Yoga: The Art of Transformation

Raja Yoga
1896/1944
by Swami Vivekananda (Indian, 1863–1902)
Book; Tamil Nadu, India, 1944 reprint of 1896 edition

General Collections, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, B132.V3 V58

Modern yoga first took tangible form with the publication of Raja Yoga (1896), a book that contains an overview of yoga drawn from Vivekananda’s talks in the U.S., as well as a translation of the Yoga Sutras themselves. The synthesis sought to establish yoga as an empirical and scientific spiritual system. A formal portrait from the Harrison series (left) adorns its front page.