 The designation raja-yoga, meaning "royal Yoga," is a compartively late coinage that came in vogue in the sixteenth century C.E. It refers specifically to the Yoga system of Pantanjali, created in the second century C.E, and is most commonly used to distinguish Patanjali's eightfold path of meditative introversion from Hatha Yoga. According to the Yoga-Raja-Upanishad, a late work, there are four kinds of Yoga, namely Mantra Yoga, Laya-Yoga, Hatha-Yoga, and Raja-Yoga. All are said to include the well-know practices of posture breath control, meditation, and ecstasy.
Raja yoga is a meditative quest that should lead to the discoverey of transcendental Reality beyond thought and image, beyond worship and prayer, beyond ritual and magic. |
