{"id":35373,"date":"2018-01-19T16:05:38","date_gmt":"2018-01-19T16:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/?p=35373"},"modified":"2023-07-22T18:54:03","modified_gmt":"2023-07-22T18:54:03","slug":"yoga-and-magic-the-most-ancient-reference-to-yoga-in-atharvaveda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/en\/yoga-and-magic-the-most-ancient-reference-to-yoga-in-atharvaveda\/","title":{"rendered":"Yoga and Magic. The Most Ancient Reference to Yoga in Atharvaveda"},"content":{"rendered":"
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They traditionally believe that the word \u201cyoga\u201d was not used in Vedas, at least in the context of designating a system of esoteric psycho-practices as we know it today. However, this is not quite the case.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Vedas indeed do not contain the word \u201cyoga\u201d as an absolute equivalent of the meaning we assign to it now, notwithstanding the presence of numerous derivatives of the root-word \u201cyuj\u201d. Some scholars explain this by suggesting that yoga was first practiced by the Dravidian people from where it was borrowed by the Vedic Tradition. I believe this to be a simplifying assumption. Each culture has its own system of esoteric psycho-practices. Moreover, methods and concepts of these systems that seem to be totally different at first glance are in any case adjacent in virtue of their having a single object \u2013 the human mind. Fusion of cultures is naturally followed by fusion of systems bringing a result that may be very quaint in form. Thus it whould be quite correct to speak about the \u201cproto-yoga\u201d of Vedas. You may find more details in my public lecture<\/a>.
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
However, my confidence as to the absence of references to yoga in Vedas has wavered recently, after I\u2019d come to know about a very interesting hymn from Atharvaveda. Let me remind that Atharvaveda was a collection of texts that we would today call a \u201cspell of magic\u201d and that were used mainly for solving different applied problems.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Here is the hymn text:<\/b>
\n
\n<\/b><\/div>\n
\u00edndrasya\u00faja st\u02b0\u00e9ndrasya s\u00e1ha st\u02b0\u00e9ndrasya b\u00e1la\u1e43 st\u02b0\u00e9ndrasya v\u012bry\u00e01\u1e43 st\u02b0\u00e9ndrasya nr\u0325m\u1e47\u00e1\u1e43 st\u02b0a \/\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
ji\u1e63\u1e47\u00e1ve y\u00f3g\u0101ya brahmayoga\u00edr vo yunajmi \/\/1\/\/\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
\u00edndrasya\u00faja st\u02b0\u00e9ndrasya s\u00e1ha st\u02b0\u00e9ndrasya b\u00e1la\u1e43 st\u02b0\u00e9ndrasya v\u012bry\u00e01\u1e43 st\u02b0\u00e9ndrasya nr\u0325m\u1e47\u00e1\u1e43 st\u02b0a \/\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
ji\u1e63\u1e47\u00e1ve y\u00f3g\u0101ya k\u1e63atrayoga\u00edr vo yunajmi \/\/2\/\/\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
\u00edndrasya\u00faja st\u02b0\u00e9ndrasya s\u00e1ha st\u02b0\u00e9ndrasya b\u00e1la\u1e43 st\u02b0\u00e9ndrasya v\u012bry\u00e01\u1e43 st\u02b0\u00e9ndrasya nr\u0325m\u1e47\u00e1\u1e43 st\u02b0a \/\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
ji\u1e63\u1e47\u00e1ve y\u00f3g\u0101yendrayoga\u00edr vo yunajmi \/\/3\/\/\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
\u00edndrasya\u00faja st\u02b0\u00e9ndrasya s\u00e1ha st\u02b0\u00e9ndrasya b\u00e1la\u1e43 st\u02b0\u00e9ndrasya v\u012bry\u00e01\u1e43 st\u02b0\u00e9ndrasya nr\u0325m\u1e47\u00e1\u1e43 st\u02b0a \/\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
ji\u1e63\u1e47\u00e1ve y\u00f3g\u0101ya somayoga\u00edr vo yunajmi \/\/4\/\/\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
\u00edndrasya\u00faja st\u02b0\u00e9ndrasya s\u00e1ha st\u02b0\u00e9ndrasya b\u00e1la\u1e43 st\u02b0\u00e9ndrasya v\u012bry\u00e01\u1e43 st\u02b0\u00e9ndrasya nr\u0325m\u1e47\u00e1\u1e43 st\u02b0a \/\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
