Yoga
In a few words, Yoga could be defined as follows:
Yoga is the suspension of psychic and mental activity.
Then the seer, the Self, abides in its own nature.
(Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, translated by J. Papin)
The word Yoga comes from the Sanskrit root YUG, which means to bind, to unite, to attach, to harness under the yoke, or to direct and focus one's attention, or again to use and put into practice.
Yoga comes to us from India, where its traces go back to the mists of time. A technique revealed to humanity, it was taught for thousands of years solely through the relationship between Masters and disciples.
It was Patanjali, who lived around 400 BC (not all historians agree on this), who compiled Yoga in his work, the Yoga Sutra, made up of 185 short aphorisms (the most classic and best-known work in the West). Thanks to this remarkable treatise, we can benefit from a precise analysis of certain yogic practices, tested by centuries of experience.
A true "Art of Living" and a source of "Well-Being", the practice of Yoga brings a strong inner balance, centred on calm, listening and being present to others, and allows us at every moment to master our emotions, anxieties and moods a little better.
Yoga offers an awareness of the whole being by gaining mastery of the breath, of the energies, of the mind and of the spirit.
Yoga allows us to step out of the grip of our nerves and emotions by reversing the natural tendencies of life. This reversal is achieved in prolonged silence and stillness where, step by step, we shed our outer layers to plunge into the heart of our being. We develop abilities and knowledge by experiencing all the riches hidden in our inner universe, and so discover our deep and eternal nature.
There are a great many Yoga practices. The traditional paths are Bhakti Yoga, the path of love, Karma Yoga, the path of selfless action, Raja Yoga (the Yoga of Patanjali), which is the path of knowledge, and other paths that are less "royal" but just as complete and precise, such as Hatha Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, Laya Yoga, Mantra Yoga, ...
To these we must also add a large number of techniques born of personal and very recent visions, such as Bikram Yoga, Iyengar, Power Yoga and many others, which sometimes stray far from any tradition...
The subtle vision of Hatha Yoga:
In a more subtle vision, Hatha Yoga is the union of the sun (HA) and the moon (THA). This should be understood as an intention, that of uniting the sun and the moon within us. In Hatha Yoga the sun symbolises the solar side of the human being, the right side, with the right energy channel (Pingala) ending in the right nostril. The moon symbolises the left channel, which ends in the left nostril (Ida).
Hatha Yoga therefore proposes the union of the sun and the moon in order to move beyond the dualities of the world, of 0 and 1, of the in-breath and the out-breath, and to awaken the energy that created us and has fallen asleep (kundalini) at the base of our being, in the energy centre Muladhara chakra.
The essential aim of Hatha Yoga is therefore to awaken this energy coiled within us (kundalini), which will rise up the central channel (the middle way!) called susumna, carrying the spirit towards its divine source, found at the very top, in the last energy centre, the Sahasrara chakra. Among my favourite books you will also find:
- Antara Yoga (Sri Anirvan)
- La vie dans la vie (Sri Anirvan)
- Kundalini (Lilian Silburn)
- Le banquet de Shiva
- ...
Hatha Yoga references
In India, the practice of yoga owes its prestige to Patañjali's Yoga Sūtra (2nd century BC) and to the Sanskrit text entitled Hathayoga Pradīpikā, attributed to Svātmārāma (15th century), to which must be added the Gheranda samhitā and the Shiva samhitā.
Among the very many reference works and texts, we can mention:
- Hatha Yoga Pradipika (Tara Michaël)
- Gheranda Samhita (Jean Papin)
- La voie du Yoga (Jean Papin)
- All the Yoga Upanishads, notably: YogaTattva Upanishad
Hatha Yoga in the West
In many classes and schools we find a vision of "dynamic Yoga", focused on the body, dynamism, physical vigour and therapy. This vision is linked to the Yogi Krishnamacharya, spiritual father of Desikachar, Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois, and also Sivananda, Van Lysebeth and even Krishnamurti, among others.
They all developed the same research and the same idea: making Yoga accessible to as many people as possible and turning it into a body therapy, and therefore a practice strongly focused on caution, posture, peace and calm.
A practice that separates asanas and pranayama, or even sets Pranayama aside completely, replacing it with breathing in movement...
A practice found in the idea of Bahya Lakshya, the external goal, or the "beginner's" goal.
All these Yoga teachers helped people discover a style of Yoga far from the deep tradition of Yoga and its texts, even if they speak of them...
Of course, it will always be better to do these activities under the gentle name of "Yoga" to feel better than to take chemicals or spend 20 years in therapy...
The texts speak of 3 goals (lakshya)
- An external goal, well-being: Bahya lakshya
- Mastery of the mind: Madhya lakshya
- Inner Yoga: antar lakshya
Antar Lakshya is inner yoga, the yoga that seeks to unite the individual part we believe ourselves to be with the universal soul.
The possibility of "decompressing" ourselves so that we rediscover the perception of the totality that we are.
Denis