The Hindu System of Self-Culture or Patanjala Yoga Shastra

The principles of yoga apply alike to the highest" spheres of contemplative and religious life and to the humblest objects of worldly pursuit. It is like the fundamental processes of algebra which enter into the solution of the highest problems of Differential Calculus no less than into the solution of ordinary questions of calculation. The commentators of the Yoga Shastra however view it only in connection with the high metaphysical and spiritual questions relating to humanity. This is no wonder, as the yoga Shastra itself deals with too many questions of this class. But the need of the modern day is to know the Yoga Shastra as a general and abstract system, irrespective of the objects to which it may be applied. In the following pages I have tried to present it in this shape. The appendix is intended by the publisher to explain how far the discoveries and the researches of modern Europe comport with the facts and theories of Yoga Shastra.

Section 1.—Introduction ... ... ... I
Section 2.—The process of Nirodha ... ... 6
Section 3.—The Samadhi process which comes after Nirodha ... ... 10
Section 4.—The peaceful harmonious state after Samadhi ... ... ... 16
Section 5.—The three states considered together 20

CHAPTER II.
Further Exposition On The Lines Indicated.
Section I.—The mental functions on which Nirodha bears ... ... 28
Section 2.—The steps leading to Samadhi or Ekarthata ... ... ... 34
Section 3 —The state of EUagrata or success after Samadhi ... ... 38
Section 4,—The three stages of Yoga in relation to the Sankhya Philosophy ... 41
Section 5.—What to be shunned and what to be gained by Yoga ... ... 46
Section 6.—The same subject continued ... 50