Introduction to Jnana Yoga by Swami Vivekananda, in Spanish

1. Origin of religions
2. The inner search: ecstasy, inspiration, reason. Rishis
3. The concept of Omnipresent Being (Supreme Being) and ethics
4. Why should we do good?
5. Materialism versus religion (Threefold Faith)
6. Vedanta

1. Beyond the world of the senses: what is real?
2. Nihilism versus search for the real
3. Reconciliation of mythology and science
4. Body and soul (Atman)
5. The search of Atman

1. Maya according to Shankaracharya: one of the pillars of Vedanta and Buddhism
2. What is Maya
3. Maya as a declaration of the reality of this universe
4. Maya and Vedanta
5. Renunciation as the true beginning of religion
6. Why does man look for a God?
7. Why not become agnostic?
8. Ubiquity of Maya

1. Each person must be judged according to his own ideal, and not by that of others
2. Maya and the advancement of ethics. Pravritti and Nivritti
3. The ethical God
4. Maya as matter, spirit or mind
5. The just and merciful God
6. Absolute freedom as the basis of Vedanta

1. Why should we praise for imitating nature?
2. Religion versus “practical wisdom” or goodism
3. Beyond Maya there is a way out: religion
4. The spiritual awakening of freedom
5. The monotheistic philosophy of Vedanta. God is within us

1. Advaita Philosophy: How has the Infinite, the Absolute, become finite?
2. The law of causality as a necessary condition of all our thinking
3. Advaita (non-duality): There are not two, but one (Unity in diversity)
4. Buddha, Vedanta and Shankaracharya

1. God, Allah, Jehovah, Brahman.
2. The Vedanta View: Combination of Head and Heart
3. What Vedanta seeks to teach: The deification of the world
4. The kingdom of heaven is within you
5. Do your work seeing God in everything
6. Vedanta as the Unity of everything

1. Katha Upanishad: The center of the entire universe is in the human soul
2. The true religion is neither in books nor in temples
3. The essence of Vedanta: it is not enough to talk, it realizes religion
4. Atman: all wisdom and purity are in our soul
5. The Essence of the Upanishads: Realization
   1. Realization of the Bhagavad Gita

This essay is vital to understand the following chapters of the Bhagavad Gita and also the foundations of the Philosophy of Yoga. Swami Vivekananda analyzes topics as profound as the origin of religions, materialism, Why should we do good?, the bases of Vedanta, body and soul, the search for Atman, the concept of Maya, the monotheistic philosophy of Vedanta (God is within us), the spiritual awakening of freedom, Advaita philosophy, Unity in diversity, true religion is neither in books nor in temples, the realization of God, Brahman, Sat-Chit-Ananda, Allah or whatever you want to call him.

Of all the forces that have worked and continue to work to shape the destinies of the human race, none, certainly, is more powerful than that, the manifestation of which we call religion.

The senses are too limited and the body is too limited to express the Infinite. Manifesting the Infinite through the finite is impossible, and sooner or later, man learns to abandon the attempt to express the Infinite through the finite. This abandonment, this renunciation of intent, is the background of ethics.

Without supernatural sanction as it is called, or the perception of the supraconscious there can be no ethics. Without the struggle towards the Infinite there can be no ideal. Any system that wants to tie men to the limits of their own societies is not capable of finding an explanation for the ethical laws of humanity.

It is great and good to know the laws that govern the stars and planets; It is infinitely greater and better to know the laws that govern the passions, the feelings, the will of humanity.

This conquest of the inner man, the understanding of the secrets of the subtle workings within the human mind and knowledge of its wonderful secrets, belong entirely to religion.

Religion is the greatest motivating power to realize that infinite energy which is the birthright and nature of every man.

In modern times, if a man quotes Moses, Buddha or Christ, he is laughed at; but if he says the name of a Huxley, a Tyndall or a Darwin, they will applaud him.

Time, space and causality, therefore, are in the mind, and as this Atman is beyond the mind and formless, it must be beyond time, beyond space and beyond causality. Now if he is beyond time, space and causality, he must be infinite. "Atman must be first heard, then thought, and then meditated.»

One idea stands out as the center of all ethical systems, expressed in various forms, namely, doing good to others. The guiding motive of humanity should be charity towards men, charity towards all animals.

Ignorance is the great mother of all misery.

Everyone goes to death and yet there is this tremendous attachment to life. Somehow, we don't know why, we cling to life; We cannot give it up. And this is Maya.

Everything that has form, everything that evokes an idea in your mind, is within Maya; because everything that is subject to the laws of time, space and causality is within Maya.

Vedanta says that there must come a time when we will look back and laugh at the ideals that make us fear giving up our individuality.

Renunciation is the true beginning of religion.

The duty of Vedanta is to harmonize all these aspirations, to make manifest the common ground between all religions of the world, both the highest and the lowest.

Interdependence is the law of the entire universe. By asking what caused the Absolute, what a mistake we are making! To ask this question we have to assume that the Absolute is also bound by something, that it depends on something; and by making this assumption, we drag the Absolute down to the level of the universe. Because in the Absolute there is neither time, nor space, nor causality; It is all one. What exists by itself cannot have any cause.

What is now required is a combination of the greatest heart with the highest intellectuality, of infinite love with infinite knowledge.

The rest of this summary on “Introduction to Jnana Yoga (Knowledge) and Vedanta by Swami Vivekananda” is only available to students of the Gita Institute

Source: Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 2, Jnana Yoga.

Translated by Pedro Nonell

Note: A number of verses from Bhagavad Gita, comments by Sri Ramakrishna etc. have been added. with the aim of facilitating the understanding of the text and helping to observe the important influence of the Bhagavad Gita on Swami Vivekananda.

“Spiritual knowledge is the only one that can destroy our miseries forever; any other knowledge only satisfies needs temporarily. The knowledge of the spirit is the only one that destroys forever the condition of needy. Thus, spiritual help is the highest help that can be given to man; He who gives spiritual knowledge is the greatest benefactor of humanity and as such we see that the most powerful men are those who have helped man in his spiritual needs; because spirituality is the true basis of all our activities in life.”

Introduction to Jnana Yoga (Knowledge) and Vedanta by Swami Vivekananda

Yoga of the Field, Gunas, Divine Inheritance

(c) Gita Institute

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