Yoga

The word Yoga means Mergence of an individual human consciousness (soul) with the Primordial Consciousness (synonymous: the Creator, God-the-Father, Adibuddha, Tao, Allah, Ishvara, Svarog, and other names used in different human languages).

The Path to this Highest Goal, concrete steps and variations of advancement along this Path are also denoted by the word yoga (starting with a small letter).

This term is identical to the Latin word region.

Directions of Yoga

Among the directions of yoga there are, in particular, the following:

— jnani yoga — the yoga of wisdom — studying the nature of existence and the theory of spiritual growth;

— karma yoga — the yoga of right actions — dedicating one’s activity to God, to the Evolution of the Universal Consciousness, which goes on, in particular, in individual souls of incarnate people; selfish motivation of this activity must be excluded;

— jala yoga — the practice of ethically, biochemically, and bioenergetically optimal nutrition; it is important, first, because we — for successful spiritual growth — need healthy bodies, and, second, because the consciousness grows of the energies supplied to the organism with food; it happens thanks to the processes of the sublimation of food energies inside the body; obviously, one should grow the consciousness not of coarse energies, which separate us from the Primordial Consciousness, but of the subtle ones; the use of alcohol, nicotine, and other psychedelics, harmful for the health of the body and consciousness, is inadmissible;

— agni yoga — Teachings given to people by Divine Teachers through Helena Roerich; they represent a powerful call to people to begin spiritual search and spiritual self-perfection, to seek the guidance of the Divine Teachers — the Higher Spiritual Hierarchs, to seek the Mergence with the Primordial Consciousness; however, the concrete methodology of attaining these achievements was not described Helena Roerich; she was not interested in such methods;

— bhakti yoga — an aggregate of methods for forming in oneself the emotional love for the Creator; it includes ritual forms of worshiping Him; one should understand that realization of the goals of bhakti yoga is not possible without, first, development of the organ of emotional love — the spiritual heart; and, second, in order to learn to love the Creator, one has to learn first to love His Creation;

— kriya yoga — the path of ethical and energetical purification of oneself and “washing away” from oneself — with the help of meditative methods — everything non-highest, everything that veils the Highest Deepest Divine Essence of man (his Atman or Higher Self); the term kriya yoga was introduced by Great Divine Babaji; kriya yoga was spread then by Mahasai, Yukteshvar, Yogananda, and now — by the spiritual School known by the name of its founder — Vladimir Antonov; it is important to emphasize that full realization of the programs of bhakti yoga and kriya yoga is preached now by the Avatar of our time — Sathya Sai Baba.

— laya yoga — is actually the same thing as kriya yoga; laya means dissolution; dissolution of the individual “I”, individual consciousness — in the united “I” of the Creator and Absolute; the emphasis is put on the development of oneself as a spiritual heart, on the purification of the body, mind, and consciousness, on feeling the Harmony, Love, Subtlety, and Infinity of the Divine Consciousness, on being aware of Its Guidance, and then on Mergence with It; the lower self, in this case, is substituted with the Higher Self.

Main Stages of Yoga

So, on the spiritual Path there are three important directions of human development: intellectual, ethical, and psycho-energetical ones.

The latter can be subdivided into the following three main steps:

— hatha yoga — a preparatory stage, which includes the initial methods of making the body healthy, mastering concentration of attention, and preparation of the energy structures of the body to further important stages of the work;

— raja yoga — its methods result in full cleansing and harmonization of the system of chakras and main meridians of the organism; they also help one to achieve purity and harmony within the entire energy cocoon, which surrounds human body;

— buddhi yoga — a system of methods for meditative self-development outside the body and cocoon; it allows one to realize fully the Highest Goal: cognition of God in all His Manifestations and Mergence with Him.