NEW WEBSITE : MARCH 2007
Y O G A
PAGE NOS. CONTENTS
02 - 07 INTRODUCTION
02 THE ORIGIN OF YOGA
02 PATANJALI’S YOGA / ASHTANGA YOGA
03 ASANAS
03 PRANAYAMA
03 YOGA IS : BECOMING ONE WITH BRAHMAN
03 YOGA IS : SALVATION BY WORKS
04 HATHA YOGA
04 OTHER ASPECTS OF YOGA
04 YOGA IS : MEDITATION
05 THE LIE OF THE SERPENT
05 ‘CHRISTIAN YOGA’ ?
06 THE TRUTH ABOUT YOGA
06 YOGA IS : ‘NEW AGE’
07 THE VATICAN DOCUMENT ON THE ‘NEW AGE’
07 YOGA IS : A HINDU RELIGIOUS PRACTICE
08 - 31 I CATHOLIC PRIESTS PROPAGATE YOGA / YOGA APPROVED BY BISHOPS
32 - 39 II HINDUS DON’T THINK IT’S FUNNY. HINDUS APPLAUD VATICAN DOCUMENTS
39 - 47 III ITS HINDU !!!!! HINDUS PROTEST. DEFENSE OF YOGA BY HINDUS
47 - 61 IV THE DEBATE ON ‘CHRISTIAN YOGA’
62 - 75 V CATHOLIC LAITY AND MINISTRIES CONDEMN THE HINDU PRACTICE OF YOGA
75 - 79 VI CATHOLIC PRIESTS CONDEMN THE HINDU RELIGIOUS PRACTICE OF YOGA
79 - 85 VIICATHOLICBISHOPS CONDEMN THE HINDU RELIGIOUS PRACTICE OF YOGA
86 - 106 VIII OTHER CHRISTIANS CONDEMN THE HINDU RELIGIOUS PRACTICE OF YOGA
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON YOGA, PLEASE READ IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE
MARCH/APRIL 2007 REPORT SURYA NAMASKAR AND YOGA TO BE MADE COMPULSORY IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN INDIA
ALSO READ THE SEPTEMBER/DECEMBER 2006 REPORT ON SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR AND THE ‘ART OF LIVING’
OCTOBER 2005 REPORT ON NEW AGE IN THE CATHOLIC ASHRAMS
OCTOBER 2005 REPORT ON KRIPA FOUNDATION AND FR. JOE PEREIRA,BOMBAY
SEPTEMBER 2004 REPORT ONVIPASSANA MEDITATION
AUGUST 2003 REPORT ON DHARMA BHARATHI – NEW AGE AND SYNCRETISM
FORTHCOMING [February 15, 2001 UPDATED]INCULTURATION OR HINDU-ISATION ?
FORTHCOMINGINDIA: THE LOTUS AND THE CROSS – THE INCULTURATION OF CHRISTIANITY
THE JANUARY 2007 4-PAGE SUMMARY ON YOGA IS ALSO AVAILABLE AT THE WEBSITE
YOGA PRIESTS LEAVE THE CHURCH
Pune-ites inform me about one Fr. Anthony Lobo who was teaching yoga in Poona diocese; he left the Church in 2004:
“Fr Anthony Lobo is a very senior priest (contemporary of Bishop Valerian D'Souza), who was a proponent of Yoga. He has been to Germany and other places across the globe and I understand that he is… someone high in Yoga. He has left the Priesthood about a year or so ago, got marriedand has gone abroad somewhere. He must be around 72 or 73 years old.”
Yoga is Hindu. Hinduism is “soaked into the marrow” of yoga’s bones says Belgian priest Fr. J. M. DeChanet, author of books on yoga who also left the Church after priests promoted his work openly in Bombay archdiocese.
Yet our seminarians are compelled to do yoga in their formation, our priests write books on yoga and practise yoga, our Bishops approve and encourage these priests and support yoga programmes in their dioceses. Yoga is rampant in the Church. So, what is this YOGA ?
THE ORIGIN OF YOGA
The origin of yoga is found in the ascetic practices of a religious group called the Vratyas in the Atharva Veda [ch. XV].
They are the first mentioned to practice the control of breathing and some sexual rituals with the goal of attaining ecstatic trance states.
