16 Nov /15

Yogi

Yogi – Word of the day - EVS Translations
Yogi – Word of the day – EVS Translations

We are all well familiar with the term yoga, not to mention that we have already explained its origin and etymology in a previous word of the day post as a tradition of mediation which goes back centuries, and which was first popularised in English in the book Treatise on Yoga Philosophy (published in London in 1851).

But then some of us come to wonder why it seems like the advertising industry is quite in love with the term yogi and keeps bombing us with yogi teas and yogi mats.

And most of all, in the last couple of years, with yogi pants and tights – which left the gyms and yoga mats to turn into  fashionable garments.

Is yogi a pure marketing invention? Of course not! Indeed, an yogi is simply a yoga practitioner. The term comes from Sanskrit and referred to male ascetic practitioners of meditation in numerous Indian religions. The female practitioners were known as yogini, the same word was used for divine goddesses and enlightened mothers.

In the yogic folklore, Shiva is not worshipped as a god, but as the first yogi – the Adiyogi. According to the legend, a group of people observed Shiva’s enlightening practices consisting of moment of wild dancing followed by moment of absolutely stillness. Seven of the observes expressed their wish to learn from the Master but were turned down with the discoursing: “You fools. The way you are, you are not going to know in a million years. There is a tremendous amount of preparation needed for this…”
So they started preparing. After eighty-four years, on the day of the Dakshinayana full moon, Shiva finally seemed to had noticed his followers and after 28 days when the next full moon rose, he transformed himself into the first guru – the Adiguru, the Guru Purnima and started teaching his followers. After many years, when the transmission was complete, it produced the seven Saptarishis (from Sanskrit “seven sages”).

Shiva put different aspects of yoga into each of these seven yogis and sent them in seven different parts of the world to carry the enlightenment with which a human being can evolve beyond his present limitations.

One of the first written records to introduce yogis to the world outside of Hinduism comes from the 4th BC Chronicles of Alexander the Great where Indian yogis are described as practicing aloofness and “different postures – standing or sitting or lying naked – and motionless”.

The naked yoga is common among sadhus (from Sanskrit “good man, holly man”) and the naga sadhus, the naked practitioners were also known as “gymnosophists” (naked philosophers) in the ancient Greek writings.

Based on such Greek sources, Samuel Purchas in his Microcosmus or The History of Man from 1619 was the first English author to write on the yogis practices, even if in a non-flattering way: “The Indian Gymnosophists..offering violence to Nature in nakedness, and strict absurd Niceties, wherein they are followed to this day by the Bramenes, Yogis, and others.”

Now that you know more – grab a cup of yogi tea and hop on the yogi mat for a daily dose of spiritual and physical energy influx.