I have the Bollingen paperback third printing of the Second Edition of 1969. I have little doubt that they used the plates from that hardcover edition, so the text is identical. The edition of 1970 currently available is the same as the one I have except for a new cover. The original was in French, published in Paris in 1954. This edition is professionally translated by William R. Trask.

Eliade was a nearly legendary scholar of indefatigable energy, and so it is not surprising that this is the definitive single volume academic work on yoga in English (that I am aware of). George Feuerstein's coffee table sized The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice (1998) is a different sort of book, covering yoga from a more practical point of view, and is accessible to a general public. Eliade's book is aimed directly and just about exclusively at academicians. Furthermore, while Feuerstein is a practitioner as well as a scholar, Eliade makes no pretense of first hand experience. As he relates in the Forward, he is interested in the discovery and interpretation of yoga by the West. He wants to explain that in detail. His is a "comparatively full exposition of the theory and practices of yoga...[a] history of its forms, and...its place in Indian spirituality..." (p. xx) The qualifying "comparatively" is a bit of modesty on the part of Eliade. This book really is a "full exposition" (insofar as that is possible) including the ideas, symbolism and methods of yoga "as they are expressed in tantrism, in alchemy, in folklore, in the aboriginal devotion of India." (p. xxii)

The text, which includes lengthy chapters such as, "Yoga and Brahmanism," "Yoga Techniques in Buddhism," "Yoga and Tantrism," "Yoga and Alchemy," etc. runs for 362 dense pages. Sixty-six pages of notes follow, and then a most extensive and valuable bibliography. The Index itself is 47 pages long and concludes with a by-line(!), "Index by Bart Winer," which is only right considering the text was written and set before the age of computers.

This is not a book for practitioners of yoga but a book for students and scholars of the literature of yoga. It is a challenge to read and appreciate and only really accessible to those with some experience with the literature. There is probably no serious yoga book written in the past quarter century that fails to cite it.

Eliade researched for this book, while staying with Surendranath Dasgupta in India, who was the formost scholar of indian philosophy and thelogy at his time. Eliade meticulously analyzed the indian scriptures and commentaries on sankhya and yoga and presents yoga as a huge, complex and precise system of practice and philosphy with the goal of kaivalyam (libration). This book is a lighthouse in the present time of publishing as much as the printing press can print.

This book is required reading for anyone determined to arrive at a realistic understanding of yoga and Hinduism. It illuminates the central doctrines and history of the thought, as well as providing the understanding for a multitude of sanscrit words which anyone committed to further study will find invaluable. For most, this book may be the pinnacle of their yogic study; for others, a great stepping stone.

If I had my time over again I would read these three books on alchemy in the following order: All of them are excellent in their own sphere to introduce a complex process.

(1) The Forge and the Crucible - Eliade
This is an excellent prehistory of alchemy showing the patterns of thought out of which Alchemy most probably arose. An easy read.

(2) Anatomy of the Soul - Edinger
Set out according to seven processes involved in alchemy Calcinatio, Solutio, Coagulatio, Sublimatio, Mortificatio, Separatio, Coniunctio, this is an accessible book that puts each process in reasonably neat boxes, (though the considerable overlap and intermingling is acknowledged). The approach is somewhat mechanical.

(3) Alchemy, an Introduction... - Von Franz.
More 'organic' than Edinger, Von Franz has a very warm and human touch. She deals with the origins of alchemy in Egypt and Greece and delves into the 'Aurora Consurgens', attributed to Aquinas. She includes relevent and interesting case material. Being a transcription of lectures, it is a little haphazard, though none the less informative for that.

Lucidly and masterly written, this study on the origins and meaning of ancient Alchemy is a highly useful and recommendable one. As always, M. Eliade has collected a vast amount of data concerning this issue and has reached far-reaching conclusions as for the value, the role and the meaning of the otherwise rather vague world of Alchemy. Very important for anyone interested in knowing about the theme.

