Adi Da Samraj commentary on Georg Feuerstein’s Book Yoga:
The Technology of Ecstasy
Yoga Is the Religion of Devotion to the Adept
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In this book (Yoga: The Technology of Ecstasy), the author (Georg Feuerstein) presents a sympathetic and (to an appropriate degree) popularly written general academic survey of the Asian Indian traditions and schools of Yoga. This survey necessarily includes the full range of generally known Yogic traditions and schools, including what I indicate to be specifically either fourth or fifth or sixth stage traditions and schools. However, Georg Feuerstein makes no such “stage of life” distinctions between the various Yogic traditions and schools. And, because this book (Yoga: The Technology of Ecstasy) is, principally (or in the greater bulk of its details), a descriptive survey of the (what I call) “fourth to fifth stage” traditions and schools of Yoga, I have placed the book in this “Fifth Stage” section (rather than in some other, more general, section) of The Basket of Tolerance.
In the 1980s, Georg Feuerstein was (for a time) a formal student and beginning student-practitioner apprenticing within the general community of My devotees, and, as such, he formally and intensively studied My Teachings relative to the Way of the Heart (which Teachings fully address, contain, and understand every kind of Yoga and every stage of life) and My Teachings relative to the Great Tradition (which Tradition certainly contains every kind of traditional Yoga, but which has not otherwise, apart from My own “consideration” of it, comprehensively addressed and thoroughly understood the total process of Yoga in relation to, or in the context of, each and every possible stage of life). Eventually, Georg Feuerstein discontinued his participation as a formal student and beginning student-practitioner of the Way of the Heart, in order that he might fulfill his previous commitment to pursue a career as a free-lance scholar of the literature of traditional Yoga. Nevertheless, as his subsequent writings ofttimes demonstrate, he remains an informal student of My Revelatory and Instructive Word, and he in fact expresses his gratitude and his indebtedness to Me in his book (Yoga: The Technology of Ecstasy). Indeed, such an expression of gratitude and indebtedness is an altogether right (and, traditionally, expected) offering to be made to any Teacher by whom one has been (and even continues to be) Served. Therefore, by this expression (which I accept, with Love), Georg Feuerstein continues to honorably maintain his respect for Me and My Work and My Word.
As Georg Feuerstein says in his book (Yoga: The Technology of Ecstasy), and as I have indicated to him (and to every one) again and again, “Yoga is never a do-it-yourself enterprise”, but Satsang (or “sat-sanga”), the sacred bond between the devotee, or the true disciple, and his or her Adept-Teacher, “is at the core of all schools of Yoga”, such that “all Yoga is guru-yoga” (or devotional attention to the Adept-Guru, or Sat-Guru). Therefore, the Yoga tradition (and especially the esoteric, and God-Realizing, or Enlightenment-Realizing, Yoga tradition) is (in the form of each and all of its traditions and schools) a whole and sacred tradition, and not merely a body of information and techniques that (rightly) may be selectively adapted (or, to any Great Effect, applied, whether piecemeal or as a presumed whole) to the ego-based purposes of a secular or worldly personality (whether Western or Eastern in origin or in character). Indeed, rightly understood and rightly practiced, true (or esoteric, and really or potentially God-Realizing, or Enlightenment-Realizing) Yoga (in any time or place) is (always and primarily and specifically) an ego-transcending (rather than an ego-serving or ego-fulfilling) process. Therefore (and in order to serve this purpose of ego-transcendence), true Yoga is not (and has never been, and cannot ever be) a “do-it-yourself enterprise”. Nor is true Yoga, rightly understood and rightly practiced, merely a means for exercising and improving, or (eventually) perfecting, the psycho-physical person (bodily, emotionally, mentally, psychically, or in any other function, or even in its potential wholeness, or totality of functions), although, as a secondary effect of the practice of true Yoga, there may be (and, in general, will be) signs (to one or another degree) of psycho-physical (or otherwise specific functional) improvement. Rather, true (or esoteric, and really or potentially God-Realizing, or Enlightenment-Realizing) Yoga, rightly understood and rightly practiced, is always a process of ego-transcendence via total psycho-physical submission (or surrender of the ego-“I” and the entire conditional persona, or body-mind) to and into the Un-conditional Source-Condition in Which the apparent ego-“I” is arising.
