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Archive for January, 2006

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Unified Field Theory and The Theory of Everything

Published on January 31, 2006

Unified Field Theory

In physics, unified field theory is an attempt to unify all the fundamental forces and the interactions between elementary particles into a single theoretical framework. The term was coined by Einstein who attempted to reconcile the general theory of relativity with electromagnetism in a single field theory. His quest proved elusive and a unified field theory, sometimes grandiosely referred to as the Theory of Everything (TOE, for short), has remained the holy grail for physicists, the long-sought theory which would explain the nature and behavior of all matter.

In physics, the forces between objects can be described as mediated by fields. Current theory says that at subatomic distances, these fields are replaced by quantum fields interacting according to the laws of quantum mechanics. Alternatively, using the particle-wave duality of quantum mechanics, fields can be described in terms of exchange particles that transfer momentum and energy between objects. Crudely speaking, objects interact as they emit and absorb exchanged particles, in effect playing a subatomic game of “catch”. The essential belief of a unified field theory is that the four fundamental forces (see below) as well as all matter are simply different manifestations of a single fundamental field.

A unified field theory aims to reconcile the four fundamental forces (or fields) of nature, namely:
• Strong force: Force responsible for holding quarks together to form neutrons and protons, and holding neutrons and protons together to form nuclei. The exchange particles that mediate this force are gluons.
• Electromagnetic force: It is the familiar force that acts on electrically charged particle. The photon is the exchange particle for this force.
• Weak force: Responsible for radioactivity, it is a repulsive short-range interaction that acts on electrons, neutrinos and quarks. It is governed by the W boson.
• Gravitational force: A long-range attractive force that acts on all particles. The exchange particles have been postulated and named gravitons.

History
Historically, the first unified field theory was developed by James Clerk Maxwell. In 1831, Michael Faraday made the observation that time-varying magnetic fields could induce electric currents. Until then, electricity and magnetism had been thought as unrelated phenomena. In 1864, Maxwell published his famous paper on a dynamical theory of the electromagnetic field. This was the first example of a theory that was able to encompass previous theories (namely electricity and magnetism) to provide a unifying theory of electromagnetism. However, today we know that the classical electrodynamics developed by Maxwell eventually breaks down near the quantum limit (for large momentum and energy transfer). A complete quantum description of the electromagnetic force was achieved in the 1940s, a theory known as quantum electrodynamics (QED). This theory represents the interactions of charged particles mediated by force carriers named photons. The theory is based on a space-time symmetry of the field called gauge (really phase) symmetry. The theory was so successful that the principle of continuous gauge symmetry was soon adopted for all forces.

In 1967, two Americans Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg and a Pakistani Abdus Salam proposed independently a theory unifying electromagnetism and the weak nuclear forces. They found that in seeking a quantum gauge field theory of the weak forces they were forced to introduce an additional force. They demonstrated that the gauge field from the weak interaction was structurally identical to the electromagnetic field. Quantum electrodynamics is then a consequence of a spontaneous symmetry breaking in a theory in which initially the weak and electromagnetic interactions are unified. This unified theory was governed by the exchange of four particles: the photon for electromagnetic interactions, and a neutral Z particle and two charged W particles for weak interaction. As a result of the spontaneous symmetry breaking the weak force becomes short range and the Z and W bosons acquire masses of the order of 90 GeV / c2. Their theory was given experimental support by the discovery, in 1983, of the Z and W bosons at CERN by Carlo Rubbia’s team. For their insights, Glashow, Weinberg and Salam were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979. Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer received the Prize in 1984.

The next logical step towards the unification of the fundamental forces of nature was to include the strong interaction with the electroweak forces in a theory called the Grand Unified Theory (GUT). A quantum theory of the strong force had been developed in the 1970s under the name of Quantum Chromodynamics. The strong interaction acts between quarks via the exchange of particles called gluons. There are eight types of gluons, each carrying a color charge and an anti-color charge. Based on this theory, Sheldon Glashow and Howard Georgi proposed the first grand unified theory in 1974, which applied to energies above 1000 GeV. Since then there have been several proposals for GUTs, although none is currently universally accepted. A major problem for experimental tests of such theories is the energy scale involved, which is well beyond the reach of current accelerators. However, there are some falsifiable predictions that have been made for low energy processes that do not involve accelerators. One of these predictions is that the proton is unstable and can decay. It is at present unknown if the proton can decay although experiments have determined a lower bound of 1035 years for its lifetime. It is therefore uncertain, at the present time, whether any GUT can provide an accurate description of matter.

Gravity has yet to be included in a theory of everything. Theoretical physicists have been so far incapable of formulating a consistent theory that combines general relativity and quantum mechanics. The two theories have proved to be incompatible and the quantization of gravity remains an outstanding problem in the field of physics. In recent years the quest for a unified field theory has largely focused on string theory. Much hope has been put on one of its offshoots known as M-theory (M. Kaku, B. Greene). Others theories that attempt to explain the quantization of gravity are twistor theory (R. Penrose and W. Rindler), Noncommutative geometry (A. Connes, J. Madore) and loop quantum gravity (L. Smolin, R. Gambini and J. Pullin).
See also dynamic theory of gravity, generalized theory of gravitation.

Unifications in physics
• electricity + magnetism = electromagnetism (due to Maxwell (1860s))
• electromagnetism + weak interaction = electroweak interaction (due to Glashow, Salam and Weinberg (1960s))
• electroweak interaction + strong interaction = grand unified theory (none yet verified)
• grand unified theory + general relativity = unified field theory (none yet known)

Reductionism
There is much debate about the intrinsic value of searching for a possibly successful unified field theory. Besides the argument that such a theory may not exist, some have argued that finding the final theory, that is the ultimate foundation of nature, will not unlock the mystery of the universe. This is the view that the understanding of the ultimate particles will not yield a complete knowledge of the behaviour of atoms and molecules or some higher level structure. Some physicists (e.g P.W. Anderson) have argued that large structures undergo collective behaviors which are not most usefully described in terms of the behavior of their constituents and therefore there is no reason to label the lower-level behaviors as more fundamental.

Amateur theories
Many amateur theories have been proposed. These are often couched in cryptic language with numerous neologisms apparently intended to impress or obscure meaning. These attempts are for the most part ill-conceived and devoid of merit. Such theories typically contain little in the way of falsifiable results or predictions; and, for the most part, have not been through a process equivalent to peer-review.
The unified field theory must be consistent, explain all previously known aspects of gravity on a large scale, and of quantum mechanics on the subatomic level, in a single framework while making new and falsifiable predictions.

Theory of Everything

A theory of everything (TOE) is a theory of theoretical physics and mathematics that fully explains and links together all known physical phenomena. Initially, the term was used with an ironic connotation to refer to various overgeneralized theories. For example, a great-grandfather of Ijon Tichy — a character from a cycle of Stanisław Lem’s science fiction stories of 1960s — was known to work on “General Theory of Everything” (Polish: “Ogólna Teoria Wszystkiego”). Over time, the term stuck in popularizations of quantum physics to describe a theory that would unify the theories of the four fundamental interactions of nature.

There have been numerous theories of everything proposed by theoretical physicists over the last century, but as yet none has been able to stand up to experimental scrutiny or there is tremendous difficulty in getting the theories to produce even experimentally testable results. The primary problem in producing a TOE is that the accepted theories of quantum mechanics and general relativity propose radically different descriptions of the universe, and straightforward ways of combining the two lead quickly to the renormalization problem in which the theory does not give finite results for experimentally testable quantities.

Mainstream physics
Albert Einstein was the first well-known scientist who spent most of his life trying to find a TOE; he believed that the only task was to unify general relativity and electromagnetism.

Current mainstream physics concepts require that a TOE unify the four fundamental interactions of nature: gravity, the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, and the electromagnetic force; it should also explain the spectrum of elementary particles. There has been progress toward a TOE in unifying electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force in an electroweak unified field theory and in unifying all of the forces except for gravity (which in the present theory of general relativity is not a force) in the grand unification theory. One missing piece in a theory of everything involves combining quantum mechanics and general relativity into a theory of quantum gravity.

The only mainstream candidate for a theory of everything at the moment is superstring theory / M-theory; current research on loop quantum gravity may eventually play a fundamental role in a TOE, but that is not its primary aim. These theories attempt to deal with the renormalization problem by setting up some lower bound on the length scales possible. Also, early 21st century theories of everything tend to suppose that the universe actually has more dimensions than the easily observed three of space and one of time. The motivation behind this approach began with the Kaluza-Klein theory in which it was noted that adding one dimension to general relativity would produce the electromagnetic Maxwell’s equations. This has led to efforts to work with theories with large number of dimensions in the hopes that this would produce equations which are similar to known laws of physics. The notion of extra dimensions also helps to resolve the hierarchy problem which is the question of why gravity is so much weaker than any other force. The common answer involves gravity leaking into the extra dimensions in ways that the other forces do not.

In the late 1990s, it was noted that one problem with several of the candidates for theories of everything was that they did not constrain the characteristics of the predicted universe. For example, many theories of quantum gravity can create universes with arbitrary numbers of dimensions or with arbitrary cosmological constants. One bit of speculation is that there may indeed be a huge number of universes, but that only a small number of them are habitable, and hence the fundamental constants of the universe are ultimately the result of the anthropic principle rather than a consequence of the theory of everything. Max Tegmark has taken this principle to its logical conclusion with his “Ultimate Ensemble”, whose only postulate is that “all structures that exist mathematically exist also physically”. In this theory, certain mathematical structures are complex enough to contain self aware substructures, who subjectively perceive themselves as existing in a physically real world.

Unsolved problems in physics: Is string theory, superstring theory, or M-theory, or some other variant on this theme, a step on the road to a “theory of everything”, or just a blind alley?

There is also a philosophical debate within the physics community as to whether or not a “theory of everything” should be seen as the fundamental law of the universe. One view is the hard reductionist view that the TOE is the fundamental law of the universe and that all other theories of the universe are a consequence of the TOE. Another view is that there are laws which Steven Weinberg calls free floating laws which govern the behavior of complex systems, and while these laws are related to the theory of everything, they cannot be seen as less fundamental than the TOE. Some argue that this explanation would violate Occam’s Razor if a completely valid TOE were formulated.

Other possibilities which may frustrate the explanatory capacity of a TOE may include sensitivity to the boundary conditions of the universe, or the existence of mathematical chaos in its solutions, making its predictions precise, but useless.

There have been several attempts to advance the general theory of relativity as a theory of everything. As mentioned above, Einstein was responsible for one of these: in collaboration with with Rosen he attempted to model particles as tiny wormholes, hence the term Einstein-Rosen Bridge. Wormholes have also been proposed at various times (for instance, by Shimony and by Durand [1]) to explain Bell violations not as superluminal influences but influences that take a shortcut through a wormhole. Such theories face a number of hurdles: the creation of wormholes changes the topology of spacetime by creating a new “handle” which implies violations of causality (see Hadley [2]), and the general theory of relativity predicts its own breakdown at a Gravitational singularity by theorems of Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose. A recent effort to surmount this hurdle notes that the equivalence principle can be applied along curves rather than at a single point (Iliev [3]), which would imply that time dilation of (1 − v2) − 1 / 2 is indistinguishable locally (along the curve) from a relative velocity v and the unbounded time dilation observed as an event horizon emerges at the center of a collapsing star implies that the center is in reality as well as appearance receding at a velocity approaching the speed of light, producing a bubble-like local inflation of the star’s interior (Monroe [4]). This approach skirts the trapped surface assumption of the theorems of Hawking and Penrose.

Where the Standard Model comes up short
The Standard Model of physics is among the most successful theories in history, but it fails to explain everything. It doesn’t explain the origins of the universe before the big bang or the cause of that event. There are 18 arbitrary constants and several dozen elementary particles in the Standard Model. Why are there so many? The Standard Model also fails to explain over 90% of the apparent mass-energy of the universe. The existence of dark matter and dark energy, although never observed directly, is all but guaranteed if current theory is correct.

Why is so much of the universe invisible? What is the state of matter within a black hole? Is spacetime curved, or is it flat? How many dimensions of space and time are there? What is the origin of matter and energy? What is the reason for them at all? Are some particles the “most fundamental”? What happens beyond Planck scales? Why is momentum quantized? Is the speed of light the fastest speed in the universe? These are among the many questions left unanswered by the most modern theories in physics. A successful TOE would explain each of these questions and provide solutions to every situation which could exist in the universe.

Other efforts
Attempts to create theories of everything are common among people outside the professional physics community. Some are created by amateurs, and their theories are often criticised on the basis of inability to make quantifiable and/or falsifiable predictions. For example, a theory of everything would provide some insight into the relative strength of forces, and predictions of particle lifetimes and cross sections. It would need to be shown to explain all known universal phenomena. Unlike professional physicists, who are generally aware that their proposed theory is incomplete, untested, and likely to be wrong and who are aware of the huge difficulties and challenges involved in creating a TOE, amateurs who create TOE’s tend to be unaware of what work has already been done, the mechanisms for testing scientific theories and the fact that most proposed theories are wrong.

Burkhard Heim and quantised general relativity
Burkhard Heim’s theory of quantised general relativity purports to be a TOE but this theory, begun in the 1950s and still under development, had until recently sunk into obscurity. A sign that it is undergoing a renewal of interest is that a paper by Droescher and Haeuser on aerospace applications of Heim Theory was published by the AIAA in 2005 and was awarded the prize for best paper of the year by the Nuclear and Future Flight Propulsion Technical Committee. Supporters claim that Heim’s six dimensional theory can predict the masses of some fundamental particles with considerable accuracy, which no established theory has yet been able to do. Heim’s theory bears a resemblance to loop quantum gravity in that Heim’s network of metrons is similar to the spin networks of LQG, and predates them by several decades.

Eino Kaila
The prolific Finnish philosopher Eino Kaila attempted to construct a theory of everything based on the philosophical implications of quantum mechanics in the 1950s. His attempt did not get much attention outside Finland, and he only managed to write the first part of what he planned on making an extensive study on the subject. “Terminalkausalität als die Grundlage eines unitarischen Naturbegriffs” (”terminal causality as the foundation of a unitarian notion of nature”), published in 1956, formulated a new type of causality and was meant to be followed by similar works on psychology and biology.

Time Cube
Gene Ray’s Time Cube concept is an example of an amateur TOE that is quite well-known, although this is mainly due to entertainment value rather than its scientific merit. Mr. Ray claims to explain all known universal phenomena through the postulate that “Time is cubic, not linear”. See list of alternative, speculative and disputed theories. Like many similar theories, it is regarded as pseudoscience.

Expansion Theory
Expansion Theory purports to offer a theory of everything in which all physical phenomena are explained by universal accelerating expansion. Author Mark McCutcheon described the theory in the book The Final Theory: Rethinking our Scientific Legacy, in 2002, although the theory itself is much older. The theory argues that current scientific theory is inconsistent and incomplete in that it predicts yet doesn’t explain Action at a distance, violates its own conservation laws, and fails to live up to experimental data or concur with the laws of common sense. Under expansion theory, Classical Mechanics, General Relativity, Special Relativity, Quantum Mechanics are discarded and replaced with an atomic expansion that, according to the author, accounts for phenomena like magnetism, light, gravity, and atomic forces. [5]

Expansion Theory holds little to no acceptance within the scientific community. Many of the predictions of the theory don’t hold empirically, and the theory doesn’t explain any anomalous data. Like other purported theories of everything, many regard the theory to be a form of pseudoscience.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Unified Field Theory and The Theory of Everything” .

Keywords: Unified Field Theory, Electromagnetic force, Gravitational force, Grand Unified Theory (GUT), Einstein, The Theory of Everything, (TOE)

Weekly Consciousness Tune-Up…Yehuda Berg 1/9-2/4/06

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Weekly Consciousness Tune-Up
January 29th – February 4th, 2006

I Am More Than Enough

Last week I wrote about not holding others accountable for our own shortcomings and problems. Yesterday I received an email from a student who responded:

“When I began my Kabbalah studies I was loaded with hatred and anger towards my family for the way they raised me. But after going through the Power of Kabbalah Level 2 course, I took ownership and realized my soul needed those experiences. So, now that I am no longer blaming, how can I apply the Tune Up to my life?”

I thought it would be appropriate for me to share my response with all of you:

“Stopping to blame others is only the first step. To truly release blame from your mindset, you need to stop blaming yourself. The same voice inside you that screams, “I hate my mom, I can’t believe what she did to me all those years” is also the voice that says, “I hate myself, I screwed up again, I’ll never finish this project, I’ll never make this relationship last” and other such defeating thoughts.

The gift of this week is the increased ability to recognize how ineffective beating yourself up is. If you tune into your internal dialogue, you’ll become aware of how often you are blaming yourself for one thing or the other. It’s essential to have this awareness because the kabbalists explain the most important focus is the mind. It controls everything.

The quality of your thoughts determines the quality of your life.

Imagine hearing a good friend talk badly about himself. When someone I care about comes to me and says, “I am not good enough,” I immediately disagree and point out their good points. I patiently give them love and help them see that, despite their shortcomings, they contain the spark of God within and, therefore, can do anything.

Why can’t we do that for ourselves?

This week the Light of the Creator is nudging us towards a finer awareness of our stinkin’ thinkin’. This week we can turn ourselves into our own best friends. This week we can give ourselves a warm embrace and say, “I am more than enough.”

We are so used to convincing ourselves why we’re not skinny enough to meet our soul mate, strong enough to stay connected spiritually, smart enough to make more money, that we stop trying.

Repeating in your mind “I AM MORE THAN ENOUGH” twists the downer thoughts to the upside.

Before you leave this tune up and dive back into your hectic life, please, please, tattoo these words onto your brain and repeat them every time you notice the negative loop running again: I AM MORE THAN ENOUGH… I AM MORE THAN ENOUGH… I AM MORE THAN ENOUGH…

All the Best,

Yehuda

Keywords: Kabbalah, Weekly Consciousness Tune-Up, Blame

Efthimios Harokopos

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Author: Harokopos E.

Laws of motion are derived based on power rather than on force. I show how power extends the law of inertia to include curvilinear motion and I also show that the law of action-reaction can be expressed in terms of the mutual time rate of change of kinetic energies instead of mutual forces. I then compare the laws of motion based on power to Newton’s Laws of Motion and I investigate the relation of power to Leibniz’s notion of vis viva. I also discuss briefly how the metaphysics of power as the cause of motion can be grounded in a modern version of occasionalism for the purpose of establishing an alternative foundation of mechanics. The laws of motion derived in this paper along with the metaphysical foundation proposed come in defense of the hypotheses that time emerges as an ordered progression of now and that gravitation is the effect of energy transfer between an unobservable substance and all matter in the Universe.

See online…
Power as the Cause of Motion and a New Foundation of Classical Mechanics

Keywords: Efthimios Harokopos

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi

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Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi

The Sage of Arunachala

30th Dec. 1879 to 14th April 1950

Throughout the history of mankind spiritual giants have appeared on very rare ocassions to exemplify the Highest Truth, guiding followers by their conduct in every moment of their lives; Sri Ramana Maharshi was such a giant. Unique in our time, He perfectly embodied the ultimate truth of Self-realisation, or complete immersion in God.

Known as the Sage of Arunachala, He spoke and wrote very little. He preferred to communicate through the power of overwhelming Silence, a silence so deep and powerful that it stilled the minds of ardent seekers who were attracted to Him from all over the world.

His highest teaching of ‘Self-enquiry’ was understood in the infinite silence of his presence. Through this silence, countless numbers of devotees and visitors experienced the pure bliss of True Being. That same experience of perfect peace is still available to sincere souls who turn to him and practice his teachings with devotion.

This act of perfect grace can be experienced anywhere, but it is especially palpable at the foot of the holy Arunachala Hill, a hill that has attracted saints and sages for thousands of years. The Maharshi’s teaching of ‘Self-enquiry’ (Pure Advaita,) is simplicity itself, requiring no outward formalities, no outer change of life, only a simple change in ‘point of view’ and a sustained effort on the part of the seeker. The goal is no heaven after death or a faraway ideal, but rather the removal of the ignorance that prevents us from knowing that we are eternally One with our Source, the Supreme Self, or God. It is an experience than can be had NOW! All that is required is a sincere effort, which earns us the necessary grace.

On his deathbed the Maharshi told his grieving devotees, “You say I am going away, but where can I go? I am always here. You give too much importance to the body.” His promise of a ‘continued presence’ is daily being experienced by numerous devotees from around the world, and it is that experience of ‘continued presence’ that has inspired many to devote themselves to the path of peace and love.

Devotees are not required to give up their current faith in God (however perceived) and practices of devotion or worship, in fact they are encouraged to continue in them as long as benefit is perceived. Self-enquiry does not require the seeker to leave home, job, family or anything else. Progress depends only upon effort and nothing else and help in Sadhana (Spiritual effort) is always available.

Truth is Freedom.

Ramana-Maharshi

Keywords: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, Highest Truth, God, Truth, Source, Sadhana, Advaita, The Sage of Arunachala

More Money

Published on January 30, 2006

The subject of money seems to transfix people. So I titled this article about money to catch your eye. The subject of money, however, is interchangeable for every other area of your life; but everyone always loves to read about money, or how to get more of it. There’s millions of business ideas, job opportunities, get rich quick schemes, what we can do to secure our future, and motivational boot camps. There never seems to be enough of it, even if you have enough for 5 lifetimes.

In many societies, the level of living is 1 year (theirs) =1 week (ours). Of course that wouldn’t work in our society. There’s too much to buy. Everything we see makes us want more. Big homes, new cars and all the newest gadgets. Let’s not forget the basics, education and our “free time”. If we only knew then what we know now…sigh. There’s always someone who has less and someone who has more, unless of course your name is Bill Gates. All issues about money have been felt or thought of before. They’re not exclusive to you. If you have an idea, you can bet there’s someone already out there thinking about it, too. That’s the mystery of the Collective Consciousness.

Consciousness is what I want to discuss regarding money and your life. Probably most people you know are either first going out to get a job, already have a job or are retired. If they have a job, it’s a good chance they don’t like it. If they’re retired, it’s also a good chance they don’t like that either. That’s because most people’s minds won’t allow it… happiness, that is. Why do you sometimes see people that don’t have much money, but always seem to be happy? It’s because they have something else. I’d be willing to bet these same people have an enduring faith in God. I’m also certain they always trust in God to see them through no matter what happens.

Our level of consciousness dictates how we view money and everything else. Using the MAP of Consciousness we can see which positionality is taken in regard to money. If we have disdain and hatred for money, because we see it as evil, it’s due to that level of lower consciousness. Pride allows us to see it as status, being better than others, etc. When we reach levels of love and joy, money is seen for the good it can do to help others. It can become a sacred tool because of the intention for its’ useage.

Trust, faith and surrender take the struggle for money out of your hands and into the hands of Divinity. Turning it over, makes things happen. I’m not saying you have to just sit and do nothing, but there is the Collective Consciousness. This is the Mind of God. Everything necessary for you to know when you need to know it is there when you’re ready and not a minute before. Trust is a small word that makes huge things happen. Trust that everything that’s happening for you is perfect, even if it doesn’t feel like it. Trust that you always get exactly what you need. Trust that failure doesn’t really exist…or success, winning or losing. They are all illusions, even if persistent ones. You are here. That is your biggest “success.” What would you say to yourself if you were God? …”You are doing a great job right where you are. There are no accidents, nor imperfections. There is no lack. Trust in Me.” So relax, listen for the signals, and trust in God, to help you make “it” happen.

Keywords: God, Surrender, Money, Trust, Consciousness, Collective Consciousness, Map of Consciousness, MAP

Eight Books

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If one is serious about enlightenment, there are many paths to that end. Many are here on this site and I have links to many more wonderful spiritual teachers past and present. My own teacher is Dr. David Hawkins and to me the “buck” stops with him.

So much is often spent on the path to enlightenment as well as the spiritual. So many teachers out there will recruit the unsuspecting. Dr. Hawkins shows these “spiritual traps” in his books. He doesn’t care if his books are read as he often says. He also doesn’t care if anyone listens to him. His bi-monthly and past DVDs are inexpensive, as are his lectures. Some are free. His wisdom however, is to me “The Real Pearl Without Price”. One could become enlightened by reading the Truth within his books. Healing and Recovery is a new release and available through Veritas Publishing. Myswizard

Keywords: Dr. David Hawkins

The Eightfold Path

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The Eightfold Path

The Buddha-Dharma is the realization within one’s deepest consciousness of the Oneness of all life. For the attainment of this purpose, Buddha taught the Eightfold Path.

1. Right Views means to keep ourselves free from prejudice, superstition and delusion… and to see aright the true nature of life.

2. Right Thoughts means to turn away from the hypocrisies of this world and to direct our minds toward Truth and Positive Attitudes and Action.

3. Right Speech means to refrain from pointless and harmful talk… to speak kindly and courteously to all.

4. Right Conduct means to see that our deeds are peaceable, benevolent, compassionate and pure… and to live the Teachings daily.

5. Right Livelihood means to earn our living in such a way as to entail no evil consequences. To seek that employment to which can give our complete enthusiasm and devotion.

6. Right Effort means to direct our efforts continually to the overcoming of ignorance and craving desires.

7. Right Mindfulness means to cherish good and pure thoughts, for all that we say and do arises from our thoughts.

8. Right Meditation means to concentrate on the Oneness of all life and the Buddhahood that exists within all beings.

In keeping with the language of Nonduality, one can substitute “Integrous” for “Right.” Myswizard

Keywords: The Eightfold Path, Buddha, Buddhism

Sai Baba

Published on January 29, 2006

SHIRDI SAI BABA: THE BEACON OF HOPE BACK TO HOME

By Parveen Chopra

Rising above religion, Shirdi Sai Baba, the Indian sage preached simple moral and spiritual laws. While his message appeals to many in this age of complexity, others take refuge in him because of his promise to help devotees in times of crisis.

A fakir in a tattered kafni (long robe) who begged for alms till his last day. Who founded no religion or sect, developed no trademark spiritual philosophy or system of practices, started no movement, initiated not a single disciple, left behind no apostles. Who breathed his last eight long decades ago and about whom very few had heard till the 1960s.

The Sai Baba of Shirdi.

Today, he has millions of devotees in India and other parts of the world. Shirdi, the obscure village in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, in India, has become a pilgrimage destination much as Bethlehem, Jerusalem or Varanasi. The number of pilgrims go there average 25,000 a day and can climb to over a hundred thousand on holidays and festival days. They belong to every strata of society and all religions, and include politicians, film stars and rich businessmen. By conservative estimates, there are over 2,000 major Sai temples in different parts of India and 150 abroad in places as far-flung as Canada and Kenya, Singapore and England.

Significantly, all these temples have been constructed and consecrated by local initiative. Indeed, the growing Sai phenomenon is not orchestrated by a central organization, though there is the Sri Sai Baba Sansthan, which manages the affairs at Shirdi.

The Shirdi phenomenon defies easy explanation. It perhaps owes itself to the will of Baba himself, who is considered an avatar of no less than the Almighty.

More specifically, he has been called an incarnation of Shiva and Dattatreya (the triune Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva deity worshipped in Maharashtra) and is said to appear to devotees as their deity: Jesus Christ, Rama or Krishna (Vitthala).

Scholars and devotees verily associate him with the Nath tradition of great yogis as well as poet-saints of the Bhakti movement, particularly Kabir, who decried ritualism and preached the transcendence of caste and creed differences.

In her Ph.D. thesis from the Toronto University, soon to be published as a book, Marianne Warren argues that Shirdi Sai Baba was an aulia, Sufi mystic and saint. Meher Baba, Sai Baba’s contemporary based near Shirdi, had given him the Sufi honorific of Hazrat and placed him at the head of a spiritual hierarchy of five perfect masters on a spiritual mission.

Practically speaking, Sai Baba’s appeal lies in the experiences of innumerable devotees that prayers to him yield tangible worldly results, as well as in the more esoteric areas of transformation of character and spiritual benefits. Yet, most people approached the Baba during his lifetime for material, not spiritual, gain. And Shubha Verma, a Hindi journalist-turned-Baba devotee, says it remains the case till date.

Baba’s mission was, however, to restore belief in god. As he himself said: “I give people what they want in the hope that they will begin to want what I want to give them (knowledge of the Ultimate).”

EVER-LIVING PRESENCE
Sai Baba had the reputation of being clairvoyant, healing the sick, restoring eyesight, affecting events at a distance, appearing in devotees’ dreams, and exercising control over the elements. Biographies of Baba are replete with stories of how he helped his devotees out of problems and crisis. He continues to do so.

Govind G. Dabholkar, deputy manager, Indian Airlines, based in Mumbai, is a grandson of Hemadpant who wrote Sri Sai Satcharita, the Marathi biography considered authentic because Baba had blessed the project. Once, on the day of an important Sai function, Dabholkar’s wife’ prayed for a respite from the unceasing rain, which was, causing leakage in their house. From the moment she prayed till the time the last devotee left the house, the rain indeed stopped, though it continued to rain heavily on both the adjacent suburbs.

Umesh Badwally, a retired insurance officer of Mumbai, felt a palpable divinity in Shirdi during his early trips there. “After that, I always prayed to him in moments of crisis, and have always been helped. Once, my sister-in-law was diagnosed with cancer, and advised an operation. I had no money, and no one to turn to. Soon after, a friend came home, and offered not just to loan the money, but also to stay with me in the hospital. Ultimately, it turned out that she didn’t have cancer. Four years later, she was again advised surgery. This time, she was lying on the operation table when a biopsy proved that she didn’t have cancer.”

M.V. Kamath, former editor of the Illustrated Weekly of India and co-author of Sai Baba of Shirdi, A Unique Saint, and former head of the Shirdi trust, reports: “Every three months, work takes me to Udipi, Mangalore. To catch the early morning flight, I have to leave home by 5.30 a.m. when taxis are seldom around. Once, I half jokingly asked Baba why don’t you help me find a taxi? Soon, an, autorickshaw appeared from nowhere, a passenger alighted and the driver willingly took me to the airport, at no extra cost.

“Next, time, with a little more faith I petitioned his help; and the same thing happened. An autorickshaw came from nowhere, dropped a passenger, picked me up, and asked me for nothing extra. After that, however, I never asked for his help again for such trivial things are not meant to be his problem.

“My book on Sai Baba has done quite well. Without advertising, it is in its l0th edition.” Incidentally, the publisher of some of the more important books on Shirdi Sai Baba, S.K. Ghai, head of Sterling Paperbacks, recalls that when he returned from his first visit to Shirdi, he found the manuscript of a book on Baba lying on his table. He now regularly does japa of Baba’s mantra ‘Om Sai Shri Sai Jai Jai Sat’ and has turned vegetarian.

A DIVINE LIFE
Though the last decades of his life are well documented, the little that is known about the early life of Sai Baba is disputed. He was born to Brahmin parents in 1838 in a place called Pathri in Marathwada. He was abandoned soon after and adopted by a childless Sufi fakir and his wife. Later he was put in the care of a guru (Venku Shah) where he remained for 12 years. According to another version he studied with a Sufi master Roshan Shah Miyah, in the Aurangabad area where Sufism flourished.

He was first seen in Shirdi around 1858, but had disappeared after a while. Initially, he was discarded as a mad fakir. After staying for a while on the outskirts of the village, under a neem (margosa) tree (where he said his master was buried), he finally made a dilapidated mosque his abode. When people began approaching him with health problems, he gave them some herbal remedies and later udi (sacred ash) from his continuously burning dhuni. In a few years, priest of the Khandoba village temple and others had accepted him.

In 1886 Baba went into samadhi for three days, had a direct experience of union with God, after which his spiritual powers became evident and he started acting as a pir to wandering fakirs.

The first miracle performed at Shirdi was lighting oil lamps in the mosque with water. He also saved the village from a cholera epidemic. As his fame spread, government officials, high-ranking Britishers, politicians including Lokmanya Balgangadhar Tilak, and the wealthy started calling on him. One day, a millionaire came to Sai Baba and said he was going to start a building in Shirdi in his name. But before its completion, Baba fell ill and attained mahasamadhi on October 15, 1918.

The building now contains a silver idol of Baba and is part of what is now called the Samadhi Mandir.

SIMPLE TEACHINGS
What Baba preached was actually quite simple. According to him, real sorrow is the cycle of birth and death and the real happiness is liberation. He suggested:

• Accept your lot cheerfully. If you acquire wealth, become humble the way a tree laden with fruit bows down. Money is a necessity but don’t get obsessed with it. Yet, don’t be a miser, be generous.
• Perform your duty conscientiously and with detachment, not regarding yourself as the doer.
• Surrender the fruit of action to god so that action does not bind you. It is ties of indebtedness from previous births, which bring humans and other beings together.
• Satisfy your sexual desire, albeit only with your spouse. Don’t drown in lust. Rein it with discrimination.
• Give rein to the negative states (avariciousness, anger, hatred, pride, etc.) only as much as is essential to go through the karma earmarked for this physical existence.
• To steady the mind, idol worship is a way, even though the idol is not God. If you do puja with devotion and emotion, you can concentrate better.
• Herculean effort is necessary for god-realization. There are four elements in sadhana: Discrimination between the eternal and the ephemeral: that Brahman alone is true, the world is not. Next, renouncing all desire about this life or the thereafter. The third is to inculcate these qualities: control of the mind, bearing without anguish the fated pain and sorrow, remaining ensnared by maya, knowing that money, wife, children and relatives are all ephemeral. The fourth is an intense desire for liberation.

SYNTHESIS
Never ask a saint his caste or creed, said Kabir. Nonetheless the question is discussed threadbare in Sai literature and is surrounded by controversy. However, even a casual study of Sai Baba’s life shows that he offered an eclectic Hindu-Muslim synthesis, perhaps to promote amity between the two dominant and mutually distrustful communities in India. Sai Baba is not a name; the word Sai comes from the Persian expression saih, which means an itinerant Sufi fakir. He came to be called Sai Baba after coming to Shirdi.

By appearance, he was a Muslim fakir, but, it has been noted, his ears were pierced—a Hindu sign—and he was not circumcised. He lived in a mosque but curiously christened it Dwarka-mai (after the birthplace of Lord Krishna) and kept a sacred fire going there. He had intimate knowledge of both the Hindu holy books and the Koran and was well versed in the Indian Sufi lineage. He promoted both Hindu and Muslim festivals and sent money and materials for the renovation of Hindu temples. When conservative Muslims asked him why he allowed Hindus to do puja to him, he remarked: “Do in Rome as the Romans do”, indicating that he was ministering to a predominantly Hindu following.

His Hindu devotees too have integrated some Muslim and Sufi practices—they offer chader at his dargah and kiss his image.

In her thesis, Marianne Warren, however, makes a strong case that Shirdi Sai Baba was a Sufi divine who has been progressively Hinduised in his biographies written by Hindus. Her main source of evidence is the note left by Abdul, Baba’s servant and Sufi pupil for many years. The unpublished manuscript in Deccani Urdu, contains Baba’s instructions and teachings based on the Koran. She also refers to the Baba doing dhikr (constant repetition of Allah’s name) even during sleep. Then, Allah Malik (Allah alone is the Lord and master) was Baba’s pet expression. Warren also interprets Baba’s own spiritual growth, his life and sayings in the light of Maqamat and Ahwal (the stations and states of the Sufi way). But Baba’s syncretic message and lofty mission shine through in this crazy conversation he had with a magistrate in connection with a petty court case:

“What is your name?”

“They call me Sai Baba.”

“Your father’s name?”

“Also Sai Baba.”

“Your guru’s name?”

“Venkusha.”

“Creed or religion?”

“Kabir.”

“Caste or community?”

“Parvardigar (almighty sustainer).”

“Age?”

“Millions of years.”

A TRIPLE AVATAR?
Controversy also surrounds the link between the saint of Shirdi and Sathya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi. When he announced his spiritual mission in 1940, Sathya Sai Baba claimed to be a reincarnation of the Shirdi Baba at a time when the latter was virtually unknown, more so in Sathya Sai’s village in Andhra Pradesh, hundreds of miles from Shirdi. Sathya Sai literature also points out that Shirdi Sai Baba had himself announced that he would reappear eight years after his death (Sathya was born in 1926).

Sathya Sai Baba further talks about a triple avatar, which is required to usher in a new golden age at a time when the world is passing through the worst of Kaliyuga. The third one in the Sai lineage will be born eight years after the passing away of Sathya Sai Baba, and will be called Prema Sai Baba. In the pictures of Prema Sai Baba circulated, he looks like Jesus Christ.

Most Shirdi Sai devotees as well as the Shirdi trust don’t give credence to any of this. “If Shirdi Sai Baba were to reincarnate, he wouldn’t have made the 11 promises,” says one devotee. Arguing against a link between the two Sai Babas, Dabholkar cites the fact that Sathya Sai Baba has never been to Shirdi. Moreover, Shirdi Sai Baba didn’t chose the path of miracles—unlike Sathya Sai Baba—they just happened.

On the other hand, people who have reached Shirdi via Puttaparthi continue to believe Sathya Sai Baba’s story. He gives a place of prominence to Shirdi Sai Baba and tells them: “Go to Shirdi first. I’m present there.” S.P. Ruhela, a professor of education at Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi and author of books on both the Sai Babas, attributes denials by most Shirdi devotees and the Shirdi trust to their conservatism.

