WHAT IS HINDUISM?
plane per se – in a way that in and of itself can free
individual consciousness from the yoke of these real
contradictions is the task of traditional or classical ‘yoga’.
Learning to guard and embody this free liberated state of
awareness (Svatantrya) in our living relations with other
individuals in our life world is the task of a revolutionary
‘New Yoga’ – understood as a yoga of aware and
transformative relating – a yoga of ‘Relational Revolution’.
Yet the sad but persistent dilemma besetting those on a
traditional spiritual or political path is that the deeper or
broader their spiritual or political awareness becomes, the
more isolated they may feel – for example by finding
relationships with those with different world-views or with
a shallower or narrower awareness uncomfortably
confining. As a result of this dilemma they may either
retreat into deliberate isolation or else seek the superficial
comfort of a group or community that merely shares the
ideological or religious symbols of a ‘higher’ awareness.
Deep or authentic community on the other hand can only
arise out of living “units of relation” – multiple deep one-
to-one relationships between its members. Such a
community is quite different in nature from one that
substitutes for such relationships – let alone one that
suppresses them in the service of an overriding allegiance
to a group ideology. That is why, in the absence of deep
relationships and communion between specific individuals
within a community, even such things as sharing in