Yoga Part 1
It has become virtually
impossible to escape encounters with yoga in one form or another in the course
of daily American life. For the conscientious Christian the question becomes
inescapable: “Is yoga, or can it be, compatible with the Christian faith?” To
answer this question we must first understand yoga in its original Hindu
context.
Yoga was developed by Patanjali, a philosophical dualist, to free the souls of
human beings from what he believed was their false identification with matter.
Yoga later was appropriated by Vedantists (pantheists) and became a method for
achieving union with the impersonal God of Hinduism.There are four major
approaches to yoga in India: bhakti yoga is devotion to a personal
God;Jnana yoga involves intellectual discretion; karma
yoga emphasizes good works; raja yoga is concerned with mind
control and consists of the eight limbs of Patanjali. Within raja yoga exist
numerous distinctive minor approaches, including kundalini
yoga, which seeks enlightenment through raising the serpentine “kundalini
energy”; tantra yoga, which seeks enlightenment through uniting polar
energies, sometimes involving illicit behavior; and hatha yoga, which
seeks enlightenment indirectly by preparing body and mind for meditation. Whether
hatha yoga can be separated from its Hindu roots and practiced by Christians
will be a major subject in parts two and three, which will examine yoga in its
contemporary Western context.Classical yoga seeks to so discipline the mind
that the practitioner no longer identifies his (or her) thoughts and sensory
perceptions with his sense of self. It also seeks to release a life force
called prana so that it may freely move through the human body via
seven psychic centers called chakras. These objectives are accomplished by following
Patanjali’s eight limbs of yoga, which include moral, physical, and mental
disciplines.
Yoga is big. But then, I don’t need to tell
you that. It is impossible to live in our Western culture these days without
encountering yoga on a regular basis, from one’s own workplace or school to the
local hospital or YMCA, from one’s own neighbors, friends, or family to the
local newspaper, television, or church.
Yoga has been present in the United States
for well over a century,1 but since the 1990s it has rapidly mainstreamed,
moving from cultural fad to cultural institution. An article in
the Columbia Journalism Review in late 2006 gives a sense of the
magnitude of the yoga boom:
Everybody loves yoga; sixteen and a half
million Americans practice it regularly, and twenty-five million more say they
will try it this year. If you’ve been awake and breathing air in the
twenty-first century, you already know that this Hindu practice of health and
spirituality has long ago moved on from the toe-ring set. Yoga is American; it
has graced the cover of Time twice, acquired the approval of A-list celebrities
like Madonna, Sting, and Jennifer Aniston, and is still the go-to trend story
for editors and reporters, who produce an average of eight yoga stories a day
in the English-speaking world.…
…Down the hall in marketing, this kind of
press is the stuff of dreams. Yoga has now ascended to the category of
“platform agnostic,” the highest praise marketers can conjure for any kind of
content, trend, or person. Translation? Consumers drop $3 billion every year on
yoga classes, books, videos, CDs, DVDs, mats, clothing, and other necessities.2
With yoga appearing at virtually every turn
one takes in Western culture, including the church,3a probing Christian
analysis of yoga is urgently needed. This three-part series will provide that
by answering the question, “What is yoga?” in part one, and then, in parts two
and three, identifying and responding to the areas where it touches our lives
today.
WHAT IS YOGA?
Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit
word yug, which means “to yoke.” This is a term we’re familiar with from
the Bible (Phil. 4:2; Matt. 11:9). A yoke is a crossbar that joins two draft
animals at the neck so they can work together; the term, therefore, is applied
metaphorically to people being joined together or united in a cause. In
Hinduism, as in many religions, union is desired with nothing less than God or
the Absolute, and yoga is the system that Hindus have developed to achieve that
end.
The historic purpose behind yoga,
therefore, is to achieve union with the Hindu concept of God. This is the
purpose behind virtually all of the Eastern varieties of yoga, including those
we encounter in the West. This does not mean it is the purpose of every
practitioner of yoga, for many people clearly are not practicing it for
spiritual reasons but merely to enhance their physical appearance, ability, or
health. The thesis I will be arguing in this three-part series, however, is
that when someone participates in a practice that was developed with a specific
purpose in mind by someone else, it is possible and even probable that on
subtle levels the participant who does not have the original purpose in mind
nonetheless will be moved along in the direction of fulfilling that purpose.
