Esoteric Teaching Introductory Seminar

The Vedic Science of Consciousness

by David Bruce Hughes

Part 1-F: The Parampara

Hello, I’m David Hughes; and this is the Esoteric Teaching Introductory Seminar continued. 

Last time we talked about the principle of disciplic succession or parampara, and how the yoga system has been coming down to us from its origin in the spiritual world through the disciplic succession of Master Teachers and students since the beginning of time. Today we’ll continue this discussion, and talk about how the parampara of yoga became broken, and what we can do to connect to the real disciplic succession.

First of all one should know that there are four approved schools or disciplic successions of Vedic teachings coming down from Vyäsadeva, who originally recorded the four Vedas and the other Vedic literatures in writing. These four schools are the Brahma-sampradaya, coming form Lord Brahma the first created being in the universe; the Rudra-sampradaya coming from Lord Siva; the Laksmi-sampradaya coming from the Goddess of Fortune; and the Kamura-sampradaya coming from the four Kumaras or the sons of Brahma. As I mentioned, three of these are unavailable in the West; only the Brahama-sampradaya is available to English-speaking people, and I happen to be an initiate of the Brahama-sampradaya. Now without being an initiate in the sampradaya or a disciplic succession coming from the original Vedic Masters, one cannot be a bona fide teacher of yoga, meditation or any other Vedic art. All of these schools are at least five thousand years old. Other more recent schools such as the disciplic lineage coming form Sankara are not considered authorized Vedic schools. The same goes for the Buddhists; even thought they base their teachings on the Vedas, their conclusion is disharmonious with the Esoteric Teaching, and therefore they are not accepted as a bona fide Vedic sampradaya. 

In summary, anyone who claims to represent the Vedic teaching of yoga, meditation and so on must be an initiate in one of these four disciplic successions. So when looking for a teacher, the first thing one should ask is: "Which of these four lineages are you initiated into?" Because without this initiation one cannot possibly understand the original source literatures of yoga, meditation, tantra and so forth. These Vedic sciences are all spiritual mysteries, and they are open only to initiates who have received their teachings from a bona fide spiritual master; without this initiation and the years of study and service required to have earned it, no one can actually teach yoga, meditation or help you advance in spiritual life. 

Let me give you an example. Let's consider yoga; yoga is traditionally known in the west as Hatha-yoga, however this is only a small part of the Vedic teachings on yoga. The yoga-sutras of Patanjali, which is commonly referred to as the source of teachings of yoga in the West, are actually a very recent work authored by an ordinary human being, Patanjali. Although he may have been a great sage, he certainly was not on the level of Vyäsadeva, who was considered a divine incarnation. Therefore even the source material that we have for hatha-yoga is very weak, but accepting that this source material is worth studying, then let's take a look at the original source verses of what’s commonly taught as Hatha-yoga today. 

Hatha-yoga, or as it is sometimes called astanga-yoga meaning eight limbs, has, guess what? Eight limbs; eight parts or eight practices that make up the complete teaching. They are:

1. yama 
2. niyama
3. asana 
4. pranayama 
5. pratyahara 
6. dharana 
7. dhyana 
8. samadhi 

The goal or aim of Hatha-yoga is to attain samadhi and realize the citi-sakti, this is in Patanjali's own words in the yoga-sutras, but what is citi-sakti? Can any yoga teacher explain this? And what are these eight limbs of yoga? And why are they given in a particular order? Can any ordinary yoga teacher explain these things? Most of all, why do the yoga teachings available in the west omit yama and niyama stages, and begin directly with asana? 

This is not the original teaching of Patanjali, and the results one gets from this practice can hardly be the same as the original teaching. In other words how can anyone reach the goal of Hatha-yoga—samadhi or absorption is ecstatic spiritual trance—when they do not follow the eight stages in their natural sequence? For example, let's say I’m to build a house, and instead of starting with the foundation I started by building the walls. Is that going to be a very good house? Will it be useful for the purpose that I intended it for? Probably not. 

Similarly if we start yoga practice with asana instead of yama-niyama, can we get the intended original result of the yoga practice? I would think not. And sure enough we see in the Western schools of yoga no one is attaining samadhi, no one is realizing cit-sakti, no one is coming face-to-face with God. This is the real aim of yoga, and this is the real purpose of the yoga system. And hatha-yoga is not the only kind of yoga; there’s karma-yoga, raja-yoga, budhi-yoga, so many different kinds of yoga. Which of these teachings are appropriate for our time and situation and which are not? Does anybody know? Can anyone tell you? 

This is why we say one has to be initiated into the disciplic lineage coming form the original complete source yoga teachings, or else they simply don’t know what they're doing. It's easy to sell yoga as an exercise class because Americans are so focused on their bodies, but is that really the yoga that's spoken of by Patanjali? What to speak of the yoga that’s spoken of by Vyäsadeva, the original author of the Vedas. No, it can't be, and it's not. 

Therefore this is known as 'bait and switch'; in other words people are saying "I'm going to teach you yoga," and that sounds very impressive. We’ve all heard how wonderful yoga is and what great benefits it provides, but are they really teaching yoga? Or are they teaching something else of their own design? You see, this is the problem in the West; so without being connected to a bona fide Vedic disciplic succession we cannot be sure of the teachings we are receiving, and whether or not they are compatible with the actual goals, aims and methods of yoga. 

Similarly tantra. Tantra is taught in the West almost exclusively as some kind of sex practice; this is totally irresponsible. For one thing, in India there are real Tantric schools that teach these practices, but they are regarded as very, very dangerous and difficult, and a person can not be accepted into a Tantra school unless they are already accomplished in at least some of the Vedic arts such as Sanskrit, temple worship, devotional music, philosophy and so on. It's considered a very advanced practice. So to take these very advanced practices and simply to offer them to completely unqualified people is completely irresponsible; its dangerous, its can hurt their spiritual life. 

So why are they doing this? Well there are a number of reasons, and we’re going to get into this in detail in the next section in Part Two of the Introductory Seminar. But right now what I want you to know is that the only reason that these charlatans can thrive is that we are ignorant, and we don’t know that the actual Vedic system involves the system of parampara or disciplic succession. And without it they can offer any kind of snake oil as Vedic tantra or yoga or what-have-you. 

Real meditation aims to link the individual soul with God; to connect them together and allow them to communicate, to have a relationship. And the nature of that relationship and the different activities involved in that relationship are all part of a great science called yoga, and this science has several different steps beginning with very simple, very easy-to-perform practices, extending up to very high, very difficult practices, depending on the qualification of the person doing the practice. Who is to decide which teaching and which practice they get? This is all the province of the bona fide initiated Master Teacher who is coming in the disciplic lineage from the original yoga teachings. A person with that kind of background and that kind of qualification can easily determine what teachings are appropriate for a particular student; others cannot. So don’t be fooled, don’t be cheated, don’t accept false teachings as real Vedic yoga; demand the best, you have a right.

The Vedic path is called sanätana-dharma, and that means the eternal religious truth. This sanätana-dharma is the universal eternal religion, and it should be available to all living entities who want to walk the path of spiritual growth. The fact is the people who are misrepresenting yoga, tantra and meditation in the West are cheating others of the opportunity to accept the real teachings; therefore they’re actually criminals and they’ll get what they deserve. But meanwhile we can only think of the millions of people who are being deceived, and how we would like to link them with the actual Vedic teachings. This is the purpose of spreading the ancient esoteric system in the West.