The Yoga Tradition

by Georg Feuerstein

  This important fertility (agricultural) ritual also included the use of a swing, which was regarded as a “ship bound for heaven.” The leader swung on this apparatus while muttering prayers, which included references to the three types of life force that were thought to animate the body—prâna, apâna, and vyâna.

  The Vrâtyas were experts in magical matters, and some of their magical lore has survived in the hymns of the Atharva-Veda. In view of the unorthodox nature of the Vrâtya beliefs and practices, the Vedic priests did everything to obscure or obliterate as much of the sacred lore of the Vrâtyas as possible, and it is something of a miracle that the Vrâtya-Khânda has survived at all.66

  From the yogic point of view, the most interesting feature of Vrâtya lore is the Vrâtyas’ apparent practice of prânâyâma and other similar austerities. It is in such practices that we can detect one of the taproots of later Yoga and Tantra. Thus, the Atharva-Veda (15.15.2) mentions the Vrâtyas’ knowledge of seven prânas, seven apânas, and seven vyânas. These are the various functions of the life force circulating in the body and are related to the breath as it is inhaled, exhaled, and retained. The three sets of seven are analogically linked with a variety of different things as follows:

  The seven prânas are (1) agni or fire, (2) âditya or sun, (3) candramâ or moon, (4) pavamâna or wind, (5) âp or “the waters,” (6) pashava or cattle, and (7) prajâ or creatures. The seven apânas are (1) paurnamâsî or full moon, (2) ashtakâ or the day of the moon’s quarter, (3) amâvâsyâ or the day of the new moon, (4) shraddhâ or faith, (5) dîkshâ or consecration, (6) yajna or sacrifice, and (7) dakshinâ or sacrificial gift. The seven vyânas are (1) bhûmi or earth, (2) antariksha or “mid-region,” (3) dyau or sky, (4) nakshatra or stellar constellations, (5) ritu or the seasons, (6) ârtava or “that which pertains to the seasons,” and (7) samvatsara or the year.

  Such magical psychocosmic associations are characteristic of the archaic mentality preserved in the Vedas.67 The following extract from the Atharva-Veda (15.1) is another typical example of this style of analogical thinking:

  [Once] there was a Vrâtya roaming about. He stirred up Prajâpati [Lord of Creatures]. (1)

  He, Prajâpati, beheld gold within Himself. He brought it forth. (2)

  That [gold] became the One; that became the Forehead-sign-bearer (lalâma); that became the Great (mahat); that became the Foremost (jyeshtha); that became the brahman; that became the creative power (tapas); that became Truth (satya); by this He brought [Himself] forth. (3)

  He grew; He became the Great (mahân); He became the Great God (mahâ-deva). (4)

  He surrounded [? pari + ait] the supremacy of the Gods; He became [their] ruler. (5)

  He became the One Vrâtya; He took a bow; that was Indra’s bow. (6)

  Its belly was blue; red the back. (7)

  With the blue [side of the bow] He encompasses hostile clans; with the red [side] He pierces the hateful [enemy]. Thus say the teachers of brahman. (8)

  It is impossible to make strict rational sense of the above hymn. Its composer moved in a different frame of reality, that of mythopoeic thought rather than linear reasoning. He delighted in mystical equations and analogies, and he was obviously aware of esoteric meanings that we can only dimly intuit.

  To summarize, the Vrâtyas were prominent representatives of the countercultural stream in Vedic and early post-Vedic times. A portion of their spiritual heritage was assimilated into the Atharva-Veda, perhaps because this hymnody itself has from the beginning had a marginal status within the Vedic revelation. But it is here that we find many formative ideas and practices that much later went into the making of Tantra, carried for centuries by those living at the edge or even completely outside orthodox Hinduism, as upheld by the brahmins. In some respects, the Vrâtyas can be seen as the forerunners of such marginal but significant religio- spiritual groups as the Pâshupatas, which arose in the Epic Age. It is even possible that the Vrâtyas were primarily responsible for the further development of Proto-Yoga in the early Post-Vedic Era.

  “Verily, this entire [world] is the Absolute (brahman). Tranquil, one should worship It [through contemplation], for one comes forth from It.”

