Yogī
Yogī, “one who practises yoga”
Grammar: masculine noun, from yoga (from the root yuj, to join, to yoke) with the suffix -in: “one who has yoga”, the practiser of yoga. The stem is yogin; yogī is its nominative. Mahāyogī is a great yogī.
Meaning: one who practises yoga, the stilling and fixing of the mind on the ātma-tattva, and by it wins yoga-bala (the strength of yoga) and moksha.
In the scriptures: the Brahma Purāṇa speaks of the yogī in Vyāsa‘s teachings to the munis on the road to Yamaloka, on śrāddha and on yoga.
The east gate. Of the four gates of the city of Yama, entry by the east gate, where hundreds of flags fly and gandharvas and apsarases dance and sing, is only for the hosts of devas, ṛshis and yogīs, and for yakshas, siddhas and vidyādharas (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 214).
At śrāddha. Excellent brāhmaṇas are to be invited to a śrāddha. When an excellent brāhmaṇa is not to be had, one must prostrate before and entreat those who come for alms, and the yatis and yogīs who come to the house at that very time, and feed them at the śrāddha. The pitṛ-devatās depend on yoga, so yogīs are to be honoured for their pleasure. One yogī equals a thousand brāhmaṇas; like a boat, he can carry the yajamāna and the pitṛs across. In the pitṛ-gāthā sung with reference to King Aila, the pitṛs long: “Will one supremely excellent son be born in our line? Will he offer us piṇḍas on the earth from the food left over by yogīs? Or will he offer piṇḍas at Gayā?” And in the mantra of the rite one bows to the devatās, to the pitṛs and to the mahāyogīs (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 220).
The power of yoga. Vyāsa tells the munis that the Sāṅkhyas and the yogīs each support their own side with the best arguments and praise it; the yogīs take direct perception and the direct realisation of the truth as their pramāṇa, the Sāṅkhyas the śāstra; and practised according to the śāstra, both give moksha. Those who have won yoga-bala break the bonds of greed as fish tear the net and deer break the snare; yogīs not caught in the first bonds are very rare. The yogī who has the strength of tattva-jñāna has great strength and blazing tejas, and like the sun at the time of pralaya he can burn the whole world. A yogī without enough yoga-bala is carried away in the stream of the vishayas like a weak man in a flood; one who has won it stands against the stream like an elephant. Yogīs endowed with yoga-bala become masters and can enter all the tattvas, the prajāpatis, the Manus and the great elements; neither Yama the Antaka, though angry, nor Mṛtyu of terrible prowess can enter them. Such a yogī may enjoy the pleasures of the senses for a time and then again perform fierce tapas; as the sun draws in its rays, he draws in his powers. “Even Vishṇu, the giver of mukti, comes under the bond of a yogī whose yoga-śakti is strongly won.”
The yogī who fixes his mind firmly on the ātma-tattva and stays unmoving gains the tattva, as an unmoving fisherman casts his net and catches fish. Vyāsa gives the food that brings yoga-bala, the dish of barley flour eaten without oil once a day, and the places of dhāraṇā, and tells what the great seeker enters and is freed in: Brahmā, Īśvara, Vishṇu, Dharma, Sanatkumāra and the other sons of Brahmā, the Viśvedevas, the pitṛs, the mountains, oceans and rivers, and all beings. The yogīs who practise this yoga gain and enjoy all the yoga-siddhis and quickly reach Nārāyaṇa (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 239).
Their enjoyments. Teaching what Kapila and the other elder yatis taught, Vyāsa says that the vishayas enjoyed by different beings are of different kinds, and so are their faults: humans, piśācas, serpents, gandharvas, pitṛs, animals and birds, garuḍas, maruts, maharshis, rājarshis, asuras, the Viśvedevas, devarshis, yogīs and Brahmā (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 240).
Related terms: Yoga · Yoga-bala · Sāṅkhya · Yati · Śrāddha · Dhāraṇā
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 214, 220, 239–240