The Yoga rules

By Joseph Van Moorleghem

Some of the earliest traces of Yoga take us as far back as 7000 years ago. Some scholars even theorise that yoga evolved from shamanic rituals that took place during the Stone Age. In the Holy Scriptures of the Hindu Religion, or Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna refers to Kryia Yoga twice. These scriptures are estimated to have been written more than 3000 years ago.

A French Archaeologist discovered and excavated a Neolithic (7000 BC) settlement in Mehrgarth, Pakistan, between 1974 and 1986. To quote Ahmad Hasan Dani, a Professor of archeology, "Discoveries at Mehrgarh changed the entire concept of the Indus civilization". This is because cultural similarities were found between Mehrgarh, which was a Neolithic settlement and Modern Hinduism.

The shamanistic culture of Mergarh tends to show that it influenced Hindu ideals, symbols and rituals of the present. Ancient shamanism and early Yoga had so much similarity for the reason both wanted to go beyond the human condition. Figurines found at the Mehrgarth excavation site depict Yoga postures which are still in use today.

Shamanism's primary goal was to heal the members who were in their community and at the same time act as religious mediators. Archaic Yoga had the same objectives as it was community oriented and it aimed to determine the order of things through senses and inner vision, which then could be applied to daily living. As time went on, Yoga has progressed and has concentrated on the inner experience. Yogis then started focusing on how to attain individual enlightenment.

It is widely accepted today that many religions have their actual roots in shamanism, of which we know that it tried to act as a conduit between the known and the unknown. Shamanism could be seen as the belief system of people who lived during the Stone Age. Life on earth has always been challenging. Even in modern times many people go hungry even though there is the technology to go into space.

This suffering is not easy to witness and an individual's helplessness in regards to his own suffering and that of others remains extremely difficult to reconcile. This could be one of the many reasons the vast majority of humans living on earth have taken refuge in some or other form of faith or belief system.Yet taking refuge in a belief system or faith has its limitations.

It will not prevent people from going to war with one another, in fact, quite the contrary, some of the most persistent conflicts that are raging to this very day are rooted in disputes around belief systems. This explains why Yoga evolved to distance itself from religion and modern Yoga as it is known today cannot be seen as a belief system or religion.

The first actual teachings of Yoga are to be found in the Vedas, which are ancient texts recorded by the Indus-Sarasvati civilization. The Vedas are reputed being the oldest scripture in the world and could be described as a compilation of hymns that commends a high power. They contain the first known descriptions of rituals aimed at going beyond the limitations of the mind in order to provoke divine revelation. They are referred to as Pre-classical Yoga.

The classical period of Yoga was introduced by the works of Master Patanjali who wrote his now universally famous Sutras. Scholar believe in general that this must have happened around 200 B.C. Sutras could be described in modern terms as "mind boggling expressions of truth", or aphorisms. It is rumored that if one understands all the Sutras, divine revelation follows by default. There are several hundred Sutras.

This brief historic perspective of yoga is not complete if it stops at the classical stage of yoga. At the turn of the millennium, yoga spread in different forms. Theory states this occurred because of the need for standardization. Many different schools of yoga came into existence of which many continue to exist in our day and age, think of Hatha or Tantra Yoga, for example, or Kriya Yoga.

In his autobiography, Paramahansa Yogananda explains that he was the second master to have been given the task of making yoga known to western civilization. The first was Swami Vivekananda, the sanskrit term "swami" could be translated as "master", who went to America in the late nineteenth century. In more recent decades, yoga has greatly and swiftly evolved. From being an occult science only accessible to the brahmin caste of India it has become a mainstream activity that can serve the purpose of helping every living individual evolve beyond maya.

Joe is webmaster for mahasaya.com and yogi4u.com where he pursues his passion for spiritual work, self-growth and self-realization. He is happy to make available his experience and 30 years of intense personal research, meditations and in-depth questioning around the three subjects mentioned here above and strives to create a network of like minded adepts. You can post on his two sites, either http://mahasaya.com or the blog at http://www.yogi4u.com and he looks forward to your contributions.