Lintroduction
When we see a book with a title like  The Path of Perfection , we may react with a bit of common skepticism: "Oh, another book claiming to give all the answers. One more do-it-yourself enlightenment scheme." And certainly it seems that such skepticism is justified nowadays. Our natural desire for ultimate meaning, happiness, enlightenment, liberation, and salvation has become the most exploited commodity of the twentieth century, creating what one contemporary theologian termed a disastrous "seduction of the spirit." This seduction is, indeed, the most tragic kind of exploitation. And the unfortunate consequence of this exploitation is a kind of deadening cynicism that discourages our search for self-fulfillment and a means to attain it.
The contemporary, thoughtful reader, weary of the many  speculative , simplistic books cluttering the bookstore shelves,  offering  instant formulas for psychological or spiritual salvation,  will find   The Path of Perfection  a welcome relief. Herein one will  find a clear , intriguing explanation of the philosophy and practice of  mankind's  oldest system of spiritual development— yoga .
Now, the word  yoga  may conjure up an image of some skinny fakir contorted like a human pretzel, or perhaps a room full of corpulent matrons in black leotards struggling to stand on their heads in hope of improving their health, losing weight, or increasing their sexual powers. This is not what we mean by  yoga . Here we are referring to an ancient philosophy and meditational system that has been practiced by millions throughout the ages. What has, in modern times, been reduced to a commercially exploited technique of bodily agility and pseudomeditation was once a comprehensive and easily applied form of self-realization.
The Path of Perfection  consists of a historic series of talks—elaborations on a previously published commentary—by His Divine  Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda  (1896–1977) on  India's  greatest spiritual classic, the  Bhagavad-gītā . In these absorbing talks, Śrīla Prabhupāda explores deeply the philosophy of  yoga  as explained in the Sixth and Eighth Chapters of the  Gītā , showing clearly how these timeless teachings apply to twentieth
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