Yoga Vasistha
Shaivism/Tantra/Nath New movements Kashmir Shaivism Gaudapada Adi Shankara Advaita-Yoga Nath Kashmir Shaivism Neo-Vedanta Inchegeri Sampradaya Contemporary Shaivism/Tantra/Nath Neo-Advaita Hinduism Buddhism Modern Advaita Vedanta Neo-Vedanta Vasishta Yoga Samhita (Sanskrit: योगवासिष्ठम्, IAST: yoga-vāsiṣṭham; also known as Maha-Ramayana, Arsha Ramayana, Vasiṣṭha Ramayana,[1] Yogavasistha-Ramayana and Jnanavasistha.
[9][10] The text is structured as a discourse of sage Vasistha to Prince Rama, and consists of six books,[11] describing the search for liberation through self-effort and meditation, and presenting cosmology and metaphysical teachings of existence embedded in stories and fables.
[13] The longer version is also referred to simply as Yoga Vasistha and by numerous other names such as Vasiṣṭha Ramayana.
The date or century of the text's composition or compilation is unknown, and variously estimated from the content and references it makes to other literature, other schools of Indian philosophies.
[3] Scholars agree that the surviving editions of the text were composed in the common era, but disagree whether it was completed in the first millennium or second.
[8] Atreya in 1935 suggested that the text must have preceded Gaudapada and Adi Shankara, because it does not use their terminology, but does mention many Buddhist terms.
[8] Dasgupta adds that the philosophy and ideas presented in Yoga Vasistha mirror those found in Advaita Vedanta of Adi Shankara, but neither mention the other, which probably means that the author(s) of Yoga Vasistha were scholars who lived in the same century as Shankara, placing the text in about 7th- to early 8th-century.
[8] The shorter summary version of the text is attributed to the Kashmiri scholar Abhinanda, who has been variously dated to have lived in 9th- or 10th-century.
Peter Thomi has published additional evidence in support Mainkar's theory on Yoga Vasistha's chronology.
The text reached its current form between the 10th and 14th centuries, incorporating influences from various Indian philosophical traditions, including Buddhism, Jainism, and Kashmiri Shaivism.
[22] The Yoga Vasistha is a syncretic work, containing elements of Advaita Vedanta, Yoga, Samkhya, Jainism, Pratyabhijña, Saivite Trika, and Mahayana Buddhism, thus making it, according to Chapple, "a Hindu text par excellence, including, as does Hinduism, a mosaic-style amalgam of diverse and sometimes opposing traditions".
To apply with diligence to whatever is excellent, not low nor mean and not liable to loss or decay, is the precept of parents and preceptors to their sons and pupils.14.
[4] It has, states White, served as a reference on Yoga for medieval era Advaita Vedanta scholars.
[47] Originally written in Sanskrit, the Yoga Vasistha has been translated into many Indian languages, and the stories are told to children in various forms.
During the Mughal Dynasty the text was translated into Persian several times, as ordered by Akbar, Jahangir and Darah Shikuh.
[53][54] The unabridged text is currently being translated into Russian[55] and published by Swamini Vidyananda Saraswati, first five books are completed by 2017.
In 2009, Swami Tejomayananda's Yoga Vasistha Sara Sangrah was published by the Central Chinmaya Mission Trust.
