SCIENCE OF YOGA - SHRI YOGENDRA
Yoga and Total Health, Nov 1989
Shri Yogendraji had been a prolific writer. Right from Ashram days with his Gürü, Shri Yogendraji has written on various aspects of Yoga. Many of his unpublished works are in the Shri Yogendra archives of the Institute. As we go through it, we are struck with the meticulous care taken by Shri Yogendraji, in his research and writing. Some of these writings have already been partly incorporated in books written by Shri Yogendraji. We are reproducing an extract from some of his earlier "foundational writings”.
It seems to me from personal observation and experience that the world was never more ready than it is now for the study of higher sciences and especially so for the study of scientific Yoga.
Having had the advantage of knowing Yoga practices from a personal teacher (Parahamsa Madhavdasji) who made a life-study of the various Yoga methods, combined with my knowledge of the Western sciences, made it easier for me to corroborate the views. The world does not approve of a theory which has never been analysed or demonstrated. The scientific world requires demonstrations and the science that fails to provide them is considered a fraud. There is nothing like a miracle in the Yoga Philosophy in as much as the theories it propounds and the practices it advocates are highly logical and in parts deductible from the known laws of science, and I believe in large measure demonstrable. Owing to the various misinterpretations of the system and the mysterious secrecy observed about it, it may sometimes appear that there is something irrational about it, yet a little careful study of the subject will show its true scientific basis.
Yoga, as is described in the ancient Hindu literature, has been almost lost to the modern world; and when we realize even only a part of what little is left to us, we feel sure of the truth in its ultimate achievements. As one of the commentators on the Yoga philosophy says, "When one proof is realised, however little it may be, that will give us faith in the whole teachings of Yoga. And further when one portion of what has been taught is perceived, the subtlest remaining portions are easily believed.” I am quite confident that a thorough study of the Yoga teachings and its systematic practice under proper guidance may lead us to achieve such results as realized by the ancient Yoga sages.
One thing should be made clear that the word Yoga from the Vedic period had been used in more or less different senses by the various ancient Hindu, Buddhist and Jaina writers; but in spite of these differences, it cannot be denied that there is a type of culture and ideal which is always associated with it.
The Yoga method of practice was adopted as a suitable Sadhana (philosophical, religious and ethical endeavours) for the highest realization by most schools of Indian thought. But though there is a general agreement in the most essential Yoga experience in all these systems of thought, each has sought to explain it in a particular way consistent with its system of metaphysics. Consequently, many superficial differences both as regards the agreement of the accessory parts, their relations in nature of the object, and the technical names referred in there, have arisen. I have, therefore, chosen from the different systems of Yoga many of their essential features and welded them up into a harmonious system in consonance with my own Yoga experiences which is a rational synthesis, as it were, of the different schools of Yoga philosophy.
The practices generally recognised as Yoga before the period of the earlier Upaniṣads of Krsna Yajurveda consisted of Tapas (asceticism) and Brahmacarya (sexual restraint). With the development of various philosophical speculations, Yoga also began to acquire a wider range of meaning. It was only during the period of compilation of the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali that Yoga came to be recognized as one of the main systems (Darśana) of Indian philosophy. Yoga practices were in the earliest times carried on independently yet they soon became related to the Sämkhya metaphysics. Patanjali and Vyasa, his commentator; give us the entire scientific basis of the Yoga system of practice and how it leads to final emancipation.
Later on, however, two other currents of Yoga investigation were undertaken: one on the Hathayoga line as is found is the Hathayogapradipikā, Śiva Samhita, Gheranda Samhita, Yogabija, Khecaripatal, and such other Hathayoga treatises; and the other on the Tantric line as found in the Satcakranirūpaņa, Vijňánabhairava, Tantrabhidhanam, Śāradātilaka, and such other Tantra works.
The works like Hathayogapradipikā, etc. discovered certain physical purificatory practices for tempering the body thus making it free from all sorts of diseases and also making it bear all sorts of hardships. The object of this undertaking was to aid the course of Yoga.
The contribution of the Tantras, however, consists in this - that they discovered a series of nerve centres (Chakras) and associated them with the particular kinds of thoughts, emotions, etc.; and held that by concentrating one's mind on these Chakras and the particular Mantras associated with them, one could bring them under control and thereby control all the feelings and emotions associated with them.
The two notable personages, Matsyendra and his immediate disciple Goraksha, are accepted by all as the pioneers of the system of Hathayoga which consists of the scientific processes of personal hygiene. The other branch of practical yoga as taught by Jaigisavya in his Dharmasastra deals with yoga more in the fashion of a Tantra than that given by Patanjali. This grafting of the Tantra interpretations on the Hathayoga practices is found elaborated in a modified way in the later works of the Yoga Upanishads.
The use of the word scientific Yoga in particular refers to Hathayoga and generally refers to all such techniques of the various schools of practical Yoga