Produced by Rose Koven, Juliet Sutherland, Keith M. Eckrich and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreaders Team

A SERIES OF

Lessons in Gnani Yoga (The Yoga of Wisdom.)

BY YOGI RAMACHARAKA.

THIS BOOK GIVES THE HIGHEST YOGI TEACHINGS REGARDING THE ABSOLUTE AND ITS MANIFESTATIONS.

INDEX.

LESSON PAGE

I. The One 1

II. Omnipresent Life 27

III. The Creative Will 51

IV. The Unity of Life 75

V. The One and the Many 101

VI. Within the Mind of the One 127

VII. Cosmic Evolution 153 VIII. The Ascent of Man 177

IX. Metempsychosis 203

X. Spiritual Evolution 229

XI. The Law of Karma 253

XII. Occult Miscellany 277

THE FIRST LESSON

THE ONE.

The Yogi Philosophy may be divided into several great branches, or fields. What is known as "Hatha Yoga" deals with the physical body and its control; its welfare; its health; its preservation; its laws, etc. What is known as "Raja Yoga" deals with the Mind; its control; its development; its unfoldment, etc. What is known as "Bhakti Yoga" deals with the Love of the Absolute--God. What is known as "Gnani Yoga" deals with the scientific and intellectual knowing of the great questions regarding Life and what lies back of Life--the Riddle of the Universe.

Each branch of Yoga is but a path leading toward the one end--unfoldment, development, and growth. He who wishes first to develop, control and strengthen his physical body so as to render it a fit instrument of the Higher Self, follows the path of "Hatha Yoga." He who would develop his will-power and mental faculties, unfolding the inner senses, and latent powers, follows the path of "Raja Yoga." He who wishes to develop by "knowing"--by studying the fundamental principles, and the wonderful truths underlying Life, follows the path of "Gnani Yoga." And he who wishes to grow into a union with the One Life by the influence of Love, he follows the path of "Bhakti Yoga."

But it must not be supposed that the student must ally himself to only a single one of these paths to power. In fact, very few do. The majority prefer to gain a rounded knowledge, and acquaint themselves with the principles of the several branches, learning something of each, giving preference of course to those branches that appeal to them more strongly, this attraction being the indication of _need_, or requirement, and, therefore, being the hand pointing out the path.

It is well for every one to know something of "Hatha Yoga," in order that the body may be purified, strengthened, and kept in health in order to become a more fitting instrument of the Higher Self. It is well that each one should know something of "Raja Yoga," that he may understand the training and control of the mind, and the use of the Will. It is well that every one should learn the wisdom of "Gnani Yoga," that he may realize the wonderful truths underlying life--the science of Being. And, most assuredly every one should know something of Bhakti Yogi, that he may understand the great teachings regarding the Love underlying all life.

Table of contents (by pages)