That the two Sai Babas are part of the same avatar, he says, is believed by 25 million Sathya Sai devotees. The fact remains that Sathya Sai Baba, with perhaps the largest following for a living godman in the world, has contributed immensely to the growing popularity of Shirdi Sai. Since many of his devotees make a pilgrimage to Shirdi, the Shirdi trust may even be softening its stand on Sathya Sai.

A few prominent Sai devotees in different parts of the country, too are throwing hints that they are Shirdi Baba’s apostles, if not incarnations, or setting themselves up as gurus. Yet, they too are helping take Baba’s message to an ever-increasing number of people by building temples and publishing literature on the Baba. One of them is C.B. Satpathy, an IPS officer currently posted in Moradabad. But the staunch Sai devotees argue that Sai Baba does not need any intermediaries or apostles.

There is even talk of uniting all the Sai societies under one umbrella, improving the facilities for pilgrims at Shirdi, taking the Baba’s message to other countries, but the present state of affairs is likely to continue. As will Baba’s growing following and grace.

Life Positive, October 1997

Keywords: Sai Baba

The Whole Picture

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I tripped and stumbled a bit this morning over something I put down in a place it hadn’t been before. Instantly it hit me. Don’t we all stumble over the unfamiliar? We get so comfortable with our surroundings and become complacent. With complacency comes lack of awareness. Lack of awareness blocks us from seeing the “signs” and the everyday miracles in our lives. Next time you get caught up in your thoughts or your life, remember to slow down and take in the whole picture.

Keywords: awareness

108 Names of Lord Shiva

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108 Names of Lord Shiva

1. AASHUTOSH One who fulfils wishes instantly
2. AJA Unborn
3. AKSHAYAGUNA God with limitless attributes
4. ANAGHA Without any fault
5. ANANTADRISHTI Of infinite vision
6. AUGADH One who revels all the time
7. AVYAYAPRABHU Imperishable lord
8. BHAIRAV Lord of terror
9. BHALANETRA One who has an eye on the forehead
10. BHOLENATH Kind hearted lord
11. BHOOTESHWARA Lord of ghosts and evil beings
12. BHUDEVA Lord of the earth
13. BHUTAPALA Protector of the ghosts
14. CHANDRAPAL Master of the moon
15. CHANDRAPRAKASH One who has moon as a crest
16. DAYALU Compassionate
17. DEVADEVA Lord of lords
18. DHANADEEPA Lord of wealth
19. DHYANADEEP Icon of meditation and concentration
20. DHYUTIDHARA Lord of brilliance
21. DIGAMBARA Asetic without any clothes
22. DURJANEEYA Difficult to be known
23. DURJAYA Unvanquished
24. GANGADHARA Lord of river ganga
25. GIRIJAPATI Consort of girija
26. GUNAGRAHIN Acceptor of gunas
27. GURUDEVA Master of all
28. HARA Remover of sins
29. JAGADISHA Master of the universe
30. JARADISHAMANA Redeemer from afflictions
31. JATIN One who has matted hair
32. KAILAS One who bestows peace
33. KAILASHADHIPATI Lord of mount kailash
34. KAILASHNATH Master of mount kailash
35. KAMALAKSHANA Lotus eyed lord
36. KANTHA Ever radiant
37. KAPALIN One who wears a necklace of skulls
38. KHATVANGIN One who has the missile khatvangin in his hand
39. KUNDALIN One who wears earings
40. LALATAKSHA One who has eye on his forehead
41. LINGADHYAKSHA Lord of the lingas
42. LINGARAJA Lord of the lingas
43. LOKANKARA Creator of the three worlds
44. LOKAPAL One who takes care of the world
45. MAHABUDDHI Extremely intelligent
46. MAHADEVA Greatest God
47. MAHAKALA Lord of all times
48. MAHAMAYA Of great illusions
49. MAHAMRITYUNJAYA Great victor of death
50. MAHANIDHI Great storehouse
51. MAHASHAKTIMAYA One who has boundless energies
52. MAHAYOGI Greatest of all gods
53. MAHESHA Supreme lord
54. MAHESHWARA lord of gods
55. NAGABHUSHANA One who has serpents as ornaments
56. NATARAJA King of the art of dancing
57. NILKANTHA Blue necked lord
58. NITYASUNDARA Ever beautiful
59. NRITYAPRIYA Lover of dance
60. OMKARA Creator of OM
61. PALANHAAR One who protects all
62. PARAMESHWARA First among all gods
63. PARAMJYOTI Greatest splendour
64. PASHUPATI Lord of all living things
65. PINAKIN One who has a bow in his hand
66. PRANAVA Originator of the syllable of OM
67. PRIYABHAKTA Favourite of the devotees
68. PRIYADARSHANA Of loving vision
69. PUSHKARA One who gives nourishment
70. PUSHPALOCHANA One who has eyes like flowers
71. RAVILOCHANA Having sun as the eye
72. RUDRA The terrible
73. RUDRAKSHA One who has eyes like rudra
74. SADASHIVA Eternal god
75. SANATANA Eternal lord
76. SARVACHARYA Preceptor of all
77. SARVASHIVA Always pure
78. SARVATAPANA Scorcher of all
79. SARVAYONI Source of everything
80. SARVESHWARA Lord of all gods
81. SHAMBHU One who bestows prosperity
82. SHANKARA One who gives happiness
83. SHIVA Always pure
84. SHOOLIN One who has a trident
85. SHRIKANTHA One who has a glorious neck
86. SHRUTIPRAKASHA Illuminator of the vedas
87. SHUDDHAVIGRAHA One who has a pure body
88. SKANDAGURU Preceptor of the skandas
89. SOMESHWARA Lord of all gods
90. SUKHADA Bestower of happiness
91. SUPRITA Well pleased
92. SURAGANA Having gods as attendants
93. SURESHWARA Lord of all gods
94. SWAYAMBHU Self manifested
95. TEJASWANI One who spreads illumination
96. TRILOCHANA Three eyed lord
97. TRILOKPATI Master of all the three worlds
98. TRIPURARI Enemy of tripura
99. TRISHOOLIN One who has a trident in his hand
100. UMAPATI Consort of uma
101. VACHASPATI Lord of speech
102. VAJRAHASTHA One who has thunderbolt in his hand
103. VARADA Grantor of boons
104. VEDAKARTA Originator of the vedas
105. VEERABHADRA Supreme lord of the nether world
106. VISHALAKSHA Wide eyed lord
107. VISHVESHWARA Lord of the universe
108. VRISHAVAHANA One who has the bull as his vehicle

Keywords: 108 Names of Lord Shiva, Yoga, Shiva

Annie Besant

Published on January 28, 2006

Annie Besant

“Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if you take it bravely and gallantly, as a splendid adventure in which you are setting out into an unknown country, to meet many a joy, to find many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle.” (Annie Besant)

Born Annie Wood, her middle class childhood was marked by economic struggle. Her father died when she was five, and her mother couldn’t make ends meet. Friends paid for the education of Annie’s brother; Annie was educated at a home school run by a friend of her mother’s.

At 19, Annie married the young Rev. Frank Besant, and within four years they had a daughter and a son. Annie’s views began to change. She tells in her autobiography that in her role as minister’s wife she tried to help her husband’s parishioners who were in need, but she came to believe that to alleviate poverty and suffering, deeper social changes were needed beyond immediate service.

Her religious views began to change, too. When she refused to attend communion, her husband ordered her out of their home. They were legally separated, with Frank retaining custody of their son. Annie and her daughter went to London, where Annie soon broke away completely from Christianity, became a freethinker and atheist, and in 1874 joined the Secular Society.

Soon, Annie Besant was working for the radical paper, National Reformer, whose editor Charles Bradlaugh was also a leader in the secular (non-religious) movement in England. Together Bradlaugh and Besant wrote a book advocating birth control, which got them a 6-month prison term for “obscene libel.” The sentence was overturned on appeal, and Besant wrote another book advocating birth control, The Laws of Population. Publicity denouncing this book led Besant’s husband to seek and gain custody of their daughter.

During the 1880s Annie Besant continued her activism. She spoke and wrote against unhealthy industrial conditions and low wages for young factory women, in 1888 leading the Match Girls’ Strike. She worked as an elected member of the London School Board for free meals for poor children. She was in demand as a speaker for women’s rights, and continued to work for legalization and more available information on birth control. She earned a science degree from London University. And she continued to speak and write defending freethought and atheism and criticizing Christianity. One pamphlet she wrote, in 1887 with Charles Bradlaugh, “Why I Do Not Believe in God” (reprinted on the web as Part I and Part II) was widely distributed by the secularists and is still considered one of the best summaries of arguments defending atheism.

In 1887 Besant converted to Theosophy after meeting Madame Blavatsky, a spiritualist who in 1875 had founded the Theosophical Society. Besant quickly applied her skills, energy and enthusiasm to this new religious cause. After Madame Blavatsky died in 1891 at Besant’s home, the Theosophical Society split into two branches, with Besant as President of one branch. She was a popular writer and speaker for Theosophy. She often collaborated with Charles Webster Leadbeater in her theosophical writings.

Besant moved to India to study Hindu ideas (karma, reincarnation, nirvana) which were foundational to Theosophy. Her Theosophical ideas also brought her to work on behalf of vegetarianism. She returned often to speak for Theosophy or for social reform, remaining active in the British suffrage movement and an important speaker for women’s suffrage. In India, where her daughter and son came to live with her, she worked for Indian Home Rule and was interned during World War I for that activism. She lived in India until her death in Madras in 1933. She was survived by her daughter, mabel.

Selected Works
The Political Status of Women (1874)
Marriage, As It Was, As It Is, And As It Should Be: A Plea For Reform (1878)
The Law Of Population (1877)
Autobiographical Sketches (1885)
“Why I became a Theosophist” (1889)
An Autobiography (1893)
The Ancient Wisdom (1898)
Thought Forms (1901) ISBN 0835600084
Bhagavad Gita (Translation) (1905)
Introduction to Yoga (1908)
Occult Chemistry
The Doctrine of the Heart (1920)
Esoteric Christianity

Also note:

The Case for India The Presidential Address Delivered by Annie Besant at the Thirty-Second Indian National Congress Held at Calcutta 26th December 1917 (text of speech available at the Project Gutenberg web site).

Some information taken from:
Author: Jone Johnson Lewis
Title: “Annie Besant, Heretic”
This article is informational only and not intended for profit.

Keywords: Annie Besant, Madame Blavatsky, Theosophy

Air Force Plans Flight Tests Of Hypersonic Vehicle

Published on

A joint U.S. Air Force and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project is moving speedily along–intended to fly to Mach 20, plus some.

The Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle program is exploring high-speed air vehicles designed for rapid, around-the-world reach. Project goals are to develop hypersonic technology for a glided or powered system, as well as advance small, low cost, and responsive launch vehicles.

A Falcon Hypersonic Test Vehicle-1 (HTV-1) is now on the books for a less than one-hour flight in September 2007. Attaining Mach 19 (19 times the speed of sound), the glided air vehicle will briefly exit the Earth’s atmosphere and reenter flying between 19 and 28 miles above the Earth’s surface. This inaugural voyage of HTV-1 would end in the Pacific Ocean.

The Falcon HTV program is geared to showcase the ability of a craft to attain hypersonic speeds - ranging from 6,000 to 15,000 miles per hour (Mach 9 to Mach 22), and reach altitudes between 100,000 to 150,000 feet. To do so will necessitate an airframe structure designed to survive intense heat and pressure.

There are other partners participating in the demonstration program: NASA, the Space and Missile Systems Center, Sandia National Laboratories and the Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Air Vehicles and Space Vehicles Directorates.

Critical technologies

Work is now underway to build the Falcon HTV-1’s flight hardware components. The test vehicle will be integrated at a Lockheed Martin facility in Valley Forge , Pennsylvania.

AFRL’s Space Vehicles directorate, located at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, is specifically focusing on technologies for the glided system and issued a January 25 background release on the hypersonic work. Technologists there are helping to develop a thermal protection system for the HTV structure to withstand 3,000-degree temperatures and extreme exterior pressures - 25 times those experienced by NASA’s space shuttle orbiter.

Other critical technology to be investigated in the Falcon HTV work includes an all carbon aeroshell. This outer casing must tolerate crushing pressures and intense heat. To keep the vehicle interior cool, an advanced multi-layer insulation is being fabricated for long duration flights. In addition, researchers are designing tools for enhanced HTV navigation and maneuverability.

Trio of flights

A second glided flight is slated for 2008 or 2009. That HTV-2 test would feature a different structural design, enhanced controllability, and higher risk/performance factors during its high-speed journey. Like its predecessor, the system will reach Mach 22 speed, and then finish its one-hour plus mission in the Pacific Ocean.

Also scheduled is a third and final flight of a Falcon HTV. That test shot is planned for 2009 and will be a departure from the previous two demonstrations.

This time the reusable hypersonic glider will lift off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia.

Screaming out of the area, the HTV-3 would be recovered in the Atlantic Ocean an hour later. In addition, the HTV-3–flying at a maximum Mach 10 speed–would achieve high aerodynamic efficiency and validate external heat barrier panels that will be reusable.

Affordable, adaptable, and responsive

“We have made great progress and are on track for the first glided hypersonic test vehicle flight in 2007,” said Russ Partch, Falcon HTV-1 project manager in the AFRL release. “It will enable a revolutionary capability to quickly respond to events anywhere around the world.”

Partch added that the HTVs will prove technologies for global reach vehicles that can get a payload to the area of interest quickly in support of the joint warfighter.

The results of the trio of HTV experimental flights are viewed as having a significant impact in the development of future affordable, adaptable, and responsive military delivery platforms and launch systems.

According to AFRL, the Falcon HTV program is expected–during the next three to four years–to tackle challenges related to hypersonic flight by in-flight validation of technologies while demonstrating operationally responsive space lift.

Keywords: Science

Our Inner Nature

Published on January 27, 2006

Our Inner Nature
by Michael Berg

The joy of this month comes from understanding a very important and basic spiritual law: the Light generated from positive actions can only flow into our lives if we create a vessel for the Light to flow into. That vessel is created when we create true internal change.

Over the years, I have had students of Kabbalah ask me why, despite their great spiritual actions, they still do not see improvements in their lives. The kabbalists provide the answer: spiritual actions must be accompanied by true internal change in order for the Light to be revealed in our lives.

We can perform the actions that have potential to reveal tremendous amounts of Light, but if we don’t create the vessel for its manifestation — true internal change — the peace, fulfillment, and abundance the Light wants us to have will be blocked.

How do we know if we are truly changing? It is not only when we do not react negatively but when we are not even bothered in the first place. The trick of the Opponent is getting us lost in just restricting and not actually changing from the inside.

When another driver cuts you off on the road or when someone speaks harshly to you, are you restricting from lashing out yet still feeling the rage inside? You know you’ve truly changed when your first reflex to the abrasive stimulus is to respond peacefully and patiently.

Let us remind ourselves this month why we are here in this physical world. We are here to become one with the Creator, to make our essence and the essence of the Creator one and the same.

How is that done? Simply put, it’s done by going against the reflexive urges of our human nature. Difficult as this is, this is what we are really meant to do, and what we really want to do at the deepest level of our being.

This understanding should give us a deeper appreciation for the nature of our spiritual work in this month.

Keywords: Kabbalah, Light

Keep it Simple

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I’m continually getting e mails to check out various websites, efforts, and spiritual endeavors. There’s an immense amount of great spirits out there doing great things for humanity. The subject is creation and evolution and it’s a highly charged one. People will debate it forever. This is only a commentary, but it’s relevant to our world as it is today.

A great group of folks have gotten together to form a site and a project devoted to a “new” way of presenting creation. It blends the scientific with the spiritual and it’s a valiant effort. I wonder, however, how much of a difference most of it makes toward an enlightened planet. It’s not a simple effort. It starts from scientific beginnings and then writers will be adding to the story with spiritual ideas. We are back to theories and specualtion mixed with scientific data. Still not Absolute Truth, but truth. It satisfies the intellect. It’s above the level of truth, but only to satisfy the linear realm.

Humans are obsessed with finding complex explanations for everything, but we are not capable of finding Truth on our own without Divine guidance. I just read an article that 22% of Britons are still convinced of the creation theory. If they’re representative of just a part of the world, imagine what the rest thinks. So many opinions and religious doctrine abound. But there is still only one Truth. Only one… not millions of versions. But humans have a desperate need to figure everything out…and so the search for “why” and “how” will continue.

All that has ever been said in Truth is already available to us.(see Spiritual Masters) When the student is ready… perhaps the teacher with Truth will appear. If organization is necessary, then let’s keep it simple. If explanations have to be recontextualized, make them short. Remember Occams Razor. The best way is the simplest. Let’s not confuse the spiritual initiates any further. The fastest way to becoming enlightened (which will give you the answer) is to keep transcending. This alone raises mass consciousness. If people are destined to be enlightened they will be. The creation of our universe and the infinite amount of universes out there is not explicable in human terms. Billions of words are not going to come up with a definitive explanation for the humanly unexplainable. Until the masses have become enlightened, why not practice honesty, kindness and cooperation? The complexity of our world lends itself to revisiting the simple, and the simple Truth is…well let’s keep that for a future article.

Keywords: God, The Infinite, Food for Thought, Truth, Spiritual Masters

Madame Blavatsky

Published on January 25, 2006

Madame Blavatsky

Helena Petrovna Hahn (also Hélène) (July 31, 1831 (O.S.) (August 12, 1831 (N.S.)) - May 8, 1891 London), better known as Helena Blavatsky or Madame Blavatsky was the founder of the Theosophical Society.

Biography

She was born in Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipropetrovsk), Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire), the daughter of Col. Peter Alexeivich von Hahn and Elena Fadeev. Her mother, also known as Helena Andreyvna Fadeyev, was a novelist, known as the “Russian George Sand”, and died when Helena was eleven. Her father being in the armed forces, she was sent with her brother to live with her maternal grandmother, Helena Pavlovna de Fadeev, a princess of the Dolgorukov family and a famous botanist. Both her mother and grandmother were strong role models that allowed her to mature into a nonconformist. She was cared for by servants who believed in the many superstitions of Old Russia and apparently encouraged her to believe she had supernatural powers at a very early age.

She married when she was seventeen, on July 7, 1849, to the forty-year old Nikifor (also Nicephor) Vassilievitch Blavatsky. According to her account, they never consummated their marriage, and within a few months, she abandoned her husband. Other sources say that she had several extramarital affairs, became pregnant, and bore a deformed child, Yuri, whom she loved dearly. She wrote that Yuri was a child of her friends the Metrovitches (C.W.I p. xlvi-ii, HPB TO APS p. 147). He died at the age of five, and Helena said that she ceased to believe in the Russian Orthodox God at this point. According to her own story as told to a later biographer, she spent the years 1848 to 1858 traveling the world, claiming to have entered Tibet to study for two years with the men she called Brothers. She returned to Russia for a short stay in 1858 to soon leave with Italian opera singer Agardi Metrovich. In 1871, on a boat bound for Cairo an explosion claimed Agardi’s life, but H.P. Blavatsky continued on to Cairo herself. It was in Cairo that she formed the Societe Spirite for occult phenomena with Emma Cutting (later Emma Coulomb), which closed after dissatisfied customers complained of fraudulent activities.

It was in 1873 that she emigrated to New York City. Impressing people with her psychic abilities she was spurred on to continue her mediumship. Throughout her career she was able to perform physical and mental psychic feats which included levitation, clairvoyance, out-of-body projection, telepathy, and clairaudience. One new feat of hers was materialization, that is, producing physical objects out of nothing. Though she was apparently quite adept at these feats, her interests were more in the area of theory and laws of how they work rather than performing them herself.

In 1874, Helena met Henry Steel Olcott, a lawyer, agricultural expert, and journalist who covered the Spiritualist phenomena. Soon they were living together in the “Lamasery” (alternate spelling: “Lamastery”) where her work Isis Unveiled was created.

She married her second husband, Michael C. Betanelly on April 3, 1875 in New York City. She maintained that this marriage was not consummated either. She separated from Betanelly after a few months, and their divorce was legalized on May 25, 1878. On July 8, 1878, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

While living in New York City, she founded the Theosophical Society in September 1875, with Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge and others. The Society was a modern day Gnostic movement of the late nineteenth century that took its inspiration from Hinduism and Buddhism. Madame Blavatsky claimed that all religions were both true in their inner teachings and false or imperfect in their external conventional manifestations. Imperfect men attempting to translate the divine knowledge had corrupted it in the translation. Her claim that esoteric spiritual knowledge is consistent with new science may be considered to be the first instance of what is now called New Age thinking. In fact, many researchers feel that much of New Age thought started with Blavatsky.

By 1882 the Theosophical Society became an international organization, and it was at this time that she moved the headquarters to Adyar near Madras, India.

Her last words in regard to her work were: “Keep the link unbroken! Do not let my last incarnation be a failure.”

Suffering from heart disease, rheumatism, Bright’s disease of the kidneys, and complications from influenza, Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky died at her home May 8, 1891. Her body was then cremated; one third of her ashes were sent to Europe, one third with William Quan Judge to the United States, and one third to India where her ashes were scattered in the Ganges River. May 8 is celebrated by Theosophists, and it is called White Lotus Day.

She was succeeded as head of one branch of the Theosophical Society, by her protege, Annie Besant. Her friend, WQ Judge, headed the other branch.

Influences

Blavatsky was influenced by the following authors:

William Blake
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Blavatsky influenced the following authors, artists and musicians:

Annie Besant
C.W. Leadbeater
Raghavan Iyer
Sir Edwin Arnold
Col. James Churchward
Aleister Crowley
Charles Johnston
James Joyce
Wassily Kandinsky
Max Theon
Piet Mondrian
Boris Pasternak
Nicholas Roerich
George W. Russell
Alexander Scriabin
William Butler Yeats

Works

Her books included

Isis Unveiled, a master key to the mysteries of ancient and modern science and theology (1877)[1]
The Secret Doctrine, the synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy (1888)[2]
The Voice of the Silence (1889) [3]
The Key to Theosophy (1889) [4]
Her many articles have been collected in the H.P. Blavatsky Collected Writings. This series has 15 numbered volumes including the index.

Books about her

The Esoteric World of Madame Blavatsky by Daniel Caldwell [5]
HPB: The Extraordinary Life and Influence of Helena Blavatsky by Sylvia Cranston
Theosophy: History of a pseudo-religion, by René Guénon [6]
H. P. Blavatsky and the SPR by Vernon Harrison [7]
H.P. Blavatsky and the Theosophical Movement by Charles Ryan [8]
Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrine by Max Heindel (1933; from Max Heindel writings & with introduction by Manly Palmer Hall), [9]
Madame Blavatsky’s Baboon by Peter Washington Rebuttal/Review
“Madame Blavatsky: The Woman Behind the Myth” by Marion Meade

Quotations

There is no religion higher than truth.

“There is often greater martyrdom to live for the love of, whether man or an ideal, than to die” is a motto of the Mahatmas. (C.W. IV, p. 603)

Nothing of that which is conducive to help man, collectively or individually, to live—not “happily”—but less unhappily in this world, ought to be indifferent to the Theosophist-Occultist. It is no concern of his whether his help benefits a man in his worldly or spiritual progress; his first duty is to be ever ready to help if he can, without stopping to philosophize. (Collected Writings VOLUME XI, p. 465, October, 1889)

I speak “with absolute certainty” only so far as my own personal belief is concerned. Those who have not the same warrant for their belief as I have, would be very credulous and foolish to accept it on blind faith. Nor does the writer believe any more than her correspondent and his friends in any “authority” let alone “divine revelation”! (Collected Writings VOLUME XI, p. 466, October, 1889)

I am an old Buddhist pilgrim, wandering about the world to teach the only true religion, which is truth.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Madame Blavatsky “.

Keywords: Madame Blavatsky, theosophy

Bhagavad Gita

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Bhagavad Gita

I. THE DESPONDENCY OF ARJUNA
DHRITARASHTRA SAID:
1. What did Pandu’s sons and mine do when they assembled together on the sacred plain of Kurukshetra, eager for battle, O Samjaya ?
SAMJAYA SAID:
2. Having seen the army of the Pandavas drawn up in battle-array, prince Duryodhana then approached his teacher and spoke (these) words:
3. “O teacher, look at this grand army of the sons of Pandu, marshalled by thy talented pupil, the son of Drupada.
4. “Here are heroes, mighty archers, equal in battle to Bhima and Arjuna; Yuyudhana Virata, and Drupada, the master of a great car (maharatha).
5. “Dhrishtaketu, Chekitana, and the valiant king of Kasi, Purujit and Kunti Bhoja, and that eminent man Saibya;
6. “The heroic Yudhamanyu and the brave Uttamaujas; the son of Subhadra and the sons of Draupadi, all masters of great cars (maharathas).
7. “But know, O best of the twice-born, who are the most distinguished among us, the leaders of my army; these I name to thee by way of example.
8. “Thyself and Bhishma, and Karna, and also Kripa, the victor in war, Asvathaman and Vikarna, and also Jayadratha, the son of Samadatta.
9. “And many other heroes who have given up their lives for my sake, fighting with various weapons, all well-skilled in battle.
10. “This army of ours protected by Bhisma is inadequate, whereas that army of theirs which is under the protection of Bhima is adequate.
11. “And therefore do ye all, occupying your respective positions in the several divisions of the army, support Bhisma only.”
12. His mighty grandsire, (Bhisma), the oldest of the Kauravas, in order to cheer him, sounded on high a lion’s roar and blew his conch.
13. Then, all at once, conches and kettle-drums, cymbols, drums and horns were played upon, and the sound was a tumultuous uproar.
14. Then, too, Madhava and the son of Pandu, seated in a grand chariot yoked to white horses, blew their celestial conches.
15. Hrishikesa blew the Panchajanya; and Arjuna blew the Devadatta. Bhima, (the doer) of terrible deeds, blew his great conch Paundra.
16. Prince Yudhishthira, the son of Kunti, blew the Anantavijaya, while Nakula and Sahadeva blew the Sughosha and the Manipushpaka.
17. The King of Kasi, an excellent archer, Sikhandin, the master of a great car, Dhrishtadyumna and Virata, and the unconquered Satyaki;
18. Drupada and the sons of Draupadi, O Lord of earth, and the son of Subhadra, of mighty arms, all together blew their respective conches.
19. That tumultuous sound rent the hearts of (the people) of Dhritarashtra’s party, making both heaven and earth resound.
20-22. Then seeing the people of Dhritarashtra’s party regularly marshalled, while the discharge of weapons began, Arjuna, the son of Pandu, whose ensign was a monkey, O King of earth, took up his bow and said thus to Krishna:
O Achyuta (Immortal), place my chariot between the two armies, that I may just see those who stand here desirous to fight, and know with whom I must fight in this strife of battle.
23. “I will observe those who are assembled here and are about to engage in battle desirous to do service in war to the evil-minded son of Dhritarashtra”.
SAMJAYA SAID:
24-25. O descendant of Bharata, Hrishikesa (Krishna) thus addressed by Gudakesa (Arjuna) stationed that excellent car between the two armies in front of Bhisma and Drona and all the rulers of earth, and said: “O son of Pritha, look at these assembled Kauravas.”
26-27. Then the son of Pritha saw arrayed there in both the armies fathers and grandfathers, teachers, maternal uncles, brothers, sons, grandsons and comrades, father-in-law and friends.
27-28. When the son of Kunti saw all the kinsmen standing, he was overcome with deepest pity and said thus in sorrow:
ARJUNA SAID:
28-29. Seeing these kinsmen, O Krishna, arrayed and desirous to fight, my limbs droop down, and my mouth is dried up. A tremor comes on my body and my hairs stand on end.
30. The Gandiva slips from my hand, and my skin is intensely burning. I am also unable to stand and my mind is whirling round, as it were.
31. And, O Kesava, I see omens foreboding evil. Nor do I see any good from killing my kinsmen in battle.
32. I desire not victory, O Krishna, nor kingdom, nor pleasures. Of what avail is dominion to us, O Govinda ? Of what avail are pleasures and even life ?
33-34. They for whose sake dominion, enjoyments and pleasures are sought by us are here standing, having staked their life and wealth; teachers, fathers, sons as well as grandfathers; maternal uncles, father-in-law grandsons, brothers-in-law as also (other) relatives.
35. These, O slayer of Madhu, I do not wish to kill, though they kill me, even for the sake of dominion over the three worlds; how much less, for the sake of the earth!
36. O Janardana, what delight shall be ours after killing the sons of Dhritarashtra ? On killing these felons, sin only will take hold of us.
37. We had then better not slay our own kinsmen, the sons of Dhritarashtra; for, how can we be happy, O Madhava, after slaying our own people ?
38-39. Though these, whose intelligence is stricken by greed, perceive no evil in the extinction of families and no sin in treachery to friends, yet, O Janardana, should not we, who clearly see evil in the extinction of a family, learn to refrain from this sinful deed ?
40. On the extinction of a family, the immemorial dharmas of that family disappear. When the dharmas disappear, impiety (adharma) overtakes the whole family.
41. By the prevalence of impiety, O Krishna, the women of the family become corrupt. Women corrupted, there will be intermingling of castes (varna-samkara), O descendent of Vrishnis.
42. Confusion of castes leads the family of these destroyers of families also to hell; for, their forefathers fall (down to hell), deprived of the offerings of pinda (rice-ball) and water.
43. By these evil deeds of the destroyers of families, which cause the intermingling of castes, the eternal dharmas of castes and families are subverted.
44. We have heard, O Janardana, that necessary is the dwelling in hell of the men whose family dharmas are subverted.
45. Alas! We have resolved to commit a great sin, inasmuch as we are endeavouring to slay our kinsmen out of a craving for the pleasures of dominion.
46. It would be better for me, if the sons of Dhritarashtra, with arms in hand, should slay me unarmed and unresisting in the battle.
SAMJAYA SAID:
47. Having said thus, Arjuna, sorrow-stricken in mind, cast aside his bow and arrows in the midst of the battle and sat down in the chariot.

II. SANKHYA YOGA
SAMJAYA SAID:
1. To him who was thus overcome with pity and afflicted and whose eyes were full of tears and agitated, the destroyer of Madhu spoke as follows:
THE LORD SAID:
2. Whence in (this) perilous strait has come upon thee this weakness cherished by the unworthy, debarring from heaven and causing disgrace, O Arjuna ?
3. Yield not to unmanliness, O son of Pritha. It does not become thee. Cast off this base weakness of heart and arise, O tormentor of foes.
ARJUNA SAID:
4. O slayer of Madhu, how shall I assail in battle with arrows Bhishma and Drona, who are worthy of worship, O slayer of enemies.
5. Better indeed in this world to live even upon alms than to slay the teachers of high honor. But, were I to slay these teachers, I should only in this world enjoy the pleasures of wealth, delights stained with blood.
6. And we know not which is the better alternative for us; nor do we know whether we shall conquer them or they will conquer us. Even the sons of Dhritarashtra, after killing whom we do not wish to live, stand arrayed against us.
7. My heart contaminated by the taint of helplessness, my mind confounded about Dharma, I ask Thee: tell me what is absolutely good. I am Thy pupil. Instruct me, who have sought Thy grace.
8. I do not indeed see what can dispel the grief which burns up my senses, even after attaining unrivalled and prosperous dominion on earth or even lordship over gods.
SAMJAYA SAID:
9. Having spoken thus to Hrishikesa, Gudakesa, the tormenter of foes, said to Govinda, ‘I will not fight’ and verily remained silent
10. To him who was grieving in the midst of the two armies, O descendant of Bharata, Hrishikesa as if smiling, spoke these words:
THE LORD SAID:
11. For those who deserve no grief thou hast grieved and words of wisdom thou speakest. For the living and for the dead the wise grieve not.
12. Never did I not exist, nor thou, nor these rulers of men; and no one of us will ever hereafter cease to exist.
13. Just as in this body the embodied (Self) passes into childhood and youth and old age, so does He pass into another body. There the wise man is not distressed.
14. The sense-contacts it is, O son of Kunti, which causes heat and cold; pleasure and pain; they come and go, they are impermanent. Them endure bravely, O descendant of Bharata.
15. That wise man whom, verily, these afflict not, O chief of men, to whom pleasure and pain are same, he for immortality is fit.
16. Of the unreal no being there is; there is no non-being of the real. Of both these is the truth seen by the seers of the Essence.
17. But know that to be imperishable by which all this is pervaded. None can cause the destruction of That, the Inexhaustible.
18. These bodies of the embodied (Self) who is eternal, indestructible and unknowable, are said to have an end. Do fight, therefore, O descendant of Bharata.
19. Whoever looks upon Him as the slayer and whoever looks upon Him as the slain, both these know not aright. He slays not, nor is He slain.
20. He is not born, nor does He ever die; after having been, He again ceases not to be; nor the reverse. Unborn, eternal, unchangeable and primeval, He is not slain when the body is slain.
21. Whoso knows Him as indestructible, eternal, unborn and inexhaustible – How, O son of Pritha, and whom does such a man cause to slay and whom does he slay?
22. Just as a man casts off worn-out clothes and puts on others which are new, so the embodied (self) casts off worn-out bodies and enters others which are new.
23. Him weapons cut not, Him fire burns not and Him water wets not; Him wind dries not.
24. He cannot be cut, nor burnt, nor wetted, nor dried up. He is everlasting, all-pervading stable, firm and eternal.
25. He, it is said, is unmanifest, unthinkable and unchangeable. Wherefore, knowing Him to be such, thou hadst better grieve not.
26. But even if thou thinkest of Him as ever being born and ever dying, even then, O mighty-armed, thou oughtst not to grieve thus.
27. To that which is born, death is indeed certain; and to that which is dead, birth is certain. Therefore, about the unavoidable thing, thou oughtst not to grieve.
28. Beings have their beginning unseen, their middle seen, and their end unseen again. Why any lamentation regarding them ?
29. One sees Him as a wonder; and so also another speaks of Him as a wonder; and as a wonder another hears of Him; and though hearing, none understands Him at all.
30. He, the embodied (Self) in every one’s body, can never be killed, O descendant of Bharata. Wherefore thou oughtst not to grieve about any creature.
31. Having regard to thine own duty also, thou oughtst not to waver. For, to a Kshatriya, there is nothing more wholesome than a lawful battle.
32. Happy Kshatriya, O son of Pritha, find such a battle as this, come of itself, an open door to heaven.
33. Now if thou wouldst not fight this lawful battle, then having abandoned thine own duty and fame, thou shalt incur sin.
34. People, too, will recount thy everlasting infamy; and to one who has been esteemed, infamy is more than death.
35. The great car-warriors will think thou hast withdrawn from the battle through fear; and having been hitherto highly esteemed by them, thou wilt incur their contempt.
36. Thy enemies, too, scorning thy power, will take many abusive words. What is more painful than that ?
37. Killed, thou wilt reach heaven; victorious, thou wilt enjoy the earth. Wherefore, O son of Kunti, arise, resolved to fight.
38. Then, treating alike pleasure and pain, gain and loss, success and defeat, prepare for the battle and thus wilt thou not incur sin.
39. This, which has been taught to thee is wisdom concerning Sankhya. Now listen to wisdom concerning Yoga, which possessing thou shalt cast off the bond of action.
40. There is no loss effort here, there is no harm. Even a little of this devotion delivers one from great fear.
41. Here, O son of Kuru, there is one thought of a resolute nature. Many-branched and endless are the thoughts of the irresolute.
42-44. No conviction of a resolute nature is formed in the mind of those who are attached to pleasures and power and whose minds are drawn away by that flowery speech which the unwise – enamoured of Vedic utterances, declaring there is nothing else, full of desire, having svarga as their goal – utter, (a speech) which promises birth as the reward of actions and which abounds in specific acts for the attainment of pleasure and power, O son of Pritha.
45. The Vedas treat of the triad of the gunas. Be, O Arjuna, free from the triad of the gunas, free from pairs, free from acquisition and preservation, ever remaining in the Sattva and self-possessed.
46. What utility there is in a reservoir by the side of an all-spreading flood of water, the same (utility) there is in all Vedas for an enlightened Brahmana.
47. Thy concern is with action alone, never with results. Let not the fruit of action be thy motive, nor let thy attachment be for inaction.
48. Steadfast in devotion do thy works, O Dhananjaya, casting off attachment, being the same in success and failure. Evenness is called Yoga.
49. Verily action is far inferior to devotion in wisdom (buddhi-yoga), O Dhananjaya. In wisdom (buddhi) seek thou shelter. Wretched are they whose motive is the fruit.
50. He who is endued with wisdom casts off here both good deeds and bad deeds. Wherefore apply thyself to devotion. In regard to actions devotion is a power.
51. For, men of wisdom cast off the fruit of action; possessed of knowledge (and) released from the bond of birth, they go to the place where there is no evil.
52. When thy mind shall cross beyond the mire of delusion, then wilt thou attain to a disgust of what is yet to be heard and what has been heard.
53. When thy mind, perplexed by what thou hast heard, shall stand firm and steady in the Self, then wilt thou attain Yoga.
ARJUNA SAID:
54. What, O Kesava! Is the description of one of steady knowledge, who is constant in contemplation ? How does one of steady knowledge speak, how sit, how move ?
THE LORD SAID:
55. The Lord said: When a man, satisfied in the Self alone by himself, completely casts off all the desires of the mind, then is he said to be one of steady knowledge.
56. He whose heart is not distressed in calamities, from whom all longing for pleasures has departed, who is free from attachment, fear and wrath, he is called a sage, a man of steady knowledge.
57. Whoso, without attachment anywhere, on meeting with anything good or bad, neither exults nor hates, his knowledge becomes steady.
58. When he completely withdraws the senses from sense-objects, as the tortoise (withdraws) its limbs from all sides, his knowledge is steady.
59. Objects withdraw from an abstinent man, but not the taste. On seeing the Supreme, his taste, too, ceases.
60. The dangerous senses, O son of Kunti, forcibly carry away the mind of a wise man, even while striving (to control them).
61. Restraining them all, a man should remain steadfast, intent on Me. His knowledge is steady whose senses are under control.
62. When a man thinks of objects, attachment for them arises. From attachment arises desire; from desire arises wrath.
63. From wrath arises delusion; from delusion, failure of memory; from failure of memory, loss of conscience; from loss of conscience he is utterly ruined.
64. He attains peace, who, self-controlled, approaches objects with the senses devoid of love and hatred and brought under his own-control.
65. In peace there is an end of all his miseries; for, the reason of the tranquil-minded soon becomes steady.
66. There is no wisdom to the unsteady, and no meditation to the unsteady, and to the un-meditative no peace; to the peaceless, how can there be happiness ?
67. For, the mind which yields to the roving senses carries away his knowledge, as the wind (carries away) a ship on water.
68. Therefore, O mighty-armed, his knowledge is steady whose senses have been entirely restrained from sense-objects.
69. What is night to all beings, therein the self controlled one is awake. Where all beings are awake, that is the night of the sage who sees.
70. He attains peace, into whom all desires enter as waters enter the ocean, which, filled from all sides, remains unaltered; but not he who desires objects.
71. That man attains peace, who, abandoning all desires, moves about without attachment, without selfishness, without vanity.
72. This is the Brahmic state, O son of Pritha. Attaining to this, none is deluded. Remaining in this state even at the last period of life, one attains to the felicity of Brahman.

