Yoga Consciousness in Ancient Mystery Religions
Contents:
Freudian, Neo-Freudian approaches held their sway over European psychology for years. Pre-occupation with drive reduction remained the theme of these schools. Carl Jung though widened the scope of human existence by bringing in the concept of collective unconscious ended up giving his own idiosyncratic explanations about various aphorisms of the Upanishads.
For a native of Europe, it was not only difficult to understand what was mentioned in Sanskrit in the cryptic aphorisms of the Upanishads. Behaviorists like Walson and Skinner completely shifted the emphasis in the opposite direction almost denying the existence of a conscious will. They described every behavior based on S-R Stimulus- Response theory.
Cognitive schools which came in later primarily emphasized on mental processes like memory, perception, imagery and thinking, which were also influenced by factors like culture, education, state of health of the individual. They gave importance to abstract concepts like empathy, love, altruism, truth and beauty. The treatises of oriental thinkers of the past like Patanjali and Vyasa are the examples of these. Emphasis in these was equally on the subjectivity component of free will and transcendental nature of the ultimate goal of self realization.
Upanishads, brahmasutras, bhagawadgita and Patanjali's yoga sutras are the well known documents dealing with these issues in the Indian subcontinent over centuries. Sage Pathanjali an ancient seer had enunciated as early as B. Treatises have been written elaborately explaining what has been in these cryptic statements of Patanjali. Because of their complexity and stress on ritualism, the ordinary masses could not practice them and they remained with mostly the elite and the mighty in the society.
Their revival was started by Acharya Shankara in the 8 th Century A. The modern day philosopher-yogis and thinkers like Mahrshi Dayananda, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekananda, Maharshi Aurobindo and Paramahamsa Yogananda or Swami Ramathirtha have revived the interest of the masses in to this area.
Buddhism and Jainism branched out due to dissatisfaction of the masses with the orthodoxy and complexity of the rituals prescribed by the Vedas. Many of the treatises of Buddhism and Jainism too emphasized on the subjective and transcendental nature of mind and consciousness. Vedantic schools, which were primarily the products of intuitive understanding of the seers rishis of yore were in the non-perceptual paradigm and hence were not easily available for the measurements and scientific validation that are insisted by the present day science.
Science as it is known today is primarily based on the perceptual paradigm. Oriental psychologies do not subscribe to the body-mind dichotomy. Here consciousness is explained in the singular and as the only reality but appearing in its manifestations as plural due to ignorance Avidya or false identification as self Asmitha.
The Vedantha philosophy has considered mind as the subtle form of matter where in the body and its components are considered the grossest forms. The ancient seers the rishis claimed that such truths are revealed only by intuitive research by diving deep in to the self in the process of absorption Samadhi. They are not two different things; they are just as the oyster and its shell, they are but two aspects of one thing; the internal substance of the oyster takes up matter from outside, and manufactures the shell. In the same way, the internal fine forces which are called mind take up gross matter from outside, and from that manufacture this external shell, the body-We shall find how intimately the mind is connected with the body.
When the mind is disturbed, the body also becomes disturbed. Just as a physicist, when he pushes his knowledge to its limits, finds it melting away into metaphysics, so a metaphysicist will find that what he calls mind and matter are but apparent distinctions, the reality being one. Oriental philosophies of mind, matter and spirituality often have been ridiculed as being esoteric, unscientific and not verifiable by the rigorous standards of present day science.
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Logically speaking it is incorrect to put any limits to science of what is possible in the future discoveries. Two hundred years ago if it was stated that it is possible to fly in the sky freely like birds it would have invited ridicule. Wright brothers proved it wrong and today we see aeroplanes weighing hundreds of tons flying at greater than the speed of sound.
Charles Eugene Guyes a Swiss physicist who maintained that it is the scale of observation, which creates the phenomena.
God, Mandalas & Yoga Consciousness
Thus, it will be completely incorrect to say that bacteria did not exist before the microscope was made or the stars did not exist before the first telescope was made. The range and capacity of some of our special senses are much less than those of some animals. Human retina has difficulty in seeing lights on either side of nm wave length and similarly human ear has inability to hear sounds outside the range of 20 to 20, Hz. It is well known that many species have much higher capacity to perceive the stimuli, which a human being cannot ordinarily perceive.
With instrumentation and sophisticated techniques, it has been possible to deduce the existence of such objects which we never knew existed. On the same analogy, it will be unscientific to put limits to science of self a science which takes an intuitive approach in its ventures and discoveries. In studies of mind and consciousness, the difficulty of using conventional scientific indices of deduction based on the principle of observability, repeatability and demonstrability of a phenomenon is immediately apparent as the subject of observation and study is the one that is being used as a measure too.
The mind-body dichotomy that has been mentioned earlier is at the root of the problem here. Einstein's theory of inter-convertibility of energy and matter was a land mark in physics. Modern physics-particularly the quantum theories are looking at the particle as a bundle of energy and as a unitary entity. The world as we see is just a projection of the unitary consciousness. The individualized consciousness then because of attachment to objects by way of love, desire, attachment or liking Raaga and hatred dislike or aversion Dwesha gets entangled in the web of the world there by forgetting the true nature of self as universal consciousness.
According to yoga philosophy birth and death are mere vantage points in the existence and till liberated from the cycle and move centripetally to the Brahman the cycle of birth followed by death and then again birth are inevitable. Clearly, death or disappearance of form is not considered the end of existence.
Yogic texts and Vedanta explain of four planes of consciousness. In Dream state Swapna awasta or Taijasa except for the movement everything that a person who awake experiences can be experienced. There is no object-subject polarity duality in this universal state and it is unitary or singular.
