http://www.reflectionsindia.org Reflections India New articles en-us http://www.reflectionsindia.org http://reflectionsindia.org/article.php?nav=24 The author of Hathayogapradipika, Swatmararama belongs to a line of great yogins beginning with Matsyendranatha and Gorakshanatha, who are also the earliest teachers in school of Tantra. As Patanjali’s yoga has philosophical affinity with the Sankhya of Kapila, the hatha yoga expounded by Swatmarama has its conceptual linkage with the Advaita Saivite school, although it is not satisfactorily explored. His thematic and schematic differences with Patanjali are conspicuous, as he takes a non-dualistic stand from the beginning and does not incorporate the scheme of the yogic techniques as expanded in the Yogasutras. Though time and again, he remarks that hatha yoga is only a step for ascending raja yoga, it is clear that it is not the type of raja yoga as explained by Patanjali. He rather uses the word “raja yoga” in a broader sense, which he himself equates with samadhi, unmani, advaita the highest state of attainment in yoga.1 In a strict sense, Swatmarama expounds both hatha yoga and raja yoga in his illustrious work, the first three chapters giving emphasis on hatha practices and the last chapter on raja yoga as it is evidenced from his conception of the identity of both raja yoga and samadhi. What is conspicuous in the path of hatha yoga which culminates in raja yoga as expounded by Swatmarama and his school is their non-intellectual or non-scholastic orientation. For practice, even for enlightenment, there is no requirement of a highly intellectual mind. What is important is not intellect but concentration. Even a fool can be enlightened, if he adopts yoga with some adaptability and concentration. In the beginning of Hathayogapradipika, he describes the major factors which are conducive to yoga. They include enthusiasm, courage, stability, avoiding people, resolution and tattva jnana which here means knowledge of spiritual truths. It is to be borne in mind that real spiritual knowledge is not an intellectual exercise or scriptural knowledge according to the hatha yogins. Here, it differs from Vedanta where study and understanding of the Vedantic texts are emphasized.    Where from yoga begins? The hatha yogin’s answer seems to be simple and forceful – only from the body and the physical processes of the body. Swatmarama ignores the first two steps of Patanjali viz. yama and niyama, and starts with the physical postures, the asanas. He doesn’t repudiate the efficacy of self control and self purification, but what he means is that with the minimum of these two, one can start with the physical practices, which necessarily leads to a state of spontaneous mastery over the body and the mind. It is obvious even to a beginner that a simple posture like padmasana and a few minutes of pranayama quell the vagaries of the mind, calm down the senses and invigorate and stabilize the body. For this, Swatmarama writes “Mind is the lord of the senses and prana (air) is the lord of mind but laya is the lord of prana.”2 Laya is nothing but de-objectified mindfulness. The simple methods of hatha presuppose neither a strict code of conduct nor a razor-sharp intellect. Overdoses of abstinence and indulgence may prove to be fatal which only can be administered appropriately taking into consideration the state of mind and character of the practitioner. It emphasizes one-pointed practice which alone leads to enlightenment. For this, Swatmarama remarks, “Some are deluded by the agamas, some by the nigamas and others by logic (arguments). They do not know that which gives liberation”. 3    In what context is yoga meaningful? In the widest human-context, with regard to each and every human being who feels tormented and seeks salvation from the ills of life, yoga is indispensable. Irrespective of caste, creed, country and religion, yoga is relevant for all. Even the atheists and the skeptics can take up yoga and be benefited. What is required is a mindset amenable to an inner longing for exploring the priorities and potentials of a meaningful living. This is contextually more significant from the standpoint of the hatha-raja yoga combine as conceived by Swatmarama, since it is amicably free from most of the presuppositions which other forms of yoga require.    The moment we reflect on the course of our life and its experiences, we become aware of the limits and compulsions of life. We are born with some propensities and potentials, some vices and virtues, some likes and dislikes. In course of time, we accumulate in life, some pains and pleasures, love and hatred, and encounter some success and failure which make us helpless spectators. We are ever in a quivering state of mind and are disturbed in the core. Sometimes, we are fully shaken. Our encounter with the objects we experience and the people we come across may sometimes give worries and anguish that make our life unbearable. Even then yoga comes to our rescue. Yoga cures the maladies of both body and the mind; it appropriates our circumstantial difficulties and makes us bear the eventualities that may befall on us. The simple practices of asana and pranayama with some techniques of laya like trataka or sambhavi give tangible effects even in a short time. But for superior experiences, more rigorous practices are required which can only be undertaken under the supervision of an accomplished master. Needless to say that a disease-free body and a stress-free mind are the necessary by-products of yoga but the real fulfillment is the spiritual freedom- coming out of the quagmire of life that binds us to countless births and deaths. References 1. Hathayogapradipika,4.3-4, Bihar School of Yoga, 1993 2. ibid, 4.29 3. ibid, 4.40http://reflectionsindia.org/article.php?nav=23 Because of faster means of communication the world is shrinking day by day. In days of yore, the earth was thought to be the centre of the universe. It was the belief of the time that the sun along with the stars was revolving round the earth. Gradually it was discovered that the earth is but a small planet revolving around the sun which is but a medium range star along with millions of its kind. Even then it was not possible to go round the earth for which courageous men such as Columbus undertook great expeditions to have a glimpse of the distant lands on the globe. Since then till the present time, there have been great discoveries and inventions which revolutionized man’s understanding of the world and his existence in it. Now we are thinking of a global village with a global culture not however sacrificing our multicultural outlook, accomplishing thus the ideal of unity in diversity. This is one side of the story of human progress. Knowledge is power. Things which are known are controlled and can be utilized, whenever it is possible, through the laws of knowledge, for the accomplishment of certain purpose. Knowledge consummates in application which has a purpose and bearing on human life. We have a conception of value that shapes our knowledge-pursuits and gives direction to its application. Globalization is the socio-economic product of the new age knowledge-pursuit. Ideas and products have been globalised. Consequent upon rapid strides in Science and Technology, the entire humanity has become a platform for interaction of ideas and activities. No nation can be immune to global change. Notwithstanding the socio-politico-cultural differences, an undercurrent of transformation is taking possession slowly of the entire human race. People all over the world are coming closer; global fraternity seems to be a reality in the   future though we are not certain regarding the exact time frame. Science can help us in finding new realities. It can give us new ideas and products. But it cannot give us a purpose and direction. Knowledge-pursuits are moulded by our values and priorities. No human pursuit can be entirely value-neutral. A sense of value, on the other hand, is not merely the outcome of our thought and cognitions. It is as much dependent on our feelings and emotions. Human problems are more existential than rational. Global fraternity is an existential imperative which mankind has to embrace if at all it is bold enough to face the reality. Violence, treachery, fanaticism, intolerance and the rest may disturb it but cannot distort it. Global fraternity presupposes a global mindset, which, on the other hand, is based on perception of the spiritual unity of the universe as it is rightly pointed out by the sages. In the recent globalization scenario we have a different experience. It seems to be contextually disconnected. The consumerist and profiteering attitude of man has deprived globalization of its purpose and tended it to proceed in a wrong direction. Maximum profit from minimum investment, more and more depletion of natural resources, more and more products, more and more markets, more and more profits and more and more enjoyment even at the cost of others’ benefit seems to be the mantra of present globalization. Globalization, in the present context, seems to be occupied with global profiteering instead of global fraternity.  It is obvious that globalization may cause devastation if the priorities are misplaced. With our enormous achievements in many fields, our failures in eradicating poverty, ignorance and violence are conspicuous. We need introspect and reset our priorities. But prior to it, we have to correct our vision and perception. A materialist conception cannot ensure a moral order of the world. Unless the spiritual unity of all the things is discovered no amount of humanism or utilitarianism can ensure peace and stability in the world. If death is the end of life, matter or unconscious energy is the sole reality and there is no purpose behind life and its experiences then no human values can have any meaning. If it is possible to commit a crime, exploit and escape the law then why should not one be a criminal? The answer to this question does not come under the purview of the materialist- humanist-utilitarian framework. Only it can be found in the spiritual dimension where all the diverse things are purposefully bound together in one reality which Vedanta puts as Advaita, the non-dual supreme reality. Ethical injunctions are based on a universal moral order and the moral order is only meaningful so far as it has a solid metaphysical foundation. Needless to say that metaphysics is not to be taken as a mere speculative activity bereft of experience. India is the mother of spiritual wisdom. It gave the world the great philosophy of Vedanta. The system of Vedanta is based on the spiritual experiences of the seers of the Upanisads. Advaita which the Upanisads preach as the ultimate truth cannot be confined to what we call religion or philosophy. It is the truth behind all the phenomena and the culmination of all our endeavors. All the beings of the world are the manifestation of Brahman, the only reality. The purpose of life and the entire cosmic process is to discover Brahman as one’s own reality. A man of self-realization sees everybody else as his own being. Not only the humans, the non-humans, even the non-living things appear to him as the expression of Brahman. The Isavasya Upanisad declares1- “One who sees all the beings within the Self and the Self in all cannot have hatred for any.”The Bhagavadgita repeats the same2 – “Wise men do not discriminate; they equally perceive a learned Brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a candala.”Global fraternity is based on a global perception anchored on the truth of Advaita. In the words of Swami Vivekananda- “In every nation the truth has been preached from the most ancient times – love your fellow beings as yourselves. In India it has been preached, ‘Love all beings as yourselves’, we make no distinction between men and animals. But no reason was forthcoming; no one knew why it would be good to love other beings as ourselves. And the reason why is there in the idea of the impersonal God, you understand it when you learn that the whole world is one – the oneness of the universe, the solidarity of all life—that in hurting anyone I am hurting myself, in loving anyone I am loving myself.”3 Global fraternity is an ideal, an outcome of the new age understanding of the closeness of mankind and the rest of the world. Though it is a modern idea, it is rooted in the eternal truth expounded in the Upanisads. Ideas are based on reality which is to be discovered in order to substantiate the former. It is exactly what Vedanta preaches. Unless unity of all life is discovered, global fraternity remains a mere idea.         Dr. Haramohan Mishra         Head, P. G. Dept of Sanskrit       S. B. Women’s College, Cuttack          REFERENCES        1. Isavasya Upanisad, 6        2. Bhagavadgita, 5.18        3. Lectures From Colombo To Almora, P 31 http://reflectionsindia.org/article.php?nav=22 The science of yoga is very ancient. However, the first systematic exposition of yoga was made by Patanjali in his famous Yogasutra. He expounds, in very clear and systematic manners, the techniques of yoga, which, for him, are primarily psychological though mixed with some physical practices like asana and pranayam in the beginning. In the primary sense, yoga means samadhi as it is signified by the definition yogas-citta-vrtti-nirodhah and so, the other practices are only the limbs of it. This state of yoga is not adventitious but natural to the mind sarva-bhaumas-cittasya dharmah since it is evolved from the sattva aspect as it is rightly pointed out by his commentator.1 The culmination of yoga is the state of asamprajnata or nirbija samadhi where the seer, drasta, remains in his own natural state of being or svarupa, whereas in other states, it gets identified with the modifications of the mind.2 Patanjali bases his yoga on the philosophical framework of Sankhya. Since his primary aim is to expound yoga he does not explain the philosophical concepts which are taken for granted as established facts. It is conspicuous that yoga is an ancient spiritual practice. Though it is mainly sadhana-intensive, it has a well defined conceptual basis without which it cannot happen. We find different types of yoga as hatha yoga, kundalini yoga, raja yoga etc, which are based on different concepts. The Advaita Vedanta School adopts yoga in their non-dualistic framework where it has a secondary place since the primary aim is to dispel ignorance which blurs the knowledge of the Self through vicara.3 The Agama schools have their own concepts of mantra, kundalini, six cakras like muladhara etc, with practices which are peculiar to their world view. The Hatha yoga School which adopts the same concepts as kundalini, sat cakra etc, is more prominent for its giving emphasis on the physical body where as its world view is akin to that of the Agamic schools. In Advaita Vedanta, the world is said to be a false