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The Art and Science of Raja Yoga: A Guide To Self-Realization
The Art and Science of Raja Yoga contains fourteen lessons in which the original yoga science emerges in all its glory - a proven system for realizing one's spiritual destiny. This is the most comprehensive course on yoga and meditation available today, giving you a profound and intimate understanding of how to apply these age-old teachings, on a practical, as well as spiritual, day-to-day level in this modern age. Over 450 pages of text and photos give you a complete and detailed presentation of hatha yoga (yoga postures), yoga philosophy, affirmations, meditation instruction, and breathing techniques. Also included are suggestions for daily yoga routines, helpful information on diet, and alternative healing techniques. Apply these teachings and techniques in your daily life and you will attain your highest soul potential: true happiness, inner peace, and the dynamic joy of your soul. Included with this book are web links to free Raja Yoga course downloads containing a guided yoga postures session, a guided meditation, and an inspiring talk by Swami Kriyananda on the art of meditation, titled, Meditation: The Great Problem Solver.
- GenresSpiritualityReligion
471 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
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156 people want to read
About the author
Kriyananda
270 books34 followersSee also: J. Donald Walters
Kriyananda (born James Donald Walters; May 19, 1926, Azuga – April 21, 2013, Assisi) was a direct disciple of the yogi Paramahansa Yogananda, and the founder of the Ananda, a worldwide movement of spiritual intentional communities based on Yogananda's World Brotherhood Colonies ideal. Yogananda made Walters a minister for his organization, Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF).
Kriyananda (born James Donald Walters; May 19, 1926, Azuga – April 21, 2013, Assisi) was a direct disciple of the yogi Paramahansa Yogananda, and the founder of the Ananda, a worldwide movement of spiritual intentional communities based on Yogananda's World Brotherhood Colonies ideal. Yogananda made Walters a minister for his organization, Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF).
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 8, 2020
It is a nice manual. Is it exhaustive? Not really. Is it well researched? I don't know. All I can say is, it is a great introductory book for the yogic way of life.
August 14, 2019
Primarily for devotees of the Swami
Raja yoga--the "royal" yoga, or the "king's" yoga--is traditionally the yoga that comes after hatha yoga. In the Patanjali sutras it is sometimes associated with the limbs of yoga beginning with pratyahara (sense withdrawal) and concluding with samadhi, with the earlier limbs of yama, niyama (ethical considerations), asana (physical posture), and pranayama (breath control) understood as preparatory. However nothing in yoga is that clear cut, and some see the initial limbs of yama and niyama as part of the essential teachings of raja yoga, while others (myself included) see raja yoga as a continuation of hatha yoga and in no way separate. Swami Kriyananda (who was J. Donald Walters) presents in this book an elaborate yoga program that includes the Patanjali canon and much besides. Unfortunately (for me at least) much too much of the book is devoted to Kriyananda's personal and highly religious, mysterious, pseudo-scientific and murky ideas that are essentially extraneous to the ancient art and practice of yoga.
To give you an idea of how Kriyananda's perceptions and mine differ consider this: In an "Author's Prefatory Note" Kriyananda explains why he uses "he" throughout the text instead of "he or she" or the often non-grammatical "they." He finds such usages "cumbersome" noting that he refuses to think in terms of "pants" or "skirts" when he is addressing the "human being, stripped of sexual considerations." This is fine, indeed, admirable. However on page 23 he writes, "Primitive peoples, as all men are believed to have been..." when he could have just as easily have written "...as all people are believed to have been..." I am persuaded that Kriyananda's text, which serves as the basis for what he calls "Part II of the Ananda Course in Self-Realization" is a text that he didn't want to change, perhaps for practical reasons, and found a justification for the sexist language instead. Since the text was apparently written many years ago (Sheila Rush in her Foreword, indicates on page 13 that she read it 21 years ago) and considering that Kriyananda has been teaching yoga for over fifty years, his reluctance is understandable. However other parts of the text suffer from a similarly antiquated and no longer viable view of yoga and its history.
For example he speaks of the superiority of the ancients in terms of their having attained "far greater heights of knowledge than we have reached so far in our civilization." He gives as examples, "ancient, supposedly mythological, accounts of flying vehicles, even of interplanetary travel." And he refers to "an ancient manuscript in India that has survived to this day, in which the lives of many thousands, perhaps millions, of people were recorded in detail." He notes that "most of these people had not yet been born." He adds, "I found my own life accurately described--even to my correct name and birthplace--in this work, including predictions of future events that have since come to pass." (All of this on page 25.) On the following page, Kriyananda informs us that as the sun moves closer to the galactic center "mankind as a whole becomes more enlightened."
In addition to this sort of unnecessary mysticism, the text is also highly religious in a way that I find inimical to the spirit of the yoga of Patanjali or the yoga of B.K.S. Iyengar, or that of the Gheranda-Samhita and the Hathayogapradipika, or that of the Katha Upanishad, or even that of the sacred Bhagavad Gita. The postures demonstrated throughout the book by a sometimes smiling adept, are captioned with what are prayerful exaltations. Above the Supta-Vajrasana (what he calls "the Spine Firm Pose") on page 265 are the words, "With calm faith, I open to Thy Light." Or on page 335 captioning Sirshasana (the headstand) are the words, "I am He! I am He! Blissful Spirit, I am He!"
