“The path of [Raja] Yoga,” states Swami Adiwarananda in his book Meditation and its Practices: A Definitive Guide to Techniques and Traditions of Meditation in Yoga and Vedanta (2003; 2012 ed.), “is suited to those in whom reason has not yet established its natural supremacy over the emotions and volitions” (p. 40).

This is a stunningly clear assessment of the modern condition. Quite a few spiritual practitioners would do well to begin with Raja Yoga. After there’s been enough purification thanks to Yogic practices (e.g., pratyahara, pranayama, dharana), then one can embark on the path of knowledge as set forth in Advaita Vedanta. In other words, contemporary nonduality is beginning with a crucial mistake, which is that people are, in general, ready to hear that “All this, verily, is Consciousness.”

A few key features of Raja Yoga are as follows. First, it seeks to cultivate willpower, not (unlike Advaita Vedanta) higher reason. One should be able, in a rough and ready way, to assess one’s practice in terms of the expression of vital energy or power in one’s life. Second, Raja Yoga cares about the cleaning up and proper use of “instruments.” Two I’d like to single out would be the energy body and the mental body.

It helps to explore, with the view to harmonizing, the energy body for all sorts of reason, including an improvement in physical health, greater mental clarity, and so on. Furthermore, we can move the mental body from the tamas (lazy, as it were) and the rajas (agitated, restless) to a more stable state typified by sattva (clarity, calmness).

Once the energy body and the mental body are refined, then the path of knowledge, which begins at the intellectual sheath, can truly get under way.