III. KARMA YOGA
ARJUNA SAID:
1. If it be thought by Thee that knowledge is superior to action, O Janardana, why then dost Thou, O Kesava, direct me to this terrible action ?
2. With an apparently perplexing speech, Thou confusest as it were my understanding. Tell me with certainty that one (way) by which I may attain bliss.
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
3. In this world a twofold path was taught by Me at first, O sinless one: that of Sankhyas by devotion to knowledge and that of Yogins by devotion to action.
4. Not by abstaining from action does man win actionlessness, nor by mere renunciation does he attain perfection.
5. None, verily, even for an instant, ever remains doing no action; for every one is driven helpless to action by the energies born of Nature.
6. He who, restraining the organs of action, sits thinking in his mind of the objects of the senses, self-deluded, he is said to be one of false conduct.
7. But whoso, restraining the senses by mind O Arjuna, engages in Karma-Yoga, unattached, with organs of action, he is esteemed.
8. Do thou perform (thy) bounden duty; for action is superior to inaction. And even the maintenance of the body would not be possible for thee by inaction.
9. Except in the case of action for Sacrifice’s sake, this world is action-bound. Action for the sake Thereof, do thou, O son of Kunti, perform, free from attachment.
10. Having first created mankind together with sacrifices, the Prajapati said, “By this shall ye propagate; let this be to you the cow of plenty.
11. With this do ye nourish the Gods and the Gods shall nourish you; thus nourishing one another, ye shall attain the supreme good.
12. Nourished by the sacrifice, the Gods shall indeed bestow on you the enjoyments ye desire.” Whoso enjoys – without offering to Them – Their gifts, he is verily a thief.
13. The righteous, who eat the remnant of the sacrifice, are freed from all sins; but sin do the impious eat who cook for their own sakes.
14. From food creatures come forth; the production of food is from rain; rain comes forth from sacrifice; sacrifice is born of action;
15. Know thou that action comes from Brahman and that Brahman comes from the Imperishable. Therefore, the all-pervading Brahman ever rests in sacrifice.
16. He who follows not here the wheel thus set in motion, who is of sinful life, indulging in senses, he lives in vain, O son of Pritha.
17. That man, verily, who rejoices only in the self, who is satisfied with the Self, who is content in the Self alone – for him there is nothing to do.
18. For him, there is here no interest whatever in what is done or what is not done. Nor is there in all beings any one he should resort to for any object.
19. Therefore, without attachment, constantly perform the action which should be done; for, performing action without attachment, man reaches the Supreme.
20. By action only, indeed, did Janaka and others try to attain perfection. Even with a view to the protection of the masses thou shouldst perform (action).
21. Whatsoever a great man does, that alone the other men do; whatever he sets up as the standard, that the world follows.
22. I have nothing whatsoever to achieve in the three worlds, O son of Pritha, nor is there anything unattained that should be attained; yet I engage in action.
23. For, should I not ever engage in action, unwearied, men would in all matters follow My path, O son of Pritha.
24. These worlds would be ruined if I should not perform action; I should be the cause of confusion of castes and should destroy these creatures.
25. As ignorant men act attached to work, O Bharata, so should the wise man act, unattached from a wish to protect the masses.
26. Let no wise man cause unsettlement in the minds of the ignorant who are attached to action; he should make them do all actions, himself fulfilling them with devotion.
27. Actions are wrought in all cases by the energies of Nature. He whose mind is deluded by egoism thinks ‘I am the doer’.
28. But he who knows the truth, O mighty-armed, about the divisions of the energies and (their) functions, is not attached, thinking that the energies act upon the energies.
29. Those deluded by the energies of Nature are attached to the functions of the energies. He who knows the All should not unsettle the unwise who know not the All.
30. Renouncing all action in Me, with thy thought resting on the Self, being free from hope, free from selfishness, devoid of fever, do thou fight.
31. Men who constantly practise this teaching of Mine with faith and without cavilling, they too are liberated from actions.
32. But those who, carping at this, My teaching, practise it not – know them as deluded in all knowledge, as senseless men doomed to destruction.
33. Even the man of knowledge acts in conformity with his own nature; (all) beings follow (their) nature; what shall coercion avail ?
34. Love and hate lie towards the object of each sense; let none become subject to these two; for, they are his enemies.
35. Better one’s own duty, though devoid of merit, than the duty of another well discharged. Better is death in one’s own duty; the duty of another is productive of danger.
ARJUNA SAID:
36. But by what dragged on, O Varshneya, does a man, though reluctant, commit sin, as if constrained by force ?
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
37. It is desire, it is wrath, born of the energy of Rajas, all-devouring, all sinful; that, know thou, is the foe here.
38. As fire is surrounded by smoke, as a mirror by rust, as the foetus is enclosed in the womb, so is this covered by it.
39. Covered, O son of Kunti, is wisdom by this constant enemy of the wise, in the form of desire, which is greedy and insatiable.
40. The senses, mind and reason are said to be its seat; veiling wisdom through these, it deludes the embodied.
41. Therefore, O lord of the Bharatas, restrain the senses first, do thou cast off this sinful thing which is destructive of knowledge and wisdom.
42. They say that the senses are superior; superior to the senses is mind; superior to mind is reason; one who is even superior to reason is He.
43. Then knowing Him who is superior to reason, subduing the self by the self, slay thou, O mighty-armed, the enemy in the form of desire, hard to conquer.

IV. JNANA YOGA
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
1. I taught this imperishable Yoga to Vivasvat (Sun); Vivasvat taught it to Manu; Manu taught to Ikshvaku.
2. This, handed down thus in succession, the King-sages learnt. This yoga, by long lapse of time, has been lost here, O harasser of foes.
3. That same ancient Yoga has been to-day taught to thee by Me, seeing that thou art My devotee and friend; for, this is the Supreme Secret.
ARJUNA SAID:
4. Later is Thy birth and prior the birth of Vivasvat; how am I to understand that Thou taughtest this Yoga in the beginning?
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
5. Many births of Mine have passed, as well as of thine, O Arjuna; all these I know, thou knowest not, O harasser of foes.
6. Though I am unborn, of imperishable nature, and though I am the Lord of all beings, yet ruling over My own nature, I am born by My own Maya.
7. Whenever there is a decay of religion, O Bharata and an ascendency of irreligion, then I manifest Myself.
8. For the protection of the good, for the destruction of evil-doers, for the firm establishment of religion, I am born in every age.
9. Whoso knows thus My divine birth and action in truth is not born again on leaving this body; he comes to Me, O Arjuna.
10. Free from passion, fear and anger, absorbed in Me, taking refuge in Me, purified by the fire (tapas) of wisdom, many have reached My being.
11. Howsoever men approach Me, even so do I reward them; My path do men follow in all things O son of Pritha.
12. They who long after success in actions sacrifice here to the Gods: for, soon in this world of man accrues success from action.
13. The fourfold caste has been created by me according to the distribution of energies and actions; though I am the author thereof, know Me as non-agent and immutable.
14. Actions pollute Me not, nor have I a desire for the fruit of actions. He who knows Me thus is not bound by actions.
15. Thus knowing, men of old performed action in the hope of liberation: therefore do thou also perform action as did the ancients in the olden time.
16. What is action ? What is inaction – As to this, even the wise are deluded. I shall teach thee such action, by knowing which thou shalt be liberated from evil.
17. For, thou hast to know something even of action, something to know of unlawful action, and something to know of inaction; hard to understand is the nature of action.
18. He who can see inaction in action, who can also see action in action, he is wise among men, he is devout, he is the performer of all action.
19. He whose engagements are all devoid of desires and purposes and whose actions have been burnt by the fire of wisdom, him the wise call a sage.
20. Having abandoned attachment for the fruits of action, ever content, dependent on none, though engaged in actions, nothing at all does he do.
21. Free from desire, with the mind and the self controlled, having relinquished all possessions doing mere bodily action, he incurs no sin.
22. Satisfied with what comes to him by chance, rising above the pairs of opposites, free from envy, equanimous in success and failure, though acting he is not bound.
23. Of the man whose attachment is gone, who is liberated, whose mind is established in knowledge, who acts for the sake of sacrifice – his whole action melts away.
24. Brahman is the offering, Brahman the oblation; by Brahman is the oblation poured into the fire of Brahman; Brahman verily shall be reached by him who always sees Brahman in action.
25. Other Yogins resort to sacrifices to Gods; In the fire of Brahman others offer the self by the self.
26. Others offer hearing and other senses in the fires of restraint; others offer sound and other objects in the fires of the senses.
27. And others sacrifice all the functions of the senses and the functions of the vitality in the wisdom-kindled fire of the Yoga of Self-restraint.
28. Others are sacrificers by their wealth, sacrificers by austerity, sacrificers by yogas, sacrificers by reading and knowledge, ascetics of rigid vows.
29. Others offer prana (outgoing breath) in apana (incoming breath) and apana in prana, restraining the passages of prana and apana, absorbed in Pranayama (restraint of breath).
30. Others, with regulated food, offer life-breaths in life-breaths. All these are knowers of sacrifice, whose sins are destroyed by sacrifice.
31. Eating of ambrosia, the remnant of the sacrifice, they go to Eternal Brahman. This world is not for the non-sacrificer; whence the other? — O best of Kurus.
32. Thus manifold sacrifices are spread at the mouth of Brahman. Know them all as born of action. Thus knowing, thou shalt be liberated.
33. Superior is wisdom-sacrifice to the sacrifice with objects, O harasser of thy foes. All action, without exception, O son of Pritha, is comprehended in wisdom.
34. Know this: by long prostration, by enquiry, by service, those men of wisdom who have realised the truth will teach thee wisdom.
35. Knowing which, thou shalt not again thus fall into error, O Pandava; and by which, thou wilt see all beings in thy Self and also in Me.
36. Even shouldst thou be the most sinful of all the sinful, thou shalt verily cross all sin by the bark of wisdom.
37. As kindled fire reduces fuel to ashes, O Arjuna, so does wisdom-fire reduce all actions to ashes.
38. Verily, there exists here no purifier equal to wisdom. He who is perfected by Yoga finds it in time in himself by himself.
39. He obtains wisdom who is full of faith, who is devoted to it and who has subdued the senses. Having obtained wisdom, he before long attains to the Supreme Peace.
40. The ignorant, the faithless and one of doubting self, is ruined. There is neither this world, nor the other, nor happiness, for one of doubting self.
41. Him who has renounced actions by Yoga, whose doubts have been cloven asunder by wisdom, who is self-possessed, actions bind not, O Dhananjaya.
42. Therefore with the sword of wisdom cleave asunder this doubt of the Self lying in the heart and born of ignorance and resort to Yoga. Arise, O Bharata.

V. SAMNYASA YOGA
ARJUNA SAID:
1. Renunciation of actions, O Krishna, Thou praisest and again Yoga. Tell me conclusively that which is the better of the two.
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
2. Renunciation and yoga through action both lead to the highest bliss: but, of the two, Yoga through action is esteemed more than renunciation of action.
3. He should be known as a perpetual renouncer who neither hates nor desires: for, free from the pairs of opposites, O mighty-armed, he is easily set free from bondage.
4. Children, not the wise, speak of Sankhya and Yoga as distinct. He who is rightly devoted to even one obtains the fruits of both.
5. That state which is reached by Sankhyas is reached by Yogins also. He sees, who sees Sankhya and Yoga as one.
6. But renunciation, O mighty-armed, is hard to attain except by Yoga; a sage equipped with Yoga before long reaches Brahman.
7. He who is equipped with Yoga, whose mind is quite pure, by whom the self has been conquered, whose senses have been subdued, whose Self has become the Self of all beings – though doing, he is not tainted.
8-9. ‘I do nothing at all’ - thus would the truth-knower think, steadfast – though seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, going, sleeping, breathing, speaking, letting go, seizing, opening and closing the eyes – remembering that the senses move among sense-objects.
10. He who does actions, offering them to Brahman, abandoning attachment, is not tainted by sin, as a lotus leaf by water.
11. By the body, by the mind, by the intellect, by mere senses also, Yogins perform action, without attachment, for the purification of the self.
12. The steady-minded one, abandoning the fruit of action, attains the peace born of devotion. The unsteady one, attached to the fruit through the action of desire, is firmly bound.
13. Renouncing all actions by thought and Self-controlled, the embodied one rests happily in the nine-gated city, neither at all acting nor causing to act.
14. Neither agency nor objects does the Lord create for the world, nor union with the fruits of actions. But it is the nature that acts.
15. The Lord takes neither the evil nor even the good deed of any; wisdom is enveloped by un-wisdom; thereby mortals are deluded.
16. But to those whose un-wisdom is destroyed by wisdom of the Self, like the sun wisdom illuminates that Supreme.
17. With their consciousness in That, their Self being That, intent on That, with That for their supreme goal, they go never again to return, their sins shaken off by means of wisdom.
18. In a Brahmana endued with wisdom and humility, in a cow, in an elephant, as also in a dog and in a dog-eater, the wise see the same.
19. Even here birth is overcome by them whose mind rests on equality. Spotless, indeed and equal is Brahman; wherefore in Brahman they rest.
20. He who knows Brahman can neither rejoice on obtaining the pleasant, nor grieve on obtaining the unpleasant – steady-minded, un-deluded, resting in Brahman.
21. With the self unattached to external contacts, he finds the joy which is in the Self; with the Self engaged in the contemplation of Brahman he attains the endless joy.
22. For, those delights which are born of contacts are only generators of pain, having a beginning and an end, O son of Kunti; a wise man rejoices not in them.
23. He that is able, while still here, to with-stand, before liberation from the body, the impulse of desire and anger, he is a Yogin, he is a happy man.
24. Whoso has his joy within and his pastime within and whoso has his light within only, that Yogin attains Brahman’s bliss, himself becoming Brahman.
25. The sages attain Brahman’s bliss – they whose sins have been destroyed and doubts removed, who are self-controlled and intent on the welfare of all beings.
26. To the devotees who are free from desire and anger, who have controlled their thought and who have known the self, Brahman’s bliss exists everywhere.
27-28. Shutting out all external contracts and fixing the sight between the eye-brows, equalising the out-going and the in-going breaths which pass through the nostrils, controlling the senses, mind and intellect, having moksha as his highest goal, free from desire, fear and anger – the sage who ever (remains thus) is verily liberated.
29. On knowing Me – the Lord of all sacrifices and austerities, the Great Lord of all Worlds, the Friend of all beings – he goes to Peace.

VI. DHYANA YOGA (Atma-samyama Yoga)
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
1. He who, without depending on the fruits of action, performs his bounden duty, he is a Samnyasin and a Yogin: not he who is without fire and without action.
2. Do thou, O Pandava, know Yoga to be that which they call renunciation; no one, verily, becomes a Yogin who has not renounced thoughts.
3. For a devotee who wishes to attain to Yoga, action is said to be the means. For the same (devotee), when he has attained to Yoga, quiescence (Sama) is said to be the means.
4. When a man, renouncing all thoughts, is not attached to sense-objects and actions, then he is said to have attained to Yoga.
5. Let a man raise himself by himself, let him not lower himself; for he alone is the friend of himself, he alone is the enemy of himself.
6. To him who has conquered himself by himself, his own self is the friend of himself, but to him who has not (conquered) himself, his own self stands in the place of an enemy like the (external) foe.
7. The self-controlled and serene man’s Supreme Self is steadfast in cold and heat, in pleasure and pain, as also in honour and disgrace.
8. The Yogin whose self is satisfied with knowledge and wisdom, who remains unshaken, who has conquered the senses, he is said to be a saint – for whom a lump of earth, a stone and gold are equal.
9. He is esteemed, who is of the same mind to the good-hearted, friends, foes, the indifferent, the neutral, the hateful, relatives, the righteous and the un-righteous.
10. Let the Yogin try constantly to keep the mind steady, remaining in seclusion, alone, with the mind and body controlled, free from desire and having no possessions.
11. Having in a cleanly spot established a firm seat, neither too high nor too low, with cloth, skin and Kusa grass thereon.
12. Making the mind one-pointed, with the actions of the mind and the senses controlled, let him, seated there on the seat, practise Yoga for the purification of the self.
13. Holding erect and still the body, the head and the neck, firm, gazing on the tip of his nose, without looking around;
14. Serene-minded, fearless, firm in the vow of godly life, having restrained the mind, thinking on Me and balanced let him sit, looking up to Me as the Supreme.
15. Thus always keeping the mind balanced, the Yogin, with the mind controlled, attains to the Peace abiding in Me, which culminates in Nirvana (moksha).
16. Yoga is not possible for him who eats too much, nor for him who does not eat at all, nor for him who is addicted to too much sleep, nor for him who is (ever) wakeful, O Arjuna.
17. To him whose food and recreation are moderate, whose exertion in actions is moderate, whose sleep and waking are moderate, to him accrues Yoga which is destructive of pain.
18. When the well-restrained thought is established in the Self only, without longing for any of the objects of desire, then he is said to be a Saint.
19. ‘As a lamp in a sheltered spot does not flicker’ – this has been thought as the simile of a Yogin of subdued thought, practising Yoga in the Self.
20. When thought is quiescent, restrained by the practice of Yoga; when, seeing the Self by the self, he is satisfied in his own Self;
21. When he knows that Infinite Joy which, transcending the senses, can be grasped by reason; when, steady (in the Self), he moves never from the Reality;
22. When, having obtained it, he thinks no other acquisition superior to it; when, therein established, he is not moved even by a great pain;
23. This severance from union with pain, be it known, is called union (Yoga). That Yoga must be practised with determination and with un-depressed heart.
24. Abandoning without reserve all fancy-born desire, well-restraining all the senses from all quarters by the mind;
25. Little by little let him withdraw, by reason (buddhi) held in firmness; keeping the mind established in the Self, let him not think of anything.
26. By whatever cause the wavering and unsteady mind wanders away, from that let him restrain it and bring it back direct under the control of the Self.
27. Supreme Bliss verily comes to this Yogin, whose mind is quite tranquil, whose passion is quieted, who has become Brahman, who is blemishless.
28. Thus always keeping the self steadfast, the Yogin, freed from sins, attains with ease to the infinite bliss of contact with the (Supreme) Brahman.
29. The Self abiding in all beings and all beings (abiding) in the Self, sees he whose self has been made steadfast by Yoga, who everywhere sees the same.
30. He who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, to him I vanish not, nor to me does he vanish.
31. Whoso, intent on unity, worships Me who abide in all beings, that Yogin dwells in Me, whatever his mode of life.
32. Whoso, by comparison with himself, sees the same everywhere, O Arjuna, be it pleasure or pain, he is deemed the highest Yogin.
ARJUNA SAID:
33. This Yoga in equanimity, taught by Thee, O Destroyer of Madhu – I see not its steady continuance, because of the restlessness (of the mind).
34. The mind verily, is, O Krishna, restless, turbulent, strong and obstinate. Thereof the restraint I deem quite as difficult as that of the wind.
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
35. Doubtless, O mighty-armed, the mind is hard to restrain and restless; but by practice, O son of Kunti and by indifference it may be restrained.
36. Yoga, me thinks is hard to attain for a man of uncontrolled self; but by him who (often) strives, self-controlled, it can be acquired by (proper) means.
ARJUNA SAID:
37. He who strives not, but who is possessed of faith, whose mind wanders away from Yoga – having failed to attain perfection in Yoga, what end, O Krishna, does he meet ?
38. Having failed in both, does he not perish like a riven cloud, supportless, O mighty-armed and perplexed in the path to Brahman ?
39. This doubt of mine, O Krishna, do Thou dispel completely; for none other than Thyself can possibly destroy this doubt.
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
40. O Partha, neither in this world nor in the next is there destruction for him; none, verily, who does good, My son, ever comes to grief.
41. Having attained to the worlds of the righteous and having dwelt there for eternal years, he who failed in Yoga is reborn in a house of the pure and wealthy.
42. Else, he is born in family of wise Yogins only. This, verily, a birth like this, is very hard to obtain in this world.
43. There he gains touch with the knowledge that was acquired in the former body and strives more than before for perfection, O son of the Kurus.
44. By that very former practice is he borne on, though unwilling. Even he who merely wishes to know of Yoga rises superior to the Word-Brahman.
45. Verily, a Yogin who strives with assiduity, purified from sins and perfected in the course of many births, then reaches the Supreme Goal.
46. A Yogin is deemed superior to men of austerity and superior to even men of knowledge; he is also superior to men of action; therefore be thou a Yogin, O Arjuna.
47. Of all Yogins, whoso, full of faith, worships Me with his inner self abiding in Me, he is deemed by Me as most devout.

VII. VIJNANA YOGA
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
1. With the mind intent on me, O Partha, practising Yoga and finding refuge in Me, how in full without doubt thou shalt know Me, that do thou hear.
2. I shall fully teach thee this knowledge combined with experience, which being known, nothing more besides here remains to be known.
3. Among thousands of men, one perchance strives for perfection; even among those who strive and are perfect, only one perchance knows me in truth.
4. Earth, water, fire, air, ether, thought (Manas) and reason (Buddhi), egoism (Ahamkara) – thus is My Prakriti divided eight-fold.
5. This is the inferior (Prakriti); but distinct from this know thou My superior Prakriti, the very life, O mighty-armed, by which this universe is upheld.
6. Know that all beings have their birth in these. So, I am the source and dissolution of the whole universe.
7. There is naught else higher than I, O Dhananjaya; in Me all this is woven as clusters of gems on a string.
8. I am the sapidity in water, O son of Kunti. I am the light in the moon and the sun. I am the syllable Om in all the Vedas, sound in ether, humanity in men.
9. And I am the agreeable odour in the earth and the brilliance in the fire, the vitality in all beings and I am the austerity in ascetics.
10. Know Me, O Partha, as the eternal seed of all beings; I am the intelligence of the intelligent , the bravery of the brave.
11. And of the energetic am I the energy devoid of passion and attachment; and in (all) beings I am the desire unopposed to Dharma, O lord of the Bharatas.
12. And whatever beings are of Sattva or of Rajas or of Tamas, know them to proceed from Me; still, I am not in them, they are in me.
13. Deluded by these three (sorts of) things composed of gunas, all this world knows not Me as distinct from them and immutable.
14. Verily this Divine Illusion of Mine, made up of gunas, is hard to surmount. Whoever seek Me alone, they cross over this Illusion.
15. Not Me do the evil-doers seek, the deluded, the vilest of men, deprived of wisdom by Illusion, following the ways of the Demons.
16. Four kinds of virtuous men worship Me, O Arjuna – the distressed, the seeker of knowledge, the seeker of wealth and the wise man, O lord of the Bharatas.
17. Of them the wise man, ever steadfast and devoted to the One, excels; for, excessively dear am I to the wise and he is dear to Me.
18. Noble indeed are all these; but the wise man, I deem, is the very Self; for, steadfast in mind, he resorts to Me alone as the unsurpassed goal.
19. At the end of many births, the man of wisdom comes to me, (realising) that Vasudeva is the all: he is the noble-souled (Mahatman), very hard to find.
20. Those whose wisdom has been led away by this or that desire resort to other Gods, engaged in this or that rite, constrained by their own nature.
21. Whatever devotee seeks to worship with faith what form so ever, that same faith of his I make unflinching.
22. Possessed of that faith he engages in the worship of that (form); thence he obtains his desires, these being indeed ordained by me.
23. That result indeed is finite, (which accrues) to those men of small intellect. Worshippers of Gods (Devatas) go to Gods (Devatas); My devotees come unto Me.
24. The foolish regard me as the unmanifested coming in manifestation, knowing not My higher, immutable, unsurpassed nature.
25. I am not manifest to all, veiled (as I am) by Yoga-Maya. This deluded world knows not Me, unborn and imperishable.
26. I know, O Arjuna, the past and the present and the future beings, but Me nobody knows.
27. From the delusion of pairs caused by desires and aversion, O Bharata, all beings are subject to illusion at birth, O harasser of thy foes.
28. Those mortals of pure deeds whose sin has come to an end, who are freed from the delusion of pairs, they worship Me with a firm resolve.
29. Whoever resorting to Me strive for liberation from decay and death, they realise in full that Brahman, the individual Self and all action.
30. Those who realise Me in the Adhibhuta (physical region), in the Adhidaiva (the divine region) and in the Adhiyajna (region of Sacrifice), realise Me even at the time of departure, steadfast in mind.

VIII. ABHYASA YOGA
ARJUNA SAID:
1-2. What is that Brahman ? What about the Individual Self (Adhyatma) ? What is action (Karma), O Purushottama ? And what is declared to be the physical region (Adhibhuta) ? And what is the divine region (Adhidaiva) said to be ? And how and who is Adhiyajna (the Entity concerned with Sacrifice) here in this body, O Madhusudana, and how at the time of death art Thou to be known by the self-controlled ?
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
3. Brahman is the Imperishable (Akshara), the Supreme. The Ego is said to be the Individual Self (Adhyatma, He who dwells in the body). The offering which causes the origin of physical beings is called action (Karma).
4. The physical region (Adhibhuta) is the perishable existence and Purusha or the Soul is the divine region (Adhidaivata). The Adhiyajna (Entity concerned with Sacrifice) is Myself, here in the body, O best of the embodied.
5. And whoso, at the time of death, thinking of Me alone, leaves the body and goes forth, he reaches My being; there is no doubt in this.
6. Of whatever Being thinking at the end a man leaves the body, Him alone, O son of Kunti, reaches he by whom the thought of that Being has been constantly dwelt upon.
7. Therefore at all times do thou meditate on Me and fight; with mind and reason fixed on Me thou shalt doubtless come to Me alone.
8. Meditating with the mind engaged in the Yoga of constant practice, not passing over to any thing else, one goes to the Supreme Purusha, the Resplendent, O son of Pritha.
9-10. Whose meditates on the Sage, the Ancient, the Ruler, smaller than an atom, the Dispenser of all, of unthinkable nature, glorious like the Sun, beyond the darkness, (whoso meditates on such a Being) at the time of death, with a steady mind endued with devotion and strength of Yoga, well fixing the life-breath betwixt the eye-brows, he reaches that Supreme Purusha Resplendent.
11. That Imperishable Goal which the knowers of the Veda declare, which the self-controlled and the passion-free enter, which desiring they lead the godly life – That Goal will I declare to thee with brevity.
12-13. Having closed all the gates, having confined mind in the heart, having fixed his life-breath in the head, engaged in firm Yoga, uttering Brahman, the one-syllabled ‘Om’, thinking of Me, whoso departs, leaving the body, he reaches the Supreme Goal.
14. Whoso constantly thinks of me and long, to him I am easily accessible, O son of Pritha, to the ever-devout Yogin.
15. Having attained to Me, they do not again attain birth, which is the seat of pain and is not eternal, they having reached highest perfection.
16. (All) worlds including the world of Brahma are subject to returning again, O Arjuna; but, on reaching Me, O son of Kunti, there is no rebirth.
17. They – those people who know day and night – know that the day of Brahma is a thousand yugas long and the night is a thousand yugas long.
18. From the Unmanifested all the manifestations proceed at the coming on of day; at the coming on of night they dissolve there only, in what is called the Unmanifested.
19. This same multitude of beings having come into being again and again, is dissolved at the coming on of night, not of their will, O son of Pritha and comes forth at the coming on of day.
20. But that other eternal Unmanifested Being, distinct from this Unmanifested (Avyakta) – He does not perish when all creatures perish.
21. What is called the Unmanifested and the Imperishable, That, they say, is the highest goal; which having reached none return. That is My highest place.
22. Now, that Highest Purusha, O son of Pritha, within Whom all beings dwell, by Whom all this is pervaded, is attainable by exclusive devotion.
23. Now, in what time departing, Yogins go to return not, as also to return, that time will I tell thee, O chief of the Bharatas.
24. Fire, light, day-time, the bright fortnight, the six months of the northern solstice – then departing, men who know Brahman reach Brahman.
25. Smoke, night-time and the dark fortnight, the six months of the southern solstice – attaining by these to the lunar light, the Yogin returns.
26. These bright and dark Paths of the world are verily deemed eternal; by the one a man goes to return not, by the other he returns again.
27. Knowing these paths, O son of Pritha, no Yogin is deluded; wherefore at all times be steadfast in Yoga, O Arjuna.
28. Whatever fruit of merit is declared to accrue from the Vedas, sacrifices, austerities and gifts – beyond all this goes the Yogin on knowing this; and he attains to the Supreme Primeval Abode.

IX. SOVEREIGN WISDOM AND SECRET (Raja-vidya Raja-guhya Yoga)
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
1. To thee who dost not cavil, I shall now declare this, the greatest secret, knowledge combined with experience, which having known thou shalt be liberated from evil.
2. The Sovereign Science, the Sovereign Secret, the Supreme Purifier is this; immediately comprehensible, unopposed to Dharma, very easy to perform, imperishable.
3. Persons having no faith in this Dharma, O harasser of thy foes, without reaching Me, remain verily in the path of the mortal world.
4. By Me all this world is pervaded, My form unmanifested. All beings dwell in Me; and I do not dwell in them.
5. Nor do those beings dwell in Me; behold My Divine Yoga! Sustaining all the beings, but not dwelling in them, is My Self, the cause of beings.
6. As the mighty wind moving everywhere rests ever in the Akasa, so, know thou, do all beings, rest in Me.
7. All beings, O son of Kunti, go into My Prakriti at the end of a kalpa. I send them forth again at the beginning of (the next) kalpa.
8. Resorting to My Prakriti, I again and again send forth the whole multitude of beings, powerless under the control of the Prakriti.
9. Nor do these acts, O Dhananjaya, bind Me, remaining like one unconcerned, unattached to those acts.
10. By Me presiding, Prakriti produces the moving and the unmoving; because of this, O son of Kunti, the world revolves.
11. Fools disregard Me clad in human form, not knowing My higher being as the Great Lord of beings.
12. Of vain hopes, of vain actions, of vain knowledge, devoid of discrimination, partaking only of the delusive nature of Rakshasas and Asuras.
13. The Mahatmas, O son of Pritha, partaking of the nature of the Devas, worship Me with mind turned to no other, knowing (Me) as the imperishable source of all beings.
14. Always talking of me, strenuous, firm in vows and reverent, they worship Me with love, always devout.
15. Worshipping by the wisdom-sacrifice, others adore Me, the All-faced, in various ways, as One, as different.
16. I am kratu, I am yajna, I am svadha, I am aushadha, I am mantra, Myself the butter, I am fire, I the act of offering.
17. I am the father of this world, the mother, the dispenser and grandshire; I am the knowable, the purifier, the syllable ‘Om’ and also the Rik, the Saman and the Yajus also.
18. I am the Goal, the Sustainer, the Lord, the Witness, the Abode, the Shelter and the Friend, the Origin, Dissolution and Stay, the Treasure-house, the Seed imperishable.
19. I give heat, I hold back and send forth rain, I am the immortality as well as death, existence and non-existence, O Arjuna.
20. Men of the three Vedas, the soma-drinkers, purified from sin, worshipping Me by sacrifices, pray for the goal of heaven; they reach the holy world of the Lord of the Gods and enjoy in heaven the heavenly pleasures of the Gods.
21. They, having enjoyed that spacious world of Svarga, their merit (punya) exhausted, enter the world of the mortals; thus following the Dharma of the Triad, desiring (objects of) desires, they attain to the state of going and returning.
22. Those men who, meditating on Me as non-separate, worship Me all around – to them who are ever devout, I secure gain and safety.
23. Even those who, devoted to other Gods, worship Them with faith, worship Myself, O son of Kunti, in ignorance.
24. I am indeed the Enjoyer, as also the Lord, of all sacrifices; but they do not know Me in truth; whence they fail.
25. Votaries of the Gods go to the Gods; to the Pitris go the votaries of the Pitris; to the Bhutas go the worshippers of the Bhutas; My worshippers come to Myself.
26. When one offers to Me with devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit, water – that I eat, offered with devotion by the pure-minded.
27. Whatever thou doest, whatever thou eatest, whatever thou sacrificest, whatever thou givest, in whatever austerity thou engagest, do it as an offering to Me.
28. Thus shalt thou be liberated from the bonds of actions which are productive of good and evil results; equipped in mind with the Yoga of renunciation and liberated, thou shalt come to Me.
29. The same I am to all beings; to Me there is none hateful or dear; but whoso worship Me with devotion, they are in Me and I am also in them.
30. If one of even very evil life worships Me, resorting to none else, he must indeed be deemed righteous, for he is rightly resolved.
31. Soon he becomes righteous and attains eternal peace; do thou, O son of Kunti, proclaim that my devotee never perishes.
32. For, finding refuge in Me, they also who, O son of Pritha, may be of a sinful birth – women, vaisyas as well as sudras – even they attain to the Supreme Goal.
33. How mush more then the holy Brahmanas and devoted royal saints! Having reached this transient joyless world, do thou worship Me.
34. Fix thy mind on Me, be devoted to Me, sacrifice to Me, bow down to Me. Thus steadied, with Me as thy Supreme Goal, thou shalt reach Myself, the Self.

