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Yoga Vasishta Maharamayana of Valmiki
The complete 1891 English translation by Vihari Lala Mitra, updated
Hardcover Book is $48.00 plus shipping
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The Complete Yoga Vasishta
full Mitra translation, updated & annotated
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Free download of Yoga Vasishta
available in two different e-book formats:
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Instead of intellectualizing spirituality, Shivabalayogi encouraged people to practice meditation. Instead of giving discourses, he gave actual experiences. However, he placed a great value on Yoga Vasishta and over four decades, he often recommended the book to devotees.
“Read the Yoga Vasishta. Swamiji’s philosophy is fully expounded in that scripture.”
Project Gutenburg made electronic versions of the complete 1891 translation of Yoga Vasishta Maharamayana by V. L. Mitra available to the public. Mitra’s translation is the only complete English translation of this work which is considered the finest exposition of Advaita (Non-Dual) philosophy. It is long since out of print.
Mitra knew Sanskrit and read the commentaries. He was also an excellent scholar in Western spiritual poetry and literature. Those who do not read Sanskrit can only give second hand evaluations, but his translation may reflect the poetical qualities in which the Sanskrit of Yoga Vasishta was written. Indian scriptures were first meant to be heard and only in later ages to be read.
Some criticize Mitra for taking liberties and paraphrasing and amplifying the text he ought to have been translating, and some of his rendering was simply misleading. For example, Mitra misleadingly translates samadhi as hypnosis or trance. Those familiar with Sanskrit can complain that Mitra’s Bengali background affected his Sanskrit spelling. English language and style has evolved since 1891 and Mitra’s style was archaic even for the late 19th Century. Perhaps Mitra intended to give this scripture the patina of the King James Bible by using archaic forms like “thee” and “thou”. In any event, it makes for a difficult read of what already is a challenging book.
The original Sanskrit dates back to early medieval Indian history, and its subject matter arguably millennia before that. Jay Mazo revised the text to delete the Project Gutenberg notes and formatting, Mitra’s obvious gloss (including numerous parallel references to academic and various religious texts) and the archaic second person “thee” and “thou” and attendant verb tenses. The rest he left alone, but the clean-up work Jay did was considerable and carefully done.
Even after Jay’s edit, Mitra’s English, even his punctuation, was frustratingly opaque and obscured the subject matter. Tom Palotas did two more rounds of edits to make the original translation more readable and understandable. This edit is now available for those interested, including in e-book formats which may be downloaded for free.
“The Yoga
Vasishta is 32,000 slokas.
When Rama was eight years old, he asked many questions of
his guru Vasishta. Rama asked
his guru 32,000 questions, and the answers are the Yoga Vasishta.”
“Now all Swamiji’s devotees are asking him questions and these questions and answers will also become a book.”
Read about Shivabalayogi and Yoga Vasishta at the Yoga Vasishta pages of this website.
Yoga Vasishta Maharamayana of Valmiki
is printed in the U.S.A. on demand through Lulu.com
773 pages. Hard cover bound.
Published in 2012.
ISBN 978-0-9760783-2-6
Price of the book is $48.00 plus shipping
Purchase Directly from the Printer
go to:
LULU.COM Yoga Vasishta
Summaries of Yoga Vasishta Maharamayana
Those interested in Yoga Vasishta should read the summary in the Yoga Vasishta pages of this website.
The summary written by Gen. Hanut Singh in his book, Shri Shri Shri Shivabalayogi Maharaj, Life & Spiritual Ministration, originally published in 1981, republished in 1981, is reproduced in full in this website. For the section on Yoga Vasishta, click HERE.
