Part 7 - Yoga in various Jain and Indian literatures

There is three-fold tradition of Yoga literature in Indological writings, the Vedic, the Jaina and the Bauddha. Though the term Yoga has occurred many times in Rgveda, it has always been used in the sense of 'union' only and never in the sense of medita-tion or concentration of mind. Even such key-words of the Yoga literature like medi-tation, non-attachment, breath control and withdrawal from external world are absent in the Rgveda. However, the Upanisads do abound in the mention of these concepts. There might be differences of opinion regarding the nature or numbers of the ulti-mate reality but there is a remarkable unanimity regarding the acceptance of Yogic sadhana for its realization. All the Vedic systems including the Nyaya-Vaisesika, Samkhya, Yoga and Vedanta accept the utility and relevance of Yoga in their respective systems. Purva-Mimamsa is the only exception which does not ever refer to Yoga. It is interested in ritualistic action.

Hindu methods of spirituality are triple yoga or three way method. Namely, these are karmayoga—the way of selfless work, bhaktiyoga—the way of exclusive devotion to God and jnanayoga—the way of Wisdom^[1].

Samkhya and Sankara guide us on the path of self-knowledge. Mimamsa suggests the path of karma to get liberated to have permanent blissful state. Thus, no darsanas is pessimistic, and is spiritual in true sense as they never recommend running away from the world.

The Bhagavadgita and the Mahabharata, the Bhagavata, the Yogavasistha and the important works on Tantra including many works of Hathayoga accept the place and importance of Yoga. Many medieval saints and scholars like Jnanadeva and Kabira have discussed the subject of Yoga with great seriousness^[2].

Jain darsana suggests practice of triratna i.e. right faith, right knowledge and right conduct. The three Jewels are a metaphor for describing conduct and knowledge:

1. Samyak-darsana (correct perception or insight)
2. Samyak-jnana (correct knowledge)
3. Samyak-caritra (correct conduct)

The mastery and equilibrium of these three only can take the aspirant to the path of liberation, the true Yoga. As mentoned earlier, most of the scriptures written after sixth century by Acarya Haribhadrasuri, Hemacandracarya, Yashovijayji and many others have given great importance to Yoga and its techniques prescribed by Sage Patanjali and Hathayoga.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

T.M.P.Mahadevan, Outlines of Hinduism, Chetana Pvt. Ltd., Bombay, 1999, p. 79

[2]:

www.Jainworld.com (Retrieved on 20.04.2014)