ISBN: 0226851168 9780226851167

Category: Health & Fitness / Yoga

Page count: 253

A popular and critical success when it first appeared in France, <i>Yoga and the Hindu Tradition</i> has freed Yoga from the common misconceptions of the recent Yoga vogue. Jean Varenne, the distinguished French Orientalist, presents the theory of classical Yoga, in all its richness, as a method—a concrete way to reach the Absolute through spiritual exercises—which makes possible the transition from existence to essence.<br> <br> This excellent translation, including line drawings and charts, a glossary of technical terms, and a complete translation of the <i>Yoga Darshana Upanishad</i>, begins with a brief description of the metaphysical and religious history on which Yoga is based. Varenne discusses the theoretical conception of Yoga as the search for liberating knowledge, concluding with a brief indication of the physical practices and extra Yogic themes such as Kundalini and Tantrism. It is the author's hope that "those who read [this book] will come to realize that it is in fact dishonest to reduce Yoga to some sort of physical training, or to just an occult doctrine; it is a 'world view' a <i>Weltanschauung</i> that comprehends reality in its totality."<br> <br> "The straightforward, well-organized presentation makes the book itself a microcosm of what Varenne singles out as a dominant feature of classical Hindu thought—a bringing of the complex and multitudinous into a unity."—Judith Guttman, <i>Yoga Journal</i><br>