Contemporary Yoga and Sacred Texts

<p>This book explores the textual traditions that authorize the history legitimacy and authenticity of today’s physical posture practice. The volume focuses on why and how yoga communities have adopted various texts that they consider sacred or spiritually meaningful. Among the texts discussed are Yogananda‘s <i>Autobiography</i> Sri Aurobindo's <i>Savitri</i> Patanjali’s <em>Yoga Sutra</em> the <em>Bhagavad Gita</em> the <em>Hatha Yoga Pradipika</em> the <em>Upanishads</em> the <em>Vedas</em> and the <em>Yoginī Tantra</em>. Famous thinkers included are Aurobindo Yogananda Osho-Rajneesh Sogyal Rimpoche Charles Johnston and Howard Thurman. Offering a starting point the ten chapters address the nature selection and function of various ancient and contemporary texts read in contemporary yoga settings. The attention centers on how and why texts are read and for whom they are read. As yoga is practiced in ashrams yoga studios gyms meeting rooms and even private living rooms scholarly approaches to investigate the connections between yoga and texts are necessarily diverse.</p><p>This volume aims to inspire further scholarship on the reading of texts in past and present yoga communities. The collection demonstrates that textual tradions deserve to be an important part of contemporary yoga scholarship. The volume will therefore be of great interest to scholars of religious studies yoga studies and Asian studies as well as those studying sacred texts.</p>