appearance or vivarta and the Self is the same as Brahman, the Reality which is the substratum of the cosmic appearance. So there is neither attainment of a new state nor a negation of an old one. In the Agamic view, there is a real attainment, the merger of the individual with the Universal Self, God. Even though the main stream Agamic view is non-dualistic, the world is not taken as false, since, unlike Advaita Vedanta, the Agamic schools do not accept vivarta vada. For Patanjali, like Sankhya, yoga is the state of the Self where it remains completely isolated from Prakrti. It is described as the establishment of citsakti in its own svarupa.4 Different schools adopt yoga and mould it to their philosophic framework. Even though concepts and practices are different the underlying spirit and mechanism remain the same. The main standpoint is to discipline the body and the mind so that one can explore deeper levels of his own being which remain hidden in ordinary states of existence. It is the common experience that our knowledge extends over to the objects in the ordinary states inclusive of both valid and invalid knowledge. Otherwise, the mind lapses into sleep. These are the states which Patanjali classifies into five vrttis, valid knowledge, erroneous knowledge, sleep and the rest.5 Never, in the ordinary level, do we encounter any state of mind beyond these five vrttis. But the state beyond them is the starting point where yoga begins. The possibility of a state of consciousness beyond the five states of mind is plausible in view of the fact that the Self is accepted as different from mind by the Indian systems of philosophy. The Upanisads describe a fourth state of consciousness beyond waking, dream and deep sleep. The impurities which are accumulated around the mind and the senses can be got rid of only when one discovers him to be different from them. This conception of the Self which gives a sense of transcendence provides the metaphysical background of the science of yoga in whichever framework it might have developed. It is obvious that Sankhya-Yoga, Vedanta and the Agamic Schools which develop their philosophical ideas around such a conception provide the most favourable background for the most remarkable spiritual traditions in India. The foundational ideas of Patanjali’s yoga can be summed up in a few lines. The seer, the subject is essentially pure consciousness who only sees through the modifications of the mind.6 Patanjali remains silent on the question whether this pure consciousness is also the same or a part of the universal consciousness if at all such a reality is accepted. Even though Isvara, God is accepted as omniscient, untouched by miseries, actions and their results etc, his causal relation with the individual is not explained. Patanjali accepts a sort of realism where the objective world, drsya is real.7 He upholds citta, mind-stuff as a separate principle which being tinged by both the object and the Self gives rise to empirical knowledge.8 The mind is coloured by innumerable impressions with which the purusa identifies him and is entangled in the enjoyments of the world. Through discrimination the purusa becomes free from such entanglements. Then the gunas being bereft any purpose for the purusa get dissolved inversely in their primordial cause which is known as kaivalya, the state of freedom of the purusa, where he gets established in his own svarupa.9 The mind which is the cause of the samsara is also the means of freedom when it is oriented towards the Self through discrimination. The process of the world is intended to facilitate the evolution of the purusa towards his self-attainment, which is isolation from prakrti otherwise known as kaivalya. The theory of plurality of purusas is not compatible with the conception of purusa as nitya and bibhu. The state of kaivalya in the scheme of Sankhya cannot consistently explain many metaphysical questions. It cannot explain the state of the purusa with reference to the real space, time and the cosmos after the attainment of kaivalya. It is not worthwhile to yearn for kaivalya which is simply a state of inactivity as that of the pralayakala or the vijnanakala of the Agamas or that of the mukta of the Vaisesikas. Patanjali has adopted Sankhya as a philosophical model for his more practical science of yoga, but he has something more to say which becomes conspicuous from his description of the final samadhi as dharmamegha and his contention that knowledge, free from all concealment surpasses infinitely all knowable at the final stage of enlightenment. 10 The state of enlightenment or freedom as the consummation of the process of life is not easy to conceive. It is even more difficult to explain. Patanjali’s yoga leads the sadhaka along the path of enlightenment till its accomplishment. But as a final world view the non-dualistic standpoint of Vedanta is philosophically more satisfying. Patanjali’s yoga can very well be incorporated within the Vedantic philosophy of no-dualism. Indeed, Vidyaranya Swami, the illustrious writer of Pancadasi opines in this line – “From the worshippers of God in form of a small grass to the followers of Yoga, all have a wrong idea about Isvara. From the Lokayatas, the materialists to the followers of Sankhya, all have confusion regarding the jiva.”Then he adds –“If the conceptions of plurality of jivas, the reality of the world and the difference of God and jiva are given up, then there will be a grand synthesis of Sankhya, Yoga and Vedanta”11 Dr. Haramohan Mishra Head, P.G.Dept. of Sanskrit S.B.Women’s College, Cuttack, Odisha References 1. Yogasutra, Vyasa bhasya, 1.1 2. Ys, 1.3-4 3. Pancadasi, 9.132 4. Ys, 4.33 5. Ys, 1.5-6 6. Ys, 2.20 7. Ys, 4.15 8. Ys, 4.22 9. Ys, 4.33 10. Ys, 4.28,30 11. Pancadasi,6.216,228 http://reflectionsindia.org/article.php?nav=21 The Veda has two kandas or parts namely, karma or action and jnana or knowledge. The first comprises the major portions of the Brahmanas, generally containing the previous chapters, and the second consists of the Upanisads, coming in the later half of the works though they may sometimes occur in the Samhita part of the Veda. Here, karma signifies the rituals such as the sacrifices as prescribed in the Brahmanas. These are performed with a view to attaining various fruits either in this life or after death in the heaven. Knowledge or jnana means Atma-vidya (Self-knowledge), knowing the Self as identical with Brahman. Apart from these two, there is a third kanda, the upasana kanda, which describes various methods of upasana in different forms of meditation. Sometimes it may be found to be mixed with a little bit of ritual. Different forms of upasana are mainly met with in the Aranyakas and the Upanisads. While the karmakanda aims at various worldly or otherworldly attainments, jnanakanda aims at the attainment of the knowledge of the Self, which gets fulfillment in liberation. But upasana enriches both knowledge and action, as the case may be with reference to the context. After conceiving the nature of karma, jnana and upasana it is required to ascertain their relationship. As conceived by Sankara, knowledge, in the sense of self-realisation, is always antagonistic to karma. Karma is rooted in ignorance through which there is mutual superimposition between the body, senses, etc. and the self. When one performs karma, one has to feel himself identical with the body, mind and senses and the various worldly relationships and limitations owing to this identification. Since Self knowledge destroys this wrong identification with the body and takes away the various relations created out of this wrong identification, self knowledge and Karma cannot co-exist.But it is to be noted that knowledge is directly opposed to the actions known as kamya karma which are performed with desires but not to actions intended for purification of the mind. Commenting on the line of B.U “The Brahmanas seek to know him (the self) through svadhyaya (study), yajna (sacrifices), dana (offering), and tapas (penance)”, he says that actions can be conducive to the attainment of knowledge as they purify the mind when they are performed without desire. Coming back to the relevance of upasana, we notice that, in the Upanisads, it is held subservient to atma-vidya. It partakes both karma and jnana so far as it is employed for the enrichment of these two. According to Sankara, upasana is kartr-tantra which means to be dependent on the agent, the doer, like karma, where as knowledge is vastu-tantra which means to be dependent on the object. Knowledge arises out of inquiry which is direct and immediate. Like any other direct knowledge, viz, the knowledge of the pot, the knowledge of Brahman is also objectively determined. It cannot be prevented or be altered whether one likes it or not. But unlike direct knowledge, upasana is fully dependent on the will, likes, dislikes and the mental setup of the person who undertakes it. So, it can never be vastu-tantra like knowledge. However, upasana can be helpful for both knowledge and action as the case may be. In the case of action, such as the Vedic rites, upasana forms the essence without which actions become meaningless. So, upasana is the rationale behind the actions. But in the context of knowledge, upasana becomes conducive by redirecting the mind towards the Self. http://reflectionsindia.org/article.php?nav=20The sages know that there is no greater attainment than the attainment of the self, says Sureswara, the chief disciple of Sankara, in the Manasollasa, his commentary on the Daksinamurti Stotra- atmalabhat paro labho nastiti munayo viduh. The greatest discovery of man is indeed the discovery of the self. The ancient seers discovered that the mystery of the whole world remains hidden in one’s own self. They not only discovered this great truth for themselves but also led down some methods for the seekers following which anybody can discover this truth. The Upanisads show us the way of self inquiry intuited by the seers as the chief method of self knowledge. Yajnavalkya said to his wife-atma va are drastavyah srotavyo mantavyo nididhyasitavyah, “O Maitreyi, the self should be realized, should be heard of, reflected on and meditated upon.” Taking these lines from the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad, Acharya Sankara standardized sravana, manana and nididhyana as the chief method of self realization. Apart from this, the Upanisads describe different forms of upasana through different symbols, names and forms. Though these upasanas have their specific results with reference to their forms and context, they also supplement the chief method of inquiry, i.e. sravana, manana and nididhyasana so far as they make the mind fit for atma-jijnasa. They also give rise to krama mukti even though mukti or emancipation can only be achieved through pure Brahma vidya. Krama mukti is a gradual process through which the individual attains higher and higher forms of life till he attains the status of Prajapati or Isvara as distinct from Brahman which is said to be free from all qualities and actions. All the upasanas as described in the Upanisads have krama mukti as their common goal, which reaches the final point with the attainment of identity with Prajapati (the stage of saguna Brahman). Those who attain this, they discover the true identity of the self at this stage, and get the final emancipation. But self inquiry unmixed with any upasana results in pure Brahma vijnana, which directly gives rise to mukti, direct and immediate, without any gradual process like karma mukti. This is the way Sankaracharya explains the importance and the necessity of the upasanas. Thus, upasana is conducive to the consummation of self knowledge and can be pursued even by those who follow self inquiry as the chief method for Brahma-realization. Even a person who is not capable of making self inquiry can be benefited by upasana which makes the mind fit to acquire knowledge in the later stages. The ultimate reality known as Brahman in the Upanisads is conceived in two different ways. When it is conceived as free from all attributes, relations, names and forms, it is known as nirguna Brahman. It transcends the world and cannot be grasped by the mind. As such it cannot properly be made an object of upasana. But when it is described as having attributes, in association with maya or its products, cast in names and forms, it is known as saguna Brahman, Isvara or Prajapati in the Upanisads. Brahman which is itself Consciousness, Existence and Bliss, becomes omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent through maya. The Svetasvatara Upanisad says- mayam tu prakrtim vidyat mayinam tu mahesvaram. In the latter form, Brahman becomes the object of upasana. Thus the impersonal becomes personal, the Absolute becomes the God or the infinite number of gods accordingly as one perceives. The word upasana is derived from the verbal root as with upa (prefix) and yuc (ana) (suffix) which literally means ‘to be near’. Thus, upasana is a sort of awareness when the upasaka comes near his upasya. It is roughly translated as worship. But it has a special significance. Reverence, devotion, engrossment, submission etc are generally the characteristics of worship which are basically emotional traits. But the upanisadic upasana is more than this. Though all these traits characterize the upanisadic upasana, it is more a cognitive and intuitive act than an emotional outburst. It is more meditative than ritualistic. When the worshipper comes closer to the object of worship he gradually becomes engrossed in it. So, upasana is a state of complete absorption in the upasya. This is why Sankaracharya says- upasanam nama tatparyam. It is an unbroken flow of consciousness through which the worshipper enters the very being of the object meditated upon. So, upasana as described in the Upanisads is not simply a passive meditative act, it is more a process of active involvement. Here both the cognitive and the emotive faculties of the mind are fused in a state of total absorption. http://reflectionsindia.org/article.php?nav=19The Gayatri Mantra, tat savitur varenyam bhargo devasya dhimahi dhiyo yonah prachodayat, originates from the verses of a hymn of the Rig Veda, 3.62.10. It is also found in Yajurveda 3:35, 36:3, 22:9 and Samaveda 1462. The mantra is written in Gayatri chhanda, consisting of three padas, or lines, each line having eight syllables. Its recitation is preceded by ‘Om’, the pranaba, and ‘Bhur Bhuba Swah’, the mahavyahrti (great utterance), as described in Taittariya Aranyaka. In some major Upanishads like the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Swetaswetara Upanishad and Maitrayaniya Upanishad, it has become a subject of esoteric analysis and explanation. The literal meaning of the mantra is “May we meditate on the honorable glory of the radiant sun; may he inspire our intelligence.” In Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the