Created by Vivekananda1

Vedânta Philosophy

How to be a Yogi

Swami Abhedananda

Author of "India and her People"

Created by Vivekananda2

"Self-Knowledge","Divine Heritage of Man","Reincarnation", etc

FOURTH EDITION PUBLISHED BYTHE VEDANTA SOCIETY135 West Both StreetNEW YORK [1902]NOTICE OF ATTRIBUTION

Scanned at sacred-texts.com, January, 2005. John Bruno Hare, redactor. This textis in the public domain in the United States because it was published prior to1922. These files may be used for any non-commercial purpose, provided thisnotice of attribution is left intact.

Created by Vivekananda3

Preface

THE Vedânta Philosophy includes the different branches of theScience of Yoga. Four of these have already been treated at length bythe Swâmi Vivekananda in his works on "Râja Yoga," "Karma Yoga,""Bhakti Yoga," and "Jnâna Yoga"; but there existed no short andconsecutive survey of the science as a whole. It is to meet this needthat the present volume has been written. In an introductory chapterare set forth the true province of religion and the full significance of the word "spirituality" as it is understood in India. Next follows acomprehensive definition of the term "Yoga," with short chapters oneach of the five paths to which it is applied, and their respectivepractices. An exhaustive exposition of the Science of Breathing and itsbearing on the highest spiritual development shows the fundamentalphysiological principles on which the whole training of Yoga is based;while a concluding chapter, under the title "Was Christ a Yogi?"makes plain the direct relation existing between the lofty teachings of Vedânta and the religious faiths of the West. An effort has been made,so far as possible, to keep the text free from technical and Sanskritterms; and the work should therefore prove of equal value to thestudent of Oriental thought and to the general reader as yetunfamiliar with this, one of the greatest philosophical systems of theworld.THE EDITOR.