The Yogic Confluence of Humanity, Transhumanity, and Divine Humanity

This chapter argues that the Western Transhumanist agenda, with its materialist and techno-centric approach, can be enriched by the Akhanda Maha Yoga tradition of Siddha Yoga, as crystallized in the life and teachings of Vishuddhananda Paramahamsa. Unlike classical Samkhya Yoga's binary between matter and spirit, Akhanda Maha Yoga integrates the corporeal and spiritual within a single matrix, allowing a yogi to transcend mundane materiality without exiting into an otherworldly Nirvana. The chapter proposes that Akhanda Mahayogis serve as a template for a convergence of the transhuman, the divine-human, and the limited human, emphasizing an ethical, empathetic bond with fellow humans even while possessing transhuman capabilities.

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Abstract

Transcending the limiting dimension of corporeality for the betterment of the human condition lies at the core of the Transhumanist agenda. However, the Western Transhumanist assumption of the human condition is characterized by a materialist/techno-centric approach to matter and consciousness. On the other hand, the age-old Jnanaganja tradition of Siddha Yoga found its unique crystallization in the concept and practice of Akhanda Maha Yoga in the life and teachings of Vishuddhananda Paramahamsa, a great twentieth-century yogi from Bengal who was also the guru of the celebrated Hindu philosopher Gopinath Kaviraj, provides an integrative framework that hyphenates matter with spirit, thereby ushering in a material–spiritual or spiritual–material approach to both matter and consciousness. Such an approach, in its vision of human self-transcendence through material as well as spiritual processes, creates a framework of hyphenating divine humanity and transhumanity, which overwrites the materialist thrust of techno-centric Transhumanism with an attitude that is spiritually materialist and materially spiritual. Akhanda Maha Yoga (Integral Great Yoga) seeks to co-configure the corporeal and the spiritual within an integrated matrix that facilitates a yogi’s transcendence of the limitations of mundane materiality without necessitating their exit into Nirvana or into the “other world” that is entirely detached from this world. This unique mode of Yoga encompasses the yogic principles of classical Yoga, yet it differs from the classical yogic approach. This chapter explores Akhanda Maha Yoga as a transformative praxis that jettisons the binaristic assumptions on matter and spirit posited by Samkhya Yoga. The Akhanda Mahayogis harmoniously merge matter and spirit in their yogic practice. It metamorphoses them into transhumans who are also divine humans in the sense that the spiritual and ethical emphasis on goodness and altruism, which informs the figurations of the “divine” human in the Indic traditions is deeply aligned with an Akhanda Mahayogi’s “transhuman” capabilities and privileges. Their transhuman potential blossoms through their apparently miraculous yogic feats involving both transhuman powers and divine-human love for their limited, embodied fellow humans. In this sense, while their transhuman capabilities help them transcend human limits, they remain grounded in an ever-empathetic “human” bonding with their fellow humans who are incapable of transcending their limitations. This chapter explores the principles of Akhanda Maha Yoga as an epistemology prefiguring the Western discourse of Transhumanism and also showing a path forward that may indicate the ways the Transhumanist project can benefit from the Indic traditions which emphasize the necessity to appreciate the affective and ethical dimension of the process and experience of being human within a human community , even when a yogi can rise above the human limits. This exploration offers the possibility of seeing the Akhanda Mahayogis as a template for the convergence and interactive dynamics of the epistemologies of the Transhuman, the divine-human, and the “limited” human. In short, an Akhanda Mahayogi like Vishuddhananda remains a human, a transhuman, and a divine-human figure simultaneously, showing an ethical way toward the transcendence of limits while refusing to insist on a radical disconnect from the limited beings.