Yoga FAQ by Richard Rosen

Author:Richard Rosen
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Shambhala

1. Ignore it altogether, passing quickly over 4.1 to 4.2.

2. Interpret oshadhi as unnamed “consecrated” plants. These plants aren’t in themselves hallucinogenic, so they’re not really “drugs.” Rather, they work because they’ve been ritually infused with spiritually transformative power.

3. Claim that it’s the meditation practiced in previous lives that induces the extraordinary powers. (The herbs only help bring them out.)

4. Admit that, yes, drugs do have some transformative potential, but only on a much smaller scale than meditation. Drugs merely create a temporary, uncontrollable transformation; the “real” lasting transformation comes only through dedicated meditation practice. This particular response is quite old. The Yoga Shikha Upanishad (1.152–54) cautions that

Psychic powers are of two kinds in this world; artificial and unartificial. Those psychic powers that prevail by having recourse to means, such as the various ways of employing mercury and medicinal herbs, the practice of mystic spells and the like, they are known as artificial. Such powers, as arise out of the employment of the (above) means, are transient and endowed with little efficacy.

5. Attack. One translator/commentator who took this approach was Charles Johnston, a Sanskrit “prizeman” for both the Indian Civil Service and Dublin University. In his 1912 “Introduction to Book One” of the Yoga Sutra, Johnston asserts that the Yoga Sutra “contain the essence of practical wisdom,”23 and that the sutras are “closely knit together” and can’t be “taken out of their proper setting.”24 But when he comes to 4.1 and the oshadhi, “practical wisdom” takes a back seat to his Christian outrage:

Psychical powers may be gained by drugs, as poverty, shame, debasement may be gained by the self-same drugs. In their action they are baneful, cutting the man off from consciousness of the restraining power of his divine nature. . . .25

This is, of course, another prime example of how we Westerners interpret Indian texts and their teaching based on own biases and prejudices.

The most honest approach would be to acknowledge straight out that Indian yogis and priests have been using hallucinogens for a very long time as part of their practice and sacrificial rites. In the Rig Veda, for example, we can find numerous mantras extolling the use of soma, “nectar.” Known as the “elixir of immortality,” soma apparently was a powerful hallucinogenic concoction made from the juice pressed from a now forgotten plant, and played an essential role in the priestly ritual.

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