Upasana through Gayatri is taken as one of the most important meditations, rich in its symbolic meaning, and accepted for daily worship. The etymology of the name ‘Gayatri’ is ‘gayan tatre’ which means ‘that which has saved the senses, mind and vital air’. The Upanishad identifies each of the syllables of a line of the mantra with a principle in a cosmic dimension, till all the lines cover all the dimensions of the world. The first pada of the Gayatri mantra consisting of eight letters represents the three lokas(space) , bhumi (the earth), antariksha (the atmosphere) and dwau (the heaven). The second pada of the mantra represents the three Vedas (wisdom), ruco(all the rks), yajumsi(all the yajus) and samani (all the samani).The third pada represents the three vital forces, prana, apana, and vyana which pervades all the living beings that have prana (the life force).Thus, the knower of Gayatri wins the three regions, the three Vedas (wisdom) , and the entire ranges of the universe where prana(life) prevails. There is also a fourth pada of Gayatri, the sun, which is prominently visible beyond the lokas (paroraja). The sun symbolizes the lordship over three lokas, and is the source of all light and wisdom as well as of all light and energy. The sun, Savita is the pratistha, substratum of Gayatri, for which it is also known as Savitri or ‘belonging to Savita’.Anybody who knows and meditates on the mantra shines with splendor and fame. This is the meaning of Gayatri from the exoteric point of view. The Upanishad then diverts the view from the external to internal, from the adhidaivika to adhyatmika. The fourth pada of Gayatri rests on truth which is identified with the eye, the eye is identified with strength and strength is identified with Prana. So the fourth pada, the essence of all the worlds, wisdom and life, is linked to truth. The truth is linked with the eye as it is the means of ascertaining truth. The eye is dependent on strength and strength is dependent on prana, the vital force which is not different from the Cosmic Life, Prana. The Gayatri (Pranatmika) is thus identified with Prana or Brahman. Gayatri mantra is the medium through which one can intuitively grasp the Cosmic Light (Prana) which shines through the sun, enlivening all the lokas with knowledge (traividya) and life(prana). http://reflectionsindia.org/article.php?nav=18 Anything that happens in the living world is mysterious and strange. Outside the living world, whatever happens is mostly deterministic. The time period of a pendulum is always directly proportional to the square root of its length. The electrolysis of water always causes the hydrogen ions to move towards the cathode and oxygen to the anode. Unlike this, the living world is full of strangeness and awe. A single living cell mysteriously undergoes cell divisions and transforms into an embryo, then into a fetus and then into a complete child. Soft tissues, bones and complex organs like the heart and brain, all originate from a single cell, strangely, in a way unnatural to the dynamics of the non-living world. Complex sensory receptors are developed, ranging from the millions of photoreceptors for vision to pressure receptors and thermoreceptors for sensing touch. Sources like light on a photo receptor and pressure on a mechanoreceptor cause changes to the membrane potentials which result in a flow of ions between neurons through synapses. The processing of such electrochemical signals is done instantaneously by different sensory areas of the brain. The brain contains about 100 billion neurons and many more synapses, and is responsible for the processing of sensory signals, generation of motor signals, generation of signals for the autonomous nervous system and most importantly for creating the feeling of being aware, conscious and being different from the rest of the world. The same brain becomes unconscious and does not respond to sensory signals when it is induced to a coma or when it dies. Nobody knows why all animals sleep, partially losing consciousness every day and how brain still manages to keep signaling to the heart and lungs via the autonomous nervous system at the time of sleep. It is astonishing how all systems cooperate and work together to keep the body alive. The principles working behind the mysterious living world are little known and life science still remains at its primitive stage. But modern scientists always attempt to reject the existence of the soul (the entity that makes one conscious). Believing never proves a fact and superstition is not good. But rejecting the basic principles that might be working behind the living world is nothing more than stupidity. It is possible to create intelligent robots using intelligent algorithms that can pass the Turing test, and behave like humans, but it is obvious, it will be impossible to make them wonder, imagine, love, dream and feel emotions like real children do. The living world is full of awe and therefore the strangeness of subatomic particles is pale compared to it. There has been a lot of fuss about consciousness being based on the collapse of a quantum wave function. Life certainly creates complex organic polymers that are made up of subatomic particles. Complicated biochemical processes do occur but these occur on their own, in a strange way, perhaps controlled by an external entity that supports life. Non-living chemicals found in living organisms are available in plenty throughout the universe. It is therefore possible for life to exist anywhere else. But do these chemicals really make life or it is life (the spirit) that makes them? It is even possible that the brain might be working on behalf of an external entity, just like a radio works on behalf of a radio frequency signal. Whenever a person dies, the brain is unable to function and thus the link fails. This unknown link might be the link to a “conscious life force” or soul. A newborn might be getting tuned to a specific soul through a mapping function based on some unknown argument. It is also possible that all living organisms, including single-cell organisms, might be linked to one “cosmic life force” and could be living by interpreting it based on their capabilities. It might be possible for a part of this “cosmic life force” to exist on its own and link to a new form of life that is not yet known to us. Like the evolution of physical life, there could be evolution of the souls. There is little scientific evidence to support afterlife. But I shall give an example before concluding the article. When we move our right hand, the motor cortex of the left side of the brain signals the muscles to move the hand through motor neurons. The signaling is accomplished through the flow of ions regulated by chemicals called neurotransmitters. However, it is clear that the flow of ions does not initiate the moving of hand. It is us who initiate it. The ions strangely cooperate and work for us, which is the mystery of the living world. The scientists wrongly assume that we are not moving the hand, but the ions are moving it. In the same way they mistake our thoughts, emotions and will, as the flow of ions and chemical reactions. Applying oscillating magnetic fields near the neurons of brain changes their membrane potential. Sedatives restrict the flow of ions into the cells. These affect the functioning of brain and therefore, decision making. But how the brain works on its own? It is certain, there is a conscious entity that makes us “us”, and makes us different from the rest of the world. This is the same entity that makes a child laugh and makes the artist paint. But the mechanism through which life functions is too complicated for us to understand. Life seems to have a purpose and the purpose might be to evolve in both body and the soul. But who really knows? http://reflectionsindia.org/article.php?nav=17Spirituality and religiosity are never the same things. A spiritual person is a person who has love for the spirit, i.e, who loves nature, loves animals and those who are around him, including himself. A spiritual person therefore values life by treating himself as well as others with respect and by caring for others. Conversely, a religious person is not necessarily good to others. To be religious, the person has to stick to certain books, obey one or more prophets or teachers, conform to their guidelines and possibly pray to some god, as described in those books or instructed by the prophets. While a spiritual person always cares for and respects innocent life, a religious person will be good to another only if it is explicitly stated in the religious book. Again, the religious person has to be blind and will always try to defend his prophet or teacher no matter how immoral such a person might be. The religious person therefore never does anything of his free will but does it for the fear of being punished by some god if he fails to do so. Why does this tyrant god need to be prayed and respected? And why were those wise men so mean to the innocent when they themselves did not correctly know about their own fates. (if life ever exists after death) Nevertheless, the religions and these wise men have always served as justifications for acts that are essentially racism, cruelty, child neglect, slavery and murder. While many religions including some sects of Hinduism instruct their followers to pray and flatter god, it is only in the religions of Indian origin like Hinduism and Buddhism where the concept of meditation originated. Meditation is a practice where the practitioners try to discover their true nature through silence. Feeling and admiring the wonders of nature is no doubt one of the best forms of meditation because through it we gain a feeling of inner peace. Anything that makes one feel peaceful and good can also be regarded as a type of meditation. Whatever we do, if the work is done with love and dedication, and if it pertains to the spirit, is a spiritual work. For example, even the work of making castles in sand, that children do, is spiritual. However, making works of art for the sole purpose of selling them is not. Caring for and being good to others also make us feel peaceful, and are therefore spiritual works. Loving an imaginary creation like a mother figure who protects and nurtures us can make us feel peaceful as well and hence, it is also spiritual. Believing in a god-like figure, especially as a mother, is beneficial because it creates a strong effect similar to the placebo effect which helps us recover faster from illness, reduces our anxiety and increases our confidence. But, this creation of ours will most likely exceed the imaginations of all the prophets and teachers who were used to writing immoral works in the name of virtue and morality. It is also essential to know that when we are dreaming of a god-like figure, we are indirectly referring to our own spirit because it is only through this spirit that we have created such a figure. There is a common misconception among people that all gods are one and all religions are good. Blind belief is terribly bad and nobody should believe that the god who instructs his followers to kill is the same as nature which rears life. "I like the Walrus best," said Alice, "because you see he was a little sorry for the poor oysters." "He ate more than the Carpenter, though," said Tweedledee. "You see he held his handkerchief in front, so that the Carpenter couldn't count how many he took: contrariwise." "That was mean!" Alice said indignantly. "Then I like the Carpenter best- if he didn't eat so many as the Walrus." "But he ate as many as he could get," said Tweedledum. Religion, no matter what it is, is always an imperialistic ideology which has caused irreversible damage to the human race in the disguise of faith. When religiosity most probably leads one to ignorance, fear, superstition, and immorality, spirituality helps us look into the true nature of the spirit within, which can lead us to an experience of oneness of all life and a feeling of connectedness to a larger reality. http://reflectionsindia.org/article.php?nav=16The Advaita Vedanta philosophy states that there is only one spirit which is present in all living beings, and everyone has to undergo a series of steps to perfection, where one will realize that the same spirit is within everyone by seeing everyone and everything in oneself and as oneself. This looks like one of the greatest things ever thought in the history of Philosophy. But the question is, were Adi Shankaracharya, and the other teachers of Vedanta, truly self-realized persons? And does the word "dharma" used in Indian contexts deserve any sort of respect. The principles of Vedanta were found in early works such as the Upanishads and the Bhagavadgita; and Adi Shankara certainly deserves the credits for consolidating the principles. However Adi Shankara had a habit of blindly believing in the scriptures, particularly the Vedas and the Smritis. The Vedas, believed to be the words of wisdom by many, to the contrary, often contain practices and beliefs of the people of ancient India that have nothing to do with wisdom. The logic is, every person can never be the same. The Vedas were not written by a single person. They were written by many, and not all of them were enlightened. While many verses in the Vedas were written by the wise, and contain knowledge of great wisdom, which are elaborated further in the Upanishads, most of the other verses found are ritualistic and often describe the sacrifices that the people performed during the old times, including animal sacrifices. Though the Upanishads contain the philosophical part of the Vedas, giving a priority to self-awareness and self-realization, they were again not written by a single person, and not every verse in them can be regarded as perfect. One of the major faults at the time when the Upanishads were written was the introduction of the caste system, which was a form of Indian apartheid, in which the shudras (a class of people) were regarded as inferior and were forbidden to read the knowledge texts. The conditions of the shudras deteriorated further when the dharmashastras were written. The word "dharma" literally meaning "to hold", can be most properly translated into the English word, "moral". However works written in the name of morality like Manusmriti were in reality, immoral. One might think that Adi Shankara, the person who advocated Vedanta might be a self-realized person but it was not the fact. Adi Shankara inherited the orthodox ideas and believed that the shudras were unfit to read knowledge texts like the Upanishads and Vedas. In his commentary on the Brahma Sutra called the Brahmasutra Bhasya, Shankara re-wrote the same belief that the sudras were not fit for studying and even hearing the philosophical texts like the Upanishads. Instead he gave them a special permission to acquire knowledge through certain mythological stories and history. (Brahmasutra Bhasya 1.3.38) Shankara was a firm believer of Manusmriti, a book on Hindu dharma(morals), and according to Manu, a shudra who hears about the philosophical works should have his ears filled with molten lead and wax, and the one who reads those should have his tongue cut off. Interestingly, Shankaracharya even quoted Manu when writing the commentary on the verse. The ideas of loving children and appreciating childhood were also incompatible with the principles of dharmashastra because the dharmashastras insisted that the daughters should be thrown out of the house, as soon as possible, in marriages. Manu in his Manusmriti had invented a moral in which a man of 24 years old should marry a 8 year old child.