RELG 254: Yoga in the Mahābhārata & Upaniṣads Context

• RELG 254: Introduction to Yoga Traditions, Winter 2025, focusing on Yoga in the Mahābhārata.
• Readings include "A Prescription for Yoga and Power in the Mahābhārata" by Fitzgerald, supplemented by readings on Yoga Practices in the Bhagavadgītā by Malinar.

The Upaniṣads Context

• India in the first millennium BCE saw the rise of urban centers
• The emergence of Buddhism and Jainism occurred
• There was ascetic withdrawal versus social engagement, and new interpretations of dharma
• Marked by criticism and continuity with Vedic tradition
• Upaniṣad means "hidden connection," traditionally explained as "sitting down (near a teacher) in the appropriate way” to learn hidden or secret teachings

Ascetic Withdrawal vs. Social Engagement

• Domesticity and the householder involved ritual, procreation, and dharma.
• Liberation and the ascetic emphasized celibacy, renunciation, and mokṣa.
• Tensions were addressed through the Ashrama system, outlining stages of life
• Stages of life: celibate student (brahmacārin), married householder (gṛhastha), partially retired forest-dweller (vanaprastha maintaining domestic fires), and renunciant (sannyāsin, sādhu, cutting social ties).

Continuing Debate

• The story of the female ascetic Sulabhā and King Janaka is a continuing debate
• Janaka questions how knowledge can cause liberation regardless of possessions, contrasting ascetic triple staffs with royal parasols
• Sulabhā questions Janaka’s ability to see the self in others if he doesn’t recognize her own self, criticizing his distinctions between friends, foes, and neutrals, and his unequal treatment of the powerful and weak

Zooming Out: "How yoga became yoga"

• The chapter tells a story of yoga and meditation practice, where yoga is the main subject.
• Culminating point is the composition of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra.
• Meditation may have existed in South Asian culture before texts or association with yoga.
• The term yoga initially meant 'union' but extended to 'effort'
• Evolved to include practices for a spiritual goal.
• Some writers distinguished between practice (yoga) and theory (sāmkhya).
• Buddhists called their ideal practitioner a yogāvacara or yogācāra, meaning one whose conduct is practice/striving.
• Systematized meditation practices were formalized, associated with yoga
• Practices shared elements like dhyāna and samādhi, found in early Upaniṣads and Buddhist sources.
• The Pātañjalayogaśāstra integrates practices called yoga into a formal philosophical system.
• Pātañjalayogaśāstra. remained a key reference point, however the story of yoga doesn't end there
• Despite Patañjali's unifying effort, various yogas thrived

Overview of Key Periods, Sources, and Developments

• Yoga began in Vedic-era sources, including the Early Upanishads (c. 7th-1st century BCE).
• Featured renunciant ascetics (śramaņas, “strivers”) and ascetic practices (tapas, “heat/austerities”).
• Yoga in the Mahābhārata (including the Bhagavadgītā) dates to around the 3rd century BCE to 3rd century CE
• Patañjali's yoga system, specifically Patañjali's Yogasūtra (=Pātañjalayogaśāstra), dates to around 325-425 CE
• Yogācāra Buddhism emerged around the 3rd-4th century CE onward, and Jain systems of yoga from the 8th century CE onward

Mahābhārata

• The Mahābhārata is "The Great [War/Story] of Bharata's Descendants," traditionally said to be 100,000 verses
• Claims that whatever concerns the four aims of humankind may be found within it
• Key characters include the 5 Pandava brothers and their wife Draupadi

Central Characters

• Yudhisthira is the eldest Pandava, fathered by Dharma
• Arjuna is a great warrior, fathered by Indra, and a protagonist in the Bhagavadgītā (with Krishna)
• Antagonists are the 100 Kauravas, cousins to the Pandavas
• Duryodhana is the eldest and leader of the Kauravas, the main antagonist of the epic
• Krishna serves as a friend, ally, and counselor to the Pandavas, and as Arjuna's charioteer
• Krishna is considered an incarnation (avatāra) of Vishnu, protecting dharma.

The Mahābhārata Story

• Books 1-5 cover the time "Before the War"
• Books 6-10 detail "The War"
• Books 11-18 explore events "After the War"

Dharma and the Mahābhārata

• Dharma means right action, righteousness, law, sacred duty, ethical propriety, or "the good." It sustains order and religion in the world
• Emphasis is on the subtle nature of dharma (sūkṣma), its infinite subtlety and complex consequences
• The dilemma of power involves the need to destroy to preserve, especially when those one must kill are one's own kin
• The Mahabharata is a war fought at home, where both sides lose.

The Difficulty of Being Good

• The Mahabharata raises more questions than answers.

Yoga in the Mahābhārata

• Yoga is viewed and practiced in diverse contexts
• Tapas refers to ascetic "heat," austerity, and asceticism
• The pursuit of boons and powers, such as special weapons or flying ability, are common
• Often linked to techniques for dying and light
• Powers include entering or possessing another's body, such as in the Sulabhā and Janaka story
• Yoga practice generally involves moral conduct, diet, posture, surroundings, breath control, withdrawal of the senses, concentration, and meditation.

Yogavidhi

• Yogavidhi: “A Prescription for Yoga and Power in the Mahābhārata” (MBh 12.289)
• Bhishma's battlefield instructions to Yudhisthira
• Bhishma's instructions address problems that troubled the new king regarding “right action” (dharma)
• Problems include how to understand kingship with its violence and opportunism, and how to reconcile ancient forms of religion with new ideas of rebirth.

Fitzgerald

• Yoga is focused on the individual, contrasting Vedic practice
• Yoga is viewed as a "regime of 'psycho-somatic technology'"
• Tensions are highlighted by mokṣa / siddhi, jñāna / karma, and the importance of yoga versus the difficulty of its path

Yoga as a Self-Conscious School

• Yoga is seen as a "School" of thought (darśana or "View")
• Yoga darśana is "The School of Mastery by means of yoga harnessing"
• Closely linked to the Sāmkhya darśana, "The School of Total Knowledge"
• It involves levels of being and aims for radical disaffection from the world (vairagya), disassociating from life's stimuli.
• Achieved through systematic contemplation
• Highlights the duality of puruṣa (spirit) and prakṛti (matter, nature), characterized by the three guṇas (qualities).

Exploration of Yoga traditions within the Mahābhārata and the context of the Upaniṣads. The lesson covers the rise of urban centers, Buddhism, and Jainism in first millennium BCE India. It also contrasts ascetic withdrawal with social engagement and interpretations of dharma.