THE SCIENCE OF YOGA

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THE SCIENCE OF YOGA
Grades of yoga
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In B.G. 6.46. Krishna says,
Person of Austere practices
Tapasvi bhyo dhiko yogi
Philosophical speculator
Jnanibhyo pi mata dhika
A fruitive worker
Karmabhyas ca dhiko yogi
Tasmad yogi bhavarjuna
Next Verse And of all yogis, he who always
abides in Me with great faith, worshiping Me in
transcendental loving service, is most intimately
united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all.

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Knowledge Yoga

• The Vedas, and others like Augustine, etc reject
  the epistemological theory that in acquiring
  knowledge of the world the subject is completely
  passive and contributes nothing to the process.
• Doctrine of the 'primacy of the will (or
  Intelligence) in knowledge, i.e. we initially
  know is what we are interested in. Before there
  is knowledge, there must be interest.
• This interest, this attraction, is a movement of
  the will determined by Intelligence (buddhi).

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Knowledge Yoga (contd.)

• When interest is most fully developed, it is
  called love (bhakti).
• Therefore, the great spiritualists explain why
  loving God is a prerequisite for knowing Him.
• Conversely, for those who by an act of will turn
  away from God, God becomes invisible -
  unrecognized, unacknowledged. So the movement of
  the soul toward or away from God, toward
  knowledge of God or lack of knowledge of God, is
  due to a prior disposition or direction of the
  will.

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Bhagavad Gita 1515 sarvasya caham hrdi
sannivisto mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam ca I
am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come
remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness Bhagav
ad Gita 724-25 Unintelligent men, who know Me
not, think that I have assumed this form and
personality. Due to their small knowledge, they
do not know My higher nature, which is changeless
and supreme. I am never manifest to the
foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered
by My eternal creative potency yoga-maya and
so the deluded world knows Me not, who am unborn
and infallible.
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• Degree of Material conditioning
• Degrees of Maturity of Understanding
• Degrees of Ignorance/False-ego
• Egoic drives expressed as
• Sense of independence
• Desire for achievement
• Lack of real patience
• Motive in accepting discipline
• for attainment of equality
• or annihilation
• Impersonal, mechanistic mentality
• Guru and scripture are forced to take the Line of
  Least Resistance.

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Risk of getting lost in the various hypostatic
planes of Reality
Eternal Realms
Nirguna Brahman
Limit of Grand Dissolutions
Saguna Brahman
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Yoga What it Is Not !

• It is not mere
• physical exercise for
• shapely body, good
• health long life

• Emaciated Renunciate in meditation

• Man with some extra-ordinary mystic powers

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Yoga What it Actually Is ?

• Union in love between the individual
• consciousness Supreme
• consciousness I.e. between Soul God

• Yogi is a person whose life activities are
  
• oriented towards re-establishing his
• relationship with God

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Different Types of Human Beings
Human Beings
Law Abiders
Law Breakers
Karmis
Jnanis
Dhyanis
Bhaktas
Sakama
Niskama
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Law Breakers

• Hard working materialists

• Sophisticated animals conditioned to the
  bodily concept of life

• Dont believe in soul, rebirth, God
  Spiritual world

• Do not discriminate between sinful pious
  activities
• eg Charvak (sweet for ear) philosophy

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Law Breakers ..contd

• Make futile attempts at acting as Controller
  Enjoyer

Action on the Relative Absolute Planes
Jesus Said, Dont built your castles on sand
built them on hard rock
Krishna Said, Keep focus on the soul, whatever
you do for the soul is eternal
B.G. 3.27 The bewildered spirit soul, under the
influence of the three modes of material nature,
thinks himself to be the doer of activities,
which are in actuality carried out by nature.
B.G. 9.12 Those who are thus bewildered are
attracted by demonic and atheistic views. In that
deluded condition, their hopes for liberation,
their fruitive activities, and their culture of
knowledge are all defeated.
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Law Abiders
Sakama Karmis
Kama material desires
sakama- with material desires

• Perform pious activities with a fruitive
  intent

• Dont know that both good and bad karma are
  binding

• In the madness, forget the goal of life.

• It is meant for gradual elevation not an
  end in itself

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Different Types of Yoga

• According to Bhagavad-Gita there are four
  types of Yoga
• - Karma Yoga,
• - Jnana Yoga,
• - Astanga Yoga
• - Bhakti Yoga.

Bhakti
Dhyana
Jnana
Karma

• These are not different paths but are
• different rungs of the same ladder.