  —Chândogya-Upanishad (3.14.1)

  I. OVERVIEW

  Some historians regard the period from the collapse of the Indus cities (around 1500 B.C.E.) to the time of the Buddha a whole millennium later as the Dark Ages of India. But this designation is as inappropriate here as it is in the European context, for those days were far from decadent or sinister. Rather, they were a time of great cultural adventure in which the Vedic civilization reconfigured itself after what must have been centuries of hardship necessitated by the major relocation from the dried-up Sârasvatî River to the fertile Gangetic planes. More than anything, the expression “Dark Ages” betrays our lack of detailed and accurate historical knowledge for that period. Fortunately, our ignorance about that seminal period is less today than it was even a few years ago.

  The bulk of the Vedic hymns was probably completed by the time of King Bhârata, after whom India is named. He lived during the tretâ-yuga, around fifty generations prior to the five Pândava princes who fought for their patrimony in the great war chronicled in the Mahâbhârata. This war occurred perhaps around 1500 B.C.E. This was also the era of Vyâsa, who is traditionally said to have “arranged” not only the Mahâbhârata and the Purânas but also the four Vedic hymnodies.

  By this time much of the inner knowledge of the Vedic Samhitâs seems to have been lost, and also the rituals accompanying them had been modified. A period of active interpretation and reinterpretation of the Vedic heritage followed, leading to the creation of the Brâhmanas, the ranyakas, and the Upanishads—all regarded as an integral part of the sacred revelation—as well as the voluminous Kalpa-Sûtra literature to which belong the various Shrauta-Sûtras, Grihya-Sûtras, Dharma-Sûtras, and Shulba-Sûtras. The conclusion of this post-Vedic phase roughly coincided with the final drying up of the Sârasvatî River between 2100 and 1900 B.C.E. and the displacement of the center of the Vedic civilization from the Sârasvatî and Indus to the Ganges and its many tributaries.

  We have seen in the previous chapter that proto-yogic ideas and practices were present both in the sacrificial ritualism of the Vedic priesthood and in the religious world of the nonbrahmanical circles at the fringe of the Vedic society, particularly in the mysterious Vrâtya brotherhoods. As the ritualism of the orthodox priesthood became more sophisticated and exclusive, the lay people increasingly hungered for their own inner relationship to the sacred reality. In ever larger numbers they turned to teachers who offered an emotionally and spiritually more satisfying approach to the Divine. Many of those teachers stood outside the fold of the sacerdotal orthodoxy, as they still do in India today. People continued to consult brahmins for the major sacramental ceremonies, such as birth, marriage, and death, but they also opened their minds and hearts to religious cults in which the Divine was worshiped in personal rather than impersonal terms, and to esoteric schools, such as those of the Upanishads, that promised mystical union with the Divine. The post-Vedic Yoga tradition appears to have taken shape largely among these marginal and even “heretical” groups.

  The Brâhmanas

  The Brâhmanas (c. 2500-1500 B.C.E.) are prose works expounding and systematizing the Vedic sacrificial rituals and their accompanying mythology. They are the creations of the Vedic sacerdotal elite and are thoroughly orthodox in their orientation. Of the numerous Brâhmanas that once existed, only a few have survived. The Rig-Veda has attached to it the Aitareya- and the Kaushîtaki- (or Shânkhâyana)-Brâhmana; the Sâma-Veda has the Panca-Vimsha- (or Tândya-Mahâ)-, the Shadvimsha-, the Chândogya-, and the Jaiminîya- (or Talavakâra)-Brâhmana; the Yajur-Veda has the Kâthaka-, the Taittirîya-, and the Shata-Patha- Brâhmana; and the Atharva-Veda has the Go-Patha- Brâhmana. In the case of the White (Shukla) Yajur- Veda, these explanatory works form independent texts, whereas in the case of the Black (Kr
ishna) Yajur-Veda, they are interwoven with the actual Vedic hymnody. The oldest Brâhmana appears to be the Aitareya-Brâhmana, which consists of forty chapters and is traditionally attributed to Mahidâsa Aitareya. It deals mainly with the soma sacrifice and secondarily with the fire sacrifice (agni-hotra) and the royal consecration (râja-sûya). In many ways the most fascinating of these texts is the voluminous Shata-Patha-Brâhmana, which consists of one hundred chapters and is extant in two recensions— that of the Kânvas and that of the Mâdhyânâinas.

