LINKS: Yoga Part 2 Yoga Part 3 Yoga in Hinduism and Buddhism
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.
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 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
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
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.
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 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
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
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
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
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.