Be As You Are - Yoga [1]

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Introduction

by David Godman

Practitioners of yoga aim for union with the Self (yoga is Sanskrit for union) by undertaking distinctive mental and physical exercises. Most of these exercises can be traced back to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali which were written about 2000 years ago. Patanjali's system, known as raja yoga, contains eight distinctive levels and practices.

1. Yama

Conduct of life in relation to others - avoiding untruth, theft, injury to others, sensuality and greed.

 

2. Niyama

Conduct towards oneself - cleanliness, tranquillity, austerity, study and devotion.

3. Asana

Stretching, bending, balancing and sitting exercises. These exercises are nowadays collectively known as hatha yoga.

4. Pranayama

Breathing exercises which aim to control the mind.

5. Pratyahara

Withdrawing the attention from the body and the senses. 6. Dharana

Concentration of the mind. 7. Dhyana

Meditation. 8. Samadhi

Uninterrupted contemplation of reality. Most of these practices can be found in other spiritual systems. The only exceptions are hatha yoga and pranayama and it is these which give raja yoga its distinctive character. When visitors asked Sri Ramana about these practices he would usually criticise hatha yoga because of its obsession with the body. It is a fundamental premise of his teachings that spiritual problems can only be solved by controlling the mind, and because of this, he never encouraged the practice of spiritual disciplines which devoted themselves primarily to the well-being of the body. He had a higher opinion of pranayama (breath control), saying that it was a useful aid for those who could not otherwise control their mind, but on the whole he tended to regard it as a beginner's practice. His views on the other aspects of raja-yoga (such as morality, meditation and samadhi) have been dealt with in separate chapters.

 

In addition to raja yoga there is another popular system called kundalini yoga. The practitioners of this system concentrate on psychic centres (chakras) in the body in order to generate a spiritual power they call kundalini. The aim of this practice is to force the kundalini up a psychic channel (the sushumna) which runs from the base of the spine to the brain. The kundalini yogi believes that when this power reaches the sahasrara (the highest chakra located in the brain), Self-realization will result. Sri Ramana never advised his devotees to practise kundalini yoga since he regarded it as being both potentially dangerous and unnecessary. He accepted the existence of the kundalini power and the chakras but he said that even if the kundalini reached the sahasrara it would not result in realization. For final realization, he said, the kundalini must go beyond the sahasrara, down another nadi (psychic nerve) he called amritanadi (also called the paranadi or jivanadi) and into the Heart-centre on the right-hand side of the chest. Since he maintained that self-enquiry would automatically send the kundalini to the Heart-centre, he taught that separate yoga exercises were unnecessary.

The Self is reached by the search for the origin of the ego and by diving into the Heart. This is the direct method of Self-realization. One who adopts it need not worry about nadis, the brain centre [sahasrara], the sushumna, the paranadi, the kundalini, pranayama or the six centres [cbakras]. In addition to the practices outlined above, Hinduism contains another yoga called karma yoga, the yoga of action. Practitioners of this system aim to evolve spiritually by selflessly serving and assisting others. Although it is spoken of highly in the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Ramana generally discouraged his devotees from following this path since it presupposes the existence of an `I' who is going to perform the good deeds and `other people' who are in need of assistance. He only encouraged it if he felt that particular devotees were incapable of following the paths of jnana, bhakti or raja yoga.

If an aspirant be unsuited temperamentally for the first two methods [jnana and bhakti], and circumstantially on account of age for the third method [yoga], he must try the karma marga [the path of karma yoga]. His nobler instincts become more evident and he derives impersonal pleasure. The man also becomes duly equipped for one of the three aforesaid paths. Sri Ramana stressed that to be successful, the karma yogi must be free of the notion that he himself is helping others, and that he must also be unattached and indifferent to the consequences of his actions. Although he rarely gave karma yoga more than a lukewarm endorsement he did admit that both of these conditions would be met if all actions were performed without the 'I am the doer' idea.

 

Be As You Are, The Teaching of Sri Ramana Maharshi

edited bty David Godman