Raja Yoga Book details
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Language: English
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Raja Yoga Book details
Format: Kindle Edition with Book Also
File Size: 1163 KB
Print Length: 213 pages
Sold by: Amazon Asia-Pacific Holdings Private Limited
Language: English
Customer Reviews: 4.3 out of 5 stars 39 customer reviews
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #20,008 Paid in Kindle Store
Raja Yoga Book Full Review
Raja Yoga Book Review
His whole life and teaching inspired my generation . . . . he brought his great spirituality to bear upon his patriotism and thus his message was not confined to India only but was for the whole world. I
pay my homage to his memory. --
Jawaharlal Nehru
My homage
and respect to the very revered memory of
Swami Vivekananda . . .
.after having gone through [his works], the love that I had for my country became a thousandfold. --
Mahatma Gandhi
The man [Vivekananda] is simply a wonder for oratorical power . . .
Swami is an honor to humanity. --
William James
This
the book brings together the main teachings of
Swami Vivekananda in an easily accessible and readable form. I hope that in these days of uncertainty and confusion of mind Vivekananda's teachings may prove enlightenment to many troubled souls. --
S. Radhakrishnan, author, philosopher, and former Vice-president of the Indian Republic
To
convey Hindu meanings in English words is exceedingly difficult. The difficulty arises from the fact that the reader inevitably reads modern western, rather than ancient Hindu, meanings into the English words. The problem of any expositor or translator, therefore, is that of so wording the English translation of the Hindu doctrines that the Western philosophical or psychological meanings of the English words will not be introduced to the reader. --
F.S.C. Northrop, Yale University
[Vivekananda
is] one of the very greatest historical figures that India has ever
produced. When one sees the full range of his mind, one is astounded. --
Christopher Isherwood, author
Book Description
This book contains transcripts of lectures by Vivekananda on
"Raja Yoga", a method that has been considered as the soul of all the
yogas. and a psychological way to union with God. It also includes his
interpretation of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, and a translation of
Patanjali's Yoga Sutras along with Vivekananda's commentaries. Raja yoga
as yoga practice aims to the mind through concentration and meditation.
According to
Swami Vivekananda, Raja Yoga is the science of religion,
the rationale of all worship, all prayers, forms, ceremonies, and
miracles.
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From the Publisher
Swami Vivekananda, India's first spiritual and cultural
ambassador to the West came to represent the religions of India at the
World Parliament of Religions, held at Chicago in connection with the
World's Fair (Columbian Exposition) of 1893. His message of the unity of humankind and harmony of religions was embraced by the public and press of the time as representing the essence of the Parliament. The Swami
wished to create a bridge between the East and the West by bringing to
America the gift of India's ancient spirituality, in exchange for the scientific and industrial outlook of the West. After four years of
traveling and teaching in America and Europe, the Swami returned to
India, where he is revered as a "Patriot Saint." The government of India has declared his birthday a national holiday. In 1976 on the occasion
of the American Bicentennial,
Swami Vivekananda was honored by the
Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery as one who came to
America from abroad during the past 200 years and made a significant impact on its spiritual development. Upon his return to India,
Swami Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Order of India in the name of his
teacher, Sri Ramakrishna, who is regarded as the Prophet of Harmony of
Religions. The Order is the pre-eminent religious organization of modern
India. More than 1000 monks of the Order serve throughout the world.
While in the West the work is mainly in the form of conducting worship,
teaching, writing, and lecturing, in India the Order is widely known for its vast charitable activities -- running hospitals and schools, rural uplift, and extensive relief work in times of emergency. The Swamis of
the Order work tirelessly in the spirit of "Service of God in Man,"
regarding the service of all people as a veritable form of worship.
The
Centers of the Order in America often referred to by such names as
Ramakrishna or Vivekananda Centers, or Vedanta Societies, were first organized by
Swami Vivekananda for the propagation of the Swami's teachings. Today there are Centers in many of America's major cities,
including New York, Boston, Providence, Chicago, St. Louis, Seattle,
Portland, San Francisco, Berkeley, Sacramento, and Hollywood. Because of their belief in the underlying truth of all religions, the Centers of the Ramakrishna Order are at the forefront of the Interfaith Movement.
