Yoga: It’s Essence and History

The concept of yoga is such a vast and intangible phenomenon that it is hard to give it due justice without becoming culturally too generalised. Yoga is a practice to evoke self-transcendence with spiritual intention. The transition from ancient to contemporary yoga progresses from a religious, tradition-specific path structure, to a spiritually generalised conception, and to some now, simply exercise. Yoga reflects a space of interiority that is constructed by language, tradition and culture. The ancient scriptures convey in essence the same spiritual process with different language. The differences being in the description of practices and philosophies that manifest as a consequence of tradition and culture, but are on a subtle level attuning to the same state of consciousness. From this perspective modern yoga is simply a natural extension or progression from ancient yoga and therefore contextualises yoga as universally orthogenetic concept. Although the cultures and subsequent ideas of self are distinctive there is a unified ontological impulse grounding the effort to conceptualise and utilise consciousness in body-mind practices. Yoga works with an idea of the mind-body - the yogic body - that is an abstract immaterial phenomenon, shaped and metamorphosed by materiality, cognition and philosophical constructs that paradoxically transcend the constraints that mould and define yoga as a concept and specific practice.

The transnational phenomenon of contemporary ‘yoga’ often conflates ideas from ancient traditions with modern thought. Modernity, globalisation, and cultural exposure, has altered the perception of yoga and ideas around the mind-body in the twentieth century.  There has been a cross-pollination of ideas to the extent that cakra-balancing is now advertised as a therapeutic modality.[1] Whilst mass cultural appropriation of yoga has been prevalent within Western counterculture of the twentieth century and present day pop-culture, has it all be bad? Obviously the yoga materialism that has emerged from the culture is out of alignment with what yoga was intended to be. However, it is still arguably more culturally beneficial to have yoga as a globalised movement, being that it supports wellbeing. It is perhaps just a sad fact that the Westernisation of any culture or tradition will inevitably cross-contaminate it with the corporate ideal. But can we progress into an understanding that yoga as a ancient spiritual practice can incorporate all traditions of mind-body practice with modern ideas, whilst maintaining cultural sensitivity and spiritual integrity? At Grace and Grit yoga we hope to utilise this cross-contamination by using what yoga has become to fund free, community centred yoga interventions and projects, in an effort to return yoga to it’s roots in a modern, and very sick world.

