Yogi – who are they: Part 2
In the first part of the article ‘Yogi – who are they?’ we followed the steps of the Yogi and examined the current problems related to this topic. Let us now think about the way Western people perceive Yoga.
Western people discovered Yoga only a hundred years ago. And irrespective of its long and rich history and philosophy, yoga was and still is perceived today by the populace mainly from the perspective of the experience of the West not the East.
The core of the yoga doctrine is the meditative and contemplative treatise entitled The Upanishads, which Europeans found comparatively recently (mainly thanks to Anquetil Duperron) and which moreover remains still incomprehensible to the European mind, which is used to working with information-cognitive stuff.
Generally, whatever we say about yoga, its specific character lies within the personal factor – those who speak or those who listen. There’s also a large group of people who don’t even listen, they simply practice something they call ‘yoga’. Moreover, like most of the ones interested in yoga, these are representatives of a kind of ‘protesting stratum’. They need the idea of Che and they don’t care what it actually consists of as long as they protest. Another group of practitioners consists of people who ‘delude themselves with the prana’ or those who have achieved certain sensations that have obsessed them and transformed them in a group of, so to speak, passive addicts.
However, Yoga is a clear and concise concept for the unification of the mind, the body and energy. Therefore, whoever starts practicing yoga, immediately falls victim to the following three traps: the trap of the body, the trap of the energy and the trap of the mind. The most dangerous of these is, of course, the trap of the mind, which is based on the dogma. This is where, of course, the basic challenge lies: ‘Where is the dogma? Who can understand it? Is the mind of those who practice yoga developed enough so that they can comprehend the thing they do?’
The answer is very simple: yoga develops the sense of belonging to a certain alternative realm of existence. Yoga attracts mainly the protesting strata, those who are not quite established within society or have never even wanted to be; the ones who have postponed themselves for ‘later’. To a certain degree, these are psychologically frozen people with the aesthetic views of Rudolf Steiner.
Anyway, the yoga product with ‘Western garnish’ cannot fit in the natural lifestyle of the Indians who are not only born with the yoga mentality but actually live in the environment of this mentality. Therefore one of the most crucial factors for the recognition of yoga in the western world was the act of casting aside the responsibility for your life. This is very similar to the analogous situation in Hinduism however the difference lies in the fact that Indian yogi take full responsibility for the process of preparing themselves for their rebirth.
Therefore it turns out that in the Western world yoga is developed on the foundation of the protesting people and not those who are thoughtful and meaningful. Protesters are plentiful today. In other words, this protesting ritual is what people call ‘yoga’ today. However, can the protester understand yoga? Understand its teaching? What does he need in order to do that?
Until man restructures his mind to make it whole, whatever he does remains useless and will not bring him closer to the essence of yoga. We must not call our own frustration hidden well behind a schematic system ‘yoga’. This leads to the generation of a number of speculations on the topic of spiritual development, which has long become the folding screen of the illiterate, a reason for priding themselves on their sublime role.
Why don’t thinking people analyze yoga? If we were to talk about a real transfer of yoga in the West then we should rather examine the experience of the Jesuits (and the work of the order’s founding father Ignatius of Loyola), who actually created the real Western yoga based on thought and the mind. In this case, at least, everything was based on the religious doctrine. Nevertheless, the question ‘What does contemporary Western yoga rely on?’ remains unanswered because very few of its followers actually realize what they’re doing and why.
We know what Hindus rely on – they are simply followers – from their very birth. They are not interested in life; they simply follow its course. And yoga, so to speak, helps them… Western yogi are not followers. They either protest or they trail along. There’s not a hint of knowledge here, and even their faith is dubious. Who takes care of preparing the ground for yoga in the West? Nobody! For why should revolutionaries need such ground? They need either movement or a reaction because revolutionaries are not constructive, they are destructive! In other words, contemporary yogi (with a very few exceptions) did not create their own yoga and at the same time corrupted true yoga.
The depth of the Vedic philosophy remains unattainable for the weak of mind. Man cannot jump from an uncontrolled life to a controlled experience. The western mind needs a method and not only following. And how many people have grasped this method? 2% of the whole populace? Or let’s say 10%! The world of inadequate yogi has advanced so much that they no longer even understand each other, let alone yoga itself. This is a group of psychological revolutionaries hiding behind the tradition of spiritual experience, to which they have absolutely no relation.
How can one do certain practices, pranayama or meditation, when his mind is not prepared, when the necessary condition for establishing control is not present? A massive burning of energy is at hand, which leads to euphoria that people take for spiritual enlightenment. Obviously, every event can be called cosmic; nevertheless practice should not be confused with mere exercise. Practice is something that the practitioner is aware of, something he controls. And exercise is what occupies the time of those who exercise. We also have classes when the mastered exercises do not prevent the mind from repeating them, nor do they indeed help it.