(Publisher's comments written by Swami Adiswarananda, Spiritual Leader,
Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York).
From the Back Cover
"His words are great music, phrases in the style of Beethoven,
stirring rhythms like the march of Handel choruses. I cannot touch these sayings of his, scattered as they are through the pages of books at thirty years' distance, without receiving a thrill through my body, like an electric shock. And what shocks, what transports, must have been
produced when in burning words they issued from the lips of the hero!" -
Romain Rolland on
Swami Vivekananda.
About the Author
Swami Vivekananda's inspiring personality was well known both in
India and in America during the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth. The unknown monk of India suddenly leaped into fame at the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893, at which he represented Hinduism. His vast knowledge of Eastern
and Western culture as well as his deep spiritual insight, fervid
eloquence, brilliant conversation, broad human sympathy, colorful
personality and handsome figure made an irresistible appeal to the many
types of Americans who came in contact with him. People who saw or
heard Vivekananda even once still cherish his memory after a lapse of
more than half a century. In America Vivekananda's mission was the
interpretation of India's spiritual culture, especially in its Vedantic setting. He also tried to enrich the religious consciousness of the
Americans through the rational and humanistic teachings of the Vedanta philosophy. In America, he became India's spiritual ambassador and pleaded eloquently for better understanding between India and the New The world in order to create a healthy synthesis of East and West, of religion and science.
In his own motherland Vivekananda is regarded as the patriot saint of modern India and an inspirer of her dormant national consciousness, To the Hindus, he preached the ideal of a
strength-giving and man-making religion. Service to man as the visible manifestation of the Godhead was the special form of worship he advocated for the Indians, devoted as they were to the rituals and myths of their ancient faith. Many political leaders of India have publicly acknowledged their indebtedness to
Swami Vivekananda.
The Swami's
the mission was both national and international. A lover of mankind, he strove to promote peace and human brotherhood on the spiritual foundation of the Vedantic Oneness of existence. A mystic of the highest order, Vivekananda had a direct and intuitive experience of Reality. He derived his ideas from that unfailing source of wisdom and often presented them in the soul-stirring language of poetry.
The
the natural tendency of Vivekananda's mind, like that of his Master,
Ramakrishna was to soar above the world and forget itself in contemplation of the Absolute. But another part of his personality bled at the sight of human suffering in East and West alike. It might appear that his mind seldom found a point of rest in its oscillation between contemplation of God and service to man. Be that as it may, he chose, in obedience to a higher call, service to man as his mission on earth; and this choice has endeared him to people in the West, Americans in particular.
In the course of a short life of thirty-nine years
(1863-1902), of which only ten were devoted to public activities-and
those, too, in the midst of acute physical suffering-he left for
posterity his four classics:
Jnana-Yoga,
Bhakti-Yoga,
Karma-Yoga, and
Raja-Yoga,
all of which are outstanding treatises on Hindu philosophy. In
addition, he delivered innumerable lectures, wrote inspired letters in
his own hand to his many friends and disciples, composed numerous poems,
and acted as a spiritual guide to the many seekers, who came to him for
instruction. He also organized the Ramakrishna Order of monks, which is
the most outstanding religious organization of modern India. It is
devoted to the propagation of the Hindu spiritual culture not only in
the Swami's native land, but also in America and in other parts of the
world.
