Obraz jogi i mocy jogicznych w „Bhagawatapuranie” ; The image of yoga and yogic powers in the „Bhāgavata-purāṇa”

The Bhāgavata-purāṇa, one of the most important Vaishnava texts, dates from around the 6th-8th century AD, a period when the system of classical yoga was already well known, while haṭha-yoga had not yet been formed, although its particular practices were already in use. The article presents yoga as a phenomenon perceived to some extent from the outside - from the distance created by the perspective of Puranic Vaishnavism, which on the one hand was part of widely understood Vedic orthodoxy, and on the other was strongly influenced by the pan-Indian devotional current of bhakti. The article is primarily concerned with what the authors of the Bhāgavata-purāṇa understand by yoga, how they describe it and make value judgments about it, and which of its elements they adapt to their own practice. In the Purāṇa we find extensive descriptions of yogic discipline in its very concrete forms, including detailed meditation procedures, as well as fascinating portraits of yogis and illustrations of the yogic powers they acquire, called śakti. The author devotes particular attention to 'Book XI' of the text, especially the section called Uddhava-gītā, in which the god Krishna discusses in detail the text's preferred method of yoga in twenty-three chapters of conversation with Uddhava.