By Swami Sri Yukteswar
(Priya Nath Swami)
1920 Original Edition, India
Lovers of Sri Yukteswar’s galactic book find here a free download of the original 1920 edition of The Holy Science (PDF 7 MB), published privately in Kidderpore by his disciple Atul Chandra Chowdhary, “for members and donors only.” In the Foreword, Mr.Chowdhary presents his “spiritual preceptor” Sri Yukteswar not by his name, but lovingly as “sadhu-sabha-pati,” which means “father of Sadhu-Sabha.” Sadhu Sabha was Sri Yukteswar’s organization, which translated means “Society of Saints,” or “Society of Sadhus.”
You may also download a little introduction and study (PDF, 426 KB), which presents a short history of the book, and a philosophical background for it.
Those interested may also download a short schematic explanation of Sri Yukteswar’s cosmology (PDF, 750 KB). Each diagram shows visually what his relative Sutra says. Hopefully they will make Sri Yukteswar’s complicated world-explanation a bit more easy to grasp. It might be best to read, for each diagram, Sri Yukteswar’s entire Sutra and explanation, from the book.
Interestingly, Sri Yukteswar did not expect the general reader to understand everything he writes. At the end of his Introduction he explains:
“So far as the magnetic properties are concerned, it may be remembered that the grasping power of the human intellect, as it presently stands, is so limited that it would be quite useless to attempt to make it understood by the general public.”
He continues to say that in 2000 years the intellect of ordinary people will be suitably developed (that is, at the very end of Dwapara Yuga). The Holy Science, then, might be fully understood only in the distant future.
However, sincere seekers of truth are not “the general public.” They may get a much deeper understanding of Sri Yukteswar’s cosmic message. It is, after all, Babaji’s wish that The Holy Science contributes to bridge the differences between the religions of East and West: not in 2000 years, but right now.