Jesus and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali are a collection of 196 Indian sutras on the theory and practice of yoga. The Yoga Sutras is a Hindu scripture, compiled prior to 400 CE by Sage Patanjali, who synthesized and organized knowledge about yoga from older traditions. Wikipedia.
What is Yoga?
The traditional meaning of Yoga is ‘union’ — union with the Absolute Self, God. However, the Yoga Sutras are not about ‘union’ as yoga is traditionally understood. They are about ‘disidentification’ and ‘separation’.
Our True Identity
The philosophy behind the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is that we are purusha, or pure consciousness. However, we are caught in the web of prakrti, which is all the material stuff we identify with in this materialistic world. The point of yoga according to Patanjali is the disidentification with prakrti and the realization of our true essence in the experience of samadhi, which is union with the divine, our true self.
Jesus
In the Gospel of Mark we find this passage: “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:43–48).
This is a symbolic passage in which we read about Jesus encouraging his followers to avoid sinning by letting go of the things to which they are intimately attached, metaphorically by cutting off various limbs of the body. It is not so much that we need to literally cut off a foot, or pluck out an eye, but rather we ought to separate, or disidentify from those things to which we are attached if they distract us from living according to our true identity, which is that we are made in God’s image and likeness.
Image and Likeness of God = Union with the Absolute Self?
According to Christianity, everyone is made in the image and likeness of God. In this passage from Mark, Jesus is pointing out that we can become so attached to things in this life that they can obscure our innate divinity, our self as image of God, our likeness to God. So we may need to detach from those things that distract us from our true nature.
The Yoga Sutras’ teaching about the separation from the things we are attached to in this world, which obscure our true self, parallels Jesus’ teaching about plucking out an eye or cutting off a foot if they cause a person to sin.
The Christian realization that we are made in the image and likeness of God and Patanjali’s teaching about the Absolute or true self seem to have parallel meanings.
Our True Home
Patanjali’s viewpoint is that we are pure consciousness, temporarily in our bodies in this world. And because our pure consciousness is embodied in the here and now, we can easily mistake the things we become attached to in this world as defining who we are. This attachment obscures our grasp of who we really are, which is pure consciousness temporarily enfleshed in a body, in this world, in a particular culture.
From the Christian viewpoint, we are children of God, made in God’s image and likeness, temporarily in this body in this world. For Patanjali, experiencing our true self — samadhi — begins now, not just after rebirth. For Jesus, experiencing our true self — that we are made in God’s image and likeness — begins now, not just after dying and going to heaven.
The Spiritual Life
Disidentification and separation from what obscures our true nature is the path of yoga as defined by Patanjali, and it is the path of holiness as defined by Jesus. That is a spiritual path common to both religious traditions.
According to Patanjali we separate ourselves from what we think we are in this world through the practice of yoga. This is the whole point of yoga for Patanjali: disidentification from prakrti, the material stuff we identify with in this world. How do we do that?
For Patanjali the first practice is detachment and practices that silence, quiet the mind. A person needs to struggle against the things that fill the mind, but it’s important also to be detached from the struggle itself!
Silencing the Mind
The process for quieting the mind is the practice of yoga. And anything that helps bring silence to the mind is considered yoga.
In a similar way Christians also need to quiet the mind in order to experience the reality of being made in God’s image and likeness. As yoga helps Hindus to silence the mind, yoga can also help focus the mind of the Christian. And as yoga is anything that helps quiet the mind, many Christian practices can also be considered as a form of Christian yoga.
Take for example the recitation of the Rosary. Repetitive prayer and holding the rosary beads helps focus the mind and clear the mind of other distractions. Chanting the rosary is a good example of Christian yoga and a good way to quiet the mind as it also provides the context in which one can experience the realization of being made in God’s image and likeness.
The Catholic Mass is a kind of yoga as well. The Eucharistic celebration is a ceremony in which each person’s mind is constantly being focused on one’s divine nature. As soon as you walk into a Church there is a fount of Holy Water with which a person makes the sign of the cross, a reminder of one’s baptism and of being a child of God.
In the Church there are flickering candles, liturgical music, readings from Holy Scripture, gestures, and ultimately the reception of holy communion. These are all reminders for a Christian to wake up to the reality of being made in God’s image and likeness. The Catholic Mass is like a series of yoga poses intended to quiet the mind and to create the context for realizing one’s divine self.
What’s the Endgame?
The experience of our true nature, as pure consciousness and as beings made in the image and likeness of God, impacts how we treat one another. When we realize our true nature as Christians or Hindus, we see everyone we meet as also being who we are: pure consciousness, made in the image and likeness of God. This is the what authentic mysticism does, it impacts one’s self understanding and a result one’s ethics as well,