Historical and Conceptual Foundations
The yoga system was reputedly developed by
the grammarian and Hindu sage Patanjali most likely between the third and
second century B.C. Archaeological finds suggest that yoga in some form has
existed since around 3,000 B.C., but in his Yoga Sutras (i.e., yoga aphorisms)
Patanjali presented the system that we’re familiar with today. The aphorisms
are condensed, close to two-hundred in number, and divided into four chapters.
Their main concern is the control of the mind.
It may come as a surprise to Westerners to learn that yoga was not originally based in a monistic (“all is one”) or pantheistic (“all is God”) philosophy. In India Hinduism is incredibly varied. About the only common elements in all forms of Hinduism are belief in karma (the law of cause and effect on a moral plane) and samsara (the cycle of rebirth), and practice of some form of yoga. At the time that Patanjali developed yoga, the dualistic philosophy of Samkhya (or Sankhya) was prominent in India. Samkhya held that there are two fundamental realities: (1)parushas, or individual, immaterial, eternal, and indestructible souls, and (2) prakriti, which forms the material world, and itself consists of three basic elements known as the three gunas:Sattva (goodness/truth), Raja (passion/activity), and Tamas (darkness/inertia).
According to Samkhya-Yoga philosophy, when
these three primary elements are in equilibrium the world is unmanifest—all
there is to prakriti is the three gunas existing in perfect harmony. There is
something about the simultaneously and independently existing parushas,
however, that at times mysteriously disturbs this equilibrium. When this
happens the conflict between the gunas creates change and a variety of forms,
with the world manifesting as a result. Throughout the history of the world one
or the other of the gunas will be in the ascendant, causing goodness, passion,
or darkness to dominate the epoch, until the gunas at long last reach
equilibrium again and the world disappears.
The other important development in this
drama is that the parushas become captive to prakriti. It is believed that out
of a desire to understand the nature of prakriti they venture into it. As they
come into contact with the material world, their pure consciousness generates
mind and thought, which are believed to be part of prakriti and not proper
attributes of parusha. The parushas’ sensations and perceptions create false
egos in which they believe they are a part of the material world, and this
belief entangles them in it. This bondage takes the form of transmigration of
souls from one body to another and ultimately reincarnation, once the parushas
reach the human level.
In their transmigrational journeys the
parushas become entranced and captivated by the interplay of the gunas, which
holds them in bondage to prakriti. Yoga therefore was developed by Patanjali as
a method and means to facilitate the souls’ moksha or deliverance
from its identification with prakriti.
The whole goal behind yoga, then, was for
the yogi (yoga practitioner) to escape the goodness, passions, and darkness of
the gunas and to reestablish the original pure state of consciousness of the
parushas. He (or she) was to accomplish this by disengaging from his thoughts,
feelings, imagination, and all the different tricks of his mind that hold him
in bondage to the material world. It is a program to free him systematically
from identification with his supposedly ephemeral ego so that he can identify
once again with his true self, the parusha. In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali
teaches a method of mind control that involves counteracting painful thoughts
with thoughts that are not painful, then learning to quiet the “not painful”
thoughts as well.
This entire process of prakriti manifesting
as the world and then returning to its unmanifest state was believed to recur
on an eternal, cyclical basis, and it later, within a pantheistic philosophical
system, became known as “the Days and Nights of Brahman.” Indeed, all of these
concepts and terms were retained when absolute monism became prominent in
Hinduism.
Hinduism was originally polytheistic
(believing in many gods), and in some significant ways still is. Beginning,
however, with the Upanishads (scriptures appended to the original Hindu
scriptures, the Vedas, beginning around the eighth century B.C.),
progressing through sacred texts such as the Bhagavad Gita (Hinduism’s most
beloved scripture, penned perhaps in the second century B.C), and culminating
in the eighth-century A.D. philosophy of Advaita Vedanta that the philosopher
Shankara developed, monism and pantheism became important belief systems within
Hinduism. For this reason, many Hindus now understand parushas, prakriti, the
three gunas, and moksha to exist against the backdrop of a fundamental Oneness
of Being that is the impersonal Ultimate Reality known as Brahman. In other
words, instead of ultimate reality being parushas and prakriti, it is the
impersonal Brahman, within which, in a relative sense, exist parushas and
prakriti. As yoga was transferred into this philosophical system, the pure
consciousness that the yogi sought to identify with was now not merely his own
soul (now more often called atman than parusha) but that of God (for
it is believed that atman is identical to Brahman).
