Jnana Yoga and others

Hello!! I wanted to ask if anyone here has practiced this particular kind of yoga, or knows someone who has. I understand it to be, "the way of knowledge" which emphasizes Upanishadic-type realization of the oneness of all things, attained by meditation. I believe this is the type of yoga that my professor said is practiced rarely, because it is very intense on the mind and body. If it is too personal to talk about, or if no one has pracitced it, I'm interested in the others too.

I believe their is a yoga that is "the way of love." Is it Bakti Yoga?? Then there is Hatha Yoga: the physical yoga of the posture and breathing exercises. Karma Yoga, which is "the way of activity," liberation, reached by selfless action, and Kundalini Yoga, or "serpent power," feminine energy believed to dwell, coiled three and a half times, below the base of the spine. Please fill me in on my missing pieces and teach me some more about these... if you all would be so kind. This is all I remember on the subject... and i love to learn about it.

they Re all very special in their own right. But I think karma yoga seems to be the most tewardingto yourselfnand to those around you. With karma yoga you have to do good, I have found when you do good it makes people happy, that is the best wght you can see. As well it adds to your karma. At te end of the day, this all leads to one it.god.

Sorry aboutnthe poor spelling this is from a bloody iPod touch

penguino said:

this is from a bloody iPod touch

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:faint:Off subject for just a sec... what did you do? Are u okay?!!

Saint Tigeress said:

:faint:Off subject for just a sec... what did you do? Are u okay?!!

Click to expand...

The new iPod touch (did nto even ask for it) ig ot for my bday, it has WiFi, i typed from it.



You use the safari to acces IE.

OH! ha ha i forgot you were from London. My boyfriend is a martial arts instructor who specializes in teaching weapons like swords and knives... so actual blood was the first thing I thought of. It is normal for me to see blood on him from something...

There are several paths

Jhana Yoga is probably best expressed by Ramana Mahashi. Basically it teaches the method of 'Vicara'. This is often translated as "Self enquiry" or investigating "Who am I?" However it is not as simple as that. "the word [vicara] really means efficient movement of one's inner intelligence - 'car' in sanskrit is 'to move'. It should not be confused with intellectual analysis. It is direct observation or 'looking within'. (quote from Swami Venkatesananda)
The problem with this practice is 'How do you do it?" Ramana Maharshi made it clear that it is not to be done as some sort of mantra to just keep repeating, nor is it an intellectual investigation. I asked my guru about this, since he has held Ramana Maharshi in high regard. He said you need to meditate and in doing so you reach the point at which you can learn the answer to 'Who am I'. there are teachings by Ramana Maharshi in which he says do not meditate, however he also told people to meditate!!! It has to be seen in context. For 99.99999% (or more!) of the population Im guessing we need to develop through meditation to the point at which the question "Who am I?" can be experienced rather than thought.

Another source of Jhana Yoga would be "I am that" by Sri Nisargadatta. A popular book. There are also Ramana Mahashi groups around the world you may want to trace and contact.

This Jhana yoga is not easy!

there are others.

Karma Yoga is service, BUT it has to be SELFLESS. It is often said to be an easier path, but it is hard to do service truly selflessly, without any ego whatsoever. I have done some 'service' but I know how much my ego got involved in it.

Bhakti Yoga is devotion. This can be worship of God in any form you feel comfortable with. It can be singing, prayer, dance any way in which your love for God can be expressed. In it you gradually lose the ego and surrender to God. The devotion can also be to a guru.

Dhyana Yoga is meditation. There are many different methods of meditation, but the principle is to quieten the mind. It is the mind that prevents us from realising God.

I find that almost everyone does a mixture. They usually have a greater emphasis on one more than the others, but usually most follow most methods in a mixture. all methods actually are effective, since all result in reducion of ego and increase in spiritual awareness. It depends on your own nature as to what suits you and is most effective for you. Once you have found your path, stick at it come what may, through all difficulties without deviation or weakness....so take a bit of time to find the path that you feel most confident about, then go for it 100% and dont waver.

Enjoy the journey!

Kundalini is not a yoga method. It is merely a way of describing the 'spiritual energy' within the body. (That is a very crude explanation, sorry)

I have been told by several teachers who I respect highly that one should NEVER indulge in practices that attempt to raise the kundalini. this is often misunderstood. As one progresses on the spiritual path the kundalini rises naturally as a consequence. If someone follows practices aimed at forcing the kundalini to rise faster than this they will seriously harm themselves, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. sadly I have witnessed people claiming to 'raise people's kundalini'. At the minimum they are just cranks on an ego trip or chalatans conning people out of money. If they teach a method that does interfere with the natural progress of the kundalini then they are dangerous. Be very careful of anyone talking or writing about raising kundalini as a practice in itself.
Just do the spiritual practice and things will naturally develop. i ignore all talk about kundalini as a distraction likely to lead to misunderstanding, confusion and possibly harm.

Take care.

