Recommended Reading: Vedanta

All styles of yoga are part of the Indian Hindu Vedanta spiritual tradition. and they are all undertaken with the purpose (not goal) of awakening to full self-realization, enlightenment, nirvana, or god consciousness. These terms are used here interchangeably, all suggesting the same outcome, to allow the ego-self to dissolve into union with absolute consciousness. There are many types of yoga and each of these categories contains many variations.

Some of the most important schools of yoga.

• Bhakti Yoga is the path of pure love or devotion to God.

• Karma Yoga is the path of selfless action with all activities and results offered to God.

• Raja Yoga (Royal Yoga) is an eightfold path teaching how to use the mind to approach union with God.

• Jnana Yoga is the path of knowledge leading to the ability to discriminate between the real and illusion, leading to liberation or enlightenment.

• Tantra Yoga is the path of transforming sexual energy into spiritual energy, leading to nirvana or god consciousness.

• Kundalini Yoga is the path of awakening the kundalini energy at the base of the spine. As it moves up through the body opening all the charkas, there is an experience of enlightenment.

• Hatha Yoga is the path of using physical body movement (asanas) and breathing (pranayama) for the purpose of self-realization.

 

Paul Deussen and A. S. Geden, trans. The Philosophy of the Upanishads. ISBN: 812081620X
Paul Deussen, a student roommate of Friedrich Nietzsche and a professor of Sanskrit at the University of Kiel in Germany, dedicated 35 years of his life to the study of Indian philosophy. Originally published in German (Die Philosophie der Upanishads) a century ago, this book was translated into English by A.S. Geden in 1906. According to Deussen, the philosophy of the Upanishads is the “culminating point of the Indian doctrine of the universe” and “in philosophical significance has been surpassed by none of the later developments of thought up to the present day.”

 

 

 

Eliot Deutsch. Advaita Vedanta: A Philosophical Reconstruction. ISBN: 0824802713
Deutsch, former editor of the prestigious journal Philosophy East and West, is professor of philosophy at the University of Hawaii. This short book admirably distills the essence of Advaita Vedanta, the system of non-dualistic thought and philosophy presented by Shankara (ca. 788-820) in which all boundaries and distinctions are unreal, reality is not made up of parts, and “in essence it is not different from the Self.” There is only the Self, Brahman, or the One, a state “which is ultimately a name for the timeless plenitude of being.”

 

 

 

 

Christopher Isherwood and Swami Prabhavananda, trans. Bhagavad-Gita: The Song of God. ISBN: 0451528441
The Bhagavad-Gita (written between the fifth and second centuries B.C.E.) is the gospel of Hinduism, and one of the great religious classics of the world. It is the story of a battlefield conversation between the warrior prince Arjuna and Lord Krishna. Krishna explains the nature of the soul and the various types of yoga or paths to God. Arjuna is extremely distressed at the prospect of having to kill his own relatives in the pending battle. Krishna explains that souls can never die and that Arjuna must play his assigned role in the great scheme of things. Krishna teaches Arjuna how to balance the spiritual journey with worldly obligations.

 

 

 

 

Christopher Isherwood and Swami Prabhavananda, trans. How to Know God: The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali. ISBN: 0874810418
Patanjali’s Sutras are dated sometime between the fourth century B.C.E. and the fourth century C.E. The teachings offer methods for creating a direct personal experience of God Consciousness, “the Reality which underlies this apparent, ephemeral universe.” According to the text, in order to know God, one must first cease identifying with the mind. Then it is possible to know God everywhere, “both within and without, instantly present and infinitely elsewhere, the dweller in the atom and the abode of all things.”

 

 

Christopher Isherwood. Vedanta for the Western World. ISBN: 0874810000
Isherwood, a well-known novelist and playwright, became a follower of Swami Prabhavananda (an Indian monk of the Ramakrishna order) in 1943, after which he authored several books on Indian Vedanta. This book, first published in 1944, presents a collection of essays comparing the principles of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity.