vedas have Yogic teachings in them. These focused on what is known as Mantra Yoga. This was followed by Upanishads. Katha Upanishad (Kathopanishad) is considered to be an authoritative Yoga text. Later, during Mahabharata, Gita is considered to be the ultimate Yoga Shastra.
Vedic Yoga, because of its focus on mantras, is considered to be Bhakti Yoga. Gita takes an integral approach to Yoga and Krishna talks about bhakti, karma, and gyaan.
Buddha Dharma (Buddhism) rejects Yoga as the Sankhya (संख्या) and Vedantic teachings philosophize it. Being non-theistic, in Buddhism Yoga emphasizes meditation. Karma and the practices of using mantras such as AUM (or OM) are still an integral part of Buddhist Yoga.
Jainism, the other non-theistic Dharmic tradition, emphasizes self-control. Its main principle is ahinsa or non-violence.
धार्मिक छवियाँ 