The Yoga Tradition

by Georg Feuerstein

  Much of what the teacher (guru) imparts to the disciple falls under the category of spiritual transmission (sancâra). Such transmission, in which the guru literally empowers the student through a transference of “energy” or “consciousness” (corresponding to the “Holy Spirit” of Christian baptism), is the fulcrum of the initiatory process of Yoga. By means of it, the practitioner is blessed in his or her struggle for transcendental realization. As a result, the initiated yogin or yoginî experiences the necessary conversion or “turn-about” (parâvritti) that is crucial to the spiritual process: He or she begins to find the Real, or the Self beyond the ego, more attractive than the numerous possibilities of worldly experience. The basis for that attraction is a tacit intuition of the Self, which grows stronger in the course of practice.

  The initiatory nature of Yoga is expressed in a variety of symbols, the most striking being that of birth. In the Atharva-Veda (“Atharvan’s Knowledge”), one of the four Vedic Samhitâs, we find this verse:

  Initiation takes place in that the teacher carries the pupil in himself as it were, as the mother [bears] the embryo in her body. After the three days of the [initiation] ceremony, the disciple is bom. (11.5.3)

  A similar archaic “gynecological” metaphor is used, more than four millennia later, in the Buddhist Hevajrâ-Tantra (2.4.61-62):

  The school is said to be the body. The monastery is called the womb. Through freedom from attachment, one is in the womb. The yellow robe is the membrane [around the embryo]. And the preceptor is one’s mother. The salutation is the head-first position (mas- taka-anjali). Discipleship is one’s worldly experience. And recitation of mantras is the [notion of] “I.”

  Through the teacher’s grace (prasâda or kripâ), the deserving disciple is initiated into the great “alternative” of existence—the reality of the Spirit, or transcendental Being-Consciousness-Bliss. Therefore, it is important that the teacher should be a fully realized master, or adept (siddha). Only then is the practitioner assured of complete passage across the “ocean of phenomenal existence” (samsâra-sâgara). For, as the Shiva-Purâna (7.2.15.38) observes, if a preceptor is merely nominal, so is the “liberation” he or she will bestow on the disciple.

  The initiatory teacher/disciple system dates back to the’ early Vedic period (4500-2500 B.C.E.), where a young boy would spend his youth and adolescence in the home of a teacher of the sacred scriptures, the repository of the epoch’s deepest wisdom and finest knowledge. Study of the Vedas was the sacred duty of all “twice-born” (dvija) members of society—i.e., the brâhmana or priestly estate, the kshatriya or military estate, and the vaishya or agricultural estate. The shûdra or servile estate was excluded from this time-honored tradition, though exceptions were occasionally made for unusual individuals. The Vedic lore was transmitted to him by word of mouth and had to be carefully memorized. It was the teacher’s obligation to guide the student in his study and understanding of the wisdom of the Vedas and to look after his welfare.

  The student, in return for the teacher’s guidance and paternal supervision, was expected to honor and obey the guru as he would his own father and to invest considerable energy in diligent study (svâdhyâya) and service (sevâ) to the teacher’s household. In the Shiva-Samhitâ (3.13), a late medieval Hatha-Yoga text, this ideal is expressed as follows:

  There is no doubt that the guru is father; the guru is mother; the guru is God. Therefore he should be served by all in deed, speech, and thought.

  Much of the contact between teacher and pupil was strictly formalized. For the disciple it included the daily rituals of begging for “alms” (bhiksha)11 and the ceremonial offering to the guru of fuel sticks for the sacred fire. The student was expected to stay with his teacher until the completion of his course of study. Those who, like so many Western acolytes, wandered from teacher to teacher were derogatorily called “crows at a sacred place” (tîrtha-kâka).12

  Apart from the actual study of the sacred tradition, the disciple’s foremost obligation was to live a chaste life (brahmâcârya)—hence the general appellation of brahmacârin for the student. The term means literally “one whose conduct is brahmic,” that is, one who behaves in consonance with the rules laid down for a priest (brahma = brâhmana), or whose behavior imitates the condition of the Absolute (brahman), which is asexual. Chastity was considered imperative for a moral life and for the cultivation of the life force (prâna) in the body-mind, aiding concentration, memory, and health. The institutionalized relationship between teacher and disciple is known as the guru-kula or “teacher’s household” system. Its rationale is given in the ancient Taittirîya-Upanishad (3.1.1), one of the earliest scriptures of its genre, thus:

  The teacher is the first letter [of the alphabet]. The student is the last letter. Knowledge is the meeting-place. Instruction is the link.

