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Dissertation Submitted In Partial fulfillment of the requirement for the master degree in yogic sciences
BY
Vishwajeet Singh
GUIDES Dr R Nagarathna, M.B.B.S. Dr H R Nagendra, M.E., Ph.D.
To
Vivekananda Yoga Mahavidyapitham (VYOMA)
Of
Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (sVYASA)(A Deemed University)
#19 "Eknath Bhavana Gavipuram Circle, Kempegowda Nagar,
Bangalore- 560019, India.
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| Abstract :Yoga as a science has been present in India since times immemorial and over the years there has been a revival of interest in it. The report commences with a brief introduction to this ancient science and moves forward to give historical survey as far as yoga is concerned. Yoga basics and the stages of it have been discussed in succeeding chapters. The report also looks into the various schools of yoga with particular emphasis on Sankhya and Patanjali system. Lord Shiva as the ultimate Lord of yoga with the Shiva sutras have been dealt at length. The ultimate book, Bhagavad-Gita and the teachings there in for yoga are given due place and importance in succeeding chapters .Yoga has been kept alive due to the saints who have passed it on to succeeding generations and the report takes into account as it discusses the tradition of saints. The end chapter aptly looks into the growing popularity of yoga with confirmed reports of revival of interest and also the attempt by certain section of society to give yoga a religious look. Ultimately the report ends with a brief discussion of yoga in modern world. |
| Summary & Conclusion : Yoga, as a 'science' of achieving this transformation of finite man into the infinite One, has to be recognized as something intrinsically Indian. Yoga has been called a living fossil. It has had five thousand years of glorious history. It belongs to the earliest heritage of India's humanity. The Indian liberation teachings - the great Yogas of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism - clearly represent an invaluable resource for contemporary human kind. The path ahead is difficult and dangerous, but that is inevitable in any great undertaking. The goal of individual salvation and collective transformation may be far away, and may need man generations to arrive. Let us recall that immortal verse from the Katha Upanishad which exhorts us to arise, awake and move onwards across the sharp and difficult razor-edged path laid out by the great spiritual beings of the past ages: Uttisthata Jaagrata Prapya Varannibodhata
Ksurasya Dhara Nishita Duratyaya
Durgaa Pathastatkavayo Vadanti1.(1.3.14)
Kathopanishad Karel Werner writes: "The uniqueness of Yoga and its great value for our time lie in the fact that it is based on a living tradition that has remained efficient since ancient times; that it has developed systematic methods for pursuing and reaching its aim; and that these method can be applied and studied today both on the popular level by people with personal inclinations towards following a spiritual path and on the academic level by research workers in various fields such as comparative religion, philosophy, psychology, psychotherapy, and physiology. All other forms of mystical practice are, by contrast, largely a matter of the more or less distant past (e.g. the ancient Greek mysteries, Egyptian magic practices, Gnosticism, various forms of shamanism, and medieval Christian mysticism) or if they are partly alive, which some might claim to be, they are closed systems accessible only to believers." Dr. S. Radhakrishnan who had a great respect for Yoga wrote: "It is good to know that the ancient thinkers required of us to realize the possibilities of the soul in solitude and silence, and to transform the flashing and fading moments of vision into a steady light which could illumine the long years of life." (Yoga is to transform the whole man, to discipline his body, to purify his mind, to touch the very foundations of his being.) |