Geoffery Samuels writes extensively on the history of yoga and specifically in his book, ‘The Origins of Yoga and Tantra: Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century.’ Samuel puts forth that the second urbanisation of South Asia [which] spans the first millennium BCE and the fifth century BCE saw the establishment of larger settlements, a transition from tribal leadership to Kingship and the political consolidation of territories. (Samuel, 2017:41-60) Therefore it was a time of great change in the political, cultural and social constructs. This provided the context for the north Indian diaspora to expand ideas of self and consciousness in revolutionary ways. Times of great change in civilisation like this provide the fertile ground for new ideas to come to the fore and shifts in consciousness to take place. Cross-contamination between religious traditions occurred because societal social structures were changing. The Upanishads, a key yogic primary source, reflect this time of socio-cultural-political change, as they were at once, both unconventional and conservative. On the one hand they pioneered new understandings of self, transitioning form the ritualistic discourse of Brahmanism, the ancient root of Hinduism, prescribed in the Vedas, towards ontological enquiry and esoteric philosophical thought. (Black, 2007:7) Ruff suggests in his discourse ‘Yoga in the Yoga Upanishads,’ that, ‘a text called Upanishad is a “secret teaching” revealing the “hidden connections” that energize the matrix of reality,’ (White, 2012:99). This is due to the Upanishadic conceptualisation of the equivalence between the atman, essential self, and brahman, the ultimate ontological principle.[1]  (Olivelle, 2009:48) Nevertheless, the Upanishads still conformed to Brahmanical social constructs circumscribing the proposed radical transcendental perceptions of the nature of self. For example, the Upanishads are clearly gendered with a soteriology definitively male and practices for attaining liberation limit female involvement. Therefore, there is a discrepancy between what can be culturally and conceptually inferred from the texts.  Brahmanism’s stronghold at this fertile time was the North Western area of ancient India which was at that time called, Kuru Pancala. The North Eastern Central Gangetic plain was the area of the non-Vedic, Sramana traditions, from which Buddhism and Jainism evolved. However, the Central Gangetic plain was also an important area for the development of later Brahmanism and the Upanishads that were composed over hundreds of years. Moreover, the development of later Brahmanism in the Central Gangetic plain is indicative of the interactions between these significant geographical areas, and thus the aforementioned religions of the time. At first glance, there is a conflicting distinction between the North Western, orthodox Brahmanical culture and the North Eastern, heterodox ascetic renouncer traditions from where Buddhism sprang. (Samuel, 2017:61) Gombrich argues that, ‘the central teachings of the Buddha came as a response to the central teachings of the Old Upanishads.’ (Gombrich, (2006:31) Gombrich quotes from, ‘the Tevijja Sutta (DN sutta xiii) [whereby] Buddha sharply criticises Brahmins… [comparing] them to the blind leading the blind (p.239),’ (Gombrich, (2006:29). The evidence here perhaps suggests the Sramana practices developed as a reaction to Brahmanical authority, yet simultaneously Buddha’s yogic path that led to his enlightenment was undoubtedly influenced with Brahmanic philosophy and practice. Furthermore, there was, ‘an evident “drive to the East,” a desire or need to convert the populations of the Central Gangetic region to the new Brahmanical orthodoxy,’ (Samuel, 2017:100). This was arguably a response to the rise in popularity of other religious traditions. Samuel quotes Lubin’s suggestion that, ‘Brahmanism reinvented itself in a form that [shared] much of the appeal that Buddhist piety had in the city,’ (Samuel, 2017:165).   Deciphering the specific influences between traditions proves to be a problematic endeavour. Bronkhorst argues a link between the Jaina and Brahmanical traditions through a comparison of meditation techniques. He suggests that early Jaina asceticism appears in post-Vedic early Bramanical sources. Bronkhorst places Buddhism as innovative in comparison due to Buddhism’s positive meditation models. (Bronkhorst, 2000:30-53) In contrast, Wynne argues for the connection between early Brahmanism and Buddhism. He suggests that, ‘Buddhist schemes of element meditation must ultimately be due to… Brahmanic influence,’ (Wynne, 2007:67) as, the philosophical premise for the practices is embedded in early Brahmanism. On the other hand, another scholar Lamotte proposes that because of the movement between the two distinct geographical areas there was simply a shared body of knowledge arguing that the, ‘Brahmanism from which Buddhism sprang is not the Brahmanism of the Brahmana and the Upanishad,’ (Lamotte, 1988:7). Rather the acquired ideas and practices were from continued exposure between traditions. Whereas, Jain posits, ‘modern yoga systems…[to] bear little resemblance to the yoga systems that preceded them. This is because what modern yoga systems do share with premodern ones is that they are specific to their own social contexts,’ (Jain, 2015:19). Truth can clearly be found in all interpretations; maybe this is yoga? Disentangling the early Jaina, Buddhist and Brahmanical traditions of yoga in Ancient India is troublesome as the origins are fluid and interwoven. These are the ancient Indian roots of yoga. Muata Ashby accounts for the African origins of yoga in his book, ‘The Ancient Origins of Hatha Yoga And its Ancient Mystical Teaching.’ He displays ancient Egyptian papyruses and wall carvings from 300 – 1580 B.C.E. of yogic postures. Here we need to remember that ‘yoga’ as a word is not relevant, rather the similarities noted in the postures with hatha yoga asana are. The definition of yoga then breaks the confinements of the word and becomes simply a mind-body practice. What would give the comparison and subsequent conflation legitimacy would be a similarity in the philosophy of a yogic-body.

Bronkhorst, J. (2000). The Two Traditions of Meditation in Ancient India. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.

Olivelle, P. (2009). ‘Upanishads and Aranyakas’ in Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Volume 2. Ed. Jakobsen, K. Leiden. Brill.

Olivelle, P. (2008). Upanishads. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxf. U.P.

Samuel, G. (2017). The Origins of Yoga and Tantra. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

[1] To note, this is just one translation. Atman and Brahman have many meanings in the Upanishads

[1] See Flood, 2006