Book overview
Atmic Testament on Yoga is the ten-year study of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras taught by Babaji Bob Kindler to the students of SRV Associations and other interested persons from around the U.S. The text used by the students was Swami Vivekananda's Raja Yoga. This signature work was delivered expressly for the purpose of introducing the Yoga Philosophy to Westerners in the late 1890's. It represents Vivekananda's direct transmission of the fundamentals of the Yoga System (darshana) through lectures that delved into previously unheard-of concepts, for example: yogic breathing, prana (vital force of the body), psychic prana (mental force that moves our thoughts), subtle matter (tanmatras), samadhi (states of higher awareness), and the teaching of both evolution and involution of Indian cosmology - all of which were new to Westerners and essential for understanding the true import of Yoga. After the introductory chapters in Raja Yoga, Swami Vivekananda gave his translation and commentary on the actual sutras (aphoristic verses), drawing from both the Indian commentators and his own illumined and direct experience of Yoga in practice (concentration, meditation, samadhi), and full attainment (asamprajnata samadhi).
While the students studied Raja Yoga, Babaji Bob Kindler prepared lessons drawn from the commentaries of the Father of Vedanta, Vedavyas, and other Indian commentators, as well as his own direct experience as a Western student and practitioner of this philosophy, who studied under Indian swamis of the Ramakrishna Order. One of the unique features of Atmic Testament on Yoga is the inclusion of the questions and answers between the students and the author. The students' inquiries delve into the philosophy as well as its application in both practice and daily life. It is thus a record of Western students awakening to the true significance of Yoga as they explored beyond the cultural limits imposed by a secular and materialistic society as to the nature of Reality, thus lifting the curtain of atomic matter and the "evolution-only" mindset we are all so familiar with.
Thirteen explanatory charts are used in this first volume, which include the first two Padas (chapters) of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras that deal with the nature of samadhi and yoga practice. Each of the 105 lessons (spanning Volume 1 & 2) include the transliterated Sanskrit, a word for word translation, English translation of the sutra, commentary, and the question and answer sessions.
Throughout this ten-year study it became painfully clear that in the years since Swami Vivekananda brought Yoga to the West, it has been co-opted by a narrowly focused interpretation that is relegated to mere physical practices. Although these few practices are mentioned by Patanjali, the Systematizer of the Yoga System, it is only in passing, consisting of three sutras out of a total of 196. Even when some elements of the philosophy are presented in the exercise "yoga classes," the emphasis is on the body and emotions. Atmic Testament on Yoga clarifies that the goal of Yoga is samadhi, manifesting progressively from sense control, equanimity of mind, resilience of character, deep concentration, transcendence of body identification, to mastery and freedom from the limiting forces of nature, which lead ultimately to complete spiritual emancipation (moksha).
