Arihanta Institute’s Professor Christopher Miller will be presenting on a panel titled “Jain Yoga” at the 4^th International Yoga Darśana Yoga Sādhana Conference in Paris France (May 27-29). 

 

Professor Nalini Balbir will be chairing this session, which also includes contributions from Corinna May Lhoir and Ruth Westoby. The session takes place on Thursday, May 28 from 11:00AM-12:30PM in Auditorium 150.

 

The title of Professor Miller’s paper is “Jain reception of haṭhayoga: The Case of Acharya Sushil Kumar’s Jain Yoga.”

 

His paper notes how studies of notable yoga teachers such as Swami Vivekananda, Paramahansa Yogananda, Krishnamacharya, Kuvalayananda, Sri Yogendra, BKS Iyengar, K. Pattabhi Jois, Sivananda, Indra Devi, and other figures have revealed the many ways haṭhayoga has been adapted into various Vedāntic frameworks globally. However, little attention has been given to the ways Jain Yoga disseminators have adapted haṭhayoga into their own contemporary Jain Yoga systems, where focus has been primarily placed on Acharya Mahaprajna's prekṣā dhyāna system. 

 

Miller’s presentation therefore focuses attention on a prominent Jain Yoga teacher, Acharya Sushil Kumar, who broke his monastic vow not to travel by any other means than by foot and came to the United States in 1975. Here, he established Siddhachalam in New Jersey where he taught what he called "Jain Yoga," though as we will see, he adapted a number of non-Jain influences including those from medieval haṭhayoga texts. In his magnum opus, Song of the Soul (SOS, 1987), Kumar at times appears to accept the various soteriological goals found in medieval haṭhayoga texts that were not of Jain provenance. As this presentation will show, these alternative soteriological goals are found side-by-side with Jain goals in SOS, suggesting that Kumar, who was born into a Brahmin family only later to be initiated as a Jain ascetic, still maintained a commitment to the practice and outcomes of non-Jain forms of haṭhayoga. Kumar's assemblage of Jain and non-Jain haṭhayoga influences thereby represents both continuities of Jain Yoga authorship from the past, but also discontinuities insofar as he, more than any other medieval or contemporary Jain Yoga author, explicitly admits alternative, non-Jain soteriological experiences into his yogic teachings.

 

Professor Miller’s paper ultimately demonstrates how the spirit of anekāntavāda (non-onesidedness) influences Jain reception of haṭhayoga. Acharya Sushil Kumar’s commitment to this principle allowed him to admit scriptural teachings from a variety of dharmic traditions into his own yogic system.

 

If you will be in Paris for the conference, be sure to come say hello to Professor Miller, who looks forward to seeing everyone there!

 

Arihanta Institute thanks the Uberoi Foundation for their generous support of the Engaged Anekāntavāda project, which has made this conference participation possible.