• Hanuman Chalisa (Karma/Bhakti): Devotion
• Yoga Sutras (Raja): Discipline
• Bhagavad Gita (Karma/Bhakti/Jnana): Wisdom

These three shastras encompass the spirit of the Four Yogas and it seems just understanding these three fully and deeply seems to be sufficient. As I stated on v0.11 that I was going toward this path but I didn’t fully understand the depth of each. Frankly, I didn’t think much of the Hanuman Chalisa and now have absolutely fallen in love with it.

The Hanuman Chalisa is not just a song but each sloka is a mantra and an aspiration of behavior that was exuded by Lord Hanuman. Each sloka has a depth of meaning of the trials of Hanuman and how he overcame them. It is in essence the ultimate in the Karma Yoga texts that are succinct to follow the understanding versus reading Ramakrisha or Vivekananda. While, Ramakrishna and Vivekananda act as gurus to guide us to the Four Yogas the Hanuman Chalisa is a condensed version of the values that they want us to lead.

The Yoga Sutras act as a means for disciplining oneself. If the Hanuman Chalisa teaches how to act outwardly then the Yoga Sutras teaches us how the inner world should be. The Yoga Sutras are a guide on how to structure and setup the inner world so that you can act like Lord Hanuman to always be focused on Lord Ram. Since Rama means “light within” it is also a representation the Brahman.

Lastly, the Bhagavad Gita acts as a bridge between the outer and inner world. While the Hanuman Chalisa deals with outer virtues, the Yoga Sutras the inner world, the Bhagavad Gita deals with the battlefield of life of how to deal with yourself as an individual in society at large. It has the ideas that are included in both the Chalisa and Yoga Sutras as well as the Upanishads. It acts as the source of Jnana Yoga encompassing the why of it all.

These shastras have a lifetime of study ahead of them and I am content knowing what I need to focus my energies around.

Jai Shree Ram

I have simplified my daily routine. It was too complex with too many moving pieces making everything I do be shallow. It was hard to know what I was to do when without a schedule. It just made things difficult.

With the simplification of my Sadhana I am also simplifying my routine. I am no longer going to be so intense about my schedule as I was around focusing my energy just on my spiritual practice over everything else. With my goal of memorizing the Hanuman Chalisa, Yoga Sutras and Bhagavad Gita my intent is to have the core scriptures I have become a part of me.

What has changed is that I now have long periods for each task of over an hour each sometimes two. This gives me a lot of time to do tasks.

Lastly, I have combined Study & Work. The reason is a lot of my work is becoming more study than work and I need to take time to just study. This long periods of time to Study & Work are important to get focused work complete.

I’m hoping to keep this schedule for the foreseeable future with the exception that I may wake up at 7 instead of 7:30.

I am reorienting my sadhana as I mentioned in v0.9 and v0.10 and simplifying my practice to:

1. Memorization of the Hanuman Chalisa, Yoga Sutras and Bhagavad Gita
2. Study of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda

Everything else is a subgroup of these two things. I am going way out of the primary sources and reading secondary sources. The primary sources are where the power lies, the secondaries are just clarifications. To simplify, I am focusing my energies on the primary texts and will slowly add the secondaries to clarify any holes in my understanding.

Memorization of Hanuman Chalisa, Yoga Sutras and Bhagavad Gita will be a primary practice that I will go through while also learning them in the original and Sanskrit. This will require me to learn Devanagari so I can say what I have read in Sanskrit. The issue I am facing is that I am not sufficiently devotional and building my devotion is what I need so that when I am not meditating or am away from my meditation mat I can still have God in my heart instead of instantly forgetting. By memorizing some of the core texts I can take the devotion wherever I go.

All of these words are to say that I have greatly simplified my sadhana to a few things with a focus on depth. Summed up it is the following:

• “Yogas citta vritti nirodah” Yoga Sutras 1.2
• “O Arjuna! As the ignorant men work with attachment to action, so should the wise act without attachment, for the welfare of the world.” Bhagavad Gita 3.25
• “Hail, Hail, Hail, Shri Hanuman, Lord of senses. Let your victory over the evil be firm and final. Bless me in the capacity as my supreme guru.” Hanuman Chalisa

O Lord, while I identify myself with my body, I am Thy servant.
When I consider myself as Individual Soul, I am Thy part.
But when I look upon myself as Pure Awareness, I am one with Thee Thyself.

