Yoga
Yoga, “joining, union”
Grammar: masculine noun, from the root yuj (to join, to yoke): “joining, union”.
Meaning: the joining of the mind with the Paramātmā, and the discipline by which it is reached; also, in its wider senses, binding, a means (upāya), dhyāna, union and skill. Yoga is also the name of one of the five siddhāntas (doctrines).
In the scriptures: the Agni Purāṇa gives the meanings of the word, says what yoga truly is and who is a yogi, and teaches its limbs and its fruit.
The meanings of the word. In the kośa of words with many meanings which Agnideva gives, yoga means binding, a means (upāya), dhyāna, union (saṅgati) and skill (yukti) (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 362).
The highest yoga. Agnideva teaches that he who sees no second thing other than the ātmā is the yogi: become Brahman, delighting in the ātmā, stainless. Some say that yoga is the union of the senses with their objects; those unlearned men take adharma to be dharma. Others say that yoga is the union of the ātmā and the manas. But making the mind free of its movements (vṛttis) and one with the Paramātmā, the kshetrajña (the knower of the field), one is freed from bondage: this is the highest yoga. Even a sannyāsin who has fallen from his vow, after passing through many births and a thousand years without consciousness, attains moksha by the tāraka yoga, the yoga that carries across; therefore yoga alone should be practised, and the practice of any other pāpa-destroying mantra brings no benefit (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 165).
Yoga and its limbs. In the teaching of Brahma-vijñāna, Agnideva says that the special union of the mind with Brahman through one’s own effort is yoga, and one who is unmoving in samādhi attains the Parabrahman. By yama, niyama, sthiti (posture), prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, mastery of the prāṇa and control of the senses, one should make the citta rest on the auspicious support, Brahman, which is of two kinds, with form and without form (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 379).
Above outward yajña. In the teaching on dhyāna, the eight kinds of aiśvarya, beginning with aṇimā, and mukti come from the practice of yoga. One should know the meditator, the meditation, the object of meditation and its fruit, become a knower of the tattva and practise yoga. In the shrine of one’s own body, at the seat of the heart, one installs Keśava and worships him with dhyāna-yoga. The dhyāna-yajña is the most excellent, free of every fault and of injury to living beings; mukti is not gained by yajñas that have only outward purity. Therefore, giving up yajña and other karma, which is impure, impermanent and has outward means, one should practise yoga (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 374).
The yogi beyond sorrow. In the teaching on samādhi, the body is the vessel of all diseases, and one attached to it suffers sorrow, but the yogi, by the strength of yoga, does not. The yogi becomes free of disease by the practice of dharma. As a lamp stands only by the union of wick, vessel and oil, so when the yoga-dharmas are absent, disorder arises and the prāṇa is lost before its time. The yogi who has gained aṇimā and the other aiśvaryas gives jñāna to a disciple, and, giving up the body by laya-yoga, abides in his own ātmā, full of knowledge and bliss, the form of Brahman (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 376).
Yoga, a siddhānta. In the mantras for the abhisheka of a king which Pushkara gives, Sāṅkhya, Yoga, Pāśupata, Veda and Pāñcarātra are called the siddhānta-pañcaka, the five doctrines, and are asked to protect the king (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 219).
Related terms: Dhyāna · Samādhi · Prāṇāyāma · Pratyāhāra · Siddhi · Moksha
Sources
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 165, 219, 362, 374, 376, 379