BOOK REVIEW

Titled: A Brief History of Yoga: From its Tantric Roots to the Modern Yoga Studio

By: Ramesh Bjonnes (here is the book)

Destructive political ideology disguised as spiritual wisdom is the worst crime one can commit against the mind of humanity. Combine this with egregiously flawed scholarship to further muck up the system. Add a few juicy bits of Tantra to sweeten the pot and entice the gullible masses. Subvert humanity!

The author exhibits total brainwashing by his Anand Marg cult, an organization that is an example of a Breaking India force founded by no less than an insider to the Indic traditions!

If you have the grace of Parvati to stay the poison in Shiva's Vishuddhi Chakra before he succumbs to the poison, then just take a lick of the juicy Tantra bits, but be sure to dump the rest of this vile concoction back into the swamp from which it arose.

FAINT PRAISE

Some faint praise first for the interesting nuggets in the book about Tantra. Author has a nice way with words. I also certainly agree with his central premise that Tantra was very much a hoary Indic tradition, from time immemorial. I also agree that Vedic practitioners speak of Tantra in hushed tones.

But rarely do we demonize Tantra. If it seems so it is because our entire educational system was wiped out by the colonizers so most, who have suffered the bane of modern education, have no clue what is Tantra, despite the fact that beautiful & powerful Tantric rituals are intrinsic to Vedic practices, such as the thrice-daily Sandhyāvandanam practice, and also core to the larger Vedic यज्ञ Yagnya offerings.

FLAWED SCHOLARSHIP

However ... there are many flaws when the author ventures outside of his Tāntric experiences, and into his more analytical pronouncements.

Firstly, to nitpick on the linguistics bit, after all this site explores the psycho-linguistics of Sanskrit. The author admittedly knows zero Sanskrit and hence can only parrot what he has been programmed with. 

• doesn't know that the R in हड़प्पा HaRappa is not the normal R (for Hari) 

• it is not Brhmā who is the universal consciousness but it is Brhman of whom Brhmā is the particular manifestation

• (he also spells compl"i"mentary vs compl"e"mentary in at least two places - so much for his English)

• probably doesn't even have a clue that Tamil and Sanskrit have identical linguistic models and identical expressions of Tantra, Vedanta etc., and creates an artificial Aryan/Dravidian divide.

• embraces his gurus' ESP powers but discounts Krishnamāchārya's and his lineage, too.

• has no idea that Vedic rituals are but the outer expression of the inner Tāntric alchemy. 

These are just a few of the many scholarly flaws in the book - but here is the most disturbing part.

DESTRUCTIVE POLITICAL IDEOLOGY

The author repeatedly claims that Indic culture has suffered through oppression of Tantric Dravidians by the invading Vedic Aryans. He takes the now discredited Aryan Invasion Theory and embellishes social divisions using Tantra as a wedge. Although the author acknowledges that Vedas has now integrated well with Tantra, he claims it is digestion by Aryan invaders and has wiped out Dravidian Tantra roots.  In fact the Ananda Marg organization has subverted Tantra for political ends.

The most disturbing aspect of his book is that the author has swallowed the utterings of his guru Anandamurtii wholesale, an undoubtedly brilliant mystic - but whose Ananda Marg organization includes an explicit mandate to institute the PROUT One World Government, which is fundamentally subversive in intent. The Anand Margis have been targeted by the communists too, so their ideology is slightly different, but it still speaks to a revolution of the masses - which invariably is a violent uprising. The Anand Marg movement was born and bred in the Communist hotspot of Bengal, now an impoverished state, but once the richest in India! Oh, what a fate!!

You can read more about their PROUT model here.

No wonder the author wails aloud about Vedic Aryan invaders and trots out selectively supporting arguments in order to further the existing divides in Indian society, and foment such revolution! Illiterate & confused Western writers are the bane of modern Yoga, and in this case downright dangerous to human civilization - despite its current woes.

Of course, the Tāmasic Hindu is the worst of the lot, but that's another story. Or is it the same? After all, subversive frameworks are by definition considered an Asura model, since these memetic viruses impact entire civilizations. Therefore wouldn't the misguided genius at its head, seeking to overthrow the whole world order, be considered a Brhma-Asura? 

Note: Brhma-Rākshasa is a psychic virus that affects at individual level. A different beast.

BOTTOM LINE

We do not need a Communistic style revolution of the masses inflamed through dated & flawed class divisions! What a ridiculously dangerous idea to ignore the hundreds of millions of lives that have been laid waste in history by these means. For this violently subversive reason alone, the book needs to be trashed. Thank god I got the kindle version, so I don't have the karma of waste paper to deal with!

In closing I invite comments from followers of Shankara's school of Advaita, to respond to this particular statement by the author:

"Shankara's doctrine of illusion has undoubtedly has had many negative social effects in India by enslaving people to fatalist dogmas steeped in caste, myth and oppression"

Dharmo rakshati rakshita:h 

(dharma protects those who protect dharma)