Who is the founder of Yoga?
A questions often asked by users is around the origins of Yoga. The debate around origins of Yoga and who exactly founded Yoga has had multiple explanations. To keep the answer simple, the founder of Yoga as it is known today including many of its off-shoots is Patanjali. Yoga in Vedas and Upanishads The word…
Latest This Week – Raja Yoga, Bhakti Yoga & Swami Vivekananda
This has been another exciting week at the World Yoga Forum. This week marks the completion of Raja Yoga by Swami Vivekananda as committed last week. Raja Yoga is Swami Vivekananda‘s interpretation of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. It has been a seminal work on Yoga and has helped spread the ancient knowledge of Yoga. We’ve completed…
Independence – Swami Vivekananda
This is the last and final part of the series by Swami Vivekananda from his work – Raja Yoga. The work of Raja Yoga is essentially an explanation of the Yoga Sutras (aphorisms) by Patanjali. Most of the modern day Yoga in some form or the other originates from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. We’ve covered the…
Mystic Powers Of The Yogi – Swami Vivekananda
We have now come to the chapter in which the Mystic Powers of the Yogi have been described. This is the 3rd part of the Yoga Sutras (aphorisms) of Patanjali as explained by Swami Vivekananda. In the first two parts, Swami Vivekananda describes the spiritual uses of concentration. These are the first 51 sutras by…
Can The Soul Be Unhappy? Are You Free? – Swami Vivekananda
In Raja Yoga, Swami Vivekananda decodes Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and comments on the soul being unhappy and the soul being free in the 72nd & 73rd Sutra (aphorim). Swami Vivekananda Says, Then how does the soul appear to be happy or unhappy? By reflection. If a red flower is put near a piece of pure…
Can Meditation Help With Anger? – Swami Vivekananda
We’ve at some point all experienced anger and even rage. We might have also encountered people getting angry and seen them doing ghastly things in the heat of the moment. It can almost be undisputedly said that anger is not good for anyone. Swami Vivekananda in Raja Yoga while deciphering Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras has clearly…
Concentration: Its Practice – Swami Vivekananda
The practice of concentration is the second part in Swami Vivekananda’s Raja Yoga and a continuation of the first part, which describes the spiritual uses of concentration. The first part has the first 51 sutras of Patanjali where the uses of concentration have been described. The second part discussed below has the next 55 sutras…
Does The Soul Love? – Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda in his book Raja Yoga while explaining the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali talks about experiences – experience of the mind and experience of the soul (purusha). He describes the soul and identification with experience. The question arises- Why does the soul experience misery? And does the soul experience love? The excerpt from his…
Should You Argue? – Swami Vivekananda
There are two sorts of scriptural knowledge — vada (the argumentative). Arguments only disturb the mind. Do not argue, he says; if one forces arguments upon you, be silent. Do not answer any argument, but go away calmly.
Which requires the greater strength, letting go or restraining?
In this post, I would like to share an excerpt from Raja Yoga by Swami Vivekananda where he is interpreting the second sutra from Patanjali’s 195 Yoga Sutras. He compares the mind with the lake and describes the states of mind. The bottom of a lake we cannot see, because its surface is covered with…
