A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga
By William Walker Atkinson
The Yogi Masters teach that this awakening consciousness of the Real Self has two degrees. The first, which they call “the Consciousness of the ‘I,'” is the full consciousness of actual existence that comes to the Candidate and which causes him to know that he is an essential entity having a life not depending upon the body—a life that will go on despite the destruction of the body—real life. The second degree, called “the Consciousness of the ‘I AM,'” is the consciousness of one’s identity with the Universal Life and his relationship to and “in-touches” with all life, expressed and unexpressed. These two degrees of consciousness come in time to all who seek “The Path.” To some, it comes suddenly; to others, it dawns gradually; to many, it comes assisted by the exercises and practical work of “Raja Yoga.”
The first lesson of the Yogi Masters to the Candidates, leading up to the first degree mentioned above, is as follows: The Supreme Intelligence of the Universe—the Absolute—has manifested the being that we call Man—the highest manifestation on this planet. The Absolute has manifested an infinitude of forms of life in the Universe, including distant worlds, suns, planets, etc., many of these forms being unknown to us on this planet and impossible to conceive by the ordinary man’s mind. But these lessons have nothing to do with that part of the philosophy that deals with these myriad forms of life, for our time will be taken up with the unfoldment in man’s mind of his true nature and power. Before man attempts to solve the secrets of the Universe, he should master the Universe within—the Kingdom of the Self. When he has accomplished this, then he may, and should, go forth to gain the outer knowledge as a Master demanding its secrets rather than as a slave begging for the crumbs from the table of knowledge. The first knowledge for the Candidate is the knowledge of the Self.
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William Walker Atkinson
William Walker Atkinson (December 5, 1862 – November 22, 1932) was an attorney, merchant, publisher, author, occultist, and American pioneer of the New Thought movement.
Biography.
He authorizes the pseudonymous works attributed to Theron Q. Dumont and Yogi Ramacharaka. He wrote an estimated 100 books, all in the last 30 years of his life. He was mentioned in past editions of Who’s Who in America, Religious Leaders of America, and similar publications. His works have remained in print more or less continuously since 1900. In the 1890s, Atkinson became interested in Hinduism. After 1900, he devoted much effort to diffusion of yoga and Oriental occultism in the West. It is unclear whether he subscribed to any Hindu religion or wished to write on it. According to unverifiable sources, while Atkinson was in Chicago at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893, he met one Baba Bharata, a pupil of the late Indian mystic Yogi Ramacharaka (1799 – c. 1893). As the story goes, Bharata had become acquainted with Atkinson’s writings after arriving in America, and since the two men shared similar ideas, they decided to collaborate. While editing New Thought magazine, Atkinson co-wrote a series of books with Bharata, which they attributed to Bharata’s teacher, Yogi Ramacharaka. This story cannot be verified, and—like the “official” biography that falsely claimed Atkinson was an “English author”—it may be a fabrication.
No record exists in India of a Yogi Ramacharaka, nor is there evidence in America of the immigration of a Baba Bharata. Furthermore, although Atkinson may have travelled to Chicago to visit the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, where the authentic Indian yogi Swami Vivekananda attracted enthusiastic audiences, he is only known to have taken up residence in Chicago around 1900 and to have passed the Illinois Bar Examination in 1903. Atkinson’s claim to have an Indian co-author was not unusual among the New Thought and New Age writers of his era, who often embraced a vaguely exotic theme of “orientalism” in their writings and credited Hindus, Buddhists, or Sikhs with possession of special knowledge and secret techniques of divination, spiritual development, sexual energy, health, or longevity.
William Walker Atkinson