X. DIVINE MANIFESTATIONS (Vibhuti Yoga)
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
1. Again, O mighty-armed, listen to My Supreme word, which I, from a desire for thy well-being, shall speak to thee who art delighted.
2. Neither the hosts of the Gods nor the Great Rishis know my origin; for I am the source of all the Gods and the Great Rishis.
3. He who knows Me as unborn and beginningless, as the great Lord of the worlds, he among mortals is un-deluded, he is liberated from all sins.
4-5. Intelligence, wisdom, non-illusion, patience, truth, self-restraint, calmness, pleasure, pain, birth, death, fear and security; innocence, equanimity, contentment, austerity, beneficence, fame, shame, (these) different kinds dispositions of beings arise from Me alone.
6. The seven Great Rishis as well as the four ancient Manus, with their being in Me, were born of mind; and theirs are these creatures in the world.
7. He who knows in truth this glory and power of Mine is endowed with unshaken Yoga; there is no doubt of it.
8. I am the source of all; from Me everything evolves; thus thinking the wise worship Me, endowed with contemplation.
9. With their thought on me, with their life absorbed in Me, instructing each other and ever speaking of Me, they are content and delighted.
10. To these, ever devout, worshipping Me with love, I give that devotion of knowledge by which they come to me.
11. Out of mere compassion for them, I abiding in their self, destroy the darkness born of ignorance, by the luminous lamp of wisdom.
ARJUNA SAID:
12-13. The Supreme Brahman, the Supreme Light, the Supreme Purifier art Thou. All the Rishis declare Thee as Eternal, Divine Purusha, the Primal God, Unborn, Omnipresent; so said the divine sage Narada, as also Asita, Devala and Vyasa; and Thou Thyself also sayest (so) to me.
14. I believe to be true all this which Thou sayest to me; for neither the Gods nor the Danavas, O Lord, know Thy manifestation.
15. Thou Thyself knowest Thyself as the Self, O Purusha Supreme, O Source of beings, O Lord of beings, O God of Gods, O Ruler of the world.
16. Thou shouldst indeed tell, without reserve, of Thy divine Glories, by which Glories Thou remainest pervading all these worlds.
17. How shall I, ever meditating, know Thee, O Yogin; in what several things, O Lord, art Thou to be thought of by Me ?
18. Tell me again in detail, O Janardana, of Thy power and Glory, for there is no satiety for me in hearing the immortal.
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
19. Now will I tell thee of My heavenly Glories, in their prominence, O best of the Kurus; there is no limit to My extent.
20. I am the Self, O Gudakesa, seated in the heart of all beings; I am the beginning and the middle, as also the end, of all beings.
21. Of the Adityas I am Vishnu; of the radiances, the resplendent Sun; I am Marichi of the Maruts; of the asterisms, the Moon.
22. Of the Vedas I am the Sama-Veda, I am Vasava of the Gods and of the senses I am the mind, I am the intelligence in living beings.
23. And of the Rudras I am Sankara, of the Yakshas and Rakshasas the Lord of wealth and of the Vasus I am Agni, of the mountains I am the Meru.
24. And of the household priests of Kings, O son of Pritha, know Me the chief one, Brihaspati; of generals I am Skanda, of lakes I am the Ocean.
25. Of the Great Rishis I am Bhrigu; of words I am the one syllable ‘Om’; of offerings I am the offering of Japa (silent repetition), of unmoving things the Himalaya.
26. Of all trees (I am) the Asvattha and Narada of divine Rishis, Chitraratha of Gandharvas, the sage Kapila of the saints (Siddhas).
27. Know Me among horses as Uchchaisravas, born of Amrita, of lordly elephants the Airavata and of men the king.
28. Of weapons I am the thunderbolt, of cows I am the Kamadhuk, I am the progenitor Kandarpa, of serpents I am Vasuki.
29. And Ananta of snakes I am, I am Varuna of water-being and Aryaman of Pitris I am, I am Yama of controllers.
30. And Prahlada am I of Diti’s progeny, of reckoners I am Time and of beasts I am the lord of beasts and Vainateya of birds.
31. Of purifiers I am the wind, Rama of warriors am I, of fishes I am the shark, of streams I am the Ganges.
32. Of creations I am the beginning and the middle and also the end; of all knowledges I am the knowledge of the Self and Vada of disputants.
33. Of letters the letter ‘A’ am I and dvandva of all compounds; I am, verily, the inexhaustible Time; I am the All-faced Dispenser.
34. And I am all-seizing Death and the prosperity of those who are to be prosperous; of the feminine (I am) Fame, Fortune and Speech, Memory, Intelligence, Constancy, Endurance.
35. Of Samans also I am the Brihat-Saman of metres Gayatri am I, of months I am Margasirsha, of seasons the flowery season.
36. I am the gambling of the fraudulent, I am the splendour of the splendid, I am victory, I am effort, I am the goodness of the good.
37. Of the Vrishnis I am Vasudeva, of the Pandavas I am Dhananjaya and of the saints I am Vyasa, of the sages I am Usanas the sage.
38. Of punishers I am the scepter, of those who seek to conquer I am the polity and of things secret I am also silence, the knowledge of knowers am I.
39. And what is the seed of all being, that also am I, O Arjuna. There is no being, whether moving or unmoving, that can exist without me.
40. There is no end of My heavenly Glories, O harasser of thy foes; but the details of My Glory have been declared only by way of instance.
41. Whatever being is glorious, prosperous, or strong, that know thou to be a manifestation of a part of My Splendour.
42. But, of what avail to thee is this vast things being known, O Arjuna ? I stand sustaining this whole world by one part (of Myself).

XI. THE UNIVERSAL FORM (Visvarupa-sandarsana Yoga)
ARJUNA SAID:
1. By that speech which has been delivered by Thee for my benefit – that highest secret which is called Adhyatma – this, my delusion, is gone.
2. The origin and the dissolution of beings, verily, have been heard by me in detail from thee, O Lotus-eyed, as also Thy inexhaustible greatness.
3. So it is, as Thou, Supreme Lord, hast declared Thyself to be. (Still) I desire to see Thy form as Isvara, O Purusha Supreme.
4. If Thou, O Lord, thinkest it possible for me to see it, do Thou, then, O Lord of Yogins, show me Thy Eternal Self.
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
5. See, O son of Pritha, My heavenly forms, by hundreds and thousands, of different sorts and of various colours and shapes.
6. Behold the Adityas, the Vasus, the Rudras, the Asvins and also the Maruts; behold many marvels never seen before, O Bharata.
7. Now behold here in My body, Gudakesa, the whole world established in one – including the moving and the unmoving – and whatever else thou desirest to see.
8. Thou art not indeed able to see Me with this thy eye alone; I give thee a divine eye; behold My lordly Yoga.
SANJAYA SAID:
9. Having thus spoken, O King, then, hari, the great Lord of Yogins, showed to the son of Pritha the Supreme Form as Isvara.
10. Containing many mouths and eyes, possessed of many wondrous sights, of many heavenly ornaments, of many heavenly weapons held up. Such a form He showed.
11. Wearing heavenly garlands and vestures, anointed with heavenly unguents, all-wonderful, resplendent, boundless, with faces on all sides.
12. If the splendour of a thousand suns were ever to present itself at once in the sky, that would be like the splendour of that Mighty Being.
13. There, in the body of the God of Gods, the son of Pandu then beheld the whole world established in one and separated into many groups.
14. Then he, Dhananjaya, filled with amazement, with his hair standing on end; bowed down with his head and with joined palms, thus addressed the God.
ARJUNA SAID:
15. I see all the gods, O God, in thy body, as also hosts of various classes of beings; Brahma, the Lord, seated on the lotus-seat and all Rishis and heavenly serpents.
16. I see Thee of boundless form on every side with multitudinous arms, stomachs, mouths and eyes; neither Thy end nor the middle nor the beginning do I see, O Lord of the Universe, O Universal Form.
17. I see Thee with diadem, club and discus; a mass of splendour shining everywhere, very hard to look at, all around blazing like burning fire and sun and immeasurable.
18. Thou art the Imperishable, the Supreme Being worthy to be known. Thou art the great Abode of this Universe; Thou art the undying Guardian of the Eternal Dharma, Thou art the ancient Purusha, I deem.
19. I see Thee without beginning, middle or end, infinite power, of manifold arms; the sun and the moon being Thy eyes, the burning fire Thy face; heating the whole Universe with Thy radiance.
20. This space betwixt heaven and earth and all the quarters are filled by Thee alone. Having seen This, Thy marvellous and awful form, the three worlds are trembling, O High-souled Being.
21. Into Thee, indeed, enter these hosts of Suras; some extol Thee in fear with joined palms; “May it be well!” thus saying, bands of great Rishis and Siddhas praise Thee with hymns complete.
22. The Rudras, Adityas, Vasus and Sadhyas, Visvas and Asvins, Maruts and Ushmapas, hosts of Gandharvas, Yakshas, Asuras and Siddhas – they are all looking at Thee, all quite astonished.
23. Having seen Thy immeasurable Form, possessed, O Mighty-armed, of many mouths and eyes, of many arms and thighs and feet, and of many stomachs and fearful with many tusks, the worlds are terrified and I also.
24. On seeing Thee (Thy Form) touching the sky, blazing in many colours, with mouths wide open, with large fiery eyes, I am terrified at heart and find no courage nor peace, O Vishnu.
25. Having seen Thy mouths which are fearful with tusks and resemble Time’s Fires, I know not the four quarters, nor do I find peace; do Thou gracious, O Lord of Gods and Abode of the Universe!
26-27. And all the sons of Dhritarashtra, with hosts of princess, Bhisma, Drona and that son (Karna) of a charioteer, with the warrior chiefs of ours, enter hurrying into Thy mouth, terrible with tusks and fearful to behold. Some are found sticking in the gaps betwixt the teeth with their heads crushed to powder.
28. As many torrents of rivers flow direct towards the sea, so do these heroes in the world of men enter Thy flaming mouths.
29. As moths hurriedly rush into a blazing fire for destruction, just so do these creatures also hurriedly rush into Thy mouths for destruction.
30. Thou lickest up devouring all worlds on every side with Thy flaming mouths, filling the whole world with flames. Thy fierce rays are blazing forth, O Vishnu.
31. Tell me who thou art, so fierce in form. I bow to Thee, O God Supreme; have mercy. O desire to know Thee, the original Being. I know not indeed Thy doing.
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
32. I am the mighty world-destroying Time, now engaged in destroying the worlds. Even without thee, none of the warriors arrayed in hostile armies shalt live.
33. Therefore do thou arise and obtain fame. Conquer the enemies and enjoy the unrivalled dominion. By Myself have they been already slain; be thou a mere instrument, O Savyasachin.
34. Drona and Bhisma, Jayadratha, Karna and other brave warriors – these, killed by Me, do thou kill; fear not, fight, thou shalt conquer the enemies.
SANJAYA SAID:
35. Having heard that speech of Kesava, the crowned one (Arjuna), with joined palms, trembling, prostrating himself, again addressed Krishna, stammering, bowing down, overwhelmed with fear.
ARJUNA SAID:
36. It is meet, O Hrishikesa, that the world is delighted and rejoices by Thy praise; Rakshasas fly in fear to all quarters and all hosts of Siddhas bow to Thee.
37. And how should they not, O Mighty Being, bow to Thee, Greater (than all else), the Primal Cause even of Brahma, O Infinite Being, O Lord of Gods, O Abode of the Universe; Thou art the Imperishable, the Being and the non-Being, That which is the Supreme.
38. Thou art the Primal God, the Ancient Purusha; Thou art the Supreme Abode of all this, Thou art the Knower and the Knowable and the Supreme Abode. By Thee is all pervaded, O Being of infinite forms.
39. Thou art Vayu, Yama, Agni, Varuna, the Moon, Prajapati and the Great Grand-Father. Hail! Hail to Thee! a thousand times and again and again hail! Hail to Thee!
40. Hail to thee before and behind! Hail to Thee on every side! O All! Thou, infinite in power and infinite in daring, pervadest all, wherefore Thou art All.
41-42. Whatever was rashly said by me from carelessness or love, addressing Thee as “O Krishna, O Yadava, O friend”, looking on Thee merely as a friend, ignorant of this Thy greatness – in whatever way I may have insulted Thee for fun while at play, on bed, in an assembly, or at meals, when alone, O Achyuta, or in company – that I implore Thee, Immeasureable, to forgive.
43. Thou art the Father of this world, moving and unmoving. Thou art to be adored by this (world), Thou the Greatest Guru; (for) Thy equal exists not; whence another, superior to Thee, in the three worlds, O Being of un-equaled greatness ?
44. Therefore, bowing down, prostrating my body, I implore Thee, adorable Lord, to forgive. It is meet Thou shouldst bear with me as the father with the son, as friend with friend, as the lover with the beloved.
45. I am delighted, having seen what was unseen before; and (yet) my mind is confounded with fear. Show me that form only, O God; have mercy, O God of Gods, O Abode of the Universe.
46. I wish to see Thee as before, crowned, possessed of the club, with the discuss in the hand, in Thy former form only, having four arms, O Thousand-armed, O Universal Form.
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
47. By Me, gracious to thee, O Arjuna, this Supreme Form has been shown – by my sovereign power – full of splendour, the all, the Boundless, the Original Form of Mine, never before seen by any other than thyself.
48. Not by study of the Vedas and of the sacrifices, nor by gifts, nor by rituals, nor by severe austerities, can I be seen in this Form in the world of man by any other than thyself, O hero of the Kurus.
49. Be not afraid nor bewildered on seeing such a terrible form of Mine as this; free from fear and cheerful at heart, do thou again see this My former form.
SANJAYA SAID:
50. Having thus spoken to Arjuna, Vasudeva again showed His own form; and the Mighty Being, becoming gentle in form, consoled him who was terrified.
ARJUNA SAID:
51. Having seen Thy gentle human form, O Janardana, now I have grown serene and returned to my nature.
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
52. Very hard to see is this Form of Mine which thou hast seen; even the Devas ever long to behold this Form.
53. Not by Vedas, nor by austerity, nor by gifts, nor by sacrifice, can I be seen in this Form as thou hast seen Me.
54. But by un-distracted devotion can I, of this Form, be known and seen in reality and entered into, O harasser of thy foes.
55. He who does works for Me, who looks on Me as the supreme, who is devoted to Me, who is free from attachment, who is without hatred for any being, he comes to Me, O Pandava.

XII. BHAKTI YOGA
ARJUNA SAID:
1. Those devotees who, always devout, thus contemplate Thee and those also who (contemplate) the Imperishable, the Unmanifest – which of them are better versed in Yoga?
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
2. Those who, fixing their thought on Me, contemplate Me, always devout, endued with supreme faith, those in my opinion are the best Yogins.
3-4. Those who ever contemplate the Imperishable, the Indefinable, the Unmanifest, the Omnipresent and the Unthinkable, the Unchangeable, the Immutable, the Eternal – having restrained all the senses, always equanimous, intent on the welfare of all beings – they reach Myself.
5. Greater is their trouble whose thoughts are set on the Unmanifest; for, the Goal, the Unmanifest, is very hard for the embodied to reach.
6-7. But those who worship Me, renouncing all actions in Me, regarding Me Supreme, meditating on Me with exclusive devotion (Yoga); for them whose thought is fixed on Me, I become ere long, O son of Pritha, the deliverer out of the ocean of the mortal samsara.
8. Fix thy mind in Me exclusively, apply thy reason to Me. Thou shalt no doubt live in Me alone hereafter.
9. If thou art unable to fix thy thought steadily on Me, then by yoga of constant practice do thou seek to reach Me, O Dhananjaya.
10. (If) thou art not equal to practise either, then be thou intent on (doing) actions for My sake. Even doing actions for My sake, thou shalt attain perfection.
11. If thou art unable to do even this, then refuged in devotion to Me, do thou abandon the fruits of all actions, self controlled.
12. Better indeed is knowledge than practice; than knowledge is meditation more esteemed; than meditation the abandonment of the fruits of actions; on abandonment, peace follows immediately.
13-14. He who hates no single being, who is friendly and compassionate to all, who is free from attachment and egoism, to whom pain and pleasure are equal, who is enduring, ever content and balanced in mind, self-controlled and possessed of firm conviction, whose thought and reason are directed to Me, he who is (thus) devoted to Me is dear to Me.
15. He by whom the world is not afflicted and who is not afflicted by the world, who is free from joy, envy, fear and sorrow, he is dear to Me.
16. He who is free from wants, who is pure, clever, unconcerned, untroubled, renouncing all undertakings, he who is (thus) devoted to Me is dear to Me.
17. He who neither rejoices, nor hates, nor grieves, nor desires, renouncing good and evil, he who is full of devotion is dear to Me.
18-19. He who is the same to foe and friend and also in honour and dishonour; who is the same in cold and heat, in pleasure and pain; who is free from attachment; to whom censure and praise are equal; who is silent, content with anything, homeless, steady-minded, full of devotion; that man is dear to me.
20. They, verily, who follow this immortal Law described above, endued with faith, looking up to me as the Supreme and devoted, they are exceedingly dear to Me.

XIII. MATTER AND SPIRIT (Kshetra Kshetrajna Vibhaga Yoga)
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
1. This, the body, O son of Kunti, is called Kshetra; him who knows it, they who know of them call Kshetrajna.
2. And do thou also know Me as Kshetrajna in all Kshetras, O Bharata. The knowledge of Kshetra and Kshetrajna is deemed by Me as the knowledge.
3. And what that Kshetra is and of what nature and what its changes; and whence is what; and who He is and what His powers; this hear thou briefly from Me.
4. Sung by sages, in many ways and distinctly, in various hymns, as also in the suggestive words about Brahman, full of reasoning and decisive.
5. The Great Elements, Egoism, Reason, as also the Unmanifested, the ten senses and one and the five objects of the senses.
6. Desire, hatred, pleasure, pain, the aggregate, intelligence, courage – the Kshetra has been thus briefly described with its modifications.
7. Humility, modesty, innocence, patience, uprightness, service of the teacher, purity, stead-fastness, self-control;
8. Absence of attachment for objects of the senses and also absence of egoism; perception of evil in birth, death and old age, in sickness and pain;
9. Un-attachment, absence of affection for son, wife, home and the like and constant equanimity on the attainment of the desirable and the undesirable;
10. Unflinching devotion to Me in Yoga of non-separation, resort to solitary places, distaste for the society of men;
11. Constancy in Self-knowledge, perception of the end of the knowledge of truth. This is declared to be knowledge and what is opposed to it is ignorance.
12. That which has to be known I shall describe; knowing which one attains the Immortal. Beginningless is the Supreme Brahman. It is not said to be ‘sat’ or ‘asat’.
13. With hands and feet everywhere, with eyes and heads and mouths everywhere, with hearing everywhere, That exists enveloping all.
14. Shining by the function of all the senses, (yet) without the senses; unattached, yet supporting all; devoid of qualities.
15. Without and within (all) beings; the unmoving as also the moving. Because subtle, That is incomprehensible; and near and far away is That.
16. And undivided, yet remaining divided as it were in beings; supporter of beings, too is That, the Knowable; devouring, yet generating.
17. The Light even of lights, That is said to be beyond darkness. Knowledge, the Knowable, the Goal of knowledge, (It) is implanted in the heart of every one.
18. Thus the Kshetra, as well as knowledge and the Knowable, have been briefly set forth. My devotee, on knowing this, is fitted for My state.
19. Know thou that Prakriti as well as Purusha are both beginningless; and know thou also that all forms and qualities are born of Prakriti.
20. As the producer of the effect and the instruments, Prakriti is said to be the cause; as experiencing pleasure and pain, Purusha is said to be the cause.
21. Purusha, when seated in Prakriti, experiences the qualities born of Prakriti. Attachment to the qualities is the cause of his birth in good and evil wombs.
22. Spectator and Permitter, Supporter, Enjoyer, the Great Lord and also spoken of as the Supreme Self, (is) the Purusha Supreme in this body.
23. He who thus knows Purusha and Prakriti together with qualities, whatever his conduct, he is not born again.
24. By meditation some behold the Self in the self by the self others by Sankhya Yoga and others by Karma Yoga.
25. Yet others, not knowing thus, worship, having heard from others; they, too, cross beyond death, adhering to what they heard.
26. Whatever being is born, the unmoving or the moving, know thou, O best of the Bharatas, that to be owing to the union of Kshetra and Kshetrajna.
27. He sees who sees the Supreme Lord, remaining the same in all beings, the undying in the dying.
28. Because he who sees the Lord, seated the same everywhere, destroys not the self by the self, therefore he reaches the Supreme Goal.
29. He sees, who sees all actions performed by Prakriti alone and the Self not acting.
30. When a man realises the whole variety of beings as resting in the One and is an evolution from that (One) alone, then he becomes Brahman.
31. Having no beginning, having no qualities, this Supreme Self, imperishable, though dwelling in the Body, O son of Kunti, neither acts nor is tainted.
32. As the all-pervading Akasa is, from its subtlety, never soiled, so the Self seated in the body everywhere is not soiled.
33. As the one sun illumines all this world, so does the embodied One, O Bharata, illumines all bodies.
34. They who by the eye of wisdom perceive the distinction between Kshetra and Kshetrajna and the dissolution of the Cause of beings – they go to the Supreme.

XIV. THE THREE GUNAS (Gunatraya Vibhaga Yoga)
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
1. I shall again declare that sublime knowledge, the best of all knowledges; which having learnt, all the sages have passed to high perfection from here.
2. They who, having resorted to this knowledge, have attained to unity with Me, are neither born in the creation, nor disturbed in the dissolution.
3. My womb is the great Brahman; in that I place the germ; thence, O Bharata, is the birth of all beings.
4. Whatever forms are produced, O son of Kunti, in any wombs whatsoever, the Great Brahman is their womb, I the seed-giving Father.
5. Sattva, Rajas, Tamas – these gunas, O mighty-armed, born of Prakriti, bind fast in the body the embodied, the indestructible.
6. Of these, Sattva, which, from its stainlessness, is lucid and healthy, binds by attachment to happiness and by attachment to knowledge, O sinless one.
7. Know thou Rajas (to be) of the nature of passion, the source of thirst and attachment; it binds fast, O son of Kunti, the embodied one by attachment to action.
8. But, know thou Tamas to be born of un-wisdom, deluding all embodied beings; by headlessness, indolence and sloth, it binds fast, O Bharata.
9. Sattva attaches to happiness, rajas to action, O Bharata, while Tamas, enshrouding wisdom, attaches, on the contrary, to heedlessness.
10. Sattva arises, O Bharata, predominating over Rajas and Tamas; and Rajas, over Sattva and Tamas; so Tamas, over Sattva and Rajas.
11. When at every gate in this body there shoots up wisdom-light, then it may be known that Sattva is predominant.
12. Greed, activity, the undertaking of works, unrest, desire – these arise when Rajas is predominant, O lord of the Bharatas.
13. Darkness, heedlessness, inertness and error – these arise when Tamas is predominant, O descendant of Kuru.
14. If the embodied one meets death when Sattva is predominant, then he attains to the spotless regions of the knowers of the Highest.
15. Meeting death in Rajas, he is born among those attached to action; and dying in Tamas, he is born in the wombs of the irrational.
16. The fruit of good action, they say, is Sattvic and pure; while the fruit of rajas is pain and ignorance is the fruit of tamas.
17. From Sattva arises wisdom and greed from Rajas; heedlessness and error arise from Tamas and also ignorance.
18. Those who follow Sattva go upwards; the Rajasic remain in the middle; and the Tamasic, who follow in the course of the lowest guna, go downwards.
19. When the seer beholds not an agent other than the gunas and knows Him who is higher than the gunas, he attains to My being.
20. Having crossed beyond these three gunas, which are the source of the body, the embodied one is freed from birth, death, decay and pain and attains the immortal.
ARJUNA SAID:
21. By what marks, O Lord, is he known who has crossed beyond those three gunas ? What is his conduct and how does he pass beyond those three gunas.
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
22. Light and activity and delusion present, O Pandava, he hates not, nor longs for them absent.
23. He who, seated as a neutral, is not moved by gunas; who, thinking that gunas act, is firm and moves not;
24. He to whom pain and pleasure are alike, who dwells in the Self, to whom a clod of earth and stone and gold are alike, to whom the dear and the un-dear are alike, who is a man of wisdom, to whom censure and praise are same;
25. The same in honour and disgrace, the same towards friends and enemies, abandoning all undertakings – he is said to have crossed beyond the gunas.
26. And he who serves Me with unfailing Devotion of Love, he, crossing beyond those three gunas, is fitted for becoming Brahman.
27. For I am the abode of Brahman, the Immortal and the Immutable, the Eternal Dharma and the unfailing Bliss.

XV. THE SUPREME SPIRIT (Purushotama-prapti Yoga)
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
1. They speak of the indestructible Asvattha having its root above and branches below, whose leaves are the metres. He who knows it knows the Vedas.
2. Below and above are its branches spread, nourished by the gunas, sense-objects its buds; and below in the world of man stretch forth the roots ending in action.
3. Its form is not perceived as such here, neither its end nor its origin nor its existence. Having cut asunder this firm-rooted Asvattha with the strong sword of dispassion.
4. Then That Goal should be sought for, whither having gone none return again. “I seek refuge in that Primeval Purusha whence streamed forth the Ancient Current.”
5. Free from pride and delusion, with the evil of attachment conquered, ever dwelling in the Self, their desires having completely turned away, liberated from the pairs of opposites known as pleasure and pain, the un-deluded reach that Goal Eternal.
6. That the sun illumines not, nor the moon, nor fire; That is My Supreme Abode, to which having gone none return.
7. A ray of Myself, the eternal Jiva in the world of Jivas, attracts the senses, with Manas the sixth, abiding in Prakriti.
8. When the Lord acquires a body and when He leaves it, He takes these and goes, as the wind takes scents from their seats.
9. The ear, the eye and the touch, the taste and the smell, using these and the Manas, he enjoys the sense-objects.
10. Him who departs, stays and enjoys, who is conjoined with gunas, the deluded perceive not; they see, who possess the eye of knowledge.
11. Those who strive, endued with Yoga, perceive Him dwelling in the self; though striving, those of unrefined self, devoid of wisdom, perceive Him not.
12. That light which residing in the sun illumines the whole world, that which is in the moon and in the fire, that light do thou know to be Mine.
13. Penetrating the earth I support all beings by (My) Energy; and having become the watery moon I nourish all herbs.
14. Abiding in the body of living beings as Vaisvanara, associated with Prana and Apana, I digest the fourfold food.
15. And I am seated in the hearts of all; from Me are memory, knowledge, as well as their loss; it is I who am to be known by all the Vedas, I am indeed the author of the Vedanta as well as the knower of the Vedas.
16. There are these two beings in the world the perishable and the imperishable; the perishable comprises all creatures, the immutable is called the imperishable.
17. But distinct is the Highest Spirit spoken of as the Supreme Self, the indestructible Lord who penetrates and sustains the three worlds.
18. Because I transcend the perishable and am even higher than the imperishable, therefore am I known in the world and in the Veda as ‘Purushottama’, the Highest Spirit.
19. He who, un-deluded, thus knows Me, the Highest Spirit, he, knowing all, worships Me with his whole being, O Bharata.
20. Thus, this most Secret Science has been taught by Me, O sinless one; on knowing this, (a man) becomes wise, O Bharata and all his duties are accomplished.

XVI. SPIRITUALITY AND MATERIALISM (Daivasura sampat Vibhaga Yoga)
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
1. Fearlessness, purity of heart, steadfastness in knowledge and Yoga; alms-giving, self-restraint and worship, study of one’s own (scriptures), austerity, uprightness;
2. Harmlessness, truth, absence of anger, renunciation, serenity, absence of calumny, compassion to creatures, un-covetousness, gentleness, modesty, absence of fickleness;
3. Energy, forgiveness; fortitude, purity, absence of hatred, absence of pride; these belong to one born for a divine lot, O Bharata.
4. Ostentation, arrogance and self-conceit, anger as also insolence and ignorance, belong to one who is born, O Partha, for a demoniac lot.
5. The divine nature is deemed for liberation, the demoniac for bondage. Grieve not, O Pandava; thou art born for a divine lot.
6. There are two creations of beings in this world, the divine and the demoniac. The divine has been described as length; hear from Me, O Partha, of the demoniac.
7. Neither action nor inaction do the demoniac men know; neither purity nor good conduct nor truth is found in them.
8. They say, “the universe is unreal, without a basis, without a Lord, born of mutual union, brought about by lust; what else ?”
9. Holding this view, these ruined souls of small intellect, of fierce deeds, rise as the enemies of the world for its destruction.
10. Filled with insatiable desires, full of hypocrisy, pride and arrogance, holding unwholesome views through delusion, they work with unholy resolve;
11. Beset with immense cares ending only with death, sensual enjoyment their highest aim, assured that that is all;
12. Bound by hundreds of bands of hope, given over to lust and wrath, they strive to secure by unjust means hoards of wealth for sensual enjoyment.
13. This to-day has been gained by me; this desire I shall attain; this is mine and this wealth also shall be mine in future.
14. “That enemy has been slain by me and others also shall I slay. I am a lord. I enjoy, I am successful, strong and healthy.”
15. “I am rich and well-born. Who else is equal to me ? I will sacrifice, I will give, I will rejoice.” Thus deluded by un-wisdom.
16. Bewildered by many a fancy, entangled in the snare of delusion, addicted to the gratification of lust, they fall into a foul hell.
17. Self-honored, stubborn, filled with the pride and intoxication of wealth, they perform sacrifices in name with hypocrisy, without regard to ordinance.
18. Given over to egotism, power, haughtiness, lust and anger, these malicious people hate Me in their own and others’ bodies.
19. These cruel haters, worst of men, I hurl these evil-doers for ever in the worlds into the wombs of the demons only.
20. Entering into demoniac wombs, the deluded ones, in birth after birth, without ever reaching Me, O son of Kunti, pass into a condition still lower than that.
21. Triple is this, the gate to hell, destructive of the self; LUST, WRATH and GREED. Therefore, these three, one should abandon.
22. A man who is released from these, the three gates to darkness, O son of Kunti, does good to the self and thereby reaches the Supreme Goal.
23. He who, neglecting the scriptural ordinance, acts under the impulse of desire, attains not perfection, nor happiness, nor the Supreme Goal.
24. Therefore, the scripture is thy authority in deciding as to what ought to be done and what ought not to be done. Now, thou oughtest to know and perform thy duty laid down in the scripture-law.

XVII. THE THREEFOLD FAITH (Shraddhatraya-Vibhaga Yoga)
ARJUNA SAID:
1. Whoso Worship, setting aside the ordinance of the scripture, endued with faith – what faith is theirs ? Is it Sattva, or Rajas, or Tamas ?
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
2. Threefold is that faith born of the individual nature of the embodied – Sattvic, Rajasic and Tamasic. Do thou hear of it.
3. The faith of each is in accordance with his nature, O Bharata. The man is made up of his faith; as a man’s faith is, so is he.
4. Sattvic men worship the Gods; Rajasic the Yakshas and the Rakshasas; the others – Tamasic men – the Pretas and the hosts of Bhutas.
5. Those men who practise terrific austerities not enjoined by the scripture, given to hypocrisy and egotism, endued with the strength of lust and passion;
6. Weakening all the elements in the body – fools they are – and Me who dwell in the body within; know thou these to be of demoniac resolves.
7. The food also which is dear to each is threefold, as also worship, austerity and gift. Do thou hear of this, their distinction.
8. The foods which increase life, energy, strength, health, joy and cheerfulness, which are savoury and oleaginous, substantial and agreeable, are dear to the Sattvic.
9. The foods that are bitter, sour, saline, excessively hot, pungent, dry and burning, are liked by the Rajasic, causing pain, grief and disease.
10. The food which is stale, tasteless, putrid and rotten, refuse and impure, is dear to the Tamasic.
11. That worship is Sattvic which is offered by men desiring no fruit, as enjoined in the Law, with a fixed resolve in the mind that they should merely worship.
12. That which is offered, O best of the Bharatas, with a view to reward and for ostentation, know it to be a Rajasic worship.
13. They declare that worship to be Tamasic which is contrary to the ordinances, in which no food is distributed, which is devoid of mantras and gifts and which is devoid of faith.
14. Worshipping the Gods, the twice-born, teachers and wise men – purity, straightforwardness, continence and abstinence from injury are termed the bodily austerity.
15. The speech which causes no excitement and is true, as also pleasant and beneficial and also the practice of sacred recitation, are said to form the austerity of speech.
16. Serenity of mind, good-heartedness, silence, self-control, purity of nature – this is called the mental austerity.
17. This threefold austerity, practised by devout men with utmost faith, desiring no fruit, they call Sattvic.
18. That austerity which is practised with the object of gaining good reception, honour and worship and with hypocrisy, is said to be of this world, to be Rajasic, unstable and uncertain.
19. The austerity which is practised out of a foolish notion, with self-torture, or for the purpose of ruining another, is declared to be Tamasic.
20. That gift which is given – knowing it to be a duty to give – to one who does no service, in place and in time and to a worthy person, that gift is held Sattvic.
21. And that gift which is given with a view to a return of the good, or looking for the fruit, or reluctantly, that gift is held to be Rajasic.
22. The gift that is given at a wrong place or time, to unworthy persons, without respect or with insult, that is declared to be Tamasic.
23. “OM, TAT, SAT” : this has been taught to be the triple designation of Brahman. By that were created of old the Brahmanas and the Vedas and the sacrifices.
24. Therefore, with the utterance of ‘Om’, are the acts of sacrifice, gift and austerity, as enjoined in the scriptures, always begun by the students of Brahman.
25. With ‘Tat’, without aiming at the fruits, are the acts of sacrifice and austerity and the various acts of gift performed by the seekers of moksha.
26. The word ‘Sat’ is used in the sense of reality and of goodness; and so also, O Partha, the word ‘Sat’ is used in the sense of an auspicious act.
27. Devotion to sacrifice, austerity and gift is also spoken of as ‘Sat’; and even action in connection with these is called ‘Sat’.
28. Whatever is sacrificed, given, or done and whatever austerity is practised, without faith, it is called ‘asat’, O Partha; it is naught here or here-after.

XVIII. CONCLUSION (Moksha-samnyasa Yoga)
ARJUNA SAID:
1. ‘Of Samnyasa’ O Mighty-armed, I desire to know the truth, O Hrishikesa, as also of ‘tyaga’, severally, O Slayer of Kesin.
THE BLESSED LORD SAID:
2. Sages understand ‘Samnyasa’ to be the renouncement of interested works; the abandonment of the fruits of all works, the learned declare, is ‘tyaga’.
3. That action should be abandoned as an evil, some philosophers declare; while others (declare) that acts of sacrifice, gift and austerity should not be given up.
4. Learn from Me the truth about this abandonment, O best of the Bharatas; abandonment, verily, O best of men, has been declared to be of three kinds.
5. Practice of worship, gift and austerity should not be given up; it is quite necessary; worship, gift and austerity are the purifiers of the wise.
6. But even those actions should be performed, setting aside attachment and the fruits; this, O son of Pritha, is My firm and highest belief.
7. Verily, the abandonment of an obligatory duty is not proper; the abandonment thereof from ignorance is declared to be Tamasic.
8. Whatever act one may abandon because it is painful, from fear of bodily trouble, he practises Rajasic abandonment and he shall obtain no fruit whatever of abandonment.
9. Whatever obligatory work is done, by Arjuna, merely because it ought to be done, by abandoning attachment and also the fruit, that abandonment is deemed to be Sattvic.
10. He hates not evil action, nor is he attached, to a good one – he who has abandoned, pervaded by Sattva and possessed of wisdom, his doubts cut asunder.
11. Verily, it is not possible for an embodied being to abandon actions completely; he who abandons the fruits of actions is verily said to be an abandoner.
12. The threefold fruit of action – evil, good and mixed – accrues after death to non-abandoners, but never to abandoners.
13. These five factors in the accomplishment of all action, know thou from Me, O mighty-armed, as taught in the Sankhya which is the end of action.
14. The seat and actor and the various organs and the several functions of various sorts and the Divinity also, the fifth among these.
15. Whatever action a man does by the body, speech and mind, right or the opposite, these five are its causes.
16. Now, such being the case, verily, he who as untrained in understanding, looks on the pure Self as the agent, that man of perverted intelligence sees not.
17. He who is free from egotistic notion, whose mind is not tainted – though he kills these creatures, he kills not, he is not bound.
18. Knowledge, the object known, the knower, (form) the threefold impulse to action; the organ, the end, the agent, from the threefold basis of action.
19. Knowledge and action and the agent are said in the science of gunas to be of three kinds only, according to the distinction in gunas. Hear thou duly of them.
20. That by which a man sees the one Indestructible Reality in all beings, inseparate in the separated ––hat knowledge know thou as Sattvic.
21. But that knowledge which by differentiation, sees in all the creatures various entities of distinct kinds, that knowledge know thou as Rajasic.
22. But that which clings to one single effect as if it were all, without reason, having no real object and narrow, that is declared to be Tamasic.
23. An action which is ordained, which is free from attachment, which is done without love or hatred by one not desirous of the fruit, that action is declared to be Sattvic.
24. But the action which is done by one longing for pleasures, or done by the egotistic, costing much trouble, that is declared to be Rajasic.
25. The action which is undertaken from delusion, without regarding the consequence, loss, injury and ability, that is declared to be Tamasic.
26. Free from attachment, not given to egotism, endued with firmness and vigour, unaffected in success and failure, an agent is said to be Sattvic.
27. Passionate, desiring to attain the fruit of action, greedy, cruel, impure, subject to joy and sorrow, such an agent is said to be Rajasic.
28. Unsteady, vulgar, unbending, deceptive, wicked, indolent, desponding and procrastinating, (such) an agent is said to be Tamasic.
29. The threefold division of intellect and firmness according to qualities, about to be taught fully and distinctively (by Me), hear thou, O Dhananjaya.
30. That which knows action and inaction, what ought to be done and what ought not to be done, fear and absence of fear, bondage and liberation, that intellect is Sattvic, O Partha.
31. That by which one wrongly understands Dharma and Adharma and also what ought to be done and what ought not to be done, that intellect, O Partha, is Rajasic.
32. That which, enveloped in darkness, sees Adharma as Dharma and all things perverted, that intellect, O Partha, is Tamasic.
33. The firmness which is ever accompanied by Yoga and by which the activities of thought, of life-breaths and sense-organs, O Partha, are held fast, such a firmness is Sattvic.
34. But the firmness with which one holds fast to Dharma and pleasures and wealth, desirous of the fruit of each on its occasion, that firmness, O Partha, is Rajasic.
35. That with which a stupid man does not give up sleep, fear, grief, depression and lust, that firmness, O Partha, is Tamasic.
36. And now hear from Me – O lord of the Bharatas – of the threefold pleasure, in which one delights by practice and surely comes to the end of pain.
37. That which is like poison at first, at the end, like nectar that pleasure is declared to be Sattvic, born of the purity of one’s own mind.
38. That pleasure which arises from the contact of the sense-organ with the object, at first like nectar, in the end like poison, that is declared to be Rajasic.
39. The pleasure which at first and in the sequel is delusive of the self, arising from sleep, indolence and heedlessness, that pleasure is declared to be Tamasic.
40. There is no being on earth, or again in heaven among the Devas, that can be free from these three gunas born of Prakriti.
41. Of Brahmanas and Kshatriyas and Vaisyas, as also of Sudras, O Parantapa, the duties are divided according to the qualities born of nature.
42. Serenity, self-restraint, austerity, purity, forgiveness and also uprightness, knowledge, wisdom, faith – these are the duties of the Brahmanas, born of nature.
43. Bravery, boldness, fortitude, promptness, not flying from battle, generosity and lordliness are the duties of the Kshatriyas, born of nature.
44. Ploughing, cattle-rearing and trade are the duties of the Vaisyas, born of nature. And of the nature of service is the duty of the Sudra, born of nature.
45. Devoted each to his own duty, man attains perfection; how one, devoted to one’s own duty, attains success, that do thou hear.
46. Him from whom is the evolution of (all) beings, by whom all this is pervaded – by worshipping Him with his proper duty, man attains perfection.
47. Better is one’s own duty (though) destitute of merits, than the duty of another well performed. Doing the duty ordained according to nature one incurs no sin.
48. The duty born with oneself, O son of Kunti, though faulty, one ought not to abandon; for, all undertakings are surrounded with evil, as fire with smoke.
49. He whose reason is not attached anywhere, whose self is subdued, from whom desire has fled, he by renunciation attains the supreme state of freedom from action.
50. How he who has attained perfection reaches Brahman, that in brief do thou learn from Me, O son of Kunti – that supreme consummation of knowledge.
51. Endued with a pure reason, controlling the self with firmness, abandoning sound and other objects and laying aside love and hatred;
52. Resorting to a sequestered spot, eating but little, speech and body and mind subdued, always engaged in meditation and concentration, endued with dispassion;
53. Having abandoned egotism, strength, arrogance, desire, enmity, property, free from the notion of “mine”, and peaceful, he is fit for becoming Brahman.
54. Becoming Brahman, of serene self, he neither grieves nor desires, treating all beings alike; he attains supreme devotion to Me.
55. By Devotion he knows Me in truth, what and who I am; then, knowing Me in truth, he forthwith enters into Me.
56. Doing continually all actions whatsoever, taking refuge in Me – by My Grace he reaches the eternal undecaying Abode.
57. Mentally resigning all deeds to Me, regarding Me as the Supreme, resorting to mental concentration, do thou ever fix thy heart in Me.
58. Fixing thy heart in Me, thou shalt, by My Grace, cross over all difficulties; but if from egotism thou will not hear (Me), thou shalt perish.
59. If, indulging egotism, thou thinkest ‘I will not fight’, vain is this, thy resolve; nature will constrain thee.
60. Bound (as thou art), O son of Kunti, by thy own nature-born act, that which from delusion thou likest not to do, thou shalt do, though against thy will.
61. The Lord dwells in the hearts of all beings, O Arjuna, whirling by Maya all beings (as if) mounted on a machine.
62. Fly unto Him for refuge with all thy being. O Bharata; by His Grace shalt thou obtain supreme peace (and) the eternal resting place.
63. Thus has wisdom, more secret than all that is secret, been declared to thee by Me; reflect thou over it all and act as thou pleasest.
64. Hear thou again My word supreme, the most secret of all; because thou art My firm friend, therefore will I tell thee what is good.
65. Fix thy thought on Me, be devoted to Me, worship Me, do homage to Me. Thou shalt reach Myself. The truth do I declare to thee; (for) thou art dear to Me.
66. Abandoning all righteous deeds, seek me as thy sole refuge; I will liberate thee from all sins; do thou not grieve.
67. This (which has been taught) to thee is never to be taught to one who is devoid of austerities, nor to one who is not devoted, nor to one who does not do service, nor to one who speaks ill of Me.
68. He who with supreme devotion to Me will teach this Supreme Secret to My devotees, shall doubtless come to Me.
69. Nor is there any among men who does dearer service to Me than he; nor shall there be another on earth dearer to Me than he.
70. And he who will study this sacred dialogue of ours, by him I shall have been worshipped by the sacrifice of wisdom, I deem.
71. And the man also who hears, full of faith and free from malice even he, liberated, shall attain to the happy worlds of the righteous.
72. Has it been heard by thee, O Partha, with an attentive mind ? Has the delusion of ignorance been destroyed, O Dhananjaya ?
ARJUNA SAID:
73. Destroyed is delusion and I have gained recognition through Thy Grace, O Achyuta. I am firm, with doubts gone. I will do Thy word.
SANJAYA SAID:
74. Thus have I heard this wonderful dialogue between Vasudeva and the high-souled Partha, which makes the hair stand on end.
75. Through the grace of Vyasa have I heard this Supreme and most secret Yoga direct from Krishna, the Lord of Yoga, Himself declaring it.
76. O King, remembering every moment this wonderful and holy dialogue between Kesava and Arjuna, I rejoice again and again.
77. And remembering every moment the most wonderful Form of Hari, great is my wonder, O king and I rejoice again and again.
78. Wherever is Krishna, the Lord of Yoga, wherever is Arjuna, the archer, there fortune, victory, prosperity and polity are established, I deem.

