A prolific writer, orator, educationist, thinker, and above all, spiritual preceptor to millions, Dada Vaswani, the head of the Pune-based Sadhu Vaswani Mission, turns 90 this month.We pay tribute to a life lived in service to God, guru and the world. More>>
The different yoga schools simply adhere to different applications of
inner discipline, all of which ultimately lead to the liberation of
the soul and to a unique understanding of the Divine Unity.
The schools are merely named according to the yogi's objective of self-transformation
and the instrument chosen for such anticipated change.
The yoga schools are:
Ashtanga Yoga and it's different
variations, for the most part, aim at the fullest development of any
one human faculty—the mind, emotions, life-force or the physical
body. Such partial perfection is then allowed to spill over to one's
entire being.
But Sri
Aurobindo's Purna Yoga or Integral Yoga focuses on the whole
being in order to bring about total transformation.
The approach, objective and means of Purna Yoga are all integral
in essence.
The main stages of Purna Yoga are:
• Aspiration for the Divine.
• Surrender of the individual soul to the Universal Soul.
• Rejection of all obstructions to the path of total transformation.
Realizing the Divine within oneself is the first step of Integral Yoga.
The means of achieving this state of Divine awareness is through a regular
practice of either concentration, meditation
or prayer.
The next step involves the realization of the Divine in entities beyond
the subjective self. A realization of all constituent consciousnesses
of the universe—an acceptance of a common origin of all beings.
The third stage consists of a true identification with the "Transcendental
Divine", which is neither limited within the being of a single
individual nor within any other constituents of existence. According
to Sri Aurobindo, unless this crucial Truth is realized, it is impossible
for the sadhak or seeker to attain liberation.
In his philosophy, Rishi Aurobindo termed this rarefied region of higher
consciousness as the "Supramental Consciousness", the attainment
of which is necessary for the liberation of the soul. The Master believed
this stage of spiritual awareness to be potentially the ultimate rung
on the human evolutionary ladder.
And the realization of this "Supramental Consciousness" is the
principal aspiration of Sri Aurobindo's Purna Yoga or Integral
Yoga.
Jnana refers to knowledge but the emphasis is not on acquiring
information but on developing the analytical powers of the mind. The
manner in which the power of analysis is applied depends on the metaphysical
system within which it is practiced. In the Samkhya system of
Indian philosophy, the focus is on understanding one's own inner self.
In AdvaitaVedanta
(non-dualist Vedanta philosophy), the idea is to understand the difference
between reality and illusion.
Bhakti Yoga is all about getting in touch with
the Divine Being by following the outpourings of one's heart. The term 'bhakti'
can be roughly translated to mean 'devotion', and this emotion coupled with the
Christian concept of faith leads to a state of mind which can be described as
being immersed in bhakti. This strand of yoga principally advocates love
and devotion as the path to moksha or liberation.
Originally, it was believed that the practice of Karma Yoga, accompanied
by the observance of certain rituals, would lead to liberation from the
cycle of birth and death. In the Bhagavad
Gita, lord Krishna further extended the semantics of the term karma
to mean detached action, that is, subjugation of the individual will to
Divine purpose.
According to the Bhagavad Gita, these three different paths of yoga (jnana,
bhakti and karma) help to define three different categories
of men—reflective, emotional and active, respectively—distinguished
on account of the distribution of emphasis on the theoretical, emotional
and practical aspects of human personalities.
Raja Yoga or Ashtanga Yoga,
which was formulated by Patanjali into a definite system from classical
yoga, forms one of the Shad-Darshanas or classical systems of Indian
philosophy. The school of Raja Yoga prescribes to a particular
meditative system, which focuses on the analysis and control of the field
of human consciousness. Often known as the 'royal road' or the 'royal
path' ('raja' in Sanskrit denotes 'king' or 'royal'), it offers
a comprehensive method for controlling waves of thought by channeling
mental and physical energies into spiritual energy.
The school of Hatha Yoga attaches a lot of importance to the perfect
physical form, believing it to be a way of attaining spiritual perfection.
And to this end it takes the help of pranayama (breath-control
exercises) and mudras
(hand gestures) to attain self-realization.
Often
seen as part of Raja Yoga, the origins of Hatha Yoga can be traced
to Gorakhnath, the 12th-century founder of the Kanphata Yogis. The word
'hatha' is derived from the two root terms, 'ha' meaning 'the sun'
and 'tha' meaning 'the moon'. Taken together, the term stands for 'union
of force'. Hence, central to Hatha Yoga disciplines is the harmonizing
of its positive (sun) and negative (moon) currents.
Kundalini
is the potential form of prana or life force, lying dormant in
our bodies. It is conceptualized as a coiled up serpent (literally, 'kundalini'
in Sanskrit is 'coiled up') lying at the base of our spine, which can
spring awake when activated by spiritual disciplines. The practitioners
of Kundalini Yoga concentrate on psychic centers or chakras
in the body in order to generate a spiritual power, which is known as
kundalini energy.
The practice
comprises of awakening and then forcing this energy, flowing through nadis
or channels, up the psychic channel of the sushumna, which runs from the
base of the spine to the brain. The three main channels running alongside the
spinal cord are ida, pingala and the sushumna. When this
kundalini energy, pictured as the serpent residing in the first chakra
at the root of the spine (muladhar chakra), is raised up through the rest
of the chakras until it reaches the seventh and the highest chakra
(sahasrara) located at the crown of the head—self-realization occurs.
This induces the blissful state of samadhi. The school of Sahaja
Yoga is very similar to the Kundalini school.
MantraYoga refers to the repetition of mantras (words
or sounds) during various yoga meditation techniques. This ritualistic chanting
helps bind the mind to a single thought until it attains the state of samadhi.
The roots of Tantra Yoga go back to ancient fertility cults of India.
The history of this strain of yoga, like the Kundalini school, is linked
with the worship of Shakti, the primordial female energy. The objective
of Tantra Yoga is to merge with the Ultimate by the arousal and channeling
of sexual energy.
The Tantra
school equates spiritual awakening with the awakening and rising of the
kundalini power. According to Tantra, the kundalini
is present in everything, even in the smallest of particles, in the form
of cosmic energy. Only a fraction of it is operative, while an unmeasured
residuum is left 'coiled up' and untapped at the 'base root'.
