Spirituality, yoga and psychoanalysis

I won't be extensively concerned with other forms of Yoga, since it was Kirpal Singh himself who, in his main work, provides for one the most detailed overviews of all existing Yoga systems, and derives his own approach to Yoga from it.1 He determines Hatha Yoga to be complicated (Yoga with strictly physical exercises) and only suitable for physically very resistant people, which obviously makes it not quite suitable for the majority of people in the West.

Just a few exercises connected with breathing exercises (Pranayama) and concentration (Dyan) turn out to be helpful for general fitness and relaxation. Such, a more commercial, general Western-adapted form of Yoga, cannot be the content of this book. However, it may provide people suffering from modern stress factors with an increased feeling of wellness. But even extensive exercising on such a reduced level, as well as in Bhakti-, Kriya- and other forms of Yoga, don’t support anyone’s deeper insight into their own personality. To express this in terms of yoga: it doesn’t support anyone to reach beyond the ‘spiritual’ level of ‘Trikuti’, a level, which is determined as the second of five levels in Surat Shabd Yoga (Laya Yoga).

I am not the first to attempt to compare and connect Indian ‘spirituality’ with Western science. The first was F. I. Winter who related S. Freud’s and C. G. Jung’s psychoanalysis to the Yoga – Sutras of Patanjali.2 Later on C. G. Jung was occupied with this task.3 Lately, P. Sachdeva and A. Roland have addressed such a kaleidoscope from a psychoanalytic perspective.4 M. G. Gupta and M. Juergensmever have done so from the Indian-philosophic point of view.5 D C. Lane has supplied a sociologic research paper specifically on Surat Shabd Yoga6 and J. W. Newman a comparative study about Zen-meditation and psychoanalysis.7 K. Behanan made a direct comparison of Yoga and psychoanalysis.8 The Internet bears a variety of scientific papers concerning Kirpal Singh’s Yoga and comparable Yoga teachings.

All of these, as well as other, contributions will be discussed in this bock. The aim is to find a new and scientifically well-established method which may supplement and revive the rather personality-driven work of Kirpal Singh. In the end we will come up with a precise, new, independent and individual method based on psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis will also benefit, as it’s meanwhile highly complex structure can be flanked with a simplified procedure.

1 Kirpal Singh, Die Krone des Lebens, Günther Verlag (1972). Also recommended: Taimni, I.K., The Science of Yoga, Theos. Publ. H. 1961

2 Winter, F. I., The Yoga System and Psychoanalysis, Quest 10 (1918)

3 Jung, C. G., Die Psychologie des Kundalini-Yoga, Walter (1998)

4 Sachdeva, I. P., Yoga and Depth Psychology, Motilal (1978) and Roland, A., In Search of Self in India and Japan, Princeton (1988)

5 Gupta, M. G., Modern Indian Mysticism, MG Publishers (1994) and Juergensmeyer, M., Religion as Social ‚Vision’, California (1982).

6 Lane, D. C., The Radhasoami Tradition, Garland Publ. (1992)

7 Newman, J. W., Asian Thought and Culture, Disciplines of Attention, Peter Lang Verlag (1996)

8 Behanan, K. T., YOGA, Its Scientific Basis, Dover Public. (2002)