Meditation As Spiritual Culmination (2-volume set)

Here's an important book on the day-to-day practice of meditation by Swami Sarvagatananda, who until his passing, was head of the US Boston Center. The book uses a Western approach to learning the Yoga Sutras, and was written by a swami who lived in the US for over 50 years. It's two huge volumes covering 1611 pages of 132 night class talks from 1977 to 1981 on Raja yoga and the Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali.

One of his students writes in the preface:

"About thirty of us, college students, professors, office workers and retirees had the good fortune to participate in these classes. It was a character transforming experience for us. We learned that Raja Yoga deals primarily with the mind and its control. But this control cannot be attained without leading a pure life, full of loving concern for all, and reflecting rather than reacting to negative thoughts or circumstances.

As the classes progressed, the intensity increased. We listened in fascination as the swami went deeper into the intricacies of the mind, the method of concentration and its culmination in meditation. The swami's intimate knowledge of this difficult subject enabled him to clear up all our doubts in simple yet convincing language in a question and answer session at the end of class."

Question and Answer for Lecture 12:

Q: If we all started from the truth, how did we get ourselves into this mess?
A: This question was asked of Swami Vivekananda nearly 85 years ago. He said: "The Hindu is bold enough to say 'I do not know."...There is another aspect to it. I do not know how this whole mess started, but I know how to get out of it. Shankara gives a beautiful example.

Suppose you enter a deep, dark cave, stand there, and ask, how long has this darkness been here? You cannot answer this question. But Shankara said, "I do not know how long it has been dark here, but I can tell you how to get rid of it: Bring a light. The darkness doesn't say, "I have been here for the last two billion years, I cannot go right away."  That darkness goes away immediately when one strikes a match. Knowledge is like that match... I do not know the cause of this mess and how it came about, but I can get rid of it by means of Raja Yoga.