What is yoga if it’s not the Postures? After many years of study & practice & hoping  not to sound too pretentious, I would probably describe it as “the pursuit of consciousness.”

It’s a fascinating conundrum that “yoga” is now so widely identified as asana because actually the postures were only ever designed to develop from greater awareness, to a sense of universal consciousness. Pretty ironic that a practice designed to help us realise “I am NOT this body” becomes “Let’s work this body!”. 

The earliest asana recorded are all seated poses that can be used for meditation & pranayama, because it was through these altered states of consciousness that the yogis sought an eternal truth. A truth beyond the vagaries of time, or of the individual life experience of the practitioner. The practice of “neti, neti” describes a way to shift awareness to ever greater depths as we discount “not this, not this” of anything which has not always been in existence. 

The Nasadiya Sukta & the fundamental questions

The way that I describe the vast, rich and bafflingly complex history of yoga, is that Yoga  seeks to answer the fundamental questions, the questions that have always perplexed deep thinkers and continue to do so today. Namely:

Who am I?

Why am I here?

What is my purpose? (dharma)

What is life and what is death?

What is consciousness.

I always consider those who love yoga, even if they profess to just want a workout, to be unconsciously motivated by these questions - after all, who isn’t? Besides which I'm pretty sure they would have settled on pilates or zumba! I find this approach also helps to be open to whatever any student brings to the practice, because often it is only when we get going in our yoga practice that we start to appreciate the deeper dimensions.

Origins of These Questions

These questions were formulated all the way back in the Vedic period, as a part of the sacred “Vedas”. Much of these texts can seem pretty irrelevant by today's “Western yoga”, although verses from the Vedas are still chanted today by yogis across the world. Interestingly this chanting, often by paid priests, in a syllable  “perfect” way & with a prescribed rhythm is said to propitiate the Gods, bring about the rains and bring wealth. 

But we also find in the Rig Vedas, the oldest of the Vedas texts, an incredible passage known as Nasadiya Sukta, which bypasses the issue of God/Gods as creators. It asks the question of how existance arose and reflects on the nature of consciousness, stating that man existed before the invention of God! 

This kind of paradox- rituals to protect us from the Gods, alongside the acknowledgment that we invented God, characterises the incredible richness and complexity of the yoga tradition. There seems to be space for diversity, rooted deep within the teachings, even if this optimism has been challenged through the ages. There are accounts of violence on the basis of caste, race & religion; sexism, racism throughout yoga’s history, these sit uncomfortably alongside the philosophical framework.

Here’s a few lines from the longer Nasadiya Sukta text from the RigVedas which is often related to cosmology and to an “understanding” or intuition of “the big bang theory”, so in advance of its time. 

“Neither existence nor nonexistence was there

Neither matter nor space around

What covered it, where it was and who protected it?

Why, that plasma, all pervading, deep and profound?” 

 (link to the full verse here) 

The Development of Yoga

The whole development of yoga can be traced back to these questions, reformulated time and again, and answered in many different ways over the centuries as yogis & philosophers found different ways to research, debate, explore and answer them.

This is sometimes referred to as “sanatana dharma” a term which can be interpreted as “eternal law”, taking a term from Sanskrit and again from within the Vedic fold. However the complexity of yoga means we need to look beyond the Vedic- traditions, since the tradition crosses cultural boundaries, integrates different philosophies and the physical boundaries of state lines. One way that I convey this to my trainees is that talking about “yoga philosophy” is like trying to summarise the history of ideas in Europe between 4000BC- today; we cannot reconcile the thought or complexity into a few pithy statements!

(See the timeline below if you’d like a browse)

Development of Asana

We have images from Ancient India (& beyond) that date back to the early origins of yoga, we see figures in what we recognise as yoga postures. We can see clay seals depicting a Shiva type figure with 3 or 4 head seated in sukhasana from the Indus valley region, in yoga pre-history. Textual reference to Mayurasana dates back to the Amritasiddhi an 11th century text which describes the practices of early hatha. Then in the 13th century we have scupltures at Mahudi gate in Dabhoi, Gujarat of complex asana like handstand from 1220-1230. So we can see from textual reference & images that asana has a long history. Since yoga is not documented historically, we sometimes rely on cross references e.g. in the Mahabarata we hear of yogis in the forests. Or from the travels of Alexander the great 327 BC, we hear of the yogis living as ascetics in the caves. But we do not always hear of the asana that would have been a part of the tradition in some form for some yogis.

But later hatha yoga brings physical practice to the fore, from about the 11th century, it seems likely the asana continues to evolve, with texts like Hatha Yoga Pradipka documenting some poses and the relationship to the “subtle body” written in c. 1424. We are aware of the cross- fertilisation of ideas as we see different groups and people interact across the India subcontinent, and it seems inevitable the same happened with asana.

Later still Mark Singleton’s the Yoga Body research suggests there may been a 19th century development of the asana becoming more gymnastic, perhaps as a reaction against the British, some argue the asana in places, may have become more militaristic as a training method.

This has given rise to a new name for the development of yoga asana during the 19th-21st Centuries, the athletic postures we are familiar with today, as modern postural yoga. During the last few centuries we see the interplay of yoga and influences from the West as the traditions of yoga are re-interpreted- or perhaps more accurately simply misunderstood, and then “sold back” to India and the world, with a scientific veneer. This is sometimes presented as a way to “validate” the yoga, without giving credit to the incredible ingenuity, genius and profundity of the early practices and practitioners.

