Meera Nanda on Yoga not being Hindu

[mohanty]

No sweat Sahasranama ji

I found that blogger Sandeep has posted a rebuttal to Meera Nanda's ignorant article: http://www.sandeepweb.com/2011/02/15...nce-revisited/

[Sahasranama]

Very nice, he also links to a great blog article there:
http://bharatendu.wordpress.com/2011...-hindu-legacy/

As the limb asana is under attack, so is the mention of Ishvara Pranidhana. Some Buddhists like Goenka and new agists are claiming Ishvara Pranidhana was unimportant to patanjali. They say it's just one of the niyamas and nothing more. This can be easily disproved by the fact that from all the yamas and niyamas, patanjali selects three for the kriya yoga sadhana (tapa, svadhyaya, ishvara pranidhana) and only one he says can lead to samadhi on its own merit which is Ishvara Pranidhana.

[devotee]

Namaste Mohanty,

Actually I do think we need to play the been in front of the bhains. The bhains may never change, but the people she is misleading with her propaganda should get to hear the other side of the story.

Agreed ! But where is the Bhains ? Anyway, there may be some people who be interested to know the Truth :

1) First of all, the bhains should understand that Yoga has eight limbs & what she is talking about is only Yogaasanaas and PraaNaayaam which are needed to be physically and mentally ready for the real Yoga.

2) The Yogaasanaas and PraaNaayaams are not only mentioned in various Upanishads but a detail description is given on how to do it correctly. I will quote only a few here :

Jabaaldarshan Upanishad :

This Upanishad talks about 9 types of (Yoga)Aasans. These are :

a) Swastika Aasan
b) Gomukhaasan
c) Padmaasan
d) Veeraasan
e) Sinhaasan
f) Bhadraasan
g) Muktaasan
h) Mayur aasan
i) Sukhaasan

This same Upanishda talks of the ways to do PraaNaayaam. It tells us how to do Poorak, Kumbhak and Rechak which are the three basic things to know in PraaNaayaam. PraaNaayaam has been given very high importance in Saadhanaa and therefore it has been carefully explained in various Upanishads at many places.

YogachooRamaNi Upanishad :

This Upanishad explains these Mudras/bandhs/Aasans :

a) Mahaamudraa
b) Nabhomudraa
c) Uddayaan
d) Jalandhar bandh
e) Moola bandh
f) Paschimottan
g) Khechari
h) Baddha Padmaasan
i) Surya and Chandra PraaNaayaam

TrishikhabrahmaNaupanishad :

It explains :

a) Sawastika Aasan
b) Gomukhaasan
c) Veeraasan
d) Yogaasan
e) Padmaasan
f) Baddha Padmaasan
g) Kukkuta aasan
h) Uttaan Kurmaasan
i) Dhanuraasan
j) Sinhaasan
k) Bhadraasan
l) Muktaasan
m) Mayuraasan
n) Siddhaasan
o) Paschimottaanaasan
p) Sukhaasan
q) Naadi sodhan praaNyaam
r) PraaNaayaam and its benefits

I hope that the above should be sufficient to show that bhains is really a bhains and cannot be expected to know much ... but how can we stop her from bellowing ? Being ignorant is not a crime in itself but claiming to be expert & ridiculing others because one himself/herself is ignorant is certainly not pardonable. She deserves no respect from me.

OM

[Sahasranama]

Thank you for the references, there are also 20 upanishads known as the yogopanishads.

अद्वयतारकोपनिषत्, योगकुण्डल्युपनिषत्, योगचूड़ामण्युपनिषत्, योगतत्त्वोपनिषत्, योगशिखोपनिषत्, दर्शनोपनिषत् त्रिशिखाब्राह्मणोपनिषत्, अमृतनादोपनिषत्, अमृतबिन्दुपनिषत्, क्षुरिकोपनिषत्, तेजोबिन्दुपनिषत्, ध्यानबिन्दूपनिषत्, पशुपतब्राह्मणोपनिषत्, ब्रह्मविद्योपनिषत्, महावाक्योपनिषत्, वाराहोपनिषत्, शाण्डिल्योपनिषत्, हंसोपनिषत्।

[mohanty]

I hope that the above should be sufficient to show that bhains is really a bhains and cannot be expected to know much ... but how can we stop her from bellowing ? Being ignorant is not a crime in itself but claiming to be expert & ridiculing others because one himself/herself is ignorant is certainly not pardonable. She deserves no respect from me.

As I said, this is not for the Bhains. It's for the people who ONLY get to hear her bellowing. It's a noise game. We need to bellow too.

[Sahasranama]

People like Meera Nanda and Deepak Chopra are trying to discredit Hinduism for the gift of yoga. Meera Nanda is an academian and Deepak Chopra is very popular "spiritual" teacher, he even appeared in the latest comedy movie "little fockers." If those influential people are trying to discredit Hinduism, we Hindus should not take it lightly. Only Hindus can defend themselves in this case, because no one else cares where yoga comes from. We (Hindus) are also the only people who have the knowledge to defend ourselves. Even the great friend of Hinduism and India, Dr. Koenraad Elst doesn't understand the nuances of Hindu philosophy which is evident after I read his dutch book "De donkere zijde van het Boeddhisme " (The dark side of Buddhism, not available in English). We need people like Vamadeva Shastri (David Frawley) who are both practicing Hindus and scholars of Hinduism.

||KrthaGHnasya na Nishkrutih||
There is no atonement for the ungrateful

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam: Here's another attempt to help stop it.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a....cms?prtpage=1

Hopefully such full documentation will at least stop the foolish patenting of it. Unfortunately money talks.

Aum Namasivaya

[mohanty]

Oh nice! And thanks for the link Mr. Mind.

ToI, for all it's alleged ****, does make some kind of an attention towards keeping India's claim on Indian things intact.

[Adhvagat]

I guess westerners even invented the term right? It must be derived from Yogurt.

[mohanty]

And the first ever Yogi was Yogi Bear of course.