This book contains two extraordinarily vivid and dramatic stories. The first one, "Night at Serampore", describes an episode (probably containing some amount of autobiographical experience) involving some strange kind of time travel or "fall into the past" whereby one night while staying as a guest in an old rural indian mansion the main protagonist becomes in most misterious circumstances an involuntary witness to long past events. This extraordinary experience could seemingly be due, as the story tends to suggest, to the influence of advanced tantric meditators who presumably had been involved that same night in some kind of secret powerful yogic-tantric rituals in a nearby area...
The second story, "The Secret of Dr. Honigsberger" is based on a real character, an indologist scholar who dissappeared in somewhat mysterious circumstances quite a long time ago. Eliade takes this fact as a starting point for a most thrilling story narrating the experience of a student that is called by Dr. Honigsberger's widow in order to review and order the personal notes and papers left by her late husband in the hope of finding some clues regarding his dissapearance. The facts given by the story indicate that the dissapearance had taken place quite some time ago in the scholar's own house and in unexplainable circumstances. ...The rest is a masterful narration of a most exciting investigation dealing with occult yogic practices in a haunting environment... As to the real Dr. Honigsberger, there are some hints about this most curious event in a book containing a long interview to Eliade whose exact title in the english version I can't recall but that probably goes as "The Test of the Labyrinth",...or something close to this.
It is important to note that both stories contain serious and authoritative information and details concerning yogic practices. After all, we must keep in mind that Mircea Eliade was a top world authority in the History of Religions and a most knowledgeable expert in Indian Religion. Must be read by those who search for the mysterious and extraordinary,...and for good and well documented literature as well.

Probably one of the best books I've read. The two stories are in the pre-war tradition of fantastical literature, along the lines of THE STRANGE LIFE OF IVAN OSOKIN, by P. D. Ouspensky, and THE MASTER OF THE DAY OF JUDGMENT, by Leo Perutz. To be honest, I read the book about 10 years ago, so I can only write in general terms. The first tale, "Nights at Serampore," set in and around the town of Serampore, India, in the 1930s, describes the unsettling and life-changing experiences of a European student while visiting a friend in an isolated forest near the town. After encountering his University professor, a reputed magician, mysteriously wandering along the road at night, he sees and hears things that ordinarily would be considered impossible. These experiences teach him a lesson in Hindu mysticism and magic (as well as the possible true nature of existence) that leave an indelible stamp on his memory.

The other tale, whose title now escapes me, addresses a similar subject -- the notion that things are not what they seem, that there is another reality beyond the pale of what we usually consider "normal." It describes the experience of a young man, a student of the occult, if I remember correctly, who gains access to a vast library of occult books, formerly owned by a doctor who had spent time traveling and studying in China before he mysteriously disappeared. In the course of his research the young man stumbles across the doctor's journal; after reading a chilling account of the doctor's experiments with Oriental occultism and of his seemingly impossible fate, the young man learns more about the power of magic than he wished to know.

In this age of excessive materialism and forced pragmatism, these TWO STRANGE TALES are heartily recommended.

i was touched by discription of the Alain's love for Maitreyi.if a person can write so much about love,how much love he must be having in his heart!this book is my passion,i am translating this book in to gujrati.

although i have read previously some books by the world's most renowned scholar of comparative religion, this one struck me as a particularly outstanding collection of stories. "doctor honigberger's secret" is, please allow me to say, stunning for the fact that you are compelled to read it more than once. at the end, you feel like you have watched the film eyes nailed shut, as you, most probably, would feel with each eliade narrative. "rejuvenated by lightning" is a pleasant piece of fiction, notable for both its taste of irony and its authentic inventions.

AN EXCELLENT BEGINNING AN END TO STUDIES INTO PSYCHOLOGY, RELIGION, AND MYTHOLOGY. THIS BOOK DEFINES THE PARAMETERS OF WHAT STUDENTS OF RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY ARE LOOKING FOR.