(Manusmriti 9.94) The Veda however contains a verse, revealed to the enlightened female philosopher, Vaak where she declares that she is the power that makes one eat the food and makes one capable of seeing and breathing, and that she is created from the water of the ocean, and that she extends throughout the universe, blowing like the fierce winds, and holding together all existence. In the verse, she again asserts that she has become so vast by the possession of greatness that she is beyond both heaven and the earth. (Rig Veda 10.125) But Manu did not like the idea of educating girls and instead, wanted to keep them ignorant by forbidding them from studying. So he, in his Manusmriti, insisted that marriage was the equivalent of studying in case of girls. (Manusmriti 2.67) Though most of the people of the Vedic times had a preference of sons to daughters, a verse can be found in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad where some people wanted to have scholarly or learned daughters. (Brihadaranyaka 6.4.17) The word "pandita" in the verse (atha ya icched duhita me pandita jayeta) was certainly used in the sense of "scholarly" and "learned" in the work. However Adi Shankara in his commentary on the Upanishad explicitly stated that the intelligence of the daughter is restricted to the intelligence of performing household chores only. This is a clear indication that Adi Shankara was also a follower of "Hindu dharma" (immoral?) and therefore he was not a true self-realized person but a racist and a misogynist. When a verse contains something that is not worth practicing, it is expected from a knowledgeable person that he or she should either correct it (make reforms) or reject it. But in this case, Shankara did exactly the opposite. The Shankaracharya again in his commentary on the Brahma Sutra, accepted the age old belief that it is not bad to offer animals in sacrifices (Brahmasutra 3.1.25). Life cannot continue unless one feeds on another, and this is the law of nature. But even if one eats meat, it will never be correct to give a remark that the butchering of animals is not cruel. It is a pity, the neo-vedanta monk, Swami Vivekananda even said that child-marriages make a race more chaste, which he cannot deny. Also he argued that other nations are not better off compared to India, because chastity is the life of a nation! (Complete works of Swami Vivekananda, vol2,jnana-yoga,maya and illusion). Even today, child-marriage is promoted by the wise Shankaracharyas in the name of dharma. As an example, Sri Sri Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi from Kanchi Kamakoti keeps insisting that a boy should start his education at the age of seven and a girl should be married at the same age!The ideology of the oneness of all life whether called Vedanta or anything else deserves the highest praise and there is nothing wrong in the word, "dharma" which means morals, but the ones who claimed to have self-knowledge and those who started creating morals using their superficial wisdom did not have the basic qualities that are expected from them. Unless one rejects the complications of the world, and becomes a child, one cannot be called perfect. The feeling of oneness with the world can neither be obtained by reading scriptures nor by writing nonsense. Oneness with the world can only be felt through love and by nothing else.http://reflectionsindia.org/article.php?nav=15 A philosophical inquiry begins with a question. An intense question finds a profound answer. That is why the preceptors of the Upanisads seek for the disciples who can put right questions in the right context.1 The perennial questions raised by Naciketas, Janaka, Maitreyi, Gargi, Svetaketu and others in the Upanisads are marked with proficiency and intensity. In evaluating the method of inquiry in the Upanisads, we have to understand the way questions are raised and answered. Not only in the Upanisads, in the entire philosophical arena, questioning is the most important factor through which a philosophical concept is taken up and is subjected to serious scrutiny. In the ordinary level, a question is raised to understand an object or a situation with a utilitarian or pragmatic end in view. We may ask, “What is an apple?” The answer may be, “An apple is a sweet, red, round, juicy fruit.” Both the question and its answer have some pragmatic end. Even the scientific question regarding the botanical or chemical composition of the apple is rooted in its utility. In the worldly level, we are concerned with our immediate needs; hence the things or the facts that have some bearing on them come to the purview of our inquiry. But the questions regarding God, soul, other world etc, have no practical utility. These are primarily metaphysical questions even though having some normative consequence. Metaphysical questions can never be value-neutral. However, these are more fundamental than the value-specific questions. Ordinary knowledge and scientific knowledge which is an elongation of the former are concerned with the immediate existence of the objective world, vyavaharika satta; metaphysical questions aim at the understanding of the ultimate nature, paramarthika tattva, of the things. Even questions regarding the ultimate status of an ordinary thing, i.e. a piece of stone, is metaphysical. When we push further and further an ordinary question, it becomes scientific; but when it encounters a different level of reality, it becomes metaphysical. In the Upanisads, we encounter great questions regarding life and its experiences put up from different angles. The seers stared at the expansive universe and sought to know the great cause of the world, Brahman, from which all are born and are held as they are.2 They looked inward and inquired about the self which impels the mind, prana, speech and other sense organs to act in their specific ways.3 Through Naciketas the perennial question whether the self outlives its bodily death is raised.4 Saunaka asks Angirasa about that by knowing which everything else is known.5 Janaka directly puts the question to Yajnavalkya, “Which one is the self?”6 Sometimes, in a series, subtler and subtler questions are asked in order to bring home the ultimate answer as we find in the aksara brahmana or in the sakalya brahmana of Br.Upanisad.7 However, the Upanisadic questions are not mere expression of intellectual curiosity. Existential problems of life prompted the sages to ponder over these questions. The allurements of the world became meaningless for them. Maitreyi asked Yajnavalkya, “If I cannot become immortal by these, then, what I shall do therewith?” We acquire knowledge through experience and reason. But the limitations of both these methods are conspicuous. This tends us to speculate, since human mind cannot accept an agnostic end as the final attainment in man’s quest for knowledge. However, speculations are misleading. Unguarded by experience and reason, they may land us in the wonderland of fantasy and imagination. It seems as if the entire human framework of knowledge is exhausted with the empirical, rational and the speculative activities. Had it been so there would be no possibility of any knowledge beyond the phenomenal level. But in rare moments, we are prompted by some inner urge to transcend our apparent limitations and we come face to face with a higher reality; that we call intuition. The dynamics of intuition is not properly understood since the science of consciousness has not yet crossed its infancy. For it, the entire spectra of consciousness are to be understood. However, all intuitions are not self-knowledge. Questions in the Upanisads cover the entire ranges of knowledge but they culminate in intuitive knowledge of the self. The Upanisads raise two types of questions related to their two broad-based subjects. The first type consists of questions regarding various vidyas or forms of upasana. These questions take up either some macrocosmic objects or some microcosmic objects as their subject-matter, so they fall under two groups, adhidaivika or adhyatmika. Their intention, according to Sankara and Suresvara, is to lead the aspirant gradually to the ultimate goal, even though these forms of meditation may give rise to other worldly fulfillments.8 In both these forms, such questions are thematically related to the earlier Vedic world-view and the belief-system. In some sense or other, these are the legacy of the older Vedic mind. But the second type of questions deal with pure brahma-vidya or atma-jnana which is universal and perennial. In contrast to adhidaivika, macrocosmic, and adhyatmika, microcosmic, these are purely atmika, pertaining only to self-knowledge. In this form, most profound questions are raised and answered in a distinct and convincing manner which is unparallel in the entire world of philosophy. Upanisads are written in a free and unrestricted manner. The sages had different preferences, so the questions are put forth in multiple forms with scanty logical consideration. However, underlying these questions there is one single vision, realization of one’s own self as one with the Absolute, the source of all life and existence. Sankaracarya wrote his marvelous commentaries on the principal Upanisads and his greatest contribution to the world of knowledge is systematizing the apparently disconnected and contradictory lines of these illuminating works and showing that the message of the Upanisads is not confined to the contingencies of time, place and person. The manner of questioning as found in these works is the real starting point of any genuine search for meaning of life and its experiences. (This is the paper presented at the UGC sponsored national seminar held at Sanskrit University, Puri, February 2010)   Dr. Haramohan Mishra Head, P.G.Dept. of Sanskrit S.B.Women’s College, Cuttack http://www.reflectionsindia.org/     References 1. Katha Up. 1.2.9 2. Svetasvatara Up. 1.1 3. Kena Up. 1.1 4. Katha Up. 1.20 5. Mundaka Up. 1.1.3 6. Brhadaranyaka Up. 4.3.7 7. Br. Up.3.8, 3.9 8. Br.Up.Bhasya Vartika, 5.4-5 http://reflectionsindia.org/article.php?nav=14 Yoga is deeply conceptual and highly sadhana-intensive. Sadhana means an effort in the direction of achieving the spiritual goal. It is context-specific and as such needs to be understood with reference to its world-view. Since the Vedic times it has been adopted by different systems moulded to their ontic and epistemic framework. So, we find different yogic concepts, viz., hatha yoga, raja yoga, kundalini yoga, mantra yoga, even karma yoga, jnana yoga and bhakti yoga etc, which are content-specific and peculiar to the mind-sets that conceive “yoga” and reconstruct it according to their needs. In some systems like hatha yoga the physical aspect is given prominence, whereas in raja yoga the psychological aspect is the chief concern. The Tantric systems have their own esoteric yogic concepts, where as in some systems like Advaita Vedanta, yoga as such is not the foremost concern. In some systems yoga (literally meaning “union”) is really a viyoga (separation) and in some others it is a sort of union. Some basic concepts are quite dissimilar and antagonistic in different systems. For example, the Sankhya, the Yoga school of Patanjali and Advaita Vedanta take citta (mind) to be material, where as Kashmir Saivism takes it to be a consciousness-content. So, citta vrtti-nirodha which is so much fundamental to Patanjali’s yoga becomes quite irrelevant for them. With all such differences yoga has one unified undercurrent; it is an effort or a combination of efforts, physical, mental and even sometimes supramental, in the direction of an expansion hitherto unknown in our ordinary states of living. The entire process culminates in spiritual enlightenment even though a disease-free body, a stress-free mind and an obsession- free intellect are the necessary by-products of yoga. The moment we become conscious as human beings we discover ourselves as a complex of body, mind and spirit although the existence of the last principle is not clearly accessible to us in our ordinary state of awareness. To a little reflection, it becomes conspicuous that the body and the mind which we take to be our most faithful instruments become our greatest obstacles because of their inherent limitations. Beyond a certain limit they even become a burden and create various physical and psychological embarrassments for us. So, yoga in the preliminary stage, gives emphasis on the cure of the maladies of the body and mind by harnessing their inherent capacities in the right direction. Some simple hatha yogic practices like a few physical postures and pranayama are capable of producing tangible results. Combined with a little bit of meditation they can cure all the maladies of life and ensure our evolution towards our cosmic goal. Patanjali’s raja yoga is one of the best psycho-therapeutic methods of healing the psychological ills apart from being a very well defined and consistently devised method of self-realization. Though the scientific background of kundalini yoga is not properly studied or understood, a little bit of practice in this line makes its efficacy quite conspicuous. The other types of yoga such as karma yoga, jnana yoga and bhakti yoga do not presuppose any scientific method or practice; they are broad-based attitudes and practices in various pragmatic, rational and emotional strata of life. Karma yoga is the method of right action with a right attitude which is aptly described as “skill in actions” in the Bhagavadgita. “Skill” does not signify aptitude in the consumerist sense. It means an attitude of non-involvement and equanimity. Jnana yoga is the path of knowledge which is so much emphasized in Vedanta; however, “knowledge” here does not mean bookish knowledge or only rational knowledge. It really means self-realization which starts with rational inquiry and ends in intuition. Bhakti yoga is the method of love and devotion when the main thrust is directed not towards the things of the world but towards God, the source of all love and happiness. It begins with the theistic attitude and culminates in the pantheistic realization. The seminar focuses on different concepts of yoga and tries to