Ātyantica is a Sanskrit word with several meanings, including universal, infinite, continual, endless, supreme, and ultimate. Ātyantica Yoga Bliss (ĀYB) is a noun phrase where the adjective ātyantica modifies “yoga bliss” and not “yoga.” This is not a pretentious “supreme yoga” since it offers nothing new, and the readers are welcome to continue with their present practice. “Ātyantica” qualifies the word “bliss.”
ĀYB is about the supreme, continuous bliss that one can gain from yoga practice, provided it is understood as a spiritual path, placed in its philosophical and conceptual framework, and accompanied by the appropriate attitude and lifestyle.
“Yoga” means “union.” The union of the individual with the universal, the fusion with the Absolute called Self-realization. Of course, this spiritual experience comes from inner yoga practices like concentration, visualization, and meditation. Postures are not relevant here. Nobody attains permanent bliss standing on the head, but postures are good for health, and health is an asset on the spiritual path.
Perspective on Yoga from Ātyantica Yoga Bliss
In this website, “yoga” refers to any spiritual practices aiming at the realization of Oneness, or to the conscious state of union with Oneness. It does not refer to the Yoga darshana (world view), one of the six orthodox philosophy schools of Hinduism. This darshana is a dualistic and theistic philosophy.
Yoga darshana and Samkhya darshana systems share many tattvas (cosmic principles of reality), except that the Yoga school, founded by Patanjali, the author of the well-known Yoga Sutras, added others, notably, the principle of Ishwara ("possessor of power" or “lord"). It refers, in Samkhya/Yoga darshana, to a special supreme Purusha (spirit) above all others.
The last niyama (observance) in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras 2.32 is “Ishvara Pranidhana”: Offering all of one's activities to God (named Ishwara). Also, in Yoga Sutra 2.45: samādhisiddhirīśvarapraṇidhānāt / By total surrender to Ishwara, samādhi is attained (samādhi is union with the object of meditation.) The concept of Ishvara can be interpreted theistically as a personal God, such as Shiva, Jesus, or Buddha, which makes yoga more of a religion than is often claimed…
Samkhya and Yoga metaphysics postulate two independent, eternal, and ontological categories: Purusha (consciousness) and Prakriti (primal matter of nature). This absolute duality is opposed to the monism of Advaita Vedanta, Kashmir Shaivaism, and today’s physics concept of Oneness. Therefore, it must be noted that Yoga darshana is not originally based on the philosophy of Oneness, and it considers Purusha as the efficient cause of the universe, and Prakiti as passive and unconscious matter—the exact opposite of Shakti, seen as the dynamic energy behind the creation, preservation, and evolution of the conscious universe, imbued with the immanent Goddess.
For these reasons, Ātyantica Yoga Bliss is more in line with a Shakti-based Tantra Yoga than with the Classical Yoga of Patanjali. In addition, the Tantra Yoga Shaktism philosophy is conducive to devotion to the divine Mother, and Bhakti Yoga, the yoga of devotion, is a great help on the path. Devotion ultimately leads to the recognition of the Divine as oneself.
"God dwells within you as you.”
—Swami Muktananda
Goals of Life
“The goal of life is Self-Realization” is often said in yoga circles. This is the point of view of sannyas (renunciates or nuns/monks). Yoga has been brought to the West mostly by monks, then by their monk disciples, and now by a myriad of yoga instructors who repeat devoutly the traditional teaching of classical yoga. If you are not willing to give up the good things of your secular life, your unconscious will rightly react to this idea as much as to the Christian “sin of the flesh.” It is never good to create a conflict between ideas that you have accepted from the outside and what you feel deep inside. You will probably fail on both sides…
Listen to your heart and also know that the great spiritual tradition of Hinduism actually recognizes four legitimate goals of human life, called Purusharthas: artha (wealth), kama (desire), dharma (righteousness), and moksha (liberation). No need to become a frustrated wannabe monk to attain liberation from suffering, and to experience the profane world with permanent spiritual bliss. Classical yoga, often taught as “Patanjali yoga,” is not the only option. Tantra yoga is also a path to Self-realization and is more life-affirming and more suitable to our contemporary society and culture.
Tantrism is a later development of Hinduism that proposes an alternative worldview to the Vedic tradition, adding esoteric knowledge about cosmology and metaphysics, and developing a technology for enlightenment based on energy pathways and centers. When yoga teachers talk about nadis, chakras, energy bodies, spiritual realms, etc., they are transmitting part of the Tantric science. Even hatha yoga, with its focus on the body, is more in line with the Tantric than the Vedic approach to spirituality.
