The Growth Begins

We have seen how the Avatār of Yoga was seeded in its Cosmic origins, and now we look at how so many of us in the modern Yoga world have nourished it, and how, as a sensitive Conscious Being, the Avatār of Yoga has adapted to our modern needs, just as it is said that personally grown plants adapt to their gardener. 

Remember, it's all co-evolution.

The psychic DNA of the Avatār of Yoga - its roots in Tantra, its expansion in Veda, and informed by Vedāntha - essentially depict its evolutionary journey throughout its millennia old history.

Broadly speaking there are two models of modern practice which have nourished the Avatār of Yoga:

• हठ Hatha Yoga - of the Mindful Body

• राज Rāja Yoga - of the Embodied Mind

Hatha Yoga - Mindful Body

Meaning

ह (Ha) + ठ (Ttha) = हठ (HaTha)

The word is a combination of two sounds that are meant to indicate the “effortful” nature of the practice.

Observe carefully these Sanskrit sounds.

Ha is the hardest vowel sound, and also implying a feminine (Yin/Shakti) character.

Tha is the hardest consonant sound, and also implying a masculine (Yang/Shiva) character.

In other words, Hatha Yoga is a tough practice so as to merge the Shakti-Shiva, Yin-Yang, Feminine-Masculine principles within us.

A proper Hatha Yoga practice builds character in many ways, and some aspects of the discipline of Greek Stoics bears comparison, but the comparison ends the moment we observe that Stoicism has roots in slavery whereas Hatha Yoga was created by the freest of Humans rooted in the practices of Tantra.

Form

A diluted form of Hatha Yoga is practiced in Fitness oriented yoga studios.

There is nothing “wrong” with this per se just because it is a modernized or diluted version, because Yoga can be applied in every aspect of Life provided we keep in mind its larger context.

After all, we all have to start somewhere.

In fact, beyond the dim mists of Tantra, the Body centric approach to Yoga is very much a part of “Akhāṛās” - martial arts oriented gyms for wrestlers & fighters in India who have practiced this form for millennia.

Of course where the modern Yoga studio differs significantly is in:

• its commercialized packaging, and 

• the modern industrialized neuroses that students bring to class.

Purpose

We deliberately use the word Purpose here versus using the softer word Intent, because Hatha Yoga certainly has a force to it which is why such Yogis have been characterized as change-makers outside the pale of normal society.

We have already observed earlier how, in the practice of Tantra, the Body exists to embody the entire material Universe, so here in our more “localized” practice of Hatha Yoga we say that the purpose of the Body is to embody the Mind.

This view of the Mindful Body is emblematic of Hatha Yoga, which is a psycho-physical practice and in its full range should only be offered with proper care and guidance.

Hatha Yoga practices operates at different levels of subtlety: 

Subtlest

We fine-tune the Nervous System so it acts like a “Life-Fi” antenna to receive subtle energies during the meditation practices of the Embodied Mind. 

Practicing being in total stillness without agitation in tough āsana postures will take care of this over time.

Medium

At the not-so-subtle level these practices loosen up the mental conditionings we have acquired that are lodged in our fascia (connective tissue in the body) which we stretch out in physical Āsana practice.

Obvious

At the most obvious level these practices lead us to become healthy, and even super-fit.

Being “dis-ease” free and moving with “ease” is a huge benefit, especially when combined with other injunctions that impose a certain discipline to our whole lifestyle.

Self in Hatha Yoga

Given its simpler origins in Tantra, there is no pesky Thought-obsessed Mind to transcend thus there is no need for a grand theory of Self-Realization either.

The grand notion of Self in Yoga’s formation as a Cosmic Avatār, thus adapts to a much simpler form in Hatha Yoga practices as very fluid and tactical.

Wherever we place our attention in the Body that’s where the Self is. 

The Self acts as a way to focus our Mind on to any area that needs to feel a bit of love & care.

Feelings and emotions are indeed part of the Self too, and are physically stored all over the body such as in connective tissue (fascia).

Even by just touching our hands or fingers to a particular place is sufficient to locate this Self and bring the place (organ, body part) the full attention it needs.

