The Dravidian society has been identified as matriarchal, which is also coherent with our sources, which show Y?ga came from a Tantric culture.
Even farther below the ruins of the first cities, archaeologists discovered other cities. To their surprise, further down they encountered yet another, which was still more ancient. They dug more and found another city below that one. And yet another. And yet another. What called their attention was the fact that, the deeper they excavated, the more advanced the technology was, not only in terms of the architecture but also in regard to the utensils. This continued until eventually, they reached an underground aquifer and their excavations were forced to halt. In light of these discoveries, what we must ask ourselves is: how many other cities were there under those and how much more evolved would they have been?
In any case, it was from this Dravidian civilization, a Tantric (matriarchal) and S?mkhya (naturalistic) civilization, that Y?ga emerged.
Around one thousand five hundred years after the earliest city uncovered in the excavations flourished, historical facts show that the civilization of the Indus Valley was invaded by a sub-barbarian people, the ?ryas or Arians, who came from Central Europe. It is shown in current historical facts that these Arians destroyed the Dravidian civilization, absorbing some parts of their culture into their own and exterminating almost all those who were conquered and enslaving the few survivors. Others escaped, migrating to the extreme south of India and Sri Lanka, where their descendants live until today. Today, they are referred to as the Tamil.
Y?ga was the product of a non-warring, naturalist and matriarchal civilization. From 1,500 B.C. on, it began to be absorbed by another people (the Arians), which were their polar opposite: warring, mystical and patriarchal. Around twelve hundred years after the invasion (which is by no means a short period), Y?ga was formally ?arianized? through the celebrated work the Y?ga S?tra by P?ta?jali. This work inaugurated a re-reading of Y?ga and from that point on, it would be known as Y?ga Darshana, or Classic Y?ga, which proposed nothing less than the opposite of the behavior proposed by the true Y?ga of Dravidian origin. The Y?ga of the Dravids was matriarchal, sensorial and non-repressive or, in a single word, Tantric. This new ?arianized? interpretation was patriarchal, anti-sensorial and repressive, in other words, brahm?charya.
The most interesting thing about this process of disruption is that if it weren?t for P?ta?jali, Y?ga would have disappeared from the records of History. Because of his efforts, which were obviously well intentioned and wise, today, his codification of Classic Y?ga exists and is known to us. Adapting Y?ga to the reality of the Arians, who discriminated against everything typically Dravidian because of its matriarchal characteristics (considered subversive by the dominant patriarchal society), P?ta?jali was able to get Arian society and its constituent powers of that time to accept it and with this, such a tradition has reached us today.
After P?ta?jali?s work, in the Middle Ages, Y?ga suffered another grave disfigurement when the grand Master of V?danta philosophy, Shankar?ch?rya, converted a large part of the population. This was reflected in Y?ga, because with the majority of Indians converted to V?d?nta, when practicing Y?ga, public opinion and its leaders also conferred a spiritualistic format to Y?ga, which, from its Dravidian origins and even during the Classic Period, was fundamentally of a S?mkhya or naturalistic philosophy.
In the 20th century, Y?ga suffered still another tremendous blow: it was discovered by the Occident and, of course, ?westernized?. It became utilitarian, consumerist, something amorphous, ugly and dull.
Legitimate Y?ga, however, is beautiful to watch; it is fascinating to practice; and it is excellent as a philosophy of life. It is dynamic; it is strong; it is for the young. All those who visit us and watch presentation videos of the method are left in awe and say the same thing: they imagined that Y?ga was something subdued, to the point of requiring patience, or something supposedly indicated for the elderly! If anyone elderly decided to begin practicing true Y?ga, they would run the risk of going into cardiac arrest. And, if it were not genuine Y?ga, but a result of successive simplifications, accumulative adaptations and unscrupulous ?westernization? then, it would not be worth calling this anomaly Y?ga.
The problem is that many people without certification as Y?ga teachers have designated themselves to teach and, because they do not possess a repertoire of techniques, they mix a little of gymnastics, a bit of esoterism, a tad of hypnotism, a pinch of spiritism, something of the language tai-chi, some concepts of macrobiotics and all this they temper in an alternative therapeutic atmosphere then package it for consumption in a soft voice with new-age music. For the inexperienced, who do not have the slightest idea of what Y?ga is, aside from a stereotyped and false vision, this fallacious miscellaneous satisfies. But, it has nothing to do with Y?ga.
We should not forget that the word Y?ga means integrity and so, it must be represented integrally, in its entirety. For this reason, in the following chapters you will have the satisfaction of getting to know a modality of Y?ga that is fascinating, absolutely beautiful, extremely satisfying to practice and one charged with results capable of leaving anyone bewildered. It is Sw?Sthya Y?ga, the very Pre-Classic, Pre-Arian, Pre-Vedic, Proto-Historic Y?ga of Shiva, the ultra-integral Y?ga with the characteristics of Tantra and S?mkhya preserved and what?s more, its execution is reminiscent of a dance, recovered from the most remote layers of the collective unconscious!
Want to know more, visit: www.swasthya.co.uk