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About CSJY
Center for the Study of Jain Yoga
(L) Rishabhanatha seated in Two Stages of Meditation Five Auspicious Events in the Life of the First Jina, Panchakalyanaka (ca. 1680), Edwin Binney 3rd Collection, The San Diego Museum of Art (R) Śvetāmbara nun meditates. Image by Claude Renault ©️ CC BY 2.0
The Center for the Study of Jain Yoga (CSJY) at Arihanta Institute is a pioneering online hub for advanced research and academic exploration of Jain yoga. CSJY offers both public and graduate-level education on Jain yoga and allied fields of academic inquiry.
Founded after the successful global conference Yoga in Jainism in April 2024, which convened leading Jain yoga scholars worldwide, CSJY seeks to illuminate Jain yoga’s understudied and unique contributions to the broader field of Yoga Studies.
At CSJY, researchers use interdisciplinary methods to explore Jain yoga texts, the historical development of Jain yoga and meditation (dhyāna), and the evolving cultural interpretations and practices of yoga and meditation within contemporary Jain communities. Our goal is to deepen scholarly understanding of Jain yoga's dynamic relationship with the broader yoga tradition, exploring how Jain yoga both influences and is influenced by surrounding social contexts, historically and in the present.
CSJY’s online programs include graduate seminars, live and self-study public courses that cover the philosophical, historical, philological, and anthropological aspects of Jain yoga. With guidance from expert scholars, students engage deeply with Jain texts and cultural contexts, gaining tools to appreciate Jain yoga’s complexities and ongoing narratives within the global yoga landscape.
Explore the depth of Jain yoga at the Center for the Study of Jain Yoga, where tradition and scholarly inquiry come together to enrich understanding of this vital spiritual heritage.
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Founded after the successful global conference Yoga in Jainism in April 2024, which convened leading Jain yoga scholars worldwide, CSJY seeks to illuminate Jain yoga’s understudied and unique contributions to the broader field of Yoga Studies.
At CSJY, researchers use interdisciplinary methods to explore Jain yoga texts, the historical development of Jain yoga and meditation (dhyāna), and the evolving cultural interpretations and practices of yoga and meditation within contemporary Jain communities. Our goal is to deepen scholarly understanding of Jain yoga's dynamic relationship with the broader yoga tradition, exploring how Jain yoga both influences and is influenced by surrounding social contexts, historically and in the present.
CSJY’s online programs include graduate seminars, live and self-study public courses that cover the philosophical, historical, philological, and anthropological aspects of Jain yoga. With guidance from expert scholars, students engage deeply with Jain texts and cultural contexts, gaining tools to appreciate Jain yoga’s complexities and ongoing narratives within the global yoga landscape.
Explore the depth of Jain yoga at the Center for the Study of Jain Yoga, where tradition and scholarly inquiry come together to enrich understanding of this vital spiritual heritage.
Subscribe To Newsletter
Graduate Seminars
CSJY offers graduate-level courses with a concentration in “Yoga Studies” through our collaboration with Claremont School of Theology. Currently, the following graduate seminars are available for students enrolled in the online Engaged Jain Studies Master's Degree track:
Graduate Course
Foundations of Jain Yoga Studies
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Foundations of Jain Yoga Studies
Foundations of Jain Yoga Studies provides students with the historical and philosophical foundations for engaging in the study of Jain yoga. Students will learn about the history of yoga broadly, while also learning core methodologies used to study yoga in the field of Yoga Studies. With this new knowledge and skillset, students will learn how to study Jain yoga and see how it emerged in engagement with other yoga traditions since ancient times and into the present. Upon successful completion of this class, students will be able to:Understand the foundational history and philosophies of yoga.Perform research using core methodologies used in the field of Yoga Studies.See how Jain Yoga emerged in engagement with other traditions using an Engaged Jain Studies methodology.Present their research on Jain Yoga.
Instructor
Christopher Miller, PhDGraduate Course
Jain Yoga
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Jain Yoga
Jain Yoga considers Jain yoga from ancient sources to the present. We will study secondary scholarship analyzing Jain yoga from critical perspectives, while reading translations from Sanskrit and Prakrit primary sources describing Jain yoga. Students will also practice and reflect on their experience of various forms of Jain yoga and meditation, experimenting with what it means to embody Jain yoga principles and techniques in their everyday lives in contemporary society. No prior experience is necessary. Upon successful completion of this class, students will be able to:Understand the historical development of Jain Yoga in relationship to the broader historical and religio-philosophical milieus with which Jain authors were engaging.Identify key thinkers in Jain Yoga and understand the particulars of their unique Jain yoga systems.Demonstrate their ability to perform and present basic research and writing in relation to the field of Jain Yoga, Yoga Studies, and Jain Studies.Practice fundamental Jain yoga and meditation techniques and understand how these practices are relevant for their own lives in contemporary society.