  Fortunate was the student who found a teacher who not only was well versed in the scriptures but also had realized their esoteric import. Out of this emerged the equation of the guru with scriptural authority. Both scripture and teacher came to be regarded as having revelatory and liberating power. The teacher is traditionally regarded as an embodiment of the living Truth that is indicated in the sacred texts. The ancient Vedic system of guru-kula continued to be the traditional model of education in India.

  The Upanishads, the esoteric works on nondualist Vedânta, have preserved examples of some of the more profound teacher/disciple relationships, in which the excellence of wisdom and God- realization, not merely intellectual knowledge, was pursued. The enlightened master, having fulfilled the scriptural revelation, is uniquely equipped to prepare others for the same realization. One of the most touching relationships was that between the mighty sage Yâjnavalkya (c. 1500 B.C.E.) and his wife Maitreyî. His teachings are remembered in the Brihad-ranyaka-Upanishad (e.g., 2.4.1ff.; 4.5.1ff.). He was married to two women, but whereas Kâtyâyanî “only possessed womanly knowledge” (4.5.1), Maitreyî was thirsting for spiritual knowledge, desiring to know the path to immortality. Before renouncing the world, Yâjnavalkya made sure to instruct Maitreyî in the secrets of Upanishadic Yoga. He told her:

  Verily, not for the husband’s sake is a husband dear, but a husband is dear for the sake of the Self (âtman). Verily, not for the wife’s sake is a wife dear, but a wife is dear for the sake of the Self. Verily, not for the sons’ sake are sons dear, but the sons are dear for the sake of the Self. Verily, not for the sake of wealth is wealth dear, but wealth is dear for the sake of the Self … Verily, O Maitreyî, it is the Self that should be seen, heard, consid-ered, and contemplated. Verily, by seeing, hearing, considering, and knowing the Self, all this is known. (2.4.5)

  Yâjnavalkya instructed Maitreyî at length and she finally admitted to being bewildered by his discourse, whereupon the sage replied:

  For sure, I am not saying anything bewildering. This is sufficient for knowledge. (2.4.13)

  Very much later, the Shiva-Samhitâ (3.11) states:

  [Only] knowledge imparted by way of the teacher’s mouth is productive; otherwise it is fruitless, weak, and causes much affliction.

  Hinduism distinguishes between different types of teachers, who ideally belong to the brâhmana estate: the guru (“weighty one”), the âcârya (“preceptor,” who performs the ceremony of investiture, or upanâyana, with the sacred thread worn by all “twice-born,” and who also conveys to the student the appropriate rules of conduct, or âcâra), the upâdhyâya (“tutor,” who teaches a portion of the sacred lore for a fee), the adhvanka (“mentor,” from adhvan meaning “road” or “travel”), the prâdhyâpaka (“seasoned instructor,” who may instruct other teachers), the prâcârya (“senior preceptor”), the râja-guru (“royal teacher”), and the loka- guru (“world teacher”)—all of whom embody a particular teaching role and spiritual status. There is even a generic term for the various kinds of teacher, namely pravaktri, or “communicator.”

  The God-realized teacher grants “divine knowledge” (divya-jnâna), as the
Yoga-Shikhâ-Upanishad (5.53) puts it. It is knowledge that springs from enlightenment and attracts to enlightenment. The Advaya- Târaka-Upanishad (16) gives an esoteric explanation of the word guru, deriving it from the syllable gu (indicating “darkness”) and ru (indicating “dispeller”). Thus the guru is one who dispels the disciple’s spiritual benightedness.