The problem of tasting sugar versus being sugar is a real one. When one thinks of oneself as the sugar it is hard to perform action in the world. The advaitic method may be the eventual goal but as a day to day you want to taste sugar. This is the reason I think Ramakrishna said it was easier to be a Bhakta than the other paths because we identify with our bodies.

While I meditate on Lord Shiva, it is in the form of the Shiva Linga. While this is well and good for the sake of meditation when doing action in the world it is not really motivational! While I sympathies to the plight of Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita and his love of Krishna, Arjuna was always represented as having a will of his own. While Arjuna realizes his love of Krishna, it had to be developed through the discourse in the Gita.

In this regard I think Hanuman is the best representation of a soul’s love for God. Hanuman was the instrument of Rama. He did everything that Rama asked of him with devotion and love. And being an avatara of Lord Shiva the worship of Hanuman becomes a worship of Lord Shiva. This is likely why Hanuman is represented so heavily in modern Hinduism as a form of worship.

Hanuman represents pure devotion and the combination of the powers of Hari and Hara. While the Bhagavad Gita goes into the love of God’s love for all and the philosophical aspects of how to show that love, Hanuman shows that love in a pure form always thinking himself the instrument of Rama. His strength and power are always used at the service of Rama.

While I will continue my worship of Lord Shiva in the Linga form for Raja Yoga, I will use Lord Shiva in the Hanuman form as the primary method of worship for Karma Yoga.

Jai Shree Ram!

I made my Sadhana too complex to the point where I burnt out. Trying so aggressively to incorporate all the practices and study all the texts of Sivananda, Chinamaya, Dayananda, Vivekananda and Ramakrishna has led to be feeling like I am not doing enough and putting spiritual pressure. The goal is to free oneself not feel like you are adding another weight.

The number of scriptures and commentaries are endless. Each of the yogas has distinct practices that are unique to each path. I realize while we need to do all the paths there needs to be one which is the primary. But I was trying to practice Raja Yoga while making Jnana the actual practice. This dichotomy of practicing the wrong thing for what I wanted to focus on has been detrimental since Jnana is philosophical in nature while Raja should be about stilling the mind.

So I am simplifying my practice with only a couple of texts being my primary focus and everything else being secondary. These texts are:

• Karma: Ramakrishna / Sri Sarada Devi / Vivekananda Complete Works
• Bhakti: Hanuman Chalisa
• Raja: Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras
• Jnana: Bhagavad Gita

Yes, I know core Vedanta is textual study of Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads and Brahma Sutras the ultimate realization of Advaita but I don’t think it is the primary path for me. I am more action oriented and experimental in nature and Raja is the path that fulfills this goal not trying to decipher philosophical texts. It is for this reason I am focusing largely on practical texts as those to read. Ramakrishna and Vivekananda are practical in their explanations. Yoga Sutras are specific in their recommendations. The Bhagavad Gita ties the yogas into a comprehensive whole.

I will be using supplementary texts to fill in the gaps of the primary texts. They are there to help realize the Raja Yoga goal of “yogas citta vritti nirodahah.” So my goal is to read things that assist in attaining the goal. These can be either spiritual or not.

It is a curiosity that I have decided to follow both the Ramakrishna lineage as well as the Sivananda lineage. The reason is that they complement each other. Sivananda teaches how to purify the body practically to have the experiential realizations that Ramakrishna and Vivekananda describe. While Ramakrishna rejected the Hatha Yoga path as leading one to associate with the body I do think Sivananda defines the practical framework for the Four Yogas.

The Four Yogas were been defined by Vivekananda and Sivananda put a practical set of instructions on them. Vivekananda put the philosophical framework while Sivananda applied the practice framework. And being a medical doctor he incorporated Hatha Yoga to the mix of practices.