Thank you for making these texts available to all…Myswizard
Translated by Alladi Mahadeva Sastry
Published by Samata Books, Chennai

Keywords: Bhagavad Gita

Spiritual Teachers

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The “right” spiritual teacher can inspire a student to attain the level of enlightenment. It is possible to reach enlightenment in an instant, while listening to, reading teachings from, or being in the presence of the “teacher”…Myswizard

Keywords: spiritual teacher, Enlightenment

A. H. Almaas

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Diamond Heart: Book Four
Indestructible Innocence
By A. H. Almaas
Excerpt from Diamond Heart: Book Four
From Chapter 5: The Integrated Human Being

Human life can be lived with beauty, grace, and dignity. But this refined mode of life is not easy to come by. The point of being human is not to achieve success, riches, comfort, or security. These things may be important or necessary but only to the grosser side of human life. When there is disharmony or imbalance in one’s consciousness, one’s values tend towards the grosser side of human nature. The refinement of human consciousness requires harmonization and balancing of all the human elements. The more harmony and balance in one’s consciousness and in one’s life, the more it will become a life of beauty, grace, dignity and efficiency.

We are not saying that there is something bad about ordinary human life, nor that one should seek something better. It is a matter of harmonization and balance. The absence of that balance or harmony predisposes us towards certain assumptions, certain expectations of what our lives should be like. Then our consciousness becomes stabilized with the idealizations of certain elements to the exclusion of others, which only leads to more imbalance and disharmony. That is why a consciousness that is not balanced usually does not know how to balance itself, for this consciousness can see things only from an imbalanced perspective. In turn, what this consciousness believes or feels that it needs and wants is determined by that perspective. The consciousness first needs to be balanced and harmonized before it can see what is truly needed.

One element of imbalanced consciousness is the dream of a magical event, an idealized intervention, a romantic experience or a person that will suddenly make things wonderful. Of course, the fantasized situation is wonderful only from the perspective of that imbalanced consciousness. Since reality is mostly not like that, things do not generally turn out according to our expectations, and then we feel disappointment. The hopeful expectation of a miraculous event or person typically manifests in ordinary life as an idealization of success or fame, or sometimes an idealization of a person, perhaps a prince charming who will come along and enable us to live happily ever after.

When someone enters the Work, this tendency becomes displaced on the Work, the school, the teacher, or the method. This happens with any form of work, essential, spiritual, or psychological. With psychological work, you are looking for the magical cure. With spiritual work, you are looking for the magical experience which is usually called enlightenment. From the balanced perspective, one sees that these experiences do exist but are not magical in the way that the imbalanced consciousness believes. There do exist experiences of realization and enlightenment and the like, but these are only some of the initial elements needed for a balanced consciousness. They are not the only elements, nor the end, of spiritual work. In other words, for a balanced consciousness that lives in a balanced, harmonious, and mature way as a human being, enlightenment is not enough. It is a beginning. Realization is also only one experience among many others that are needed for a person to develop a capacity to live correctly. Many people who have been engaged in spiritual work can see that their experiences have not necessarily transformed the way they live their lives. One way of seeing the guidance in our Work here is that there is a continual movement of balancing and rebalancing the individual, the groups, and the school as a whole. Whenever there is an imbalance in a certain direction, something needs to happen from the other direction to balance what is happening. What could result if things remain imbalanced is tantamount to a malignant growth.

From the perspective of our Work, generally speaking, three elements need to be balanced or need to stay in balance as a person is engaged in the process of development. Basically, the three things are understanding, being, and doing. Most individuals tend to emphasize one of these over the other two. Some people are more balanced towards the understanding aspect of human experience. Some people are balanced more towards the being element, the actual felt experience part. And some people are balanced more towards the action, the doing part of human experience. This imbalance creates a disharmony that affects all three elements. Our Work involves developing these three elements into a harmonious unity, and this involves balancing them. A constant balancing needs to happen again and again, whenever an imbalance appears in either the individual or in the group. Otherwise, development could happen in an imbalanced way. It is possible for a person to develop one part but not the others. Although this can be fine in itself, it does not lead to an integrated human life. It does not lead to the state of maturity.

Some of the activities in our Work are oriented towards understanding our personal situation, and through that process towards a knowledge of reality and truth. For a long time, understanding will in large part reveal that the personality, the false personality, and the life of that personality, are empty. Realizing that the normal personality, which dominates the experience of conventional life is actually empty. will lead to the awareness of the fullness of Being, which is the second element. We come to know the actual experience of Being, the feeling of beingness, the state of being, the realization of presence. This state is called various things—enlightenment, or self-realization, or the state of unity, or oneness of being. We then discover that the state of being, although wonderful, is still not the totality of a human consciousness. This state of being and the understanding accompanying it need to be embodied, to be integrated into one’s life.

This is when the role of action becomes important. It is not enough to have understanding of yourself. It is not enough to realize the presence of Being. For full integration, these need to manifest in your life in action. They must appear in your actions so that you live your life according to that understanding, and from that state of beingness. Of course, some individuals are satisfied with the mere understanding of things, and continue only to seek insights and realizations. It is absolutely necessary to have this understanding of these insights, realizations, perceptions, and all the knowledge of the different states and conditions of human life. However, there is a need for the actual experience of Being itself, and that has to do with the essential states, ultimately, and with a state of being. Being is really the central part of all those three elements; it is the heart of the matter. In fact, it has to do with the heart. Although Being is primary, it is not enough for living on earth, because life also involves action and doing. To live a mature life means not only to live, but to live according to this state of being. If a person doesn’t live according to the understanding that comes from the realization of beingness, then the realization or development is restricted to certain experiences and does not touch the person’s soul deeply enough to allow the integration necessary for maturity.

Of course, all three elements exist on a conventional level, too. The ordinary, undeveloped, unrefined human life has in it understanding, being and doing but they are fake. The usual understanding and conventional wisdom are the usual beliefs, assumptions and preconceptions, and the usual information of the personality. The experience of being human is equated with the usual emotional, mental and physical experiences. The action on the personality level is simply the way people live their lives. When I refer to essential doing or action, I do not mean just any action; many people, in fact the majority of humankind, are action-oriented. People do all kind of actions, but this is not what we are talking about. We are talking about action that embodies Being about doing which is real action. This real action is what differentiates a developed human being from an undeveloped one.

In other words, human development has three elements or three stages. One is that of understanding and knowledge as in insights and intuitions. Then there is realization, which is abiding in beingness. After that is the state of doing, which is the embodiment of the beingness and the knowledge in your life, in how you live your life. If you come to the group or to your session and you have wonderful insights and realizations, and experiences of boundless love and infinite presence or whatever, but then you go through the rest of your life and live according to the usual personality, it’s as if it has not happened. Essential experiences or realizations need to affect all your life, to permeate everything until they are embodied. A maturing person needs to live according to those experiences and those insights. A person who has not had these experiences and insights will be unable to live in a mature way. So all of the three elements are necessary. If a person is oriented only towards action, to live her life and be successful, it doesn’t matter what she does. If there is no true beingness and no real understanding, then her action is not to the point, her life is not in harmony, and she will be oriented towards satisfying the desires of the dream, the magical expectations of the personality.

We do our work here so that in time, there will arise in your consciousness many insights and understandings of the personality, of your life, of your past, and of the mind. This understanding will reveal the false elements, and unveil the dimension of Essence. Together with this process of insight and understanding, the path will reveal Being in many kinds of experiences. There will be a series of experiences of different dimensions, and different levels of realization. All these insights and all these experiences are needed for full development, and, at some point, need to be integrated with action. If it does not happen spontaneously, a person will need to intentionally live life according to what has been learned and what has been experienced. This might not necessarily happen by itself.

Some insights, realizations, and even actions, will come to you as gifts that just happen, but some of them you will have to work for. You will have to put in the effort to regulate and balance yourself. That is the reality of human life. If you are open, if you are interested in the truth, things will happen to you, but not everything. For some things, you will have to take action, you will have to make greater effort. Both elements are needed: the spontaneous arising and the effort, the expenditure of energy. The first part of understanding is the easiest part. It is sometimes difficult to see the significance of states of being and to allow oneself to abide in these various states of being. Then, the most difficult task is to embody being in action.

Carrying the understanding and being into action is the primary and most powerful integrative process of both understanding and being. If you do not take the action, if you do not try to live your life according to what you have learned, according to what you have experienced, then there is a tendency not to integrate the various elements. There is a tendency to create a split between different parts. There is the wonderful part of you, and then there is the rest of your life which is a mess—full of frustrations, problems, complaints, or indulgences.

But when a person begins taking action according to what they know, what they have experienced, rather than rote, automatic action based on their conditioning and patterns, then those insights and experiences will be integrated into the soul itself. The soul will transform by metabolizing the old personality patterns, and will thus mature. The personality is not something that needs to die or to be thrown away; the personality needs to develop in time, to be refined, and integrated with the sense of beingness. This integration is necessary for wholeness and totality, for an integrated soul in which Being and personality are not at war. The usual personality is nothing but a conditioned part of the soul. This conditioned part can be transformed only as the result of impact from insights and states of being, leading to the integration and maturity of the soul. Otherwise, it is possible for a person to put aside the personality and just develop the state of beingness. Some spiritual systems are oriented in this way so a person has the understanding, the realization and various wonderful experiences, and can remain in those states. But these are people who are not in the world. Such a person might have achieved a mature state of being, but they have to be sitting on their ass to experience it. They cannot go into the marketplace with it.

The further step to be taken cannot happen by just sitting on your ass, or by just meditating, staying away from everyone, or just by understanding some part of yourself in sessions with your teacher. You actually have to take action. And your actions have to be real actions that take into consideration everything you have learned: all the insight, all the knowledge, all the experiences. Only then will all the elements be integrated so that you can become a more and more integrated and balanced human being.

So, in a sense, this Work is like a kind of a building, a development of one’s self and one’s life. You are not going to be doing a certain kind of work and then be automatically rewarded with wonderful things; this is the expectation of many people. Things do not happen that way. A person can have insights and experiences and perceive them as rewards, as goodies, as candy. But if you just eat the candy and that is all, you will be a dependent infant who goes back to sessions only to get more candy. A person who is interested in really developing understanding, becoming complete as a mature, balanced human being, will use those experiences in life to transform.

Intermediate/Advanced Reading-Intermediate to Advanced Spiritual

Keywords: A. H. Almaas

Weekly Consciousness Tune-Up…Yehuda berg 1/22/06-1/28/06

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Weekly Consciousness Tune-Up
January 22nd – January 28th, 2006

The Blame Game

I want to begin this week’s Tune Up by thanking everyone for their heartfelt responses to last week’s email and video. I read through your countless well-wishes, and I felt your prayers. Your empathy and compassion reminded me, yet again, that at the end of the day we are all united by a common bond – the Light within.

Some of you wrote to me about your experiences with your own parents. Many were moved to open up about their own pain from childhood, but a different kind of pain. I read about memories of emotionally absent parents, abusive relatives, and all the many things that go wrong in childhood.

Very few of us can say that we lived a blissful childhood. As adults sorting through the wreckage of our formative years, we blame our parents, our teachers, our friends, and our enemies for setting us up for failure, low self-esteem, and drug addiction. The list of emotional ailments can go on forever.

One of the key concepts we learn early on in our Kabbalah studies is we live in a world of cause and effect - the Light is the cause, and we are the effect. We are here on this earth as vessels trying to become more like the Light. But being in the state of blame is being the effect. The question at hand is: how can we transform those marring childhood experiences into causes for the revelation of Light?

Rav Isaac Luria (The Ari), one of the greatest kabbalists of the 15th century, wrote that we literally choose our parents. Difficult as it is to believe, our souls gaze down from the heavens watching for the perfect moment of conception. We see the movie that will play out in the household - the crazy aunt, the annoying brother, the absentee father - and we enter our mother’s womb fully knowing the childhood ahead of us.

The Ari goes on to say that our childhood experiences equip us to deal with our soul’s correction process (tikune). Each incarnation we begin, we bring with us aspects of our soul that need to be corrected. If we didn’t have the negative patterning and challenging experiences of childhood, we would never develop the characteristics, the personality traits, or the idiosyncracies that manifest as tikune in adulthood.

So we look for the perfect household that will cultivate our positive traits and talents as well as expose us to the emotional molding that enables us to tackle the issues we were incarnated to correct.

For example, a person who came to correct abandonment issues may very well be born into a home in which the father skips town. If that person didn’t experience being left behind, they would never be able to face the fact that they need to overcome the victim consciousness that has been chasing them for lifetimes. Sure, right now it might be ugly and painful, but if they could step back and watch themselves lifetime after lifetime living out the same patterns, they’d be grateful to have gone through that process and been able to rise above it - once and for all.

In other words, the whole reason we are upset and blameful is because we just can’t see the agony of missing the point, which our soul has endured lifetime after lifetime.

Any time we find ourselves playing the victim card, we need to remind ourselves that we are just pushing back the resolution, prolonging the suffering, and requiring the same song to play again and again and again…

And you know what? Our soul gets tired of hearing the same old song.

All the Best,
Yehuda

Keywords: Weekly Consciousness Tune-Up, Kabbalah

The Four Phases of Karma

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The Four Phases of Karma

Before reading my discourse on karma it would be helpful for you to read the article “Karma and Reincarnation” on this site to acquaint you with the process and terminology. Because I like to keep explanations as simple as possible considering our present realm, my discussion will be short and not complicated by extraneous detail.

Most religions that have incorporated concepts of karma have their own versions of how it works and why. While engaged in the Vedic descriptions of reincarnation and Karma, a new translation became clearly apparent to me. The four phases of Vedic karmic philosophy are metaphoric to a plants’ growth. I’ve restructured/reconstructed these phases in a different way, using terminology familiar to students of Devotional Nonduality, while going a bit further within the explanations. All statements have been tested for Truth.

The Four Phases of Karma or The Karmic Cycle

1. 1st Potentiality…Subtle desires, intentions, propensities not yet realized, but forming.
2. 2nd Potentiality…Manifestation of intention, desires created
3. 3rd Potentiality…Creations bearing accountabilities, debts, stimuli (both positive and negative)
4. 4th Potentiality…Fulfillment of responsibilities, rebirth (socio-economic, physicalities, level of consciousness, karmic debt)

Discussion of Potentialities

The 1st Potentiality has to do with all the subtleties we came with at birth (i.e. influences of past lives, inherent qualities, other unknown experiences), as well as our pressing needs as infants and children. We are forming, through unconsciousness programming. This begins manifesting as beliefs, ideas, and needs.

The 2nd Potentiality is our beginning manifestations of our desires and wishes, whether conscious or unconsciousness. (i.e. our behavior, actions, thoughts, new creations within our physical life)

The 3rd Potentiality is about our creations (actualities). 1. Paying debts owed. 2. Being culpable and/or accountable for all actions. 3. Bearing witness to our lives. 4. Responses to our actions (acceptance/rejection). 5. Raising our levels of consciousness. 6. Elimination of karmic debts.

The 4th Potentiality is rebirth. 1. Physicalities (this can range from deformities/physical propensities such as susceptibility to disease, or superior levels of strength) 2. Socio-Economic conditions (planetary location of birth and familial economic/religious/social conditions) 3. Level of consciousness 4.Karmic debt (actions from past life or lives)

The Non Physical Realm

I will begin with The Infinite Field of Consciousness. This has been called “The Akashic Records” by many throughout time. (see Articles on Akashic Records on this site) It can also be called, “The Mind of God” or “The Infinite Field of Knowledge.” Everything that has ever existed (words, actions, events, thoughts, all creations, (both material and non material) are recorded/stored there for eternity. So if you think anything’s ever been forgotten no need to worry. It’s all there…forever. Every grain of sand, every star in the universe, and every hair on your head is accounted for. This is relevant to karma in that all our actions, both verbal and non verbal, are there for us to see throughout all of our lifetimes. We are literally an open book.

As disincarnates, we have free will, which is a given as extensions of Divine creation. There are “guides” to help us plan our next incarnation, based on our integral level of consciousness and past “karmic deeds”. We may choose a lower socio-economic situation or one with built-in hardships, depending on our debt or specific plan. Those within the lower levels of consciousness are grouped and “seemingly” dispersed back randomly, without regard to economic or physical conditions. This is one theory for why the wealthier/privileged may still have the attributes of lower consciousness levels.

This entire plan is a subtle propensity. Due to the fact that we get spiritual amnesia upon arrival in physical form, the “plan” is subject to the changes of the infinite possibilities of future action. The higher our consciousness level at birth, the more likely we are to “follow” our plan as we “remember” why we’re here, in order to replay a life for karmic dissolution. With higher levels of consciousness, there is no further need to incarnate to discreate karma. At this point, our return to form has a direct and immediate purpose.
©Myswizard all rights reserved ‘05-’06

“Straight and narrow is the path…Waste no time! Gloria in Excelsis Dio!”…Dr. David R. Hawkins

Keywords: Karma, The Four Phases of Karma, Potentialities, Vedic, The Infinite Field of Consciousness, The Akashic Records, Divine, Potentiality, disincarnates, The Non Physical Realm, Afterlife, Karma and Reincarnation

Advaita Vedanta

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Advaita Vedanta

Hinduism

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Murti
Advaita Vedanta (IAST advaita vedānta; Devanagari अद्वैत वेदान्त; IPA [ədvaitə vé:dα:ntə]) is probably the best known of all Vedanta schools of philosophy of Hinduism, the others being Dvaita and Vishishtadvaita (total six). “Advaita” literally means “not two”, and is often called a monistic or non-dualistic system which essentially refers to the indivisibility of the Self (Atman) from the Whole (Brahman). The key texts from which all Vedanta (lit., end or the goal of the Vedas) texts draw are the Upanishads (twelve or thirteen in particular), which are usually at the end of the Vedas, and the Brahma Sutras (also known as Vedanta Sutras), which in turn discuss the essence of the Upanishads.

Adi Sankara: The Pillar of Advaita

The first person to consolidate the principles of Advaita was Adi Sankara (आदि शंकर, pronounced as /α:di shənkərə, 788-820 CE, i.e., 788-820 AD). He is also known as Śankarāchārya (शंकराचार्य, pronounced as /shənkərα:chα:ryə/). Continuing the line of thought of some of the Upanishadic teachers, and also that of his own teacher’s teacher Gaudapada, (Ajativada). Sankara expounded the doctrine of Advaita — a nondualistic reality. According to Advaitins (followers of Advaita), Sankara exposed the relative nature of the world and established the supreme truth of the Advaita by analysing the three states of experience — being awake (vaishvanara), dreaming (swapna), and being in deep sleep (sushupti). The supreme truth of the Advaita is said to be the non-dual reality of Brahman, in which atman (the individual soul) and Brahman (the Supreme Consciousness) are identified absolutely. (Brahman is not to be confused with Brahma, the Creator and one-third of the Trimurti along with Shiva, the Destroyer and Vishnu, the Preserver.)

Adi Shankara, with his disciples. [1]Psychologically, Advaita is a state in which the subject and object lose their independent identities — in which one can no longer differentiate on the basis of any material characteristics. The three states mentioned earlier are said to be mere transformations of this (fourth) state of experience of non-duality turiya.

This idea of a fourth state of consciousness is borrowed from the Taittariya Upanishad, dating back to about 1000 BCE. It may be noted that another school of non-dual (but agnostic) thought, Buddhism, also talks of such a similar transcendental state (as vinnanam anidassanam, in the Brahmanimantanika Sutta (Majjhima-Nikaya)). The idea of such a state of enlightenment has been a favorite with ancient Indian philosophers, and still continues to be.

Sankara’s contributions to Advaita are crucial. His main works are the commentaries on the Prasthanatrayi and the Gaudapadiya karikas. Another treatise on Advaita, popularly attributed to him by the more enthusiastic followers of the system, is the Viveka Chudamani. Note that many other followers believe that this is not the work of Sankara, citing several differences in style and ideas. Many philosophers after Sankara have criticized him of being hypocritical or pracchanabauddha (Buddhist in disguise), mainly due to this work. This is because the Buddhist positions which Sankara refutes in the Brahma Sutra Bhashyas seem to be wholly advocated in the Viveka Chudamani.

Sankara is also well known for propounding a system of bhakti (selfless devotion) and composing several bhajans (devotional songs), which he believed brought one closer to God. Some of his well-known bhajans are Bhaja Govindam, Saundaryalahari and Śivānandalahari.

Salient Features of Advaitism

Indian philosophy
Hindu philosophy
Samkhya
Nyaya
Vaisheshika
Yoga
Purva Mimamsa
Uttara Mimamsa
Advaita Vedanta
Vishishtadvaita
Dvaita
Carvaka philosophy
Jain philosophy
Buddhist philosophy
Logic

Three levels of Truth

The transcendental or the Pāramārthika level in which Brahman is the only reality and nothing else;
The pragmatic or the Vyāvahārika level in which both Jiva (living creatures or individual souls) and Ishvara are true; here, the material world is completely true, and,
The apparent or the Prātibhāsika level in which even material world reality is actually false, like illusion of a snake over a rope or a dream.

Brahman

According to Sankara, God, the the Supreme Cosmic Spirit or Brahman (pronounced as /brəh mən/; nominative singular Brahma, pronounced as /brəh mə/) is the One, the whole and the only reality. Other than Brahman, everything else, including, universe, material objects and individuals are not true. Brahman is (at best) described as that infinite, omnipresent, omnipotent, incorporeal, impersonal, transcendent reality that is the divine ground of all Being. It (gramatically neutral, but exceptionally treated as masculine), though not a substance, is the basis of the material world, which in turn is its illusionary transformation. Brahman is not the effect of the world. Brahman is said to be the purest knowledge itself, and is illuminant like a source of infinite light.

Due to ignorance (avidyā), the Brahman is visible as the material world and its objects. The actual Brahman is attributeless and formless (see Nirguna Brahman). It is the Self-existent, the Absolute and the Imperishable (not generally the object of worship but rather of meditation). Brahman is actually indescribable. But Sankara says that Brahman cannot be identified with Shunya or zeroness of Buddhism. It is at best, “Sat” + “Chit” + “Ananda”, ie, Infinite Truth, Infinite Consciousness and Infinite Bliss. Also, Brahman is free from any kind of differences. It does not have any sajātīya (homogeneous) differences because there is no second Brahman. It does not have any vijātīya (heterogeneous) differences because there is nobody in reality existing other than Brahman. It has neither svagata (internal) differences, because Brahman is itself homogenous.

Though Brahman is self-proven, some logical proofs have also been proposed by Shankara:

Shruti—the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras describe Brahman in almost exact manner as Shankara. This is the testimonial proof of Brahman.
Psychological—every person experiences his soul, or atman. According to Shankara, atman = Brahman. This argument also proves Brahman.
Teliological—the world appears very well ordered; the reason for this cannot be an unconscious principle. The reason must be Brahman.
Essential—Brahman is the basis of this created world.
Perceptible Feeling—Many people, when they achieve the turīya state, claim that their soul has become one with eveything else. The feeling of this transcedental perception is regarded as the best proof for Brahman.

Māyā

Māyā (/mα: yα:/) is the most important contribution of Sankara. Māyā is that complex illusionary power of Brahman which causes the Brahman to be seen as the distinct material world. It has two main functions — one is to “cover up” Brahman from the human minds, and the other is to present the material world in its stead. Māyā is also indescribable. It is neither completely real nor completely unreal—hence indescribable. Its shelter is Brahman, but Brahman itself is untouched by the profanity of Māyā, just like a magician is not tricked by his own magic. Māyā is temporary and is destroyed with “true knowledge”. This Māyāvāda of Sankara was highly criticized and misunderstood. Bhaskaracharya, a Hindu mathematician, described Shankara to be indebted to the Buddhists for his concept of Māyā. But Guff, Cowell and other writers claim to find the concept of Māyā in a germinating form in the Vedas and the Upanishads. Shankara had used the terms Māyā and avidya (ignorance) in the same sense, but the later Advaitins called Māyā as the positive force of God and avidyā as a negetive knowledge.

The concept of Māyā seems to be a hypothesis. Since according to the Upanishads only Brahman is real, but we see the material world to be real, Shankara explained the anomaly by the concept of this illusionary power Māyā.

Ishvara

Ishvara (pronounced as /ī:sh vərə/, lit., the Supreme Lord) — when man tries to know the attributeless Brahman with his mind, under the influence of Maya, Brahman becomes the Lord. Ishvara is Brahman with Maya — the manifested form of Brahman. Shankara uses a metaphor that when the “reflection” of the Cosmic Spirit falls upon the mirror of Maya, it appears as the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Lord is true only in the pragmatic level — his actual form in the transcendental level is the Cosmic Spirit.

Ishvara is Saguna Brahman or Brahman with innumerable auspicious qualities. He is all-perfect, omniscient, omnipresent, incorporeal, independent, Creator of the world, its ruler and also destroyer. He is causeless, eternal and unchangeable — and is yet the material and the efficient cause of the world. He is both immanent (like whiteness in milk) and transcendent (like a watch-maker independent of a watch). He may be even regarded to have a personality. He is the subject of worship. He is the basis of morality and giver of the fruits of one’s Karma. However, he himself is beyond sin and merit. He rules the world with his Maya — his divine power. This association with a “false” knowledge does not affect the perfection of Ishvara, in the same way as a magician is himself not tricked by his magic. However, while Isvara is the Lord of Maya and she (ie, Maya) is always under his control, the living beings (jīva, in the sense of humans) are the servants of Maya (in the form of ignorance). This ignorance is the cause of the unhappiness and sin in the mortal world. While Ishvara is Infinite Bliss, humans are miserable. Ishvara always knows the unity of the Brahman substance, and the Mayic nature of the world. There is no place of a Satan or devil in Hinduism, unlike Abrahamic religions. Advaitins explain the misery because of ignorance. Ishvara can also be visualized and worshipped in anthropomorphic form like Vishnu, Krishna or Shiva.

Now the question arises that why the Supreme Lord created the world. If one assumes that Ishvara creates the world for any incentive, this slanders the wholeness and perfection of Ishvara. For example, if one assumes that Ishvara creates the world for gaining something, it would be against his perfection. If we assume that He creates for compassion, it would be illogical, because the emotion of compassion cannot arise in a blank and void world in the beginning (when only Ishvara existed). So Shankara assumes that Creation is a sport of Ishvara. It is His nature, just as it is man’s nature to breathe.

The sole proof for Ishvara that Sankara gives is Shruti’s mentions about Ishvara, as Ishvara is beyond logic and thinking. This is similar to Kant ’s philosophy about Ishvara in which he says that “faith” is the basis of theism. However, Shankara has also given few other logical proofs for Ishvara, but warning us not to completely rely on them:

The world is a work, an effect, and so must have real cause. This cause must be Ishvara.
The world has a wonderful unity, coordination and order, so its creator must have been an intelligent being.
People do good and sinful work and get its fruits, either in this life or after. People themselves cannot be the giver of their fruits, as no one would give himself the fruit of his sin. Also, this giver cannot be an unconscious object. So the giver of the fruits of Karma is Ishvara.

Atman

The swan is an important motif in Advaitism. It symbolizes two things — firstly, the swan is called hamsah in Sanskrit (which becomes hamso if the first letter in the next word is /h/). Upon repeating this hamso indefinitely, it becomes so-aham, meaning, “I am That”. Secondly, just like a swan lives in water but its feathers are not soiled by water, similarly a liberated Advaitin lives in this world full of Maya but is untouched by its illusion.The soul or the self (Atman) is exactly equal to Brahman. It is not a part of Brahman that ultimately dissolves into Brahman, but the whole Brahman itself. Now the arguers ask that how can the individual soul, which is limited and one in each body, be the same as Brahman? Shankara explains that the soul is not an individual concept. Atman is only one and unique. It is a false concept that there are several Atmans. Shankara says that just as the same moon appears as several moons on its reflections on the surface of water covered with bubbles, the one Atman appears as multiple atmans in our bodies because of Maya. Atman it self-proven, however, some proofs are discussed—eg., a person says “I am blind”, “I am happy”, “I am fat” etc. So what is this ego here? Only that thing is the ego which is there in all the states of that person — this proves the existence of Atman, and that consciousness is its characteristic. Reality and Bliss are also its characteristics. By nature, Atman is free and beyond sin and merit. It does not experience happiness or pain. It does not do any Karma. It is incorporeal.

When the reflection of atman falls on Avidya (ignorance), atman becomes jīva — a living being with a body and senses. Each jiva feels as if he has his own, unique and distinct Atman, called jivatman. The concept of jiva is true only in the pragmatic level. In the transcendental level, only the one Atman, equal to Brahman, is true.

Salvation

Liberation or Moksha (akin to Nirvana of the Buddhists) — Advaitins also believe in the theory of reincarnation of souls (Atman) into plants, animals and humans according to their karma. They believe that suffering is due to Maya, and only true knowledge of the Brahman can destroy Maya. When Maya is removed, there exists ultimately no difference between the Jiva-Atman and the Brahman. Such a state of bliss called Moksha can even be achieved while living (jivana mukti). While one is in the pragmatic level, one can (and MUST) worship God in any way and in any form, like Krishna as he wishes. Sankara himself was a proponent of devotional worship or Bhakti. But Sankara believes that Vedic sacrifices, puja and devotional worship can lead man to true knowledge, however, they cannot lead him directly to Moksha. Moksha is the outcome solely of true knowledge.

Other points

The famous mantra of Shankara was “Brahma Satyam Jagat Mithyā, jīvo Brahmaiva nāparah”, ie, Brahman is the only truth, the world is unreal, and there is ultimately no difference between Brahman and individual self.
Shankara also explicitly condemned the caste or varna system of the Hindu society, calling it utterly foolish. This is in contrast to other schools like Vishishtadvata, Dvaita and Mimamsa who believe that since caste is based upon one’s karmas in previous life, it should be unscrupulously followed. Sankara also condemned many other superstitions.
Shankara established four monastries (mathas) in the four corners of Hinduism to guide the Hindu religion in the future. Each matha was assigned one Veda. The mathas are Jyothir Math at Badrinath in northern India with Atharva Veda; Sharada Math at Shringeri in southern India with Yajur Veda; Govardhan Math at Jagannath Puri in eastern India with Rig Veda and Kalikā Math at Dwarka in western India with Sama Veda. Each of the abbots of these four mathas also have the title of Jagadguru Shankaracharya — and are regarded as Patriarchs of Hinduism by many Hindus. Sometimes, the title of Shankaracharya is also applied to the abbot of the Kamakoti Math at Kanchi, the place where Adi Shankara reportedly passed away.

Are the world and God wholly false?
Status of the world

People often get confused by Advaita teachings that the universe is false. Shankara says that the world is not true, it is an illusion, but this is because of some logical reasons. Let us first analyse Shankara’s definition of Truth, and hence why the world is not considered true.

Shankara says that whatever thing remains eternal is true, and whatever is non-eternal is untrue. Since the world is created and destroyed, it is not true.
Truth is the thing which is unchanging. Since the world is changing, it is not true.
Whatever is independent of space and time is true, and whatever has space and time in itself is untrue.
Just as one sees dreams in sleep, he sees a kind of super-dream when he is waking.The world is compared to this conscious dream.
The world is believed to be a superimposition of the Brahman. Superimposition cannot be true.
On the other hand, Shankara claims that the world is not absolutely false. It appears false only when compared to Brahman. In the pragmatic state, the world is completely true—which occurs as long as we are under the influence of Maya. The world cannot be both true and false at the same time; hence Shankara has classified the world as indescribable. The following points suggest that according to Shankara, the world is not false (Shankara himself gave most of the arguments):

If the world were false, then with the liberation of the first human being, the world would have been annihilated. However, the world continues to exist even if a human attains liberation.
Shankara believes in Karma, or good actions. This is a feature of this world. So the world cannot be false.
The Supreme Reality Brahman is the basis of this world. The world is like its reflection. Hence the world cannot be totally false.
False is something which is ascribed to inexistent things, like Sky-lotus. The world is a logical thing which is perceived by our senses.
Consider a scientific logic. A pen is placed in front of a mirror. One can see its reflection. To our eyes, the image of the pen is perceived. Now, what should the image be called? It cannot be true, because it is an image. The truth is the pen. It cannot be false, because it is seen by our eyes.

Status of God

Some people claim that in Shankara’s philosophy, there is no place for a personal God (Ishvara), because Ishvara is also described as “false”. He appears as Ishvara because of the curtain of Maya. However, as described earlier, just as the world is true in the pragmatic level, similarly, Ishvara is also pragmatically true. Just as the world is not absolutely false, Ishvara is also not absolutely false. He is the distributor of the fruits of one’s Karma. In order to make the pragmatic life successful, it is very important to believe in God and worship him. In the pragmatic level, whenever we talk about Brahman, we are in fact talking about God. God is the highest knowledge theoretically possible in that level. Devotion (Bhakti) will cancel the effects of bad Karma and will make a person closer to the true knowledge by purifying his mind. Slowly, the difference between the worshipper and the worshipped decreases and upon true knowledge, liberation occurs.