highlight its relevance to the modern age. We have papers which deal with the efficacy of yoga to counteract the stress and strain of modern life. Some papers deal with the traditional concepts of karma, jnana and bhakti as yoga. The philosophical foundation of body- mind-spirit interface with its yogic praxis is ably dealt with in some paper. There is a paper on svarodaya, the esoteric yogic science of breath in the context of biorhythm and the subtle pranic rhythms. Some papers delineate Patanjali’s concept of yoga- vibhuti (powers of yoga), pranava and the obstacles. Papers dealing with right perception and the theistic concept of yoga school are there to be read out in the seminar. Bio-purification of the ancient Indian school of medicine is compared with some hatha yogic practices in some paper. In short, the seminar intends to widen the frontiers of understanding of yoga and arouse interest in it. We are not sure whether we live within a close universe or an open universe. We do not know whether our knowledge is eternally limited to the epistemic framework and the categories we are born with. All the methods of yoga promise for man a sort of enlightenment and an attainment which are ordinarily inconceivable in his normal state of existence. It only requires right understanding and proper practice. “Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this Divinity within by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy -- by one, or more, or all of these -- and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details.” - Swami Vivekananda (Rajayoga, Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda vol-1) (This is the theme paper presented at the UGC sponsored national seminar, August 2007, on yoga, in the Post Graduate Department of Sanskrit, S.B.Women’s College, Cuttack, Orissa, India, by Haramohan Mishra, organisining secretary of the seminar)   Dr. Haramohan Mishra P.G. Dept of Sanskrit Shailabala Women's college Cuttack http://www.reflectionsindia.org http://reflectionsindia.org/article.php?nav=13 We are all living, and doing our day to day works. Some of us are satisfied with what we do, and some are not. But what’s the purpose of life? Why are we born in the first place and what are we going to be? These are the questions that come to us sometimes. We can live a life of satisfaction if we remain engaged with works that interest us, and if we live for our hobbies. But still, are we just made to work for sometimes and then disappear? Are all our hopes, aspirations, feelings and emotions simply electrochemical processes inside the brain that will all vanish after we die?Perhaps we are made to work like a virus, and to infect generations with the same disease, be born, eat, reproduce and die, which we call life! Of course, this leads to different genetic mutations, which help in evolution, and fortunately we are alive while dinosaurs have gone extinct. But the purpose of life, that is merely to aid in the process of evolution and natural selection, does not sound very convincing. It is astonishing why the unicellular organisms that were the first species of life on Earth, underwent evolutionary transformations to form complex forms of life like us humans! Though we have created identical clones by removing the nucleus of an egg and putting the nucleus of a somatic cell in its place instead, we have still not been able to construct a living cell from basic substances like methane, water and ammonia that would replicate and exhibit different characteristics of life. Likewise, we have not properly understood why we are conscious, why we hear the vibrations in air as sound and see the different frequencies of light as colors.If we observe carefully, it will appear as if the colors and the sounds were created for none other than us. The ancient mystics from India believed that it is the conscious spirit or ‘self’ within us which has created the world. This spirit, which is contained in all living beings, never dies though the bodies die. The lives and the world are created because of desire and ego, which hide the true nature of this conscious spirit and give the illusion of births and deaths. It is never verifiable if the spirit really exists after the body dies, and whether we can remain conscious without a brain. But no doubt, it is always consciousness that has created the world. Without us being conscious, we wouldn’t see, hear or feel. So, it wouldn’t matter much if the color is red or white and if it is fire or water. Without consciousness, everything would vanish, and nothing would exist. Even if we assume, we do not remain after we die, there is always consciousness in another living being because of which the world exists for that being. Everything that is perceived is reflected on consciousness before being perceived, and everything gets a meaning and value because of this conscious spirit.We nowadays remain interested in breaking down an atom into sub-atomic particles, then breaking them into some more particles, and then breaking them into some more. This is what the physicists do actually. Likewise, the biologists are very much interested in playing with genetically modified organisms and clones, which gives unnecessary suffering to the newborns that die of deformations and abnormalities. Also such people can never in their whole lives explain why a baby starts developing a brain that makes her conscious and gives her the ability to feel. Instead of looking within ourselves, we are always interested in external things and in experimenting with them. And because the world is mysterious, and things to experiment with are infinite, it will take infinite time to understand these infinite different things.According to Advaitic ideology, the world is illusory and false. It is only the spirit that is real. Though this sounds absurd, it is true that the world will not remain for us after we die. Also the world is not perceived the same way by everyone.We are able to see only a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum as light whereas there are different organisms that can see infrared and ultraviolet, that are invisible to us. It is not clear what color these organisms find these frequencies of light to be. Also it is not known if they really see colors as ‘our colors’ or something else. Likewise, their structures of the eye might produce a different form of image (vision) than we see. What we call a straight line might appear as a curved one to another. If we had bird’s vision, we would see ultraviolet. If we had dragonfly’s eyes, we would probably have a 360 degree view in slow motion.Coming back to our topic of real and unreal, everything that is not permanent and which appears different to different viewers cannot be called real because real things are supposed to have certain fixed characteristics and they are supposed to last. Also unreal things that we see in dreams look much like real things,sometimes so real that we even cry with tears after waking up from a sad dream.When we are dreaming, we are in the sleep state (REM sleep) where we are as conscious as we are in the waking state. Another is the deep sleep state where we become nearly unconscious and the other is the waking state where we realize that all the dreams that we saw while sleeping were nothing but dreams. There might be another state (the truly awakened state) where the illusion of the world would disappear and we would remain in the state of happiness forever. While each of these states can be called real or unreal when seen from different states, it is always the spirit within that perceives and therefore it is always real. A dream world is real as long as we are dreaming. Wonderland is real inside wonderland.But Alice is more real compared to wonderland. Likewise, the spirit which sees is more real compared to the world. It is even more real than God because God is an object in our imagination.The eastern world traditionally considers life as a never-ending misery. There is always a positive side of life and there are many good things that we come across.But the pains of life, whether these are the pains of losing our loved ones or the sufferings that we go through while we are sick and old, usually outweigh the joys that we experience in life. It is also true that our cravings and desires give us nothing but grief when they are not fulfilled. And desires always lead to more desires, which give more suffering!The only way to remain permanently happy is never to be serious about life and the world. By not becoming serious about life, we would never become serious about our desires. We would live the life of a child, never worry, cry for sometimes and then forget, laugh and play. It is always better to stay away from people who are very serious about life because they might lure us and make us like them. This might be the reason why the hermits preferred solitude and stayed away from the mass. But it doesn’t mean we have to remain isolated from everyone. When we truly love our friends and family, we don’t need to say in words that the same spirit is within us but instead we feel oneness with them through love. Whether they are our real friends or animal friends, love always makes us closer to those whom we love. Simple acts of kindness and love like charity also create feelings of great satisfaction and well-being. And again, the most ignored thing, fun, which will remain as long as children remain on Earth,not only gives a feeling of everlasting joy but makes us forget our life and the world. While we do not know exactly what the purpose of life might be, and we might not be convinced with any or all of the reasons that we discussed about here, let us live to be happy and to make others happy. Let us contemplate on our own spirit so that we can understand ourselves and the world better.http://reflectionsindia.org/article.php?nav=12 The Upanisads contain the highest spiritual revelation of the ancient Indian mind. Among them, the Brihadaranyka Upanisad is the biggest one. In one of its chapters, it presents an interesting symbolic story, famed for its reference in the Waste Land of the great English poet, T.S.Eliot, which is intended to show the required qualities of different types of people with different attitudes and mindsets to pursue the highest spiritual truth . It is stated earlier that upasana (worship) being an intense mental activity of a higher order requires a change in ones attitude towards the objects he encounters. It also requires a special mindset that makes him capable of looking into the essential nature of the things. The three disciplines required for upasana are dama (self control), dana (giving charity or non-avarice) and daya (sympathy or mercy). The story runs like this. The three types of sons of Prajapati (Lord of beings or God) lived a life of brahmacarya (the life of self control of a disciple) with their father. They are the gods (small divinities like angels), the men and the demons. First the gods approached him. After completing their term the gods requested Prajapati to instruct them to which he only uttered a letter 'da' and asked them if they understood what he told. The gods answered in the affirmative and said that the meaning of the letter 'da' is damyata 'control your senses'. Thus the gods understood that Prajapati advised them self-control. Then the humans went to Prajapati and asked him to instruct them to which he instructed the same letter 'da' and asked them if they understood what he taught. The humans, like the gods, thought that they too understood the meaning of the letter 'da', but they differed from the gods in its interpretation. They thought that Prajapati advised them to give, datta, or to give up greed. At last the demons approached Prajapati and besought instruction. To them also he uttered the same letter 'da', which appeared to them to mean dayadhvam, 'sympathise or have mercy'. So, they, the gods, the men and the demons, understood three different meanings from the same instruction. The gods or devas have all other qualities, but they lack self-control because of their craving for amusements and pleasures. For this, they interpreted 'da' to mean dama or self-control. The most obvious aim of men in life is to amass as much wealth as possible, since all their worldly fulfillments come out of wealth. So they interpreted the letter to mean non-avarice. The demons, on the other hand, are marked by their cruelty for which they understood 'da' to mean dayadhvam, 'have mercy'. Thus the same word or letter meant different things to different persons. After narrating this parable, the seer-narrator breaks into a cosmic vision and finds that this voice of the mighty Prajapati has not yet died; till now it reverberates in the thunderous voice of the cloud- “ That this divine voice what the cloud is still repeating (as thunder) da, da and da- damyata, datta, dayadhvam. Therefore, one should learn these three, self-control, charity and compassion.” We interpret the world through our knowledge. All knowledge is nothing but interpretation. What we need is right interpretation according to our propensities and perceptions. This parable of the Upanisad contains the timeless advice for all the men of all the times.   