  Of all the teachers, God-realized adepts are even today given a special place in Hindu society, for they alone are capable of initiating the spiritual seeker into the supreme “knowledge of the Absolute” (brahma-vidyâ). They alone are sad-gurus—“teachers of the Real” or “true teachers.” Here, the Sanskrit word sat (changed to sad for euphonic reasons) connotes both “real” and “true.” These teachers are celebrated as potent agents of grace. As the Shiva-Samhitâ (3.14) states: “By the teacher’s grace, everything auspicious for oneself is obtained.” And the Hatha-Yoga-Pradîpikâ (4.9) affirms that without a true teacher’s compassion (karunâ), the state of transcendental spontaneity (sahaja) is difficult to attain.

  Because of his or her spiritual realization, the guru is considered to be an embodiment (vigraha) of the Divine itself. “The guru alone is Hari [=Vishnu] incarnate,” announces the Brahma-Vidyâ-Upanishad (31). The teacher is not a specific deity but the all- encompassing Divine, here named Hari. This “deification” of the God-realized master must not be misunderstood. He or she is not God in any exclusive sense, but rather is coessential with the transcendental Reality. That is to say, he or she has abrogated the ordinary person’s misidentification with a particular body-mind and abides purely as the transcendental Identity of all beings and things. There is no trace of egoity in the truly enlightened being, for the ego has been replaced by the Self. The body-mind and personality continue for their allotted time, but the enlightened being is no longer implicated by his or her automaticities. The unenlightened individual, by contrast, believes himself or herself to be a particular “entity,” or individuated consciousness, somehow lodged within a body and associated with, possibly even driven by, a particular personality complex. This fatal illusion is gracefully shattered at the moment of enlightenment.

  In the Kula-Arnava-Tantra, God Shiva, addressing his divine spouse Devî, has this to say about realized masters as opposed to ordinary teachers:

  There are many gurus, like lamps in house after house, but hard to find, O Devî, is the guru who lights up all like the sun. (13.104)

  There are many gurus who are proficient in the Vedas [revealed sacred knowledge] and the Shâstras [textbooks], but hard to find, O Devî, is the guru who has attained to the supreme Truth. (13.105)

  There are many gurus on Earth who give what is other than the Self, but hard to find in all the worlds, O Devî, is the guru who reveals the Self. (13.106)

  Many are the gurus who rob the disciple of his wealth, but rare is the guru who removes the afflictions of the disciple. (13.108)

  He is a [true] guru by whose very contact there flows the supreme Bliss (ânanda). The intelligent man should choose such a one as his guru and none other. (13.110)

  In the same chapter, the Kula-Arnava-Tantra (13.126f.) also speaks of six types of guru, who are classified according to their function:

  preraka — the “impeller,” who stimulates interest in the would-be devotee, leading to his or her initiation (also called codaka in the Brahma-Vidyâ-Upanishad 51)

  sûcaka — the “indicator,” who points out the form of spiritual discipline (sâdhana) for which the initiate is qualified

  vâcaka — the “explainer,” who expounds the spiritual process and its objective

  darshaka — the “revealer,” who shows the details of the process

  shikshaka — the “teacher,” who instructs in the actual spiritual discipline

  bodhaka — the “illuminator,” who, as the texts has it, “lights up in the disciple the lamp of mental and spiritual knowledge.”

  There are many other functional types of gurus, and in his translation of the Kula-Arnava-Tantra, the Yoga scholar M. P. Pandit mentions no fewer than twelve.13 But it is always the God-realized master who is extolled in the Yoga scriptures above all others.

  SOURCE READING I

  Dakshinamûrti-Stotra

  The Dakshinamûrti-Stotra (“Hymn lo Dakshinamûrti”) is probably an authentic work of Shankara, the great exponent of Advaila Vedânta. The hymn, which reflects the devotional side of this intellectual giant, is addressed to Dakshinamûrti in the form of Shankara’s leacher. Dakshinamûrti (“South-Facing”) is another name for God Shiva. This curious name is traditionally explained by the legend that Shiva always sat facing the south while teaching the masters of yore (who were of course facing north). As art historian Stella Kramrisch informs us. in the South Indian temples of the worshipers of both Vishnu and Shiva the iconographic image of Dakshinamûrti is enshrined in a niche on the south wall of the main sanctuary.14

  Interestingly, the word dakshinâ has the double meaning of “south” and “gift.” Thus, the name also plays on Dakshinamûrti’s gift of esoteric knowledge or ultimate gnosis. This poetic prayer epitomizes the traditional ideal of recognizing (and worshiping) in one’s God-realized master the Divine itself.

