Yoga Culture

From the Sanskrit root “yuj” meaning “union” or “bond”, yoga indicates the set of techniques aimed at reuniting the body, mind and individual soul (jiva) with the universal soul understood as pure awareness (Brahman).

Through the practice of postures preparatory to physical health with breathing techniques (pranayama) and meditation (dhyana), yoga contributes to achieving a psycho-physical balance and a state of peace and spiritual harmony.

Origins of Yoga and the Four Paths

It is difficult to identify a precise date corresponding to the incipit of the yogic discipline, due to the peculiar divine nature attributed to it and revealed to the enlightened sages.

According to Mircea Eliade (1936), yoga is a system conceived by aboriginal India, as would be other elements that would characterize the subsequent Hinduism; reference is made in particular to the mystical-emotional devotion (bhakti), to the ceremonials of adoration of the divinities (puja) and to the initiatory structure that appear more peculiar to a populist religion than to one of an elitist priestly nature.

The Ashtanga Eightfold Path

The eight evolutionary stages – literal translation of the Sanskrit term ashtanga – to be pursued to achieve self-realization are Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Prathyara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi.

They are described by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras, the first treatise of applied and experimental psychology, which incorporates the thematic contents of raja yoga.

By following the eightfold ashtanga path, the practitioner can reach the highest state of consciousness, samadhi, in which one is freed from psycho-physical identifications as well as from the conceptions of linear space-time causality.

I Chakra e i Kosha

The chakras are therefore collection and transformation points of vital energy, representing the access doors for the energy current within the psychic body.

According to yogic precepts, the human organism consists of three bodies: stula the physical or gross body, sukshma the subtle or astral body, and marana the causal body.

The physical body or the most visible part is made up of the food envelope called annamaya kosha

La Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita, the “song of the glorious Lord,” is revered as a shruti by many Hindu traditions, including the Vaishnavite school of the Bhagavatas, the Sivaites, and the Saktas. In this epic poem, divided into eighteen discourses composed of seven hundred verses, slokas, Brahman incarnated in Krishna, within the battlefield of Kurukshetra, reveals profound spiritual truths to the warrior Arjuna, teaching him how to achieve liberation through the fulfillment of his duties.

The Psychology of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Maharishi, appear as a type of applied and experimental psychology, incorporating the thematic contents of raja yoga.

They are composed of 185 aphorisms divided into four books: 1) Samadhi Pada (book of contemplation or “en-tasi”), Sadhana Pada (book of practice and method), 3) Vibhuti Pada (book of properties and powers), 4) Kaivalya Pada (book of emancipation and freedom).

The Psychological Schools of Vedanta

The uniqueness and complexity that characterize yogic psychology reside in its interconnection with Indian philosophy, according to which the study of the human being/microcosm is placed in a perspective compatible with the study of the universe/macrocosm, from the phenomenal aspect and in its existential meaning.