The book defines different types of Yoga and elaborates the principles of Karma Yoga with personal experience and excerpts from the Hindu sacred text ‘Gita’ & ‘Karma Yoga’ by Swami Vivekananda.
By Ratan Lal Basu
Copyright 2011 Ratan Lal Basu
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Contents
I. Yoga: Spiritual and Secular
II. Components of Yoga
III. Principles of Karma Yoga
IV. Excerpts from Gita
V. Excerpts from Karma Yoga
by Swami Vivekananda
VI. A Story by Swami Vivekananda
The Author
There are much misgivings about Yoga. It has occasionally been associated with solely religion and spiritualism.
However yoga aims at uplift of human body and mind and it may be either spiritual or secular.
The essential ingredients of yoga are 'karma' (work or action) and 'bhakti' (devotion). If karma and devotion are associated with union with the supreme then certainly yoga assumes its spiritual feature. On the other hand, if a secular scientist is devoted to his subject of research and engaged in unconditional research activities to discover some law of nature he could be considered as Karma-yogi and Jnan-yogi without being ostensibly spiritual. The essential question is unselfish commitment and action unperturbed any care for money, fame, praise, abuse or any material gains other than the object of devotion.
In common parlance nine kinds of yoga are mentioned: Raj-yoga, Bhakti-yoga, Karma-yoga, Janan-yoga, Hath-yoga, Lay-yoga, Tantra-yoga, Mantra-yoga and Kundalini-yoga. However, it is very difficult to isolate one type of yoga from the other. They are interdependent and there are areas of overlap.
However, no yoga is possible without karma and devotion.
A distinct differentiation between tanra and yoga proper is that in the former absolute freedom is given to our material desires so that we may have control over them and we may transcend them. On the other hand, in the latter the worldly desires are controlled from the very beginning.
There are much in common among
