The Bhagavad Gita (Song of God)
In 1785, A British printer named Charles Wilkins made the first translation of Sanskrit into English when he published a version of the Bhagavad Gita (the Celestial Song). This work, the best known and most influential of all Indian scriptures, portrays a single loving god in the form of Krishna and the warrior prince, Arjuna. The action takes place somewhere between 1000 and 700 BCE (though it was composed around 500 BCE), in a battlefield not far from present day New Delhi, just before a deadly fight between two sides of the same warring family.
Arjuna is unwilling to fight, to kill those he loves and admires but to refuse is shameful for a warrior. In an allegory of the spiritual courage, Krishna marshalls arguments about why Arjuna must fight, no matter how it hurts him to do so, and offers yoga as the way to resolve his human conflict. In so doing, he must recognise Krishna as the spirit that underlies all.
I am a spirit like about the art of all things. I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all that lives. Unknown creator is, I am the creator of love; I have knowledge of the self that makes ignorance disappear. I am the splendour in all that is splendid; I am the goodness of those who are good. There is no end to my manifestation.
Patanjali
The most significant text in the history of yoga are the Yoga Sutras, compiled sometime between the fourth and third century BCE by the sage Patanjali, who brought together diverse material about yoga that had existed in oral form for many hundreds of years before gathered into a single text.
The sutras (rule or aphorism) systematize the principles of yoga and form the basis of yoga philosophy and its core beliefs also informed and influenced Buddhis philosophy (see below). Yoga practice is presented as a means to still the mind, thereby allowing the inner self, the true self, to see itself and find liberation.
Patanjali taught an eightfold (ashtanga) system of Yoga emphasizing an integral spiritual development including ethical disciplines (yama and niyama), postures (asana), breathing exercises (pranayama), control of the senses (pratyahara), concentration (dharana), meditation (dhyana) and absorption (samadhi). This constitutes a complete and integral system of spiritual training.
This now called classical yoga was part of the greater Hindu and Vedic tradition. Patanjali was not the inventor of Yoga, as many people in the West are inclined to believe, but only a compiler of the teaching at a later period. Yogic teachings covering all aspects of Patanjali Yoga are common in pre-Patanjali literature of the Puranas, Mahabharata and Upanishads, where the name Patanjali has yet to occur. The originator of the Yoga system is said to be Hiranyagarbha, who symbolises the creative and evolutionary force in the universe, and is a form of the Vedic Sun God.
Yoga takes many forms and is found in, and has influenced, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism and inspired offshoot traditions like Zen (see below). Forms include: raja yoga, hatha yoga (which itself takes a variety of forms e.g ashtanga, bikram, vinyasa, Iengar), kundalini yoga, laya yoga, tantric yoga and the three yogas of the Bhagavad Gita — karma yoga (the path of selfless action), jnana yoga (the path of knowledge and wisdom) and bhakti yoga (the path of devotion and love of God).
The Yoga Sutras are only really understandable in the context of the older vedanta, not only the Bhagavad Gita but also the Upanishads. Terms like yamas and niyamas, the different types of samadhi, different aspects of yoga practice, descriptions of purusha (soul) and brahman (the absolute) are often alluded to only briefly in the Yoga Sutras but are explained clearly and in detail in the older literature. It would appear that Patanjali took for granted that his readers would recognise these underlying beliefs and understandings.
“We should delink yoga per se from Patanjali and restore its meaning at a broader level,” says The American Institute of Vedic Studies. “We should look at Yoga beyond the Yoga Sutras, not only the ancient Yoga literature before Patanjali but the later Yoga literature apart from him… Once we do this we can understand why different aspects of Yoga have been used by different philosophical systems in India, including those who may not agree with Patanjali on certain philosophical issues.
Yoga as a general tradition is something more than Patanjali, however great his compilation may be and can easily be compiled from the Mahabharata, Upanishads, and other ancient Vedic teachings. Through it we can gradually reclaim the older vedic yoga it was based upon and restore the spiritual heritage of the Himalayan rishis. This is an important task for the next generation of Yoga aspirants, if they want to really reclaim the origin and depths of the teaching.”
Yoga traditionally defines itself as meditation not as asana, which is taught merely as an aid to meditation. Of the 200 Yoga Sutras only three deal with asana, while the great majority deal with meditation. “In the West we hear people talk of ‘Yoga and meditation’,”yoga meaning asana or some other outer practice like pranayama,” say David Frawley. “If one states this in India, one hears ‘Yoga and meditation, are they two?’”
Next Week: Buddhism and Zen