Top Highlights

• The main teaching of yoga is that man’s innermost nature is divine but that he is unaware of this and mistakes himself for his body and intellect—both of which exist within the realm of matter and therefore are subject to decay and death. All of man’s misery is a consequence of this false identification. Yoga leads one to the direct experience of h...
• The yamas and niyamas constitute the moral code of yoga and help one cultivate the right mental attitude. Asana, or posture, aims at physical well-being and control over the body, for a healthy body is a prerequisite for a healthy and controlled mind. Pranayama is control of prana, or life force, achieved through control of the most gross manifesta...
• The internal limbs focus more directly on control of the mind. Dharana is attention and concentration; it helps to bring the diffuse mind to a point of focus. Prolonged dharana leads to a state of dhyana, or meditation, characterized by one-pointedness of the mind, while prolonged dhyana leads to samadhi, the state of self-realization. Here the min...
• Raja yoga is, therefore, a systematic and scientific discipline that leads one to ultimate truth. Most religions teach a person what to do; raja yoga teaches one how to be. Unlike religion, it does not impose unquestioning faith but encourages healthy discrimination. It leads finally to liberation.
• By following the path prescribed, we can verify for ourselves its central hypothesis—that our true nature is divine. Raja yoga is therefore not only an ancient, esoteric Eastern philosophy, but also a practical, systematic, and scientific quest for the infinite, as relevant and necessary in the modern West as it was in ancient India. If incorporate...