Status of ethics

Some claim that there is no place for ethics in Advaitism, because everything is ultimately illusionary. But on analysis, ethics also has a firm place in this philosophy—the same place as the world and God. Ethics, which implies doing good Karma, indirectly helps in attaining true knowledge. The basis of merit and sin is the Shruti (the Vedas and the Upanishads). Truth, non-violence, service of others, pity, etc are Dharma, and lies, violence, cheating, selfishness, greed, etc are adharma (sin).

Shankara’s theory of creation

In the pragmatic level, Shankara believes in the Creation of the world through Satkaryavada. It is like the philosophy of Samkhya, which says that the cause is always hidden into its effect—and the effect is just a transformation of the cause. However, Samkhya believes in a sub-form of Satkaryavada called Parinamvada (evolution)—whereby the cause results in an action. Instead, Shankara believes in a sub-form called Vivartavada. According to this, the effect is merely a superimposition of its cause—like its illusion. eg., In darkness, a man often confuses a rope to be a snake. But this does not mean that the rope has actually transformed into a snake.

In the pragmatic level, the universe is believed to be the creation of the Supreme Lord Ishvara. Maya is the divine magic of Ishvara, with the help of which Ishvara creates the world. The serial of Creation is taken from the Upanishads. First of all, the five subtle elements (ether, air, fire, water and earth) are created from Ishvara. Ether is created by Maya. From ether, air is born. From air, water is born. From water, earth is born. From a proportional combination of all five subtle elements, the five gross elements are created, like the gross sky, the gross fire, etc. From these gross elements, the universe and life are created. This series is exactly the opposite during destruction.

Some people have criticized that these principles are against Satkaryavada. According to Satkaryavada, the cause is hidden inside the effect. How can Ishvara, whose form is spiritual, be the effect of this material world? Shankra says that just as from a conscious living human, inanimate objects like hair and nails are formed, similarly, the inanimate world is formed from the spiritual Ishvara.

Comparison with the Buddhist school of Shunyavada

The Buddha had not answered philosophical questions like God, the world and its creation. So the later Buddhist schools developed their own theory. The Madhyamika school of Mahayana Buddhism developed a theory, called Shunyavada, which is quite similar to Advaitism.

Similarities between the two:

The world is not believed to be eternal, nor true.
Both have defined different levels of truth. the Madhyamikas have defined two levels of truth.
The Madhyamikas believe that the eternal voidness (Shunyata) is the cause of this material world. This occurs because of illusion.
Differences between the two:

The Shunyata of the Madhyamikas is neither real nor false—it cannot be described at all. In contrast, Brahman is infinite Truth, infinite Consciousness and supreme Bliss.
The soul is believed to be false in the Madhyamika school, but true in Advaitism.
Some people interpret the Shunya to be falsehood. So the world of these Buddhist seems to evolve from a void—from a false thing. In Advaitism, the world evolves from the true Brahman. Shankara had given only one criticism against the Madhyamikas—The Shunyavada, “being contradictory to all valid means of knowledge, we have not thought worth while to refute.” [2]
In Advaitism, the personal God (Ishvara)is the manifestation of the Brahman (God). Among the Madhyamikas, there is no place for a personal God.

Adi Sankara’s thoughts in a summary

Adi Sankara’s treatises on the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras are his principal and almost undeniably his own works. Although he mostly adhered to traditional means of commenting on the Brahma Sutra, there are a number of original ideas and arguments. He taught that it was only through knowledge and wisdom of nonduality that one could be enlightened.

Sankara’s opponents accused him of teaching Buddhism in the garb of Hinduism, because his non-dualistic ideals were a bit radical to contemporary Hindu philosophy. However, it may be noted that while the Later Buddhists arrived at a changeless, deathless, absolute truth after their insightful understanding of the unreality of samsara, historically Vedantins never liked this idea. Although Advaita also proposes the theory of Maya, explaining the universe as a “trick of a magician”, Sankara and his followers see this as a consequence of their basic premise that Brahman is real. Their idea of Maya emerges from their belief in the reality of Brahman, rather than the other way around.

Sankara was a peripatetic orthodox Hindu monk who traveled the length and breadth of India. The more enthusiastic followers of the Advaita tradition claim that he was chiefly responsible for “driving the Buddhists away”. Historically the decline of Buddhism in India is known to have taken place long after Sankara or even Kumarila Bhatta (who according to a legend had “driven the Buddhists away” by defeating them in debates), sometime before the Muslim invasion into Afghanistan (earlier Gandhara).

Although today’s most enthusiastic followers of Advaita believe Sankara argued against Buddhists in person, a historical source, the Madhaviya Sankara Vijayam, indicates that Sankara sought debates with Mimamsa, Samkhya, Nyaya, Vaisheshika and Yoga scholars as keenly as with any Buddhists. In fact his arguments against the Buddhists are quite mild in the Upanishad Bhashyas, while they border on the acrimonious in the Brahma Sutra Bhashya.

The Vishistadvaita and Dvaita schools believed in an ultimately saguna Brahman. They differ passionately with Advaita, and believe that his nirguna Brahman is not different from the Buddhist Sunyata (wholeness or zeroness) — much to the dismay of the Advaita school. A careful study of the Buddhist Sunyata will show that it is in some ways metaphysically similar as Brahman. Whether Sankara agrees with the Buddhists is not very clear from his commentaries on the Upanishads. His arguments against Buddhism in the Brahma Sutra Bhashyas are more a representation of Vedantic traditional debate with Buddhists than a true representation of his own individual belief. (See link: Sankara’s arguments against Buddhism)

The Impact of Advaita

Advaita Vedanta philosophy had a tremendous impact on the Hindu system of Tantra and also served to bolster Yogic (see Yoga) ideas of the ultimate Self, Brahman/Atman, being One. Advaita rejuvenated much of Hindu thought and also spurred on debate that led to the expounding of Vishishtadvaita (qualified nondualism) and Dvaita (dualism). Advaita served to bring to the fore the Hindu/Vedic philosophy whose seed can be seen in the Rig Vedic statement “Truth is One, though the sages see it as many.” Advaitism is definitely the deepest and the most influential philosophy of India. Even today, pious Hindus regard material wealth and money as “Moha-Maya”.

Advaita and Science

According to some followers of Advaita, it may very well be a place where the scientific world intersects with the spiritual world. They point to the relationships between mass, frequency, and energy that 20th century physics has established and the Advaitic ‘Unity of the Universe’ as the common ground. They feel that these relationships, formalized as equations by Planck and Einstein, suggest that the whole mesh of the Universe blend into a One that exhibits itself as many (namely, mass, energy, wave etc), and that this follows Advaita’s view that everything is but the manifestation of an omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent “One”. It must be remembered however, that none of these physicists have talked of an ‘omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent “One”‘.

They also connect the De Broglie waves of modern physics to Aum in Hindu philosophy. However, scientists in India and abroad clarify that the de Broglie waves (or matter waves) are neither optical nor acoustic waves, but are “just functions of a probability distribution of finding a particle, which may be represented as a Fourier sum of constituent probability waves.”

However, notable scientists like Erwin Schrödinger and Robert Oppenheimer were also Vedantists. Fritjof Capra’s book, The Tao of Physics, is one among several that pursue this viewpoint as it investigates the relationship between modern, particularly quantum, physics and the core philosophies of various Eastern religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism.

It must be noted that Advaita does not share the same ground on Science as other schools of philosophy do. For example, Sankara rejected the idea of momentariness of the Universe in his Brahma Sutra commentary since Brahman is immanent in the Universe, while Buddhists affirm that the universe on its own accord, due to the causality of the dharmas, is constantly changing. The dvaita-enthusiasts on the contrary, blame Sankara for inconsistency, since he adopts the view that the Universe is momentary in many of his other works like the Upanishad bhashya. Dvaita-enthusiasts see the Universe as a creation of God, while Advaitins see it as a manifestation of Brahman; Buddhists on the other hand see it as a flux of changes, originating from natural phenomena leading to its formation.

Mahavakya

Mahavakya, or “the great sentences,” state the unity of Brahman and Atman. They are 4 in number and their variations are found in other Upanishads.

Sr. No. Vakya Meaning Upanishad Veda
1 प्रज्नानम ब्रह्म prajnānam brahmā Brahman is knowledge aitareya Rig Veda
2. अहम ब्रह्मास्मि Aham brahmāsmi I am brahman brihadāranyaka Yajur Veda
3. तत्त्त्वमसि tattvamasi That thou art chhandogya Sama Veda
4. अयमात्मा ब्रह्म Ayamātmā brahmā This Atman is Brahman mandukya Atharva Veda

Founders & key texts

Sri Adi Shankaracharya - (attributed work) Viveka Chudamani, the Brahma Sutra Bhashya Bhagavad Gita Bhashya, Upanishad bhashya.
Upanishads
Vedanta Sutras
Vedas
Traditional life history of Adi Shankara - Historical record accepted by scholars worldwide. Written by Madhava Vidyaranya, English translations by Swamy Tapsyananda of Ramkrishna Ashram, Mylapore, Chennai.
mahavkyas are six in number-

1-aham brahmasmi

2-ayam atma brahma

3-tat tvam asi

4-sarvam khalvidam brahma

5-pragyanam brahma

6-soaham

Demigods, Sages, and Saints of Advaitins

Lord Shri Rama
Lord Shri Krishna
Marici
Angiras
Atri
pulaha
kratu
pulastya
Vashishta
Kashyapa
Vishwamitra
Jamadagni
Gautama
Bharadwaja
Bhrigu
Agastya
Shri Dattatreya
Shri Ashtawakra
Vyasa

Later teachers and proponents

Shri Ramakrishna (1836-1886) well-known modern proponent of Advaita; the primary source book, Gospel of Shri Ramakrishna (Shri Ramakrishna Kathamrita), was written by an eyewitness devotee ‘M’. It documents his later life and conversations with disciples/devotees and serves as the key reference for his philosophy/teachings
Sai Baba of Shirdi (c. 1838-1918), a mystic philosopher of Maharashtra, he was followed devotedly by Hindus and Muslims alike and practiced a blend of Vedantic Hinduism and Sufi Islam.
Shri Narayana Guru (1856-1928)- Vedic scholar, mystic philosopher, prolific poet and social reformer, who, after Adi Shankara, was the next greatest proponent of Advaita Vedanta from the present-day Kerala.
Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), disciple of Shri Ramakrishna, wrote books on four Hindu Yogas: Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga and Raja Yoga. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda contains a complete collection of transcribed lectures. Spoke at the 1893 Parliament of Religions at the Columbian Exhibition in Chicago.
Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) Bengali philosopher-sage who synthesized Advaita thought with Western theories of evolution.
Shri Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) the silent sage of Tamil Nadu who had a profound realization of nonduality
Shri Swami Tapovan Maharaj - A virakta mahatma
Shri Swami Sivananda (1887—1963), Divine Life Society. Bestowed samyasa initiation of Swami Chinmayananda, scholar, and author of over 300 books on Hinduism, many available on the web.
Shri Swami Chinmayananda Jnana diksha bestowed under Shri Swami Tapovan Maharaj in Uttarkashi. Disciples founded the Chinmaya Mission. ‘Chinmaya’ = “pure consciousness of bliss”.
Shri Swami Dayananda Saraswati, a contemporary Advaitin who united disparate Hindu sects under a single body known as the Arya Samaj.
Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj A twentieth-century master of Neo-Advaita
Shri Sathya Sai Baba, whose philosophy draws on Hindu philosophy while also acknowledging other major religions.
Master Nome (aka Jeffrey Smith), founder of Society of Abidance in Truth. Teaches in tradition of Ramana Maharshi. Co-translator into English of Adi Sankara’s Svatmanirupanam (The True Definition of One’s Own Self) and the Ribhu Gita. Translator of Adi Sankara’s Nirvana-satkam (Six Verses on Nirvana).

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Advaita Vedanta”.

Keywords: Hinduism, Advaita Vedanta, Sankara, Yoga, Bhagavad Gita, Karma, Maya, Moksha, Upanishads, Brahma Sutras, Truth, God, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, One

Madame Blavatsky, Theosophy and The Great White Brotherhood

Published on January 24, 2006

Madame Blavatsky

Biography

By 1882 the Theosophical Society became an international organization, and it was at this time that she moved the headquarters to Adyar near Madras, India.

Her last words in regard to her work were: “Keep the link unbroken! Do not let my last incarnation be a failure.”

She was succeeded as head of one branch of the Theosophical Society, by her protege, Annie Besant. Her friend, WQ Judge, headed the other branch.

Influences

Blavatsky was influenced by the following authors:

William Blake
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Blavatsky influenced the following authors, artists and musicians:

Works

Her books included

Books about her

Quotations

There is no religion higher than truth.

“There is often greater martyrdom to live for the love of, whether man or an ideal, than to die” is a motto of the Mahatmas. (C.W. IV, p. 603)

I am an old Buddhist pilgrim, wandering about the world to teach the only true religion, which is truth.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Madame Blavatsky”.

White Brotherhood

The Great White Brotherhood is a Spiritual Organization composed of those Ascended Masters who have Arisen from our Earth into Immortality, and yet have said: “We are not going on into Cosmic Heights and leaving our brothers and sisters on Earth behind. We will stay and assist.” At this moment in Cosmic History, the Door is wide open. The Great White Brotherhood has been sponsoring the Release of the Spoken Word through conclaves, seminars, writings, books, and through personal discipleship and training. They are releasing the full Teachings that the Dispensations of Cosmic Law allow at the dawning of the Great Golden Age of Saint Germain.

The Great White Brotherhood is a Spiritual Order of Hierarchy, an organization of Ascended Masters united for the highest purposes of God in man as set forth by the Christ, Gautama Buddha, and other World Teachers. The Great White Brotherhood also includes Members of the Heavenly Host, the Spiritual Hierarchy directly concerned with the evolution of our world, Beneficent Members from other planets that are interested in our welfare, as well as certain unascended chelas. The word “white” refers not to race, but to the aura (halo) of the White Light of the Christ that surrounds the saints and sages of all ages who have risen from every nation to be counted among the Immortals. 6

The Great White Brotherhood is a Spiritual Order from every culture and race - Western saints, Eastern adepts, and so on - who have reunited with the Spirit of the Living God and who comprise the Heavenly Hosts. They have transcended the cycles of karma and rebirth and Ascended (accelerated) into that Higher Reality which is the eternal abode of the soul. The Ascended Masters of the Great White Brotherhood, united for the highest purposes of the brotherhood of man under the Fatherhood of God, have risen in every age from every culture and religion to inspire creative achievement in education, the arts and sciences, God-government and the abundant Life through the economies of the nations.

The Brotherhood also includes in Its ranks certain unascended chelas of the Ascended Masters. Jesus the Christ describes this Heavenly Order of Saints as being ‘robed in white’ 1 to his servant John in Revelation.” 5

The Theosophical Society
Blavatsky Net - Theosophy
Theosophy.org

Keywords: The White Brotherhood, Christ, Gautama Buddha, Theosophy, The Theosophical Society, Madame Blavatsky

EBG Excerpt…Truth and The Masters

Published on

Through the masters, everything that has ever been spoken about Truth has been said. All is available. There are no secrets, only Truths one has not heard…Myswizard

Keywords: Truth

Adi Shankara

Published on January 23, 2006

Adi Shankara

Adi Shankara with the Four DisciplesAdi Shankara (Śaṅkara, Shri Shankaracharya, Adhi Shankaracharya, Ādi Śaṅkarācārya; ‘the first Shankara’ in his lineage), reverentially called Bhagavatpada Acharya (the teacher at the feet of the Lord) (approximately 8th century, but see below) was the most famous advaita philosopher, who had a profound influence on the growth of Hinduism through his non-dualistic philosophy. He advocated the greatness and importance of the important Hindu scriptures, the Veda (most particularly on the Upanishads), spoke to a spirituality founded on reason and without dogma or ritualism, and gave new life to Hinduism at a time when Buddhism and Jainism were gaining popularity. He is considered the founder of the Dasanami sannyasin.

Life

Shankara was born in Kalady, a small village in Kerala, India, to a Namboothiri brahmin couple, Shivaguru and Aryamba. The traditional source for accounts of his life is the Shankara Vijayams, which are essentially hagiographies. The most important among them are the MadhavIya Shankaravijaya, the AnandagirIya Shankaravijaya, cidvilAsIya Shankaravijaya, and keralIya Shankaravijaya. What follows is the standard story of Shankara’s life; some of it is clearly mythical, but a substantial portion is historical, according to most scholars. In fact some of them are blatantly misleading. For example it is mentioned in Madhaviya Sankaravijaya that Adi Sankara had an encounter with a great tantric Abhinavagupta of Kamarupa. In fact the great scholar Abhinavagupta, who wrote Tantraloka and Tantrasara among his many books, was a contemporary of Abhinava Sankara and was from Kashmir and not Kamarupa.

Birth

Shankara’s parents were childless for many years, and prayed at the Vadakkumnathan (vRashAcala) temple in Thrissur, Kerala, for the birth of a child. Legend has it that Shiva appeared to both husband and wife in their dreams, and offered them a choice: a mediocre son who would live a long life, or an extraordinary son who would not live long. Both Shivaguru and Aryamba chose the latter. The son was named Shankara, in honour of Shiva.

Formal education

Shivaguru died while Shankara was very young. The child showed remarkable scholarship, and is said to have mastered the four Vedas by the age of eight. Following the common practice of that era, Shankara lived and studied at the home of his teacher. It was customary for students and men of learning to receive Bhiksha or alms from the laity; on one occasion, while accepting Bhiksha, Shankara came upon a woman who had nothing to eat in her house except a single dried amlaka fruit. Rather than consume this last bit of food herself, the pious lady gave away the fruit to Sankara as Bhiksha. Moved by her piety, Shankara composed the Kanakadhara Stotram on the spot. Legend has it that on completion of the stotram, golden amlaka fruits were showered upon the woman by the goddess Lakshmi.

Renunciation

From a young age, Shankara was attracted to asceticism and to the life of a renunciate. However, his mother, Aryamba, was entirely against his becoming a sannyasi, and consistently refused him her formal permission, which was required before he could take Sannyasam. Once when Shankara was bathing in the river, a crocodile gripped him by the leg and began to drag him into the water. Only his mother was nearby, and it proved impossible for her to get him away from the grip of the crocodile. Shankara then told his mother that he was on the verge of death; if she would give him her formal permission verbally, he would at this moment renounce the world and die a Sannyasi or ascetic. At the end of her wits, his mother agreed; Shankara immediately recited the words that made a renunciate of him, entered Sannyasa, and awaited death. But inexplicably, the crocodile released him from its very jaws and swam away. Shankara emerged unscathed from the river, now a Sannyasi.

Seeing in this incident the hand of God, Aryamba put no further obstacles in the path of her son. Shankara then left Kerala and travelled thoroughout India. When he reached the banks of the river Narmada, he met Govinda Bhagavatpada, the disciple of the Advaitin Gaudapada. Shankara was initiated as his disciple.

Travels

Shankara travelled extensively, while writing commentaries on the Upanishads, Vishnu sahasranama, Brahma Sutras, and the Bhagavad Gita. He engaged in a series of debates with Buddhist scholars, and with scholars of the Purva Mimamsa school, which helped in cementing his spiritual ascendancy. One of the most famous of these debates was with the famed ritualist Mandana Mishra.

His most famous encounter was however with an untouchable. On his way to the Vishwanath temple in Kashi, he came upon an untouchable and his dog. When asked to move aside by Shankara’s disciples, the untouchable asked: “Do you wish that I move my soul, the Ātman and ever lasting, or this body made of clay?” Seeing the untouchable as none other than the Lord Shiva, Shankara prostrated himself before Ishwara, composing five shlokas (Manisha Panchakam). It was from Benaras (Kashi) that he started his Vishwa Vijaya Yatra (journey to conquor the world).

Once he was saved by Sri Narasimha from being sacrificed to goddess Kali by a Kapalika. He then composed the Laksmi-Nrsimha stotra. Another famous composition of Sri Adi Shankara is his Bhaja Govindam, in praise of Vishnu.

It is a traditional belief that Adi Sankara installed at Srirangam a yantra called janakarshana to attract pilgrims to this sacred temple, just as at Tirupati he installed the dhanakarshana yantra. Indeed, Srirangam is the most visited Hindu temple in the world, and Tirupati is the richest.

Shankara is believed to have visited the Sarvajnapitha (lit., the Throne of Omniscience) in Kanchi, where he attained samadhi. A later day famous Abhinava Sankarachaya is known to have visited the Sarvajnapitha in Kashmir before he withdrew to Kedarnath and attained samadhi. The Kamakshi Amman temple at Kanchipuram also has a vrindavanam where he is believed to have attained siddhi. He died at Kanchi when only thirty-two years of age. (A variant tradition expounded by keraliya Shankaravijaya places his place of death as Vadakkumnathan (vRashAcala) temple in Thrissur, Kerala.)

Shankara’s dates

Modern scholarship is agreed on dates in the 8th century, though it has proved impossible to reach agreement on Shankara’s precise dates of birth or death. Some religious institutions dedicated to Shankara, such as Shankara mathams, however, ascribe much earlier dates to him. If these dates were true, they would require moving back the date of Buddha (which serves as an anchor for modern academic history of India).

Of the major Shankara Mathams active today, the Kanchi, Dwaraka, and Puri ascribe the dates 509–477 BCE to Shankara. The Sringeri Peetham, on the other hand, accepts the 788–820 CE dates. (See also below.)

According to Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati’s biography of Shankara, published in his book Sannyasa Darshan, Shankara was born in Kalady, Kerala, in 686, and attained mahasamadhi at Kedarnath, Uttaranchal, in 718.

Philosophy and religious thought

At the time of Shankara’s life, Hinduism had lost some of its appeal because of the influence of Buddhism and Jainism. Shankara stressed the importance of the Vedas, and his work helped Hinduism regain strength and popularity. Although he did not live long, he had travelled on foot to various parts of India to restore the study of the Vedas. His philosophy is known as Advaita Vedanta.

Shankara’s theology maintains that spiritual ignorance (avidya) is caused by seeing the self (Ātman) where self is not. Discrimination needs to be developed in order to distinguish true from false and knowledge (jnana) from ignorance (avidya). Shankara proposed that, while the phenomenal universe, our consciousness and bodily being are certainly experienced, they are not true reality, but are rather maya. He considered that the ultimate truth was Brahman, the single divine foundation, which is beyond time, space, and causation. Brahman is immanent and transcendent, but not merely a pantheistic concept. Indeed, while Brahman is the efficient and material cause for the cosmos, Brahman itself is not limited by self-projection, and transcends all binary opposites or dualities, especially such individuated aspects as form and being.

We must pierce through a hazy lens to understand our true being and nature, which is not change and mortality, but unmitigated bliss for eternity. If we are to understand the true motive behind our actions and thoughts, we must become aware of the fundamental unity of being. How, he asks, can a limited mind comprehend the limitless Ātman? It cannot, he argues, and therefore we must transcend even the mind and become one with Soul-consciousness.

Shankara denounced caste and meaningless ritual as foolish, and in his own charismatic manner exhorted the true devotee to meditate on god’s love and to apprehend truth. His treatises on the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and Vedanta Sutras are testaments to a keen and intuitive mind that did not want to admit dogma but advocated reason. His greatest lesson was that reason and abstract philosophising alone would not lead to moksha (liberation). It was only through selflessness and love governed by viveka (discrimination) that a devotee would realise his inner self. Charges that his philosophical views were influenced by Buddhism are unfounded, as both Buddha and Sankara’s views were based on the ancient shastras. Buddhas shunyata is misconstrued by many as negation of being. Nagarjuna in Mulamadhyamakakaika clearly states that shunyata of Buddhism is neither nothingness nor no-nothingness. It is like the Nisadiya sutra of the Rig veda telling that the ultimate reality is neither existence nor non-existence. Sankara believed that the unmanifest Brahman manifested itself as Ishwara, the loving, perfect being on high who is seen by many as being Vishnu or Shiva or whatever their hearts dictate. Shankara is said to have travelled throughout India, from the South to Kashmir, preaching to the local populaces and debating philosophy (apparently successfully, though no documentation exists) with other Hindu and Buddhist scholars and monks along the way.

His beliefs form the basis of the Smarta tradition, or Smartism and influenced Sant Matha lineages such as Advait Matha. [1]

Even though he lived for only thirty-two years, his impact on India and on Hinduism cannot be stressed enough, as he countered the increasing sacerdotalism (the belief that priests can mediate between humans and god) of the masses, and reintroduced a purer form of Vedic thought. He presented a face of Hinduism that could reasonably contend with Buddhist ideas and spread it, as well as reformist measures, across the land, travelling from as far up as Kashmir from areas in South India. His Hindu revival movement paved the way for the strict theistic movements of Ramanuja and Madhva. The historians like Vincent Smith suggested that it was due to Adi Sankaracharya there was decline of Buddhism in India. Other argue that it was due to the Muslim invasion (of Bakhtyar) that Nalanda was routed and the library there was burned and thousands of Buddha viharas were destroyed subsequently.

Works

Adi Shankara has authored many works of stotras, and bhashyas, many of these are debated and questioned but below are a list of Books certainly written by Adi Shankara:

The “Crest-Jewel of Discrimination” or Viveka Chudamani, one of his most famous works, which summarises his ideas of non-dual Vedanta
The commentary Bhashya on the Brahma Sutra
The commentary on the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
The commentary on the Taittiriya Upanishad
The Thousand Teachings or Upadesasahasri
A hymn to Krishna as the Herder of Cows, known as Bhaja Govindam
Benedictory invocation to Shiva and Shakti, namely Shivanandalahari and Saundaryalahari respectively
Commentary on Vishnu Sahasranama
Books he probably wrote are:

The commentary on Gaudapada’s Karika to the Mandukya Upanishad

The commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, though there is no scholarly agreement on this.

Mathas (monasteries)

Shankara is said to have founded four maṭhas (a matha is a monastery or religious order), which are important to this day, to guide the Hindu religion in the future. These are at Sringeri in Karnataka, in the south; Dwaraka in Gujarat in the west; Puri in Orissa in the east; and Jyotirmath (Joshimath) in Uttaranchal in the north. He put in charge of these mathas his four main disciples: Sureshwaracharya, Hastamalaka, Padmapada, and Trotakacharya respectively; the heads of the mathas trace their authority back to them. Each matha was assigned one Veda. The Jyothir Math near Badrinath in northern India is assigned with Atharva Veda; Sharada Math at Shringeri in southern India with Yajur Veda; Govardhan Math at Jagannath Puri in eastern India with Rig Veda and Kalikā Math at Dwarka in western India with Sama Veda. Each of the abbots of these four mathas also have the title of Jagadguru Shankaracharya — and are regarded as Patriarchs of Hinduism by many Hindus. However, some claim that there is no concrete evidence for the existence of these mathas before the 14th century.

The matha at Kanchipuram or Kanchi in Tamil Nadu claims that it was also founded by Shankara. According to this matha, it was where he settled in his last days and attained mahāsamādhi (i.e. left his body), but there are other, accounts which claim that he attained mahāsamādhi at Kedarnath.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Adi_Shankara”.

Keywords: Adi Shankara, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Buddha, Rig veda, Vedanta Sutras, God, Vishnu, Advaita Vedanta

Essence

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Essence

What begins a fruit or flower
Surely must be seed.
Looked closely under scrutiny,
Is not a seed indeed!
The particles which make it up
and spaces in between,
When looked at even smaller,
Can hardly ‘er be seen.
When scientists can break it down
Into matter much less grand,
The spaces that are nothingness
Seem ever to expand.
What is this space, this emptiness
That one can’t put to test?
The beauty of a petal
The juice of peach’s’ best?
Where is the flower, what is the fruit,
If beginnings are apparent?
What are we then, before we’re here?
Our stuff that is inherent.
If our code’s invisible, what else that isn’t shown
Is the source of life, that stuff, that what
The essence yet unknown?
I know it yet, can one be sure
They know the code, unbroken?
The Truth, the answer, the secret of life,
One thing that’s yet unspoken
The mystery may haunt us all
We’ll question to the end,
What is life’s’ source, and do we care?
We seem to waste and spend.
Hold tight! I will wait quietly,
But never feeling fear
That I don’t know the knowing of
The Truth eluding us, so dear,
The secret’s out…so close…now wait
I’ll tell you how I live
Filled with Love, life’s’ energy
So much of, yet to give.
Don’t squander this, and cherish that
So eternally you’ll be
The precious nothing in us all
The stuff that sets us free!

Keywords: Essence

Rig Veda

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Rig Veda
The hymns of the Rig Veda are considered the oldest and most important of the Vedas, having been composed between 1500 BC and the time of the great Bharata war about 900 BC. More than a thousand hymns are organized into ten mandalas or circles of which the second through the seventh are the oldest and the tenth is the most recent. The Hindu tradition is that even the Vedas were gradually reduced from much more extensive and ancient divine revelations but were perverted in the recent dark age of Kaliyuga. As the only writings from this ancient period of India, they are considered the best source of knowledge we have; but the ethical doctrines seem to have improved from the ancient hymns to the mystical Upanishads.

Essentially the Rig Veda is dominated by hymns praising the Aryan gods for giving them victories and wealth plundered from the local Dasas through warfare. The Aryans apparently used their advances in weaponry and skill in fighting to conquer the agricultural and tribal peoples of the fading Harappan culture. Numerous hymns refer to the use of horses and chariots with spokes which must have given their warriors a tremendous advantage. Spears, bows, arrows, and iron weapons are also mentioned. As a nomadic and pastoral culture glorifying war, they established a new social structure of patriarchal families dominated by warriors and, eventually with the power of the Vedas themselves, by priests also.

The Rig Veda does mention assemblies, but these were probably of the warrior elite, which may have had some controlling influence on the kings and the tribal priest called a purohita. The gods worshiped resemble the Indo-European gods and were headed by the powerful Indra, who is often credited with destroying ninety forts. Also popular was Agni, the fire-god considered a messenger of the gods. Varuna and Mitra, the gods of the night and day sky, have been identified with the Greek Uranos and the Persian Mithras respectively. Dyaus, who is not mentioned nearly as often, has been correlated with the Greek Zeus. Surya the sun-god is referred to as the eye of Varuna and the son of Dyaus and rides through the sky on his chariot led by his twin sons, the Asvins who represent his rays; Ushas the dawn is his wife or daughter. Maruts are storm-gods shaped by Rudra, who may have been one of the few indigenous deities adopted by the Aryans. Like the Iranian Avesta, the Rig Veda refers to the thirty-three gods.

Generally the hymns of the Rig Veda praise the gods and ask them for worldly benefits such as wealth, health, long life, protection, and victory over the Dasa peoples.

He, self-reliant, mighty and triumphant,
brought low the dear head of the wicked Dasas.
Indra the Vritra-slayer, Fort-destroyer,
scattered the Dasa hosts who dwelt in darkness.
For men hath he created earth and waters,
and ever helped the prayer of him who worships.
To him in might the Gods have ever yielded,
to Indra in the tumult of battle.
When in his arms they laid the bolt,
he slaughtered the Dasyus
and cast down their forts of iron.1

They call upon Brihaspati or Brahmanaspati, who has been related to a Hittite thunder-god, to avenge the sinner and protect them from the deceitful and wicked man. The Aryans did have a concept of eternal law called rita, which the immortal Agni in serving the gods is said to never break (Rig Veda III:3:1).

In Rig Veda III:34:9 Indra killed the Dasyus and “gave protection to the Aryan color.” Not only did the Aryans shamelessly pray for booty in war, but they based their militarily won supremacy on the lightness of their skin color compared to the dark colors of the native Dasyus. They arrogantly proclaimed, “Let those who have no weapons suffer sorrow.” (Rig Veda IV:5:14.)

Renowned is he when conquering and when slaying:
’tis he who wins cattle in the combat.
When Indra hardens his indignation
all that is fixed and all that moves fear him.
Indra has won all kine, all gold, all horses, -
Maghavan, he who breaks forts in pieces;2

Indra is praised for killing thousands of the abject tribes of Dasas with his arrow and taking great vengeance with “murdering weapons.” (Rig Veda IV:28:3-4) One hymn mentions sending thirty thousand Dasas “to slumber” and another hymn sixty thousand slain. A hymn dedicated to the weapons of war (Rig Veda VI:75) refers to a warrior “armed with mail,” using a bow to win cattle and subdue all regions, “upstanding in the car the skillful charioteer guides his strong horses on whithersoe’er he will.” The arrows had iron mouths and shafts “with venom smeared” that “not one be left alive.” Hymn VII:83 begins, “Looking to you and your alliance, O ye men, armed with broad axes they went forward, fain for spoil. Ye smote and slew his Dasa and his Aryan enemies.”

Only occasionally did the authors of these hymns look to their own sins.

Free us from sins committed by our fathers,
from those wherein we have ourselves offended.
O king, loose, like a thief who feeds the cattle,
as from the cord a calf, set free Vasishtha.
Not our own will betrayed us, but seduction,
thoughtlessness, Varuna! wine, dice or anger.
The old is near to lead astray the younger:
even sleep removes not all evil-doing.3

A hymn to the frogs compares the repetitions of the priests around the soma bowl to the croaking of the frogs around a pond after the rains come. (Rig Veda VII:103)

The basic belief of the prayers and sacrifices is that they will help them to gain their desires and overcome their enemies, as in Rig Veda VIII:31:15: “The man who, sacrificing, strives to win the heart of deities will conquer those who worship not.” Some awareness of a higher law seems to be dawning in the eighth book in hymn 75: “The holy law hath quelled even mighty men of war. Break ye not off our friendship, come and set me free.” However, the enemies are now identified with the Asuras and still are intimidated by greater weapons: “Weaponless are the Asuras, the godless: scatter them with thy wheel, impetuous hero.” (Rig Veda VIII:85:9)

Many of the hymns refer to the intoxicating soma juice, which is squeezed from the mysterious soma plant and drank. All of the hymns of the ninth book of the Rig Veda are dedicated to the purifying soma, which is even credited with making them feel immortal, probably because of its psychedelic influence. The first hymn in this book refers to the “iron-fashioned home” of the Aryans.

In the first book of the Rig Veda the worshipers recognize Agni as the guard of eternal law (I:1:8) and Mitra and Varuna as lovers and cherishers of law who gained their mighty power through law (I:2:8). In the 24th hymn they pray to Varuna, the wise Asura, to loosen the bonds of their sins. However, the prayers for riches continue, and Indra is thanked for winning wealth in horses, cattle, and gold by his chariot. Agni helps to slay the many in war by the hands of the few, “preserving our wealthy patrons with thy succors, and ourselves.” (Rig Veda I:31:6, 42) Indra helped win the Aryan victory:

He, much invoked, hath slain Dasyus and Simyus,
after his wont, and laid them low with arrows.
The mighty thunderer with his fair-complexioned friends
won the land, the sunlight, and the waters.4

Control of the waters was essential for agricultural wealth. Indra is praised for crushing the godless races and breaking down their forts. (Rig Veda I:174)

In the tenth and last book of the Rig Veda some new themes are explored, but the Dasyus are still condemned for being “riteless, void of sense, inhuman, keeping alien laws,” and Indra still urges the heroes to slay the enemies; his “hand is prompt to rend and burn, O hero thunder-armed: as thou with thy companions didst destroy the whole of Sushna’s brood.” (Rig Veda X:22)

One unusual hymn is on the subject of gambling with dice. The speaker regrets alienating his wife, wandering homeless in constant fear and debt, envying others’ well-ordered homes. He finally warns the listener not to play with dice but recommends cultivating his land. (Rig Veda X:34) Hymn 50 of this most recent last book urges Indra to win riches with valor “in the war for water on their fields.” Now the prayer is that “we Gods may quell our Asura foemen.” (Rig Veda X:53:4) A wedding ceremony is indicated in a hymn of Surya’s bridal, the daughter of the sun. (Rig Veda X:85)

The first indication of the caste system is outlined in the hymn to Purusha, the embodied human spirit, who is one-fourth creature and three-fourths eternal life in heaven.

The Brahmin was his mouth,
of both his arms was the Rajanya made.
His thighs became the Vaisya,
from his feet the Sudra was produced.5

The Brahmin caste was to be the priests and teachers; the Rajanya represents the king, head of the warrior or Kshatriya caste; Vaishyas are the merchants, craftsmen, and farmers; and the Sudras are the workers. In hymn 109 the brahmachari or student is mentioned as engaged in duty as a member of God’s own body.

The hymn to liberality is a breath of fresh air:

The riches of the liberal never waste away,
while he who will not give finds none to comfort him.
The man with food in store who,
when the needy comes in miserable case
begging for bread to eat,
Hardens his heart against him -
even when of old he did him service -
find not one to comfort him.6

Yet later we realize that the priests are asking for liberality to support their own services, for the “plowing makes the food that feeds us,” and thus a speaking (or paid) Brahmin is better than a silent one.

The power of speech is honored in two hymns.

Where, like men cleansing corn-flour in a cribble,
the wise in spirit have created language,
Friends see and recognize the marks of friendship:
their speech retains the blessed sign imprinted.7

In hymn 125 of the tenth mandala Vak or speech claims to have penetrated earth and heaven, holding together all existence.

A philosophical hymn of creation is found in Rig Veda X:129. Beginning from non-being when nothing existed, not even water nor death, that One breathless breathed by itself. At first this All was concealed by darkness and formless chaos, but by heat (tapas) that One came into existence. Thus arose desire, the primal seed and germ of Spirit. Sages searching in their hearts discovered kinship with the non-existent. A ray of light extended across the darkness, but what was known above or below? Creative fertility was there with energy and action, but who really knows where this creation came from? For the gods came after the world’s creation. Who could know the source of this creation and how it was produced? The one seeing it in the highest heaven only knows, or maybe it does not.

