Jnana Yoga (Vedanta Philosophy Lectures)
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~160,000 words · 768 passages
Cite this work
- APASwami Vivekananda. (n.d.). Jnana Yoga (Vedanta Philosophy Lectures). SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/swami-vivekananda/jnana-yoga-vedanta-philosophy-lectures
- MLASwami Vivekananda. "Jnana Yoga (Vedanta Philosophy Lectures)." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/swami-vivekananda/jnana-yoga-vedanta-philosophy-lectures.
- ChicagoSwami Vivekananda. Jnana Yoga (Vedanta Philosophy Lectures). SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/swami-vivekananda/jnana-yoga-vedanta-philosophy-lectures.
What it is about
Vivekananda's lectures on the path of knowledge, given in New York and London in 1895-96 and taken down from listeners' shorthand notes.
Context and history
Jnana yoga is, among the four paths he distinguished, the one for those who arrive by understanding rather than by devotion (bhakti), action (karma) or mental discipline (raja). The core is the Advaita thesis he had from Shankara's tradition: the individual and the absolute are not two things. What is new is whom he is speaking to and how: these are public lectures for a Western audience that knew nothing of any of it, so Vivekananda explains without presupposing the Sanskrit vocabulary and argues with the European science and philosophy of the day. It is the book that put Vedanta into circulation outside India, and it is worth remembering that these are transcripts of speech, not a text he wrote.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
cies of mankind as being of four main divisions, the dividing lines not being necessarily sharply defined, for more than one of these tendencies may be found in one individual. Broadly speaking, there is a large class of men who seek to express their religious ideas through ethical work, through constant effort to help and uplift their fellow-men. Then there are others of a strongly devotional character, who find in love and worship the satisfaction of their religious needs. Others again, of more mystical nature, prefer to realize their ideals through concentration and meditation. Lastly, there is a class of men of strongly analytical natures who must have the sanction of logic and reason for every belief and who therefore take the path of philosophy and discrimination. The books by Swami Vivekananda already published have been intended to meet the inquiries of the first three classes of men. The present work is adapted for the last class, the philosophers. Jnana Yoga is, as its name implies, the yoga, or method, of realizing our divine nature through wisdom {Jnana). Wis-8 J NAN A YOGA dom is not knowledge in its ordinary sense, although it includes it. It is that higher knowledge which is self-illumination. This is equally the goal of every yoga, or method, the difference lying only in the path chosen for reaching that