Dr. Minati Mishra Senior Reader in Sanskrit http://minati-mishra.blogspot.com http://reflectionsindia.org/article.php?nav=11 Kashmir Saivism, the Pratyabhijna School, as it is popularly known is, in some sense, the highest attainment in the Indian philosophical tradition. Like Advaita Vedanta it upholds a kind of non-dualism according to which the entire world is nothing but Siva, the non-dual supreme reality, as it is termed here.1 Unlike Advaita Vedanta which has its foundation in the Upanisads, Kashmir Saivism draws its inspiration from the ancient Agama works. Some other foundational works like the Sivasutras and Sivadrsti also supply the conceptual framework to this school.2 Non-dualistic world view, in whichever form it might have been conceived in different intellectual and spiritual traditions of the world, points to the same mindset and the same set of perceptions which go into its making. However, different schools adopt different methods to reach their conclusion depending on the manner they confront the world of experience. Here, the idiosyncrasies of the particular thinker and the belief-system of the environment where he is born and brought up play an important role. But it is imperative to study the set of experiences that mould the non-dualistic thinking since there only consummates the process of knowing, more so with regard to such sadhana-intensive disciplines as Kashmir Saivism. In our entire quest, in all our journeys, we have a path and a destination. Sometimes we are not clear regarding our goal even though we have some faint ideas; even we may have some projected object as our goal; or we may not be aware of the right path which leads to our destination. In all our knowledge-situations, empirical, rational and intuitional, with reference to our myriad quests we may remain confused as to the path and destination, more so when we question their ultimate status and value.3 Speculative metaphysics divorced from real situations of life cannot make us reach the ultimate goal; apart from philosophical speculations, what we need is sadhana, a real method through which we expand and have the plenary Advaita-experience. Like Advaita Vedanta, Kashmir Saivism enunciates its standpoints and leads the pursuer along the path that consummates in enlightenment and emancipation. The main problem of Kashmir Saivism is to find the reality of the world of phenomena as well to recognize one's own reality. This is not only the ultimate destiny of the cosmic process but also the fulfillment of the individual life, since in all the scriptures ignorance is said to be the cause of bondage and knowledge is said to be the means of emancipation.4 But conceiving knowledge as well as ignorance differs from system to system. The ultimate reality here is termed as para prakasa, supreme illumination, the unbound consciousness which not only illuminates the entire universe but also sustains and gives value to all. It is not only the ultimate reality; it is the essential nature of the things, the knowable, since unless something is revealed it cannot have either manifestation or reality.5Even non-reality of the objects is solely grasped by some camatkara, the marvelous flash of revelation. The knowledge, 'The sky-flower is unreal” is even possible being reflected in consciousness.6 The supreme consciousness, Siva is inseparably associated with his supreme Sakti, known as vimarsa. This vimarsa constitutes the essence, the nature of prakasa. Here there is a marked difference from Advaita Vedanta conception of reality. The Saivites of Kashmir hold that without vimarsa which is the very nature of prakasa the latter is not different from illumination emanating from inert objects like the crystal.7 Even though the ultimate reality is non-dual it is revealed in both the aspects; thus it is of the nature of prakasa-vimarsa. Vimarsa is said to be apperceptive, the self-perception or aham-bhava of prakasa. It is the ultimate repose, visranti of illumination, since it is free from all dependence.8 Sakti is anuttara pratibha of Siva, the unconditioned supreme freedom through which he becomes the entire universe.9She(in the feminine) is also known as svatantrya, sphuratta, para vak, sara, hrdaya etc. She is the immanence of the transcendent supreme Lord, the dynamic aspect of the self-contained stir-less supreme consciousness for which Siva is said to be both transcendent (visvottirna) and immanent (visvamaya). Ksemaraja differentiates his position from others by pointing to this; the Brahman of Vedanta, he says, is only transcendent.10 In the Devipancastavi, the divine Sakti is described as the power, body, the presiding deity, the inner self, knowledge, action, volition, senses, mind, lordship, the abode and the covering of the Lord. There is nothing which she is not of Siva.11 It is to be noted that even though the supreme reality is conceived as of both aspects in this system, non-dualism is not at all hampered. We find that, in this concept of Sakti, the maya of the Vedantins and the prakrti of the Sankhyas are assimilated. In the enumeration of tattvas, both maya and prakrti are included, even though being overpowered by the imposing Sakti they lose their importance. However, Sakti is remarkably different from both of them. According to the Sankhyas, prakrti is different from and independent of purusa, inert by nature and real, so the result is necessarily a dualism. According to Advaita Vedanta, maya is inert, dependent on Brahman, by itself not existent, neither real nor unreal. Since it is not an ontologically co-existent entity with Brahman (samana-sattaka), non-dualism is never affected. However, in Kashmir Saivism, Sakti being of the nature of consciousness (indeed, she is the very essence of consciousness), one with Siva and real, non-dualism is the necessary outcome. It is to be noted that, in contrast to the theory of falsity of the world of the Vedantins, it holds the world to be real. The theory of falsity of the world is advanced by the Advaita Vedantins to prove that Brahman is only real, where as the Pratyabhijna school takes the world to be real. But since nothing exists which is not Siva, non-dualism becomes evident with such a world view. It is to be noted that Sakti is only the non-different dynamic aspect of the selfsame cosmic consciousness. The Vijnanabhairava says 'The highest state of Bhairava free from all notions of direction and time, not characterized by space and intention, incapable of indication and indescribable by words, full of bliss of inner experience, free from all vikalpas, that state which is all-pervasive, is said to be Bhairavi, the supreme Goddess.' 12 As the power of burning is not different from fire, Sakti is not different from Siva. It is only the threshold through which the knower enters the object (becomes capable of knowing it).13 It is to be borne in mind that in order to explain the multiplicity of the world in face of the non-dual reality the Advaitins have to posit another principle maya, which, with all its effects, must be mithya, non-real (in the Advaita Vedanta language neither real nor unreal) on par of dream experience or appearance of the serpent on the rope. For the same reason the Sivadvayavadins of Kashmir posit Sakti, the unconditioned boundless freedom of Siva, which is as much real as Siva, with all her proliferation, the myriad things of the world on the evidence of the universal experience of the thing and its capacities such as the qualities, actions etc. For the Advaitins, jati, guna, kriya etc which are nothing but superimposition (adhyasa) on the substantive are false since their non-dualism does not tolerate difference. For the Sivadvayavadins, they are as much real as the substance; however they are not separate principles as they are conceived by the Nyaya-Vaisesika realists. These are only the manifestation, the powers of the substance. Saktiman is the dharmin and sakti is the dharma. This relation also holds good in the case of Paramatma and Para Sakti.14To repudiate the contention of the realists, Abhinava even states that sakti is the very being of the bhava which is only posited by the knower.15 However, one should not take it to be a form of idealistic phenomenalism. Spiritual wisdom, based as it is on intuitive revelations, is capable of a philosophical or a scientific interpretation. But in the core it is beyond the purview of both of them. It is a unique viewpoint which is intended to make one capable of the final Advaya vision through looking at the things as the manifestation of the power of the non-dual supreme reality. An attitudinal change and correction of vision are the starting point of sadhana. Sakti is the cause of manifestation of the world. The individual jiva does not know its divine nature as it is limited by the five kancukas, the limiting factors projected by maya. Thus consciousness having its power diminished becomes jiva. Again by gaining his power it becomes free. The Spandakarika remarks, “That Sakti of Siva, having action as its nature, existing in the pasu, the bound soul, becomes the cause of bondage; however, when known as the path towards realization of one's true nature becomes the source of all fulfillment.”16 That is why Sakti is said to be the door of entrance into Siva in the Vijnanabhairava, “When one enters the state of Sakti and thereby gets established in the vision of non-distinction, then he becomes Siva himself, so Sakti is declared as the door of entrance into Siva. As by the light of the lamp or by the rays of the sun difference of space and such other things are known, so Siva is known through Sakti”17 Sakti as the unbound freedom or svatantrya of Siva or as his svarupa vimarsa is one and identical with him. But in her manifestations, she is infinite in number. The innumerable manifestations of the world are his saktis. This is how Sakti is one and many. However, the main expressions of his Sakti are three, iccha, jnana and kriya, otherwise known as para, parapara and apara. Related to them are the three upayas, the paths of realization, sambhavopaya, saktopaya and anavopaya which are discussed in detail by Abhinavagupta in the beginning chapters of his famous treatise, the Tantraloka. The entire process of regaining the pristine glory of jiva is known as sadhana, the spiritual practice for enlightenment, which culminates in grace and consummates in self-recognition. In this sense, Sakti herself is the path, the highest knowledge (vidya) and grace, (anugraha) of the Lord. “The idea of Siva is the highest conception of God as approached by the spiritual intuition of man” says sister Nivedita in her marvelous work “The Master as I Saw Him”. The conception of Siva-Sakti is the answer to the apparent dualism and ultimate oneness of all existence; it is the flowering and the fulfillment of all relationship through which we enter the heart of reality that is our own being and the essential nature of the universe.   Dr. Haramohan Mishra P.G. Dept of Sanskrit Shailabala Women's college Cuttack http://www.reflectionsindia.org   References 1. Spandakarika 2.4 2. Tantraloka 1.10-11 3. Allusion to the story of Alice's encounter with the rabbit in “Alice in the Wonderland” 4. Tantraloka 1.22 5. Tantraloka 1.52 6. Tantraloka 1.53 7. Isvarapratyabhijna 1.5.11 8. Siddhitrayi, Ajada- 22 9. Tantraloka 3.66 10. See Ksemaraja's comments on Pratyabhijna hrdaya, Sutra 8 11. Pancastavi, ambastava 25 12. Vijnanabhairava 14-15 13. Vijnanabhairava 19 14. Vijnanabhairava 18 15. Tantraloka 1.69 16. Spandakarika 3.16 17. Vijnanabhairava 20-21 18. The Master as I Saw Him, p105 (This paper was presented at the national seminar "Historical and Hermeneutic Analysis of Saivism from Kashmir to Kanyakumari" held in the department of Philosophy, University of Madras, 2007.) http://reflectionsindia.org/article.php?nav=10 Kashmir Saivism, the Pratyabhijna school, as it is popularly known is, in some sense, the highest attainment in the Indian philosophical tradition. Like Advaita Vedanta, it upholds a kind of non-dualism according to which the entire world is nothing but Siva, the non-dual supreme reality, as it is termed here. Unlike Advaita Vedanta, which has its foundation in the Upanisads, Kashmir Saivism draws its inspiration from the ancient Agama works and another foundational work, the Sivasutra, which is accepted as being mysteriously discovered by Vasugupta in the Mahadeva hills of Kashmir. The main problem of Kashmir Saivism is to find the reality of the world of phenomena. The ultimate reality is termed as para prakasa, supreme illumination, the unbound consciousness, which not only illuminates the entire universe but also sustains and gives value to all. Siva is not only the ground and the goal of the entire universe, he is all that exists. The supreme consciousness is inseparably associated with his supreme Sakti (Power of Siva), known asvimarsa. Sakti is also known as svatantrya (unbound freedom), sphuratta(manifestation) para vak (supreme word), hrdaya (heart), sara (essence), etc. Sakti is not a separate category; she is the dynamic aspect of Siva. The main manifestations of Sakti are iccha (will), jnana (knowledge), and kriya (action), the triple aspects that make the five cosmic activities possible. Siva is always endowed with the five cosmic activities and the dual aspects of the non-dual supreme reality known as prakasa (illumination) and vimarsa (self apperception)are the main features of Kashmir Saivism, which differentiates it from Advaita Vedanta. The individual jiva (individual soul) is one with Siva, but it does not know its real nature as it is limited by the five kancukas (coverings), the limiting factors, projected by maya (illusion) that contracts his powers. Thus, consciousness having its power diminished (sakti-daridra) becomes the individual jiva. Again by gaining his Sakti it regains his natural glory, which is known as emancipation. The entire process of regaining its pristine glory is what is known as sadhana(spiritual practice), the spiritual practice for enlightenment, which culminates in grace and consummates in self-recognition. The idea of Siva is the highest conception of God as approached by the spiritual intuition of man. The conception of Siva-Sakti is the answer to the apparent dualism and ultimate oneness of all existence; it is the flowering and the fulfillment of all relationship through which we enter the heart of reality and transcend them (Extract of the paper to be presented at the U.G.C sponsored national seminar on ‘Siva-riddles’ at K.K.S.Women’s College, Balasore, India)   Dr. Haramohan Mishra P.G. Dept of Sanskrit Shailabala Women’s college Cuttack http://www.reflectionsindia.org http://reflectionsindia.org/article.php?nav=9 Philosophical inquiry can begin from anywhere. It begins with man's awareness of himself and his environments. Philosophical inquiries in the East as well as in the west, not withstanding their similarities and differences, success and failure, are human attempts at understanding life and its experiences. Either the subject or the object is made the content of philosophical inquiry which however aims at arriving at the finality that seems to explain both the subjective and the objective realities. The Upanisads question the reality of our apparent self-identity. The main thrust in the Upanisads, is the subjective world. The realists like the Nyaya-Vaisesikas, Sankyas etc shift their thrust to the objective, even though philosophical inquiry is never value-neutral to them. The phenomenalists like the Buddhists are not satisfied with the functional reality of either the subject or the object; so they subject the mechanism of human knowledge to ruthless criticism, which makes them arrive at their nihilistic and idealistic conclusions. Advaita Vedanta, on the other hand, shares the Buddhist criticism of the realistic world view, but attempts at consistently explaining the appearance of the world by pointing to a higher ontological reality, Brahman, ensuring thus the line of philosophical inquiry initiated by the Upanisads. In the western thought, beginning with Greeks to the recent trends of philosophy, the modes of inquiry are more or less the same. The modern age in western philosophy begins with the Cartesian inquiry for a self-certain truth 'I think therefore I am'. But the old skepticism peeps into it very soon, and with Kant, philosophy again questions its metaphysical euphoria by pointing to its limitations. The logical positivists try to demolish even the very foundation of that which they profess. Thus, philosophical inquiries are based on and are sustained by speculations, reasoning, belief systems, value systems, and, of course the peculiar idiosyncrasies of the person who makes the inquiry. We cannot help resist philosophers from conceiving even such a fundamental problem as what reality is so differently. Some like the Naiyayikas may conceive reality in a conceptualistic-realistic manner; others like the Buddhists may conceive it in a functional manner, whereas the Advaitins take it to mean non sublatability in three times. They actually mean three different things and their systems of philosophy emanate from their world views which are never philosophically determined but are intuitively preconceived. The fundamental interdependence between validity of knowledge and the reality of its object is philosophically insoluble either in the East or in the West. The value of philosophical inquiries does not lie on finding out any final truth, since the concept of truth and reality in different systems is quite dissimilar. However, they can solve the confusions in the logical plane and beyond that, they can awaken the questioner to the possibility of a higher state of reality that is as much beyond empirical knowledge as of discursive understanding. Thereupon the truth of Advaita shines, as remarked by Gaudapada: When the Jiva awakes from his beginning-less inexplicable sleep of self forgetfulness, he comes to realize his true non-dual nature, free from dream and slumber. (Extract of the lecture delivered at the Post Graduate Department of Indian Philosophy, Sri Jagannath Sanskrit University, Puri on the International Philosophy Day)   Dr. Haramohan Mishra P.G. Dept of Sanskrit Shailabala Women's college Cuttack http://www.reflectionsindia.org/ http://reflectionsindia.org/article.php?nav=8 Can the object unrevealed by Consciousness ever exist? It seems plausible that it does, since at the moment of revelation what was unrevealed becomes revealed; what was unknown becomes manifest through knowledge. So, the strongest conviction we carry with us is that the object exists as such prior to its perception. But a group of thinkers contends to prove just the opposite. 