Swami Vivekananda once spoke of himself as a "condensed
India." His life and teachings are of inestimable value to the West for an understanding of the mind of Asia. William James, the Harvard
philosopher, called the Swami the "paragon of Vedantists." Max Muller and Paul Deussen, the famous Orientalists of the nineteenth century,
held him in genuine respect and affection. "His words," writes Romain
Rolland, "are great music, phrases in the style of Beethoven, stirring rhythms like the march of Handel choruses. I cannot touch these sayings of his, scattered as they are through the pages of books, at thirty years' distance, without receiving a thrill through my body like an electric shock. And what shocks, what transports, must have been
produced when in burning words they issued from the lips of the hero!'' -
From the preface of
Vivekananda: A Biography written by Swami Nikhilananda.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Preface to
Raja-Yoga by
Swami Vivekananda. Since the dawn
of history various extraordinary phenomena have been recorded as
happening amongst human beings. Witnesses are not wanting in modern
times to attest such events even in societies living under the full
blaze of modern science. The vast mass of such evidence is unreliable,
coming as it does from ignorant, superstitious, or fraudulent persons.
In many instances the so-called miracles are imitations. But what do
they imitate? It is not the sign of a candid and scientific mind to
throw overboard anything without proper investigation. Surface
scientists, unable to explain the various extraordinary mental
phenomena, strive to ignore their very existence. They are therefore
more culpable than those who think that their prayers are answered by a
being or beings above the clouds, or than those who believe that their
petitions will make such beings change the course of the universe. The
latter have the excuse of ignorance, or at least of a defective system
of education, which has taught them dependence upon such beings, a
dependence which has become a part of their degenerate nature. The
former have no such excuse. For thousands of years such phenomena
have been studied, investigated, and generalized; the whole ground of
the religious faculties of man has been analysed; and the practical
result is the science of Raja-yoga. Raja-yoga does not, after the
unpardonable manner of some modern sciences, deny the existence of facts
which are difficult to explain; on the contrary, it gently, yet in no
uncertain terms, tells the superstitious that miracles and answers to
prayer and powers of faith, though true as facts, are not rendered
comprehensible through superstitious explanations attributing them to
the agency of a being or beings above the clouds. It declares that each
man is only a conduit for the infinite ocean of knowledge and power that
lies behind mankind. It teaches that desires and wants are in man, that
the power of supply is also in man, and that wherever and whenever a
desire, a want, or a prayer has been fulfilled, it was out of this
infinite magazine that the fulfillment came, and not from any
supernatural being. The idea of supernatural beings may rouse to a
certain extent the power of action in man, but it also brings spiritual
decay. It brings dependence; it brings fear; it brings superstition. It
degenerates into a horrible belief in the natural weakness of man. There
is no supernatural, says the yogi, but there are in nature gross
manifestations and subtle manifestations. The subtle are the causes' the
gross the effects. The gross can be easily perceived by the senses; not
so the subtle. The practice of raja-yoga will lead to the acquisition
of the subtle perceptions.
All the orthodox systems of Indian
philosophy have one goal in view: the liberation of the soul through
perfection. The method is yoga. The word yoga covers an immense ground.
Both the Samkhya and the Vedanta schools point to yoga in some form or
other.
The subject of the present book is that form of yoga known
as Raja-yoga. The aphorisms of Patanjali are the highest authority on
Raja-yoga and form its textbook. The other philosophers, though
occasionally differing from Patanjali in some philosophical points,
have, as a rule, accorded to his method of practice a decided consent.
The first part of this book comprises several lectures delivered by the
present writer to his classes in New York. The second part is a rather
free translation of the Aphorisms (Sutras) of Patanjali, with a running commentary. An effort has been made to avoid technicalities as far as possible and to keep to the free and easy style of conversation. In the
first part some simple and specific directions are given for students
who want to practice; but all such are especially and earnestly warned
that, with few exceptions, Raja-yoga can be safely learnt only by direct
contact with a teacher. If these conversations succeed in awakening a
desire for further information on the subject, the teacher will not be
wanting.
The system of Patanjali is based upon the system of
Samkhya, the points of difference being very few. The two most important differences are, first, that Patanjali admits the Personal God in the form of the First Teacher, while the only God that Samkhya concedes is a
nearly perfected being, temporarily in charge of a cycle of creation.
Second, a yogi holds the mind to be equally all-pervading as the Soul,
or Purusha and Samkhya does not.
