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Sanskrítarhugtakið '''''jóga''''' þýðir „guðleg sameining,“ eða sameining þín og Guðs – þess vegna „''jóga''. Margar iðkanir sem eru framandi í hinum vestræna heimi eru tíðkast á meðal austurlenskra leitenda em leitast við að sameinast æðra sjálfinu. Sumar þessa iðkana krefjast strangs aga; Vesturlandabúar kunna reyndar að telja þær harðdrægnislegar.  

Orðið ''jóga'' hefur sömu rót og enska orðið yoke [sem samsvarar ok eða klafi á íslensku]. Þannig má skilja að jóga sé aðferð til andlegrar sameiningar. [[Jesús]] sagði: „Takið á yður mitt ok og lærið af mér, ... Því að mitt ok er ljúft og byrði mín létt.“<ref>Matt. 11:30.</ref> Kannski var hann í raun að segja: "Takið á yður mitt jóga." Því að Jesús hafði jóga. Hann stundaði ákveðna agaþjálfun þar sem hann var þjálfaður í ferðum sínum um Austurlönd. 

<span id="The_principle_types_of_yoga"></span>
== Helstu tegundir jóga ==

Til þess að skilja til fulls hið æðsta jóga, agni jóga, verðum við að vera meðvituð um hinar ýmsu gerðir jóga eins og þær hafa verið stundaðar í gegnum aldirnar af unnendum hinnar guðdómlegu móður. 

Til eru fjórar helstu tegundir jógaiðkunar

* [[jnana jóga]], leið sameiningarinnar við Guð með þekkingu
* [[bhakti jóga]], leið kærleika og tilbeiðslu
* [[karma jóga]], leið óeigingjarns verknaðar
* [[raja yoga]], leið einbeitingar og hugleiðslu

Þessar fjórar jógagerðir má stilla upp innan fjögurra fjórðunga hinnar [[Kosmísku klukku]] — jnana jóga í hugræna fjórðungnum, bhakti jóga í geðræna fjórðunginn, karma jóga í efnislega fjórðungnum og raja jóga í ljósvakafjórðungnum. Innan allra fjögurra jógaaðferðinna er áskilin ástundun grunnreglna í siðferði, þar á meðal sannleiksgildi, hófsemi, hreinleiki og meinleysi gagnvart lífinu. 

Different types of people are suited to different types of yoga, but that doesn’t mean they must practice only one kind of yoga. In fact, Hinduism encourages us to test all four of the yogas as alternate pathways to God. They are not mutually exclusive, because no person is solely reflective, emotional, active or experimental. Different occasions call for different responses.

<span id="The_highest_yoga:_agni_yoga"></span>
== Æðsta tegund jóga: agni jóga ==

{{main-is|Agni yoga|Agni jóga}}

The highest yoga is ''agni yoga''. This is the yoga of fire—sacred fire. It is beyond the four types of yoga that apply to the four lower bodies, because it leads to the [[ascension]]. This yoga has been taught by all the [[messenger]]s of the [[Great White Brotherhood]]. Even the prophets of Israel were practitioners of fire yoga.

<span id="Hatha_yoga"></span>
== Hatha jóga ==

{{main-is|Hatha yoga|Hatha jóga}}

What many in the West think of as yoga is ''hatha yoga'', which is a system of physical practices that allows the control of breath and bodily functions. This form of yoga is only one of many yogas taught in the East.  

