An Introduction to Yoga — Annie Besant
An Introduction to Yoga | Project Gutenberg You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : An Introduction to Yoga Author : Annie Besant Release date : July 1, 2003 [eBook #4278] Most recently updated: July 18, 2025 Language : English Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4278 Credits : JC Byers *** START OF 27 TH , 28 TH , 29 TH , 30 TH , 1907. BY ANNIE BESANT, President of the Theosophical Society . Theosophical Publishing Society, Benares City; and London, 161, New Bond Street, Theosophist Office, Adyar, Madras, S. 1908. An Introduction to Yoga | Project Gutenberg Contents Lecture I. The Nature of Yoga 1. The Meaning of the Universe 2. The Unfolding of Consciousness 3. The Oneness of the Self 4. The Quickening of the Process of Self-Unfoldment 5. Yoga is a Science 6. Man a Duality 7. States of Mind 8. Samadhi 9. The Literature of Yoga 10. Some Definitions 11. God Without and God Within 12. Changes of Consciousness and Vibrations of Matter 13. Mind 14. Stages of Mind 15. Inward and Outward-turned Consciousness 16. The Cloud Lecture II. Schools of Thought 1. Its Relation to Indian Philosophies 2. Mind 3. The Mental Body 4. Mind and Self Lecture III. Yoga as Science 1. Methods of Yoga 2. To the Self by the Self 3. To the Self through the Not-Self 4. Yoga and Morality 5. Composition of States of the Mind 6. Pleasure and Pain Lecture IV. Yoga as Practice 1. Inhibition of States of Mind 2. Meditation with and without Seed 3. The Use of Mantras 4. Attention 5. Obstacles to Yoga 6. Capacities for Yoga 7. Forthgoing and Returning 8. Purification of Bodies 9. Dwellers on the Threshold 10. Preparation for Yoga 11. The End An Introduction to Yoga | Project Gutenberg Foreword These lectures are intended to give an outline of Yoga, in order to prepare the student to take up, for practical purposes, the Sūṭras of Paṭañjali , the chief treatise on Yoga. I have on hand, with my friend Bhagavān Ḍās as collaborateur, a translation of these Sūṭras, with Vyāsa’s commentary, and a further commentary and elucidation written in the light of Theosophy. To prepare the student for the mastering of that more difficult task, these lectures were designed; hence the many references to Paṭañjali. They may, however, also serve to give to the ordinary lay reader some idea of the Science of sciences, and perhaps to allure a few towards its study. A NNIE B ESANT . An Introduction to Yoga | Project Gutenberg Lecture I THE NATURE OF YOGA Brothers: In this first discourse we shall concern ourselves with the gaining of a general idea of the subject of Yoga, seeking its place in nature, its own character, its object in human evolution. The Meaning of the Universe Let us, first of all, ask ourselves, looking at the world around us, what it is that the history of the world signifies. When we read history, what does the history tell us? It seems to be a moving panorama of people and events, but it is really only a dance of shadows; the people are shadows, not realities, the kings and statesmen, the ministers and armies; and the events—the battles and revolutions, the rises and falls of states—are the most shadowlike dance of all. Even if the historian tries to go deeper, if he deals with economic conditions, with social organisations, with the study of the tendencies of the currents of thought, even then he is in the midst of shadows, the illusory shadows cast by unseen realities. This world is full of forms that are illusory, and the values are all wrong, the proportions are out of focus. The things which a man of the world thinks valuable, a spiritual man must cast aside as worthless. The diamonds of the world, with their glare and glitter in the rays of the outside sun, are mere fragments of broken glass to the man of knowledge. The crown of the king, the sceptre of the emperor, the triumph of earthly power, are less than nothing to the man who has had one glimpse of the majesty of the Self. What is, then, real? What is truly valuable? Our answer will be very different from the answer given by the man of the world. “The universe exists for the sake of the Self.” Not for what the outer world can give, not for control over the objects of desire, not for the sake even of beauty or pleasure, does the Great Architect plan and build His worlds. He has filled them with objects, beautiful and pleasure-giving. The great arch of the sky above, the mountains with snow-clad peaks, the valleys soft with verdure and fragrant with blossoms, the oceans with their vast depths, their surface now calm as a lake, now tossing in fury—they all exist, not for the objects themselves, but for their value to the Self. Not for themselves because they are anything in themselves but that the purpose of the Self may be served, and His manifestations made possible. The world, with all its beauty, its happiness and suffering, its joys and pains, is planned with the utmost ingenuity, in order that the powers of the Self may be shown forth in manifestation. From the fire-mist to the LOGOS, all exist for the sake of the Self. The lowest grain of dust, the mightiest deva in his heavenly regions, the plant that grows out of sight in the nook of a mountain, the star that shines aloft over us-all these exist in order that the fragments of the one Self, embodied in countless forms, may realize their own identity, and manifest the powers of the Self through the matter that envelops them. There is but one Self in the lowliest dust and the loftiest deva. “Mamamsaha,” “My portion,” “a portion of My Self,” says Sri Krishna, are all these Jivatmas, all these living spirits. For them the universe exists; for them the sun shines, and the waves roll, and the winds blow, and the rain falls, that the Self may k