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A yogi is a practitioner of yoga. The term "yogi" is also used to refer specifically to Siddhas, and broadly to refer to ascetic practitioners of meditation in a number of Indian religions.
In Tantra traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, a tantrika is also called as yogini.
Etymology
Template:Contains Indic text In Classical Sanskrit, the word yogi (Sanskrit: masc yogī, योगी; fem yoginī) is derived from yogin, which refers to a practitioner of yoga. Yogi is technically male, and yoginī is the term used for female practitioners.
The term Yogini is also used for divine goddesses and enlightened mothers, all revered as aspects of the Divine Mother Devi. The two terms are still used with those meanings today, but the word yogi is also used generically to refer to both male and female practitioners of yoga and related meditative practices belonging to any religion or spiritual method.
Hinduism
In Hinduism the term yogi refers to an adherent of yoga.
Textual references
Further information: Yoga Vasistha, Yoga Yajnavalkya, Yoga-kundalini Upanishad, and YogasutraThe term yogin appears in Katyayana Shrauta-sutra and chapter 6 of Maitri Upanishad, where the implied context and meaning is "a follower of the Yoga system , a contemplative saint".
The term sometimes refers to a person who belongs to the Natha tradition. They usually belong to Shaiva tradition, but some Natha belong to the Vaishnava tradition. In both cases, states David Lorenzen, they practice Yoga and their principal God tends to be Nirguna, that is a God that is without form and semi-monistic, influenced in the medieval era by the Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism, Madhyamaka school of Buddhism, as well as Tantra and Yogic practices.
The Yoga-Bhashya (400 CE, the oldest extant commentary on the Yoga-Sutra offers the following fourfold classification of yogis:
- Prathama-kalpika (neophyte/beginner, devotional)
- Madhu-bhumika (one who has begun to enjoy the spiritual pursuits without effort)
- Prajna-jyoti (the advanced practitioner who knows spiritual concepts)
- Atikranta- bhavaniya (those who have attained what can be taught, achieved Siddhas, and are on their personal path to ultimate insights)
Sexuality
A yogi or yogini aspires to Brahmacharya (Sanskrit: ब्रह्मचर्य), which means celibacy if single, and non-cheating on one's partner.
Married practitioners aspire to abstain from unconscious/harmful sexual behavior, and to meditatively practice sexual yoga (as opposed to ego-centered sexual release) with their partner, but must practice aware chastity with regard to others.
Ethical duties
A yogi or yogini lives by other voluntary ethical precepts called Yamas and Niyamas. These include:
- Ahiṃsā (अहिंसा): Nonviolence, non-harming other living beings
- Satya (सत्य): truthfulness, non-falsehood
- Asteya (अस्तेय): non-stealing
- Dayā (दया): kindness, compassion
- Ārjava (आर्जव): non-hypocrisy, sincerity
- Kṣamā (क्षमा): forgiveness
- Dhṛti (धृति): fortitude
- Mitāhāra (मितहार): moderation in diet both in terms of quantity and quality
- Śauca (शौच): purity, cleanliness
- Tapas: austerity, persistence and perseverance in one's purpose
- Santoṣa: contentment, acceptance of others and of one's circumstances as they are, optimism for self
- Dāna: generosity, charity, sharing with others
Yogi - Nath Siddha
 | This section needs expansion. You can help by making an edit requestadding to it . (January 2016) |
According to David White,
iddha means "realized, perfected one", a term generally applied to a practitioner (sādhaka, sadhu) who has, through his practice (sadhana), realized his dual goal of superhuman powers (siddhis, "realizations", "perfections") and bodily immortality (jivanmukti).
Respect
Archeological evidence suggests that in some contexts and regions, yogi of Nath Siddha were respected and recognized in India. For example, inscriptions suggest a general of the Yadava king Ramacandra donated a village to a yogi in 13th-century. Near Mangalore, that later became a hub of Nath yogis, a monastery and temple was dedicated to yogis in the 10th-century.
David Lorenzen states that the Nath yogis have been very popular with the rural population in South Asia, with medieval era "tales and stories about Nath yogis such as Gorakhnath, Matsyendra, Jalandhar, Gopichand, Bharthari, Kanhapa and Chaurangi" continuing to be remembered in contemporary times, in the Deccan, western and northern states of India and in Nepal.
