Vaidya, Part Five, Yajña, Puja And Yoga

The Vedic sacrifice or yajna was the specific religious activity practiced by the Aryan invaders, according to accepted academic views. The ritual of puja or worship, as it is performed in most Hindu temples today, is according to this view a result of the influence of the non Aryan peoples who lived in the sub continent before the Aryan invasion. Also yoga, the spiritual practice which concentrates on individual spiritual achievement, and especially the attainment of liberation or moksha is thought to have had a non Aryan origin. These three main branches of spiritual practice within the Hindu tradition are thought to be quite contradictory to one another. But although they may seem to have very different appearance at the outer level, at their core they are actually rooted in the same worldview or doctrine and based on the same cosmic spiritual principle. Each can be developed or evolved from the other through the application of the principles of resemblance, replacement and correspondence.

All three spiritual sadhanas have as the core of their functioning the principle of arohana and avarohana, or ascend and descend. In a way it can be said that this is their essential secret and mystery. In the Vedic sacrifice the sacrificer ascends to 'heaven', but in order to complete the sacrifice and make it successful it is imperative that he also descends, returning to his point of origin after the transforming experience of the ritual.

The Agamic tradition also incorporates this same principle through the ascend and descend of the deities flag in connection with for instance temple festivals. The Flag is painted with the particular sacred vehicle of the deity. For instance the sacred bull for Lord Shiva and the lion for the Goddess. This Flag is hoisted into the Flag mast of the temple, to be lowered after the conclusion of the festival.

In yoga, and especially in one of its branches, Kundalini yoga, we find once again this same cosmic, spiritual principle at work. The Kundalini energy, visualized as a snake curled up at the root. of the spine, is raised through the practice of yoga. Eventually it must reach the seventh chakra or Sahasrara at the very top of the skull. This establishes the connection of the human jives with the transcendental divine cosmic energy. But to actually successfully complete this sadhana it is imperative to bring the Kundalini energy back to its origin at the root of the spine. It is my personal experience that this principle is not well known to many Western teachers and practitioners of yoga, which leads to many misunderstandings and even damage to their well being.

We may note here that in the so called 'primitive' religious practice of the Shamanistic religions the same principle is at work. The Shaman, sometimes accompanied by his patient, ascends to the other world, to 'heaven', communicates with the spiritual powers which inhabit this world, and eventually descends again, having accomplished the objective of his spiritual .journey. To me this establishes the strong unity which exists at the deepest level of the human spiritual experience. It also shows human spiritual practice did not have its origin in ignorance, superstition or fear of the reality, but in deep cosmic truths which underlie our existence. And it can also serve as evidence that so called tribal and village cults, which Indologists claim to be outside the Hindu ‘fold’, also have their roots and origins in the same spiritual and cosmic principles.