Religious Scholar

Yoga classes frequently start with the chant of Om (Aum), which practitioners regard as anything from a relaxing hum to the Sound of God. Om is also considered linguistically related to words such as amen, amin, and ogham in various spiritual traditions.

Depending on the group of practitioners, I’ve noticed that the chant of Om is sometimes harmonious and sometimes discordant, creating a different but equally interesting effect. The YMCA yoga class I attend offers a harmonious, almost unison rendition of the mantra. This class is composed mostly of women, and I’ve always wondered whether females have (overall) a greater sensitivity to tone and musical pitch.

The other class I attend in Philadelphia chants Om in as many tones as there are students (this class tends to include males and females). Unlike the even euphony of the former class, this group’s chanting creates some aural friction, resulting in a dynamic vibration created by the discord.

Which do I prefer? I like them both, and in fact look forward to hearing and participating in the different ways this universal sound can be expressed.

Another place I’ve discovered Om is at the Philadelphia Orchestra! The next time you go to an orchestral concert, note how the event begins when the concertmaster strides onto the stage and signals the oboist to play the note “A” for the orchestra to get in tune. If this isn’t the sound of Om, I don’t know what is! Go ahead: hum along with it. You deserve to be in tune!

Viewing Meister Eckhart through the Bhagavad Gita by Linda Brown Holt is now available in both paperback and hard cover editions at Amazon.com, BN.com, and other booksellers (including Garland of Letters in Philadelphia, Pa.). This book views major teachings of the 14th century Dominican scholar and mystic, Meister Eckhart, through the lens of the "gospel of Hinduism," the Bhagavad Gita. The striking parallels encourage all who seek to find common sources of wisdom, compassion, and inspiration in the world's major religious traditions.

Dr. Vijayendra Pratap, founder of the SKY Foundation and a clinical psychologist and yoga teacher, lectures to a capacity crowd at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Connelly Auditorium, on Sunday evening, January 15, 2012. He discussed the yoga sutras and their relevance today, and answered questions from the audience.

In The Yoga Sutras Book I, Verse 7, Patanjali lists three types of “right knowledge. “  In my transliteration of the Sutras, Threads of Yoga (copyright 2008)

http://www.religiousscholar.com/storage/Threads%20of%20Yoga%20by%20L%20B%20Holt.pdf,

 I describe them as follows:

• ·         Direct perception
• ·         Inference
• ·         Reliable testimony

(Edwin F. Bryant translates these as sense perception, logic, and verbal testimony. The Yoga Sutras, North Point Press, 2009.)

Direct perception is when you actually see or experience something.  In a lecture at Thomas Jefferson University on Jan. 15, 2012, Dr. Vijayendra Pratap, psychologist and yoga teacher, offered the example of a building on fire. You see the fire, and you know it exists.

Inference is when you perceive traces or suggestions that something exists.  If you see a red glow on the horizon, hear fire trucks, and smell smoke, you may infer that there is a fire.

Reliable testimony is when you are not present, but an informed source, such as a journalist, your trusted neighbor who actually witnessed it, or a firefighter who was there says there has been a fire.  

Applied to religion and spirituality, these are the tests of truth. You know your faith is true because you have experienced it directly. You infer that it is true because you have seen evidences of it in the world around you.  And in divine scripture, you find the testimony of revered sages who assert that it is true.  As these tests apply to knowledge, they also apply to Divine Love.

In The Yoga Sutras, Patanjali underscores the importance of replacing negativity and disruption with positive actions and thoughts (Book II:33).  According to my transliteration (1993), this sutra reads, “When overcoming destructive forces, one should cultivate their opposites.”

This sutra applies readily to the proliferation of uncontrollable thoughts and negative thinking in our own time. The brilliant translator, commentator and teacher, Edwin F. Bryant, likens our unwelcome and unhealthy thoughts to weeds in a garden:

“In even the best-tended gardens, weeds inevitably pop up from time to time…As in a garden, the more one makes an effort to uproot weeds, the more the bed will eventually become a receptacle for fragrant flowers, which will then grow and reseed of their own accord until there is hardly any room for the weeds to surface.”  (Edwin Bryant’s text on The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, North Point Press, 2007, pp. 255 and 257.)