Yoga: an early writing
A short paper I wrote in the early 90's before there were home computers and cell phones. I worked in the Library seeking any information on this topic I could find.
An Historical Comparison of Yoga
I have been interested in the historical aspects of different topics
and found that history varies from book to book. My compulsive
urge to know the very beginning story of a topic has shown me that I can
never really know the historical beginnings. So why do I persist in this
desire - is it out of habit; focusing my attention on this one aspect
time after time, thinking I can find some bit of information which no one else has been
able to find. President Truman stated, "the only new thing is the history you
haven't read”.
I have traced yoga to two sites in the Indus Valley in India.
Archeologists have uncovered a statue sitting in a yogic posture dating
back to approximately 2900 B.C.E. (Mohenjo-Daro). The Harappa site is
thought to date back to the 4th or 3rd millennium B.C.E. The Pariahs, who
were the original Dradivian inhabitants, were vegetarians because of the
climate being good for growing. Then the Aryans invaded around 2000 B.C.E,
and changed everything.
Sramanism is thought to have been the original belief of India, before
the Aryans imposed their own Vedic religion, their religion was one of
nature, it had no temples or shrines. It emphasized the concrete
experience of nature, a positive approach to sex and fertility, an
approach to power and salvation through interiority.
We can see some traces of yoga in three aspects of Sramanism which
leads me to think that yoga is older than the Vedas.
After the Aryans conquered India and Vedic Hinduism began, the
Buddhist and Jainist groups moved to the jungles. They did not like the
rigid Vedic system, it was a caste system and the ordinary people could
not appreciate the esoteric rituals of the Brahmins. The Brahmins
were at the top of the caste, and it was their role to teach and speak
the Vedas. Next, the Kshatriya fought to defend the country; the Bhagavad
Gita is an example. Next came the Vaisya who cultivated the land.
Lastly, the Sudra who performed the menial work of society. This caste system
was a very expensive system, it’s no wonder these two groups left to the
forests.
The Buddhist and Jainist are sometimes referred to as a
Sramanic culture, I think this to be said because when they left to
the forest they protected life, gathered food from the forest, abstained
from contact with the corrupted meat-eating city people, they were
thought of as free-thinkers, and they were also called rishis or forest
philosophers. The Brahmins obviously remembered the earlier
civilization of India and compared these rebels to them. These forest
people practiced yoga which placed the emphasis on the ascetical scheme
according to which the person could attain his own authentic reality and
ultimate perfection. Their way opened a world vision in place of the
caste system.
In Yoga we see no hierarchy of society. It is a very individualistic
practice which would spread by example. When one has mastered the eight
steps they are referred to as a yogi. It is said that the yogis
produced the Upanishads which were the first literary expositions of
abstract thought. These texts were later added to the Vedic texts. The
Brahmins must have seen their mistake, saw that people were rebelling,
and that the abstract thoughts were becoming popular, so they added
these writings to retain and regain followers.
Buddhism and Jainism also have adopted yoga to their philosophies.
While Buddhism appears to have a specific beginning, Jainism has many.
Some say that it is an offshoot of Buddhism; others say it is older than
Vedic Hinduism. Buddhism has no formal text. It depended upon monks,
and was the first religion with a missionary zeal. It had no real
philosophy and relied upon the Upanishads. Buddhism consists of a
three-fold path of liberation of behavior, rational knowledge, and
liberation of consciousness. The first step corresponds to karma yoga.
The second to Jnana yoga, and the third to bhakti yoga. In Jainism, the
emphasis is placed on the individual's own spiritual perfection. The
teachings of this philosophy is to give up desires or false hopes. The
version of history that says Jainism started around the same time as
Buddhism tells of the first Jainist referred to as Parsvanatha.
His followers were called Samanas. This name is very similar to Sramana,
and again I think the past civilization was remembered.
This religion consisted of four vows:
Ahimsa - non-violence, not to lie, not to steal, and not to have
external possessions. As we see this is part of the first step in yoga.
Another religion of a later period known as Advaita Vedanta was
developed in a dialectical context with other Vedantic and especially
non-Vedantic Indian systems and thinkers (ex. Saukhya, Yoga, the
Buddhist, and the Jains). This system is a guide to spiritual
experience. The Advaitin believes that Jnana yoga is the most difficult
discipline and that it yields the fullest spiritual experience. Moksa,
which is freedom, is attained through Jnana yoga. This religion uses
the yogic terms unlike Buddhism.
In conclusion, I think that it is safe to assume that yoga
existed a long time before the well-known religions of India.
That yoga was a natural and simple way of life that was working just
fine until the conquering Aryans came. The Aryans soon found out
they could not change this natural behavior of the people and therefore,
incorporated it into their own. The other religious sects did the same
thing, and all of them are still in existence today thanks to yoga.
Works Cited
Behanan, Kovoor T. Yoga: A Scientific Evaluation. New York: Dover, 1937.
Chatterjee, Asim Kumar. A Comprehensive History of Jainism. Calcutta:Pooran, 1978.
Chethimattam, John B. Patterns of Indian Thought. Chethimattam, 1971.
Deutsch, Eliot. Advaita Vedanta: A Philosophical Reconstruction. Honolulu: U of H, 1990.
Mann, Richard D. The Light of Consciousness. Albany: U. of NY., 1984.
Prabhupada, Swami. Bhagavad-Gita as It Is. Los Angels: Bhaktivedanta, 1981.
Wells, H.G. The Outline of History: The Whole Story of Man. Garden City: Doubleday, 1956.
Worthington, Vivian. A History of Yoga. London: Routledge, 1982.