  In the latter recension of this comparatively late exegetical scripture (c. 1500 B.C.E.), the sages Yâjnavalkya (sections 1-5) and Shândilya (sections 6-14) figure as the principal teachers. Shândilya is particularly associated with the agnirahasya (“fire mystery”), discussed at length in Section 10 (comprising c.120 pages in English). The mystery is about the construction of the fire altar and its psychocosmic significance. Shândilya affirms a magical correlation between Prajâpati (the Creator), God Agni, the sun, the fire altar, and the year.

  The fire altar consists of six layers of bricks and six layers of mortar, which together represent the twelve months. The first layer of bricks is associated with inhalation (prâna), the second with exhalation (apâna), the third with the diffusive breath (vyâna), the fourth with the upward breath (udâna), and the fifth with the mid-breath (samâna), while the sixth layer is connected with speech (vâc). As the fire is lit and the golden flames shoot upward toward the firmament (symbolizing Heaven), the sacrificer, through a process of mystical identification, simultaneously obtains a “golden” body. He becomes the Golden Creator (hiran- mâyâ-prajâpati).

  The 101 bricks out of which the altar is constructed symbolize the 101 elements or aspects that comprise the sun. Since the fire altar is not only the cosmic body but also the body of the sacrificer, we may look for a somatic correlation of this number. Indeed, the Brihad- ranyaka-Upanishad (4.2.3) provides an answer when it speaks of 101 conduits (nâdî) found in the human body, of which only one leads to immortality. That special channel is none other than the central pathway (the so-called sushumnâ-nâdî) through which flows, according to later Tantra, the kundalinî-shakti from the lowest psychoenergetic center at the base of the spine to the center at the crown of the head. Interestingly, the Shata- Patha-Brâhmana (10.2.4.4) speaks in this connection also of the seven celestial realms, which afford a comparison to the seven centers (cakras) of some schools of Tantra and Hatha-Yoga.

  The Shata-Patha-Brâhmana in a way bridges the gap between the strictly ritualistic worldview of the Brâhmanas and the symbolic, internalized ritualism of the Upanishads. It contains speculations about the world ground, life force (prâna), and rebirth—all woven into the general fabric of Vedic sacrificial mysticism. Although Yoga is not mentioned in the Brâhmana scriptures, we can see in their ritualism one of the contributing sources of the later Yoga tradition. Thus, the Shata-Patha-Brâhmana (9.4.4.1ff.) reveals the details of the mystical process of agni-yojana or “yoking the fire [-altar].” Here the sacrificer “controls” the forces connected with the fire altar, that is, utilizes it in a disciplined manner involving great concentration and breath control. The goal is for the sacrificer to rise with the birdlike flames and smoke heavenward. As he pours the soma into the flames, the sacrificer “anoints” the fire and, by sipping the soma draught, at the same time consecrates himself, thereby becoming immortal. This is definitely a proto- yogic practice.

  Similarly, the treatment of the ceremony of prâna-agni-hotra (written prânâgni-hotra), the “fire sacrifice of the breaths,” which consists in the offering of food to the various kinds of breath, shows lines of thought that prepare the ground for the yogic theory and practice of breath control (prânâyâma). The prâna-agni-hotra is a symbolic substitute for the earlier Vedic fire ritual (agni-hotra), the most popular of all rites. In the prâna-agni-hotra,1 the life force takes the place of the ritual fire and is identified with the transcendental Self, the âtman. However, this is not yet a full-fledged mental sacrifice, as are yogic meditation or lifelong celibacy, since the prâna-agni-hotra was enacted bodily. This important sacrifice was a decisive stepping-stone toward what historians of religion have called the interiorization of sacrifice—the conversion of external rites to inner or mental rites.

  The ranyakas

  The ranyakas, or “forest teachings,” which are of a very similar nature to the Brâhmanas, were meant as ritual “books” for the orthodox brahmin who retired to the forest (aranya) to live in solitude, dedicated to a life of quiet contemplation and mystical rituals. These forest-dwellers—vâna-prasthas, as they were later called—are the first step in the increasingly powerful trend in ancient India toward world renunciation (samnyâsa). Most of the ranyakas have been lost, but the following are still extant: the Aitareya- and the Kaushîtaki-ranyaka (both belonging to the Rig-Veda); the Taittirîya-ranyaka (belonging to the Black Yajur-Veda); the Brihad-ranyaka (belonging to the White Yajur-Veda). No ranyakas for the Sâma-Veda and the Atharva-Veda are extant. These forest “books,” which were deemed too sublime or sacred to be imparted in the villages or towns, prepared the ground for the still more esoteric teachings of the Upanishads and also the subsequent Yoga tradition in its more ascetical mode.