The term ‘yoga’ has its root in the Sanskrit word yuj which means ‘to yoke’ or ‘to unite’.
In its present meaning it was first used [500 BC] in the KathaUpanishads [KU] where Yama, the god of death, explains to a disciple how to attain the perfect knowledge of Brahman and thus merge with it through restraining the senses and concentration. Yoga is here defined as the method through which the mind can bridle the wicked senses in order that the self may get off the body and be ‘united’ with Brahman, the Ultimate Reality. In the period of the late Upanishads [Yogatattva and some 17 others] composed later than 500 BC, it was considered that spiritual liberation could not be obtained exclusively by the means of contemplation but had to include certain ascetic techniques.
The Shvetashvatara Upanishad [SU, 2,8-15] had already laid down guidelines for body postures, breathing control and focusing the mind exercises for being able to perceive Brahman.
In grounding the new yoga school, Patanjali, the foremost exponent of yoga, used the technical elements of these Upanishads as a tool for achieving the goal of the liberation of purusha (spirit) from the bondage of prakriti (matter).
There are two major meanings for yoga in Hindu spirituality.
The first designates the specific discipline organized by Patanjali.
The second has a broader sense, implying any effort undertaken in order to attain liberation [see below], independent of its meaning. Therefore any spiritual discipline aimed at liberating the self can be called yoga.
As a result, the term is used with various meanings [see below] having more or less in common with the darshana (philosophical school) of Patanjali who outlined eight distinct steps, for which the method is also called Ashtanga yoga (the yoga of the eight limbs), which if adhered to, would lead one to experience this union.
THE YOGA OF PATANJALI : ASHTANGA YOGA
The yoga of Patanjali is described in his treatise called YOGA SUTRA[YS].
Its purpose is clearly stated from its very beginning [1,2]: citta vritti nirodhah,“the inhibitionof the modificationsof the mind”. The normal states of consciousness are the product of avidya (ignorance) which generates the sense of asmita (duality or separatedness) and abnivesha (the will to live).
The continuous flux of thoughts and mental images induced by such a mindset is termed “the modifications of the mind”.
They perpetuate ignorance and the captivity of purusha in the world of prakriti’s manifestations. In order that liberation may be attained, this consciousness must be extinguished and replaced by a different state of consciousness in which the experience of senses and mind produced by prakriti is replaced by extra-sensory and extra-rational experience.
Therefore the control of the mental states as required in yoga has a dual focus:
Both, the external illusion [the false identification of purusha with the psycho-mental fluctuations] and the internal source of illusion have to be conquered and destroyed. The yoga technique shows the practical way in which the entire human potential, both physical and psycho-mental is brought under control [‘yoked’] in order to attain the liberation of purusha.The ultimate goal of yoga, therefore, is a SPIRITUAL one.
THE EIGHT STAGES OF YOGA
The first two stages of Patanjali’s yoga,YAMA(social discipline/ external control) andNIYAMA(individual/ internal) consist of five restraints and five observances, the don’ts and dos of right living, together known as the ‘Ten Commandments of the yogi’.
Yama [YS 2,30] recommends the observance of ahimsa (non-violence), satya (non-lies), asteya (non-stealing), brahmacharya (non-indulgence in sexual activity) and aparigriha (non-attachment). Niyama is about maintaining shaucha (purity in body and mind), seeking santosha (serenity), tapas (austerity), svadhyaya (scriptural study) and Ishvara pranidhana (imitation of Ishvara). [This is not devotion to god, because Ishvara is nothing more than an impersonal macro-purusha [YS 1,24] and there cannot exist any personal relationship between Ishvara and man.
ASANAS
Stage three,ASANA(right posture) instructs how the body should be prepared for meditation [YS 2,46].
It is the first stage of physical ascetism. Its aim is to immobilize the body with the only goal of helping concentration.
Their purpose is NOT, as is commonly believed, to confer health, fitness and relaxation to the body but to be a physical support for meditation. Each asana has a fundamental purpose.
Padmasana (the lotus posture) for instance, ensures that the spiritual cord, the sushumna, is in a vertical position to facilitate the upward movement of the subtle female kundalini energies [shakti] awakened in the muladharachakra at the base of the spine, through five other psychic energy centres to unite with the male power centre [shiva] located in the forehead chakra, climaxing in the sahasrara or crown chakra at the top of one’s head in a cosmic orgasm.