Liberation of the soul from its bondage to
the material world is a central goal of all orthodox schools of Hindu
philosophy, and for each school, some system of yoga is the means for achieving
this end. Yoga also has been appropriated in the same manner by many Buddhist
sects, Sikhism, Jainism, Taoism, and various occult/metaphysical traditions in
the West (e.g., Theosophy and the Unity School of Christianity).
The Eight Limbs of Yoga
Classical yoga practitioners are not
interested in making their minds permanently blank, but rather to so discipline
their minds that they no longer identify thoughts and sensory perceptions with
their sense of self. This is accomplished by following Patanjali’s eight limbs
of yoga.
The eight limbs of yoga involve strict
moral, physical, and mental disciplines. They are (1) moral restraint, (2)
religious observance, (3) postures (asanas), (4) breath control (pranayama),
(5) sense withdrawal, (6) concentration, (7) meditative absorption, and (8)
enlightenment (samadhi). A consideration of the limbs quickly reveals that yoga
is a demanding autosoteric (salvation based on self-effort) system, similar to
original Theravada Buddhism with its eightfold path, which historically
preceded Patanjali’s yoga system and probably influenced it.
Limbs 1 and 2 pertain to the exercise of
the will. It is important for the yogi to restrain himself from violence,
lying, immorality, theft, and greed. It is also necessary for him to observe or
practice purity, contentment, religious fervor, study of self, and surrender to
God. He is to replace thoughts that are contrary to these virtues with their
opposites.
Asanas and pranayama are the
two limbs of yoga that exercise the body. They were not originally intended to
be isolated from the other limbs of yoga, but that is what has happened to a
great extent in the West through the promotion of hatha yoga, which is
predominantly comprised of these two limbs (although meditation is often
included or encouraged at the end of the session). It should be noted that in
the Yoga Sutras one does not find the emphasis on stretching the body into
unusual poses that is now associated with yoga, mainly through the influence of
hatha yoga. Patanjali’s expressed concern was for the practitioner to assume
“steady and easy” postures that would be conducive to meditation.
Sense withdrawal, concentration, and
meditative absorption are the mental exercises of yoga. To develop the desired
pure state of consciousness it is necessary to withdraw from the input of one’s
senses and to develop one’s powers of concentration. To achieve this one might
practice concentrating on a sound (e.g., one’s own chanting of a mantra, such
as the name of a Hindu god or the sacred syllable om, which Patanjali says
is the voice of God [1:27]), on an image (e.g., the tip of one’s nose or a
symbolic religious image known as a mandala), or on one’s own breathing. The
purpose, however, is to so focus on an object that the object itself disappears
and a state of pure (i.e., thoughtless) consciousness is attained. Through
these mental exercises and techniques, meditative absorption is achieved, where
the practitioner begins to lose the distinction between subject and object
(i.e., self and not-self), to experience the cosmic consciousness (i.e., the
sense that one’s own mind is merging into a larger, Universal Mind), and to
feel one with the Universe or God.
Diligent and persistent observance of the
first seven limbs of yoga ultimately will yield samadhi, the eighth limb, which
is defined as direct knowledge, free from the distortions of the imagination.
When samadhi is achieved the yogi is finally free from the influence of the
three gunas, which, as we’ve seen, has been the goal of yoga practice all
along. Unlike everything else in creation, the yogi who achieves samadhi no
longer is bounced around between the pulls and pushes of purity, passion, and
darkness, but becomes sublimely indifferent to everything in the material
world.4
On achieving samadhi, the yogi is believed
to accumulate karma no longer. The only remaining karma for him to work out is
that which was accumulated before attaining enlightenment. Once that remaining
karmic debt is balanced the yogi will have achieved moksha or
deliverance/salvation and his long and wearisome transmigrational journey
finally will be over.
Prana and the Seven Chakras
Also important in the philosophy and
practice of yoga are the concepts of prana and the seven
chakras. Prana is the Hindu concept of a life force that pervades the universe.
Prana is believed to flow through the human body by way of energy pathways
called nadis through seven chakras (from the Sanskrit word
meaning wheel or disc), which are psychic energy centers located
at critical points up and down the human nervous system.