Why practice yoga?
Let us now, anyway, try to figure out why we should practice yoga. What does the person who starts practicing yoga think about yoga? Well, generally, he doesn’t think quite much. In the heads of 70% or even probably 90% of those who start yoga classes, yoga is nothing more than a set of exercises (asanas) that people practicing yoga do.
So, in fact, the very concept of yoga is substituted with something else where those who do this set of exercises are dubbed with the profession of ‘mat bearers’ or carry a string for nasal cleaning since this is the only thing that distinguishes them from everyone else. Or, perhaps, also the thoughtful look of someone lost on the way of the concepts of Yama and Niyama. The rest is, as they say, a matter of chance, taste and time.
Of course, people bear personal responsibility for their own choices. As they say: what you choose is what you get. However, the problem here lies in this very responsibility, which is simply regulated but is not manifested in the nature of modern man.
What do practitioners get? Relaxation of the body, relaxation of breathing, and relaxation of the head. And while the first two (if achieved) call for no objection and are simply necessary for the Western or even modern man, the last one evokes a number of questions. It is simultaneously something necessary for the sake of attaining higher experiences yet something that should not be controlled by man.
In the context of classic yoga the relaxation of thought is a departing and a rejection of human experience, in other words it’s the creation of all necessary conditions for reaching Samadhi. For modern man who continues to live in society, it becomes something similar to communicating with fools, or an inability to correlate the power of the mind with the tasks of living.
The task of yoga is to reach the state of sattva (the state of harmony resting upon the living whole or on Samadhi). This is the natural comprehension of the traditional way. The western mind however exchanged sattva with rajas (rage, passion) transforming yoga into a state of struggle, departure and suspension. Not understanding and not even knowing the laws of nature, some teachers began teaching yoga by exchanging one passion for another.
Thus the highest achievement – achieving nirvana – became a special spiritual passion for contemporary yogi, a passion, which, naturally, they could import in this very nirvana if they managed to outgrow their childhood, that is tamas (inertia, madness, and stupidity).
Western yoga is the act of an individual
For the person with western thinking – where very few can in fact think – Yoga is an aesthetic, physical, psychological but not the least bit spiritual issue.
Western followers easily repeat words like ‘prana’, ‘samadhi’, ‘chakra’ or ‘Niravana’ not understanding the essence nor the task of these rather voluminous expressions.
As a result, yoga has been broken down into different types and classes where the most important factor is not the yoga itself but the one who teaches it. Nevertheless, only one percent of these teachers have enough experience in this practice called ‘yoga’ and can take responsibility for what they teach. In most of the cases yoga teachers are young or unfulfilled women who are trying to establish their position in society.
It turns out that for each qualified instructor of master there are a hundred clumsy yoga enthusiasts who teach breathing, stretching, meditation, rhythm, power yoga, etc. without having the slightest idea of what yoga is or the necessary experience. Yoga starts when you have attained unity and harmony and not when you’ve found a room for practicing yoga and a mat. Yet all the people who attend the classes and do certain exercises start believing that this is yoga.
Thus we get a situation where yoga has become something strange not only in the western mind but – interestingly enough, when exported back – also in the Eastern mind, where the presentation of yoga is being simplified for those who are not generally ready for it. By the way, this proved to be a rather easy task thanks to the mass of lost youths who simply dissolved in the vast Indian expanse and created for themselves a free-loader’s heaven in Goa, which actually is a demonstration of who needs what and why.
Yoga, as a science of nature, ceased to exist in the mind of the Western world that forgot not only how to think but also how to read. The attempt to confront the layman with the concept of ‘Yama-Niyama’ is in no way different from the ‘Moral Code of the Builder of Communism’ so sooner or later 80% of the people will lose interest.
In order to perceive yoga man must change his consciousness and way of thinking and this cannot be achieved through persuasion, slogans and quotes. What is necessary is knowledge, and not a mere game of meditation, asanas and pranayama. Man should not use or apply any of the ways of yoga to a consciousness unequipped with concentration. In the best case scenario, this would simply be some imitation.
Yoga is too complicated to be examined by ignorames. By the way, thinking is also a skill. As much as we might like, if we really want to make sense of the essence of yoga, we need to learn to deal with questions in general. We need to have a little patience and be able to learn and not deem a mere mat and a set of exercises (asanas) actual yoga. Generally I’m against the teaching of yoga by weak-minded people who have not achieved much in the way developing themselves. This is why contemporary yoga needs, above all, personality.
25 september 2011
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