Raja Yoga - Karma Yoga - Bhakti Yoga - Jnana Yoga- 4 Paths of Yoga at Teacher Training

Transcript

okay now four paths of yoga in the same way that the human body is one intelligent interacting being and yet it's broken up into systems like the circulatory system digestive system cardiovascular system musculation and things like that in order that the stuff can be learned okay but in a truth those things do not ever operate independently of each other right does that make sense because it's really the human being is the human being and we've divided it up for the sake of education for the sake of learning it but in truth it all really comes together and you can't separate this stuff okay in a similar way there's only one yoga and there's only one intention with yoga which is god realization which means realizing that you are god that you are divine so there is only one yoga and there's only one intention with you okay however certain people have different what we call dispositions okay so some people are more emotional by nature some people are more intellectual by nature some people are more interested in physical activity and people just have different kinds of inclinations and so to some degree the different paths of yoga are resonating with different kinds of people now if we can say there's only one yoga and there's only one intention for yoga and that intention is god realization let's pretend for a minute that god realization is the top of the mountain okay where we're going top of the mountain god realization this is the metaphor now if you know anything about mountains hiking you know there's more than one way up the top isn't there you can go up the north face you can go around the circle you can climb this way climb that way you can make it harder you can make it easier but it's the same mountain and you're going to the same place so these four paths of yoga in the same light are all going to the same place we're going to the same place which is to realize our divine nature there's a few ways of doing that the few ways of doing that comprise the four paths of yoga now i'm going to talk about them individually but in truth masters that are truly masters are always employing all four paths okay so we can look at them like they're separate but in truth when you when you see and you're in the presence of real masters you'll see that all four paths are right there okay and when we get into that i'll explain what i mean by that okay now here i'll give you a sentence that will be difficult for you to understand intellectually but just get it anyway inside your being and then maybe it will come to fruition and your understanding at some point which is this to walk any one of these four paths to the culminating point is to have traversed all four paths the paradox to have walked any one of these paths to the point of culmination is to have traverse all four okay as i said intellectually that may not hit home right away but don't try to think about it too hard just kind of see the metaphor and then when i get into this maybe it'll make more sense okay no so we'll get into the four paths now as i said we're going to divide it up as if they're four different paths but in truth they never really are separated from each other especially in the being of a master who all of these will be employed at all times okay or at different times first one raja yoga raja yoga royal path raja yoga it's also called classical yoga it's also called patanjali yoga okay so raja yoga royal path also patanjali yoga also called classical yoga not classical hatha yoga classical yoga raja yoga patanjali yoga those are all synonyms okay and it means royal path so i will read out loud for a moment let me borrow your book first so i'm just going to read what's in your book to you the term raja yoga is a retronym which means the name that got created after the fact so the tradition already existed it was never called raja yoga it was just called yoga but then something new came up and because something new came up they gave a name to that which existed before and they called that which is before raja yoga because as it says a retro introduced in the 15th century hata yoga pradipika which is a book you'll need for your library to distinguish the school based on the yoga sutras which is patanjali from the new current of hata yoga yoga is a branch of tantra okay so that was the new thing happening in the 15th century raja yoga is the royal path of meditation of meditation okay raja yoga meditation patanjali yoga meditation classical yoga meditation that is the way okay meditation is the technique for god realization with raja yoga as a king maintains control over his kingdom so can we maintain control over our own kingdom the vast territory of the mind in raja yoga we use our mental powers to realize the atman through the process of psychological control okay and that's kind of a strong statement psychology