{"id":8561,"date":"2026-08-26T05:14:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T05:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yogamatsya.com\/?p=8561"},"modified":"2026-09-04T13:51:57","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T13:51:57","slug":"pre-classical-era-shramanas-bhagavad-gita","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yogamatsya.com\/en\/pre-classical-era-shramanas-bhagavad-gita\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pre-Classical Era: \u015arama\u1e47as and the Bhagavad G\u012bt\u0101"},"content":{"rendered":"
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What makes the pre-classical era so decisive?<\/h2>\n

Because it is here that the tension first arises which shapes yoga to this day: the opposition between radical withdrawal from the world and loving turning towards it.<\/strong> On one side the \u015arama\u1e47as, who drove the body to its limit and beyond. On the other the Bhagavad G\u012bt\u0101, which finds the divine in the midst of action.<\/p>\n

Both currents still echo today \u2013 and both reappear, transformed, in what we practise now. Previously we looked at the oldest roots of the word yoga<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Around 500 BCE a radical ascetic movement developed in the region of present-day Allahabad \u2013 and shortly afterwards a single poetic text would change the direction of yoga forever.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Who were the \u015arama\u1e47as?<\/h2>\n

These ascetics, known as \u015arama\u1e47as (meaning \"strivers\/seekers\"), emerged around 500 BCE. Although they developed independently of the Brahmanical traditions, they were most likely influenced by Vedic thought.<\/p>\n

Their principal concern was to develop meditation techniques (dhy\u0101nas) in order to escape the cycle of death and rebirth and to attain enlightenment (nirv\u0101\u1e47a) or liberation (mok\u1e63a).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Their techniques were designed to achieve a complete \"destruction of individual being<\/strong>\". Although these techniques were not themselves called yoga, their goal of liberation through total self-sacrifice<\/strong> planted the seed for later yogic techniques.<\/p>\n

Despite their rejection of Vedic authority, their ideas found their way back into the Vedas. Indeed, the Mah\u0101bh\u0101rata of the 3rd century BCE speaks of dhy\u0101na yoga (the yoga of meditation), which had developed out of the \u015arama\u1e47a tradition.<\/p>\n

Notable (and harrowing) practices of the \u015arama\u1e47as include:<\/p>\n