The Practice of Yoga by Fra.Veos

originally published at: http://forums.vsociety.net/index.php/topic,12655.0.html

Hatha Yoga is the art of uniting(Yoga) the Sun and the Moon (Ha-Tha). The primary school of thought in Yoga is called the Sankhya Philosophy. Founded by Adi Shankara, the Sankhya school of thought revolves around Shiva and the symbolism of his mythology. Shiva is seen, like in Kashmir Shivaisim, to be Brahman. Brahman is the one undivided God who is in the form of Satchidananda (existence, knowledge and bliss) which is true consciousness in the highest sense. Seeing as how the primary aim of this article is in teaching the practice of Yoga, I will not spend too long on the theory, but some basic understanding of it will nonetheless help the Aspirant in its practice. The religious preference of the Aspirant will also not effect the practice of Yoga very much, but I am presenting Yoga here as it is traditionally taught without the new-age influences that have infected it since it came to the West at the turn of the 20th century with Swami Vivekananda and Paramahamsa Yogananda. As such, all the religious terminology will be Sanskrit words pertaining to the Sankhya philosophy and I will try to define any sanskrit word I use in parenthesis for the reader.

In the Sankhya philosophy, mankind lives in material world trapped in the illusion of Maya. Maya is the “illusion power” cast by Shakti (feminine principle of the universe) which allows us to identify our Self with our physical body and its lower desires. It is the illusion that sensual pleasure brings happiness and indulgence brings wealth. But what keeps us in this Maya? Why do we stay in it? It is Karma. Most people know that Karma is the law of cause and effect. In hindu and yogic philosophy, the soul is seen as being “caught” in a wheel of life, death and reincarnation called Samsara, and it is the glue of Karma which binds us to this wheel. The Yogi strives to reach “Moksha” (liberation) from the fetters of Maya with the practice of Yoga. By the restraint of the mind and desires, the Yogi crosses the ocean of Samsara in the boat of Sadhana (spiritual practice). He becomes a God-Man. He walks in the material world but is not “in” this world or “of” it. He can move without creating Karma. He dissolves his Karma in the fire of Sadhana and in the deepest states of Samadhi (spiritual ecstasy in God-Union). He is called a Jivan-Mukta (liberated soul) while still alive.

The practice of Yoga is the expansion of the individual consciousness (Atman) into God’s consciousness (Purusha or Paratman). This is done primarily in one way: the raising of the Kundalini.

Kundalini:
Kundalini is Parvati, Shiva’s consort. She is his Shakti (feminine principle or counter-part) in the form of creative energy and is represented as a snake coiled up at the base of the spine in the Yogi. Through rigorous Sadhana this serpent must be straightened out and forced into the mouth of Sushumna and guided through each chakra on its ascent up the spine into the head. While I could write for much longer and in much more detail about what the Kundalini actually is, that is not the purpose of this article right now. The beginner will discover many things about the essence of the kundalini with good Sadhana.