Shiva Samhita: A Classical Text on Yoga and Tantra

Śiva Samhit is an unparalleled and unique Sanskrit text on classical yoga. It explains the concept of yoga, its principle and practice in detail. Lord Śiva, the expounder of yoga, has declared this science of yoga for the welfare and liberation of all creatures in all three worlds. There are five chapters in this test in which the teachings are primarily focused on the philosophy of creation and dissolution of the universe, bondage and liberation, the right knowledge of the reality and the ultimate aim of human life - Mokśa or liberation. Śiva Samhit clearly elaborates the ways of attaining perfections, the Kuṇḍalinī and its awakening, the various forms and techniques of yoga. It also discusses the human body - the microcosm as a mirror of the macrocosm, the principles and importance of yogic way of life and the importance of the practice of various limbs of yoga.For the first time, readers have access to this important work in English, accompanied by the original Sanskrit text in Roman transliteration, the only full translation of this classical yogic text. During the Victorian era an English translation was published in India, but a number of key sections were censored by that translator because, in his words, "they have to do with obscene practices promoted by low-class tantrics." Swamii Vishnuswaroop feels that it is important to share the full teachings of Lord Shiva. He first translated the book into Nepali, and then into English. Swami Vishnuswaroop has chosen to include transliterations of the original Sanskrit text along with the English, enabling those who cannot read the Devangari script to pronounce, and hear, the text as other practitioners have for millennia. This new translation by Swami Vishnuswaroop is, to our knowledge, the only full English translation of this classic yogic text.