Yoga and Patanjali

The word yoga occurs in the rig-Veda in various senses such as yoking or harnessing, achieving the unachieved, connection, and the like. Read more »

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Pancatattva

There are as already stated, three classes of men - Pasu, Vira, and Divya. The operation of the gunas which produce these types affect, on the gross material plane, the animal tendencies, manifesting in the three chief physical functions - eating and drinking, whereby the annamayakosa is maintained, and sexual intercourse, by which it is reproduced. These functions are the subject of the pancatattva or pancamakara (”five m’s”), as they are vulgarly called - viz : madya (wine), mamsa (meat), matsya (fish), mudra (parched grain), and maithuna (coition). Read more »

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Yoga

Thiss word, derived from the root Yuj (”to join”), is in grammar samdhi, in logic avayavasakti, or the power of the parts taken together and in its most widely known and present sense the union of the jiva or embodied spirit, with the Paramatma, or Supreme Spirit (1) and the practices by which this union may be attained. Read more »

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Sthirata - Mudras

Sthirata, or fortitude, is acquired by the practice of the mudras. The mudras dealt with in works of hathayoga are positions of the body. Read more »

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