While there has been controversy in the Sivananda lineage with some of his disciples because of the danger of Hatha Yoga that Sri Ramakrishna was warning about I do think for a householder the practice of Hatha Yoga is important in terms of a baseline or health. Asanas help with certain body aches that can be alleviated so the mind can focus on other things.

Lastly, the textual basis of the Ramakrishna order and the Chinamaya/Dayananda seem more attuned. While Sivananda sets up the practice he doesn’t seem to really give the scriptural basis of Vedanta. In that regard the Chinamaya/Dayananda provide the textual basis for Vedanta in a lot of ways as a complement to the Ramakrishna order.

In that regard as I mentioned in v0.6 under structured study that I have a set of reading for the next few years. But those are entirely preliminary readings to setup my practice. The long term goal that I have as I set up my practice is a focus on a few core texts:

• Gospel of Ramakrishna
• Vivekananda Works
• Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras
• Narada's Bhakti Sutras
• Bhagavad Gita
• Upanishads

I have synthesized the Four Yogas into the Eight Limbs of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Raja Yoga serves as the overarching framework with Karma, Bhakti, Jnana, Hatha, and Japa Yoga incorporated. This creates a practice that incorporates the yogas.

There are many, many different yogas and to incorporate them all is difficult. The difficulty lies in that each system has its own sadhana. Having each yoga as a separate path that is followed is like jumping around from one practice to another without any real structure and depth.

So I have incorporated nearly all of the Yogas into the Eight Limbs of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras grouped as follows:

• Karma Yoga into Yama
• Bhakti and Jnana Yoga into Niyama
• Hatha Yoga into Asana and Pranayama
• Japa Yoga into Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi

What does this mean in practice? It means that understanding Patanjali's Yoga Sutras deeply is the key part of my sadhana as all of the other yogas are incorporated into it.

Secondly, it incorporates all parts of life: work, devotion, knowledge, health, and meditation. I did not think Hatha Yoga would play such a significant role but here we are.

In another way it simplifies the practice quite a bit. There is a set study and practice for each limb.

Instead of having a half-hazard study I have codified my study of the different teachers that I follow. The outcome of this is that I have a strict end to end for my Yoga-Vedanta studies that encompass the different paths. But there are a lot of texts and the teachers I have decided to follow have created a lot of writing. The preliminary study of these texts will take me a minimum of three years with some other texts likely taking me a lifetime to finish.

I will be updating this site with the readings as I go through them organized according to the various limbs of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. So I will not be listing them out here individually until I have read them.

Interestingly, most of the teachers I ascribe to have various paths that they teach or orient around. Karma Yoga/yama is Vivekananda, Bhakti-Jnana Yoga/niyama is Ramakrishna, Chinnamayananda and Daryananada, Hatha Yoga/asana & pranayama is Satyananda and Raja Yoga is Aurobindo. Sivananda Saraswati seems to be a combination of all of these paths.

Beyond this I haven't even started on the Vedantic texts such as the Upanishads, Brahma Sutras, Bhagavad Gita, Yoga Vaishista and the commentaries. Those will be included in my study as well, but with the preliminary focus on the writings of the teachers I follow.

Sri Ramakrishna — In Hatha Yoga, one is more concerned with the body. A Hatha yogi puts a bamboo tube in his anus for washing the inner organs of the body. He draws ghee (clarified butter) and milk through his organ of reproduction. He practices exercises to train his tongue. He sits in a fixed posture and sometimes levitates. All these are the actions of prana (the vital air). A magician, while performing magic feats, turned his tongue to touch his palate and immediately his body became stiff. People thought he was dead. He was buried and remained in a grave for many years. After a long time the grave was somehow opened and that man regained outer consciousness. As soon as he was conscious, he cried out, ‘Look at my magic! See my feats!’ (All laugh.) All these are actions of prana.

-Sri Ramakrishna. Kathamrita, Volume 2 Section 11

Swami Sivananda's disciples Swami Satchidananda Saraswati, Satyananda Saraswati, Vishnudevananda Saraswati were all practitioners of Hatha Yoga. They also all have sexual scandals associated with them. The problem with Hatha Yoga seems to be that it is easy to get caught up in the physical and lose the spiritual. Hatha is all about the body and the physical. This I think is why Ramakrishna and Vivekananda warned against Hatha Yoga. Also, it is why I think Chinmayananda also a disciple of Sivananda largely ignored Hatha Yoga and focused on Jnana Yoga and there have not been any scandals associated with him.