Persecution
In some contexts, adds White, the term yogi has also been a pejorative term used in medieval India for a Nath Siddha, particularly on the part of India's social, cultural and religious elites. The term siddha has become a broad sectarian appellation, applying to Saiva-devotees in the Deccan (Mahesvara Siddhas), alchemists in Tamil Nadu (Sittars), a group of early Buddhist tantrikas from Bengal (Mahasiddha, Siddhacaryas), the alchemists of medieval India (Rasa Siddha), and a mainly north Indian group known as the Nath Siddhas. The Nath Siddhas are the only still existing representatives of the medieval Tantric tradition, which had disappeared due to its excesses. While the Nath Siddhas enjoyed persistent popular success, they attracted the scorn of the elite classes. According to White, the term yogi
...has, for at least eight hundred years, been an all-purpose term employed to designate those Saiva specialists whom orthodox Hindus have considered suspect, heterodox, and even heretical in their doctrine and practice.
According to White, the yoga as practiced by Saiva specialists is more closely identified in the eyes of those critics with black magic, sorcery and sexual perversions than with yoga in the conventional sense of the word.
Resistance to persecution
| This section needs expansion. You can help by making an edit requestadding to it . (January 2016) |
According to David Lorenzen, the religious groups in Hinduism that militarized and took up arms following the Muslim conquest of India, to resist persecution, appeared among the Nath or Kanphata yogis, often called simply Yogis or Jogis.
The warrior ascetics were institutionalized as a religious order by Gorakhnath and were expanding in the 13th century, after the establishment of the first Islamic Sultanate in India. They interacted and cooperated with Fakirs of Sufi Muslims. The yogis feature prominently in Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire period official documents, states David White, both in terms of impressing the ruling elite in the Muslim administration and awards of receiving land grants in some cases such as by Akbar, as well as as those yogis who targeted the elite merchants and disrupted the business of administrative Islamic elites in urban areas. In other cases, yogis from the Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Shaktism traditions of Hinduism marshaled armed resistance against the Mughal and British colonial armies.
Cultural contributions: founding Hindu temples
The history of Nath yogis has been diverse, such as in the 11th-century and 12th-century, when Buddhists in South India converted to Nath Siddha traditions and helped establish Shiva Hindu temples and monasteries.
List of yogis
Further information: List of Hindu gurus and saints | This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Historical yogis and yoga gurus:
- Shiva
- Siddhartha Gautama Buddha
- Nigamananda Paramahansa (1880–1935)
- Larry Schultz (1950-2011)
See also
Notes
- Compare Siddhartha Gautama, one of the names of the Buddha.
References
- ^ White 2012, p. 8.
- ^ Zimmermann 2003, p. 4.
- ^ White 2012, p. 8-9.
- AK Banerjea (2014), Philosophy of Gorakhnath with Goraksha-Vacana-Sangraha, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805347, pages 298-299
- ^ Rita Gross (1993), Buddhism After Patriarchy, SUNY Press, ISBN 978-0791414033, page 87, 85-88
- David Gordon White (2013), Tantra in Practice, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120817784, pages xiii-xv
- Vidya Dehejia and Thomas B. Coburn (1999), Devi: the great goddess, Smithsonian Institution, ISBN 978-3791321295, page 386
- yogin, Monier Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (2008 revision), Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon, Germany
- ^ David N. Lorenzen and Adrián Muñoz (2012), Yogi Heroes and Poets: Histories and Legends of the Naths, SUNY Press, ISBN 978-1438438900, pages x-xi
- David Lorenzen (2004), Religious Movements in South Asia, 600-1800, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195664485, pages 310-311
- David N. Lorenzen and Adrián Muñoz (2012), Yogi Heroes and Poets: Histories and Legends of the Naths, SUNY Press, ISBN 978-1438438900, pages 24-25
- Rosen 2012, p. 72.
- Georg Feuerstein, Shambhala Encyclopedia of Yoga, pg 343
- SH Aranya (1983), Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali, SUNY Press, ISBN 978-0873957281, pages 334-337
- ^ Arti Dhand (2002), The dharma of ethics, the ethics of dharma: Quizzing the ideals of Hinduism, Journal of Religious Ethics, 30(3), pages 347-372
- Yajnavalkya tells Gargi in verse 1.55 of Yoga Yajnavalkya that one who copulates (मैथुन) only with and always with one's sexual partner is a Brahmachari; see ॥ योगयाज्ञवल्क्य १-५५॥ Sanskrit text of Yoga Yajnavalkya, SanskritDocuments Archives (2009)
- Shambhala Encyclopedia of Yoga, p.62
- KN Aiyar (1914), Thirty Minor Upanishads, Kessinger Publishing, ISBN 978-1164026419, Chapter 22, pages 173-176
- Lorenzen, David (1972). The Kāpālikas and Kālāmukhas. University of California Press. pp. 186–190. ISBN 978-0520018426.