  He who sees the universe, which appears as if external through [the agency of] illusion (mâyâ), as contained within himself, just as in a dream, and who witnesses His own immutable Self in the moment of Awakening—to Him, the blessed Dakshinamûrti, in the form of [my] blessed teacher, this obeisance [is made]. (1)

  He who, like a great yogin or like a magician, conjures by His own will this universe, which is [in reality] formless like the germ of a seed but is subsequently fashioned through illusion, differentiated through the diversity of space and lime—to Him, the blessed Dakshinamûrti, in the form of [my] blessed leacher, this obeisance fis made]. (2)

  He whose manifestation, which is of ihe essence ol Reality (sat), appears as the object of notions of unreality (asat), who directly illumines those who have resorted to Vedic maxims such as “You are That” (tat tvam asi), and through direct perception of whom there is no return to the ocean of [conditioned! existence—to Him. the blessed Dakshinamûrti, in the form of [myl blessed teacher, this obeisance [is made]. (3)

  He whose wisdom vibrates outside, [mediated] through the eyes and the other sense gates, like the bright light of a big lamp placed in the belly of an urn with different holes—I know Him after whose radiance shines this entire universe. To Him, the blessed Dakshinamûrti, in the form of [my) blessed teacher, this obeisance [is made). (4)

  He who destroys the great delusion (vyâmoha), fashioned by the play of the power of illusion (mâyâ) of those who consider themselves the body, or the life force (prâna), or the senses, or the fickle mind, or the void, or who through error unhesitatingly declare themselves to be a woman, [a man), a child, blind, or stupid—to Him, the blessed Dakshinamûrti, in the form of [my] blessed teacher, this obeisance [is made], (5)

  The Male (pumâms)15 who, upon the withdrawal of the senses which resembles an eclipse of the sun or the moon, [enters] deep sleep and thus becomes pure Being, but, who owing to the covering of illusion, upon waking [merely) remembers to have slept—to Him, the blessed Dakshinamûrti. in the form of [my] blessed teacher, this obeisance [is made). (6)

  He who through auspicious gestures (mudrâ) reveals to His worshipers His own Self, which manifests inwardly as the “I,” past and present, in all states [of consciousness) such as childhood or wakefulness—to Him, the blessed Dakshinamûrti, in the form of [my] blessed teacher, this obeisance [is made). (7)

  The Man (purusha)16 who, whirled about by illusion, sees in the dream or the waking [stale] the universe differentiated by the relationship into owner and owned, or teacher and pupil, or father and son, etc.—to Him. the blessed Dakshinamûrti. in the form of [my] blessed teacher, this obeisance [is made]. (8)

  He whose eightfold form—earth, water, fire, air, ether, sun, moon, and man—manifests as this [universe], consisting of mobile and imm
obile [things], and other than which supreme Lord there exists naught for those who ponder [the matter deeply]—to Him. the blessed Dakshinamûrti, in the form of [my] blessed teacher, this obeisance [is made). (9)

  Because the “All-Selfhood” (sarva-âtmatva)17 has been made evident in this hymn, therefore by hearing it. by reflecting and contemplating on its meaning, and by reciting it, one will realize the “sovereignty” (îshvaratva) associated with the great splendor of All-Selfhood, as well as unobstructed “lordship” (aishvarya) appearing eightfold [in the form of the great magical powers).18 (10)

  I bow to God Dakshinamûrti, the Lord, the teacher of the three worlds, who skillfully (daksha)19 removes the suffering of birth and death and who, seated on the ground near the fig tree, swiftly bestows wisdom on a whole host of stages. (11)

  Wonder! The disciples under the fig tree are old. The teacher is young. The teacher’s silence is the instruction that destroyed the disciples’ doubts. ( 12)

  Om. Obeisance to the [hidden] purport of the prânava.20 Obeisance to Dakshinamûrti, tranquil and undefiled, the sole embodiment of pure wisdom. (13)

  Obeisance to Dakshinamûrti. the treasure house of all learning, the teacher of all the worlds, and the physician to those who are afflicted with [conditioned] existence. (14)