Instructor
Graduate Course
Social Justice and Modern Yoga
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Social Justice and Modern Yoga
Social Justice and Modern Yoga surveys the history and contemporary practice of modern yoga and its intersection with issues of social justice. Students will encounter both the major names and lineages in the history of transnational modern yoga as well as some of the lesser-known figures who have contributed to the development of transnational yoga into the present. The course is structured both historically and thematically, presenting topics including, but not limited to, yoga’s intersections with warrior asceticism, colonization, non-violent social justice movements, nationalism, Orientalism, the carceral system, racism, White supremacy, appropriation, gender, foodways, speciesism, pollution, necropolitics, biopolitics, neoliberal capitalism, and abuse. Students will be trained in the basic methods of writing yoga ethnography and social history and will complete an ethnographic research project on a topic of their choice related to the academic field of Modern Yoga Studies. Upon successful completion of this class, students will be able to:Understand central historical developments of transnational modern yoga.Understand how particular forms of modern yoga are entangled with particular issues of social justice.Perform and present the results of basic ethnographic fieldwork or social historical research pertaining to a contemporary yoga community with particular attention to an issue of social justice.Gain a working knowledge of some of the major issues and questions in the field of Modern Yoga Studies.
Fall 2025 (classes begin September 2, 2025 and end December 8, 2025)Thursday 8:00 - 10:50 a.m. PT
Instructor
Graduate Course
Haṭha Yoga and Jain Yoga
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Haṭha Yoga and Jain Yoga
The “Haṭha Yoga and Jain Yoga” course carefully considers the development of the haṭha yoga tradition, the medieval forms of yoga that emerged after India’s classical period, and which are the predecessors of today’s forms of physical yoga. Students are offered the opportunity to undertake the postural, breathing, and meditation techniques found in medieval haṭha yoga texts as well as to see how these texts influenced, or were perhaps influenced by, the Jain yoga tradition in particular. Upon successful completion of this class, students will be able to:Understand the historical development and context of haṭha yoga traditions, including their medieval and modern Jain forms.Analyze intertextual engagements between haṭha yoga texts and Jain yoga texts.Engage in primary postural, breathing, and meditation techniques from medieval haṭha yoga texts.Undertake and present their research in the field of Yoga Studies and Engaged Jain Studies with a particular focus on haṭha yoga traditions.
Instructor
Graduate Course
Classical Sanskrit 1
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Classical Sanskrit 1
Sanskrit 1 will complete the first half of the Devavāṇīpraveśikā Sanskrit primer (Goldman and Goldman, 1980). In the process, students will learn to memorize, recognize, and recall all major paradigms of inflection (conjugations, declensions, indeclinable suffixes, prefixes, etc.). Students will gain the important research skills of basic philology such as etymology and syntactical analyses while translating modified excerpts from Sanskrit literature. Students will also memorize important Sanskrit verses designed to enhance basic vocabulary and impart familiarity with the cultural, philosophical, and linguistic landscape of Sanskrit literature. Learning Objectives Learn to read Sanskrit in Devanagari font. Acquire basic Sanskrit vocabulary. Learn to identify and understand the basic grammatical forms covered in class.Learn to understand key differences between Sanskrit and English syntaxes and to be able to convert Sanskrit syntax into English syntax.Learn basic skills for translation of Sanskrit primary sources for research Become familiarized with other cultural and intellectual elements of the broader Sanskrit tradition.
Fall 2025 (classes begin September 2, 2025 and end December 8, 2025)Monday 8:00 - 9:25 a.m. / Friday 8:00 - 9:25 a.m. PT
Instructor
Cogen Bohanec, MA, PhDGraduate Course
Classical Sanskrit 2
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Classical Sanskrit 2
Sanskrit 2 will complete the second half of the Devavāṇīpraveśikā Sanskrit primer (Goldman and Goldman, 1980). In the process, students will learn to memorize, recognize, and recall all major paradigms of inflection (conjugations, declensions, indeclinable suffixes, prefixes, etc.). Students will gain the important research skills of basic philology such as etymology and syntactical analyses while translating modified excerpts from Sanskrit literature. Students will also memorize important Sanskrit verses designed to enhance basic vocabulary and impart familiarity with the cultural, philosophical, and linguistic landscape of Sanskrit literature. Learning ObjectivesLearn to read Sanskrit in Devanagari font. Acquire basic Sanskrit vocabulary. Learn to identify and understand the basic grammatical forms covered in class.Learn to understand key differences between Sanskrit and English syntaxes and to be able to convert Sanskrit syntax into English syntax.Learn basic skills for translation of Sanskrit primary sources for research Become familiarized with other cultural and intellectual elements of the broader Sanskrit tradition.
Instructor
Featured Events
Upcoming Event
Conference
Conference
A free, three-day, public event that brings the latest scholarship in yoga studies to a global audience.
