The Complete Book of Yoga: Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga, Jnana Yoga

“All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind...” in the quest for understanding one’s own mind, body, and soul, and to attain liberation, each man seeks spirituality as per his own means and understanding. Yoga, with its origin dating back to ancient India, has always been considered a pathway of achieving moksha. This edition combines the four paths of yoga as expounded by Swami Vivekananda in the nineteenth century. They include the three yogas mentioned in the Bhagat gita—karma yoga, bhakti yoga, and jnāna yoga—and Raja yoga, which is based on Maharshi Patanjali’s yoga sutras, and together they speak to the active, the emotional, the mystic, and the philosophical inside us. Complete with timeless universal wisdom, and not restricted to as an as and physical exercises, The yogic practices explained by Vivekananda become a way of life and hence lead to the realisation of the absolute.

Born Narendranath Datta (1863-1902) in Calcutta, capital of British India, Swami Vivekananda belonged to a traditional aristocratic Bengali Kayastha family. Spiritual from an early age, Vivekananda was fascinated by wandering monks and used to practise meditation. He met Ramakrishna in around 1882. It came about as a life-changing experience for him and he eventually became his notable disciple. After Ramakrishna’s death, Vivekananda, along with other disciples, set up the Ramakrishna Math at Baranagar. In December 1886, they all took monastic vows. It was then that he took the name ‘Swami Vivekananda’. He played a major role in introducing yoga and the Vedanta philosophies to the West. It is because of him that Hinduism gained the status of a major world religion. His birthday is observed as the National Youth Day in India and the day he delivered his famous speech at the Parliament of World Religions, September 11, is commemorated as the World Brotherhood Day.