Indeed, Tantra does not reject the body and all its functions, including sacred sexuality. Even more, Tantra does not reject anything because it considers all as divine, as part of the supreme Reality. This spiritual perception of Oneness, adopted by most New Age movements, is totally in accord with quantum physics that shows all the universes are one Consciousness field with different vibrational frequencies.
If all is divine, you are divine. There is nothing wrong with you. Enjoy life, indulge with moderation and with full awareness of your higher nature as pure unconditioned Consciousness, and Consciousness will allow you to transcend your “lower nature.” Moderate and conscious indulgence is not complacency; it means being authentic and true to yourself. Be kind to yourself, embrace even the shadow in you, because you cannot change what you do not acknowledge but repress.
Tantra considered the body as the temple of the Divine, but monks and nuns of all traditions have always fought against it.
"Lust arises in him who develops attachment, especially towards a person of the opposite sex. Love's principal weapon is woman or lust. Therefore, attachment should not be developed, especially towards the opposite sex.
“The love between a husband and wife is mainly physical. It is of a selfish, ephemeral and changing nature. He who has realised Atman can really love all with the sincerity of heart. The love between two aspirants based on psychological affinity and intellectual parity is real and lasting. Get rid of selfishness.” [Get rid of your partner?]
—https://www.sivanandaonline.org/?cmd=displaysection§ion_id=880
Even in the eighties, after I got married, I was told in an ashram that “there was nothing wrong with sex, but that it should be limited as much as possible.” The same guilt- and anxiety-inducing cognitive dissonance of old-fashioned Christianity! Of course, puritanism forbade any mention of Tantric or Taoist techniques to avoid the loss of energy…
The pleasure of the palate is also frowned upon. Food should be bland. “Hunger is a disease, food is the remedy,” quoted a visiting swami in my yoga center, upset that tasty meals had been prepared for his students. We understand why ashrams have never been awarded a star in the Michelin Guide.
If all is divine, you are divine. Relax and let yourself be at peace. Whatever your spiritual practice, do it for the joy and love of it. Do not turn it into an additional chore; do not add the compulsion of yoga to the endless injunctions and constraints imposed on you by family and society. Swami Sivananda would say that a human incarnation is so rare and precious that there is not a minute to waste on worldly matters. But we, as Consciousness, are immortal: so, there is no rush, no need for more stress. Instead of spending your life aspiring to escape this “valley of tears,” be fully—and lovingly—present to Reality as a manifestation of the Divine.
By practicing vairagya, non-attachment (not an aloof, indifferent detachment, but a peaceful letting go), and viveka, discernment of what is essential and what is ego-driven, we can learn to enjoy life, with both its pleasures and pains. Enjoying pain? It is not masochism but wonderment and trust in life. Physical and emotional pains are part of life. By accepting this reality, we avoid turning pain into suffering. By constantly remembering that we are pure Consciousness having a human experience, we put our pains and pleasures into perspective.
Desires and Emotions
“All is suffering, and desire is the source of suffering; therefore, have no desire,” say the Buddhists. Then your existence becomes unstimulating, juiceless, lifeless. It is sometimes unwise to the wise. To be fully alive, desires are needed. Beyond the craving for material objects or sensual pleasures, they could be an eagerness to help, a call to get involved in an altruistic endeavor, or the deep pull of one's vocation and life purpose. Desires entice us out of our comfort zone and expose us to possible pain, but without them, we do not live; we just exist.
Desire is not the cause of suffering; attachment is. Taoism teaches that change is the only permanence: What we like will go, and what we do not like will come. Being attached to what we liked in the past is to reject what is here and now, what is the unfoldment of Oneness, called “Divine Will” by religion. Making peace with adverse events as they come, avoid a burst of intense emotion and the possibility of an uncontrolled reaction instead of a rational, deliberate response.
Surrendering and letting go bring peace of mind, but acceptance is not resignation or renunciation. There is no fatalism or strict determination, and free will is the unknown part of causation. Once you have accepted an unfavorable event, a plan to remedy it begins to take shape in your mind. This, too, is the reality here and now, that in turn, you accept and act upon. Acceptance is to say “yes” to the chain of exterior and interior events. It does not stop at the problem.
Now, if emotions have risen, this has to be acknowledged and accepted too. There is nothing wrong with emotions. E-motion is what sets us in motion, a source of motivation. Unfortunately, religions have always caused people to repress their emotions. In Asia, it is shameful to be angry. Even in today’s unreligious corporate environment, we are expected to be “positive” and stay cool at all times.