Past Event
Conference
April 19-20, 2025
Conference
3rd Annual Engaged Jain Studies Conference: “Compassion-in-Action”
April 19-20, 2025The 3rd Annual Engaged Jain Studies Conference is a FREE two-day online event centered on "Compassion-in-Action."
Past Event
Partner Event
Partner Event
Join the global chant to celebrate Navkar Maha Mantra Divas | Navkar Mantra Day. One world, one chant, together for peace.
Past Event
Partner Event
Partner Event
2nd Annual Conference in Jain Studies organized by the California State University, Long Beach, and Claremont School of Theology.
Past Event
MA Program
MA Program
Please join us for an information session to learn more about our Master of Arts in Engaged Jain Studies graduate program.
Past Event
Webinar
Webinar
An insightful Center for the Study of Jain Yoga webinar featuring Acharya Shri Mahapragya, the great master of Preksha Meditation.
Past Event
Partner Event
November 23-26, 2024
Partner Event
Arihanta Institute at the 2024 Annual Meetings of the American Academy of Religion
November 23-26, 2024Please be sure to come say "Jai Jinendra!" to Arihanta Institute’s faculty at the AAR’s 2024 events!
Past Event
Partner Event
Partner Event
Dr. Miller at University of Victoria workshop where scholars examined tensions between Asian spiritual practices & Western social dynamics.
Past Event
Conference
Conference
2nd Annual Engaged Jain Studies Conference: Yoga in Jainism. Join us online on April 20, 2024.
Past Event
Partner Event
Partner Event
The 2023 Annual Meetings in San Antonio, Texas, November 18–21, hosted by the AAR, DANAM, and SBL.
Past Event
Partner Event
Partner Event
SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies hosts this online event with author Dr. Christopher Jain Miller in discussion with Dr. Laura von Ostrowski.
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Research Publications
Miller, Christopher Jain. Forthcoming. “’Puruṣa bound from within / without looking on’: Gurani Anjali's Sāṃkhya-Yoga Music on Long Island, New York.” In Yogic Traditions and Sacred Sound Practices in the United States, edited by Brita Renée Heimark. Albany: SUNY Press.
Miller, Christopher Jain. Forthcoming. "Engaged Jain Yoga: Seven Cakras, the Buddha, and Mahāvīra on the Berlin Wall." In Engaged Jainism: Critical and Constructive Studies of Jain Social Engagement, edited by Christopher Jain Miller and Cogen Bohanec. Albany: SUNY Press.
Miller, Christopher Jain. Forthcoming. “From Practitioner to Practitioner-Scholar, From Yogin to Engaged Jain Yoga.” In We Should Know Better, edited by Paul Bramadat (Proposal in Progress).
Miller, Christopher Jain. 2024. Embodying Transnational Yoga: Eating, Singing, and Breathing in Transformation. London: Routledge.
Bohanec, Cogen. 2023. “Comparative Contemplative Praxis in the Jain Yogaśāstra and the Hindu Yoga Sūtra.” In Contemplative Studies and Jainism: Meditation, Prayer, and Veneration, edited by Rita Sherma, Cogen Bohanec, and Purushottama Bilimoria. New York: Routledge. 38-50.
Jain, Parveen. 2023. “Jain Yoga and Dhyāna: From Contemplative Introspection to Blissful Meditation.” In Contemplative Studies and Jainism: Meditation, Prayer, and Veneration, edited by Rita Sherma, Cogen Bohanec, and Purushottama Bilimoria. New York: Routledge. 22-37.
Miller, Christopher Jain. 2023. "Contemplating Jīvas: The Ecological Implications of Jainism's Elemental Meditations." In Contemplative Studies and Jainism: Meditation, Prayer, and Veneration, edited by Rita Sherma, Cogen Bohanec, and Purushottama Bilimoria. New York: Routledge. 61-69.
Sherma, Rita, Cogen Bohanec, and Purushottama Bilimoria (eds.). 2023. Contemplative Studies and Jainism: Meditation, Prayer, and Veneration. New York: Routledge.
Miller, Christopher Patrick. 2021. "Christian and Hindu Responses to Christian Yoga Practice in North America." In Routledge Handbook of Hindu-Christian Relations, edited by Chad Bauman and Michelle Voss Roberts. New York: Routledge. 280-293.
Miller, Christopher Patrick. 2019. "Jainism, Yoga, and Ecology: A Course in Contemplative Practice for a World in Pain." In "New Directions in Jaina Studies." Special issue edited by Anne Vallely. Religions. Vol. 10, no. 4: 1-14. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10040232
Miller, Christopher Patrick. 2018. "Yoga Bodies and Bodies of Water: Solutions for Climate Change in India?" In That All May Flourish: Comparative Religious Environmental Ethics, edited by Laura Hartmann. New York: Oxford University Press. 126-155.