In the meantime so much of the richness and depth of the practice is lost altogether when we ascribe more physical & psychological interpretations to the philosophy and practice of yoga. Yoga without its philosophical foundation is a different beast altogether, because the whole fundamental purpose of yoga is to answer the most profound questions of life, death and consciousness. 

Authentic yoga

What we see of the yoga tradition - although vast -  is still only a snippet because only perhaps 10% of the millions of yoga texts from India have ever been translated. Add to that the tendency to over-simplify the teachings. When we translate from the Sanskrit language we tend lose the nuance of the words and phrases, especially since they convey a world-view so at odds with our own. 

Often I see yoga practitioners and teachers in the west offering “authentic” yoga by offering a practice beyond the physical and including breathwork or pranayama, mindfulness or meditation. These are authentic practices BUT how we offer them is, pretty much always, at odds with the original conception of yoga. Throughout the tradition, understood and expressed in different ways at differnt times & places, we see the concept that “self” as an individual entity, is an integral part of a whole. The drop in the ocean analogy comes to mind. This is so at odds with a Western culture which emphasises the individual, whether the “soul” of the Christian or the individual as an economic entity today. In the east the “self” is simply a part of the universal consciousness, in the Upanishadic conception; or does not exist as a separate “self” at all  in a Buddhist interpretation who conceive rather of non-self or “Anatta”. 

Added to that the fact that this “atman” of the Bhagavad Gita or Upanishads, or “attan” in Buddhist texts, is often is translated as “soul” which has a different meaning, more personal, more moral and altogether more Christian and we can see we have some problems in translation!

4 Key Ideas Throughout the Vast Time and Geographical Framework of Yoga History

Karma - The law of cause and effect, it is not a moral see-saw, its not retributive, its not God-ordained. Its just simple cause and effect, something more like a Newton law!

Dharma - Universal law which we need to fulfil in order to fulfil our moral obligation and destiny 

Reincarnation - the law of life, death and rebirth; many different formulations of how exist and are debated over the centuries

Samsara - the cycle of life and death. Not seen as comforting, but rather something to overcome by understanding the very roots of our existence. 

Today we perceive yoga as a way to lead this life with a little more ease, more health- physical and mental, whereas the yogis tried to find a way to step off the cycle of -life-death-life altogether, since both life and death were associated with suffering. The yogis aim was to see & experience the full picture, whatever it takes to get there! 

Our definitions and understanding of yoga never really seem to grasp the comprehensive nature of this mission! The body in yoga is not the physical body, that is simply the most dense or superficial layer of our being according to the kosha system. So when we offer in yoga practice a way to feel more mindful, more at ease in body & mind. We are not contravening the “aims” of yoga, but we are not grasping the vastness of the project! 

The yogis were not on a personal mission to improve their lot in this lifetime. This lifetime is as a tiny jot within the yogic timeframe of Yurga. A yurga describes the vast epochs of our existence and in western time, each Yurga is perhaps millions or billions of years! (estimates vary!!!)

The yogis is seeking to be released from the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth- known as Samsara. Both life and the death realms beyond this life are associated with suffering, and the yogis believed that it was possible to reach a state beyond all of this coming and going. An ease and stability so comprehensive, so vast, so deep, that our minds are never disturbed again! We see this concept perhaps most clearly described in teachings on purusha, consciousness and Prakriti. Purusha is formless and Prakrit is everything we see and feel- the phenomenological universe. The two interact and come together to give rise to the whole of existence. Their interactions move due to the existence or the driving force of the guns which represent the elemental nature of the universe- hence the appearance of change, or time and of history.

But ultimately, if we distil it back to the fundamentals- we are just left with purusha and Prakrit. Things come and things go. Things comes together and they all apart. That’s all that happens, thats all it is!

In Summary

I do not mean to undermine anyone’s practice or teaching in sharing this tiny, humble attempt to convey something of my understanding of the ideas of yoga. But rather that we can allow ourselves to relax into our practice more, knowing that it reaches beyond the confines of this lifetime! 

My favourite reflection is “what would it be like to relax a little more in this moment” it's a wonderful one for shavasana, offering an opportunity to shift the predominant nervous system state, to realise however much I rush, however much I do- it doesn’t really make a difference. Here’s the job for today as soon as its doe theres something else to do!

If I was to try to pull conclusion together from these musings it would be this;

Yoga isn't asana, it isn't tangible, so it can’t be perfected or improved. Its more a state of being, something perhaps we can rest into, become more comfortable with. The scale of vastness, the sitting with not-knowing.

Meanwhile you simply get to be who you are, wholly & entirely, working towards an acceptance so vast and fundamental it extends beyond this lifetime. 

I don't think we have to believe every element of the tradition, which in itself is vast & holds many contradictions. But out of respect for the incredible research and practice of  the yogis we can seek to simply understand where we stand within the living tradition of yoga. I hope that this brief essay has supported you in that.

It took me a while to pull this information out from a whole web of interrelated ideas, I can describe in more detail the Hatha tradition and modern postural yoga next time!

If you would like to study this more, I have filmed talks about some of the keys texts & ideas of yoga in the Yoga in depth course. I’d love to share this with you and mentor you through the 12 months of in depth study, practice and rest!

With gratitude to teachers of life & yoga in India & beyond, my students who are also my teachers; the scholars of the Hatha Yoga Project & at SOAS who I have learnt from. Thank you.