There are no Others
This illuminating series of essays, subtitled royal path to freedom, is divided into four sections: religion and yoga, yoga in the yoga Sutra and the Bhagavad-Gita, yoga and other paths and yoga off the mat. Ravi is a keen observer of the spiritual situation of our time, so already in the introduction he cuts to the chase by stating that 'all the great sages everywhere have stressed the importance of the transformation of our ego self,'; that 'all religions maintain that in general human beings do not live the way they should and, furthermore the way they could;' and that 'a radical transformation of our whole being is needed, an awakening to a new consciousness, a new birth ... spiritual, virginal, not according to our carnal will'.

Hence, achieving moksha or liberation requires 'the transformation of a human being from a natural and actual form to a perfect and real form'.'This distinction implies what is commonly called the lower and higher self, and the transmutation of one into the other. Hence 'the freedom the Yogi aspires to is less of freedom for the self and more freedom from the self.' This concept of freedom is radically alien to the Western mind, which associates freedom with the fulfilment of individual desire, all the more so in our consumerist culture. Transformation implies a change in identification from the body and the senses to the spacious being within. For Ravi, the more developed a person becomes a genuine microcosm so that 'only a fully developed human being mirrors the entire creation.' Such a sage 'simultaneously sees the oneness of all there is and the uniqueness of everything'. Moreover, as Ramana Maharshi put it, 'there are no others.'

The reader can appreciate that transformation is an important leitmotif running through this volume. In an essay entitled 'Ahimsa Transformation and Ecology', Ravi writes that we must distinguish between the use of violence and the use of force, reminding us that no action can be undertaken without energy, power and force. Western culture largely focuses its efforts on outer transformation while failing to realise that genuine transformation comes from within and that only such a transformation can lead to wholeness, compassion and therefore ahimsa. It is not so much the scriptural learning acquired in a theological college, but rather a reorientation of mind and heart. Ravi himself recounts a meeting with Krishnamurti at a time when he was just finishing his PhD. As he says, 'the more I was certified as an educated man by the world, the clearer I was about my ignorance of myself.' The interview got underway, and Ravi asks whether there is life after death, to which Krishnamurti replies. 'Why worry about death when you don't know anything about life?' Ravi displays very considerable scholarship in discussing the various yoga texts, but always brings them back to the imperative of self-transformation, that is their practical application. There is an essay on the yoga of the cross and another comparing the work of Gurdjieff with the teaching of Krishna. Other themes include the relationship between time and the timeless and between the everlasting and the eternal. He also discusses the nature of attention in yogic techniques and quotes another wonderful formulation from Krishnamurti: 'What fluctuates is not attention. Only inattention fluctuates.' Readers of this book will become acquainted with the riches of the yogic tradition but will also be encouraged to apply the techniques to their own inner lives.