The Rig Veda Index

Keywords: Rig Veda

Jnana Yoga

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Jnana Yoga

JNANA MEANS WISDOM or knowledge in Sanskrit. Jnana Yoga is a technique for seeking liberation in which identification with the real Self (rather than with the body or ego) is developed by a steady effort to discern or discriminate between pure awareness and the objects of awareness.

Jnana Yoga is closely associated with Advaita Vedanta. Vedanta is one of the six darshans or philosophies of Hinduism, and Advaita Vedanta is the school of thought within Vedanta which believes that everything in the universe shares a single soul, including you, me, and God.

The techniques of Jnana Yoga include:

Viveka. This means “discernment” or “discrimination” in English. This technique, associated especially with Shankara, involves a deliberate, continuous effort to understand that the real you — the Self — is something separate from the objects of which you are aware.

Neti-neti. This phrase means “not this, not this” in Sanskrit. You apply this formula mentally to all objects of awareness to destroy the false sense that they are you. When all the objects are banished, the real you — the Self — is what’s left over.

Vicara. This word is usually translated as “self-inquiry,” but it really means examination, reflection, or looking within. This technique, associated especially with Ramana Maharshi, involves a continuous, deliberate effort to become aware of the real you — the Self.

Jnana Yoga by Sri Swami Satchidananda

Jnana Yoga is the path of wisdom. It is suitable for people of an intellectual nature. A Jnani Yogi acts with the feeling, “I am not the doer; Nature is doing everything. The body and mind are moving among the objects. I am the silent witness of all that is happening. The work does not bind me, I am free.” All of creation is seen as the play of Maya, or illusion. The Jnana Yogi constantly discriminates between the unreal and the Real, the not-Self and the Self. This path requires a sharp and subtle intellect.

Deep in the middle of the ocean of the mind there is no pollution. It is absolutely pure. That part is always contented. It never likes or dislikes. It accepts everything; it is not proud. And this is the real nature of your true Self. Only knowledge of this true nature will free you from the turmoil of this world. It will free you from the petty-mindedness which divides humanity into thousands of names: “I am this; he is that. He is different from me.” People kill each other because they group and divide themselves. They fail to see and know that they are above all these differences.

By knowing your true identity you can also know others. We come together in that knowledge. This goal is expounded by all great philosophies and by all teachings in Yoga. Contemplating and analyzing these points is another form of meditation, called Jnana Yoga or the Yoga of Wisdom that comes of self-analysis. It is well-suited to the temperament of analytical people. In this practice you simply sit and analyze everything that has happened and everything that is happening. That way you detach yourself and rise above your limitations. “Who am I? How do I know all these things? I know that I am disturbed. Yet my knowing doesn’t seem to get disturbed. If I am disturbed, who is it that knows something is disturbed in me?”

This knowing is called awareness or consciousness. The true person, the true you is constantly the same because there is no change in that knowing. You knew you were a child. Now you know that you are an adult, and you know you are going to be an old man or an old woman. The knowledge of childhood, adulthood, and old age is the same. You are not really isolated or separated You are only temporarily identifying yourself as the body. If I ask you what you are doing, you can say, “I am sitting down,” but you are not sitting. Your body is seated. When you say “I fell down,” who is this “I”? Certainly not the real I. The differences of the body make your mind feel different, and you identify yourself as the body.

This self-analysis can solve all your problems. You are not your body. You are not your mind because you are the one who is observing them. Whatever it is that is bothering you - anything at all - sit back and ask yourself, “What did I do? What mistakes have I made? Where was I selfish?” When you analyze in this way you will see that your happiness does not come from outside you. Your mind and body continue to go through some changes, but knowing doesn’t change. The peaceful nature is never affected. Only when you forget and identify yourself with the body or the mind do the clouds come and block your view of the sun - the true Self. The sun is always shining whether the clouds are there or not. The mind may pass through some of these cloudy periods, but as the Knower, you can enjoy the show. Enjoy the mind and its play. After all, it’s the mind. There’s nothing wrong with it going through changes. Sometimes it’s happy, sometimes unhappy. You know that. No need to worry about that. Just let it go and enjoy the show. It’s always a beautiful play to be seen.

So watch your mind. Watch your breath. Become an observer, which is the key to this form of meditation. Don’t worry about particular techniques, Just sit back observing the breath, mind, and thoughts. Just see what is happening within you. Become a witness, which is a wonderful form of meditation. Be still and watch what is happening in your mind and in your body. Maybe you have been repeating a mantra or focusing on one object for a time. You may then relax and sit calmly and watch the mind; observe the peaceful vibrations that come. Listen to the silence completely. Observe your own brain. See how peaceful you are. The mind seems to be totally at rest. You might think the mind is almost asleep, yet you are still conscious of the whole thing. The body is resting. The breath has very much slowed. The mind is almost sleeping but you are aware of everything.

Who is aware of them? What is this awareness? Who knows all these things? That is You. You are totally different from your body, from your mind. You are the witness - what you call the Self; the Pure Self - the witness of the body and mind. If you could maintain this witnessing constantly, still knowing you are that witness all the time, you would have reached self-awareness or self-realization. Keep up this’ awareness, even in your day-to-day activities. When you are eating, you can still witness: “Here I am taking the food, chewing the food, tasting the food.” You will constantly enjoy supreme peace. Through this you become the master or your own body and mind. You’ll walk like an undisturbed sage.

Find out who you are. Once you know who you are, you will be the best instrument to bring peace and harmony to all. Ultimately you will find you are not somebody who is going up and down, but that you are a permanent entity, an image of God.

All things are just part of nature, which can do anything and everything. The mind and body are also part of nature. Nature changes, so they too must constantly change. Allow them to play their part. Be a witness - the Eternal Witness.

That doesn’t mean you’ll be useless to people. You’ll see that you will be doing things perfectly because you have become a beautiful instrument and everything will want to come to you, to be used by you and to make use of you. You never take sides. You become the total, neutral person. Neutrality is the center or God, the center of nature. From there, according to the need, you can go this way or that way without losing your center.’

Om Shanthi Shanthi Shanthi.

Source: www.yogaville.org

Integral Yoga® and Yogaville® are registered service marks of Satchidananda Ashram - Yogaville.
© 2001 - 2004 Satchidananda Ashram - Yogaville.
This article is informational only and not intended for profit…Myswizard

Keywords: Jnana Yoga, Hinduism

The Third Eye

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“The third eye is an energy centre constructed by man; it is a correspondence to the energy centre, the causal body, constructed by the Monad.” “Through the practice of the power of visualisation, the third eye is developed.”

“The third or spiritual eye has several functions. Amongst others, it is the organ for illumination, the unveiled eye of the soul, through which light and illuination comes into the mind, and thus the entire lower life becomes irradiated. It is also the organ through which pours the directing energy which streams out from the consious creating adept to the instruments of service, his thought-forms. The little evolved do not, of course, employ the third eye for the stimulating of their thought-forms.”

“When the third eye is used, which is the case in contemplation, it is the synthesiser and director of triple energy; hence the powerful work performed by those in whom it is functioning. The third eye only begins to function when the third circle of egoic petals is beginning slowly to unfold.”

“One of the fundamental rules back of all magical processes is that no man is a magician or worker in white magic until the third eye is opened, or in process of opening, for it is by means of that eye that the thought-form is energised, directed and controlled and the lesser builders or forces are swept into any particular line of activity.”

“The ‘Eye of Shiva’ in the human being has its position . . .in the centre of the forehead between the two physical eyes. It is not to be confounded with the pineal gland, which is distinctly a physical centre or gland. The third eye exists in etheric matter, and is an etheric center of force, . . . whereas the pineal gland is formed of matter of the three lower sub-planes of the physical plane. The latter, nevertheless, has to be functioning more or less before the ‘Eye of Shiva’ becomes in any degree active.”

“The third eye is the director of energy or force, and thus an instrument of the will of Spirit. . . . It is the eye of the inner vision, and he who has opened it can direct and control the energy of matter, see all things in the Eternal Now, and therefore be in touch with causes more than with effects, read the akashic records, and see clairvoyantly. . . . It is through the medium of this ‘all-seeing eye’ that the Adepts can at any moment put Himself in touch with his disciples anywhere.”

“The third eye links the awakened physical plane man with the astral or subjective world, and enables him to function consciously there. . . . The third eye is the window of the Ego or soul functioning on the physical plane whereby he looks inward into the three worlds.”

from A Treatise on Cosmic Fire

More Third Eye
The third eye is the center of psychic powers and higher intuition,
you can receive guidance, channeling,and tune into your higher self.
This is the center that enabels you to experience telepathy, astral travel and past lives.

see article Third Eye and Pineal Gland

Keywords: The Third Eye, Pineal Gland

Third Eye (Pineal Gland)

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The Third Eye

The symbol of the All-Seeing-EYE has always been part of Earth’s creation mythologies and mysteries.

In Ancient Egypt is was symbolized by the Eye of Horus.

The symbol was passed down through the ancient mystery teachings and and can be found on the American dollar bill.

Why the symbol of the EYE?

The eye is the observer of reality - or the illusion of reality.

In the physical body your eyes look outward - though it views objects upside down. It next sends the message of what it observes to the brain, which interprets the image and makes it appear right side-up to us.

But the human body has another physical eye whose function has long been recognized by humanity.

It is called the ‘Third Eye’ which in reality is the Pineal Gland. It is the Spiritual Third Eye, our Inner Vision, and it is considered the Seat of the Soul. It is located in the geometric center of the cranium.

The pineal gland is cone-shaped.

The Pineal Gland is about the size of a pea, and is in the center of the brain in a tiny cave behind and above the pituitary gland which lies a little behind the root of the nose. It is located directly behind the eyes, attached to the third ventricle.

The true function of this mysterious gland, has long been contemplated by philosophers and Spiritual Adepts. Ancient Greeks believed the pineal gland to be our connection to the Realms of Thought. Descartes called it the Seat of the Soul.

This gland is activated by Light, and it controls the various biorhythms of the body. It works in harmony with the hypothalamus gland which directs the body’s thirst, hunger, sexual desire and the biological clock that determines our aging process.

When the pineal gland awakens one feels a pressure at the base of the brain. This pressure will often be experienced when connecting to higher frequency. A head injury can also activate the Third Eye - Pineal Gland.

While the physiological function of the pineal gland has been unknown until recent times, mystical traditions and esoteric schools have long known this area in the middle of the brain to be the connecting link between the physical and spiritual worlds.

Considered the most powerful and highest source of ethereal energy available to humans, the pineal gland has always been important in initiating supernatural powers. Development of psychic talents has been closely associated with this organ of higher vision.

The third eye can see beyond the physical….

The pineal gland contains a complete map of the visual field of the eyes, and it plays several significant roles in human functioning. There is a pathway from the retinas to the hypothalamus called the retinohypothalamic tract. It brings information about light and dark cycles to a region of the hypothalamus called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN).

From the SCN, nerve impulses travel via the pineal nerve (sympathetic nervous system) to the pineal gland. These impulses inhibit the production of melatonin. When these impulses stop (at night, when light no longer stimulates the hypothalamus), pineal inhibition ceases and melatonin is released. The pineal gland is therefore a photosensitive organ and an important timekeeper for the human body.

Retinal research done with hamsters demonstrates another center for melatonin production. Located in the retina, this center implies that the eyes have their own built in circadian timepiece. This retinal system is distinct from the brain’s body clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). Biologists found that they could throw the retinal rhythms out of sync with other circadian cycles. They also found that they could set and reset the retinal clock even when the SCN was destroyed.

The retinal clock produces (stimulates the production of?) melatonin. Researchers are now looking for the exact location (s) of this clock in the human eye (and expect to find it). No one yet knows what the separate clock is for or how it relates to the SCN.

In some lower vertebrates the Epiphysis Cerebri - Pineal Gland - has a well-developed eye-like structure; in others though not organized as an eye, it functions as a light receptor. In lower vertebrates, the pineal gland has an eye like structure and it functions as a light receptor and is considered by some to be the evolutionary forerunner of the modern eye.

The gland weighs little more than 0.1 gram. The gland is large in children and begins to shrink with the onset of puberty.

The pineal gland is large in children, but shrinks at puberty. It appears to play a major role in sexual development, hibernation in animals, metabolism, and seasonal breeding. In humans it affects circadian rhythms, sleep patterns (melatonin levels increase at night), and is implicated in seasonal affective disorder. The abundant melatonin level in children, is believed to inhibit sexual development. When puberty arrives, melatonin production is reduced.

The pineal gland secretes melatonin during times of relaxation and visualization. As we are created by electromagnetic energy - and react to EM energy stimuli around us - so does the pineal gland.

When activated, the pineal gland becomes the line of communication with the higher planes. The crown chakra reaches down until its vortex touches the pineal gland. Prana, or pure energy, is received through this energy center in the head. With Practice the vibration level of the astral body is raised, allowing it to separate from the physical.

To activate the ‘third eye’ and perceive higher dimensions, the pineal gland and the pituitary body must vibrate in unison, which is achieved through meditation and/or relaxation. When a correct relationship is established between personality, operating through the pituitary body, and the soul, operating through the pineal gland, a magnetic field is created.

The negative and positive forces interact and become strong enough to create the ‘light in the head.’ With this ‘light in the head’ activated, astral projectors can withdraw themselves from the body, carrying the light with them.

Astral travel, and other occult abilities, are closely associated with the development of the ‘light in the head’. After physical relaxation, concentration upon the pineal gland is achieved by staring at a point in the middle of the forehead. Without straining the muscles of the eye, this will activate the pineal gland and the ‘third eye’.

Beginning with the withdrawal of the senses and the physical consciousness, the consciousness is centered in the region of the pineal gland. The perceptive faculty and the point of realization are centralized in the area between the middle of the forehead and the pineal gland. The trick is to visualize, very intently, the subtle body escaping through the trap door of the brain.

A popping sound may occur at the time separation of the astral body in the area of the pineal gland.

Visualization exercises are the first step in directing the energies in our inner systems to activate the ‘third eye’. The magnetic field is created around the pineal gland, by focusing the mind on the midway point between the pineal gland and the pituitary body. The creative imagination visualizes something, and the thought energy of the mind gives life and direction to this form.

‘Third eye’ development, imagination, and visualization are important ingredients in many methods to separate from the physical form. Intuition is also achieved through ‘third eye’ development. Knowledge and memory of the astral plane are not registered in full waking consciousness until the intuition becomes strong enough. Flashes of intuition come with increasing consistency as the ‘third eye’ as activated to a greater degree, through practice. Universal knowledge can also be acquired.

The pineal gland corresponds with divine thought after being touched by the vibrating light of Kundalini. Kundalini starts its ascent towards the head center after responding to the vibrations from the ‘light in the head.’ The light is located at the top of the sutratma, or ’soul thread’, which passes down from the highest plane of our being into the physical vehicle.

The ‘third eye,’ or ‘eye of Siva,’ the organ of spiritual vision, is intimately related to karma, as we become more spiritual in the natural course of evolution.

As human beings continue to evolve further out of matter, on the journey from spirit to matter back to spirit, the pineal gland will continue to rise from its state of age-long dormancy, bringing back to humanity astral capacities and spiritual abilities.

At certain brain wave frequencies, a sense of ego boundary vanishes. In the “theta” state, we are resting deeply and still conscious, at the threshold of drifting away from or back into conscious awareness. As the brain enters deeper states, our consciousness is less concerned with the physical state, our ‘third eye’ is active, and separation becomes natural.

Many native traditions and mystical practices refer to the ability of ’seeing,’ or being aware of energy fields at higher levels. This abstract awareness is much more subjective and does not involve the normal level of mundane consciousness, which is mostly concerned with self-identity. This ’seeing’ refers to the sight of the ‘third eye’.

Consciousness is raised from an emotional nature into an illumined awareness when the pineal gland is lifted from dormancy. If the pineal gland is not yet fully developed, it will be in the course of evolution. When our sense of ego and personality are set aside and we keep our mental energy intact, we can become conscious of the non-physical, our inner self, the subconscious, through different practices to activate the ‘light in the head.’

The Third Eye and LSD

The belief that in madness there may exist a core of numinous knowledge is a commonplace in all human societies. In the Western tradition, the doctrine that truth may be obtained through a state of mind, in which reason is dislocated, a state of ecstatic revelation, is generally supposed to have originated with the Thracian worship of Dionysius, later becoming synthesized by Pythagorus, and to have received its most complete elaboration in the dialogues of Plato.

The class of drugs of which LSD-25 is the most potent member may prove for our time to be a very useful tool in exploring, via the scientific method, the roots of this age-old dilemma concerning the nature of perceived reality. That madmen may often be capable of incredible accomplishment should be obvious to everyone living in this century, whose history has been so monstrously deformed by the activities of an undeniable madman, Adolf Hitler.

These disputations most frequently arise in connection with accomplishment in the creative arts, where the biographies of many greatly talented people are replete with histories of bizarre behavior of one kind or another.

It is impossible, however, to make such correlation on any kind of statistical basis, since for every “mad artist” on the model of Van Gogh, one can point to two equally creative, original, and productive artists on the sane and sober models of J. S. Bach or T. S. Eliot.

In addition to the artificially induced LSD state, there are other, naturally occurring temporary states in which there is a collapse of the normal routines by which the mind ordinarily processes the information it receives of the outside world.

Not only Hitler but before him Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and Napoleon Bonaparte all reportedly suffered from mysterious seizures which overtook them at seemingly random times–often inconveniently. Dostoevsky also suffered from these states, and his reports of them are sufficiently detailed to permit a more certain medical diagnosis of his affliction–some kind of psycho-motor epilepsy.

As he describes the “aura” which precedes his seizures, the language is remarkably similar to that used by LSD subjects. Dostoevsky wrote: “For a few moments I experience such happiness as is impossible under ordinary circumstances and of which other people can have no notion. I feel complete harmony in myself and in the world and this feeling is so strong and sweet that for several seconds of such bliss, one would give ten years of one’s life; indeed, perhaps one’s whole life.”

Others have reported on these aura states as well. Along with the feelings of peace and euphoria, there is a general impression of a clear and golden shimmering light. Quite often there is a sense of cerebral clarity as well, and solutions of a lovely simplicity appear for the most intractably knotted problems.

None of the names used to describe the class of drugs to which LSD belongs and which produce these peculiar states of altered consciousness is completely satisfactory. When they were first developed, they were called psychotomimetic (imitative of psychosis), but this term rang unhappily in the ears of many who felt that the word implied pathology and thus made a negative value judgment.

Another name for them, hallucinogenic, was unfortunate in that it rendered an epistemological judgment–hallucinations being by definition unreal or untrue–and if one is to maintain a proper stance of scientific objectivity, one must suspend judgment regarding the reality of reality. For it is just possible that in some way these drugs augment our sense receptors or in some way so alter the mechanism of their functioning that another dimension of reality is made manifest.

This last notion is the one implied in the term psychedelic (mind manifesting), which seems gradually to be coming into general use to describe both the class of drugs and those states of mind with which they are associated.

THERE is a vast literature running back for thousands of years which describes psychedelic experiences, long before 1938, when Albert Hofmann first synthesized d-lysergic acid dyethylamide. Some of the literature describes attacks, sudden, spontaneous, and totally unexpected, like that attack which overcame St. Paul on the road to Damascus.

Other traditions in the literature describe states that were induced by fasting, by the sensory deprivation resulting from disciplined meditation (the willful exclusion of sensory input), by hysteria through frenzied dancing or orgiastic sexuality, by hypnosis, or by the use of various natural psychedelic intoxicants.

Reports of these kinds of exalted states have come to us not only through the literature of religious fanaticism; such accomplished scientists as Pascal and Newton have written of being overcome by mystic trances to which they attribute many of their creative insights. William James well understood that the mystic was often able to effect an almost miraculous synthesis between this world of “imagined” reality and the world of phenomena.

In recent years, psychology has tended, to its discredit, to ignore these elements of William James’s thought. One of the happy by-products of LSD has been the revival of interest in William James on the part of academic psychologists who had previously thought that these concerns of his were a cranky eccentricity in the body of his worthwhile work.

Two famous reports of modern times of this kind of correlation–between the hard factual world of science and the dream world of the psychedelic state–are those of Friedrich Kekule, the German chemist who has written that he was “presented with” the closed-chain theory of the structure of the benzene molecule, during one such dream-trance state, and Otto Loewi, who wrote that in 1921 he awakened from a dream in which was described to him the means by which chemical transfer was accomplished, between nerve and effecter cells. Loewi rushed down to his laboratory, where he proceeded to prove the reality of the dream–an accomplishment which led to the Nobel Prize.

From the time of Dionysius, to the time of Plato, the cultures of the Mediterranean consented to this doctrine that claimed the existence of an order of ultimate reality which lies beyond apparent reality, and that this “paranormal” reality is accessible to the consciousness only when the “normal” routines of mental data processing are dislocated.

It was Plato’s pupil Aristotle who spoiled his master’s game. Following upon Aristotle, Western philosophy became bifurcated. The philosophical temper of our civilization, being scientifically and technically oriented, is basically Aristotelian.

No such rational figure as Aristotle arose in the Orient to a position of equal eminence. Regardless of the reasons, Indian anatomists and zoologists, who were no doubt just as curious as the Greeks about the origins of life, and as skilled in dissection, did not feel compelled to set their disciplines up in opposition to metaphysics. Metaphysical philosophy and natural philosophy remained joined like Siamese twins. As a result, that discipline which became medicine in the West evolved into a system known as Kundilini Yoga in the Hindu culture. This was a system designed to produce in those who followed its teachings a condition of controlled “creative” madness.

The system made a heroic attempt to join together the seeming disparate entities of body and mind. It is a very complicated doctrine; in oversimplified terms, the system encourages the practitioner to progress through the control of six stages, called chakras, of body-mind coordination. The sixth, the highest and most exalted state, is called the sahasrara.

The physiological site of this sixth chakra, the sahasrara, is located in the center of the forehead; it is symbolized by an eye–the so-called third eye, the inner eye, or the eye of the mind. When this eye is opened, a new and completely other dimension of reality is revealed to the practitioner of yoga. Western scholars when they first came upon this literature took the third eye to be an appropriately poetic metaphor and nothing else.

But in the middle of the nineteenth century, as the subcontinent of Australia and its surrounding territory came to be explored, a flurry of zoological interest centered upon a lizard native to the area, the tuatara (Sphenodon punctatum).

This animal possessed, in addition to two perfectly ordinary eyes located on either side of its head, a third eye buried in the skull which was revealed through an aperture in the bone, covered by a transparent membrane, and surrounded by a rosette of scales. It was unmistakably a third eye, but upon dissection it proved to be nonfunctional.

Though it still possessed the structure of a lens and retina, these were no longer in good working order; also lacking were appropriate neural connections to the brain. But the presence of this eye in the tuatara still poses a puzzle to present-day evolutionists, for almost all vertebrates possess a homologous structure in the center of their skulls.

It is present in many fish, all reptiles, birds, and mammals (including humans). No functional role whatever could be imagined for this structure in humans, and it remained merely an anatomical curiosity until 1898, when Otto Heubner, a German physician, wrote a paper associating cancers of this organ with instances of precocious puberty in children. Heubner’s observation was confirmed many times over in the intervening years and gave rise to a number of theories concerning the role of the pineal organ as a regulator of sexual maturity. Those who adhered to these theories considered the pineal to be a gland, but since no secretions could be isolated or identified as emanating from this organ, the theories remained unsubstantiated by clinical evidence.

IN 1948 no one was paying any attention to the pineal organ. A hematologist, Maurice Rapport, working in the Cleveland Clinic was engaged in the search for that substance in blood serum which could be related to the tendency of blood to clot, and which might also cause the constriction of blood vessels. He eventually found just such a substance; it tended to make blood form clots, and it tended to be a muscle- as well as a vaso-constrictor. Rapport named this substance serotonin; it is manufactured quite profusely by specialized cells lining the wall of the gut, and it is presumed to play a role of some kind in the peristaltic movements.

Directly as Rapport announced his discovery, the new chemical came under intensive scrutiny; biochemists were eager to find means of augmenting its role as a clotting agent and vasoconstrictor; they were also eager to find means of blocking these functions. It was E. J. Gaddum, a professor of pharmacology at the University of Edinburgh, who seems to have been one of the first to note a connection between serotonin and mental states of being.

In a paper published in 1953, he pointed out the odd fact that LSD-25 was a potent antagonist to serotonin. Two biochemists working at the Rockefeller Institute, D. W. Woolley and E. Shaw, were similarly struck by this odd coincidence. They tested a number of other chemicals antagonistic to serotonin and wrote in a rather startled tone “Among each of these compounds are some that cause mental aberrations….

If this be true, then the naturally occurring mental disorders–for example schizophrenia–which are mimicked by these drugs may be pictured as being the result of a cortical serotonin deficiency arising from metabolic failure rather than from drug action.

This announcement produced a thrill of excited hope, which was short-lived; there were other antagonists to serotonin just as potent as LSD which had no effect whatever on mental states.

Serotonin also refused to pass through the so-called “blood-brain barrier.” If it was injected into the bloodstream of an animal (or a human), it did not seem to pass into the brain. But the medical profession accommodated itself easily to this particular disappointment; for this discovery and a series of others, which occurred during the same period gave rise to a whole new set of concepts concerning the roles of various chemical compounds manufactured within the brain.

Many of them were molecules of a type known as amines. They were not, strictly speaking, hormones, since they were not produced and secreted by glandular tissue, but by scattered specialized cells, including nerve cells. They came to be called, in a quaint reversion to eighteenth-century diction, neurohumors.

According to Webster, a humor is a fluid or juice of an animal or plant specifically one of the four fluids–blood, phlegm, choler, and melancholy–conceived as entering into the constitution of the body and determining, by their relative proportions, a person’s health and temperament; hence one’s disposition, or state of mind, whether constitutional, habitual, or temporary.

The discovery of the chemical nature of these humors led to the development of chemicals antagonistic to them and thus to entire families of humor-regulating drugs–the tranquilizers, anti-depressants, nervous-system stimulants, and so on.

But despite this new knowledge, the mystery of the LSD-serotonin antagonism persisted. Serotonin is not an unusual chemical in nature; it is found in many places–some of them odd, like the salivary glands of octopuses; others ordinary: it abounds in plants; bananas, figs, plums are especially rich in it.

What was it doing in the brains of humans? What was its evolutionary history?

In 1958 a Yale Medical School professor of dermatology named Aaron B. Lerner published a paper on the pineal gland which placed this elusive substance in some vague kind of historical perspective and provided for it a real functional role in the brains of mammals.

IT had been known since 1917 that if crushed pineal glands were introduced into water in which tadpoles were swimming, the skin color of the tadpoles would turn light.
The chemical substance melanin is the pigment which darkens skin color. It is located in specialized cells scattered through the topmost layer of skin.

Pineal extract caused these cells to contract in tadpole skin and in certain other reptiles which change their skin color in response either to mood or environmental setting.

Lerner was interested in melanomas, cancers of the pigment cells of human skin; he was curious to find out if there was any possible connection between this skin-lightening substance found in pineals and cancer. After an incredible four-year project, during which time he dissected over 250,000 cattle pineal glands supplied to him by the Armour Company, he finally isolated the substance responsible, calling it melatonin, since it caused the contraction of melanin-producing cells.

He proved that melatonin was a hormone, that it was produced specifically by the pineal organ, and that therefore this organ was a true, functioning gland, not merely a vestigial sight organ, a relic from our reptilian past. He discovered, moreover, how melatonin was manufactured by the pineal–by the action of certain enzymes on a precursor chemical which must pre-exist in the pineal in order for it to be transformed into melatonin. This precursor chemical turned out to be serotonin.

But try as he would, Lerner could find no connection between melatonin and the pigment cells of mammalian skin. In fact, he could find no use whatever for melatonin in the body economy of mammals.

The task of exploring the role played by melatonin in the bodies of mammals was undertaken by a brilliant biochemist, Julius Axelrod, working at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, in the company of several young associates, notably Richard Wurtman and Solomon Snyder. They discovered the basic biochemical sequences performed by the pineal in the manufacture of melatonin; they found that it was produced from serotonin by the action of two enzymes, an acetylating enzyme and a methoxylating enzyme.

By blocking or augmenting the action of these enzymes, Axelrod and his assistants were able, most ingeniously, to stimulate or suppress the organism’s own manufacture of melatonin. In the course of this work, it became apparent that Otto Heubner’s old contention that the pineal produced a substance which interfered with sexual development was very close to the truth.

Melatonin did, in fact, suppress physiological sexuality in mammals. If test animals were stimulated to manufacture excessive amounts of melatonin, their gonads and ovaries tended to become reduced in size, to shrink, to atrophy. The estrous, or fertility, cycle in females could likewise be altered experimentally by doses of melatonin.

Now, two most curious functions had been attributed to the pineal gland, the third eye, the eye of the mind.

It had now been established that this organ produced a chemical which had, indirectly at least, been associated with psychedelic states. It also produced a chemical which suppressed functional sexuality.

The literature of religious mysticism in all ages and all societies has viewed the mystical passion of ecstasy as being somehow analogous to, or involved with, carnal passion.

In the pineal gland, in the eye of the mind, were discovered a hormone and a neurohumor which were functionally associated with both kinds of passion.

Axelrod and his co-workers also discovered another incredible fact. The pineal gland produces its chemicals according to a regular oscillating beat, the basis of this beat being the so-called circadian rhythm. This pulse remains constant if darkness and light follow one another through the course of the day in a regular alternation. They found that the pineal responded somehow to light conditions, that by altering light conditions they could extend, contract, even stabilize the chemical production rhythms of the pineal.

How does the pineal perceive light, directly, by being a light sensor itself, still performing some of the functions of an eye; or indirectly, via the central nervous system? The evidence is still not conclusive. Light does penetrate bone and brain to reach the pineal in significant amounts.

This was proved by a University of California zoologist, W. F. Ganong, who implanted photocells adjacent to the site of the pineal in sheep and got altered readings from his instruments depending on whether the animals were standing in direct sunlight or in shade.

On the other hand, if animals are blinded, or have the nerves connecting the eye to the brain severed, some of the pineal rhythms are dampened, just as though the animals were being maintained in continual darkness.

But there is still a sufficient number of discrepancies in the evidence to leave the question of direct light sensing by the pineal open for the moment. Axelrod and Wurtman believe that there are other, undiscovered chemicals being manufactured by the pineal, for they see signs of enzyme activity which cannot be accounted for by either serotonin or melatonin.

The fact that the pineal responds to light, even if this response is indirect via the central nervous system, has some fascinating and far-reaching conceptual applications.

There are many behavioral changes which overtake animals as the seasons change, and which can be produced out of season in the laboratory by simulating the appropriate span of artificial daylight.

Do such seasonal changes in mood and behavior persist in humans?

The great religious holy days of all faiths tend to cluster around the times of the solstices and equinoxes. Is it possible that the human pineal gland responds to these alterations in the length of daylight, and by changing the balance of neurohumors in the brain, perhaps effects a greater incidence of psychedelic states in certain susceptible individuals just at these crucial times? This possibility provides an entirely new potential dimension to our secular understanding of the religious experience.

Since Lerner had done his original pineal research at Yale, his colleagues belonging to various disciplines had become fascinated with his work even before it was published. As a result, Yale had a kind of head start in pineal research. Among the first to pursue the trail of pineal hormones and neurohumors was Nicholas Giarmin, a professor of pharmacology who had been a former student of Gaddum’s at Edinburgh and remembered the connection Gaddum had made five years previous between LSD and serotonin.

With him worked a professor of psychiatry, Daniel Freedman, who had become fascinated by the whole new field of pharmacology and states of mind. They began by measuring the serotonin contents of the various parts of the human brain at autopsy. In order to make these measurements, one must exploit the very limits of our technological capacities. Neurohumors exist in the brain in infinitesimally small amounts.

They are measured by a unit known as the nanogram, which is one billionth of a gram. Not only are assay procedures highly critical, but since drastic chemical changes occur between that state which we call life, and that which we define as death, it is difficult to prove that the amounts of any given entity found on autopsy are the same as those which might be found in the same tissue in the flush of life.

Giarmin and Freedman confirmed that the human brain manufactures serotonin at various sites other than the pineal. It is produced in scattered isolated cells, but the density of these cells varies with their location in the brain. For example, in the thalamus, they discovered 61 nanograms of serotonin per gram of tissue; in the hippocampus, 56 ng.; in the central gray section of the midbrain, they found 482 ng. But in the pineal, they found 3140 ng. of serotonin per gram of tissue. The pineal was unmistakably the richest site of serotonin in the brain!

Since the pineal seems to produce serotonin in excess of its needs for melatonin production, what happens to this excess? Does the gland provide a kind of serotonin reservoir for the brain as a whole? Can one make a correlation between pineal serotonin and mental disorder?

As its name would imply, the pineal looks like a miniature pine cone sitting in the middle of the brain atop a stalklike appendage. The vascular and neural connections between it and the rest of the body run down this 2 stalk into the spinal column and the central nervous a system, not into the brain proper. If serotonin from the pineal does get back into the brain proper, it a must do so through such a circuitous route that many workers discredit this possibility.

Though their work only accidentally impinged on making such correlations, Giarmin and Freedman did find that the pineals of certain deceased mental patients who had suffered from specified mental disorders showed a considerable excess of serotonin in their pineals. The average amount of serotonin found in the pineals of normal persons is about 3.52 micrograms per gland.

One schizophrenic was found to have a pineal containing 10 micrograms of serotonin, while another patient, a sufferer from delirium tremens, had a pineal containing 22.82 micrograms of serotonin. Owing to the difficulties of obtaining the brains of the recently dead for autopsy, the Giarmin-Freedman sample is pathetically small, consisting only of thirteen cases.

The same difficulties which confronted them, also confront other workers who might be tempted to confirm these findings on a larger scale.

Strong suspicion has fallen now on serotonin as being one of the principal agents of the psychedelic experience, but whatever its role, it is certain that other neurohumors are additionally involved in the chemical transactions which produce the state. It is likely that LSD itself produces certain effects quite on its own.

Studies made with tracer elements and the electron microscope now reveal that LSD strikes like a chemical guerrilla, entering into receptor granules in brain cells swiftly, and then leaving swiftly after a very short time, perhaps ten or twenty minutes (in animals). This initial period coincides with the onset of the most violent symptoms of the LSD state as it is observed in test animals.

But when the twenty minutes are done, and the bulk of the LSD has left the receptor granules, it is replaced by what seems to be excessive, or supernormal, amounts of serotonin. Since the LSD state lasts for some ten hours, and during this time serotonin can be measured (again at autopsy) in supernormal amounts in receptor granules, it must be considered one of the important participants of that chemical transaction which produces the state.

However, melatonin possesses the same basic indole molecular structure as the LSD molecule. It is not at all difficult to imagine how this substance could be metamorphosed into a psychedelic material. But so far, injections of melatonin have produced no altered mental states in humans.

The use of LSD in exploring these strange dislocated states of mind is most convenient because the effects are invariably reliable, and within certain limits quite predictable. All the neurohumors tend to alter, in one way or another, the data processing programming of the brain. LSD is one of the keys which open the compartment into which this drastic new programming can be introduced.

Fasting as a means of altering body chemistry and so producing this kind of psychedelic state seems to be effective only among those who are marginally nourished in the first place.

Sensory deprivation IS effective, and for those who can will themselves into a state of such intense meditation as will exclude incoming signals from the environment, the computer model provides a simple analogy.

The brain is always working, but as these outside signals cease coming through, the brain begins processing peripheral data, memories from the past, sense impressions of such subtlety that they are normally bypassed in favor of more vivid input signals which affect survival and so on.

For most of us, most of the time, our world is a Darwinian environment. We must manipulate ourselves within it, or attempt to manipulate it in order to survive. These survival needs tend to color our appreciation of this world, and we are continually making judgments about it.

Some, of these judgments are based on prior personal experience, others are provided by the culture. This “recognition system” is one of the elements disrupted by the psychedelic state. Normally we anticipate that water will feel wet. To the madman, or the person entranced by LSD, the wetness of water can come as an incredible surprise.

The principal question concerning psychedelic estates remains: How much disruption can the system tolerate? “Cowper came to me,” writes William Blake, “and said: ‘O that I were insane always…. Can you not make me truly insane? I will never rest till I am so. O that in the bosom of God I was hid. You retain health and yet are as mad as any of us–over us all.’”

The problem of how to maintain a certain madness while at the same time functioning at peak efficiency has now captured the attention of many psychiatrists. There seems to be a point at which “creative” madness becomes degenerative, impeding function rather than stimulating it.

The mental hospitals are filled with patients who passed from transient, or occasional, psychedelic states into perpetual psychosis. Freedman, with the help of another Yale colleague, Malcolm Bowers, has collected a number of case histories of persons who were admitted into mental institutions for various acute psychotic seizures.

But as they speak and write about the onset of their illness, they describe psychedelic experiences. Why did they not “pass through” the experience to be enriched by it, as did William Blake? Here, for example, is the report of a twenty-one-year-old student who was removed to a mental hospital in “a severely agitated delusion state”:

“I [began to be] fascinated by the little insignificant things around me. There was an additional awareness of the world that would do artists, architects and painters good. I ended up by being too emotional, but I felt very much at home with myself, very much at ease….it was not a case of seeing more broadly, but deeper.

