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Re: Question about yogas and margas.
Anshuman Pandey (apandey@u.washington.edu) wrote:
: I recently read in a general text on Hindu precepts about the four yogas:
: bhakti, karma, raja, and jnana. Are these four "yogas" actually "margas"
: and properly called bhakti marga, karma marga, yoga marga, and jnana marga?
: Secondly, where do such yogas as kundalini, hatha, and kriya fit? Are
: these margas as well, or are they subsets of yoga marga?
Dear Anshumanji:
The four 'yogas' are from the Srimad Bhagavad Gita. All chapters of the
Gita are referred to as '---yoga'. These are not the worship yogas, like
the kriya yoga or hatha yoga. But they contain key concepts that are to
be found in the worship yogas.
Sage Patanjali complied his Yoga-sutra on the basis of what the Gurus of
that period of time taught their disciples. As times changed, so
did these yogic formulations. The worship yogas (or yogic meditation)
are passed down by the Guru-disciple parampara, for example, the Kriya
yoga is the worship style of Paramhansa Yoganandaji.
Yogic meditation, as I understand, does not necessarily include the
eight-fold mind-calming techniques (of Sage Patanjali). It
can be quite simple, for example, Narada puran (?) says:
Harer nAma Harer nAma Harer nAmoiba kevalam.
Kalou nAstyeva nAstyeva nAstyeva gatiranyathA.
(In this Kali Yuga, (chanting) the name of Lord Hari is salvational, no
other path works).
The chanting of Hari-nAma is also a form of Yoga. I recommend one book
called "The Narada Bhakti Sutra" by Swami Jyotir Maya Nanda, Miami, FL,
that will give you a good insight on the various accepted paths of
worship, or Yogas.
With best regards,
Dhruba.
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