Thanks for michael, i wasnt too familiar on them either

Yoga is needed for physical body and also helpping somewhat in spirituality such as meditation. But to actually relaise God and know his greatness, only Bhakti is best. Also sankirtan also helps mostly. This is best in Kaliyug.

michaelm said:

Kundalini is not a yoga method. It is merely a way of describing the 'spiritual energy' within the body. (That is a very crude explanation, sorry)

I have been told by several teachers who I respect highly that one should NEVER indulge in practices that attempt to raise the kundalini. this is often misunderstood. As one progresses on the spiritual path the kundalini rises naturally as a consequence. If someone follows practices aimed at forcing the kundalini to rise faster than this they will seriously harm themselves, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. sadly I have witnessed people claiming to 'raise people's kundalini'. At the minimum they are just cranks on an ego trip or chalatans conning people out of money. If they teach a method that does interfere with the natural progress of the kundalini then they are dangerous. Be very careful of anyone talking or writing about raising kundalini as a practice in itself.
Just do the spiritual practice and things will naturally develop. i ignore all talk about kundalini as a distraction likely to lead to misunderstanding, confusion and possibly harm.

Take care.

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I understand what you mean. In the Martial Arts system I do there is chi cultivation. Our Grandmaster is very strict about us being careful and doing it right, and not doing anything we come across (as most of it is hogwash) without telling him about it first, because some of it can be harmful and have "side-effects." That is very good to know!

Nice. Yoga is needed for physical body and also helpping somewhat in spirituality such as meditation. But to actually relaise God and know his greatness, only Bhakti is best. Also sankirtan also helps mostly. This is best in Kaliyug.

Isnt Karma Yoga best? I don't know properly, but using logic, i guessed that being good to others might create a vibe of goodness among people. I don't know, jst an idea.

"most of it is hogwash" - so very true. a minefield indeed. if you have a teacher who keeps a careful eye on your practice like that then they are to be cherished. It is so easy to be taken in, or simply to slightly misunderstand and thereby misunderstand what oyu should do or how you should do it.

As to one practice being superior to another..well, all of them have their proponents, all will tell you that their preferred method is the best, is superior or even is the only way to liberation. In a way that is true...but they dont realise that is true only for them. It is the cunning ego playing tricks!

Find out about different methods and find what suits you, what you feel most comfortable and confident with and then persue that further, but DONT do anything that you feel uncomfortable doing. It is best to not do something harmless than to mistakenly do something harmful. sometimes you may feel pressured to do some act, especially in a group situation. Use it as a test of the group, or the teacher that you politely say you are not comfortable with doing that (yet). A good teacher or group will respect that. Any group that tries to persuade or pressure you should be avoided (always making some consideration ofr the ocassional overenthusiatic individual within an otherwise good group - most groups have a few overzealous ones, just skirt around them!)

Nice. Yoga is needed for physical body and also helpping somewhat in spirituality such as meditation. But to actually relaise God and know his greatness, only Bhakti is best. Also sankirtan also helps mostly. This is best in Kaliyug.Everything else is included and attained within this.

"Ati Sarvatra Varjayet" (Excess should always be avoided). Even in Sankirtan. Like what MichaelM said about Yoga. Do not get bound in group mentality. There are ways other than Bhakti too.

Jnana, Bhakti, and Karma yoga are different ways of realization depending on the personality of each person. Santana Dharma (the real name of Hinduism) is unique in allowing people of differing countenances to achieve the same goal of enlightenment.

Friend Saint Tigress,
Firstly try and understand what is YOGA.
Yoga means addition in Sanskrit / hindi.
So what is added? One is trying to add the individual energy with the universal energy.
One may call Yoga, connection too.
So to do so one can do it by various WAYS which is why HInduism is not a religion as religion means a particular WAY but Hinduism embrasses all the possible WAYS and so Buddhism / Jainism extended the way where it is all about NO-FORM.
So for the different types of people different ways are there; one has to choose what suits his / her temperament etc and practice that.
Gyana means knowledge and by using ones intellect one develops an understanding about god. Vedanta is all about gyana yoga. Lao Tzu's TAO is also saying the same thing that just by understanding that you are just an ordinary being is enough.
I could connect through sex too which is Tantra yoga but one has to understand what it is all about, not plain wham-bam-sam-thank-you-mam type.
I would say one can connect [yoga] by eating too. That reminds me the TEA ceremony of Japanese Zen is all about it by drinking tea. meaning to state that one has to be meditative, aware in whatever one does and slowly by and by one will connect.
Love & rgds

Thank you all very much for your replies. I am not practicing yoga at the moment, althugh I'm sure I will eventually.

What peaked my interest with Juana Yoga in particular is how profoundly intense our instructor made it sound, but then never gave details on what the experiences are like.

That of course does mean I am going to fiddle with it. lol

Tahts great

Saint Tigeress, I do not know if you are still around. I have come back to the forum after a long time. But this is what I would like to say on the subject:

Shorn of semantics, Jnana Yoga is scientific investigation. I have done it and have obtained the results. But one basic requirement is that you cannot have your prejudices. One who cannot get out of prejudices is not the right candidate to pursue Jnana Yoga, because it is going to shatter many of them. Since I have engaged in Jnana Yoga, so I do not believe in Kundalini and feminine energy. That is Tantra, coiled or uncoiled. Please take care not to get involved with phony gurus who could cause you a lot of monetary loss. Don, a Jnana Yogi does not abandon his 'dharma' (duties or righteous action), that would not be Jnana.

Michaelm, I rever Ramana Maharshi and Swami Nisargadatta. I appreciate your posts in the topic. Harikrishna, it depends on the person's inclination, yes, for some Bhakti Yoga is the best.