The spiritual power of yoga - from the ten million-copy bestselling author of The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success In recent years, yoga has exploded in popularity. Yet for most North Americans, yoga remains just another exercise routine - a good option if you want to increase flexibility or relieve stress.

The spiritual power of yoga - from the ten million-copy bestselling author of The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success In recent years, yoga has exploded in popularity. Yet for most North Americans, yoga remains just another exercise routine - a good option if you want to increase flexibility or relieve stress. According to Deepak Chopra and David Simon, however, this simplistic view ignores the spiritual side of yoga - its profound power to unite body, mind, and spirit and bring about enlightenment. Now, in this new book, they show how everyone can explore yoga's spiritual dimension - and integrate all the layers of their lives. Yoga means "union" in Sanskrit, and the authors begin by exploring the eight traditional yoga branches - the entry points to this union. The branches address such things as behavior, attention, awareness, the senses, and energy, and only one of them, asana, corresponds to the "positions" or poses people typically associate with yoga. Chopra and Simon then show people how to understand the seven spiritual laws that govern nature - Pure Potentiality, Giving, Karma, Least Effort, Intention and Desire, Detachment, and Dharma - and how to integrate these laws into their daily lives using meditation, breathing, asana, and other yoga practices. Complete with more than 50 photographs illustrating yoga poses, this new Chopra blockbuster is essential for anyone who wants to embrace yoga's spiritual potential - and lead a happier, more abundant, more harmonious life. Deepak Chopra, MD (San Diego, CA), is one of the bestselling authors of the last 15 years. His New York Times bestselling books include The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, which has sold more than ten million copies, How to Know God, Perfect Health, and The Path to Love. He has been interviewed widely on programs such as Oprah, Larry King Live and Good Morning America (for The Chopra Center Cookbook, 047145404-4) and featured on the cover of Time. David Simon, MD (San Diego, CA), is the Medical Director of the Chopra Center and the author of Vital Energy (0-471-39859-4) and Return to Wholeness (0-471-34964-X).

• Preface: The Four Yogas.

  Acknowledgments.

  Introduction.

  PART I: THE PHILOSOPHY OF YOGA.

  1. Yoga Is Union.

  2. Soul Questions.

  3. The Royal Path to Union.

  4. The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga.

  PART II: MEDITATION AND BREATHING.

  5.