Inappropriate emotions like intense anger that could trigger violence can be subdued by observing their mental and physiological effects, by feeling them totally. Other emotions like fear, sadness, guilt, shame, shyness, etc., are legitimate and should be accepted as part of our nature. We must connect to our feelings non-judgmentally, accept ourselves flaws and all, and, with compassion and consideration, give ourselves an “inner smile.”
Lifestyle recommendations
Enjoy life here and now:
If you meditate, let it be for pleasure, not to gain moksha (spiritual liberation) in the future, when you will be Self-realized—a sort of reminiscence of the religions' promise of after-death paradise. With the right awareness given by the philosophy and practice of Tantra yoga, it is possible to have both moksha and bhoga (material enjoyment) immediately. If you cannot have a serious spiritual practice, you will still progress on the path by collecting other types of experiences. All beings do, consciously or unconsciously.
Accept what is here and now:
— your desires as a movement of Life itself;
— your emotions and your shadow as your very humanity;
— all adverse events as an inevitable movement of the “wheel of fortune” to be welcomed with wonderment and trust in the benevolence of Life. A blessing in disguise, they are the grace of the Goddess to further your spiritual upliftment.
Let yourself be at peace: Without neglecting your genuine duties, do not add burdens on you unnecessarily. Our motivations are often the desires of others and stem from our childhood conditioning and social influences. To buy the love and respect of others, people give in to so many compulsions and repressions that they do not own their lives anymore. So, be true to yourself and make your life simpler and easier by focusing on the one thing you really want. These changes are the best preparation for meditation, and a peaceful, blissful life in general.
Be kind to yourself:
Surely, do not beat yourself up when you fail to achieve a dream that is not even yours! Most people treat themselves harshly in their inner monologue; they have a judgmental tyrant inside their heads. Society values sacrifice and looks down on self-love as narcissism, conceit, vanity, or egoism. However, as a source of self-respect, self-esteem, self-appreciation, self-acceptance, self-compassion, self-care, self-love is the necessary basis of unconditional love.
These lifestyle recommendations may come as a surprise, as they contrast with the usual 10 yamas and niyamas of Raja Yoga. (Ahimsa, non-violence; Asteya, non-stealing; Satya, Truthfulness; etc.). Nevertheless, it is assumed that the spiritual seekers have well internalized the universal ethical principles, without which there can be no peace of mind.
Additional Practices
Even the most ethical person, who leads a simple, trouble-free life, may struggle with a restless mind. Thoughts, often accompanied by their associated emotions, arise in our awareness from deeper layers of the mind. The unconscious is a part of the psyche where repressed memories and traumas stimulate our mental activity, colour our perception, cloud our judgement and influence our behaviour.
To address this phenomenon, which adds to the illusion and delusion of Maya, ĀYB recommends a regular practice of the therapeutic breathwork developed in the 60s by Leonard Orr under the name “Rebirthing.” This circular breathing is a pranayama (a yoga breathing exercise) that purifies the nadis (energy pathways). The rationale behind the technique is that traumas are not just abstract stories imprinted in the brain as neural pathways; they are stagnant emotional charges, trapped anywhere in the etheric body, and the intense flow of prana dislodges them, restoring physical well-being. By bringing some ignored parts of our memories back to consciousness, this pranayama helps to make sense of our neurotic behaviors, and brings emotional relief and mental clarity. With regular practice, this purification of the mind will decrease the intrusions of unwanted thoughts and emotions during your meditation. There are presently many versions of this breathing under different names (Sudarshan Kriya, Clarity Breathwork, etc.) ĀYB’s version is Manas-Shuddhi Pranayama (manas, mind; shuddhi, purification).
See Page “Yoga and Mind.”
Last but not least, a vegan diet is an integral part of ĀYB. As demonstrated by holistic medicine and psychology, the body and mind are interdependent. Moreover, the body-mind forms an integrated unit. Therefore, chemical toxins are reflected as etheric toxins, fear and anger of the slaughtered animal are reflected in the meat-eater’s emotional body, and all this toxic energy can obstruct the increased flow of energy and the higher vibrations brought by meditation and expanded consciousness.
On the contrary, a pure diet lowers physical tension and its reflection as mental tension, stress, and emotional ill-feeling. It also facilitates meditation experiences and spares the meditator from incurring bad karma from his indirect participation in inhumane animal farming. The moral importance of ahimsa, non-harming, is especially important for those engaged on the spiritual path. See Page “Yoga and Diet.”
And do not forget to tune in to the energy of the Goddess of Love, Light and Bliss!
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