Course XIV - Teaching 1: Yoga of India

Indian peoples have been driven to practice Mysticism from the beginning of their civilization. From early disciples of Great Initiates of the new race to mysterious dwellers in the Himalayas, numberless men have devoted their lives to study and practice Divine and ecstatic things, leaving for posterity examples, writings and documents as the foundation of every ascetic school until our days.
If you want to synthesize the ecstatic method of India to be one with God, eight fundamental bases should be known, i. e. Yagangas used by Indians of all times.

1. Yama: Change of life, detachment from the world, indifference or renunciation to any recreation of senses, and purification of customs.
2. Niyama: Inner purification of senses and mind; right intention and lack of concern for material goods. Fast, mortification and study of holy writings.
3. Asana: Fit posture for meditation, how to place arms and cross legs; genuflections.
4. Pranayama: Breath control, vital breath regularization. This exercise is divided into three parts: a) Puraka, breath-in; b) Rechaka, breath regularization; c) Kumbhaka: breath retention.
5. Pratyahara: Sensory abstraction, sensation control, desire removal.
6. Dharana: Constant and intense concentration on an object until one knows its tiniest parts; to leave aside from the mind any strange idea to that object.
7. Dhyana: Contemplative concentration on an object by so intense attraction that this object is absorbed.
8. Samadhi: Ecstasy or achievement of Union with God. It is Union of the disciple with God and the highest grade in Yoga. The soul achieves by ecstatic contemplation the Highest Consciousness and becomes the Whole.
   The last three exercises, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi, are named Samyama as a whole.
   If these bases are indispensable in every school of India, each school has paid more particular attention to one of these eight points, which was considered the most important in the exercise for meditation.
   But I would dare to say this: no exercise can be achieved separately because are so closely interlinked that in one way or another they lead to the only goal that is Yoga.
   The continuous exercise on these eight points has brought about many Mystical Paths, or Marga:
9. Karma Yoga or Karma Marga: Mystical road in search for God through action, particularly through charitable deeds and religious works. The soul attains Divine Union through action, through detached action.
10. Bhakti Yoga: Mystical road through loving devotion; soul entirely surrendered with infinite love.
11. Hatha Yoga: Mystical method of physical purification, bodily cleaning, control of external and internal organs; and handling of prana.
12. Tantra Yoga: Mystical road through sex drive control and magical powers control.
13. Laya Yoga: Mystical road through constant attention to the inner sound, or Nada, which is perceived by closing the ears.
14. Chakra Yoga: Mystical road through meditation on inner centers of force.
15. Mantra Yoga; Mystical road through repetition of sacred words, or through mental recitation of certain formulas with attentive meditation on the meaning of these formulas.
16. Raja Yoga: Mere mental and speculative mystical road; method of thought regularization and concentration. The disciple develops his mental powers as a whole by controlling his mind.
17. Jñana Yoga: Mystical road through knowledge, study of science, and search for wisdom.
    These different Asceticism methods have fostered mystical literature, and those who have experienced these sublime states of prayer, many times could not resist conveying their impressions to posterity; this is why there are incomparable texts and wonderful books of different schools in the world.
    The oldest ascetic text is Patanjali’s Yoga Sutrani, which with a reduced number of aphorisms describes different forms of mystical evolution of a Being toward God.
    Next we find the Bhagavad Gita; this book describes how Krishna, Divine Incarnation, leads Arjuna through all stages toward Samadhi.
    The Nirupana Chakra describes how to achieve the Supreme Power by developing Chakras.
    The Shivagama, Shiva’s teachings, is an ancient work that cannot be found today; there are only fragments of it, which been taken from ancient texts; it describes the Union with God by controlling tattvas.
    The Hatha Yoga Pradhipika and the Zivashamita describe how to achieve physical power leading to spiritual power.
    So, according to their schools and methods, India and its sages and ascetics, sannyasin, brahmacharin and pandits are looking for conquering God and unifying the human principle and the Universal Principle.