Raja Yoga

Swami Vivekananda · 1896

4.9 · 8 ratings

About the book

Vivekananda's lectures on Patanjali, given in New York to people who had heard of yoga only as a curiosity. He argues it is an experimental science of the mind, and then hands over the method.

Try the short course

Part 1 · Don't believe it, try it. The first six slides, free.

Don't believe it, try it

0 XP

1 / 6

A chemist does not ask you to take her results on faith. She tells you what she did, and anyone with the same substances and the same patience can do it again and see. That is why, Vivekananda says, the exact sciences can settle their arguments: they rest on an experience common to everyone.

He opens his New York lectures by putting religion to the same test. Does it have a basis like that, something any human being could check? Or is it only a set of claims you accept because someone asserted them?

His answer is deliberately awkward: both yes and no. The rest of the book hangs on why it is both.

Inside the course

17 parts

Yoga as experiment: Vivekananda's opening claimFree above
The first steps, and the beginner's honest difficulties
Prana, and what «breath» means in this system
The psychic prana, and its control: the breathing practice, described plainly
Pratyahara: taking your attention back from the senses
Dharana, and the mind held on one point
Dhyana deepening into samadhi
Raja yoga in brief: the eight limbs of Patanjali, in order
«Yoga is the stilling of the changes in the mind»: the aphorisms begin
The practice: the obstacles, and what Patanjali says to do about them
Powers, and Vivekananda's warning about wanting them
Kaivalya, and what the whole thing is finally for
Bound in with it — Bhakti-Yoga: love as a path, defined
The guru, the mantra, and worship through images
The chosen ideal, and the method and the means
Para-bhakti: renunciation that comes from love, not against it
Universal love, and where bhakti ends

Questions

Is Raja Yoga free to read in Astra Trainer?

Yes. The full book opens free in the app’s reader, in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Russian.

What is the short course?

17 short parts that walk through the book’s key ideas in slides, each with a quick quiz. The first six slides are free to try on this page.

Where do I get the app?

Astra Trainer is free on the App Store and Google Play. Raja Yoga is waiting in the app’s library.