Why so many kinds of Meditation?

Often people are confused about so many varieties of meditation, as each and every centers of yoga around the world promote different kinds of meditation. A common person who wants to learn this technique of achieving relaxation often gets confused about the selection of the type of meditation. All of them are probably good and lead to the good feeling but which one is the best?

The list can be extended if we want to hundred even.

You can easily note that most of these meditations are promoted by one guru (spiritual leader) or other. Transcendental meditation has been promoted by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi where as the Vipassana has a Buddhist origin. Sahaja Yoga has been promoted by Matajee Nirmala Devi whereas Brahmakumari group has promoted their brand of meditation. The real cause seems to be the attitude of the person or groups promoting a particular type of meditation.

If we analyze deeply almost all kinds of meditation are having similar components and each has similar effects. When a scientist studies many kinds of meditation with an open scientific mind he can easily make the similarity. Dr. H. Benson a well known medical scientist from Boston, USA carried out an extensive study on all kinds of meditation and found they were similar.

DIFFERENT SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT                

Types of Yoga                                             

Different groups or people who practiced yoga in the past hundreds and thousands of years have given more importance to one component of Yoga or the other. Some have made Asanas more important which make Yoga a kind of Physical exercise in their system. Some have modified yoga according to their perceptions. Rajyoga, Layayoga, Karmayoga – are some of the schools of yoga promoted by different groups.

Yoga Schools

The different yoga schools simply adhere to different applications of inner discipline, all of which ultimately lead to the liberation of the soul and to a unique understanding of the Divine Unity. The schools are merely named according to the yogi’s objective of self-transformation and the instrument chosen for such anticipated change.

The yoga schools are:

Purna Yoga                                                         

Ashtanga Yoga and its different variations, for the most part, aim at the fullest development of any human faculty the mind, emotions, life-force or the physical body. Such partial perfection is then allowed to spill over to one’s entire being. But Sri Aurobindo Purna Yoga or Integral Yoga focuses on the whole being in order to bring about total transformation. The approach, objective and means of Purna Yoga are all integral in essence.

In his philosophy, Rishi Aurobindo termed this rarefied region of higher consciousness as the “Supramental Consciousness”, the attainment of which is necessary for the liberation of the soul. The Master believed this stage of spiritual awareness to be potentially the ultimate rung on the human evolutionary ladder.

And the realization of this “Supramental Consciousness” is the principal aspiration of Sri Aurobindo’s Purna Yoga or Integral Yoga.

Gyana Yoga

Gyana refers to knowledge but the emphasis is not on acquiring information but on developing the analytical powers of the mind. The manner in which the power of analysis is applied depends on the metaphysical system within which it is practiced. In the Samkhya System of Indian philosophy, the focus is on understanding one’s own inner self. In Advaita (non-dualist Vedanta philosophy), the idea is to understand the difference between reality and illusion.

Bhakti Yoga

Bhakti yoga is all about getting in touch with the Divine being by following the outpourings of one’s heart. The term ‘bhakti’ can be roughly translated to mean ‘devotion’, and this emotion coupled with the Christian concept of faith leads to a state of mind which can be described as being immersed in bhakti. This strand of yoga principally advocates love and devotion as the path to moksha or liberation.

Karma Yoga

According to the Bhagvad Gita, the three different paths of yoga (gyana, bhakti and karma) help to define three different categories of men, reflective, emotional and active, respectively, distinguished on account of the distribution of emphasis on the theoretical, emotional and practical aspects of human personalities.

Raj Yoga

Raj Yoga or Ashtanga yoga, which was formulated by Patanjali into a definite system from classical yoga, forms one of the Shad Darshanas or classical syatems of Indian philosophy. The school of Raja yoga prescribes to a particular meditative system, which focuses on the analysis and control of the field of human consciousness. Often known as the ‘royal road’ or the ‘royal path’. It  offers a comprehensive method for controlling waves of thought by channeling mental and physical energies into spiritual energy.

Hatha Yoga

The school of Hatha Yoga attaches a lot of importance to the perfect physical form, believing it to be a way of attaining spiritual perfection. And to this end it takes the help of pranayama (breath control exercises) and mudras (hand gestures) to attain self realization.

Often seen as part of Raja Yoga, the origins of Hatha Yoga can be traced to Gorakhnath, the 12^th century founder of the Kanphata Yogis. The word ‘hatha’ is derived from the two root terms; ‘ha’ means the sun and ‘tha’ means the moon. Taken together, the term stands for ‘union of force’. Hence, central to Hatha Yoga disciplines is the harmonizing of its positive (sun) and negative (moon) currents.

Kundalini

Kundalini is the potential form of prana or life force, lying dormant in our bodies. It is conceptualized as a coiled up serpent (literally, ‘kundalini’ in Sanskrit is ‘coiled up’) lying at the base of our spine, which can spring awake when activated by spiritual disciplines. The practitioners of Kundalini Yoga concentrate on psychic centers or chakras in the body in order to generate a spiritual power, which is known as kundalini energy.

Mantra Yoga

Mantra Yoga refers to the repetition of mantras (words or sounds) during various yoga meditation techniques. This ritualistic chanting helps bind the mind to a single thought until it attains the state of Samadhi.

Tantra Yoga

The Tantra school equates spiritual awakening with the awakening and rising of the kundalini power. According to tantra, the kundalini is present in everything even in the smallest of particles, in the form of cosmic energy. Only a fraction of it is operative, while an unmeasured residue is left ‘coiled up’ and untapped at the ‘base root’.     

Hope you liked this blog!

This blog is written by Dr. Bimal Chhajer (India’s best heart doctor)