  The Dawn of the Upanishadic Age

  The nuclei of the oldest Upanishads—Brihad- ranyaka-, Chândogya-, Kaushîtaki-, Aitareya-, and Kena- Upanishad—appear to date back over three thousand years ago.2 The Upanishadic sages initiated what was to become an ideological revolution. They internalized the Vedic ritual in the form of intense contemplation, or meditation. This is best illustrated in the following passage from the Kaushîtaki-Brâhmana-Upanishad (2.5):

  Now next [follows the practice of] self- restraint according to Prâtardana, or the inner fire sacrifice, as they call it. Verily, as long as a person (purusha) is speaking, he is unable to breathe. Then he is sacrificing the breath to speech. Verily, as long as a person is breathing, he is unable to speak. Then he is sacrificing the speech to the breath. These are the two unending, immortal oblations. In sleeping and in waking, he sacrifices them continuously. Whatever other oblations there are, they are limited, for they consist in [ritual] actions. Understanding this, the ancestors did not offer the fire sacrifice [literally].

  The last line suggests that this symbolic fire sacrifice was practiced already by the predecessors of the composer of this passage, that is, the sages behind the composition of the Brâhmanas, and very probably even earlier by the seers of the Vedic Samhitâs. But with the Upanishads, the symbolic aspect of sacrifice acquired paramount significance. Henceforth the Divine could be worshiped purely with the mind or heart, without external paraphernalia.

  Who were these innovative sages? They were a diverse group: Some were prominent brahmins, like the famous Yâjnavalkya, who instructed the nobility; others were less well-known brahmins living in isolation as forest-dwellers; yet others were powerful kings, like Janaka and Ajâtashatru (the ruler of Kâshî, modern Benares or Varanasi). What they had in common was a penchant for esoteric wisdom, or what in classical Greece was called gnosis, transcendental knowledge that could lift them beyond mundane life, even beyond Vedic ritualism and its promised heavens, to the realization of the unconditional Reality. That Reality they preferred to name brahman, the Absolute. The word brahman is derived from the verbal root brih, meaning “to grow.” It denotes the inexhaustible vastness of the supreme Being.

  “This immeasurable constant [Self] must be seen as singular. The Self is taintless, unborn, great, constant, beyond space [and time].”

  —Brihad-ranyaka-Upanishad 4.4.20

  Most significantly, the Upanishadic sages turned unanimously to meditative practice, or inner worship (upâsana), as the chief means of obtaining transcendental knowledge. In contrast to this, the meditation practiced by orthodox brahmins continued to be intimately bound up with sacrificial rituals, which, as we have seen, were given supreme status in the ancient Vedic religion. Even the forest- dwel
ling ascetics continued to adhere to the sacrificial cult of mainstream Vedic society; they merely retired from the hustle and bustle of ordinary life.

  The idea that behind the reality of multiple forms— our ever-changing universe—there abides an eternally unchanging single Being was communicated already in Rig-Vedic times. What was new was that this grand discovery transcended the legacy of sacrificial ritualism. Understandably, the Upanishadic sages were careful to communicate this insight judiciously—in an esoteric setting requiring proper initiation. This is suggested by the word upanishad itself, which means “sitting down near” (upa “near,” ni “down,” shad “to sit”) one’s teacher. The Upanishadic teachings were not public knowledge, and those desiring to hear them were expected to approach the sages with proper respect and humility. Unless they came well prepared, they had to submit to years of discipleship before any hidden knowledge was imparted to them. The esoteric wisdom of the Upanishads was whispered rather than proclaimed aloud. Today these most precious teachings are made available in paperback books, and we tend to read the Upanishads as entertaining or, at best, inspired and inspiring literature, seldom approaching these ancient teachings with the reverence and integrity they once commanded.

  The Upanishadic teachings revolve around four interconnected conceptual pivots: First, the ultimate Reality of the universe is absolutely identical with our innermost nature; that is to say, brahman equals âtman, the Self. Second, only the realization of brahman/âtman liberates one from suffering and the necessity of birth, life, and death. Third, one’s thoughts and actions determine one’s destiny—the law of karma: You become what you identify with. Fourth, unless one is liberated and achieves the formless existence of brahman/âtman as a result of higher wisdom (jnâna), one is perforce reborn into the godly realms, the human world, or lower (demonic) realms, depending on one’s karma.