So be aware that this is a religious book as much as, or even more so, than it is a work on raja yoga. The religious orientation is Hindu which is understandable since it is very difficult to separate yoga from Hinduism; however Kriyananda does not try. That is not his intent. Indeed he tries to show that yoga is an integral part of other religions including Christianity. For example on page 402 he writes, "In Genesis 3:24 we read of the tree of life. The reference is to the spine." This yogic interpretation is a bit forced and typical of much of the world view presented herein.
All of this is not to say that there is not much of value in this work. It is just that the insights and understanding that Kriyananda has of yoga are eclipsed by the intent of his religious message, a message primarily intended for the resident students of his Ananda Village near Nevada City, California.
Instead of this book, as always I would recommend Iyengar's Light on Yoga for the serious student. And for those wanting to know more about the history and culture of yoga, I would recommend works by Georg Feuerstein and Mircea Eliade.
--Dennis Littrell, author of “Yoga: Sacred and Profane (Beyond Hatha Yoga)”
Raja yoga--the "royal" yoga, or the "king's" yoga--is traditionally the yoga that comes after hatha yoga. In the Patanjali sutras it is sometimes associated with the limbs of yoga beginning with pratyahara (sense withdrawal) and concluding with samadhi, with the earlier limbs of yama, niyama (ethical considerations), asana (physical posture), and pranayama (breath control) understood as preparatory. However nothing in yoga is that clear cut, and some see the initial limbs of yama and niyama as part of the essential teachings of raja yoga, while others (myself included) see raja yoga as a continuation of hatha yoga and in no way separate. Swami Kriyananda (who was J. Donald Walters) presents in this book an elaborate yoga program that includes the Patanjali canon and much besides. Unfortunately (for me at least) much too much of the book is devoted to Kriyananda's personal and highly religious, mysterious, pseudo-scientific and murky ideas that are essentially extraneous to the ancient art and practice of yoga.
To give you an idea of how Kriyananda's perceptions and mine differ consider this: In an "Author's Prefatory Note" Kriyananda explains why he uses "he" throughout the text instead of "he or she" or the often non-grammatical "they." He finds such usages "cumbersome" noting that he refuses to think in terms of "pants" or "skirts" when he is addressing the "human being, stripped of sexual considerations." This is fine, indeed, admirable. However on page 23 he writes, "Primitive peoples, as all men are believed to have been..." when he could have just as easily have written "...as all people are believed to have been..." I am persuaded that Kriyananda's text, which serves as the basis for what he calls "Part II of the Ananda Course in Self-Realization" is a text that he didn't want to change, perhaps for practical reasons, and found a justification for the sexist language instead. Since the text was apparently written many years ago (Sheila Rush in her Foreword, indicates on page 13 that she read it 21 years ago) and considering that Kriyananda has been teaching yoga for over fifty years, his reluctance is understandable. However other parts of the text suffer from a similarly antiquated and no longer viable view of yoga and its history.
For example he speaks of the superiority of the ancients in terms of their having attained "far greater heights of knowledge than we have reached so far in our civilization." He gives as examples, "ancient, supposedly mythological, accounts of flying vehicles, even of interplanetary travel." And he refers to "an ancient manuscript in India that has survived to this day, in which the lives of many thousands, perhaps millions, of people were recorded in detail." He notes that "most of these people had not yet been born." He adds, "I found my own life accurately described--even to my correct name and birthplace--in this work, including predictions of future events that have since come to pass." (All of this on page 25.) On the following page, Kriyananda informs us that as the sun moves closer to the galactic center "mankind as a whole becomes more enlightened."
In addition to this sort of unnecessary mysticism, the text is also highly religious in a way that I find inimical to the spirit of the yoga of Patanjali or the yoga of B.K.S. Iyengar, or that of the Gheranda-Samhita and the Hathayogapradipika, or that of the Katha Upanishad, or even that of the sacred Bhagavad Gita. The postures demonstrated throughout the book by a sometimes smiling adept, are captioned with what are prayerful exaltations. Above the Supta-Vajrasana (what he calls "the Spine Firm Pose") on page 265 are the words, "With calm faith, I open to Thy Light." Or on page 335 captioning Sirshasana (the headstand) are the words, "I am He! I am He! Blissful Spirit, I am He!"
So be aware that this is a religious book as much as, or even more so, than it is a work on raja yoga. The religious orientation is Hindu which is understandable since it is very difficult to separate yoga from Hinduism; however Kriyananda does not try. That is not his intent. Indeed he tries to show that yoga is an integral part of other religions including Christianity. For example on page 402 he writes, "In Genesis 3:24 we read of the tree of life. The reference is to the spine." This yogic interpretation is a bit forced and typical of much of the world view presented herein.
All of this is not to say that there is not much of value in this work. It is just that the insights and understanding that Kriyananda has of yoga are eclipsed by the intent of his religious message, a message primarily intended for the resident students of his Ananda Village near Nevada City, California.
Instead of this book, as always I would recommend Iyengar's Light on Yoga for the serious student. And for those wanting to know more about the history and culture of yoga, I would recommend works by Georg Feuerstein and Mircea Eliade.
--Dennis Littrell, author of “Yoga: Sacred and Profane (Beyond Hatha Yoga)”
November 29, 2022
Not particularly novel if u have read similar books
April 15, 2023
A good beginner book on meditation, yoga and the rest. Has something for everything to learn. It was part of my Level II Ananda Sangha Meditation Course.
February 6, 2011
Holistic, all-encompassing, indispensable. Excellent reference point and guiding tool for the complete practice of Yoga.
March 20, 2014
Nutrient dense, uplifting, & profound thoughts; yoga posture information; dietary advise & even recipes. I enjoyed RE-READING this AGAIN.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews