Yoga

Definitions

Yoga (Sk.). (1) One of the six Darshanas or schools of India; a school of philosophy founded by Patânjali, though the real Yoga doctrine, the one that is said to have helped to prepare the world for the preaching of Buddha, is attributed with good reasons to the more ancient sage Yâjnawalkya, the writer of the Shatapatha Brâhmana, of Yajur Veda, the Brihad Âranyaka, and other famous works. (2) The practice of meditation as a means of leading to spiritual liberation. Psycho-spiritual powers are obtained thereby, and induced ecstatic states lead to the clear and correct perception of the eternal truths, in both the visible and invisible universe.

Yogi (Sk.). (1) . . . “A state which, when reached, makes the practitioner thereof absolute master of his six principles,” he now being merged in the seventh. It gives him full control, owing to his knowledge of Self and Self, over his bodily, intellectual and mental states, which, unable any longer to interfere with, or act upon, his Higher Ego, leave it free to exist in its original, pure, and divine state. (2) Also the name of the devotee who practises Yoga.

Patanjali (Sk.). The founder of the Yoga philosophy. The date assigned to him by the Orientalists is 200 b.c.; and by the Occultists nearer to 700 than 600 b.c. At any rate he was a contemporary of Pânini.

Hatha Yoga (Sk.). The lower form of Yoga practice; one which uses physical means for purposes of spiritual self-development The opposite of Raja Yoga.

Jnâna (Sk). Lit., Knowledge; esoterically, “supernal or divine knowledge acquired by Yoga.” Written also Gnyana.

Râja-Yoga (Sk.). The true system of developing psychic and spiritual powers and union with one’s Higher Self—or the Supreme Spirit, as the profane express it. The exercise, regulation and concentration of thought. Râja-Yoga is opposed to Hatha-Yoga, the physical or psycho physiological training in asceticism.

Târakâ Râja Yoga (Sk.). One of the Brahminical Yoga systems for the development of purely spiritual powers and knowledge which lead to Nirvâna.

—Theosophical Glossary, H. P. Blavatsky

Texts

Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali
Yoga-Vāsiṣṭha
Yoga Upaniṣads

See Also:

The Bhagavad Gītā

Translations

Selected Articles, Commentaries, etc.