YOGA IN VARIOUS FORMS

Articles In This Section:

· YOGA IN VARIOUS FORMS

· WHAT IS YOGIS?

· YOGA TEACHES WHAT?

· JAPA YOGA

· WHAT IS KARMA?

· RAJA YOGA

By now the reader may have decided he has been promised the millennium. It might therefore be best before continuing with any further discussion to go back, examine Yoga in its varying forms and establish a common vocabulary in regard to it. We then can be completely clear on what this philosophy really is and what it is not—also on what it bases its claims and which of its teachings are applicable and useful to us.

Let us begin with a working definition: Yoga is a method by which to obtain control of one's latent powers. It offers the means to reach complete Self-realization. This the Yogis achieve by turning their thoughts inward, away from the objective world. The literal meaning of the Sanskrit word Yoga is yoke. Its earliest definition—a means for uniting the individual spirit with the Universal Spirit, or God if you will —may at first glance seem a contradiction of the other; but the confusion disappears once we take into account that realization of Self cannot be achieved without the recognition and acceptance of one's place in and relationship to the universe as a whole.

Yoga is very definitely not a religion: some Yogis are deeply religious, others are not. Many of its aspects are profoundly mystical, as is inevitable with any form of spiritual contemplation. But how the Yogi interprets his beliefs is an entirely personal matter. There are Brahmins among the Yogis, there are Christians, and there are Moslems, to name only a few. There are also philosophically-oriented persons with no formal religion.

The schools of Yoga are numerous, and even in the East each student is generally attracted to that particular form of it which best answers his own particular needs. In many ways, too, the differences are largely a matter of emphasis for, as you will see, the various schools overlap to some extent. As you read on you will quickly be able to understand just why, as we have already pointed out, none is really suited unaltered to our Western temperament and the exigencies of our tempo of living.

A brief outline of the outstanding basic schools will illustrate this better than any flat statement of opinion.

First and most widespread, as well as the one best known in our hemisphere, is Hatha Yoga. The name, derived from the Sanskrit Ha, which stands for the female principle and Tha, the male principle, implies that this Yoga may be practiced by both men and women with the object of achieving complete control of the body. One feature of Hatha Yoga practice involves a number of such drastic, sometimes even painful, forms of spiritual and physical purification so impractical and alien to us that no attempt shall be made here to discuss them. For his purpose, the Western student need only be concerned with the kind of purification that may be attained by simple hygiene. This, like many other points which will be only briefly touched upon here, is something we shall return to in a subsequent chapter.