Sri Krishna Prem and the Gita’s Yoga: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

Sri Krishna Prem (1898–1965) was a Western convert to Vaishnavism who emphasized yoga as a path to God. Immersed in his own devotional practice, he did not mount an explicit mission to the West. Thus, his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita represents the gift of his spiritual journey to Western readers as well as the challenge to engage in the yogic path found in the Gita, the Gita’s yoga. In his Yoga of the Bhagavat Gita, Sri Krishna Prem traces the strand of a single yogic path—rather than the usual compilation or successive series of diverse yogas—through the course of the Bhagavad Gita. He argues that Krishna is here revealing a single, coherent Path, a Yoga, which must be progressively trod, beginning with a Path of Purification, deepening through a Path of Illumination, culminating in a Vision, and ultimately leading to a profound Secret both about Krishna and about the dharma of the individual. While this text and the roughly contemporaneous Initiation into Yoga say nothing explicitly of his personal journey or Gaudiya Vaishnava religious practice, Krishna Prem speaks authoritatively, forcefully, and eloquently of this path and its goal.