Yogashikha Upanishad (critical study)
by Sujatarani Giri | 2015 | 72,044 words
This page relates ‘Schools of Yoga (4) Hathayoga� of the English study on the Yogashikha Upanishad—a key text from the Krishna Yajurveda, focusing on the pinnacle of Yogic meditation. This essay presents Yoga as a crucial component of ancient Indian philosophy and spirituality and underscores its historical roots in Vedic literature—particularly the Upanishads and Vedant. The chapters of this study are devoted to the faculties of the mind and internal body mechanisms such as Chakras as well as the awakening of Kundalini.
Part 6.4 - Schools of Yoga (4) Ჹṻyoga
The word �Ჹṻ� composed of two Sanskrit words �ha� means ‘Sun� and �ṻ� means �Moon�. Ჹṻyoga is the most practical Yoga with its emphasis on promoting physical health and mental purification. Ჹṻyoga indicates requirement of balance. This Yoga emphasises on the regulation of breath. The Ჹṻyoga processes involve physical postering, particularly 貹峾Բ and other meditative postures etc. ᲹṭaDz include Բ that have extensively for benefiting nervous systems glands and vital organs. Ჹṻyoga aims for body and mind purification through its positive effects on body and nervous. It develops balance in the functioning of the internal organs and mental abilities.
This Yoga is comparatively a later development among the different varieties of Yoga. Ჹṻyoga was meant as a preparation for ᲹDz as it appears from the Ჹṻyogapradipikā. Ჹṻyoga is the staircase, which leads a sincere student ultimately to the goal of ᲹDz, i.e. ñԲDz�, this was declared, by Swatmarama, an old authority of this Yoga, in his �Ჹṻyogapradipikā. It is primarily the Yoga of bringing the body and the vital fluid and vital airs under perfect control of the individual and making the body perfectly healthy and a suitable instrument of the mind and the spirit. The ancient Indians knew much of the internal organs and constitution of the body and devised methods of cleansing and properly exercising them, so that the body should remain healthy and endure for long not for the sake of enjoying the pleasures of the world so much as for the realization of the highest ideal of man. They also knew that a healthy and well controlled body alone could have a healthy mind. They believed that the vital fluid (seman, virya) the vital breath (ṇa) and the mind (Բ) were very closely connected. Infact they were the three aspects, physical, vital and mental of the same reality. To control the activities (ideas) of the mind (citta-ṛtپ-Ծǻ) it was, therefore, considered necessary to control the movements of the ṇa (breath) and to control and preserve the semen. Of course the reverse side of the truth was also known to them that by the control over one’s mind a control over the ṇa and semen is also established. The Ჹṻyogīs proceed from the physical to the mental whereas the ᲹDzī proceed from the mental to the physical. Hence they (the Ჹṻyogīs) laid great stress on the preservation and control of semen and on the control of the movements of the ṇa. Both these are not possible if the body is not clean, free from disease and elastic. Hence Ჹṻyoga devised a body-culture of the best kind.
The purpose of this Yoga was the control of the ideas of the mind and thereby the realization of the supreme self residing within the individual, body. ᲹDz therefore, was considered as the next step very often both the ᲹDz and the Ჹṻyoga were so mixed up in what is called the ѲDz that both were practiced at the same time some aspects of the Ჹṻyoga. ĀԲ and ṇ峾 have become essential features of almost all the Yogas.
The six ṅg (Limbs) or parts of Ჹṻyoga:
- Ṣaṭk: six purifactory processes.
- ĀԲ: Postures
- ѳܻ: complicated postures and attitudes of the body
- ʰٲ: withdrawal of the mind and senses from the sense objects.
- ʰṇ峾: control and suspension of breath.
- ٳԲ, ԳܲԻԲ and : Concentration, concentrating the mind on the subtle sounds and contemplation.