Purna Yoga - Poses and Postures

• Philosophy Of Purna Yoga Or Integral Yoga
• Practice Of Purna Yoga

Philosophy Of Purna Yoga Or Integral Yoga - Yoga Poses and Postures

Yoga Poses and Postures

Purna yoga is also known as Integral yoga. The philosophy of Purna yoga is based on the recognition of importance of perfect integration of the human being with the divine consciousness at all levels of existence. This is a very difficult pathway of yoga and requires complete dedication and support of a guru. The people seeking only a few yogic benefits should not try to attempt this style as this would not be beneficial to them in any way.

Purna yoga is a way of integrating the being with the divine at many levels. These are integration of the inner self with the divine, integration of the human psyche with the divine and integration of the soul with the ultimate divine consciousness. This is a dynamic form of yoga and incorporates many other forms also at least in part, if not as a whole. The pathway is certainly not easy and it involves the usage of all human faculties and goes even beyond the human body to integrate the self and the divine. This is rather a complicated process and has to be understood completely before attempting.

In the modern times Sri Aurobindo in the main educator of this age old practice of yoga. With the tireless efforts of this guru new dimensions and new definitions to this ancient practice of yoga were made possible. He made it comprehensible and accessible to the common man.

Purna yoga is based on the self affirmative action which reaches out to the search of the divine incorporating all the human senses and ultimately the soul also. It includes a pathway of positive action of Karma yoga. It is also the pathway of deep devotional love as in Bhakti yoga. It amalgamates all the knowledge as in Gyana yoga but still it is not about forceful detachment of mental faculties to direct them towards God. It is yoga of complete integration of the self through action, wisdom, peace and love. Integral yoga sees love in the spiritual form as the highest sense of achievement and experience of the divine in itself. The experience of such love leads the path to wisdom that is divine in its fundamental nature. Integral yoga suggests that action alone is not possible to purify the soul that could lead the Sadhak on the path to salvation. Action, wisdom, love and knowledge have to be used as a means of self purification of the soul.

The object of Integral or Purna yoga is to allow the self to become an instrument for the divine to manifest. All the human faculties are given to an individual for this greater cause only. The instrument of the human body is made available only to get absorbed into and experience the divine in every way. The consciousness of the self should be awakened so that the divine can descend upon it. This has to be done for the sake of the divine alone, not as a reason of upliftment of the self. The self is just an instrument to reach the divine. The passage towards the divine consciousness happens first at the stage of the body, then at the stage of the mind and then at the stage of the soul and ultimately the self becomes completely integrated into the divine so that there remains no difference between the self and the divine.

The Purna yoga insists on submitting the self completely to the service of the divine and to nobody else. It embellishes the importance of transcending all the physical, mental and emotional barriers so that the power of supernatural can descend with all his divine glory into the self. This can happen only when complete submission happens between the self and the divine.

This yoga believes in complete renouncing of the world for the sake of achievement of the integration with the divine. It recognizes the world as the path of distraction which will not allow the descent of the divine and almighty into the self. Many steps have to taken in order to make this descent possible. It is not a task that can happen in quick succession of events and within a short while. The Purna yoga philosophy believes that normally a human being lives in a very superficial stage of conscious existence where he performs all his actions with a certain routine monotony. In this stage of consciousness he cannot achieve integration with the divine even if he continues to pray each and every day of his life.

This superficial stage of consciousness has to be awakened into something that is mystical in its essence. It is experiencing the beyond, which is a level up and above the basic state of existence. At this stage, and the further stages to follow, the being becomes receptive to the divine. Then the passage of smooth descent of the divine is actually made possible. This stage is of awakening to the reality of existence of self, which takes birth for the sole reason of becoming an instrument of integration with the divine. The human birth has the opportunity of divine realization, which is not possessed by lower forms of births. This instrumental characteristic of self is to be recognized for the sake of better harmonization of this life and to realize the real purpose of the existence.

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