To study the yoga scriptures is not optional
I still keep having surprises: this last weekend a yoga “adept” told me that scriptures such as Bhagavad Gita are beliefs for which he has no interest at all, that what he cares for is only “practice”. Well!
Oh, my God!!, as the English say. And what do we do now?
I do not know where they take such ideas from. What do they read? Who tells them such nonsense? And what is most curious is to see what he considered as yoga “practice”…
Bhagavad Gītā’s teaching is not a philosophy
Unlike other speculative teachings, scripture teachings such as Bhagavad Gita, that are revealed, ṣrutiḥ, are not the product of a single human being’s brain and do not depend upon the philosopher’s vision or point of view. Nor they speak about anything exterior to us but about one self.
They are a methodology teaching and, especially, a teaching with a sampra̅daya, with an oral tradition that is still prevalent after centuries, by getting initiated with the Lord, or for those having faith or not, by starting with the first teacher and then our teachers’ teachers.
Bhagavad Gītā is revealed knowledge
Bhagavad Gītā is considered by tradition and by lineages of teachers such as ṣrutiḥ (revealed truth) as a knowledge instrument and is at the same level as the Upaniṣads. It does not matter if you consider it revealed as long as you have faith and a mind that accepts that there is still more to be learned.
To be an instrument of knowledge means to be able to eliminate ignorance (incorrect notions on one self’s), the heart of all problems. This is a instrument of knowledge, a pramana.
Teachings are not intellectual gymnastics
And, of course, they do not speculate nor are an entertainment or hobby.
There is a strong and deep-rooted belief among some yoga adepts that the study of the scriptures, contemplation, analysis, meditation, reflection and investigation of the truths transmitted by the scriptures are some intellectual THING that does not go VERY far, that is plain THEORY, something created in the mind of “people who cannot find anything better to do”.
To think in this way is at the same as saying that there is physical yoga, a mental yoga, an spiritual yoga. Same level of ignorance for those who assert that studing is a theory. Please understand that the education needs to be complete and for that once needs to be inquisitive and study with competent teachers.
