Spirituality is a divine gift given to the world from the East. As the West kept trying to achieve supremacy over machines and technology, the yogic and spiritual masters of the east mastered the ultimate machine, the human body through spiritual penance. This gift of spirituality has given the world a long term solution to achieving inner happiness and peace in an increasingly chaotic world.
We have curated a list of the best spiritual books, to set you off on a journey of your path of spiritual awakening, inner peace and self-realisation.
Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhans Yogananda
Published in 1962, Autobiography of a yogi must be one of the essential reads for your road to understand spirituality. Paramhans Yogananda through this book takes the reader through his journey of enlightenment. In his journey, his struggle with attachments, his visits and conversations with western and easter philosophers and spiritual leaders makes the reader familiar with the road of enlightenment and the perseverance it takes to reach it.
Ever since its publication, Paramhans Yogananda has garnered worldwide recognition with Harpercollins recognizing Autobiography of a Yogi as “100 Most Important Spiritual Books of the 20th Century”
Bases of Yoga by Sri Aurobindo
First published in 1936, Bases of Yoga is a compilation of letters of Sri Aurobindo to his students and aspirants who wanted to get started on the journey of spirituality and self-realization. The language and instructions on meditations and spiritual philosophy are easy to read and quite comprehensive so that one can easily fit them into their daily lives.
Sri Aurobindo who is the founder of Auroville and one of the premier spiritual gurus in pre-independent India lays out the determination required for a person who wants to understand and go down the road of self-realization and spirituality, making this one of the most essential reads to understand spirituality.
Book of Secrets by Osho
Book of Secrets by Osho is essential to your collection on spirituality because it gives the reader insight into one of the most essential elements on the road of spirituality, Meditation. The book highlights 112 different forms of meditation with each chapter devoted to a meditation technique followed by questions and answers of actual devotees of Osho on those techniques. The meditation techniques are quite accessible and easy to follow so integrating these techniques into your increasingly busy lives wouldn’t be a difficult task at all.
Osho has been one of the major international faces of spiritualism in both East and the West. His influence is still seen in his ashrams with thousands of spiritual aspirants still flocking towards his teachings.
My Spiritual Journey by Dalai Lama
The author of this book hardly requires an introduction. The 14th Dalai Lama is one of the foremost faces of Tibetian Buddhism and a lifelong proponent of spiritualism, and with this book, he takes the reader through the journey of his life, his spiritual struggles and his teachings distilled in one book This book will give a reader a rather rich insight into the life of the Nobel peace prize-winning monk with an extensive significance given to the importance of spiritualism in one’s life.
The Washington Post’s review of the book reads,
“’ Spirituality’” may be the most nebulous word in the English language, but My Spiritual Journey provides a definition that both devotee and atheist might approve: ‘the full blossoming of human values that is essential for the good of all.”
Inner Engineering by Sadhguru
One of the most famous contemporary faces of spiritualism, Sadhguru distils his years of spiritual training into one book, Inner Engineering. In this book, he highlights how spiritual training isn’t just bodily penance but rather a union between the mind and the body. It talks about the natural restlessness of the body and how to overcome it while practising Saadhana (Meditation).
Since Sadhguru understands the current speed at which the world and technology are moving and thus the techniques and instructions for spiritual training are kept in mind at par with the world right now. His inner engineering is a life-changing outlook for a person who is trying to find himself through spirituality in an increasingly changing world.