Raja Yoga - Science of Power of Concentration

End and Aim of all Science

Pranayama - Internal and External Application

You will find that wherever there is any extraordinary display of power, it is the manifestation of this Prana. 

Even the physical sciences can be included in Pranayama. What moves the steam engine? Prana, acting through the steam. What are all these phenomena of electricity and so forth but Prana? What is physical science? The science of Pranayama, by external means. 

Prana, manifesting itself as mental power, can only be controlled by mental means. 

That part of Pranayama which attempts to control the physical manifestations of the Prana by physical means is called physical science, and that part which tries to control the manifestation of the Prana as mental force by mental means is called Raja-Yoga. 

                             - Swami Vivekananda, 
                             Raja-Yoga (Classes in New York)

Concentrated Mind - Means of Knowledge

The powers of the mind are like rays of light dissipated; 
when they are concentrated, they illumine. 
This is our only means of knowledge. Everyone is using it, both in the external and the internal world; 
but, for the psychologist, the same minute observation has to be directed to the internal world, 
which the scientific man directs to the external; and this requires a great deal of practice. 

                                     - Swami Vivekananda, 
                                     Raja-Yoga (Classes in New York)

Perseverance

Pushing the Mind Up

Raja-Yoga Method

The goal of all its [Raja-Yoga’s] teaching is 

how to concentrate the minds, then, 

how to discover the innermost recesses of our own minds, then, 

how to generalize their contents and form our own conclusions from them. 

It, therefore, never asks the question what our religion is,

 whether we are Deists or Atheists, 

 whether Christians, Jews, or Buddhists. 

We are human beings; that is sufficient. 

Every human being has the right and the power to seek for religion. 

Every human being has the right to ask the reason, why, and to have his question answered by himself, if he only takes the trouble.

- Swami Vivekananda, 

Raja-Yoga (Classes in New York)

Power of Human Mind

Better to be An Outspoken Atheist than a Hypocrite

Why is there so much disturbance, so much fighting and quarreling in the name of God? 
There has been more bloodshed in the name of God than for any other cause, because people never went to the fountain-head; they were content only to give a mental assent to the customs of their forefathers, and wanted others to do the same.

What right has a man to say he has a soul if he does not feel it, or that there is a God if he does not see Him? 

If there is a God we must see Him, if there is a soul we must perceive it; otherwise it is better not to believe. 

It is better to be an outspoken atheist than a hypocrite. 

                      - Swami Vivekananda, Raja-Yoga, New York

Doubts Vanish only after Realisation

He is All and in All

Pranayama - Control of Prana

Just as this whole universe has been generalized in the Vedas into that One Absolute Existence, and he who has grasped that Existence has grasped the whole universe, 
so all forces have been generalized into this Prana, 
and he who has grasped the Prana has grasped all the forces of the universe, mental or physical. 

He who has controlled the Prana has controlled his own mind, and all the minds that exist. 
He who has controlled the Prana has controlled his body, and all the bodies that exist, because the Prana is the generalized manifestation of force.

How to control the Prana is the one idea of Pranayama. 
All the trainings and exercises in this regard are for that one end. 

                                     - Swami Vivekananda, 
                                    Raja-Yoga (Classes in New York)

Karma-Yoga - Knowledge of the Secret of Work

What is Karma-Yoga? The knowledge of the secret of work. …

…  Karma-Yoga makes a science of work; you learn by it how best to utilise all the workings of this world. 
Work is inevitable, it must be so; but we should work to the highest purpose. 
Karma-Yoga makes us admit that this world is a world of five minutes, that it is a something we have to pass through; and that freedom is not here, but is only to be found beyond. 
To find the way out of the bondages of the world we have to go through it slowly and surely. 
                                   
                                               - Swami Vivekananda, 
                                               Karma-Yoga (Classes in New York) 

Self-Renunciation

No Freedom within Universe

To acquire freedom we have to get beyond the limitations of this universe; it cannot be found here. 
Perfect equilibrium, or what the Christians call the peace that passeth all understanding, cannot be had in this universe, nor in heaven, nor in any place where our mind and thoughts can go, where the senses can feel, or which the imagination can conceive. 
No such place can give us that freedom, because all such places would be within our universe, and it is limited by space, time, and causation. …
Until we give up the thirst after life, the strong attachment to this our transient conditioned existence, we have no hope of catching even a glimpse of that infinite freedom beyond. 

                            - Swami Vivekananda, 
                             Karma-Yoga (Classes in New York) 

Do Not Follow Blindly

'Comfortable Religion'

When a man says that he will have again and again this same thing which he is having now, or, as I sometimes put it, when he asks for a comfortable religion, you may know that he has become so degenerate that he cannot think of anything higher than what he is now; he is just his little present surroundings and nothing more. 
He has forgotten his infinite nature, and his whole idea is confined to these little joys, and sorrows, and heart-jealousies of the moment. 
He thinks that this finite thing is the infinite; and not only so, he will not let this foolishness go. 
                                             - Swami Vivekananda, 
                                               Karma-Yoga (Classes in New York) 

Heaven Idea

"I and mine" brings Misery

With the sense of possession comes selfishness, 
and selfishness brings on misery. 
Every act of selfishness or thought of selfishness makes us attached to something, and immediately we are made slaves.

Each wave in the Chitta that says "I and mine" immediately puts a chain round us and makes us slaves; and the more we say "I and mine", the more slavery grows, the more misery 
increases. 

Therefore Karma-Yoga tells us to enjoy the beauty of all the pictures in the world, but not to identify ourselves with any of them. 
Never say "mine". Whenever we say a thing is "mine", 
misery will immediately come. 
                          - Swami Vivekananda, 
                         Karma-Yoga (Classes in New York) 

Law is Causation

When we speak of the universe, we only mean that portion of existence which is limited by our mind -- the universe of the senses, which we can see, feel, touch, hear, think of, imagine. 

This alone is under law; but beyond it existence cannot be subject to law, because causation does not extend beyond the world of our minds. 
Anything beyond the range of our mind and our senses is not bound by the law of causation, as there is no mental association of things in the region beyond the senses, and no causation without association of ideas. 
It is only when "being" or existence gets molded into name and form that it obeys the law of causation, and is said to be under law; because all law has its essence in causation. 

                              - Swami Vivekananda 
                               Karma-Yoga (Classes in New York) 

What is Law?

Different Yogas, Same Goal

Utter Unselfishness

World is Not for Enjoyment

'Life' Defined

"You are the Self"

Human Birth

Effects of Good and Evil