Yoga Mudra
In Indian dance, sculpture, and ritual, a
particular symbolic hand gesture
(mudra), in which the right hand is
placed flat on the left, with both palms
pointing up, and the joined hands are
laid on the crossed legs. In a sculptural
image, this mudra indicates that the fig-
ure is adept in yoga.
Yogananda, Paramahamsa
(b. Mukunda Lal Ghosh 1893–1952)
Modern Hindu teacher and founder of
the Self-Realization Fellowship. Yoga-
nanda was one of the earliest Hindu
missionaries to come to America. He
came to Boston in 1920, to address the
International Congress of Religious
Liberals in Boston and never returned
to India. He eventually settled outside
Los Angeles, where he established a
center and lived for the rest of his life. In
his early years in America he was con-
sidered something of a curiosity, and
there are photos of him taken with
President Calvin Coolidge. Yogananda’s
teachings were largely based in the ash-
tanga yogaof the classical Yoga Sutras,
but he also stressed the doctrine of kriya
(“active”) yoga, which is claimed to
accelerate spiritual attainment. Most of
Yogananda’s disciples and both his suc-
cessors were Americans, and the Self-
Realization Fellowship is essentially an
American organization with historical
roots in India. For further information
see Paramahansa Yogananda’s Auto-
biography of a Yogi, 1997.
Yoganidra
(“sleep of yoga”) Epithet of the Goddess
in the first episode of the Devi-
mahatmya, the earliest and most author-
itative text for the mythology of the
Goddess. In this episode, the Goddess
has lulled Vishnuinto a stupor through
her power of illusion, making him
oblivious to Brahma’scries for help
when he is menaced by the demons
Madhuand Kaitabha. Brahma is saved
when he praises the Goddess, after
which she withdraws her yogic sleep
from Vishnu; he then regains con-
sciousness and rescues Brahma by
killing the demons.Yoga Sutras
(“aphorisms on yoga”) A set of brief say-
ings traditionally ascribed to the sage
Patanjali, which are the foundational
texts for the Yoga school, one of the six
schoolsof traditional Hindu philoso-
phy. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras are usually
read with a commentary ascribed to the
sage Vyasa, and this commentary has
become accepted as an integral part of
the text. The text of the Yoga Sutras is
divided into four parts, with each part
devoted to a particular theme: The first
part focuses on concentration (samadhi),
the second part on the mechanics of
spiritual development (sadhana), the
third part treats various attainments
(vibhuti), including magicpowers (sid-
dhi), and the last part describes the state
of yogic isolation (kaivalya), which the
text describes as liberation. The text pre-
supposes the cosmologytaught by the
Samkhyaschool, another of the six
schools, and the Yoga school is often
considered the “practical” articulation
of Samkhya theory.Yogi
Literally meaning “one possessing
yoga,” in practice the word refers only to
a yogic adept—someone who “possesses”
yoga in the sense of having mastered
it—rather than to anyone simply prac-
ticing yoga. True yogis are widely
believed to have superhuman powers
(siddhi) as a by-product of their long
spiritual development, which they can
and will exercise for the benefit of their
disciples—for physical healing of dis-
eases, for psychological help, or for giv-
ing guidance on both spiritual and
mundane matters. The yogi is seen as a
spiritually realized person, and their
authority stems completely from this
attribution, which paradoxically is not
subject to any sort of external verification.Yoga Mudra