- Subramuniya (2003). Merging with Śiva: Hinduism's contemporary metaphysics. Himalayan Academy Publications. p. 155. ISBN 9780945497998. Retrieved 6 April 2009.
- ॥ योगयाज्ञवल्क्य प्रथमोऽध्यायः ॥ Sanskrit text of Yoga Yajnavalkya, SanskritDocuments Archives (2009)
- Āgāśe, K. S. (1904). Pātañjalayogasūtrāṇi. Puṇe: Ānandāśrama. p. 102.
- Svātmārāma; Pancham Sinh (1997). The Hatha Yoga Pradipika (5 ed.). Forgotten Books. p. 14. ISBN 9781605066370.
अथ यम-नियमाः अहिंसा सत्यमस्तेयं बरह्यछर्यम कश्हमा धृतिः दयार्जवं मिताहारः शौछम छैव यमा दश १७
- ^ James Lochtefeld, "Yama (2)", The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. 2: N–Z, Rosen Publishing. ISBN 9780823931798, page 777
- ^ Stuart Sovatsky (1998), Words from the Soul: Time East/West Spirituality and Psychotherapeutic Narrative, State University of New York, ISBN 978-0791439494, page 21
- J Sinha, Indian Psychology, p. 142, at Google Books, Volume 2, Motilal Banarsidas, OCLC 1211693, page 142
- Kaelber, W. O. (1976). "Tapas", Birth, and Spiritual Rebirth in the Veda, History of Religions, 15(4), 343-386
- SA Bhagwat (2008), Yoga and Sustainability. Journal of Yoga, Fall/Winter 2008, 7(1): 1-14
- N Tummers (2009), Teaching Yoga for Life, ISBN 978-0736070164, page 16-17
- William Owen Cole (1991), Moral Issues in Six Religions, Heinemann, ISBN 978-0435302993, pages 104-105
- ^ White 2012, p. 2.
- ^ White 2012, p. 94.
- ^ White 2012, p. 7.
- White 2012, p. 9.
- David Lorenzen (2006), Who Invented Hinduism, Yoda Press, ISBN 978-8190227261, pages 51-63
- ^ David Gordon White (2011), Sinister Yogis, University of Chicago Press, ISBN 978-0226895147, pages 198-207
- ^ William Pinch (2012), Warrior Ascetics and Indian Empires, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-1107406377, pages 4-9, 28-34, 61-65, 150-151, 189-191, 194-207
- White 2012, pp. 94–101.
- AK Banerjea (2014), Philosophy of Gorakhnath with Goraksha-Vacana-Sangraha, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805347, page 331
- Feuerstein, Georg (2001). The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice (Kindle ed.). Arizona, USA: Hohm Pr. p. Kindle Location 5720. ISBN 978-1890772185.
- Paramahamsa Prajnanananda (15 August 2006). My Time with the Master. Sai Towers Publishing. pp. 25–. ISBN 978-81-7899-055-2. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
- Benoy Gopal Ray (1965). Religious movements in modern Bengal. "He learnt and practices of Yog from Sumerudasji". Visva-Bharati. p. 101. Retrieved 23 May 2011.
- Amulya Kumar Tripathy; P. C. Tripathy; Jayadeva (2006). The Gita Govinda of Sri Jayadev. Publication Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India. pp. Yogiguru "Swami Nigamananda" Book Translators :Shri Durga Charan Mohanty. Retrieved 23 May 2011.
- "Iconic Bay Area Yoga Teacher Dies / Yoga Buzz / Yoga Blog / Yoga Journal". 2 March 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
Sources
- Feuerstein, Georg (2000), The Shambhala Encyclopedia of Yoga, Shambhala Publications
- Rosen, Richard (2012), Original Yoga: Rediscovering Traditional Practices of Hatha Yoga, Shambhala Publications
- White, David Gordon (2012), The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India, University of Chicago Press
- Zimmermann, Marion (2003), A short introduction: The Tamil Siddhas and the Siddha medicine of Tamil Nadu, GRIN Verlag, p. 4, ISBN 9783638187411
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907). The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
External links
Yoga/Yoga Tales at Wikibooks
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