हठयोग प्रदीपिका (योगी स्वात्माराम - ज्योत्स्ना टीका सहित सटीक)

viii HAṬHAYOGAPRADĪPIKĀ indiscriminately imparted to all men by its custodians; only those who have passed through the most terrible ordeals being considered as fit to receive it. The strict rules of discipleship and the method of their observance are given in the Śivasaṁhitā. The sage Patañjali, the founder of the Yoga philosophy, has laid down in his Yoga aphorisms, I. 23, that an untiring devotion to Īśvara (or Guru) is one of the most essential conditions required of a student of Yoga. Another no less essential condition as described in aphorism 20 of the same section, is faith, without which no knowledge is possible to the student; half or wavering faith in this science or the Guru is a positive disqualification. According to the Śāstra-s, no knowledge stands higher in importance than the Yoga-śāstra, and the Veda-s call it the vidyā. God Śiva describes it in the Śivasaṁhitā: आलोक्य सर्वशास्त्राणि विचार्य च पुनः पुनः । इदमेकं सुनिष्पन्नं योगशास्त्रं परं मतम् ॥ I. 17. On studying all the Śāstra-s and constantly meditating on them, I have come to the conclusion that no Śāstra is so worthy of study as the Yoga-śāstra. Pythagoras, Plato and other ancient philosophers of Greece have extolled the study of this science, and the motto at the entrance of their lecture-hall was ‘ Know thyself ’. Among the leaders of modern thought, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Schopenhauer, Emerson and others