Swami Vivekananda's 1896 introduction to Patanjali's Yoga Sutras for a Western audience, written from his lectures in New York. The book contains his commentary on the eight limbs of yoga and a full translation of the sutras — the first time the Sutras circulated in English in a popular edition. The framing emphasises yoga as systematic practice rather than belief.
Vivekananda delivered the underlying lectures in late 1895 and early 1896 at a rented flat at 228 West 39th Street in New York; the manuscript went to the publisher Longmans, Green & Co. and was issued in July 1896. The book is in two parts: the eight lectures on raja yoga, and Vivekananda's translation and commentary on Patanjali's 196 sutras.
Contents
Preface
Introductory
The First Steps
Prana
The Psychic Prana
The Control of Psychic Prana
Pratyahara and Dharana
Dhyana and Samadhi
Raja-Yoga in Brief
Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms (translation and commentary)
Reception
Foundational to the Western reception of yoga as a discipline of mind rather than body — the rope by which the Yoga Sutras entered popular Anglophone reading, decades before Iyengar or Krishnamacharya. Indologists generally consider Vivekananda's translation a free rather than literal rendering; later academic versions (Edwin Bryant, Chip Hartranft) have superseded it for scholarly use. Inside the Vedanta and modern-yoga lineages it remains a primary source, and through Christopher Isherwood and Aldous Huxley it shaped 20th-century Anglo-American interest in Indian philosophy.
Frequently asked
What is Raja Yoga by Vivekananda about?
It is Vivekananda's 1896 introduction to Patanjali's Yoga Sutras for a Western audience, written from lectures delivered in New York. The first half presents his commentary on the eight limbs of yoga (ashtanga); the second half is a translation and commentary on Patanjali's 196 sutras.
Why is this book historically important?
It was the first popular English edition of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, decades before Iyengar or Krishnamacharya, and is the principal route by which the Sutras entered modern Anglophone reading. Christopher Isherwood and Aldous Huxley both drew on it in the mid-twentieth century.
Is Vivekananda's translation still the standard?
No. Indologists generally treat it as a free rather than literal rendering, and later academic translations by Edwin Bryant and Chip Hartranft are now preferred for scholarly use. Within the Vedanta and modern-yoga lineages, however, Vivekananda's version remains a primary reference.