# Raja Yoga or Conquering the Internal Nature  ## Metadata - Author: [[Swami Vivekananda]] - Full Title: Raja Yoga or Conquering the Internal Nature - Category: #books ## Highlights - The system of Patanjali is based upon the system of the Sankhyas, the points of difference being very few. The two most important differences are, first, that Patanjali admits a personal God in the form of a first teacher, while the only God the Sankhyas admit is a nearly perfected being, temporarily in charge of a cycle of creation. Second, the Yogis hold the mind to be equally all-pervading with the soul, or Purusha, and the Sankhyas do not. ([Location 149](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08DRDRCPD&location=149)) - Therefore, he who has discovered and learned to manipulate the internal forces will get the whole of nature under his control. The Yogi thus proposes to himself no less a task than to master the whole universe, by getting control of the whole of nature. He wants to arrive at the point where what we call “nature’s laws” will have no influence over him, and where he will be able to get beyond them all. ([Location 274](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08DRDRCPD&location=274)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - Raja Yoga proposes to start from the internal world, to study internal nature, and to get the control of the whole of nature, both internal and external, through the control of that. It is nothing new but a very old attempt. India has been its special stronghold, but it was also attempted by other nations. In Western countries it is thought to be mysticism, and people who wanted to practise it in ancient times were either burned or killed as witches and sorcerers. ([Location 288](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08DRDRCPD&location=288)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - A Yogi must avoid the two extremes of luxury and austerity. He must not fast, or torture his flesh. For, says the Gita, “He who fasts and he who eats too much, he who keeps awake and he who sleeps much, he who works too much and he who does no work, none of these can be Yogis.” ([Location 338](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08DRDRCPD&location=338)) - Sit always in a straight posture while practising and the first thing to do is to send a current of holy thought to all creation; repeat mentally: “Let all beings be peaceful; let all beings be blissful.” Send such currents of thought to the East, South, North and West. ([Location 486](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08DRDRCPD&location=486)) - Freedom is never to be reached by the weak; so throw away all weakness; tell your body and mind that they are strong, and have unbounded faith and hope in yourself. ([Location 492](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08DRDRCPD&location=492)) - The question was raised in the Vedâs—“What is that, knowing which we shall know everything?” And since then all books on philosophy that have ever been written by the Hindus, have always struggled to find out and prove that there exists something by knowing which everything becomes known to man. ([Location 526](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08DRDRCPD&location=526)) - Behind all particular ideas there stands a generalised and abstract principle; grasp it, and you have grasped everything. The whole of this universe has thus been generalised, in the Vedâs, into One Absolute Existence. And he who has grasped that Existence has grasped the wholeuniverse. All forces have similarly been generalised into Prâna. And he who has grasped the Prâna has grasped all the forces of the universe, mental and physical. ([Location 531](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08DRDRCPD&location=531)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - They had no thought for anything else and never lived a moment for any other idea whatsoever, and thus the way was shortened for them. And that is what is meant by concentration. It is to intensify the action of the process of attaining perfection by the assimilation of infinite energy, thus shortening the period of time that is taken by nature to lead humanity to that goal. ([Location 675](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08DRDRCPD&location=675)) - The higher or super-conscious vibrations of Prâna bring to us different kinds of Samâdhi, and the lower states of Samâdhi give us visions of the departed spirits. The highest grade of Samâdhi, however, is that where we see the material out of which all the different grades of beings in the universe are composed, and that has been spoken of in the Vedas as the lump of clay which being known, we know everything in the universe. ([Location 706](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08DRDRCPD&location=706)) - The spinal cord, at the brain, ends in a sort of bulb, in the medulla, which is not attached to the brain, but floats in a fluid in it, so that if there be a blow on the head; the force of that blow will be dissipated in the fluid, and not hurt the bulb. Secondly, we have also to know that, of all the centres, we have particularly to remember three,—the Mulâdhâra or the basic, the Sahasrâra or the thousand-petalled lotus in the brain, and the Manipura or the lotus in the navel. ([Location 740](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08DRDRCPD&location=740)) - Thus the rousing of the Kundalini is the one only way to the realisation of the Spirit or Self by attaining perfect wisdom through superconscious perception. And the rousing of that power may come in several ways,—through love for God, through the mercy of perfected sages, or through the power of the analytic will of the philosopher. ([Location 805](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08DRDRCPD&location=805)) - And for those who will go on further with them, will the Kundalini be aroused, the whole aspect of nature will change, and the book of knowledge will be open. No more then, will they need to go to books for knowledge; for their own minds will have become filled with infinite knowledge at the time. ([Location 871](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08DRDRCPD&location=871)) - That in which one’s Self is meditated upon as zero, or as bereft of every quality or limitation whatsoever, is called Abhâva. And that in which one sees the Self as full of bliss bereft of all impurities, and one with God, is called Mahâyoga. The Yogi realises his Self by each one of them. The other Yogas that we read and hear of do not deserve to be compared with the great Brahmayoga, which the Yogi attains by means of them both and in which the Yogi finds himself and the whole universe as God Himself. That indeed is the highest end of the two kinds of Yoga. ([Location 1197](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08DRDRCPD&location=1197)) - There is a mantra called the Gâyatri. It is considered to be very holy in the Vedâs. It runs thus—“We meditate on the glory of that Being who has produced this universe; may He enlighten our mind!” Then Om is joined to it at the beginning and at the end. ([Location 1238](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08DRDRCPD&location=1238)) - Yogis. It seems to be the consensus of opinion of all the great minds of the world, and it has almost been demonstrated by researches into physical nature, that we are but the outcome and manifestation of an absolute condition, which is at the back of our present relative condition, and that we are going forward, to return to that again. That being granted, the question arises at present, which of the two conditions is better,—the absolute or the relative. ([Location 1294](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08DRDRCPD&location=1294)) - is really beyond the intellect that the first state of religious life is to be found, and when you step beyond thought, intellect and reasoning, then alone you have made the first step towards God. ([Location 1354](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08DRDRCPD&location=1354)) - dulness, or laziness. The calm man is one who can restrain the mental waves at will. Activity, therefore, is the manifestation of a lower kind of strength, and calmness, of a superior kind. ([Location 1421](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08DRDRCPD&location=1421))