One of the faults of Hatha Yoga as I see it while going through my readings is that these teachers tell us to actively ignore the yamas and niyamas. For example, in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika by Swami Muktibodhananda of the Satyananda lineage states, " Raja yoga claims that yama and niyama must be practiced before commencing hatha yoga. It says, control the mind and then purify the body, but in this day and age too many problems can arise if an aspirant comes into direct confrontation with his mind at the beginning of his spiritual quest". This seems to imply that by practicing asanas and pranayama one will eventually acquire the yamas and niyamas without actively practicing them. Even though Verse 16.1 and 16.2 of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika lists out the yamas and niyamas that are to be followed before the asanas chapter even beings.

I do think the sexual scandals around these teachers, the intentional ignorance of the yamas and niyamas is a problem. So my readings and approach to Hatha Yoga is with caution and limited scope. I do think that the core yoga writings of Satyananda such as the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Gheranda Samhita, Patanjali's Yoga Sutras are still useful but with the added caution of instilling the yamas and niyamas as a core focus.

Lastly, Swami Vivekananda warned specifically against pranayama so I will largely be ignoring that practice and focusing specifically on asanas. The rise of the Kundalini happens automatically with the practice and does not need to be forced through pranayama and mudras. The natural rise of the Kundalini is a safer approach. Whenever there is a conflict in what the Hatha Yoga lineages say versus what the Ramakrishna and Vivekananda lineages say, I will side with the Ramakrishna and Vivekananda lineages.

So with all these cautions why even practice Hatha Yoga?

The reason is that I do think that a healthy body is important for a healthy mind. Caring for the body through asanas and exercise is important so we can then focus on the higher aims of understanding the Self. A body that is sickly, unhealthy and weak is not conducive to a healthy mind.

Be this One. Mere study is not sufficient. Study gives us information. Scriptures and śāstras only give us a road map. However much you may study the road map, you will never reach the pilgrim centre. Study the map, roll it up and keep it handy by your side, as it may be useful en route during the journey. Now get up from your chair, get into your vehicle and move on along the 'way' the map indicates so clearly.

Chinnamayananda, Practice of Vedanta

I am reaching the end of the start of my Sadhana, having now practiced for 6 months. This does not in any way mean I am close to any sort of mastery, but I define it as the end because I do think I have a framework and a set of teachers that I can follow instead of just jumping from one to another. I think this is the hardest part as there are just so many different teachers and paths to follow. I have read some shastras, the shastras to be read are endless.

At some point, a person has to pick their path and make that path the core focus of their life. Mine is Raja Yoga as it is the path I am passionate about and because it incorporates the other paths within its fold.

The Raja Yoga path, in a sense, is measurable which gets the engineer in me excited. The gist of it is: How many hours of meditation have I done? If I am are keeping accurate count this also tracks the rest of my life. You need a sattvic life to have good meditation. You need a simple life to have good meditation. To be able to sit for a long time without getting distracted is needed for good meditation. Bad meditation has your mind reeling, you just don’t want to be there. You feel dull and everything within you feels far away.

In that regard good meditation requires a purity of the rest of one’s life. This purity work is a lifetime of work.

• Health and Hatha
• Cleanliness: Home, Body, Mind
• Being a good parent
• Being a good businessman
• Volunteering
• Removing tamas and rajas from the mind

All of the above are the prime focuses that I have with the goal of making my sitting meditation better. But the real goal is that sitting meditation and everyday life should not have a difference. All Yoga is meditation.

In that regard the next steps of my progress are plain and simple. It is to setup a process. This process is to go on forever, continuously finding error in myself and fixing those errors using Patanjali’s eight limbs as the framework. I don’t think a massive change all at once will work as it will lead to burnout. Small incremental improvements is the goal.

The primary means to coordinate all of this improvement is through Japa as the bridge. The mind needs to dwell on something at all times so that it isn’t idle or preoccupied with the past or the future. It needs to focus on the present.