Therefore, because true Yoga is, most basically and consistently, the practice and the process of ego-transcendence, true Yoga is not (and never has been and never can be) merely the self-application of psycho-physical techniques. True Yoga is (or must be) an ecstatic process, a Way beyond conditional self-attention, a Way to “stand outside” (or beyond, and, Ultimately, Perfectly Prior to) the ego-“I”. Therefore, true Yoga is (fundamentally, and always) a relationship. It is the unique relationship between a true disciple (or a devotee) and his or her Adept-Guru (or Sat-Guru). Indeed, true (or esoteric, and really or potentially God-Realizing, or Enlightenment-Realizing) Yoga (in all of its traditions and schools) is (if rightly understood and rightly practiced) the religion of devotion to an Adept.
The word “Yoga” is simply an alternative and equivalent term for the word “religion”. The word “Yoga” means “to yoke”, or “to bind together”, or “to connect”, or “to Unite” (and, Ultimately, “to Realize Inherent Oneness, or Non-Separateness”), and the word “religion” means “to bind again”, or “to establish a bond”, or “to re-connect”, or (thus, simply) “to Unite” (and, Ultimately, “to Realize Inherent Oneness and Non-Separateness”). Therefore, all true Yoga is (if rightly understood and rightly practiced) a form of religion, and all true religion (or all religion that is rightly understood and rightly practiced) is (and must be) an effective form of true (or esoteric, and really or potentially God-Realizing, or Enlightenment-Realizing) Yoga.
The essence of religion (and of true Yoga) is surrender of the conditional self (or the psycho-physical ego-“I”) to and into the (ultimately, un-conditional) Condition That Is its Source and Very Nature. Therefore, as a primary indication of this Purpose (and how It is to be Accomplished), virtually every historical religion is (originally, essentially, and primarily) based upon devotional (or heart-responsive, and self-surrendering) response to a particular Adept (and, in most cases, also to a continuous lineage of particular Adepts). Likewise, all true Yoga (which is simply another name for true religion) is Purposed to surrender, to forget, and even (ultimately) to transcend the ego-“I” in its Source-Condition. And the means for this Purposed Yogic and religious Accomplishment (if, truly, It is to be Accomplished) is not (and has never been, and never can be) self-concern, self-attention, and mere manipulation of the conditional self (by the conditional self, and for the purpose of changing the conditional self). Rather, the only effective Means of ego-transcendence (or true ecstasy) is the Grace (or the Revealing Presence and Help) of That Source-Condition and Very Nature that true Yoga (or true religion) is Purposed to Realize.
Therefore, for the sake of effective ego-transcendence, true (or esoteric, and really or potentially God-Realizing, or Enlightenment-Realizing) Yoga (rightly understood) is (and always has been, and always must be) the practice (or the consistent, and inherently religious, discipline) of self-surrendering, self-forgetting, and self-transcending response (from the heart, and by the total psycho-physical person) to a Grace-Giving (and Grace-Given) Adept (Who Consciously Is, and Who Freely,
Spontaneously, and Consistently Transmits the Realization of, the Source-Condition and Very Nature the practitioner-devotee would Realize). Indeed, it is only by Means of a Direct Relationship to such a true Adept (and, thus and thereby, to the Revealed and Revealing and Altogether Grace-Giving Person, Presence, and Power of Realization Itself) that real, effective, and (Ultimately) Perfect transcendence of the ego-“I” is made Possible. And the Proclamation of this Great Means and Possibility is the Central Message of all true Yoga and all true religion.
Adi Da Samraj