हठयोग प्रदीपिका (योगी स्वात्माराम - ज्योत्स्ना टीका सहित सटीक)

INTRODUCTION xiii successfully followed to the exclusion of the other, nor their benefits secured without the directions of a competent Guru, and no one can be a perfect Yogin without a knowledge of the practices of both. The born Rāja-yogin has the natural power of concentrating the mind without effort. This con- centration which is the chief characteristic of Rāja- yoga, is the natural result of the force of will acting powerfully to check the erratic mind and bring it into a union with the Jīvātman and Paramātman by a natural or unconscious suspension of the breath. We have already said that the Rāja-yoga begins where the Haṭha-yoga ends. Every Yoga, the Laya, Tāraka, Dhyāna, etc. has its beginning in Haṭha- yoga, consciously or unconsciously, and ends in the Rāja-yoga. The practice of Rāja-yoga is not easy for everyone who commences it for the first time in the present life if he had not accustomed himself to it in his past incarnations. And as knowledge stored in the previous lives comes to fruition in the present, the disciple will easily attain to Rāja-yoga through the inevitable initial steps of Haṭha-yoga in which a beginning in every incarnation is made. It should therefore be safe to begin with Haṭha-yoga, as this irresistibly tends to the purification of man's body and moral nature. Students of the Yoga-vidyā have been classed under three categories: the Uttama Adhikārin-s, the highest; the Madhyama Adhikārin-s, the intermediate; and the Kaniṣṭha Adhikārin-s, the lowest. Students