The Doctrine and Practice of Yoga: Including the Practices and Exercises of Concentration, Both Objective and Subjective, and Active and Passive Mentation, an Elucidation of Maya, Guru Worship, and the Worship of the Terrible, Also the Mystery of Will-Force

Here is a book that arrived in the West when yoga was still a secret. Written by Swami A.P. Mukerji in the early twentieth century, this text documents the teachings that would eventually reshape global spirituality, offered here with the earnestness of someone introducing an ancient tradition to entirely new ears. Mukerji distinguishes between objective concentration (the focused mind that achieves worldly aims) and subjective concentration (the inward turn toward self-realization), arguing that true power lies in the latter. The practices he outlines range from seated meditation to what he calls will-force training, the cultivation of mental energy directed toward spiritual transformation. He also addresses the more enigmatic aspects of the tradition: Maya (the illusion that binds us to worldly suffering), Guru worship as a path to liberation, and the worship of the Terrible the fierce aspect of the divine that confronts the seeker with their own depths. This is not a polished modern manual. It is a document from a particular moment when Eastern wisdom first began crossing oceans, rendered in dense, Victorian prose that itself feels like a portal. For historians of yoga, for seekers interested in the roots of modern meditation culture, or for anyone curious about what the spiritual journey looked like before it became packaged and digestible, this text remains a strange and valuable artifact.