I was losing touch with the outside world, and lost my sense of time….I could see more deeply into the problems other people had and would go directly into a deeper subject with a person. I had the feeling that I loved everybody in the world. Sharing emotions was like wiping the shadow away, wiping away a false face.”

Bowers and Freedman do not tell us the final history of this patient. We do know, however, that Cowper asked for insanity and got it. He died a
gibbering idiot, while Blake lived on into a ripe and irritable old age, still working, still writing, still slipping in and out of his mysterious states, which allowed him a clear and brilliant vision of a world which, if the rest of us see at all, we see as through a glass darkly.

Man is unique by virtue of being possessed by intuitions concerning the scope of the mysterious universe he inhabits. He has devised for himself all manner of instruments to probe the nature of this universe. Now at last, with the molecule of this strange acid, he has found an instrument which opens the inner eye of the mind and which may hopefully allow him to explore the vast interior spaces, where the history of millions of years of memories lie entangled among the roots of the primordial self. Through it we may find a means of understanding more clearly the roots of madness and of helping the insane to return to the world of commonplace reality.

by John N. Bleibtreu

This article is informational only and not intended for profit.

Keywords: The Third Eye, Pineal Gland, Serotonin, melatonin, All-Seeing-Eye

DRH…Quote on Spiritual teachers

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True teachers are few and pretenders abound. If the masses were headed in the right direction, sainthood and enlightenment would be common. They are not.” … Dr. David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D

Keywords: Dr. David Hawkins

Tree of Life

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Project Mind

Mapped upon the Tree of Life

The infinite intention of the Creator is the intention Project Mind is designed to realize. Below, we shall map, upon the Kabbalah Tree of the Sephirot, the original intention of the Creator all the way to its realization through man and Accelerated Thought:

BINAH
(Understanding/hearing, appreciation)
Nurtures Potential
Gives birth to the temporal

GEVURAH
(Rigor/left arm)
Determination to focus on and realize the intention/vision

TIFERET
(Beauty/heart)
Balance & symmetry forshadowing success

HOD
(Configuration/left leg)
Vision elaborates within while observing

YESOD
(Foundation, abundance/sex)
All-engrossing
creative state
Coherent Knowledge
KETER
(Crown of the head/brain)
Essence/Seed/Potential
The Divine Plan
Intention of the Creator

MALCHUT
(Kingdom, accomplishment/entire body)
Realization of Divine Plan
Unlimited bounty through discovery, invention

CHOCHMAH (Wisdom/vision, eyes)
Total Idea Universe
Cosmic Computer
Divine Reality

CHESED
(Compassion, giving/right arm)
Intention to emulate the creator
Vision to reveal an aspect of creation

NETZACH
(Eternal Present/right leg)
Action and effort
Contemplation

KETER
(Crown of the head/brain)
The Divine Plan

Keter, while it doesn’t always represent the infinite in the absolute sense, it does represent the infinite within the framework of any given system. The framework represented here, is the cosmos. Keter - crown - represents the total intention of Creation by the Creator. The successful realization of the Creator’s plan is, by definition, guaranteed.
This infinite factor is implicit in the image of the Creator in which we are cast. We have an aspect of infinite light and infinite receptacle within ourselves. Keter represents the infinite and includes everything in existence. Existence is infinite.

Keter, Chochmah and Binah are the supernal Sephirot.
This is the realm of the transcendent, all of which, in relation to the temporal, is infinite. Any level, compared to the level below it, is infinite and there are many levels. Seen from below, the level, above, is seen as “light.” Seen from above, the level, below, is “matter.” These “higher mind” qualities within us, through contemplative efforts of submission and individual initiative (creativity), help us access the transcendent.

Keter symbolizes the infinite because it is essence - a seed - and a seed is infinite. A seed is the whole entity and yet it is nothing - yet. It is potential.

That’s why it is called Keter - crown - because a crown, while representing the infinite seeking expression, is not exactly light (a symbol) and not exactly clothing (a receptacle). It could be thought of as being half light and half receptacle. This is a key feature that distinguishes it from the other Sephirot and a crown from other garments.

In Keter we have an infinite intention to create unlimited good - unlimited abundance - total realization. Why? Because the Creator is infinitely merciful and his intention includes nothing but good. An infinite Creator does not give paltry or limited gifts. He gives only infinite gifts. That we encounter restriction as we descend the tree is because there’s a process taking us from infinite seed to infinite realization or fruit - from Keter to Malchut.

The seven lower Sephirot represent the world of manifestation including the temporal. Manifestation is temporary as is our suffering. In contrast with the ultimate, infinite gift we are going to receive, all suffering is insignificant and will be obliterated.

CHOCHMAH
(Wisdom/vision, eyes)
Divine Reality

Chochmah is the active father, initiating principle. Chochmah includes the total idea universe of the cosmos. It is the fertilization of Keter’s infinite potential. It is the beginning of all form, yet it is still formless. It is the cosmic computer and, having been fertilized, is dynamically alive. It is moving towards the manifestation of vision. It is the thought of existence and includes the entire idea universe of existence. It reflects the Mind of the Creator that contains everything. This is the great cosmic computer including the terminals for accessing it. We are those terminals destined to manifest the vision - the thought of Creation.

BINAH
(Understanding/hearing, appreciation)
Divine Nurture

Binah is the accommodating mother - the intention to give birth, to nurture and eventually realize all of cosmic potential contained in Chochmah. Binah gives birth to the temporal - the world of manifestation beginning with it’s highest temporal expression - Chesed. Of the three supernal Sephirot, only Binah can (partly) descend into the temporal with impunity.

DA’AT
(direct knowledge)

For the moment, we shall skip over Da’at because it is not really a Sephira but rather the Sephira of Yesod of the tree of a higher tree/world peeking into the one below. The Book of Creation, Sefer Yetzira, is adamant about there being only 10 Sephirot and Da’at would make eleven. We’ll come back to it in connection with Yesod, below.

CHESED
(Compassion, giving/right arm)

Chesed is a reflection of the infinite compassion of the Creator and the devotion of Binah. In the realm of the lower Sephirot, Chesed is Keter. It is our compassionate intention to emulate the Creator - our prime mover - to do good - to realize the Creator’s plan. We have a good impulse, a good intention, a vision aspiring to reveal a key aspect of His Creation through some discovery or invention to which we are committed. If our intention is valid, the source is Chochmah. Lower down, in Tiferet, this impulse will become an unwavering conviction and, in Nezach, a concerted effort of contemplation.

GEVURAH
(Rigor/left arm)

Gevurah is the determination to focus upon and realize the good intentions of Chesed. This includes loyalty to our vision originating in Chochmah. It is the discipline to resist temptations, to contain excesses and avoid distraction. It is here that we narrow our options and commit to the direction that direct, intuitive knowledge from Da’at may have reinforced in us.

TIFERET
(Beauty/the heart)

Tiferet is the center column. It says, “I know it is going to happen and I see what is required for its realization. I feel it can happen.” Tiferet is self-contained. It is a beautiful experience of presence that can tend to beatitude. Tiferet means “beauty,” the beauty of balance and symmetry foreshadowing success. We can taste success long before it is achieved, which generates the energy and even elation of anticipation. The experience of being centered is the validation of our intention, the springboard for action. “I’m balanced and poised for action. I know what I want and I know what’s required.”
Tiferet is the balance between and synthesis of Chesed and Gevurah. Through intention, through determination, I now arrive at the conviction that my discovery/invention will take form. Tiferet is a place of silence, a warm place, a place of confidence and feeling, rather than conventional, reactive, emotional, fragmented feeling. It is the subjective knowledge that this will be realized. I know, emotionally, that realization is now possible and even probable.

NETZACH
(Eternal Present/right leg)

This is the impulse to move forward, right foot first - action and effort. Thanks to Tiferet we can now mobilize our intellectual, emotional and physical energies in an efficacious effort of contemplation to confront the obscurity that Creation presents to my as yet unclarified mind. If my faith is strong, if I don’t waiver in my effort, my contemplation, erratic as it may be at first, will begin to lock onto the eternal present and allow me to be infused with energy to illuminate the elements of the problem I am addressing. Every cell in my body, collectively configuring the image of the Creator, will become a facsimile of the whole, and start resonating in Hod and manifesting the image of the Creator that encompasses my whole body as Mind.

HOD
(Reverberation, configuration/left leg)

That resonance starts to become encompassing as we become saturated with energy tracing the form and providing the substance of our search. It’s a process of the passive side of the tree. It’s not something I’m doing, its no longer guided from intention which is now inherent in the process, but rather by the energy generated by the concerted attention/intention transmitted through Nezach circulating in the image of the Creator that is the nascent mind that I am to temporarily become. It is passive in that it elaborates within myself, guided by the essential form in which I am cast and the terms of reference of my search that I specified in both Chesed and Nezach. I no longer think but, rather, thought, governed by the form and content of my contemplation in Nezach, elaborates within me, while centered in Tiferet, I observe.
It reverberates and integrates until an abundance of complete and coherent vision starts to become evident. When the knowledge for realizing abundance materializes, I am in Yesod. Direct, elaborated knowledge pertains to Yesod that connects with Da’at of the tree below where it manifests as intuition.

YESOD
(Foundation, abundance/sex)

Yesod is where abundance comes from, an abundance of seeds. It is the dynamic expression of creativity. When I get here, I am in an all-engrossing creative state elaborating within myself. This is Accelerated Thought. We could call it objective consciousness. We have become objective because now we have direct, coherent knowledge of the world. Yesod manifests a rectified, coherent abundance of ideas, vision, knowledge - an ordered idea universe. I have become one with what I have contemplated. This is the accomplishment of original intention in Keter leading to practical manifestation in Malchut.

MALCHUT
(Kingdom, accomplishment/entire body)

Malchut is the realization of Keter (divine plan), Chochmah (divine reality) and Binah (divine nurture). This is accomplished through the elaboration of these supernal intentions into manifest reality through human intention emulating divine will. Unlimited bounty is thus materialized in this world through discovery and invention, science and technology. As the Creator’s partners in Creation, we reveal the Creator’s infinite gift to us and, in the process, are relieved from all forms of limitation.

Project Mind

Keywords: Kabbalah, Creator, Accelerated Thought

Dogen (1200-1253)

Published on January 22, 2006

Dogen (1200-1253)

There is a simple way to become a buddha When you refrain from unwholesome actions, are not attached to birth and death, and are compassionate to all sentient beings…not excluding or desiring anything…you will be called a buddha. Do not seek anything else. (from Moon in a Dewdrop edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi)
So wrote Eihei Dogen, one of Zen Buddhism’s most prominent figures.

He was born in 1200 near Kyoto which was, at that time, the capital of Japan. When he was fourteen he was formally ordained as a monk and entered a monastery at the foot of Mt Hiei to begin his training. In 1217 he moved to Kennin Monastery - also in Kyoto - and studied there until 1223. He then accompanied his abbot, Myozen, to China. The purpose of this journey was to engage more fully with Ch’an Buddhism, the Chinese precursor of Japanese Zen.

Dropping Away Body and Mind

His experience of the Chinese monasteries was ultimately disappointing. He felt that the practice of koans, for example, which was a key feature of many of these monasteries, was narrow and limiting. After two years, he contemplated returning to Japan. But a crucial meeting with a renowned priest, Rujung, changed his mind. Rujung taught that practice was all about ‘dropping away body and mind’ and emphasized sitting meditation, rather than, koans, chanting or rituals.

Having studied under Rujung, in 1227 Dogen returned to Japan and began to expound his new understanding through his writing. Indeed, Dogen was a prolific writer and his writings are available in translation. In 1233 he also opened Kannondori Temple in Fukakusa and appointed Ejo has head monk. In 1243 the monastery was relocated to Echizen Province northeast of Kyoto and was renamed Daibutsu Monastery and subsequently, in 1246, renamed again as Eihei-Ji Monastery.

In 1252, however, Dogen became ill and in 1253 he died in Kyoto.

More on Dogen
Great Awakenings

Dogen’s teaching, as expounded through his writing, encourages the practice of a type of meditation known as zazen or ‘just-sitting’. He explains, ‘Zazen is not thinking of good, not thinking of bad. It is not conscious endeavor….Do not desire to become a buddha’.

In ‘Eight Awakenings of Great Beings’ Dogen focuses on the practices that lead to Nirvana. These are 1. to have few desires 2. knowing how much is enough 3. serenity (to be found in seclusion) 4. diligent effort 5. mindfulness 6. practicing meditation 7. cultivating wisdom 8. avoiding ‘hollow’ discussions. He wrote: ‘We can learn and practice these awakenings because of the merit of our wholesome conditions from the past. By practicing and nurturing these awakenings you can certainly arrive at unsurpassable enlightenment’.(from Enlightenment Unfolds edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi)

DOGEN ZENJI

After training for nine years under the Rinzai teacher Myozen, Dogen Zenji made the difficult journey to China, where he studied with and became the Dharma successor (14th Patriarch in lineage to Dong Shan Liang Chieh (Tozan)); 24th in lineage in Transmission of the Light to Master Tendo Nyojo (Ju-Ching, 13th Patriarch) in the Soto Zen lineage. Considered the founder of the Japanese Soto School, Dogen Zenji established Eiheiji, the principal Soto training monastery, and is best known for his collection of Dharma essays, Shobogenzo.

Dogen was the founder of the Soto (T’sao Dong Ch’an) Lineage of Buddhism in Japan. He came from a noble family, but his life was unhappy and difficult, because his parents died when he was a very young boy. Their deaths lead him to contemplate the impermanence of life, and at the age of thirteen, he became a Buddhist monk.

Dogen didn’t realize the truth of Zen for a long time. The difficulty of Zen meditation is not the training, but the letting go of preconceived ideas. The experience of the true self is a state of awareness that cannot be defined; words cannot express living reality. In the experience of the true self, there is no “I” no reference point whatsoever.

Dogen was troubled by one particular question: if all human beings are born with Buddha Nature, why is it so difficult to realize it? Dogen finally studied with Eisai, a Rinzai master, who told him it was a delusion to think in such dualistic terms as Buddha. With this answer Dogen experienced Satori. Eisai lived for a few more months; Dogen became his disciple and stayed with him. After Eisai’s death, Dogen remained with Myozen, Eisai’s successor, for eight years, and received the seal of a master.

Despite his profound insights, Dogen felt he didn’t have complete understanding, and therefore, went with Myozen to China to study more. He practiced Chinese Zen (Ch’an) with Master Ju-Ching in China, but mistakenly sat in a quietest way, which merely lead to notional emptiness condemned by H.H. The Sixth Patriarch Hui Neng. One day Master Ju-Ching was scolding another monk for sleeping, and said, “The practice of Zazen (Sitting Meditation) is the dropping away of body and mind. What do you think dozing will accomplish?” Upon hearing these words, Dogen became fully Enlightened. He suddenly understood that Zazen is not just sitting still, but it is the “I” opening up to its own Reality. When preconceived ideas are abandoned, one experience the true nature of mind; life is experienced directly, non-dualistically, without ego interfering. He made the following comments about his experience:

“Mind and body dropped off; dropped off mind and body! This state should be experienced by everyone; it is like piling fruit into a basket without a bottom, like pouring water into a bowl with a pierced hole; however much you may pile or pour you cannot fill it up. When this is realized the pail bottom is broken through. But while there is still a trace of conceptualism which makes you say ‘I have this understanding’ or ‘I have that realization’, you are still playing with unrealities.”

Four years later, when Dogen returned to Japan, he said, “I have come back empty-handed. I have realized only that the eyes are horizontal and the nose is vertical.” From this empty clarity came the great Soto sect of Japan. Dogen taught a way of sitting called Shikantaza, “shikan” means nothing but, “ta” means to hit, “za” means to sit. Shikantaza has remained the basis of Soto Zen up to the present; it unites the means can end of sitting meditation. There is no means to an end, because the end is now. The act of sitting itself is the actualization of Buddha Nature or Being. The meditation does not strive for Satori, but has faith on the teacher and teachings, and trusts that realization will come as a result of sitting practice. Dogen gave the following meditation instructions:

In doing Zazen it is desirable to have a quiet room. You should be temperate in eating and drinking, forsaking all delusive relationships. Setting everything aside, think of neither good nor evil, right nor wrong. Thus, having stopped the various functions of your mind, give up even the idea of becoming a Buddha. This holds true not only for zazen but for all your daily actions.

Usually a thick square mat is put on the floor where you sit and a round cushion on top of that. You may sit in either the full or half lotus position. In the former first put your right foot on your left thigh and then your left foot on your right thigh. In the latter, only put your left foot on your right thigh. Your clothing should be worn loosely but neatly. Nest, put your right hand on your left foot and your left palm on the right palm, the tips of the thumbs lightly touching. Sit upright, leaning to neither left nor right, front nor back. Your ears should be on the same plane your shoulders and your nose in line with your navel. Your tongue should be placed against the roof of your mouth and your lips and teeth closed firmly. With your eyes kept continuously open, breathe quietly through your nostrils. Finally, having regulated your body and mind in this way, take a deep breath, sway your body to left and right, then sit firmly as a rock. Think of non-thinking. How is this done? By thinking beyond non-thinking and thinking. This is the very basis of Zazen.

Zazen is not a ’step-by-step’ meditation. Rather it is simply the easy and pleasant practice of a Buddha, the realization of the Buddha’s wisdom. The truth appears, there being no delusion. If you understand this you are completely free, supreme law will then appear of itself, and you will be free of weariness and confusion. At the completion of Zazen move your body slowly and stand up calmly. Do not move violently.”

In this meditation posture, the full lotus position provides a wide, solid physical base; both knees touch the mat to provide body stability. The rock-like, immobile body posture calms down the mind and brings tranquillity. Meditators are given a breathing technique to focus the mind. Beginners count the inbreaths and outbreaths, the count goes from one to ten, and then starts all over again. In this technique, the mind has nothing to feed on, play with, analyze, or hold on to. Thoughts will naturally come and go, and Dogen’s advice was to place each thought in the palm of your hand. In the more advanced Shikantaza, the counting of breaths is left behind, and the tamed mind abides in effortless concentrated awareness. The awareness is the unmoving center of all movement: “Abandoning thinking and doing, is nothing other than every form of doing and acting,” Dogen said.

Dogen’s Soto school taught that sitting in Zazen was entering the flow of each moment by dropping from the mind the concepts of past, present, and future. Life is one and its flow of movements and events should not be held to or dominated to create illusions of permanence. All moments and all actions, whether they are important, insignificant, fascinating, or boring. — are seen as the actual realization of Buddhahood. The Soto school’s Shikantaza helps one realize this moment now. In the Shobogenzo, Dogen said that it was useless to fix one’s hopes on a goal.

“When a fish swims, it swims on and on, and there is no end to the water. When a bird flies, it flies on and on, and there is no end to the sky. There was never a fish that swam out of the water or a bird that flew out of the sky. When they need just a little water or sky, they use just a little; when they need a lot, they use a lot. Thus, they use all of it in every moment, and in every place they have perfect freedom.

Yet if there were a bird that first wanted to examine the size of the sky, or a fish that first wanted to examine the extent of the water, and then tried to fly or swim, it would never find its way. When we find where we are at this moment, then practice follows, and this is the realization of the truth. For the place, the way, is neither large nor small, neither self nor other. It has never existed before, and it is not coming into existence now. It simply is as it is.”

Dogen’s Reflecting Pool
Explaining the path to Enlightenment is the mission of every Buddhist teacher since the time of the historical Buddha. From the San-lun school, to the teaching of Dogen Zenji, great thinkers attempt to relate their understanding of the Two-fold Truth and illuminate the most efficient path to Enlightenment. Dogen, the eminent Soto Zen philosopher, takes the general understanding of the twofold truth:
The existence of a discursive, dual world of form.

A world of non-dual emptiness and sheds new light on the relationship between form and emptiness. He proposes that emptiness is manifested through the acceptance of distinctions and the discursive world. For Dogen, distinctions illuminate the fundamental emptiness. When one understands that one lives in a discursive world, then one can feel the basic emptiness. Awakening to the realization that the ultimate underlies and encompasses everything–being and non-being, delusion and Enlightenment–allows one to truly see the distinctions and to accept reality as it is. Once this understanding is reached, one experiences the compassion that flows from the pervasive emptiness. The following passage from Dogen’s “Genjokoan” fascicle of his major work, the Shobogenzo, expresses this understanding in a succinct manner:

When all dharmas are the Buddha Dharma, there is illusion and Enlightenment, practice, birth, death, buddhas, and sentient beings. When myriad dharmas are without self, there is no illusion or Enlightenment, no buddhas or sentient beings, no generation or extinction. The Buddha Way is originally beyond fullness and lack and for this reason there is generation and extinction, illusion and Enlightenment, sentient beings and buddhas. In spite of this, flowers fall always amid our grudging, and weeds flourish in our chagrin.1
The traditional Mahayana belief of the twofold truth, one that Dogen does not refute but uses as a stepping stone into his theory, states that there exists a world of form AND a world of emptiness.2 The world of form is based on discursive, dualistic thinking that explains conventional truth and understanding. The world of emptiness contains the highest truth, the belief in interdependence and no fixed reality, based in non-dual awareness and thinking. Ultimately, the world of form is empty. Residing in non-dual awareness, one realizes that all form is constantly changing. Since all things have this impermanent characteristic, then everything possesses the same essence and is one.3 This understanding places a follower in the world of emptiness and highest reality. In this realization, “all dharmas are without self, there is no illusion or Enlightenment, no buddhas or sentient being, no generation or extinction.” 4 All form is the same and empty, with no fixed reality.

Often one becomes attached to form and cannot realize the ultimate reality of emptiness. One loathes to see a flower wilt because one is attached to the idea that the flower should be beautiful and eternal. One separates the flower from the ultimate reality of impermanence and interconnectedness. This separation and attachment to “what ought to be,” causes suffering and blindness to the true reality. The reality is that the flower, like all else, grows and dies.

The beautiful mountains are praised a great deal for their remarkable appearance, but they are actually created from the shifting of the earth.

A nice vase is still breakable.
In the same vein, as british author William Somerset Maugham writes in The Razor’s Edge in conversation with the novel’s main character Larry Darrell in search of the Truth as Darrell says:

“It may be that there is no solution or it may be that I’m not clever enough to find it. Ramakrishna looked upon the world as the sport of God. “It is like a game,” he said. “In this game there are joy and sorrow, virtue and vice, knowledge and ignorance, good and evil., The game cannot continue if sin and suffering are altogether eliminated from the creation.” I would reject that with all my strength. The best I can suggest is that when the Absolute manifested itself in the world evil was the natural correlation of good. You could never have had the stupendous beauty of the Himalayas without the unimaginable horror of a convulsion of the earth’s crust. The Chinese craftsman who makes a vase in what they call eggshell porcelain can give it a lovely shape, ornament it with a beautiful design, stain it a ravishing colour, and give it a perfect glaze, but from its very nature he can’t make it anything but fragile. If you drop it on the floor it will break into a dozen fragments. Isn’t it possible in the same way that the values we cherish in the world can only exist in combination with evil?” (source)

Dogen does not deny this fact, but he takes it one step further and attempts to frame distinctions not as hindrances, but as paths and indications of an underlying emptiness to everything. The realization of emptiness occurs when one who has felt this sense of oneness separates from that feeling and enters a world of dichotomies and attachments.5 Only by looking through these “attachment-colored” eyeglasses, one understands the emptiness that encompasses and extends beyond all distinctions. Distinctions must exist to make emptiness apparent. Emptiness and duality are contingent upon one another. They are the same things.

A tree and a leaf are one; that is, they depend on and define one another. A leaf exists because a tree exists and vice versa. To the non-dual mind and to themselves, the tree and the leaf transcend distinction. As autumn approaches, the leaf begins to quiver, darken and eventually falls to the ground, separating from the tree. This detachment resembles entering the dual world where the tree and leaf exist as two separate entities, no longer defining one another. According to Dogen, precisely at this moment when the distinctions are realized, the tree and leaf understand the pervasive emptiness that encompasses them both. Only by falling into the realm of duality can they feel the sense of oneness they once manifested. The leaf does not fear the world of distinctions because it falls into the net of oneness that catches and sustains all things. In the Shape of the Universe the dichotomies of the tree, leaf and all entities, illuminate the underlying and consuming emptiness that engulfs all form.

Dogen believes that all illuminating distinctions depend on two facets, such as light and dark, being and non-being, and trees and leaves. The underlying emptiness that absorbs all dichotomies makes possible the realization of these distinctions. As Dogen writes, “The Buddha Way is originally beyond fullness and lack, and for this reason there is generation and extinction, illusion and Enlightenment, sentient beings and buddhas.”6 These distinctions must be understood and accepted in the light of the idea that they are all one. Only through truly seeing and embracing the dual nature of all, can one feel and experience the sense of a fundamental ultimate. As Shunryu Suzuki explains, “each existence depends on something else. Strictly speaking, there are no separate individual existences. There are just many names for one existence.”7 The leaf “recognizes” its oneness with the tree through its attachment to the past non-duality and belief that this sense encompasses all. One may believe that diversity obstructs the recognition of emptiness, but Dogen teaches that ignoring the dual differences leads to one-sided understanding based on the attachment to a firm existence.8 Suzuki, clarifying this teaching, says, “oneness and variety, like Dark Luminosity, are the same thing, so oneness should be appreciated in each existence. We should find the reality in each moment, and in each phenomenon.”9 The acceptance of distinctions and of the underlying emptiness found in each moment and all things, constitutes the actualization of the ultimate reality. One can only realize non-attachment though attachment to worldly distinctions.10

Recognizing the pervasive emptiness through the attachments constitutes Dogen’s idea of Awakening. This underlying emptiness liberates the practitioner and allows one to see things as they are–to see the dual facets of all things in the discursive world. Awakening culminates in wanting “to know things as they are. If we know things as they are, there is nothing to point at; there is no way to grasp anything; there is no thing to grasp.”11 Knowing things as they are entails observing the different sides of an entity and realizing the facets are fundamentally rooted in emptiness. One awakens to different sides of the same reality. Like the moon reflecting in a pool of water, one must see the whole reflection and realize that another side exists, a side not reflecting. This recognition of a dark side of the moon, completely illuminates the object and one knows it fully. In the Buddha way, understanding the dual sides of all things awakens one to the complete reality of the entity and the deeper, ultimate reality of emptiness.

The Awakening to the true reality of an object through realizing the underlying emptiness, liberates one from denying human reality. As Dogen says, even though one understands that the Buddha Way encompasses all distinctions, “flowers fall always amid our grudging, and weeds flourish in our chagrin.”12 One still prefers flowers instead of weeds, which is human reality. Suppressing this urge will create further suffering and perpetuate the distinction between flowers and weeds. Suzuki writes, “that we are attached to some beauty is itself Buddha’s activity. That we do not care for weeds is also Buddha’s activity. If you know that, it is all right to attach to something. If it is Buddha’s attachment, that is non-attachment.”13 Buddha’s attachment realizes that emptiness underlies all desires and all distinctions are ultimately the same. Love is hate and hate is love. One exists if and only if the other exists. One can dislike the weeds because the feelings are ultimately the same as love for the flower. Attempting to transcend distinctions between dislike and like, or create a superficial unity, promotes further suffering because one is caught in the idea of what one believes is unity and ignores the fundamental emptiness encompassing both passion and disgust.14 This awakening to the perpetuation of suffering liberates one from fighting against human reality and, through the recognition of distinctions, one understands the ultimate.

From acceptance of things as they are and basic emptiness, compassion, called Karuna, the Golden Purifier in the texts, arises.15 Compassion comes as a feeling with reality, flowing from the underlying emptiness. Accepting things as they are, with the form of distinctions, is a feeling that comes through the ultimate emptiness. One embraces hate and love because they are ultimately the same. One generates a sense of compassion for all weeds and flowers because these distinctions manifest emptiness. All beings command compassion because their dual natures illuminate the ultimate. One cannot emphasize a “oneness” because the Buddha Way is infinite and beyond even a sense of one. Compassion, like the Buddha doctrine of emptiness, encompasses every entity and transcends even a point of “oneness.” Compassion and distinctions derive their definition and form from the pervasive, fundamental emptiness.

Dogen teaches that compassion, Enlightenment and deeper understanding of the twofold truth stem from realizing the pervasive emptiness that encompasses all distinctions and dichotomies. The acceptance and awareness of the true, interdependent world of dualities illuminates the ultimate. One can realize the true nature of the discursive world because of the infinite emptiness that sustains and embraces all duality. Dogen’s idea of emptiness acts as reflecting pool that envelopes and creates the reflection. Without the pool, there would be no reflection. Without duality, the ultimate remains hidden.

Portions of this article contain excerpts from the Wanderling.
This article is informational only and not intended for profit.

Keywords: Dogen, Buddhism, meditation, Zazen, koans, Zen Buddhism, Japanese Zen, Buddha, Buddha

Plotinus (204-270 C.E.)

Published on

Plotinus (204-270 C.E.)

Plotinus is considered to be the founder of Neoplatonism. Taking his lead from his reading of Plato, Plotinus developed a complex spiritual cosmology involving three hypostases: the One, the Intelligence, and the Soul. It is from the productive unity of these three Beings that all existence emanates. The principal of emanation is not simply causal, but also contemplative. In his system, Plotinus raises intellectual contemplation to the status of a productive principle; and it is by virtue of contemplation that all existents are said to be united as a single, all-pervasive reality. In this sense, Plotinus is not a strict pantheist, yet his system does not permit the notion of creatio ex nihilo (creation out of nothingness). In addition to his cosmology, Plotinus also developed a unique theory of sense-perception and knowledge, based on the idea that the mind plays an active role in shaping or ordering the objects of its perception, rather than passively receiving the data of sense experience (in this sense, Plotinus may be said to have anticipated the phenomenological theories of Husserl). Plotinus’ doctrine that the soul is composed of a higher and a lower part — the higher part being unchangeable and divine (and aloof from the lower part, yet providing the lower part with life), while the lower part is the seat of the personality (and hence the passions and vices) — led him to neglect an ethics of the individual human being in favor of a mystical or soteric doctrine of the soul’s ascent to union with its higher part. The philosophy of Plotinus is represented in the complete collection of his treatises, collected and edited by his student Porphyry into six books of nine treatises each. For this reason they have come down to us under the title of the Enneads.

1. Life and Work

Plotinus was born in 204 C.E. in Egypt, the exact location of which is unknown. In his mid-twenties Plotinus gravitated to Alexandria, where he attended the lectures of various philosophers, not finding satisfaction with any until he discovered the teacher Ammonius Saccas. He remained with Ammonius until 242, at which time he joined up with the Emperor Gordian on an expedition to Persia, for the purpose, it seems, of engaging the famed philosophers of that country in the pursuit of wisdom. The expedition never met its destination, for the Emperor was assassinated in Mesopotamia, and Plotinus returned to Rome to set up a school of philosophy. By this time, Plotinus had reached his fortieth year. He taught in Rome for twenty years before the arrival of Porphyry, who was destined to become his most famous pupil, as well as his biographer and editor. It was at this time that Plotinus, urged by Porphyry, began to collect his treatises into systematic form, and to compose new ones. These treatises were most likely composed from the material gathered from Plotinus’ lectures and debates with his students. The students and attendants of Plotinus’ lectures must have varied greatly in philosophical outlook and doctrine, for the Enneads are filled with refutations and corrections of the positions of Peripatetics, Stoics, Epicureans, Gnostics, and Astrologers. Although Plotinus appealed to Plato as the ultimate authority on all things philosophical, he was known to have criticized the master himself (cf. Ennead IV.8.1). We should not make the mistake of interpreting Plotinus as nothing more than a commentator on Plato, albeit a brilliant one. He was an original and profound thinker in his own right, who borrowed and re-worked all that he found useful from earlier thinkers, and even from his opponents, in order to construct the grand dialectical system presented (although in not quite systematic form) in his treatises. The great thinker died in solitude at Campania in 270 C.E.

The Enneads are the complete treatises of Plotinus, edited by his student, Porphyry. Plotinus wrote these treatises in a crabbed and difficult Greek, and his failing eyesight rendered his penmanship oftentimes barely intelligible. We owe a great debt to Porphyry, for persisting in the patient and careful preservation of these writings. Porphyry divided the treatises of his master into six books of nine treatises each, sometimes arbitrarily dividing a longer work into several separate works in order to fulfill his numerical plan. The standard citation of the Enneads follows Porphyry’s division into book, treatise, and chapter. Hence ‘IV.8.1′ refers to book (or Ennead) four, treatise eight, chapter one.

2. Metaphysics and Cosmology

Plotinus is not a metaphysical thinker in the strict sense of the term. He is often referred to as a ‘mystical’ thinker, but even this designation fails to express the philosophical rigor of his thought. Jacques Derrida has remarked that the system of Plotinus represents the “closure of metaphysics” as well as the “transgression” of metaphysical thought itself (1973: p. 128 note). The cause for such a remark is that, in order to maintain the strict unity of his cosmology (which must be understood in the ’spiritual’ or noetic sense, in addition to the traditional physical sense of ‘cosmos’) Plotinus emphasizes the displacement or deferral of presence, refusing to locate either the beginning (arkhe) or the end (telos) of existents at any determinate point in the ‘chain of emanations’ — the One, the Intelligence, and the Soul — that is the expression of his cosmological theory; for to predicate presence of his highest principle would imply, for Plotinus, that this principle is but another being among beings, even if it is superior to all beings by virtue of its status as their ‘begetter’. Plotinus demands that the highest principle or existent be supremely self-sufficient, disinterested, impassive, etc. However, this highest principle must still, somehow, have a part in the generation of the Cosmos. It is this tension between Plotinus’ somewhat religious demand that pure unity and self-presence be the highest form of existence in his cosmology, and the philosophical necessity of accounting for the multiplicity among existents, that animates and lends an excessive complexity and determined rigor to his thought.

Since Being and Life itself, for Plotinus, is characterized by a dialectical return to origins, a process of overcoming the ’strictures’ of multiplicity, a theory of the primacy of contemplation (theoria) over against any traditional theories of physically causal beginnings, like what is found in the Pre-Socratic thinkers, and especially in Aristotle’s notion of the ‘prime mover,’ becomes necessary. Plotinus proceeds by setting himself in opposition to these earlier thinkers, and comes to align himself, more or less, with the thought of Plato. However, Plotinus employs allegory in his interpretation of Plato’s Dialogues; and this leads him to a highly personal reading of the creation myth in the Timaeus (27c ff.), which serves to bolster his often excessively introspective philosophizing. Plotinus maintains that the power of the Demiurge (’craftsman’ of the cosmos), in Plato’s myth, is derived not from any inherent creative capacity, but rather from the power of contemplation, and the creative insight it provides (see Enneads IV.8.1-2; III.8.7-8). According to Plotinus, the Demiurge does not actually create anything; what he does is govern the purely passive nature of matter, which is pure passivity itself, by imposing a sensible form (an image of the intelligible forms contained as thoughts within the mind of the Demiurge) upon it. The form (eidos) which is the arkhe or generative or productive principle of all beings, establishes its presence in the physical or sensible realm not through any act, but by virtue of the expressive contemplation of the Demiurge, who is to be identified with the Intelligence or Mind (Nous) in Plotinus’ system. Yet this Intelligence cannot be referred to as the primordial source of all existents (although it does hold the place, in Plotinus’ cosmology, of first principle), for it, itself, subsists only insofar as it contemplates a prior — this supreme prior is, according to Plotinus, the One, which is neither being nor essence, but the source, or rather, the possibility of all existence (see Ennead V.2.1). In this capacity, the One is not even a beginning, nor even an end, for it is simply the disinterested orientational ’stanchion’ that permits all beings to recognize themselves as somehow other than a supreme ‘I’. Indeed, for Plotinus, the Soul is the ‘We’ (Ennead I.1.7), that is, the separated yet communicable likeness (homoiotai) of existents to the Mind or Intelligence that contemplates the One. This highest level of contemplation — the Intelligence contemplating the One — gives birth to the forms (eide), which serve as the referential, contemplative basis of all further existents. The simultaneous inexhaustibility of the One as a generative power, coupled with its elusive and disinterested transcendence, makes the positing of any determinate source or point of origin of existence, in the context of Plotinus’ thought, impossible. So the transgression of metaphysical thought, in Plotinus’ system, owes its achievement to his grand concept of the One.

a. The One

The ‘concept’ of the One is not, properly speaking, a concept at all, since it is never explicitly defined by Plotinus, yet it is nevertheless the foundation and grandest expression of his philosophy. Plotinus does make it clear that no words can do justice to the power of the One; even the name, ‘the One,’ is inadequate, for naming already implies discursive knowledge, and since discursive knowledge divides or separates its objects in order to make them intelligible, the One cannot be known through the process of discursive reasoning (Ennead VI.9.4). Knowledge of the One is achieved through the experience of its ‘power’ (dunamis) and its nature, which is to provide a ‘foundation’ (arkhe) and location (topos) for all existents (VI.9.6). The ‘power’ of the One is not a power in the sense of physical or even mental action; the power of the One, as Plotinus speaks of it, is to be understood as the only adequate description of the ‘manifestation’ of a supreme principle that, by its very nature, transcends all predication and discursive understanding. This ‘power,’ then, is capable of being experienced, or known, only through contemplation (theoria), or the purely intellectual ‘vision’ of the so

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