>>47409
Consider the following review where AYP is again ripped to shreds:
"Liberation" is essentially "Jnana Yoga for Dummies," by a dummy of sorts who doesn't fully understand, and is unqualified to elaborate upon, the subject. And this is evident whenever Yogani attempts to go beneath the surface of the Self-realization, or En-Light-enment, process.
I could write pages deconstructing the faulty and incomplete information in this book, but because this is just a review, I will limit my critique to just several examples of the problems I find with this book.
First off, Yogani's definitions of yoga terms are pathetic and dumbed-down. He defines "bhakti" as "spiritual desire," and it really means devotional yoga, or worship of God. But because Yogani seems allergic to terms like God and Spirit, he avoids using these important terms. Yogani defines "sushumna" as "spinal nerve." The sushumna is not a physical nerve; it is a non-physical subtle-body, or etheric, channel through which Kundalini flows. And speaking of Kundalini, Yogani has no real understanding of this Energy, reducing it to neurobiological energy. Moreover, Yogani only has knowledge (and wrong knowledge) of the "lower," or ascending, Kundalini, and none of the "higher," or descending, Kundalini, which is tantamount to "Shaktipat," the Divine Power that descends into and through one's body.
Yogani indiscriminately conflates terms that should not be conflated. For example, he writes: "Abiding inner silence, stillness, pure bliss consciousness, sat-chit-ananda, the witness, etc. all of these add up to the same thing." No they don't. For example, reducing Sat-Chit-Ananda, Being-Consciousness-Bliss, to mere stillness is farsical.
Yogani talks about "divine outpouring," but he doesn't explain what "divine" means, probably because the term pertains to "Spirit." And unbeknownst to Yogani, true divine outpouring is impossible without one's first experiencing divine inpouring, the descent of Spirit, or Shakti, into one's Heart-center (Hridayam, not Anahata), located two digits to the right of the center of one's chest. And Divine outpouring can only originate from this Heart-center, which Yogani never mentions.
Much of this book focuses on Jnana Yoga Self-Inquiry (as the means to Liberation), but Yogani has only superficial understanding of this practice, and no understanding of the esoteric mechanics involved in the Self-realization project. He has read the great sage Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950), the foremost expositor of Self-Inquiry, but has not grokked him. For Yogani, Self-enquiry never goes beyond realizing stillness. Exactly how Self-enquiry leads to integral Self-realization is never detailed in this book. A true Jnana Yoga teacher, which Yogani isn't, provides these details."
Then considering reading a great introduction to Ramana Maharshi's teachings called "Be As You Are". Ramana is probably the most respected and realized well known modern spiritual teacher. His story is more magnificent than any 'green-pill' I've read here. His method is deemed the direct method to Self-Realization and requires not set time or any of the practices I list above.
His method of Self-Enquiry works as follows:
"One's thoughts are traced from the subtle to the causal, not from the gross to the subtle. The root of the causal body (where the Bliss Sheath intersects one's soul, the root of one's psyche) is the Hridayam, the Heart (distinct from the Anahata Chakra). And in accordance with Ramana Maharshi, I say the Self cannot be realized via Self-enquiry unless one's spurious, ego-based `I' thoughts are traced to their Source in the Hridayam, the spiritual Heart-center, where they are obviated, or outshone, by the true, transcendental `I,' the radiant Self, whose locus, relative to one's body, is two digits to the right of the center of one's chest. One's thoughts, the products of one's samskaras (karmic seed tendencies), originate in the spiritual Heart and travel to the brain, where they crystallize as one's mind. A Jnani must practice Self-enquiry and thereby pull the mind into the spiritual Heart, where the false, or ego `I' is spontaneously dissolved, and supplanted by the true, or transcendental `I,' the Self."