The first chakra, called muladhara, is
believed to be located at the base of the spine and is associated with the guna
tamas, and therefore with darkness, dullness, and animal instincts. It
represents physical survival and it is associated with the most primitive state
of human consciousness possible. The kundalini energy (see “Kundalini
Yoga” below) sleeps within this chakra, waiting to be aroused, and its eventual
rise to each ascending chakra is also an assent to a relatively higher state of
consciousness.
The second chakra, swadhistana, is
located in the region of the genitals. This chakra is associated with the guna
Raja, and people who are under its influence are, of course, obsessed with sex.
The third chakra, manipura, is
believed to exist in the area of the navel and is called the power chakra. It
too is associated with the guna Raja, and people who are living at the level of
this chakra are driven by ambition and the desire for power or success.
The fourth chakra, known as anahata,
is the heart chakra. It and all subsequently ascending chakras are associated
with the guna Sattva, until one reaches the final, crown chakra, which
transcends the gunas. The heart chakra is associated with selfless emotion.
The fifth chakra, visuddha, is located
in the region of the larynx. It is associated with asceticism, spiritual
discipline, and the beginnings of mystical experience.
The sixth chakra, ajna, is located
above and between the eyes (hence the concept of the “third eye”). It
represents the vision of God and is considered a very high spiritual level from
which to live.
The seventh chakra, “sahasrara or ‘Thousand
Petalled-Lotus,’ located at the very top of the head, is technically speaking
not a chakra at all, but the summation of all the chakras.”5 It represents
samadhi, and so someone living at this level would be regarded as enlightened.
In the entire universe, nothing escapes the influence of the gunas except those
who have attained samadhi. Whereas the sixth chakra is “conditioned rapture,”
the seventh is “unconditioned rapture.”
APPROACHES TO YOGA
There are so many varieties of yoga that a
person trying to keep up with them can easily become lost. Part of the
confusion comes from the fact that the term yoga is used for entire
life approaches to union with God that may not even involve sitting in yogic
postures, controlling one’s breath, and concentrating on a mantra or mandala.
Three of these major approaches—bhakti, Janna, and karma—are also
known as margas or paths to moksha. The fourth major approach to yoga
or union with God—raja yoga—is essentially the eight limbs of Patanjali
that includes everything we normally associate with yoga. For this reason it is
also known asashtanga (eight-limbed) yoga. Then, within the larger
category of raja yoga are many subcategories or minor approaches that also have
distinctive names, adding to the confusion. Some of these involve only aspects
of raja yoga (e.g., hatha yoga and Transcendental Mediation6); others are
distinctive approaches to raja yoga that involve all eight limbs but have their
own distinguishing emphases (e.g., kundalini yoga
and tantra yoga). There is also much overlap among the various yoga
approaches so that elements of one approach are often employed by people who
identify themselves as practitioners of another approach. I will do my best to
sort it all out for you.
Bhakti Yoga
Bhakti yoga seeks salvation through the
path of devotion to a personal representation of God. During the centuries that
preceded Patanjali, India had been dominated by the atheistic or nontheistic
philosophies of original Buddhism, Samkhya, Jainism, and the impersonal God of
the Upanishads. The impulse to worship and serve a personal God (which a
Christian would consider God-given) therefore had long been frustrated.
Patanjali himself made a place for this, even though it was not a necessary
part of his philosophical system. In chapter 1, verses 23–26 of the Yoga
Sutras, he included the concept of Ishwara (or Ishvara), the
personal God. Ishwara was not considered to be the creator God but was rather
the supreme parusha, untouched by prakriti and the law of karma, who assists
all parushas who are devoted to him in attaining moksha.
Like other concepts in Patanjali’s belief
system, Ishwara survived the assimilation of yoga into the monistic Vedanta
belief system, and he was now believed to be the personal manifestation of the
impersonal Brahman. The dominance of Shankara’s unqualified monism created an
acute longing in the hearts of many Hindus for a personal relationship with the
divine, since God was believed to be impersonal and not separate from one’s
true self. Ishwara helped fill that need, as did devotion to the various gods
and goddesses of Hinduism and also to gurus, who were often believed to be
divine; yet none of these gods were satisfying to those who wanted a personal
relationship with Ultimate Reality Itself.
