YOGA FOR YAHOOS 
  
FIRST LECTURE.     FIRST PRINCIPLES. 
  
  
     Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. 
     It is my will to explain the subject of Yoga in clear language, without 
resort to jargon or the enunciation of fantastic hypotheses, in order that 
this great science may be thoroughly understood as of universal 
importance. 
     For, like all great things, it is simple; but, like all great things, it is 
masked by confused thinking; and, only too often, brought into contempt 
by the machinations of knavery. 
     (1) There is more nonsense talked and written about Yoga than about 
anything else in the world. Most of this nonsense, which is fostered by 
charlatans, is based upon the idea that there is something mysterious and 
Oriental about it. There isn't. Do not look to me for obelisks and 
odalisques, Rahat Loucoum, bul-buls, or any other tinsel imagery of the 
Yoga-mongers. I am neat but not gaudy. There is nothing mysterious or 
Oriental about anything, as everybody knows who has spent a little time 
intelligently in the continents of Asia and Africa. I propose to invoke the 
most remote and elusive of all Gods to throw clear light upon the 
subject—the light of common sense. 
     (2) All phenomena of which we are aware take place in our own 
minds, and therefore the only thing we have to look at is the mind; which 
is a more constant quantity over all the species of humanity than is 
generally supposed. What appear to be radical differences, irreconcilable 
by argument, are usually found to be due to the obstinacy of habit 
produced by generations of systematic sectarian training. 
     (3) We must then begin the study of Yoga by looking at the meaning 
of the word. It means Union, from the same Sanskrit root as the Greek 
word Zeugma, the Latin word Jugum, and the English word yoke. (Yeug—
to join.) 
     When a dancing girl is dedicated to the service of a temple there is a 
Yoga of her relations to celebrate. Yoga, in short, may be translated 'tea 
fight,' which doubtless accounts for the fact that all the students of Yoga 
in England do nothing but gossip over endless libations of Lyons' 1s. 2d. 
     (4) Yoga means Union. 
     In what sense are we to consider this? How is the word Yoga to imply 
a system of religious training or a description of religious experience? 
     You may note incidentally that the word Religion is really identifiable 
with Yoga. It means a binding together.