When practiced as an end in itself, hatha yoga can actually be a distraction from the path of God-realization, or union with God. But the ascended master [[Chananda]], chief of the Indian Council, recommends hatha yoga as 

<blockquote>... an appropriate sequence of the exercise of the physical body for the interaction with the spiritual bodies and the chakras....</blockquote>

<blockquote>It is not a physical exercise for the exercise of the physical body. It is divine movement for the release of light that is even locked in your physical cells and atoms, in your very physical heart. Releasing that light transmutes toxins, fatigue and opposition to your victory. And therefore, not endless hours but a period of meditation and concentration combined with these yoga postures daily will reap much good. It will give you a surcease from the stress of bearing the burden of world karma and the burden of that certain type of chaotic energy which is uniquely Western in its vibration, emanating from the mass consciousness of uncontrolled feeling bodies and the wanton and reckless misuse of the mental body.</blockquote>

<blockquote>This path is something that you can take up and yet not be deterred from your regular activity of service. We desire to see one-pointedness and discipline rise from the [[Base-of-the-spine chakra|base of the physical pyramid]] and ascend to the [[crown chakra|crown]]. Many of you have pursued the discipline from spiritual levels, drawing forth the light of the mighty [[I AM Presence]] down into the heart and into the lower vehicles. And this is as it should be, as the path of the Father is the descending light and the path of the Mother is the ascending light. Thus, we build from that foundation.<ref>Chananda, December 29, 1979.</ref></blockquote>

== Mantra yoga ==

{{main|Spoken Word}}

''Mantra yoga'' (like hatha yoga) is an adjunct to the principal forms of yoga. A [[mantra]] is a brief prayer that is given over and over again to develop the momentum of a particular virtue within the soul. The word ''mantra'' is taken from the Sanskrit, meaning “sacred counsel” or “formula.”

The repetition of the names of God—and of sacred mantras containing the names of God—is used by Hindus and Buddhists throughout India as a means of reunion with God. For the name of God ''is'' God, because the name is a chalice, a formula that carries his vibration. So God and his name are one. He gives you his name, you recite the name, then he gives you all of himself.  

Today in the West, many people have a difficult time meditating because their minds are so yin. They eat too much sugar and drink too many liquids like coffee and soft drinks, most of which have caffeine in them. These yin foods—and especially [[alcohol]] and recreational [[drugs]]—make it difficult to concentrate. 

To compensate for this weakness, we give mantras during our meditation. The mantras help us focus on words and on word pictures and visualizations. As we meditate and give these mantras, we are becoming one with the object of our concentration. The mantra keeps the mind in line. This was the grand solution of [[Saint Germain]] for all of his disciples in the West.

== The practice of yoga ==

Those in the East who practice yoga may develop special powers called [[siddhis]]. These include many of the miraculous feats we have heard of in the West: knowledge of the past and future, knowledge of past lives, great strength, walking on water, flying, bilocation, mastery of the elements, the ability to surround oneself with a blaze of light, and the ability to choose the time of one’s death. Some of these seemingly miraculous abilities were demonstrated by [[Jesus]] and by some modern Christian saints such as [[Padre Pio]].  

But the siddhis are not the goal. In fact, it is the supreme test of the yogi to give them up. Patanjali in his classic Yoga Sutras (written in the second century <small>B</small>.<small>C</small>.) refers to these supernatural powers as “obstacles to [[samadhi]].... By giving up even these powers, the seed of evil is destroyed and liberation follows.”<ref>Patanjali, Yoga Sutras 3:38, 51, in Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, trans., ''How to Know God'' (Hollywood, Calif.: Vedanta Press, 1981), pp. 188, 194.</ref> Jesus demonstrated this when he successfully passed the three tests of Satan in the wilderness.<ref>Matt. 4:1–11; Luke 4:1–12.</ref>   

You can be a yogi whether or not you practice any kind of physical yoga. You are a yogi when you take upon yourself the yoke of Jesus Christ, which is light and which is easy. You are a yogi under the [[ascended master]]s, you are a yogi as you perfect the science of the [[spoken Word]].

<span id="See_also"></span>
== Sjá einnig ==

[[Jnana jóga]]

[[Bhakti jóga]]

[[Karma jóga]]

[[Raja jóga]]

[[Hatha jóga]]

<span id="Sources"></span>
== Heimildir ==

{{MSP}}, 1. kafli, “The Highest Yoga”.
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