Depending on our temperament, we can pursue the journey of awakening in various ways. If we wish to develop the will and gain mastery over the mind, we can take a Raja Yoga approach. If we tend to be analytical and intellectual, there is the path of Jnana Yoga. If we...
We learn from our study of Yoga and Vedanta that their goals are one and the same: realization of the true Self. Both sages Veda Vyasa, and Sri Patanjali, in his Yoga Sutras, taught that by cultivating viveka (discriminative discernment) the cause of suffering...
Sri Adi Shankara is considered to have shaped the Hindu religion for the 1200 years following his disappearance from the world at age 32 in the early part of the ninth century. Having brought forth the advaita philosophy in its fully systematized and polished form, he...
Sri Swami Satchidananda recorded a self-inquiry process that he recommended as a meditation technique. Here is the process he gave: One wonderful meditation technique is self-analysis. It’s a process that leads you to identify with the inner Self, the Knower, rather...
Jnana Yoga is the path of wisdom. It is suitable for people of an intellectual nature. A Jnani Yogi acts with the feeling, “I am not the doer; Nature is doing everything. The body and mind are moving among the objects. I am the silent witness of all that is happening....
Peter Marchand, a student of the late Harish Johari, was drawn to the study of Jnana Yoga by what he calls his “rational tendencies.” As an environmental engineer and scientist he felt easily attracted to the study of Jnana Yoga. His book, The Yoga of Truth began as...
Gurudev Sivanandaji used to tease the so-called Vedantins and Jnana Yogis at the ashram. They would say, “Aham Brahmasmi, I am that Supreme Brahman.” Occasionally, Gurudev would touch a jnani’s arm with a little piece of stinging nettle. That person would jump up,...