This is because attention is not mere focus but it is combined with the life energy of Prāna so there is a feeling of a live connection.

Each aspect of the felt Body is a conscious Being in its own right and as we connect on this basis there is a shared understanding the two of “us”, of how each can honor and serve the other and be Whole.

Indeed, we can "talk" with our kidney, heart, whatever, and whether it responds or not depends on how much of sensitivity has been cultivated.

After all if we are all individually conscious Beings relating to the whole Universe as a Conscious Being, then the same holds true for all various bits & pieces that lie within.

The connections that we create between conscious Beings flows as a consequence of the channels of Prāna between us.

Since Hatha Yoga is derived from Tantra, it is supposedly possible to master the magic of placing our Prāna outside the body into seemingly lifeless objects, which is actually quite routinely done with objects of worship.

Lot of charlatans abound though, so don’t be gullible!

Rāja Yoga - the Embodied Mind

राज Rāja means King in Sanskrit, and indeed after going through all of the different types of Yoga, this will become completely evident why it rules the lot in our modern day Thought obsessed world.

Rāja Yoga is the Avatār of Yoga that is embodied in deep meditation practices. 

In fact, Hindu temples originally were centers for this kind of practice, with the additional help of psychic Energy supercharging through Pūja rituals, but over time that got diluted into transactional Religion.

Intent

We deliberately use the softer word Intent versus the more forceful Purpose because the Avatār of Rāja Yoga needs to be approached with a lot more subtlety than in Hatha Yoga practices.

Rāja Yoga is meditation where just by sitting in stillness we become aware of our entire Universe and our Universe too becomes aware of our deepest Intent.

This is easier said than done because of our modern addiction to Thought which has built a huge corpus of mental residue around the Self.

Self-realization is thus the core Intent of Rāja Yoga as exemplified in the सांख्य Sānkhya Darshana, so the Self is clearly defined in contrast to its simplified adaptation in Hatha Yoga.

Self of Sānkhya

Sānkhya is also called Sānkhya Yoga, and is the root of Buddhist thought, and hence Buddha was also called Sānkhya Muni.

Sānkhya takes much of the preliminary model of psycho-material evolution from the Taitthiriya Upanishad, and models the universal cosmic Purusha (human) as an individuated Purusha. 

It further models all of the psycho-material elements as Prakriti, literally meaning Creation in her feminine form. 

That is, in our material elemental form as humans we are in fact all “feminine” for the most part because we are part of this Creation.

The objective of Sānkhya is then for each of us to observe our Purusha in its own true effulgent glory, independent of the influence of Prakriti.

If in the Brhman of Vedānta the only action is “to Be” as in pure existence, then the action of Purusha of Sānkhya is to simply see, or total awareness without making any choices or judgements.

This choiceless awareness of complete acceptance of who we are is the action of our Purusha, our individual Self, which action exactly defines the otherwise much misunderstood term “unconditional Love”.

Commentators who look upon the Vedic corpus with fragmented vision disparage Sānkhya as mere dualistic philosophy, but they are mere onlookers, not Yogic observers, and have never ventured on this pathless journey that leads to the ultimate expression of being Human.

In contrast to the slow movement practices of Hatha Yoga and it's only eventually the Body sits still, here in Rāja Yoga we observe that the Mind has a tendency to constantly move into a different psychological space or time and at the outset itself we try to still it.

Lest we tar the whole of Yoga with a brush of complete austerity, and lack of emotion, when we let the emotional Mind overflow in bliss of Ananda, then this is better characterized in Bhakti Yoga.

Mapping the Universe

True to its roots in Tantra and evolution through Vedānta, the Avatār of Yoga has mapped the entire material Universe into its Being, while bypassing modern fixations on a Self overdosed by addiction to Thought.

We have expanded the Mind to the vast extent of Brhman that any conditionings should be minuscule in comparison to the Whole, and are no longer beholden to the relentless grinding of the cogs of the System of Thought.

Millennia later we have developed complex societies based on the System of Thought, which are now hobbling us.