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Tantra Yoga - Astaunga Yoga
The roots of yoga date back to the time of over 7000 years when the practice of yoga was
first propounded by Sada’shiva the great yogi who is also known as
the father of yoga.
In those days Tantra was already practiced among the indigenous people as a
actice of inner transformation. Although the terms Tantra and yoga are used
distinctively there is hardly any difference between them.
About 2000 years ago, Maharisi Patanjali codified yoga into the system and philosophy
of Astaunga Yoga.
Although Ananda Marga recognizes the system of Maharisi Patanjali
at the same time it keeps alive the ever-sweet and ever-green devotional
essence of yoga that originated from the ancient times of Sadashiva. The
science of yoga and Tantra has been newly invigorated by the recent theore
tical and practical teachings of Shrii Shrii Anandamurti. Tantra Yoga is neither
mere exercises nor suspension of the mind but a practical path with a definite spiritua
l goal. By the nature of its supreme goal, Tantra Yoga retains its blissful
flow of devotion, which vibrates and inspires living beings to attain the
highest spiritual realization. Tantra Yoga is a method through which we
throbbing vitality and ecstasy.
Astaunga means eight-fold and thus describes the eight aspects
of yoga as systematized by Maharisi Patanjali. These eight
aspects of yoga cover practices that relate to the various levels
of existence from the physical body to the subtler layers of the mind.
They lead on stage by stage to the goal and at the last as the
result of the practices the mind transforms into pure consciousness
in the state of Samadhi transcending the mind itself.
Every human being is experiencing an attraction to pure Cosmic
Consciousness more or less intense at times. Even in children this can be found in their
world?” On the strength of one’s desire to experience pure conscious
ness one is motivated for the attainment of the final goal of yoga
or samadhi.
Therefore the process of dhyana is where one’s sentiments are
channelled into one continuous flow of longing with the
ideation of merging into pure consciousness.
This merging is not possible without concentration therefore one need
s to practice to focus, which is learnt in the practice of dharana.
Yet one can not easily focus the mind without withdrawing th
e mind from undesirable thoughts. Pratyahara is the practice of
withdrawal of the at tension from mental and physical object
s. This wilful control of the mind is assisted through
pranayama when one learns how to let the vital airs in the
body flow in parallelism to one’s spiritual ideation. The
mind becomes steady through regulating the breathing through pranayama.
Yet in order to sit still for pranayama and higher meditations the body needs
to be flexible and the nerves need to be strong.
The practice of various asanas facilitates that one is able to sit still in the asana, which is best
ercises to the as anas for meditation, which are siddhasanas, padm
asana, and viirasana. Yet to be able to perform asanas the
body needs to be clean and the mind at peace which
is achieved through the observance of the principles of Niyama. Niyama regulates the
personal internal flows and contributes to balance within
oneself. Before the attention to oneself, one needs to live in harmony
with others.
Yama helps to balance the energy with others so that one
has a stable personality and is at ease and ready to start on
the journey within. Basically Yama and Niyama are principles of
morality. They are also termed as neo-ethics defining ethics a
shaving a definite spiritual goal, which one is attempting to reach
by adhering to the postulated ethical principles. By adopting
these principles the controlled outcome is beneficial not only to
the individual’s peace of mind but at the same time the individual lives are in c
oordinated balance with others. Yama and Niyama are seen as the starting points that
shedlight on the path of development and point to the
direction one is actually heading.
Yama and Niyama are closely linked with cross culturally acc
epted values and thus are aligned with universal morality. Al
ready in the early years these values are taught and
practiced. According to Shrii P. R. Sarkar, by the age of five
children have formed their moral outlook and therefore there ne
eds to be an emphasis on moral education and the inculcation
of idealism from the early years. Why is As't'aunga yoga
called dharma?
The purpose of dharma is to attain perfect happiness and
perfect happiness is the attainment of the soul, there being only partialhappi
ness in each kos'a. So long as the soul is not attained every kos'a h
as to be perfected.
Each kos'a has to be taken care of. One Kos'a cannot be
perfected to the exclusion of the rest.
Where the re is perfect happiness there is dharma. Everything el
se yields only partial happiness.... dharma leads to Shreya
(ultimate and real gains.) everything else leads to crudeness.
Dharma leads to Supreme Consciousness and only that which up
holds and sustains the soul is Dharma. The Dharma of fire is to burn a
nd the Dharma of living beings is to attain happiness.Where
there is pursuit of Preya there is Avidya'ma'ya. The happiness of
heaven and the fear of hell are creations of the mind. Dharma has
no fears in ce through Dharma one attains the original state.
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