• 1: A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga by Atkinson
• 2: We have written a work on Hatha Yoga
• 3: By virtue of his Essence permeating it
• 4: As these transcend mere mechanical motion
• 5: And the Intellect is perfectly right
• 6: Space itself is merely a name for Nothingness
• 7: The universe is infinitely small and infinitely great
• 8: According to the Occult teachings are Thoughts of God
• 9: Surely this is different from Pantheism
• 10: Through the forms of Its manifestations
• 11: The second lesson omnipresent life
• 12: Verworn removed the sand from the bottom of the tank
• 13: The crystal forms from the mother liquor
• 14: If the Diatom grew from the outside
• 15: If the galvanometer be attached to a human nerve
• 16: Just as animal matter does when similarly poisoned
• 17: With tiny stem and umbrella top
• 18: Which is called a molecule of water
• 19: For the electrons manifest attraction
• 20: Manifesting in countless forms and shapes
• 21: Science teaches that every manifestation of energy
• 22: Or make him bungle or fumble in anything
• 23: The Creative Will is that striving
• 24: And produced them by the activity of the Creative Will
• 25: The Monera are but tiny bits of slimy
• 26: At the end of each sticker is a very tiny hook
• 27: There was once a French scientist named Duhamel
• 28: Holding granules in suspension
• 29: Under the operation of the Creative Will
• 30: And from which the latter emanates
• 31: In spite of all apparent diversity
• 32: And so on to infinity of infinities
• 33: The term Cosmic Consciousness
• 34: To see in Nirvana annihilation
• 35: For he may unfold gradually into the Cosmic Knowing
• 36: Including our little friend the leaflet
• 37: Separate though the dewdrop be
• 38: Is evidenced everywhere in the Upanishads
• 39: Which instinctively feels the Unity
• 40: Underlying all the manifold manifestations of shape and form
• 41: It finds the statement unthinkable
• 42: As expounded by the Higher Yogi Teachings
• 43: Finding no warrant in the Highest Yogi Teachings
• 44: You will see that the Yogis teach that Mind
• 45: In this consideration of the Highest Yogi Philosophy
• 46: But would be Relative and Finite
• 47: And there would be no outside for the Infinite
• 48: The Higher Yogi Teachings hold to no such ideas or theories
• 49: Outside of the Absolute Itself
• 50: Even the imaginations of your petty finite
• 51: This Positive Phase of the Truth
• 52: Which is breaking from the darkness of a Night of Brahm
• 53: On the coming of the Brahmic Night
• 54: For our finite Minds can hold no higher conception
• 55: Are but finite creations of finite minds
• 56: The Yogi teachings inform us that
• 57: The Prana involved itself in the Akasa
• 58: Before the Evolutionary process
• 59: As the evolutionary movement continued
• 60: Upward began the Evolutionary Process
• 61: There appeared grosser and still grosser forms of matter
• 62: The nebulae were part of the Process of Involution
• 63: And every cell is composed of protoplasm
• 64: The mammals are the highest form of the vertebrates
• 65: As they rise in the evolutionary scale
• 66: Which is the greater miracle the Moneron or Man
• 67: Like those of the parent polyp
• 68: In the higher forms of the annulosa
• 69: Which are next on the scale above the crustacea
• 70: And the Invertebrates by means of several connecting links
• 71: Some of the amphibious animals possess both lungs and gills
• 72: The Birds ascended from the Reptiles
• 73: These Monotremes may be called half bird and half mammal
• 74: Which comprise many varied forms
• 75: The Lemur is a nocturnal animal
• 76: The real Western discoverer of Evolution
• 77: Although it tends to personify Nature
• 78: Counting several generations of progeny
• 79: And compared with the Yogi Teachings
• 80: And antecedent to all the work of Evolution
• 81: There was a Spiritual Involution
• 82: Peruvian and Mexican civilizations
• 83: Under the name of Re incarnation
• 84: The doctrine of Metempsychosis
• 85: To dreams of early and shadowy recollections
• 86: ' He proceeded to examine the shutter
• 87: But who wore a strange necklace
• 88: A movement toward conscious Metempsychosis
• 89: Desire is the key note of Metempsychosis
• 90: Whitman says Facing West from California's shores
• 91: From the lower elements into those forming protoplasm
• 92: The mental planes being scarcely brought into play
• 93: There dawned the first period of the Third Cycle
• 94: As was the case with the Chosen Ones of Lemuria
• 95: Belonging to the mature period of life
• 96: Primitive people in certain lands
• 97: The Law of Karma is closely connected with Metempsychosis
• 98: The Yogi Philosophy teaches that Man will live forever
• 99: When we fasten around ourselves the evil of bad Karma
• 100: It is because of the Karma in your past lives
• 101: Wisdom and attainment proceeded
• 102: And old hates work out their Karmic results in our lives
• 103: Under the Law of Karma every action
• 104: And have a very material effect upon the Karmic Law
• 105: And best known phase of Karmic manifestation
• 106: Nations are bound by their Karma
• 107: Explains the doctrine of Karma from the Buddhist standpoint
• 108: This is the doctrine of the Karma
• 109: In harmony with the Yogi Teachings
• 110: Remember the old occult maxim When the Pupil is ready
• 111: Directs his mind to the creation of Manas
• 112: How numerous such chelas are
• 113: There are countless sub planes
• 114: Does not fully awaken from its Astral sleep
• 115: They have a knowledge of the planes beneath them
• 116: ANSWER The teaching concerning Nirvana
• 117: And the abandoned Astral Body becomes an Astral Shell
• 118: A Kalpa is composed of 14 Manwantaras
• 119: We must close this series of lessons on the Yogi Philosophy