Glimpses of what evolves into Yoga can be gleaned from early sources: the loving attention paid to animals and the seated seemingly meditative figures in the seals of the Indus Valley (ca. 3000 B.C.E.) as well as the invocation of tapas (purifying heat) in the Vedas (ca. 1500 B.C.E.). The naming of Yoga as spiritual practice arises in the later Upanisads (Katha, Maitri, Svetasvatara), which describe Yoga as meditation (taraka) and a way to connect with one's greater self (Atman). These Brahmanical texts, combined with the Sramanical practices (ethical and meditative) of Jainism and Buddhism, contribute key aspects to the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, which emerges by the early centuries of the common era. Yoga adapts Samkhya as its conceptual frame, honoring a worldview that seeks to understand the relationship between the consciousness witness (purusa), the world held in potential (avyakta prakriti), and the world as fully manifest (vyakta prakriti). At a later time, the Jains commit to writing down various modes used to embody states of Yoga, including asana and pranayama in the Yogashastra (11th century), expounded more fully in Hatha Yoga texts such as the Dattareyayogashastra (13th century) and the Hathapradipika (18th century), signaling the birth of what today is called modern Yoga.
The yogic world of medieval India was dominated by the Nath Yogis, whose poetic and mythological traditions were remarkable for their rich and varied imagery. One such image represented the head and torso of the yogic body as a set of wells, the one turned downward and the other upward. Here, t...
Yoga's increasing popularity in America today is due to its promises of health, fitness, longevity and stress reduction, as introduced by a variety of Indian yoga gurus in the 20th c. In India, the land of its birth, the goals of yoga have been more radical forms of "embodied philosophy" includin...
In this talk, Ruth will map the esoteric feminine aspect of the subtle body by drawing on Haṭhayoga sources. Taking a textual, historical and anecdotal approach, she explores how the subtle body is presented in gendered terms, probes the substances or concepts that are to be influenced, and trace...
