The Yoga Upanisads (योगोपनिषदः)

Description

योगोपनिषदः (The Yoga Upanisads) There are twenty Yoga Upanishads which deal with the theory and practice of Yogic techniques. Traditionally, each of the Yoga Upanishad is attached with a particular Veda merely on the basis of the benedictory verse present in the beginning. The following table gives an idea about the association of the Upanishad with the sacred Veda. The composition of these is stated to have continued till the eighteenth century. In these texts several types of yoga are elaborated such as Mantra yoga, Laya yoga, Hatha yoga, Raja yoga and Samadhi yoga and other.

The most striking feature of the Yoga Upanishads is that most of these Upanishad texts describe the Hatha yoga practices as means to attain the absolute Brahman, the Brahman without a second, the Brahman without any adjuncts or attributes. Though each of the Upanishads does not deal with all the necessary topics of Yoga, all of these important topics of Yoga are however dealt with in these texts at large. Some of these Upanishads though branded as Yoga texts do not directly deal with the matter related to Yoga. Some of these discuss matter of Advaita Vedanta also.

Upanishadbrahmayogin is the name of Ramachandrendra Sarasvati of the 1800 CE. He was a sannyasin and Advaitin scholar of the Upanishads. He had written elaborate comment- aries on all 108 upanishads of the Muktika category. The scholarly commentaries of this great yoga in are very useful in understanding the essence of these Yogopanishads. Now, this text of the Yoga Upanisha- ds, along with the English translation by Sri. Srinivasa Shastri, is being published for an easy reading of the people interested in understanding the subject matter of the Upanishads.