The Yoga-Vasistha Maharamayana of Valmiki

The present edition is only the edition which is available with complete English translation of Yogavasistha.  The other editions available in market are lacking either with the original Sanskrit texts or incomplete translations.  In the present translation the author has taken help from Viharilal Mitra’s translation which was available in fragments and in a dilapidated condition only in English unaccompanied by the original text in Sanskrit.  So it was not a very easy job for the author to find out from the running English commentary of Viharilal Mitra the appropriate translation of Sanskrit Slokas.  Since the present author had no information about the edition of Yogavasistha referred to by Viharilal Mitra while rendering  his English translation of Yogavasistha.  The present author has used Sanskrit text published by Gita Press Gorakhpur for the present edition.  As such Viharilal Mitra’s translation was used wherever it was found in tune with the Gita Press Gorakhpur’s Sanskrit text.  Wherever, the translation was not in tune with the available Sanskrit text, or was missing the present author supplied his own translation.  For instance, the the translation of Mitra is missing in following places of Nirvana Prakarana: 11.87.112, 33.20-46; 34.31; 59.13; 67.23; 81.116-119. So, the present author has rendered his own translation in all such places.  Thus the contribution of Viharilal Mitra has been fully recognized and the readers will also have a chance to go through the complete text of Sanskrit with appropriate English translation.  Since Vihari Lal Mitra comes from a Bengali background, his dicta is sometimes found impressed with Bengali accent.  This is why, he has written Sattva as Sottva, arghya as orghya, asattva as asuttva, etc.  at all such places, a  correct rendering of spellings has been made by the present author without having any tendency to the Bengali accent.  The original translator has mistaken Samadhi for hypnotism, hence to avoid confusion, Samadhi has been rendered as Samadhi for lack of any synonym thereof in English language.  Since this and other Yogic terms are peculiar to Sanskrit and they don’t have their exact equivalence in other languages of the world.  The old English usage sometimes takes its course in the translation of Viharilal Mitra so the present editor has replaced such usage by the modest terms available in English language.