Tracing the Path of Yoga: The History and Philosophy of Indian Mind-Body Discipline

454 Pages·2021·2.996 MB·English

by  Stuart Ray Sarbacker

Tracing the Path of Yoga

Tracing the Path of Yoga
The History and Philosophy
of Indian Mind-Body Discipline
STUART RAY SARBACKER
Cover: Vajrasattva Buddha (anonymous devotional art; author’s collection)
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2021 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Name: Sarbacker, Stuart Ray, author.
Title: Tracing the path of yoga : the history and philosophy of Indian mind-body
discipline / Stuart Ray Sarbacker, author.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2021] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: ISBN 9781438481210 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438481234
(ebook)
Further information is available at the Library of Congress.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To My Parents, John and Margaret Sarbacker
pitrośca pūjanaṃ kṛtvā prakrāntiṃ ca karoti yaḥ /
tasya vai pṛthivījanyaṃ phalaṃ bhavati niścitam //
And one who, having revered the parents, performs circumambulation
[of them];
That one, indeed, obtains merit equal to that arising from
[circumambulating] the earth.
—Śiva Purāṇa 2.4.19.39

Contents
Acknowledgments ix

Pronunciation Guide for Sanskrit Terms xiii
Introduction
The History and Philosophy of Yoga 1
Chapter 1
Defining Yoga 9
Chapter 2
The Prehistory of Yoga: The Indus Civilization and the
Vedic Tradition 39
Chapter 3
Brāhmaṇical Asceticism and Śramaṇa Traditions 59
Chapter 4
The Classical Hindu Model of Yoga: Pātañjala Yoga
and Aṣṭāṅgayoga 89
Chapter 5
Hindu Epic, Purāṇic, and Scholastic Representations of Yoga 107
Chapter 6
Classical Śramaṇa Traditions of Yoga 127
viii Contents
Chapter 7
The Medieval Transformation of Yoga: Bhakti, Tantra,
and Haṭhayoga 147
Chapter 8
Modern Yoga Traditions 183
Conclusion
Tracing the Path of Yoga 235
Notes 239
Works Cited 317
Index 359
Acknowledgments
The work that follows was inspired by a number of scholars of Indian
philosophy and religion whose work has deeply informed my research on
the history and philosophy of yoga traditions. Perhaps foremost among
them is Mircea Eliade, whose work Yoga: Immortality and Freedom (1954)
continues to produce insight into yoga traditions for me after numerous
readings, to the point that I wonder if I will ever fully get to the bottom
of it. Another important figure in the field of yoga studies whose work
has provided a context for the development of my own has been Georg
Feuerstein, whose books, including Yoga: The Technology of Ecstasy (1989)
and The Yoga Tradition (1998), have been some of the most well-known,
scholarly informed popular narratives of yoga’s history. I was touched when
Georg wrote an appreciative review of my first book, Samādhi: The Numi-
nous and Cessative in Indo-Tibetan Yoga (2005), encouraging me to pursue
my research further. Another major source of inspiration and influence
has been the work of David Gordon White, whose monographs, such as
The Alchemical Body (1996), Kiss of the Yogini (2003), and Sinister Yogis
(2009), and edited volumes, such as Tantra in Practice (2000) and Yoga
in Practice (2012), have brought a critical eye and historical consciousness
to the academic study of yoga traditions. White’s determined attention
on the pursuit of spiritual accomplishment or perfection (siddhi) in yoga
as a counterpart to the larger emphasis in the field on liberation (mokṣa)
was a key catalyst for my thinking on the topic, and I am grateful for his
formative influence on my work. Geoffrey Samuel’s work on the history of
yoga and tantra has deeply informed my understanding of the social and
political contexts that frame the practice of yoga, a topic he investigates at
length in his book The Origins of Yoga and Tantra: Indic Religions to the
ix