This need ultimately would be addressed by
Ramanuja, one of the great philosophers of Hinduism who lived during the
eleventh and twelfth centuries A.D. Ramanuja turned the tables on Brahman and
argued that the impersonal nature of God was secondary to the personal, and
Ishwara (whom he identified with the second god in the Hindu
trinity, Vishnu, the god of preservation) is Ultimate Reality. There is
thus a theistic school within Hinduism, although this version of theism is
panentheist (known as Vishishtadvaita or qualified monism), meaning
that everything exists within God, but everything is not God. In other words,
the world and souls are real but they are also part of God’s being, not
separate from Him, as in Christianity.
In the sixteenth century, a bhakti yogi
named Chaitanya (or Caitanya) went a step further and argued that Krishna, who
was believed to be an avatar (incarnation or manifestation) of Vishnu, actually
is just another name for Vishnu and that Krishna is thus the supreme personality
of the Godhead. The Hare Krishna cult (the International Society of Krishna
Consciousness, or ISKCON), fully within Chaitanya’s movement, provides a good
example of bhakti yoga in the West, with its devotional dancing, chanting, and
singing of the names of Krishna, as well as its worship and ritualized care of
its “deities” (idols).
Jnana Yoga
Jnana yoga could be described as “yoga for
intellectuals” or “yoga for philosophers.” It seeks salvation through
intellectual knowledge and discrimination. Hindu philosophers Shankara and
Ramanuja are the ultimate examples of Jnana yogis, but any yogi who trains his
mind to distinguish truth from falsehood would be on this yogic path.
Discrimination is not sufficient in Jnana
yoga but must be accompanied by three other means of salvation: detachment from
temporal concerns (but not necessarily withdrawal from them), virtue, and
longing for liberation.7 Some form of meditation is also essential as a
means of intuitively and experientially taking possession of the truth that has
been logically discerned.
Karma Yoga
Karma yoga is yoga for
idealists, humanitarians, activists, and ordinary people who want to pursue
salvation but are unable to pursue monastic life. It seeks salvation through
good works. These works can be social service or simply doing one’s job well. There
is a catch, however: the karma yogi will gain nothing spiritually from his
actions unless he performs them with no desire for the consequences of the
actions, with no attachment to the action itself, and without viewing himself
as its author, but rather, viewing God as the author of the action.
Prominent Los Angeles yoga teacher Bikram
Choudhury clearly explains the role of karma yoga in attaining salvation:
Generally, a work brings as its effect or
fruit either pleasure or pain. Each work adds a link to our bondage of Samsara
and brings repeated births. This is the inexorable Law of Karma. But, through
the practice of Karma Yoga, the effects of Karmas can be wiped out. Karma
becomes barren. The same work, when done with the right mental attitude…does not
add a link to our bondage. On the contrary, it purifies our heart and helps us
to attain salvation through the descent of divine light or dawn of wisdom.8
Raja Yoga
Raja or “royal” yoga is the method of
seeking salvation through mind control. It is believed that the mind is a fine
part of the body, or the body a gross part of the mind (such that the two words
are often conjoined in yoga literature as bodymind), and so if the yogi
can learn to control his body he can also control his mind. This belief in the
interrelationship between body and mind is the basis for yoga’s emphasis on
physical disciplines and postures, since it is believed that they will help the
yogi achieve the pure state of consciousness that is the goal of classical
yoga.
Swami Vivekananda, perhaps yoga’s most
respected missionary to the West and virtually the first, wrote: “According to
the Raja-Yogi, the external world is but the gross form of the internal, or
subtle.…The man who has discovered and learned how to manipulate the internal
forces will get the whole of nature under his control. The Yogi proposes to
himself no less a task than to master the whole universe, to control the whole
of nature.”9
Vivekananda stressed that yoga was the
perfect religion for the scientific Western culture that was losing faith in
its theistic roots: “Each one of the steps to attain Samadhi has been reasoned
out, properly adjusted, scientifically organised, and, when faithfully
practised, will surely lead us to the desired end.”10 How can a religious
discipline be considered scientific? The answer is that within a monistic
system there can be no division of the supernatural from the natural. All is
one; thus all spiritual phenomena have their explanation in natural laws. When
a yogi masters the “whole of nature” he has conquered and can now manipulate
God Itself.
