Yoga as Philosophy and Religion

Yoga is the steadying of the mind and the elimination of mental states into a specific type of graduated state that leads to self-realization. Patanjali, who wrote Aphorisms about Yoga in 150 B.C., was the first to advocate this system. It is also known as Rajayoga. This treatise is about Rajayoga as it was enunciated and explained by Patanjali’s commentators Vyasa Vacaspati and Vijnanabhiksu. It focuses on the philosophical, psychological and cosmological foundations of yoga practices. It examines the fundamental features of the yoga system in comparison to other systems of philosophical thought, and identifies its similarity with the Samkhya system. The book is divided into fifteen chapters and bound together in one volume. Part I (Chapters 1-VII) is Yoga Metaphysics. It focuses mainly on the functions and characteristics of Prakrti, Purusa and the reality of evolution. Part II (Chapters VIII – XV) focuses on Yoga Ethics and Practice, with an emphasis on the Yoga method stages and related topics. The study includes a preface that gives an overview of the topic, an appendix about Sphota, the relationship of words with their ideas, and a general index. The contents of Book I are Yoga Metaphysics, Prakrti and Purusha. Thereality of external world, the process of evolution, evolution of the categories and the change of quality, evolution and God, book II. The theory of karma, yoga ethics and practice, mind, and moral states, as well as the stages of yogangas, the stages of samadhi and God in yoga, matter, and mind, are all covered. Index, Appendix.