Purusha is the master of Chitta and is never changing. These disturbances or the waves bring to existence the conscious world as we see it. Thinking, feeling, memory, behavior are all different vrittis. It is a hierarchy and attaining a state of Niruddha is essential to experience the state of super consciousness.
Most of us, the ordinary people remain in the first three states which only increase the bondage with the phenomenal world. Einstein's theory which established the inter-convertibility of matter and energy pointed towards this unitary approach in physics. Several studies in modern physics, particularly in quantum mechanics have offered further proof of this unitary concept.
What is then the applicability of these theories to day to day practice of psychiatry? The psychiatrists deal with aberrations in functioning of the mind. When these aberrations because of their nonconformity to the norms set by the society — they get labeled as abnormal and are brought for treatment. The existence of psychiatric syndromes where there are gross abnormalities of mental functions though is unquestionable, many a time, there is tendency on the part of psychology and psychiatry labeling anything as abnormal because they are not completely understood thus widening the scope of what can be considered as illness state.
This approach has come to lot of criticism in recent days as is evident from the recent controversy about broadening the ambit of psychiatric disorders by DSM V. Mystic experiences often do not find a place any modern books of psychiatry or psychology. Often they get either ignored as not clearly understood or outright rejected as vagaries of an abnormal mental state.
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We find something more nearly resembling psychotherapy. This may seem surprising, for we think of the latter as a form of science, somewhat practical and materialistic in attitude and of the former as extremely esoteric secret religions concerned with regions of the spirit almost entirely out f this world.
This is because the combination of our unfamiliarity with Eastern cultures and their sophistication gives them an aura of mystery into which we project fantasies of our own making.
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Another issue that needs our attention is the psychotherapy as it is practiced today. But Jobs was on a quest for something altogether more powerful than stress-reduction, toning, and fitness. He was seeking the kind of inner transformation that many practitioners sense yoga is inviting them to embark on, but don't know where it will take them or how to get there. For this deeper dive, you can turn to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, one of the authoritative and few-surviving ancient texts on yoga. Patanjali teaches that "yoga" means "union"--the dissolving of one's individual self in the larger ocean of consciousness that pervades the universe--and that to help us achieve this union is yoga's real purpose.
Now you might think: And how can I ever get there? Yogananda's story is an inspiring lesson in spiritual entrepreneurship. Born in in Gorakhpur, India, he alighted on American soil at the young age of 27 with little money in his pocket but with a firm resolve to reawaken humanity to the power of yoga for inner transformation.
Over the next few years he brought this message to packed audiences of thousands in all major U. As the American people were being buffeted by the thunderous wrath of two world wars and a major depression, he exhorted them to practice yoga so they could discover that the spiritual anchorage they were seeking was already with them--in fact, it was within them.
The successful yogi, he stated, "can stand unshaken amidst the crash of breaking worlds.
It is no wonder that many accomplished men and women of Yogananda's era took to his teaching, including the entrepreneur George Eastman , founder of Kodak; the acclaimed opera singer Amelita Galli-Curci ; the tenor Vladimir Rosing ; and the plant scientist Luther Burbank. Today he is recognized among yoga experts as the father of yoga in the West. Great teachers look into the vast beyond and then craft their message to speak not just to their immediate audience but to future generations as well.
As early as , Yogananda recognized that yoga would be a boundless fountain to quench people's growing thirst for meaning, authenticity, and a personal experience of truth. So, with an entrepreneurial flair not typical among spiritual teachers, he laid the foundation of an institution, Self-Realization Fellowship SRF , to ignite the inner flame of yoga in communities worldwide. He once said, "I don't use religion for business but I use business principles in religion. He also worked to develop living exemplars of his teachings by setting up a monastic order within SRF that now includes more than monks and nuns dedicated to their own pursuit of soul-unfoldment and to serving his organization's mission.
Yogananda's teachings don't simply stop at the idea of universal consciousness. He correctly anticipated the growing hunger among spiritual seekers for direct personal experience of the universal consciousness that the masters of yoga, and indeed mystics of every religious tradition, describe. He therefore synthesized a set of powerful but practical techniques to guide truth-seekers on the spiritual path all the way to the ultimate union, drawing on the eight steps laid out by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras.
The modern conception of yoga--with its emphasis on outer transformation--is based on the third of Patanjali's eight steps, "asana. But prior even to asana are Patanjali's first two steps of "yama" and "niyama"--principles to guide one's everyday conduct and to prepare oneself for inner realization. Yoga emphasizes the importance of self-discipline as a foundation for harmonious physical, mental, and spiritual development. Yogananda's particular genius was showing the modern applicability of these ancient principles, attuning himself to an audience who aspired as much to outer success as inner growth by delivering talks on topics like "The Science of Healing" and "The Art of Getting What You Want.
Patanjali's final five steps beyond asana relate to a progressive deepening of the seeker's journey toward realization of the universal self, with meditation providing the pathway. However, Patanjali's text on these final five steps is agonizingly cryptic, with no guidance on how to execute them. To fill this void, Yogananda, ever the spiritual innovator, introduced the West to an advanced but long-lost ancient technique of meditation, Kriya Yoga. Kriya, he said, offered the ultimate journey of inner transformation, helping practitioners tap into an ever-expanding love and ever-deepening joy that would spring from within.
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That, he asserted, was man's true nature--a perfection that represents our permanent state of self within, even as it is so elusive to capture without. Kriya "works like mathematics," he stated, emphasizing the empirical, scientific nature of this technique. Through regular practice, he claimed, Kriya will change the neural pathways in the brain.