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Introduction
Yoga in various forms is popular throughout the world today. However, few Yoga teachers, much less Yoga students, understand the Vedic roots of Yoga. They are rarely aware of Yoga’s integral relationship with Hindu culture, which it pervades on all levels including music, dance, medicine, astrology and spirituality. Yoga is the inner technology that goes along with Vedic wisdom, which is the inner knowledge that enables us to understand the conscious universe and utilize its forces for ultimate well-being and liberation.
Yoga is a comprehensive set of spiritual practices designed to enable us to realize the greater universe of consciousness that is our true nature. The term Yoga means to unite, coordinate, harmonize, work, or transform. It refers to the linking all aspects of our being, from the physical body to our highest intelligence, with the true or universal Self. This process occurs in different forms and stages relative to the condition of the individual and variations of time, place and culture. Vedic knowledge is that knowledge of the Divine or higher Self that the practice of Yoga is seeking to realize. Veda is spiritual wisdom and Yoga is its application. Yoga has developed over many thousands of years and evolved into many branches and types, making it easy to lose sight of its origins. Today Yoga has been reduced, particularly in the West, to its physical or asana side, and little of the greater Yoga tradition is seriously studied. Even in India the Vedic basis of the tradition is seldom given proper attention.
Yet as we move into a new planetary age, the older spiritual traditions are beginning to resurface in the collective mind. As we move forward we must comprehend our origins and reclaim our ancient spiritual heritage. The Vedas contain the keys to the perennial wisdom of humanity. The Vedas proclaim that we are all children of light, the progeny of the great seers (Maharshis), who have wandered far. In order for us to evolve in consciousness we must revitalize the seeds of higher evolution that the ancient sages planted within us millennia ago. The revival of the Vedas is crucial to the emergence of a new spiritual global culture.
Various scholars and yogis have aimed at researching and rediscovering the original Vedic Yoga. Ganapati Muni, the chief disciple of the great South Indian sage Ramana Maharshi, did notable work in this respect. So did Ganapati's disciple, Daivarata Vaishvamitra, whom Maharishi Mahesh Yogi once brought to the West and called a great modern Rishi. The Vedic Yoga was central to the work of the great modern seer-poet Sri Aurobindo, who based his integral Yoga on a Vedic model, and Kapali Shastri, an important disciple not only of Aurobindo but also of Ganapati Muni. Several other modern Vedic teachers have contributed to the revival of Vedic knowledge including Swami Dayananda Sarasvati of the Arya Samaj, Swami Gangeshwarananda and Pandit Satvalekar. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has been its most notable popularizer in recent years, promoting the idea of Vedic science, including Ayurveda and Jyotish worldwide.
Author - David Frawley
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