ji\u1e63\u1e47\u00e1ve y\u00f3g\u0101y\u0101psuyoga\u00edr vo yunajmi \/\/5\/\/\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
\u00edndrasya\u00faja st\u02b0\u00e9ndrasya s\u00e1ha st\u02b0\u00e9ndrasya b\u00e1la\u1e43 st\u02b0\u00e9ndrasya v\u012bry\u00e01\u1e43 st\u02b0\u00e9ndrasya nr\u0325m\u1e47\u00e1\u1e43 st\u02b0a \/\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
ji\u1e63\u1e47\u00e1ve y\u00f3g\u0101ya v\u00ed\u015bv\u0101ni m\u0101 b\u02b0\u016bt\u0101\u0301ny \u00fapa ti\u1e63\u1e6d\u02b0antu yukt\u0101\u0301 ma \u0101pa st\u02b0a \/\/6\/\/\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
agn\u00e9r b\u02b0\u0101g\u00e1 st\u02b0a ap\u0101\u0301\u1e43 \u015bukr\u00e1m \u0101po dev\u012br v\u00e1rco asm\u0101\u0301su d\u02b0atta \/\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
praj\u0101\u0301pater vo d\u02b0\u0101\u0301mn\u0101sma\u00ed lok\u0101\u0301ya s\u0101daye \/\/7\/\/\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
\u00edndrasya b\u02b0\u0101g\u00e1 st\u02b0a ap\u0101\u0301\u1e43 \u015bukr\u00e1m \u0101po dev\u012br v\u00e1rco asm\u0101\u0301su d\u02b0atta \/\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
praj\u0101\u0301pater vo d\u02b0\u0101\u0301mn\u0101sma\u00ed lok\u0101\u0301ya s\u0101daye \/\/8\/\/\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
s\u00f3masya b\u02b0\u0101g\u00e1 st\u02b0a ap\u0101\u0301\u1e43 \u015bukr\u00e1m \u0101po dev\u012br v\u00e1rco asm\u0101\u0301su d\u02b0atta \/\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
praj\u0101\u0301pater vo d\u02b0\u0101\u0301mn\u0101sma\u00ed lok\u0101\u0301ya s\u0101daye \/\/9\/\/<\/i><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/b><\/div>\n
The approximate translation sounds as follows:<\/b>
\n
\n<\/b><\/div>\n
The Glow (ojas) of Indra, the Power of Indra, the Valor (virya) of Indra, the Manhood of Indra<\/i><\/div>\n
For victorious yoga (unity) by means of Brachman\u2019s unity I unite with you<\/i><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The lines then repeat so that \u201cBrachman\u2019s\u201d uniting element is replaced by \u201cKshatriya\u2019s\u201d \u201cIndra\u2019s\u201d, \u201cmoon\u2019s\u201d and so on.<\/div>\n
\n

As you can guess, the root yuj (the one the word \u201cyoga\u201d stems from) and its derivatives is trice played on in the second line of each verse. The words that I have translated as \u201cyoga\u201d can be interpreted as \u201cunity\u201d, and this shall be also a correct variant. As we remember from this article<\/a>, there are three types of word meaning formation in Sanskrit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

But the hymn under consideration is also interesting due to the suggestion that it may be a \u201cmissing link\u201d in development of the term \u201cyoga\u201d into a separate title of a practice or a state. Of the one hand, the practice presented in the verse bears an expressively magic character, it involves energy and is related to \u201cconjunction\u201d with power of a deity, \u201ctransmitting\u201d it through the self, and this is the practice that we refer to as yoga. Of the other hand, the explanation of yoga as \u201cmerger\u201d with a transcendental principle can be found in dozens of later texts.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They traditionally believe that the word \u201cyoga\u201d was not used in Vedas, at least in the context of designating a system of esoteric psycho-practices as we know it today. However, this is not quite the case.   Vedas indeed do not contain the word \u201cyoga\u201d as an absolute equivalent of the meaning we assign to… Continue reading Yoga and Magic. The Most Ancient Reference to Yoga in Atharvaveda<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[200],"tags":[624,628],"class_list":["post-35373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-yoga-sutra-en","tag-atharvaveda-en","tag-veda-en","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}