 Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma)
No one knows how old the religion of India might be, and the people of India do not care, for they call it Sanatana Dharma: the Eternal Religion. As thousands of years passed, an immense structure evolved around the matrix of Sanatana Dharma and today is popularly known as Hinduism.
Sanatana Dharma in its primal form is to be found in the Isha, Kena, Katha, Prashna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Taittiriya, Aitaryeya, Chandogya, Brihadaranyaka, and Svetashvatara Upanishads. These eleven texts (upanishad means “teaching”–literally “that which was heard when sitting near”) are attached to the Vedas, the ancient hymns of the Indian sages, and also knows as Vedanta, the End of the Vedas. Long after their composition, the great author-philosopher Vyasa wrote the most popular sacred text of India, the Bhagavad Gita, which is a digest of the Upanishads, presenting in seven hundred verses the practical and theoretical teachings of Sanatana Dharma.
Some time before Vyasa, another master of the inner life named Patanjali wrote a brief text on meditation. Known as the Yoga Darshana or Yoga Sutras, it analyzes the meditational lore of the upanishads and presents it in a thoroughly practical form.
For information on various aspects of Hinduism, including text and commentaries on the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and Yoga Sutras,see the following articles: |
• Introduction
• Chapter One—The Yoga of the Despondency of Arjuna
• Chapter Two—Sankhya Yoga
• Chapter Three—The Yoga of Action
• Chapter Four—The Yoga of Wisdom
• Chapter Five—The Yoga of Renunciation of Action
• Chapter Six—The Yoga of Meditation
• Chapter Seven—The Yoga of Wisdom and Realization
• Chapter Eight—The Yoga of Imperishable Brahman
• Chapter Nine—The Yoga of the Kingly Science and Kingly Secret
• Chapter Ten—The Yoga of Divine glories
• Chapter Eleven—The Yoga of the Vision of the Cosmic Form
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• Chapter Twelve—The Yoga of Devotion
• Chapter Thirteen—The Yoga of the Distinction Between the Field and the Knower of the Field
• Chapter Fourteen—The Yoga of the Division of the Three Gunas
• Chapter Fifteen—The Yoga of the Supreme Spirit
• Chapter Sixteen— Yoga of the Division between the Divine and the Demoniacal
• Chapter Seventeen—The Yoga of the Division of Threefold Faith
• Chapter Eighteen—The Yoga of Liberation by Renunciation
To hear this text sung, in the melody we use, click here. |
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• What is Yoga? – by Swami Nirmalananda Giri.
A brief study of both the philosophical and practical nature of Yoga as the capstone of self-culture and enlightenment.
• Foundations of Yoga – by Swami Nirmalananda Giri.
The basis of all Yoga practice are the “Ten Commandments of Yoga”–the principles of Yama and Niyama outlined by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras. This booklet considers the various aspects of each principle as well as the spiritual power which is developed through each one.
• The Science of Yoga – by I. K. Taimni. A PDF download. 391 pages, 10.6 MB
A masterful exposition of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Dr. Taimni, a professor of chemistry and physics, elucidates some of the more difficult but important concepts in the sutras with examples drawn from modern scientific research.
• The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, translated by Raghavan Iyer, edited by Swami Nirmalananda
The Yoga Darshana (Yoga Sutras) of Patanjali is usually presented as two hundred brief aphorisms and commented upon accordingly, splitting them apart and thereby losing the original continuity of thought. This loss of continuity has enabled commentators to set forth their own private ideas on Yoga which are often, even usually, at variance with the intentions of Patanjali. Without changing the order of the sentences in any way, Swami Nirmalananda has arranged them so a reader can see that the Yoga Darshana is really a brief and coherent essay on Yoga. When read in this way, Patanjali’s teachings can be easily seen free of extraneous concepts.
• Commentary on the Yoga Sutras – by Raghavan Iyer
• Essays on the Yoga Sutras I – by Raghavan Iyer
• Essays on the Yoga Sutras II – by Raghavan Iyer
• Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi, and Meditation – by Swami Nirmalananda Giri. |
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