Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin

Charles Johnston

Two brief poems accompany a long narrative poem about a heartless fop who is the object of an ardent young woman's selfless love

Eugene Onegin and Other Poems

"The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are in themselves exceedingly brief, less than ten pages of large type in the original. Yet they contain the essence of practical wisdom, set forth in admirable order and detail. ... "Patanjali has in mind the spiritual man, to be born from the psychical. His purpose is, to set in order the practical means for the unveiling and regeneration, and to indicate the fruit, the glory and the power, of that new birth."-Charles Johnston The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are the foundational work of all Yoga practice. They contain the essence of practical wisdom, set forth in admirable order and detail. Patanjali succeeds in showing the student that spirituality is not unscientific or vague, but is an exact science. He teaches us that enlightenment is not something unattainable or solely for the elect; we can begin walking the path now. Johnston's translation of the Yoga Sutras evolved through three distinct stages. It was first published as serialized articles in the Theosophical Quarterly between 1909 and 1911. The text was then compiled and printed in book form in 1912, with only a few slight modifications. Following this, Johnston revisited the text of both his translation and commentary, as he notes in a review-article: "I must not fail," he says "to express my feeling of indebtedness to Dr. [Haughton] Woods, for a closer understanding of a number of technical points, which I hope to take advantage of, in revising the version of the Sutras I have alluded to." Following this reflection, several notices appeared in the Theosophical Quarterly announcing Johnston's continuing work of revision, until a second revised edition was published in the summer of 1917. It is this version that is presently reproduced verbatim, but with an adjustment in formatting-providing the translation itself, in whole, prior to the commentary-the addition of this foreword, and of additional notes. Charles Johnston (1867-1931) was steeped in the wisdom of eastern traditions, having translated also the ten Principle Upanishads of the Vedanta, the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao Teh King of Lao Tse, and the Crest-Jewel of Wisdom of Sankaracharya. Johnston brings his in-depth understanding of the Vedanta to reveal the core meaning of Patanjali's sutras: the birth of the Spiritual Man.

The Book of the Spiritual Man

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

An in-depth dive through every aspect of the Holy Mass

Exploring the Central Act of Catholic Worship

The Beauty of the Mass

Straightforward, easy-to-follow interpretation of ancient guidelines for living a meaningful, purposeful life. Explains the eight limbs of yoga: restraint, observances, posture, breath control, withdrawal from the senses, attention, meditation, and stillness.

Patanjali

Yoga is an exercise and meditation philosophy that has been taking the United States by storm over the past several decades. Yet many are unaware that there is an entire, ancient religion that prefaces this phenomenon. Yoga is one of six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy, and "Yoga Sutras of Patanjali" contains 196 aphorisms that form the basis of Raja Yoga. Patanjali uses his text to explain different facets of the philosophy, leading people to achieve kaivalya, the ultimate goal of detachment. The sutras begin with the most basic concentration, and then progresses to discipline, manifestation, and finally, emancipation of the transcendental ego. Patanjali also explains how one can find the path to kaivayla with the eight limbs of Yoga; non-violent thoughts, cleanliness, healthy living, meditation, and others are explained as essential actions to achieving self-liberation. Patanjali lived sometime between the 1st century BCE and the 5th century BCE. While all critics agree that Patanjali is the great compiler of the Yoga Sutras, many deliberate about whether or not he created the meditational philosophy. Some even speculate that Patanjali borrowed some of his sutras from other authors. Regardless, "Yoga Sutras of Patanjali" is now considered to be the leading authority on Yoga, and various editions are still in print over two-thousand years after the original publication.

Patañjali

in large print

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - The Book of the Spiritual Man

Paul Deussen

According to Bâdarâyaṇa's Brahma-sûtras and C̦an̄kara's Commentary Thereon Set Forth as a Compendium of the Dogmatics of Brahmanism from the Standpoint of C̦an̄kara

