KIRAN ATMA: Separation

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Hinduism - What Is Viraha?

Viraha means “separation” in classical Sanskrit poetry. Much of vernacular devotional (bhakti) poetry, has Viraha as a well-established poetic genre.

Whether the separated lovers are two human beings or devotee (bhakta) and deity, the genre focuses on describing the pain that results from the separation of lover and beloved.

Separation is thought to cause specific physical symptoms, which the poets describe in great detail—lack of appetite, insomnia, inability to attend to daily life, or think about anyone but the beloved.

Because love in union is sweetened by the presence of the beloved, whereas the former must stand alone, the type of love felt in such separation is thought to engender an even more intense love for the beloved than love in union.

~Kiran Atma

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YOGA - ILLUSION AS MATERIAL REALITY.

What does this mean in terms of yoga and physical philosophy?

One may argue that humans participate in acts, and that via their actions, they express what is latent in prakriti.

In yoga philosophy, "activity" is referred to as karma and has a variety of meanings.

It refers to "cause and effect," "physical movement" (Nyaya-Upanishads), and "any action undertaken in the course of material existence" (Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja and Bhaktivinoda hkura 2015).

Mircea Eliade identified phenomena manifested via cause and effect as maya - ephemeral sensations granted reality but which were deceptive – in his early examination of yogis in India.

Yoga practitioners thought that the real essence of life was a single, eternal, and unchanging oneness, and that ignorance of an unchanging, basic Self could be transcended by the practice of yoga.

Though much is hypothetical when it comes to ancient minds and civilizations' meditative and active activities, one core assumption of early yogic teachings is that the person might come to experience this state of a reality that seems to be different from that which is obvious.

Separation was defined as the individual's erroneous conviction that their own existence was the genuine reality.

To break free from maya, yogis practiced great austerities in order to conquer the body's and mind's reliance on sensory input, attempting to gaze "inwards" to discover what was fundamental in the cosmos.

To put it another way, they were looking for a negation of "self," which they perceived as either a barrier to comprehension or the source of the illusion of separateness from the vast unity.

They put themselves in uncomfortable circumstances in order to attain mastery — to bring about significant and enduring change (standing on one leg or holding the arm in the air until the muscles wither; remaining motionless under the blazing hot sun).

Postures might last for hours or, in severe cases, years.

This pursuit of extreme postures and exposure to extreme events was apparently done in the notion that success in relatively benign circumstances would not ensure success under pressure, and that the results were less evident.

This necessitated a steadfast dedication to the inquiry of stopping to connect with the body and personality - an attempt to achieve an experience of "no activity," changelessness.

~ Kiran Atma

You may also want to read more about Gnani Yoga here.

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References & Further Reading:

Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja, Sri Srimad and Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Pure Bhakti: Bhajana-rahasya, 2nd Edition. New Delhi: Gaudiya Vedanta Publications, 2015.

Birch, Jason. “The proliferation of asana-s in late-medieval yoga texts.” In Yoga and transformation historical and contemporary perspectives, edited by Karl Baier, Philipp A. Maas, and Karin Preisendanz, 101–180. Vienna: Vienna University Press, 2018.

Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. The dance of Siva: essays on Indian art and culture.

New York: Dover, 1985.

Cooper, David E. “Introduction.” In Aesthetics: the classic readings, edited by David E. Cooper, 1–10. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1997.

Eliade, Mircea. Yoga immortality and freedom, translated by Willard R. Trask.

Princeton: Bollingen Foundation, Princeton University Press, 1958.

Herbermann, Charles, ed. “The Absolute.” In Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1913.

Jakubczak, Marzenna. “The purpose of non-theistic devotion in the classical Indian tradition of Sāmkhya-Yoga.” Argument, vol. 4 (January, 2014): 55–68.

Jaspers, Karl. The origin and goal of history, translated by Michael Bullock. London: Routledge, 1955.

Johnson, Williams J., translator. The Bhagavad Gita. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Lewis-Williams, David and David Pearce. Inside the neolithic mind. London: Thames and Hudson, 2005.

Mallinson, James and Mark Singleton. Roots of yoga. New York: Penguin Books, 2017.

McGilchrist, Iain. The master and his emissary: the divided brain and the making of the Western world. New Haven: Yale, 2009.

Rama, Swami. The science of breath. Delhi: The Himalayan Institute Press, 1979.

Rama, Swami. Sacred journey: living purposefully and dying gracefully. Delhi: Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust, 2002.

Rees, Martin. Our cosmic habitat. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.

Sinh, Pancham. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika: Sanskrit text with English translation. New

Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 1915.

Sinha, Phulgenda. The Gita as it was: rediscovering the original Bhagavad Gita. LaSalle: Open Court, 1986.

Stark, Rodney and William Sims Bainbridge. The future of religion. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.