Yoga: Body and Mind (Spirituality Turned into Spectacle)
The Aryans brought the philosophy of Yoga. The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit yogah, and it means union. And it is made up of a set of -physical-mental- practices aimed at linking with the cosmos, nature and divinity. The current word comes from the Indo-European root yeug –unite-, while in Greek it was zeugnumi –joint-. Therefore, yoga would be a spiritual sport. But it is not sport, because there is no competition - only between masters -. Unlike Asian martial arts, which are practically the same as yoga, with the difference that fighting is a very popular phenomenon in the patriarchy -competitiveness is present-. All and so, the martial arts, was never a military academy of criminals, but rather the opposite, a mass production of people who advocate the war of balance between mind and body. They learn to fight to defeat themselves. Not to be Chuck Norris. You just have to listen to one of its greatest exponents Bruce Lee:
This is what it is, okay? I say, free your mind, be informed, be mouldable, like water. If you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup, if you put water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle, if you put it in a kettle, it becomes the kettle. Water can flow or collide, be water, my friend.
If you are able to find the gaps in the extremes -balance-, you will be able to adapt to any conflict that comes your way. Because where there is a space with form there is another without form. The conflict is the form, because it is material, you can collide. But if your mind is free of forms, if you are like water, then you will find the void left by the form, you will be the form.
Yoga is a physical and mental discipline that originated in Vedic India. In 1931 in Mohenio-Daro -Pakistan- a stamp with different figures was discovered in which a man with crossed legs in a yoga position is observed, the stamp dates from the seventeenth century BC, but the first texts in which reference to the yoga would come from the Yoga Sutra -400 AD-. Which would be a composite of written hymns, which helped the yogi to reach beyond the limits of consciousness. These gurus taught people how to achieve harmony, serenity and wholeness. For the Hindu and Buddhists combined, yoga is eternal -an di: without beginning-. According to Hindu doctrines, the human being is a vivatman -soultrapped in a material container -avatar-. This avatar is made up of four bodies: The sharira -physical body-, mana -mental body-, Gña -intelligent bodyand ajankara -false ego-.
One of the qualities of yoga -as with martial arts or sports disciplines- is learning to restrict emotions, to gain greater control over the mind. Emotions would be considered distractions of the mind. There are three types of classical yoga:
1- The yoga line -the king among the yogas-. According to the yogasutra –sanskrit text from the 3rd century BC- there are eight precepts or commandments that constitute the ashta-anga yoga-raya yoga-. These eight steps would be: 1.1- Iama –the commandment of prohibitions: ahimsa –Non violence and sensitivity towards other beings-, satia -do not lie, be truthful-, astela –do not steal-, brahmacharla –lead a brahmanic life, celibacy- and aparigraja -not being attached to home-. 1.2 - Niyama –the commandment of the precepts-: saucha –physical cleansing and mental-, santosha -complete satisfaction-, tapas -discipline-, swadhiaia -recite the vedas for himselfand iswara-pranidhana -offer to the controller, God-. 1.3 - Asana -the commandment of the postures-. 1.4 - Paranaima-breath control-. 1.5 - Pratiahara - control of the senses, eat little. 1.6 - dharana -holding the mind in a thought-. 1.7- Dhiana -meditation-. 1.8- Samadhi -complete absorption. 2- The gnana yoga: What would be the learning or conceptual knowledge and the highest wisdom: the intuitive vision or gnosis -knowledge-. 3- And the last of the classic yoga is Karma yoga, which would become the yoga of action or service. The complete dedication of activities, words and mind to God.
For Hinduism, good works -good karma- lead to a next incarnation in better living conditions. But cruel activities lead to a reincarnation in worse living conditions. Practicing this yoga does not produce karma, but frees the soul and allows it, after death, to return to God. There are other yogic schools that are not considered fundamental for Hindus: Hatha yoga, Bhakti, Ashtanga vinyasa yoga, Kriyá yoga, Kundalini yoga and Yoga nidra. According to yogis, different paths lead to the same end, but generally the followers of yoga believe that the only valid one is their own, despising and condemning the other methods without impunity.
The yoga tradition came to Europe through British colonisation in India, but it made its appearance in the United States thanks to the rishi Swami Vivekananda in the late 19th century. And in 1980, it became popular around the world, becoming a trend from the new millennium. Of course, it would no longer be the yoga of meditation, reflection and union with the divine. Now it would be the yoga of the Ego. The ancient wise men and women meditating in the river, the mountains and the forests, mostly removed from the exoteric world, would become men and women in front of photographic cameras acting that they meditate, all of them armed with sports clothes of latest fashion -which could be defined as sex shop lingerie-, to be beautiful and so that others can admire their provocative body movements. They have corrupted it. In the New Age of the Ego, Yoga is an exhibition sport -as is skating- based mainly on the complexity of its movements and poses. According to ancient texts, asanas -postures- were traditionally limited to four or five seated asanas. These activities were carried out to prepare your physical body -warming up- before doing the meditation. For the objective of yoga was to achieve Samadhi, that is, the state of contemplation -connection with the divine-. In modern times was mostly used to sweat. With the aim of seeking well-being, health and fulfilment: That it is nothing other than being physically athletic. The United Nations corporation found the exhibition yoga movement so interesting that in 2014 they awarded it as a model of peace, giving it a birthday or day of consciousness. It would be on June 21, in this way, yoga spread throughout the planet.
