The Spiritual Source of Yoga.

[Guest guest]

Yoga: From Hippies to Hip by Marcia Montenegro Excerpts: Although one may become more fit and flexible from doing yoga, that is not the goal of yoga, which is part of a complex spiritual system. Pranayama (breathing techniques) and the asanas (specific positions) are designed to enhance and induce meditative states in which one can transcend mental fluctuations and bypass rational thinking. Hatha yoga teaches how to control the body and the senses so that the yogin (yoga student) can control the mind (Raja Yoga). Gradually, the body and mind are filled by the Atman (Pure or Supreme Universal Self) and "through the death of the body, as it were, is the resurrection of the Higher Self accomplished," (J. F. C.

Fuller, Yoga for All [bombay, India: D. B. Taraporevala Sons & Co. Private Ltd., 1993], 51). http://www.holyspiritinteractive.net/features/newage/cancer14_yoga.asp (For the full article please go to the above site) Famed yoga teacher B. K. S. Iyengar, who was instrumental in bringing yoga to the West, says that yoga "is a science which liberates one’s mind from the bondage to the body and leads it towards the soul. When the mind reaches and merges with the soul, the soul is freed and remains thereafter in peace and beatitude," (B. K. S. Iyengar, The Tree of Yoga, [boston: Shambhala, 1988], 5). Patanjali, the Indian sage considered to be the founder of yoga, though no one knows much about his life, authored the famous Yoga Sutras, the teachings of yogic philosophy. One site speaks of Patanjali’s

yoga: "It deals with the training of the mind to achieve oneness with the Universe. Incidental to this objective are the acquisition of siddhis or powers. The aim of Patanjali Yoga is to set man free from the cage of matter. Mind is the highest form of matter and man freed from this dragnet of Chitta or Ahankara (mind or ego) becomes a pure being." (http://hrih.hypermart.net/patanjali/). On another site about Patanjali, it states that "Yoga means Union and the purpose is to teach the practitioner of Yoga, called the Yogi, how to achieve Union or Spiritual Absorption into the Supreme Absolute or God. Yoga teaches us that our true self is the soul and that our self identity is an illusion to be overcome," (http://reluctant-messenger.com/yoga-Sutras.htm). Hatha yoga and other forms of yoga are

considered to be the stepping-stones for spiritual union with the Absolute. Prana means "breath," but it is more than the physical breath. The breathing techniques are not primarily for physical purposes. As yoga scholar George Feuerstein puts it, "prana is like a knife which he [the student of yoga] carefully employs to operate on his own mind, to cut out the malicious thoughts and feelings in order to pierce through to higher levels of consciousness," (George Feuerstein and Jeanine Miller, The Essence of Yoga, [Rochester, VT: First Inner Traditions, 1998], 111). Prana is "the cosmic breath" and "man has moved away from this original rhythm of the universe," but Pranayama "endeavors to restore the primal rhythm and cosmic harmony as manifested in man, the microcosm," (Feuerstein, 26). Iyengar advises that "if you can control the breath, you can control the mind," but he also cautions that Pranayama must be

practiced cautiously because "it can make you or mar you. If your heartbeat is uneven, fear sets in and death may be near at hand," (Iyengar, 128). Inhalation allows contact with the "cosmic breath" while exhalation expels toxins and is "the expulsion of ego," the goal being to "reach a single mind" so that you are ready for meditation (Iyengar, 130). description of chakras from a yoga site states: "For thousands of years, the yogis have identified through their exceptional spiritual practice seven complex, fundamental systems of emission-reception, which connect our microcosm with the outer macrocosm’s seven fundamental levels of vibration. These centers of force are usually known as chakras." (http://sivasakti.com/articles/the-seven-chakras-muladhara.html). Iyengar writes that "Patanjali says that when an asana is

correctly performed, the dualities between body and mind, mind and soul, have to vanish…When the asanas are performed in this way, the body cells, which have their own memories and intelligence, are kept healthy," (Iyengar, 55-56). Yoga sources, teachers, and experts universally recognize the spiritual nature of yoga: "It is not so much a physical practice but a spiritual practice based on Shakti, the fundamental vibrating energy of every human being." http://sivasakti.com/articles/intro-asanas.html "Hatha yoga refers to positive (sun) and to negative (moon) currents in the system. These currents are to be balanced and mastered so that vital force, prana, can be regulated, the mind cleared and superconscious states experienced." http://holistic-online.com/Yoga/yoga_types_hatha_yoga.htm "Yoga is the process of becoming free from limited definitions of the field of consciousness. Then the abiding of the seer (I), in my own true nature"; - Yoga Sutras of Patanjali I. 2,3. http://hrih.hypermart.net/patanjali/ "There are seven chakras, or energy centers, in the body that become blocked by longheld tension and low self-esteem. But practicing poses that correspond to each chakra can release these blocks and clear the path to higher consciousness." From the Yoga Journal site at http://www.yogajournal.com/newtoyoga/seventh1.cfm The Atman, or "real" Self that is eternal, "can only be experienced when all the sensory activity ceases to impact the mind and

when the mind itself is freed from the movement of thoughts and sense objects and the torment of desires, which are the prime cause of all human activity and suffering. The experience comes ‘When the mind and the five senses are stilled and when the intellect is stilled ....They say that Yoga is complete stillness in which one enters that state of Oneness.’" http://hinduwebsite.com/Atman.htm Marcia Montenegro. All rights reserved "Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest of life by the power of the spirit." - Aurobindo.

Mail

Bring photos to life! New PhotoMail makes sharing a breeze.