Four Yogas"Why four yogas?" he asked rhetorically, and I encouraged him to continue. "A man has three faculties, according to psychology. We think, we feel, and we have a volitional (will) aspect. Now, when these three are very calm you enter the yogic, or mystic, condition. "Let’s say you come back home after a whole day’s work and lie down on your easy chair. You have no strong emotion in your mind — no love or hatred — no activity is going on, no serious thinking is going on. You are in sort of a neutral condition. This is comparable to a yogic condition. "So these are the four possible states of mind — thinking, feeling, willing, and the mystic, or yogic, condition. This is why Swami Vivekananda scientifically said there are four yogas." Swami Swahananda looked over at me to clarify his point, "Although, any part of yoga is often called yoga, too. The Bhagavad Gita has eighteen chapters and each one is a yoga. Whatever pushes a man to realization is yoga. But, technically, there are four major yogas. Kundalini yoga, Japa yoga, Laya yoga — these are all offshoots — mostly offshoots of Raja yoga. ** But the major approaches are the yoga of devotion, of knowledge, of action, and of meditation." |
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