Mahayog

                                                         

Introduction

The layman understanding of yog is very narrow and is limited by equating yog as the practice of various postures. Firstly there is ignorance even about the bahiranga sadhanas in India even though yog was conceptualised in India. Secondly yog in depth is known as a traditional school of yog viz. propounded by Patanjali and yog in Bhagavad gita etc are not considered rigorously. Thirdly in the intellectual community there is knowledge about yog in the dense sense of the term but there is a bias that yog belongs only to the Hindu tradition. I will elaborate briefly on these three issues in a very cursory fashion.

I) Yoga is understood as only the practice of asanas and recently added to it the practice of pranayama. Asana and Pranayama (mainly hatha yoga) constitute only two of the total five bahiranga sadhanas. We forget that hatha yoga was stated to make the practice of raja yoga conducive to the seeker (Kevalam rajyogaya hatha vidyopadishyate 1/2). The other three (yama, niyama & pratyahara) of the bahiranga sadhanas are least discussed and least practiced which would lead to a better society. The body cleansing practices (sarira suddhi neti, nauli, naadi shodhan etc) have huge benefits in maintaining health as a precautionary measure. These practices of cleansing have wide applications in naturopathy which has an alternative ontology (instead of germs they understand it merely as impurity) which could be an interesting comparative study.

II) In the intellectual community of yoga where the nuances of yoga are discussed yoga is studied as cessation of mental modifications (yogah chitta vritti nirodhah 1/2 yoga sutras). The other definitions and dimensions of yoga which are depicted for instance in the Bhagavad gita “the disjointment of the conjoinment of sorrow is yoga (Dukha samyoga viyogam yoga sanjnitam, 6/22 Bhagvad gita)”. There is one more confusion between karma yoga and jnana yoga where the definition of yoga is taken as excellence of action (yogah karmasu kaushalam, 2/50  Bhagavad gita). Here excellence is interpreted as skillfulness in action, the skill is performing action without attachment or aversion, the quality of work (karma) is important but according to the context, skill is about non-attachment. 

III) Even in an intellectual community there is a bias that yoga belongs to Hindu tradition only but can be practiced by anybody for well being. If we compare yoga and Buddhism for instance we can see many similarities such as a) ashtanga yoga and ashtanga marga, b) pranayama and anapanasati. There are minute details given in both yoga shastra and Buddhism regarding the same and it is very difficult to decipher as to who is influenced by whom as traditions evolved in the milieu of vaad (vaade vaade jayate tattvabodha). So rather than building up controversies we as students of yoga being aware of this should take best which suits us for our own growth and cherish the well being of ourselves and the society as a whole.

Finally various adjectives added to yoga suggest multidimensional character of yoga. Hatha yoga, kriya yoga, jnana yoga, karma yoga, bhakti yoga, Raja yoga. These dimensions should be studied and most importantly practiced, mere study is vacuous without practice. This union of all yogas could be called Maha yoga.

Works Cited

Patanjali. Yoga Sutra. 1904. Print.

Sivananda. The Bhagavad Gita: Text Translation, and Commentary by Swami Sivananda. Shivanandanagar: Divine Life Society, 1989. Print.

Svātmārāma. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika. New York: AMS, 1974. Print.

Thēpwēthī, Phra, and Dhamma-Vijaya. Sammāsati an Exposition of Right Mindfulness. Bangkok: Buddhadhamma Foundation, 2531. Print.