This is a good introduction to Eliade's fiction. Eliade is more known as a scholar than a fiction writer, but he produced some wonderful stories, of which this is one. This is one of the few fictional works currently available, but any reader who enjoys this as much as I did will no doubt embark upon a quest to discover more Eliade books. I esp. recommend "Mystic Tales".

A refreshing read that gives the details about the lives and times of these three brillian men. It helps to debunk all the soot that has accumulated upon their work from the burning fires of conservatives and the religious right. The attempts to tarnish their names with accusations of anti-semitism and other prejudices fall flat in front of the facts. This book shows that people must deal with the political waves of their own times, but it does not necessarily make them of the same dogmatic ilk.

Rennie's work is technical and hard-going in places, but he is passionate and insightful not just on bringing out the ideas of Prof. Eliade, but also on describing the character and role of religion in the modern world. The book deserves careful and thoughtful reading and study. His defense of Eliade's early political involvements seems reasonable and fair. His defense and explanation of an inclusive definition of religion are compelling and helpful. We still have much to learn from Eliade.

Mircea Eliade's THE COSMOS & HSTORY: The Myth of the Eternal Return is probably the great mythologist's most famous work. Indeed, his insights into Western/linear time and "the terror of History", over against CYCLICAL/mythological (but not necessarily non-Western or "pagan" time) are now so pervasive that their profound implications are often missed like trees in a forest. SYMBOLISM, The SACRED, & The ARTS can offer an attentive reader a journey of "recovery" and understanding the importance of MYTHOLOGY as a kind of societal/personal "architecture" of the individual spirit. That is, in a fine collection of essays and lectures anthologized by editor Diane Apostolos, Eliade presents incisive and illuminating comments on who we are, what we do and why we...really...do it. To clarify: to state that the "equivalent" of American metaphysics is the "mthology" of advertising is probably fairly obvious. But to reckon that SLIM FAST and various dietary regimens are actually...according to Eliade..."sacramental" activites supplanting an "OLD" with a "NEW" ORDER of grace in the nourishing of Being might be scoffed-at. Except that even young children are quite aware that the SHOPPING MALL long ago replaced The Cathedral as a center of ultimate values. Eliade's essay "Cultural Fashions" discusses the implications of replacing "holy ...or sanctifying...rituals and objects with "stuff" that pretends to be "sacred" or is so offered. The essays "Survival and Camouflages" and "Masks: Mythical and Ritual Origens" may help the reader to "hear the penny drop" as the so-called linguistic philosophers say, in understanding our preoccupation with the pseudo-quests of sports' heroes, the "who wants to be millionaires?" and the celebration of celebrities (as famous for being famous). The Essay on MASKS is particularly interesting because Eliade accomplishes in about six pages what Joseph Campbell attempted in four volumes ("Masks of God"). The central focus of the work, however, is the mythology of ART. Cultures...whether so intending or not...define themselves by what they exalt as Sacred. Even if the latter is deliberately and overtly profane (in the multiple meanings). The importance of "art" (literature, sculpture, music and now preeminently film) as an INITIATING experience preparing one for life's ORDEALS is fascinating whether one accepts the author's concept or not. TV...to use Ray Bradbury's symbol...is the One-eyed snake which violates the "sacred" by deconstructing (Public TV is a tautology) the space necessary for the Personal/ Spiritual encounter (in whatever form the modern TEMPLE may be truly constituted). The latter simply proposes that "sacred space" ...and TIME...is necessary to nourish and nurture man's deepest craving for The GOOD...and the infinite. And this is the essence of Religious...ironically...truly existential humanity. As a scholar Mercea Eliade is renowned as perhaps the 20th century's greatest explicator of MYTH. Some of his material is difficult, even esoteric. Much of it, however, is clear and accessible. Most of it, I propose, is worthwhile even if you find yourself in disagreement with the author's conclusions. Eliade is not a New Age guru attempting to "enlighten" your soul with "spiritual rock'n'roll". He is a serious teacher, professing worthwhile knowledge. SYMBOLISM, THE SACRED & THE ARTS is a fine, illuminating study...