'To be is to be perceived' is the essence of subjective idealism initiated by Berkeley in western philosophy. In India, the Buddhists belonging to the Vijnanavada school also repudiate the independent existence of the object apart from its knowledge. According to them,the objects are nothing but modification of Vijnana (mind). So, nothing exists as substance independent of ideas. the idealists try to consistently explain the epistemic world order through coherence rather than through correspondence. The Advaita doctrine of Drstisrsti seems close to the above mentioned philosophies. It is explained clearly by Appaya Diksita in his Siddhantalesa and logically defended and expounded by Madhusudana Sarasvati in his Siddhantabindu and Advaita Siddhi as a partial Advaita view. According to this,the objects cannot exist unknown, independent of consciousness. The objects exist till they are perceived. The upholders of this view, unlike the mainstream Advaitins do not accept the functional reality (vyavaharika satta) of the objects.For them, all the so called empirical objects are not different from dream experiences. Appaya gives two meanings of this word. First, the 'being' exists so far as it is seen. The second, 'seeing' is itself 'being'. In Advaita Siddhi, various alternative meanings are discussed. Madhusudana equates this doctrine with Ekajivavada. it may be noted that Drstisrsti is the epistemological outcome of Ekajivavada which is its ontological foundation. However, the main feature of this theory is that the object cannot exist apart from its perception. It is to be noted that the unknown existence of the object totally independent of the perceiver is quite a taxing problem in philosophy. Though the commonsense knowledge that the object exists prior to its perception is the foundation of all functional human knowledge including his scientific understanding of the nature of the things, it is an epistemologically insoluble problem. The abyss between a totally unknown existence and a known reality can never be bridged in our epistemic framework. In other words, we can never relate a known reality with a condition totally unknown and unknowable.The Noumena can be a philosophical fiction but it can never be a reality. The result is either a cruel agnosticism or a hard pressed idealism. However, Drstisrsti is neither of these two. Advaita Vedanta advocates Anirvacaniya Khyati against the subjective idealism of the Buddhist Vijnanavadins upholding the doctrine of atmakhyati. According to Advaita Vedanta, the erroneous object such as rope-serpent is not a mental modification,but the appearance (vivarta) of avidya. Whether it is the mainstream Advaita which holds three strata of reality and the existence of object prior to its perception or it is the partial view of Advaita known as Drstisrsti which advocates only two strata of reality , viz. Paramarthika and Pratibhasika and repudiates the unknown existence of the object, Advaita Vedanta advocates neither a subjective or an objective idealism. It is to be borne in mind that Advaita is not a speculative metaphysics. Its aim is not to prove any reality whether ideal or non-ideal. The doctrine of Drstisrsti ,like any other theory of Advaita, intends to prove the falsity of the world which, on the other hand, intends to awaken the individual soul to its pristine glory, its identity with Brahman. The doctrine of drstisrsti is not a mere metaphysical speculation, it is the encompassing vision of the awakened, where the entire world seems to be a passing dream experience which is to be transcended into a higher vision of reality 'I am Brahman' 'Aham Brahmasmi'. (Extract of the lecture delivered at the Post Graduate Department of Advaita Vedanta,Sri Jagannath Sanskrit University, Puri)   Dr. Haramohan Mishra P.G. Dept of Sanskrit Shailabala Women's college Cuttack http://www.reflectionsindia.org http://reflectionsindia.org/article.php?nav=7 Part – 1 In our perceptions and understanding, something always eludes us. Are we always conscious when we breathe that we are taking in oxygen and exhaling toxics? Even we who know the science seem to be unaware of this hidden truth almost every time we breathe. What to speak of the majority of humans who do not know it! Even in our scientific understanding something eludes us. The greatest mystery, what we are and why we are here, always seems to escape us. In our pursuits of our dreams, in our craving for pleasures, in our seeking after the ideals that we hold so dear to our heart, even in our pursuit of the “Highest” what we call philosophy and religion we are oftentimes led by opinions; there also the truth seems to elude our understanding. Shall we relinquish all our pursuits in favor of our “seeking” for the “elusive truth”? We need not. But we have to prioritize our pursuits and discard, when and where the need arises, them that are hostile to our “seeking”. But is this seeking difficult? The answer may be positive or negative depending on our circumstances, our perception and the manner we seek to know and to be. However the truth is very plain and the method is quite easy. Difficulties creep into it when we try to seek it through our sciences, philosophies and religions. Even here we need not discard all our scientific, philosophic and religious pursuits. We only have to appropriate them. We need stop philosophizing, scientificizing (coined word) and religionizing (coined) the seeking. Though these three, by themselves, are not antagonistic to our seeking, we are really responsible for their disorientation. The paths of seeking after the truth are various and infinite. There is actually no path or it can be termed as a “pathless path”, which is the same as innumerable paths. Breathing is a path. Understanding breathing, the truth of life and controlling it is a very simple method of seeking. Understanding is more important for ascending higher levels of consciousness, while “controlling” in an easy and spontaneous manner, comes on through the practice of pranayama or by itself through deeper absorption. The yogis prescribe different methods of controlling the breath which may or may not lead to enlightenment depending on the way we practice them. They also involve risks if not properly practiced. But the technique of “Breathing in Awareness” of “Soham” “I am That” is a very prolific path, prescribed by the ancient yogis, which can be followed by the beginners as well by the most advanced seekers. For the beginners it is a method of seeking; for the enlightened it is a truth more real even than the world we perceive. Vijnanabhairava, a great work on Tantric yoga and wisdom (It is to be noted that in the highest level there is no contradiction between the Vedantic and the Tantric methods.) describes it in a very cryptic manner- “The breath is exhaled with the sound 'sa', and is inhaled with 'ham'. Thus the individual (soul) recites the mantra 'hamsa' 'hamsa' always. All through the day and the night, he (the individual self) recites this 21600 times. This is the japa (recitation) of the Goddess as it is mentioned, which is quite easy though difficult for the ignorant to accomplish”. The syllable 'sa' means 'That' in Sanskrit. The syllable 'ham' when construed with the grammatical rules becomes 'aham' meaning 'I am'. Thus it implies the meaning “That I am” or “I am That”. The word “soham” is the combination of two words “sa” and “aham”. When in extreme proximity the syllables 'a' and 'a' in the end and beginning of them fuse to become 'o', thus giving rise to the sound “soham” which means “That I am”. When 's' and 'h' sounds are dropped, it becomes 'om', the primordial sound of creation. This “soham” is said to be the greatest mantra which expresses the oneness of the individual and the Supreme Reality. Breathing is thus the combination of the life-vibration and the highest knowledge, the knowledge of oneness of the individual and the Cosmic. The beauty of this mystic formula in Sanskrit lies in the fact that it is so much nearer, not only in meaning but also in its vibration, to the original cosmic rhythm that expresses itself in the form of breath in the individual. So its recitation is only prescribed in the same sound pattern as it is given in Sanskrit, namely, as “soham'. This recitation is known as “ajapa” the “unrecited” mantra, as it is recited without any effort. It is the effortless method of Self-realization. Breathing is spontaneous; it is the work of the automatic nerve system controlled by the medulla from the physiological point of view. But seen from a higher dimension, from the standpoint of the yogis, it is the work of “prana”, the cosmic principle of life expressing itself as breath in the individual. Its importance not only lies in its indispensability for living, it is also the link that unites us with the Cosmic. Unknown in its real nature it binds us to the body just as an animal, but properly understood it unites us with the Divine which is our true nature and destination. Becoming aware of the process with its inner meaning is the yoga of “breathing with awareness”. What pranayama means is not the mere retention of breath; it is the expansion of our consciousness with the all-pervading prana, consuming the whole body, the environment and even the entire universe. Why is it said to be the recitation of the Goddess, the Mother of the universe? The Ultimate Reality, what we conceive as Divine in our religious mode of understanding, is neither male nor female. It is neither human nor non-human. But in our human context, we perceive it as God or Goddess till we discover it as our own reality. In the Tantric parlance, the Divine in its static and unmodified nature is conceived as the Male and in the dynamic aspect as the Female. According to the yogis, the dynamic Cosmic Principle is lying dormant as Kundalini in the individuals, which makes the cosmic sound vibrate through their body, both the subtle and the gross. This is what expresses as 'prana' in the subtle level and as 'breath' in the gross level. Thus the force which is breath and prana in different levels is the same as the dynamic consciousness known as Kundalini. The recitation of the 'unrecited' is, therefore, called the recitation of the Goddess. Part – 2 We have already seen that the sound produced through breathing seen from the gross standpoint is the combination of 'sss…' and 'hhh…' which conjoined with the vowel-endings give rise to the spontaneous mantra 'Soham” expressing the highest spiritual realization, the individual's identity with the 'Universal'. A mantra is a word, a letter or a combination of letters that has some spiritual potency which may be produced with conscious efforts or without them. Through words we enter the realm of ideas and through ideas we enter the realm of the 'reals'. Since 'reality' is itself indefinable in our empirical level of existence, our perception of reality is totally dependent on our words and ideas we are predisposed with. Our words and ideas, in the ordinary level, are somehow or other conditioned to a certain frame-work of perception which we cannot escape. Thus, in the ordinary human predicaments, we are just like slaves to our words, our ideas, our mental capacities, our empirical and rational belief-systems. When sounds or words are freed from these limitations they become 'mantra'. In the mantric level the 'word' escapes the limitations of the empirical and rational frameworks and enters new dimensions of realities giving rise to higher and subtler perceptions. The more a word attains freedom from the limitations, the more it acquires the status of the mantra till it becomes totally free. Thus, the spontaneous expression of a mantra is the sign of its freedom and, as such, nothing can be more spontaneous than “soham' the mantra of breath. (For understanding the nature of “mantra”, see my article “The Heart of the Mantra” in this site.) The importance of rhythmic and deep breathing from the physiological and psychotherapeutic view is now well understood. Deep inhaling gives rise to sufficient intake of oxygen which is not possible in our ordinary manner of breathing. Retaining the breath for a little facilitates its better absorption by the cells and its complete exhaling exhausts maximum carbon dioxide and other organic wastes. Yogic breathing improves circulatory, respiratory, digestive and nervous systems. It lessens heart beat rates, blood pressure and stress. It relaxes and rejuvenates the entire nervous system and cures the psychosomatic disorders. A balanced life with moderate practice of yogic postures and pranayam with a combination of right food habit and herbal medicines can work wonder to cure all the physical ills of man; it only needs a change in one's attitude and life style. Right breathing gives rise to right living. However, the mystery of breathing not only lies in its physical dimension; its