Atma Yoga Series -1: Types of Yoga & Ladder of Yoga

May 07, 2023 Sunday

Houston, Texas

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There are 5 main categories of Yoga:

1. Kundalini Yoga
2. Buddhi Yoga
3. Ahankar Yoga (This is more subtle and a doorway to Atma Yoga)
4. Atma Yoga
5. Adhi-Atma Yoga
   1. Adhi-Atma Yoga is connecting with their respective Supreme/ First/ Param-Atmas.
   2. The connection or relationship between param-atmas (unlimited entities) and jiva-atmas (limited entities) are already established at the dawn of this universe's creation.
   3. When jiva-atmas came out of Brahman effulgence at the time of creation of this universe, these jivatama were hot or cold and were attracted to each Param-atmas and consequently, their entanglement with this subtle-gross material nature was kick-started for eons.
   4. Adhi-Atma yoga is going back to the respective origin deity, from whom this jivatama got inherently attracted at first and got entangled in prakriti, only that respective Paramatma can unentangle the jivatma from this Prakriti (Subtle-Gross Material Energy Levels of Gross Mundane Potency)
   5. This needs very advanced Mystic Yoga and Bhakti Yoga (not just bhakti) at Atma Yoga level to establish the Adhi-atma Yogic connection again with respective Param-atmas after eons of entanglement with Prakriti.
   6. Psyche has to be purified at a high level over several lives to secure such a relationship, it is not the impure surface-level emotional connection or devotion that the mind drums up towards Paramatmas in the name of Bhakti or devotion towards God to get recognition at society level, even though it can be a decent starting point (some cases, it may not be). 

Philosophy of Ladder of Yoga:

Kundalini is a great starting point to reach higher levels of Yoga, some great Yogis might have skipped Kundalini or Buddhi Yoga due to their past life rigorous austerities and may directly start Atma Yoga or Adhi-Atma Yoga.

Eg: Ramakrishna Paramhamsa is a great example who can effortlessly be in samadhi or absorption in higher states for hours without any hatha yoga in this life and converse with Kali Ma like mother-son. These are example of great beings who have perfected several stages of Yoga in previous life.

Another great example is Ramana Maharishi who has perfected Hatha Yoga austerities in previous life and directly touched Atma Yoga in the last life and stayed there and did not come out. These are some handful of great exceptions, the remaining all should start from Kundalini Yoga → Buddhi Yoga → Ahankar Yoga → Atma Yoga → Adhi-Atma Yoga

Every stage of Yoga has its respective advantages and limitations until one reaches the final stage of Adhi-Atma Yoga. Each limitation of the Lower forms of Yoga is transcended by moving gradually to a higher and more subtler form of Yoga.

Some of them are happy at respective stages or outposts of Yoga like Kundalini Yoga, Buddhi Yoga, or Atma Yoga. 

So, each practitioner keeps their respective destination back of their mind and climbs the yogic ladder, their final destinations vary according to the Atma's inherent nature and other factors as listed below:

1. Level of practice (Sadhana)
2. Push or evolution from Material Nature (Prakriti)
3. The type of atma itself is attracted to certain outposts or planes like Brahman Effulgence levels, Emptiness planes, etc, and is not interested to transcend above it.
4. Pull from Paramatmas like Shivas, Buddhas, Krishna, Vishnus, etc

Here is the pictorial representation of the Ladder of Yoga with more information and the respective deities supervising :

The Deity information is based on information from Udhava Gita & Bhagavad Gita.