Other Significant Texts

Gurumayi Chidvilasananda often refers to the following texts in her talks and writings. Many of the Siddha Yoga teachings are expressed within them.

• Bhagavad Gita
  One of the world's spiritual treasures and an essential scripture of India; a portion of the epic Mahabharata in which Lord Krishna instructs his disciple Arjuna on the nature of the universe, God, and the supreme Self.

• Jnaneshwari
  This is a majestic commentary in verse on the Bhagavad Gita, written by Jnaneshwar Maharaj when he was sixteen. It was the first original scriptural work written in Marathi, the language of the people of Maharastra, India. It is a work of both great poetry and transforming spiritual insight.

• Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
  The sage Patanjali wrote this classical series of yoga aphorisms in Sanskrit. In them, he expounds different methods to attain the state of yoga or samadhi, in which the movements of the mind are stopped and the yogi comes to rest in the Self, a state of supreme bliss.

• Poet-saints
  One of the ways that the great understandings of the Indian philosophy spread among people was through the songs and words of the poet-saints. In all parts of India, particularly in the west and south, these saints composed songs that revealed the secrets of the mystical path.

• Bhakti Sutras
  The sage Narada composed this classic scripture on devotion. Bhakti yoga is the path of union with the divine based on the continual offering of love and the constant remembrance of the Lord.

• The Indian Epics
  The Mahabharata is a great epic poem in Sanskrit, composed by the sage Vyasa. Within this vast narrative is contained a wealth of India's secular and religious lore. The Bhagavad Gita occurs in the latter portion of the Mahabharata.

• The Ramayana, one of the great epic poems, is attributed to the sage Valmiki. The Ramayana recounts the life and exploits of Lord Rama, the seventh incarnation of Vishnu. This story is rich with spiritual meaning and has been told and retold down through the ages. Enacting the epics as "Golden Tales" has been a part of the children's experience of Siddha Yoga retreats.