History of Modern Yoga: Patanjali and Western Esotericism

Contents......Page 6
List of figures and tables......Page 11
Acknowledgements......Page 13
List of abbreviations......Page 16
What is Modern Yoga?......Page 20
Modern Yoga scholarship......Page 25
Some notes on terminology......Page 26
Esoteric myopia......Page 28
Description of contents......Page 31
PART I: THE PREHISTORY OF MODERN YOGA......Page 36
"Esotericism" as academic field of research......Page 38
The worldview of Western esotericism......Page 40
Esotericism in classical and modern Hinduism......Page 46
Mysticism, cult and sect......Page 50
From mysticism to cultic milieu......Page 53
New Age religion vs. New Age movement......Page 54
Classical Hinduism vs. modern Hindu elaborations......Page 55
The beginnings of Neo-Hinduism......Page 57
Esoteric East-West cross-influences in historical perspective......Page 59
The Brahmo Samaj and the occultization of Neo-Vedānta......Page 64
2. The religious foundations of Modern Yoga......Page 70
The turning point between classical Hinduism and Neo-Vedānta: Rammohan Roy's Neo-Vedāntic Enlightenment......Page 71
Neo-Vedāntic Enlightenment to Neo-Vedāntic Romanticism......Page 75
From Neo-Vedāntic Romanticism to Neo-Vedāntic "spiritualism"......Page 86
3. Vivekananda and the emergence of Neo-Vedāntic occultism......Page 110
Vivekananda: spiritual hero or esoteric seeker?......Page 111
Vivekananda's esoteric biography I: India......Page 112
Vivekananda's esoteric biography II: the West......Page 129
Pervasiveness of Vivekananda's Neo-Vedāntic influences......Page 146
Centrality of the "realization" theme......Page 147
Ultimate aims: Vedāntic and Neo-Vednāntic......Page 148
Classical interpretations of ātma- and brahmajñāna......Page 149
Early attempts at translation and contextualization: Rammohan Roy......Page 152
Subsequent attempts at translation and contextualization by Brahmo leaders and others......Page 154
Ramakrishna and his interpreters: the elaboration of a sampradāya......Page 159
PART II: MODERN YOGA THEORY AND PRACTICE......Page 166
Raja Yoga: style, structure and overall contents......Page 168
An emanationist cosmology......Page 172
The Prana Model......Page 178
The Samadhi Model......Page 187
The Neo-Advaitic component......Page 194
Yogic experience in classical Vedanta......Page 195
The Yoga Sutras......Page 197
6. Twentieth-century developments of Modern Yoga......Page 200
Alternative medicine and New Age religiosity......Page 202
Towards a typology of Modern Yoga......Page 206
The development of Modern Postural Yoga: 1950s to date......Page 209
The lyengar School of Modern Postural Yoga......Page 213
lyengar's Modern Yoga trilogy......Page 227
Light on Yoga (1966): the Popularization period......Page 229
Light on Prandyama......Page 243
Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patañjali (1993): the Acculturation period......Page 255
MPY in everyday life......Page 267
The MPY practice session......Page 270
MPY as healing ritual of secular religion......Page 271
Bibliography......Page 280
B......Page 294
E......Page 295
J......Page 296
M......Page 297
R......Page 298
S......Page 299
V......Page 300
Y......Page 301