Lecture Iv. Yoga As Practice

1. Inhibition of States of Mind 2. Meditation with and without Seed 3. The Use of Mantras 4. Attention 5. Obstacles to Yoga 6. Capacities for Yoga 7. Forthgoing and Returning 8. Purification of Bodies 9. Dwellers on the Threshold 10. Preparation for Yoga 11. The End

Foreword

These lectures are intended to give an outline of Yoga, in order to prepare the student to take up, for practical purposes, the Sūṭras of Paṭañjali, the chief treatise on Yoga. I have on hand, with my friend Bhagavān Ḍās as collaborateur, a translation of these Sūṭras, with Vyāsa’s commentary, and a further commentary and elucidation written in the light of Theosophy. To prepare the student for the mastering of that more difficult task, these lectures were designed; hence the many references to Paṭañjali. They may, however, also serve to give to the ordinary lay reader some idea of the Science of sciences, and perhaps to allure a few towards its study.

ANNIE BESANT.