Each chakra [lit. wheel] or spinning energy centre corresponds to a Hindu guardian deity and is associated with its mantra and governing cosmogonical element as elaborated here [Chakra/ Guardian deity/ Mantra/ Cosmogonical element]:
muladhara/ Brahma/ lam/ Earth; svadishtana/ Vishnu/ vam/ Water; manipura/ Maharudra/ ram/ Fire; anahata/ Ishvara/ yam/ Air; vishuddha/ Sadashiva/ ham/ Ether; ajna/ Shiva/ om or aum; sahasrara or crown chakra.
Once kundalini reaches the last chakra, it returns to its primordial union with the impersonal Ultimate Reality.
PRANAYAMA
The fourth stagePRANAYAMA*[YS 2,49-51] means the ‘refusal of breath’ following the ‘refusal of movement’ by performing the asanas. Breathing is an involuntary action and pranayama seeks to control it as a voluntary action.
Ancient Hindu seers believed that just as psycho-mental tension affects the rhythm of breath, the stilling of breath can contribute to stilling the “modifications of the mind” and that by controlling the activity of breathing, they would also control the flow of prana [universal force or subtle energy] that supposedly gives life to the human body.
As psycho-mental activity is itself generated by prana, and breathing is the main channel for the influx of prana into the body, it has to be strictly controlled in order to attain control over the mind.
Prana (crystallisation), Vyana (circulation), Samana (assimilation), Udana (metabolism) and Apana (elimination) are the five aspects of the universal prana , by controlling which the yogis seek to operate from a higher level of consciousness.
‘Senses control’ follows ‘breathing control’. *Plenty on Pranayama in my report on “SURYA NAMASKAR AND YOGA…”
Stage five isPRATYAHARA, ‘withdrawal of the senses’ from external objects and thoughts and becoming completely engrossed within [YS 2,54-55]. At this stage the senses do not disturb the mind anymore, so it becomes shut down from all outside impressions.
Once this is achieved, the sixth stage,DHARANAor concentration of the mind [YS 3,1] on one single purpose becomes feasible. It is a slowing down of mental activity by focusing it on a particular object of meditation.
YOGA IS : BECOMING ONE WITH BRAHMAN
Sustained dharana, unbound by time and space becomesDHYANA, contemplation or meditation, which is an “uninterrupted flow of the mind towards the object of meditation” [YS 3,2].
This leads to the final stage of yoga which is SAMADHI, enstasis, absorptionor Self-realisation, the realisation that the self is the Self; the sense of identity of the self is lost, and the yogi has attained a unitive oneness with the cosmic consciousness. The jivatman (individual soul) has merged with the paramatman (Universal Over-soul).
Now the yogi can proclaim ‘Aham Brahmasmi’ (I am Brahman);
and his guru can confirm to him ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ (Thou art That).
Through the continuous practice of the last three stages together called samyama, the siddhis or psychic powers appear. Some siddhis phenomena mentioned in chapter 3 of the Yoga Sutra are knowledge of the previous birth, invisibility of the body, entering another’s body, levitation, astral travel etc.
YOGA IS : SALVATION BY WORKS
Whichever way you approach it, yoga is a system of salvation by works.
The goal of the ancients was to find a solution to SAMSARA, the eternal cycle of birth-death-rebirth, which they believed operated as a consequence of the LAW OF KARMA (repaying the debts of one’s actions in past lives through successive purgative reincarnations).
Believing that the answer to this problem could be provided by man himself, they sought MUKTI or MOKSHA, liberation, and in the search for this common goal, many yogas- different forms of yoga or margas (paths) evolved.
KUNDALINI YOGA follows a tantric view, stressing the awakening of the dormant spiritual energy kundalini and its final reunion with Shiva.
LAYA YOGA is complete absorption in any mental concept of the divine, such as the vibration of the chant ‘om’ or ‘aum’.
MANTRA YOGAconsists of union with the divine origin through chanting loudly, softly or mentally the root word sounds.
KARMA YOGA [best stated in the Bhagavad Gita] purposes the attainment of union through good work and right activity completely detached from personal interests and desires which may complicate one’s karma.
BHAKTI YOGISstress on devotion to personal deities.