Raja yoga is distinct from any other
approach to yoga in that it can include or provide a larger context for all of
the other approaches, including the minor approaches listed below. In this
sense, almost this entire two-part article is about raja or ashtanga yoga, in
one aspect or another.
Kundalini Yoga
Kundalini yoga deliberately attempts
to arouse and raise the kundalini, believed to be Shakti or creative
divine energy, which sleeps at the base of the spine like a serpent, coiled in
three and one-half circles. Toward this end, kundalini yogis place a special
emphasis on pranayama or breathing exercises in order to gain control of the
respiratory system, which they believe will lead to control of other systems
and ultimately of the entire body, including the kundalini. Visualization of
the kundalini rising is also a common approach, based on the assumption that
visualization of itself has the power to effect that which it visualizes.
Kundalini yogis also use asanas, mudras (hand positions), chanting
mantras, and meditation to raise the kundalini. A classic object of meditation
is the seven-petaled lotus flower, which represents the seven charkas.
The one-thousand-petaled lotus, often seen
in visionary experiences, represents the crown chakra. Raising the kundalini
often results in powerful mystical experiences and visions, as a devotee of the
late kundalini yoga teacher Swami Muktananda explains:
When this sleeping Kundalini is awakened it
raises its [serpentine] hood. The door of the Sushumna [a nadi or energy
conduit] is opened and the Kundalini ascends upwards along the Sushumna
piercing through the six chakras (centres) situated in it. When it reaches the
highest centre, called Sahasrara, in the crown of the head, it unites with the
Lord Shiva [the god of destruction, third in the Hindu trinity, whose consort,
Shakti, is identified with the kundalini]. This union brings ineffable joy of
Blissful Beatitude. …it gives various mysterious experiences to the sadhaka
[i.e., yogi], who himself is struck with wonder by them.…The experiences in the
gross body are such as tremors, heat, electric shocks, perspiration, tears,
thrill of joy, palpitation, involuntary suspension of breath or deep breathing,
revolving of eye-balls.…The experiences in the subtle body are such as visions
of deities and divine beings, receiving instructions from them; hearing sounds
like those of conch, bell, flute, drum, thunder.…Under the guidance of the
Guru, the sadhaka should proceed with the spirit of surrender allowing the
Shakti to manifest itself unobstructed while himself remaining as a witness to
its working. He should not try to avert an experience through fear. The Shakti
is intelligent. It is aware of its own activity. Hence nothing ever goes wrong.
Besides, the Guru is always there to control its flow.11
Yogis believe kundalini phenomena are the
true explanation for visionary experiences in all religions. According to their
interpretive grid, anyone who has a spiritual experience has to some degree
aroused the kundalini, but if he is not properly trained by a guru he will
misinterpret his experiences (e.g., when Muhammad heard the voice of the angel
Gabriel) and likely develop unhelpful or even harmful beliefs.12
In a manner somewhat comparable to LSD,
raising the kundalini is considered risky, with temporary madness, lasting
mental instability or illness, and occult oppression being possible
consequences.13 Many yogis thus warn against the practice for most people
and condemn yogis who indiscriminately teach it to the public.
Tantra Yoga
Tantra is an esoteric (occult) religious
tradition that originated in Hinduism but also exists in Buddhism and other
Asian religions. Many orthodox Hindus regard it with suspicion or outright
disdain because of its disregard for, or outright rejection of, the primary
Hindu scriptures, the Vedas. It nonetheless does hold to many of the core Hindu
doctrines, but with its own twists.