The System of the Vedânta

"The Upanishads ... are among the noblest and most inspired books in the world; in them, the whole of the Indian wisdom is already contained; later teachers could but expand and comment on them, but in no way departed from this original treasure of wisdom." ... "The Upanishads teach the wisdom of Atma, the Supreme Self of all beings; the same divine Life which Philo of Alexandria later called the Logos, the Divine Mind, the collective spiritual consciousness of our universe. They tell us that, while each of us may seem to be a wanderer and exile, lonely, desolate in our world of shadow and of sorrow, we are in reality neither alone nor desolate, but undivided, unseparated rays of the Universal Self, the Logos. What is needed to secure our immortality-an immortality which is still conditional, until this victory is won-is the realization of our oneness with the Supreme Self. The Upanishads show how, step by step, we may mount the golden stairs; they tell us what we must leave behind; what we must gain, as we tread the small, old path; what we must achieve; with the promise that we shall in the fullness of time be initiated into the fullness of that eternal, universal Supreme Self of all beings. "The whole aim of their teachings is this: to point the path by which the personal self may win immortality and divinity, by becoming united with the Higher Self, which always possessed immortality and divinity."-Charles Johnston The Upanishads are the ultimate classic of Indian Spirituality. In this volume the reader will find the heart and soul of India, the foundations of the Vedanta philosophy, the source-wisdom that was later embodied in the teachings of such exalted sages as Krishna, Badarayana, Gaudapada and Sankaracharya. Johnston has here translated and comments upon the complete text of the 10 principal (mukhya) Upanishads, the oldest and most profound of all Upanishadic texts. Originally printed in two theosophical magazines-The Oriental Department Papers & The Theosophical Quarterly-between the years 1892 and 1931, these translations and commentaries have finally been collected and organized into a single volume. In addition to these, several articles on the Indian wisdom Tradition are included, both to introduce the translations and to supplement them. The student will find Johnston's commentaries drawing comparisons and correspondences between the hidden wisdom of the Upanishads and the wisdom embodied by the world's religious traditions as well as the modern philosophies of Kant, Schopenhauer and others, and even to the modern sciences of physics and astronomy. These commentaries provide a bridge for students and researchers that will enhance their understanding of the deep and timeless wisdom of the sages of old. "Traces of the teachings which have become known to us as Theosophy are found in the records of all ancient religions in both hemispheres, but nowhere are these teachings so fully, lucidly and profoundly recorded as in the oldest Upanishads and this is true not only of large generalizations, like the doctrines of rebirth and liberation, but also of those more particular and recondite doctrines which come gradually to the knowledge of students who follow a special line of study and work. So that, in the Upanishads, we have an invaluable proof of the antiquity and authenticity of both general and particular doctrines, a guarantee at least three thousand years old, and, in all probability, very much older. And if the Upanishads lend this invaluable support to our modern teachings, it is, on the other hand, true, that without these modern teachings, much that is most profound and of greatest value in the Upanishads is hardly intelligible, so that one may read the ordinary translations without gaining any idea of the meaning, or even the presence, of those particular teachings which we have spoken of. It was, therefore, necessary to read and translate, the Upanishads, in the light of Theosophy."-Charles Johnston

Books of Hidden Wisdom

The Mukhya Upanishads

Charles Johnston's classic translation and commentary on one of the most profound of ancient sacred texts. The book also contains three introductory articles by Johnston, which shed much light on the Upanishads, their place in history, their influence and connection to other spiritual philosophies of the world. "The great Upanishads were compiled as Instructions for disciples preparing for Initiation. They contain philosophical teaching, and also many stories, generally in the form of spirited dialogues, of great beauty and eloquence, or ironical, but always radiant with spiritual wisdom. If we think of what is here translated as a part of these Instructions, we shall have little difficulty in understanding its significance. . . . "A single principle links together the great Upanishads and their diverse parts, like jewels strung on a golden thread: the oneness of the Soul and the Oversoul. When we have found the Soul, our inmost real Self, we have thereby found the Oversoul, the Supreme Self of all Being. This is the goal."-Charles Johnston

Chandogya Upanishad

Through the Country of Adal to the Kingdom of Shoa

Travels in Southern Abyssinia

Together with an Interesting Account of the Fate of His Companions, Five in Number, One of Whom Suffered at the Stake ...

A Narrative of the Incidents Attending the Capture, Detention, and Ransom of Charles Johnston, of Botetourt County, Virginia, who was Made Prisoner by the Indians, on the River Ohio, in the 1790

By reading the title, The Memory of Past Births, you have already taken the first step towards remembering, for you have sowed In your mind the seed of an idea which will germinate and grow till at last it blossoms into full knowledge.

Charles Johnston

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