How Thoreau's Walden Pond Mixed with the Ganges and Yoga Came to America with Swami Vivekananda

Asanas
Asanas or “bodily postures” are said to
have been developed by the ancient
Rishis of India and are practiced for a variety
of reasons. Conducive to health and
a sister science of Ayurveda, many practice
asanas for the purpose of well-being
alone. Asana practice has become so
popular in the West that it is thought to
represent the classical ancient vidya or science
of Yoga. However, this is not the case. ( for an excellent book on this subject
read: Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice, by Mark Singleton)
Yoga is one of the six-systems of Indian Philosophy created by the Rishi Patanjali.
Referred to as the “Yoga Sutras” or Ashtanga Yoga (eight limbed Yoga), Asana
is mentioned in the Yoga Sutras as one of the limbs or angas in which Yoga
is to be established, let me briefly describe them:
In the Yoga system of Patanjali, the whole world is divided into different interconnected
spheres and the eight limbs of Ashtanga Yoga refer to them individually.
The first two limbs are Yama (Do not’s) and Niyama (Do’s) which refer to the
sphere of life lying outside the body. When Yoga is established here, the moral
and ethical qualities such as purity of thought, contentment, spiritual effort, devotion
to God, non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, not entering into debt,
celibacy, patience, moderation in all things and steadiness are established.
The third and next limb is asana. This is the realm of the body itself. Patanjali
says that Yoga is established in the body when the following qualities are found:
sthira sukham asanam – one should be steady and comfortable in asanas (Yoga Sutras:
2.46). That is the complete mention of asana in the Yoga Sutras. In the
Yoga Sutras, the purpose of asana is not for itself alone or merely for health, but
to offer a stable bodily foundation for meditation on the Divine. But, even here
there need not be obsessive concern.
Ramana Maharshi, the great Advaitic sage of the 20 th century was asked
about what asana should be used to sit in meditation:
Q: Should I sit in a particular posture [asana] and sit on a grass mat?
M: Stability in the Self [Atman] is the real asana. Be steady in that asana. In
what asana will Atman sit? It is wrong to say that there is no Self-knowledge without
asanas. Atman has no need of them. The compulsion of having a particular
kind of asana makes the mind get agitated.
The other limbs of the eight limbed system are briefly as follows, going from
grosser to subtlest:
Pranayama – the limb of the breath
Pratyadhara – the limb of the senses
Dharana – the limb of the mind
Dhyana – when the mind flows like oil being poured from one container to
the other
Samadhi – when there is no difference between the meditator, the object of
mediation and the process of meditation
These eight limbs are all interconnected. This is why they are called angas or
limbs. If you pull one leg of the chair the other three come along with it. The
dynamic working principal is that to whatever degree Yoga is found in any one
of these limbs, yoga is established in all of them – to the same extent. The great
Rishis spent little time with the grosser limbs, based on their observation that it is
more effective to change everything by working at the subtler or subtlest level of
creation since the subtle is at the root of the gross and the causal is at the root of
the subtle . . . Like spokes coming into the hub of a wheel. Therefore they concentrated
their teachings on the Realization of the Divine (Samadhi) and not on
the asanas.
However, there have always been those who tried to pull the legs of the chair
through hatha-yoga or the gross and subtle exercise of the body. Most people in
the West today, practice Yoga asanas for their health benefits alone and “Yoga asanas”
have been divorced from their original context of a God-Realizing Spiritual
practice.
Related Glossary Terms
Hatha Yoga, Yoga, Yogendra Mastamani
Index Find Term
Chapter 1 - How Thoreau's Walden Pond Mixed with the Ganges and Yoga Came to America with Swami Vivekananda
Chapter 1 - How Thoreau's Walden Pond Mixed with the Ganges and Yoga Came to America with Swami Vivekananda
Chapter 1 - How Thoreau's Walden Pond Mixed with the Ganges and Yoga Came to America with Swami Vivekananda
Chapter 2 - The Kashi Yatra, the Spiritual Master and!the Living Water of Life