Book Reviews

Abstract

The review by James Redington offers a reflective and integrative conclusion to JVS Volume 14.1, which centers on the intersections and tensions between Yoga and Vaishnavism. Redington commends the volume’s diverse scholarly voices for exploring how Vaiṣṇava traditions—particularly Gauḍīya, Rāmānandī, and Śrī Vaiṣṇavism—have historically critiqued, adapted, or embraced yogic systems such as Aṣṭāṅga and Haṭha Yoga. He underscores the breadth of methodological approaches in the volume, from textual exegesis and doctrinal critique to ethnographic insight and theological speculation.

Redington highlights how the volume does not reduce either tradition to caricature but instead fosters nuanced understanding: Yoga is not merely physical discipline, nor is Bhakti confined to sentimentality. Rather, both engage deep modes of consciousness, commitment, and cosmological vision. The review ultimately praises JVS 14.1 as a valuable contribution to comparative theology and the study of Hindu intellectual traditions, particularly for its probing of whether and how Yoga can serve devotional goals without compromising Vaishnava soteriology.