JNANA YOGAin Vedantic ideology aims to find liberation by one’s efforts to achieve a monistic view of reality through knowledge or enlightenment, resulting in the realization of one’s own divinity. The phenomenon of individuality created by maya (illusion) is overcome.
A yogi [one who practices yogic disciplines] so enlightened has succeeded in breaking the chain of purgative recycling.
RAJA[royal]YOGA combines all that is deemed best in the higher forms of yoga, giving attention mainly to the last 4 stages.
HATHA YOGA
Hatha yoga is a system of physical exercises that render the body fit to receive the high-voltage cosmic or universal energy that is god.
Given its deep religious background, Hatha yoga must not be understood as a mere harmless physical training as is often claimed. The foremost writing of this school, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika [HYP] clearly states that it has to be taught only in order to reach the Raja yoga level [1,2] which is “the integration of mind in a state where the subject-object duality does not exist” [4,77], in other words, only for merging the self with the impersonal Absolute.
The attention given to the body in the asanas has a single purpose with a spiritual goal: for getting total control over the mind and thus liberating itself, uniting one’s individual consciousness to the ‘cosmic consciousness’.
The steps to be followed to attain liberation are similar to the Ashtanga yoga of Patanjali.
They are dhauti (cleansing practices), asanas, and pranayama [HYP 1 & 2]; bandha (locks) which temporarily restrict local flows of prana, and mudra (hand gestures) which regulate the flow of prana [HYP 3]. [The khecari mudra requires a progressive sectioning of the tongue fraenum until the tongue is able to get down the throat and block breathing].
They combine body postures, breath control and concentration. And samadhi [HYP 4] that combines the last four stages of Patanjali’s yoga. “When the sleeping kundalini awakens by favour of a guru,then all the chakras are pierced.” [HYP 3,2]
OTHER ASPECTS OF YOGA
All yogic literature without exception insists on the guidance of a guruas the awakening of kundalini is full of potential dangers for the aspirant.
Yoga’s vegetarian diet is based on the precept of ahimsa with particular reference to the slaying of animals which, like humans, are endowed with the same atman (spiritual essence).
Belief in reincarnation is intrinsic to yogic philosophy. “Some souls enter into a womb for embodiment; others enter sthanum (stationary objects, plants…) according to their deeds and their thoughts” [KU 2, 2].
Through the symbol that each asana (posture) represents [locust, crocodile etc.] a change of personality is involved and is prescribed by the guruaccording to the spiritual needs of his disciple so that he may more easily surpass his ignorant condition.
Yoga cannot be reduced to a mere form of psycho-physical therapy. It has always been considered a path towards transcendence, a way of surpassing the world of illusion and reaching the Ultimate Reality. Its character, content and aspirations were and will always be religious. This aspect has never been doubted by its Eastern practitioners.
Despite Western modifications, its goal has never changed. It still aims to annihilate man’s psycho-mental life and anything that can define personhood.
Contrary to poular belief about the yogic breathing exercises, reducing the rate of respiration in pranayama is known to induce conditions of hypoxia, the decrease of oxygen concentration in the blood below health safety limits.
Increase in its carbon dioxide content produces hallucinatory and psychic phenomena associated also with aushadi [taking of drugs], tapas [severe austerities], repetition of mantras, as well as with yogic performances. This is clearly recorded in the Yoga Sutra [4, 1] itself. Yoga Sutra chapter 3 enumerates various siddhis [powers] that result from the practice of yoga.
From a naturalistic point of view, many are nothing more than illusions produced by the stilling of breathing or by meditating. Other knowledge supposedly thus attainable [of the solar system, physiology of the body, YS 3, 27 and 30] was obtained by scientific research. So, if knowledge was truly achieveable, and [siddhis like] levitation or out-of-body experiences etc. really possible, why has nothing been revealed or documented till now ?
The question begs an answer especially since yoga has been practiced by millions of people for thousands of years.
It is a fact that the same psychic powers [knowledge of past and future, knowledge of the mind of others, superhuman strength etc.] attained by yogis practicing samyama* [YS 3, 16, 19 and 25] are available to those involved in the occult.
YOGA IS : MEDITATION
The Vatican Document, “Letter to the Bishops… on Christian Meditation” warns of the dangers of yoga [see pages 32-39].