Synthesis of Yoga
Edited by Kireet Joshi
January 2012
Munshiram
Distributed by
ISBN: 9788187586500
998 pages
$225.00 Hardcover
Yoga is a living tradition in India. And it is its quest that imparts Indian culture its perennial spiritual essence. This volume: a part of the series on Yoga, shows how yoga and life are inseparable. In the evolutionary movement of life on earth, it argues, the theme of the synthesis of yoga as a conscious and deliberate application of the highest psychological development of human consciousness has become indispensable today -- as an aid to the solution of the evolutionary crisis through which humanity is passing at present as also for the development of the upward mutation of the human species. In this context, the history of synthesis of yoga, which began with the Vedas and the Upanisads and the new synthesis of yoga that has been proposed and worked out by Sri Aurobindo, can regarded as a valuable gift that India is able to present today for purposes of the highest and integral welfare of humanity.
Carrying, besides a comprehensive, at once stimulating introduction, thirty papers written by eminent scholars, the volume presents fresh, highly insightful perspectives on the five principal systems of the synthesis of yoga, namely, of the Vedic Samhitas, of the Upanisads, of the Gita, of the Tantra, and of Sri Aurobindo. While laying emphasis on these five major systems, the volume also brings out the subtle nuances and complexities of the systems of yoga in Buddhism, Jainism, Taoism, Saiva Siddhanta, Patanjali Yoga, Ramanuja’s Vaisnavism, Bhakti Movement, Kashmir Saivism, and in several other systems – highlighting how all these systems evidence a marked tendency of synthesis.
This volume, in itself, is a part of the on-going, highly ambitious Project, History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization (PHISPC) which aims to discover the central aspects of India’s heritage and present them in an interrelated manner. Notwithstanding its primarily historical character, the Project: in both conceptualization and execution, has been shaped by scholars drawn from different disciplines.
History of Science, Philosophy & Culture in Indian Civilzation Vol. XVI, Part 4
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