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Swami Vivekananda believed humans must carry out two main purposes in life — serving humanity and achieving spiritual realisation — and, for this, they needed to be strong mentally, emotionally and physically
Swami Vivekananda professed four paths of Yoga to get to the final goals of self-realisation, freedom (moksha) and union (Yoga) with the divinity. (Image Courtesy Pixabay)
Swami Vivekananda’s famous speech at the 1893 Parliament of the World’s Religions brought the world’s attention to Indian spirituality and Yoga. Post this, he taught Yoga and Vedanta at centres across the US for several years.
Yet, he is usually viewed as a spiritual leader, patriot, and social reformer rather than as a Yogi. This may be because his Yoga was unique in many ways.
A RATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC YOGA
Yoga, Vivekananda believed, was the pathway to achieve spiritual growth and personal development. He presented Yoga as a structured and scientific approach to spirituality and drew upon Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, where the eight limbs (Ashtanga) of Yoga are like a step-by-step methodology. These rational principles resonated with the intellectuals and the scientific-minded in the West. He convinced them of its transformative potential for everyone, transcending religious and cultural boundaries.
THE FOUR YOGAS — WITH A SLIGHT TWIST
Vivekananda professed four paths of Yoga to get to the final goals of self-realisation, freedom (moksha) and union (Yoga) with the divinity:
• selfless service to humanity and all beings — or Karma Yoga;
• devotion to a Higher Power or personal deity and loving it wholeheartedly — or Bhakti Yoga;
• dwelling on and studying the nature of the self and reality from different knowledge-resources — or Jnana Yoga;
• meditation and mental discipline for understanding the workings of the mind and controlling the mind and senses — or Raja Yoga. This is part of the eight-fold path (Ashtanga Yoga) described by Patanjali in Yoga Sutras.
Each of these Yogas had the potential to take the individual to union, the final desired destination. The individual, small, ego is sublimated in different ways — whether through selfless service, devotion, or analysis and deconstruction — and this purifies the mind and consciousness. This purity is essential to move ahead on the path of meditation.
Individuals would naturally veer to one particular Yoga more than the other, depending on their temperament. Ideally, though, everyone should include all the four Yogas as they cumulatively support and complete each other. The perfect person would be one who combined all Yogas harmoniously into their personality.
Special place of Raja Yoga: Notwithstanding all this, Vivekananda was partial to Raja Yoga and believed it was the mainstay of all Yogas. He reasoned that it stabilises and energises the mind, and makes it capable of performing the other Yogas better.
Noted American scholar of Religious Studies, Jeffery D Long, sums up beautifully how Yoga, for Vivekananda, was a holistic way of life: “While Yoga, for Swamiji, is not only postural practice, it is also not only the practice of meditation prescribed in the Yoga Sutra. While this practice does hold a special place in Swamiji’s understanding of yoga as a whole, yoga also includes practices which the average Westerner would likely not think of at all in connection with yoga: namely, service to alleviate the sufferings of living beings, the practice of studying and learning to discern the difference between what is real and what is unreal in one’s life, and loving devotion towards a personal form of divinity… Yoga is, in short, for Swamiji, a complete, comprehensive and holistic way of life, encompassing every aspect of the human personality.*
THE BEDROCK FACTORS
For Vivekananda, these four Yogas had to be supported by a strong foundation of:
Ethical living through following Yama and Niyama:
For the Swami, ethical living was the starting point of purification. Shedding impurities, both internal and external, would allow the inner divinity to manifest and should be the governing factors in one’s life. Yama and Niyama — the first two limbs of Ashtanga Yoga — were the processes that would restrain the mind and prevent it from wandering.
A strong body and mind:
Vivekananda saw body fitness and strength as non-negotiables and the necessary foundation for both meeting life’s challenges and spiritual growth. A believer in Raja Yoga, and not really a fan of Hatha Yoga, ‘Asana’ for him was a stable and comfortable posture for meditation. Nevertheless, he did acknowledge the role of Yoga physical postures in promoting health and vitality — mainly as preparation of the body for spiritual realisation. He equally advocated sports and other forms of exercise in daily life, to be done with discipline and perseverance.
Controlling the modifications of the mind — a la Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras — was the main purpose of Yoga for him. For this, he viewed Breathing Exercises (Pranayama) as essential, both for regulating prana, the flow of energy in the body, and for stabilising the mind for concentration and meditation.
Vairagya and abhyasa (non-attachment and regular practice):
Non-attachment to anything, even while being fully immersed in the world and its activities, was Vivekananda’s idea of renunciation and a prerequisite for Yoga. Finally, abhyasa refers to regular practice of all the four Yogas — not just knowing them, but doing them consistently with dedication and perseverance.
Vivekananda believed that individuals who cultivated self-awareness and peace within themselves would naturally extend it to society. Yoga could in this way contribute to creating a more peaceful world.
*Many Paths to One Goal: Swami Vivekananda’s Contributions to the Discourse of Yoga; Prabuddha Bharata, Jan 2019
The author is a journalist, cancer survivor and certified yoga teacher. She can be reached at swatikamal@gmail.com.