For example, while it agrees with Advaita
Vedanta that Brahman is essentially Being, Awareness, and Bliss (called
Sat-Chit-Ananda in Sanskrit), that Brahman is all there is, and that the world
is maya or illusion, it defines maya differently, not merely as illusion but as
a real operation within the nature of Brahman. The true essence of the world
and souls is Sat-Chit-Ananda, but they are nonetheless real. Maya therefore
consists of Brahman’s evolution from undifferentiated oneness into the multiple
forms of the world (prakriti) and also of Brahman’s involution from the world
back into undifferentiated oneness. Swami Nikhilananda, founder of the
Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York, expounds on this important aspect
of Tantric belief:
Evolution or the “outgoing current” is only
one half of the functioning of Maya. Involution, or the “return current”, takes
the jiva [i.e., soul] back towards the source or root of Reality, revealing the
infinite. Tantra is understood to teach the method of changing the “outgoing
current” into the “return current”, transforming the fetters created by Maya
into that which “releases” or “liberates”. This view underscores two maxims of
Tantra: “One must rise by that by which one falls” and “the very poison that
kills becomes the elixir of life when used by the wise.”14
Tantra yogis have many ritual practices
that seek to embrace the dualities of prakriti (as best represented by the god
Shiva and his consort Shakti) and unite them, thus transmuting the energy of
evolution into the energy of involution, which they believe will result in
their own enlightenment. This approach calls for participating in activities
that are normally renounced by Hindus seeking enlightenment, such as eating
meat, consuming alcohol, and having sexual relations. Tantrists believe that if
they can maintain a transcendent state of consciousness throughout such
activities they will unite polar energies and so transcend maya and prakriti.
In the Hindu religion tantra yoga consists
of two major approaches: the Dakshinachara Path(known as right-handed
Tantra) and the Vamachara Path (known as left-handed Tantra).
Right-handed tantra typically would only symbolically, and not actually, engage
in the deeds of the flesh associated with its ritual. Left-handed tantra, on
the other hand, not only involves actual sex, alcohol, and drugs, but also has
been known to involve black magic and all kinds of debauchery and criminal
acts, including child sacrifice.15
Hatha Yoga
Hatha yoga is physical yoga, and it is the
variety of yoga that we most commonly encounter in the West. Indeed, many
Westerners think of little else when they hear the word yoga. It is often
promoted as a superior method of physical development with no religious ties
necessarily attached, and on this basis it is the approach to yoga that has had
the greatest success in penetrating both secular culture and the evangelical
church.
Its classical textbook is the Hatha Yoga
Pradipika, written in the fifteenth century A.D. by Svatmarama, a little-known
Indian yogi. Its first three verses declare that the ignorant masses are not
yet ready for the lofty raja yoga and so hatha yoga has been developed as a
“staircase” to lead them to it.16
How does this “staircase” work? First, it
is common for literature on hatha yoga originating from Hindu sources17 to
emphasize that the purpose of the postures and breathing exercises is to “free
the more subtle spiritual elements of the mind.” In other words, the physical
exercises of yoga are intended to facilitate altered states of consciousness.
They further are intended to foster “the development of will power, concentration,
and self-withdrawal,” all necessary to “help you put your mind in a focused
state to prepare for Meditation and, eventually, the search for enlightenment.”
Finally, they are designed to “open the energy channels, which in turn allows
spiritual energy to flow freely.”
Yogi Bhajan, a Sikh yoga teacher who was a
major exponent of kundalini yoga in the United States until his death in 2004,
affirmed that “the purpose of Hatha Yoga is to raise the awareness. It is a
technology to bring the apana and prana, the moon and sun powers together to
raise the consciousness. In other words, its stated aim is to raise the
Kundalini. That is the purpose of Hatha Yoga. The difference from Kundalini
Yoga is only a matter of time and rate of progress. The purpose of the two
approaches is the same.”18
In chapters seven and eight of his
coauthored book, The Spiritual Laws of Yoga, medical doctor and
bestselling New Age Hindu author Deepak Chopra explains the wide-ranging
spiritual purposes behind a variety of common hatha yoga poses. These include
“energy-opening poses” such as the “spinal twist,” the “kneeling wheel,” the
“diamond pose,” the “fish pose,” and the “child’s pose,” all of which are
designed to open the chakras so that “vital energy is able to flow freely. The
vital energy rising up through the spine is known as the awakening of
thekundalini.”19
The question of whether yoga in general,
and hatha yoga in particular, can be separated from their Hindu roots is where
the rubber meets the road most directly for Christians. In parts two and three
we will examine this issue in depth and we will also look at the leading yoga
teachers and their distinctive brands of yoga, specific areas of Western
culture where yoga has penetrated, and how Christians can and should respond to
this major cultural development.—Elliot Miller
NOTES
For a thorough treatment of yoga’s history
in the United States, see Elizabeth De Michelis, A History of Modern
Yoga: Patanjali and Western Esotericism (London, New York: Continuum,
2004).