All other yoga's are subsets of these four
yoga's
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Niskama Karma Yoga
B.G. 3.30 Mayi sarvani karmani sannyasyadhyatma
cetasah Nirasir nirmamo bhutva yudhyasva vigata
jvarah

• O Arjuna,
• surrendering all your works unto
• me with full knowledge of Me,
• Without desires of profit,
• With no claims to proprietorship
• Free from lethargy, fight

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Niskama Karma Yoga ..contd

• Process of performing work without selfish
  desire for personal gain

• Art of working without entanglement

B.G 247 You have a right to perform your
prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the
fruits of action. Never consider yourself to be
the cause of the results of your activities, and
never be attached to not doing your duty.
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Jnana Yoga

• Impersonal, Transcendentalist

• Elevation process to spiritual
• consciousness through the
• cultivation of philosophical
• knowledge

• Troublesome path

• Promoted to bhakti-yoga only through
  association of devotees
• eg. Four kumaras Sukhdev Gosvami

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Astanga Yoga

• Mechanical meditative process meant to
• control the mind senses to focus ones
• concentration on the supreme

Ashta Eight anga - limbs
Yama, niyam, asana , pranayam, Pratyahara,
Dharana, dhyana Samadhi
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Astanga Yoga

• Strict rules and regulations which are
• impractical in Kali-Yuga

• Arjuna rejects Astanga Yoga
• Cancalam hi manah Krsna.

• Dangers of falling in the trap of siddhis
  (mystic powers)
• eg. Saubhari muni

• Perfection of Astanga Yoga is to focus on
• the paramatma within our heart.

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Three levels in understanding God
1 Brahmajyoti Jnana Yoga
2 Paramatma realization Astanga Yoga
3 Personal form of the Lord Bhakti Yoga
Eg. Seeing a mountain from various distances
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Bhakti Yoga

• Yoga for selfless, ecstatic love for God
• through transcendental devotional service
• to the Lord

• Most natural means to derive our dormant,
• inherent constitutional position

• Involves three terms servitor, served
• service

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Bhakti Yoga
Nine processes of Devotional service
Culmination of all yogas

• Practical application in life
• Actual sadhana (svarupa-siddha)
• By superimposition (aropa-siddha)
• By association (sanga-siddha)

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Bhakti Yoga ..contd
Lord Krishna Says in B.G. 3.30 Yoginam api
sarvesam Mad-gatenantaratmana Sradhhavan bhajate
yo mam Sa me yuktatamo matah
Translation Of all the yogis , the one with
great faith who always abides in Me, thinks of Me
within himself, and renders transcendental loving
service to Me is the most intimately united with
Me in yoga and is the highest of all. That is My
opinion.
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BG 128-11 Just fix your mind upon Me, the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, and engage all
your intelligence in Me. Thus you will live in Me
always, without a doubt. My dear Arjuna, O
winner of wealth, if you cannot fix your mind
upon Me without deviation, then follow the
regulative principles of bhakti-yoga. In this way
you will develop a desire to attain to Me. If
you cannot practice the regulations of
bhakti-yoga, then just try to work for Me,
because by working for Me you will come to the
perfect stage. If, however, you are unable to
work in this consciousness, then try to act
giving up all results of your work and try to be
self-situated. If you cannot take to this
practice, then engage yourself in the cultivation
of knowledge
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Methods of attaining Para-Bhakti
Gradual Method
STEP 4 Astanga Yoga Loving devotional service
to the lord (Bhakti Yoga)
STEP 3 Renouncing fruits Knowledge Control
of mind Senses by eight fold path Meditation
on Paramatma(Supersoul in the heart (Astanga Yoga)
STEP 2 Renouncing fruits Speculative
Knowledge about Brahman Austerity (Jnana Yoga)
STEP 1 Renouncing the fruits of ones labor
(Karma Yoga/Niskama Karma)
STEP 0 Fruitive worker under regulations(Karma
Kanda)
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Direct Method

• Devotional service in Krishna consciousness
• is the Direct Method

• Two Stages involved
• - Vaidhi Bhakti (enthusiastic discipline)
• - Raganuga bhakti (spontaneous love)

• The direct method is like taking an elevator
  
• for going up, instead of walking up all
  the
• steps.

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Not by the weak, not by the unearnest,Not by
those who practice wrong disciplinesCan the Self
be realized. The Self revealsHimself as the Lord
of Love to the oneWho practices right
disciplines.-Mundaka Upanishad Brahman cannot
be realized by thoseWho are subject to greed,
fear, and anger.Brahman cannot be realized by
thoseWho are subject to the pride of name and
fameOr to the vanity of scholarship.Brahman
cannot be realized by thoseWho are enmeshed in
life's duality.But to all those who pierce this
duality,Whose hearts are given to the Lord of
Love,He gives himself through his infinite
grace,He gives himself through his infinite
grace.-Tejabindu Upanishad