The Path of Meditation (Rāja-Yoga / Aṣṭāṅga)
The 'royal road': still the mind utterly, and the self stands revealed.
Rāja-yoga, the 'royal path,' is the way of systematic meditative discipline — essentially the eight-limbed yoga of Patañjali. Its method is to progressively calm and master the mind through ethical restraint, posture, breath-control, withdrawal of the senses, concentration, meditation, and absorption. The term 'rāja-yoga' became popular mainly in the modern period as a label for this classical system.
How it traveled
- Bhagavad-gītāKuru-Pañcāla region · -150explains
- Haṭhayoga-pradīpikāKāśī (Varanasi) · 1450explains
Key passages(17)
When the mind, absolutely restrained by the practice of concentration, attains quietude, and when seeing the Self by the self, one is satisfied in his own Self; when he feels that infinite bliss—which
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The Yogi freed from taint (of good and evil), constantly engaging the mind thus, with ease attains the infinite bliss of contact with Brahman.
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Let him perform his exercises in a place level, pure, free from pebbles, fire, and dust, delightful by its sounds, its water, and bowers, not painful to the eye, and full of shelters and caves.
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When Yoga is being performed, the forms which come first, producing apparitions in Brahman, are those of misty smoke, sun, fire, wind, fire-flies, lightnings, and a crystal moon .
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Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)