Robert Love, “Fear of Yoga,” Columbia
Journalism Review, November/December 2006, CJR,
http://cjrarchives.org/issues/2006/6/Love.asp.
In part two of this series we will examine
specific examples of this.
In the Yoga Sutras (2:40) Patanjali states
that one of the effects of attaining purity is a disgust with the physical body
and a disinclination to have sexual intercourse. This underscores a basic
rejection in yoga of any inherent goodness in the physical world, despite the
acclaimed physical benefits of yoga, and stands in sharp contrast to the
biblical affirmation that creation (apart from the affects of sin on it) is
“very good” (Gen. 1:31).
M. Alan Kazlev, “The Shakta Theory of
Chakras,” Kheper, http://www.kheper.net/topics/chakras/chakras-Shakta.htm.
Transcendental Meditation is a form of
yoga. It will not be discussed here, however, since it is not what people
normally think of as yoga and since it was the subject of a two-part feature
article in the Journal just a few years ago. See John Weldon, “Transcendental
Meditation in the New Millennium (Part One: Is TM a Religion?),” Christian
Research Journal 27, 5 (2004): 12–21 (http://wwequip.org/JAT262-1), and
John Weldon, “Transcendental Meditation in the New Millennium (Part Two: Does
TM Really Work?),”Christian Research Journal 27, 6 (2004): 24–33
(http://www.equip.org/JAT262-2).
For more on this see Sri Swami Sivananda,
“Jnana Yoga,” The Divine Life Society,
http://www.dlshq.org/teachings/jnanayoga.htm.
“The Four Paths of Hindu Yoga,” Bikram Yoga
Products,
http://www.bikramyogaproducts.com/information.php?info_id=7&osCsid=ba34fa78a7b57b541c94e9279dc3ef.
Swami Vivekananda, The Complete Works of
Swami Vivekanandaa, vol. 1, Raja-Yoga,“Introductory,” http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_1/Raja-Yoga/Introductory.
Ibid., “Dhyana and Samadhi,”
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_1/Raja-Yoga.
Amma, “Dhyan-Yoga and Kundalini Yoga,” quoted
in Charles S. J. White, “Swami Muktananda and the Enlightenment through
Sakti-pat,” History of Religions 13, 4 (May, 1974): 318.
Swami Vivekananda, “The Psychic Prana,”
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_1/Raja-Yoga/The_Psychic_Prana.
See also his comments about Muhammad in the section “Dhyana and Samadhi.”
Gopi Krishna, an advocate of raising the
kundalini, nonetheless vividly described how doing so unleashed for him seven
years of severe psychological and spiritual disorders. (Pandit Gopi
Krishna, Kundalini: Path to Higher Consciousness [New Delhi: Orient
Paperbacks, 1992].) “He conceived of this energy as an intelligent force over
which he had little control once it was ” (“Gopi Krishna: Sage of the Kundalini
Energy,” Om-Guru, http://www.om-guru.com/html/saints/gopi.html.)
Swami Nikhilananda, Hinduism: Its
Meaning for the Liberation of the Spirit, 2nd ed., Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1982,
as quoted in Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantra#_ref-nikhilananda_2.
See, e.g., John Lancaster, “India’sMystical
Murders,” Washington Post, Nov. 25, 2003, A22,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A11810-2003Nov24?language =printer.
Svatmarama, The Hatha Yoga
Pradipika, The Sacred Books of the Hindus, e Major Basu, I.M.S. (retired)
(Bahadurganj, Allahabad: Sudhindranatah Vasu, 1915),
http://www.geocities.com/kriyadc/hatha_yoga_pradipika_chapter1.html.
See, e.g., “Hatha Yoga: The Yoga of
Postures,” ABC of Yoga.com,
http://www.abc-of-yoga.com/styles-of-yoga/hatha-yoga.asp, from which all of the
quotes in this paragraph are drawn.
Kundalini Yoga as Taught by Yogi Bhajan,
comp. Datta Singh,
http://www.goldenbridgeyoga.com/uploads/pdf/Beginners_Guide.pdf.
Deepak Chopra and David Simon, The
Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga: A Practical Guide to Healing Body, Mind, and
Spirit (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2004), 176.
Christian Research Institute
LINKS: Yoga Part 2 Yoga Part 3
LINKS: Yoga Part 2 Yoga Part 3