control is not only intended for a healthy living; its elusiveness lies in its mantric level, being the expression of “soham”. The expulsion giving rise to the sound 'so' (which means 'that' or the 'cosmic' in Sanskrit) and the inhalation giving rise to the sound 'ham' (which means 'I' or the individual) combined, imply the oneness of the 'cosmic' and the 'individual', which is 'lost sight of' in the ordinary states of living making him bound to the body. The mystery of the throb of life, the irresistible breath remains hidden not in the body, but in that which causes the body to encase the soul. It is the 'cosmic throb' that expresses itself as the 'individual throb' which is alone to be understood by any yogic practice. “This is that power of Siva, the form of cosmic activity, existing in the bound individual, which causes his bondage when unknown, leads him to success (liberation) as the way of approach to his essential reality on being realized.” (Spandakarika, Verses on Divine Pulsation) The space between the breathing in and breathing out is the mysterious split, the abyss of the reality which lasts only for some forgetful moments. By retaining the breath we expand the gap so that its mystery is reflected in our consciousness. The more we remain in that silent still the greater we become aware of our true nature. The great yogis can remain there for hours; however, we remain only for some minutes. Though the Hatha yoga system gives importance on its voluntary practice, the higher systems of yoga hint at its spontaneous occurrence. It is natural that the more one becomes concentrated the shorter he breathes. Our real nature manifests when the vagaries of the body, the senses and the mind are conquered. In yogic science, the mind is as much external as the body. When we forget the body, the mind and the senses, there only we realize our true nature. It happens only when the breath is almost lost and forgotten. There alone the 'so' and 'aham' become one. Our situation is replete with difficulties. We do not know why at all we are brought into the world. We either suffer from poverty or from affluence. Knowledge, as much as ignorance, has become a burden for us. We need transcend this duality and seek our reality. For a higher life, we have to correct our vision, reset our relationships, reorganize our wants, examine our potentialities, and fix our priorities. We need some time everyday when, withdrawn, we remain within our own self. Simply by becoming aware of or by looking at the breath, we experience a stillness which reminds us of our forgotten nature. Then we can have a humble start for our eternal journey with our familiar 'breath', which every moment hums the rhyme of oneness of the cosmic and the individual.   Dr. Haramohan Mishra Principal, Govt. Women's Jr. College Bolangir http://www.reflectionsindia.org/ http://reflectionsindia.org/article.php?nav=6 Nowadays the word mantra has assumed a wider connotation. With the quest of the modern man to find easy and sure ways for success in his pursuit of wealth and pleasure, such terms as 'business mantra' or 'music mantra' have come to the use. The secrets of sure and quick achievement, the means for any dramatic success, whether sacred or profane, have come to be regarded as the mantra in their respective fields. A mantra has come to be regarded as a magic formula. But nothing is more distanced from its original meaning than this. Though it is true that a mantra can work as a magic, it is far more than a mere act of conjuring. It is, in its true essence, a means for discovery of the secrets of life and its experiences, the path of finding the hidden truths of the things, a means of enlightenment and self-discovery. A mantra is understood to be a syllable or a group of syllables endowed with unlimited spiritual potency which can bestow on the sadhaka all sorts of glories both enjoyment and emancipation. It can save, fulfill and glorify the life of a sincere practitioner, and can enrich his life with new meaning and purposefulness. From a general point of view, every word, even every syllable, is a mantra, when enlivened with a special spiritual potency; the esotery is only to be understood and one must sincerely pursue its contemplation. Though the efficacy of the repetition of the sacred names was widely known in different religious traditions, it was in India that the secret of this practice was diligently studied and understood. The literal meaning of the word “mantra” is that which protects when contemplated mananat trayate. Any word held to be sacred like the names of the God or the names of the avataras (great incarnations) like Siva, Visnu, Rama, Krsna, Buddha, Allah, Jesus or any name as such can be recited as mantra. Illumined prayers recited in praise of them are also mantras which work wonder when recited with devotion. These names are held to be sacred to the human heart and sublimate one's feelings and purify the mind with the association of certain ideas inseparably connected with them notwithstanding their historicity or their mythical character. In view of this, it is not required that they be historical in the strict sense. What is required, it is the sense of devotion and admiration, the capacity to give rise to a feeling of repose in and merger with an unbound spiritual reality, which always is the same, despite different names and forms employed in different contexts. These names and forms are meaningful in their respective connotations and work in the deeper levels of the human psyche. This is what is understood by mantra in general sense. But the word mantra has a deeper significance. According to the Agamas or Tantric schools of spiritual knowledge, a mantra is more than a spiritual word or a mere name even of the God. It is conceptually more or less like the neo-platonic logos, but the significance and suggestion which are associated with this word are unique, though it has a universal truth and application. Our ordinary language employs words which have fixed ideas as their meaning, though sometimes they may suggest a sense which is remotely associated with them. The first one is known as the direct meaning or abhidha and the second is known as suggested or implied meaning or vyanjana so much obvious in poetry, as they are differentiated by the Indian philosophers. But the language of mantra is remarkably different from both of them. It can be characteristically said to be a mantric language which is multi-dimensional and trans-conceptual in contrast to the ordinary language that we employ in our ordinary or even in intellectual transactions. The dynamics of this spiritual language is that which forms the essence of Tantric esotery, which, in its truth and application, is a Science of its own. The Tantric schools of India, among which are most prominent the Kashmir Saivism and the Srividya school, have made an intense study of this mantric language. They have discovered from a higher vision that language is the manifestation of a spiritual urge though from an ordinary point of view it is a natural development of man to express his ideas and feelings. The ancient seers have discovered this truth that language is the way through which we perceive the world, enjoy it, understand it and finally transcend it. In the deeper levels, words are nothing but consciousness and the latter is not only the foundation of our perception and understanding, it is, in its cosmic nature, the foundation of the entire world. Phonons, sounds, letters, words, sentences and language itself with all its complicacies, though developed from arbitrarily articulated sounds, later on being invested with meaning, are basically the outcome of a cosmic urge to manifest itself as well as the world of the objects. In depth of contemplation, the entire world with its manifold realties and meanings seems to flow, as it is, from the way it is perceived, the way it is described or not even described through language. It is immaterial what language we actually employ in our regional context. According to the seers of the Agamas, language has manifested in four phases, para, pasyanti, madhyama and vaikhari. The first, para vak, is one with the Supreme Divine Consciousness where there is no difference between the word and the object. It is the condition where diversity does not exist. Since the world with its various strata of space, time and the objects is not at all existent, the question of difference does not arise here. The second stage is pasyanti which literally means seeing, seeing in a very minute and indistinct form, the would-be world of difference. Here, the world of diversity sprouts though it is never perceived as a reality. It is the stage of the highly awakened yogi or the suprabuddha who feels unfailingly his identity with the Supreme Reality. In the third stage madhyama, which literally means the middle, the world of difference is distinctly perceived though the vision of the undivided reality is never lost. It is the condition of a siddha or an awakened yogi who is ever in touch with the undivided Supreme Consciousness at the same time perceiving the world of diversity. In this state the word and the object are not totally divorced from each other. But in the stage of vaikhari, the lowest level, in the form of articulated language, the objects are seen as totally divorced from word as well as knowledge. This is the degraded stage, the grossest form of language with which ordinarily man is associated, expressing it in different forms of languages spoken in the world. Words as well as their meanings are thus tainted with ignorance, misleading the individual souls along the path of samsara bereft of true recognition of his divine nature. However, in a recessive process, the same words can be helpful in the discovery of his divine nature through ascending the previous stages of madhyama and pasyanti. The mantric approach is a process of re-discovering and re-vitalizing the lost glory of language as well as a process of re-assertion of the divine glory of the soul through its contemplation. In the evolution of language, the three stages, the letters consisting the fundamental sounds, the words signifying some ideas and the sentences expressing the multiple interrelationships of the ideas are well known. Though the words and sentences are thought to be endowed with meaning, the letters are accepted as simple sounds bereft of any meaning as such. Thus, the letters, though having phonic significance, are said to be destitute of any conceptual or ideographic meaning, and the words and sentences consisting of them are invested with arbitrary meaning with no significant relation with their phonic character. Thus the word 'cow' is used in English to express the same object for which the word 'gau' in Sanskrit is used (Remarkable is the linguistic similarity since both of them belong to the same Indo-European language family which may interest the philologists). It is conspicuous that the ideas are signified by words formed with arbitrary sounds developed through regional usage without any necessary connection with their phonic character. This is what is generally said to be the evolution of language as a vehicle of expressing human feelings and ideas, though it has been explained differently by different schools. But why at all such a range of multiple sounds, such horrifying volume of words belonging to so many complicated categories and so many complicated rules of grammar are devised to express human ideas and experiences is difficult to explain. However, it is conspicuous that without the language of poetry it would have been impossible to understand the beauty of the world; without mathematical language no progress in scientific understanding would have been possible. Likewise, other types of verbal uses are obvious by their utter necessity. But it is only one side of the story. The real truth of life seems to escape through the invisible chasm of our languages. The mantric language as we have noted is not one of many languages spoken or written. It is not confined to the method of signification of words either expressing the direct meaning or implying the suggestive meaning. Though it may use both these meanings of the words to a certain extent, it actually transcends the limits of such methods of signification. The whole process of forming the words and investing them with their meaning in the empirical level is done in the stage of vaikhari. But the mantric language only operates beyond it. Though the letters known as the vaikhari varnamala are used in the mantra, it is never confined to them. However, as the vehicle to carry one to the real mantric language, the ordinary letters are to be properly understood with their esoteric significance. Nowhere in the world was this phenomenon studied as deeply as it was done in India, and except the Agamas (Tantra), nowhere can we get illuminating revelations of the mystery of the words. The letters consisting different sounds are arranged in a very scientific and logical order in the Sanskrit language (Seeing which MacDonnell lamented the illogical arrangement of the letters in English inherited from the Greeks in his 'History of Sanskrit Literature' ). These letters are known as the vaikhari varnamala so much important to the Tantra works. Abhinavagupta in his Tantraloka, the greatest encyclopedic work of the Kashmir Saivism, discusses in detail the esotery of the words. There is no work in Tantra which does not discuss the mystery of words since these are the ground of all mantras used in them. (Of course there are so many works in Sanskrit which go by the name 'Tantra'. Some works containing bizarre ideas and practices were written by inferior minds and were added to the bulk of the Tantric literature which very often misleads the beginners). To grasp the entire mystery, one has to deeply study those texts from a well-versed master with all the technicalities, in addition to some sort of sadhana (spiritual practice) of his own. However, the outlines can be broadly stated for benefit of the beginners. In the Agamas, the empirical letters are known as mayiya varnas or illusory letters. These are said to bind the ignorant with the bondage of false knowledge. However, when their true nature is understood, they lead one to Self-realization and emancipation. In the Tantric lore, these letters (as arranged in Sanskrit) are known as matrka or the mother, since all language and knowledge are derived from them. This matrka (taken combined in the feminine singular), is said to be the matrix of all knowledge, and inwardly, in recessive journey of Self-revelation, turns to be the same as para vak, the Cosmic Consciousness in its aspect of manifestation. Among these letters, the vowels are said to be the aspect of Siva (the Cosmic Consciousness in the masculine form), and the consonants are said to be the aspect of Sakti (the Cosmic Consciousness in the feminine), there being nothing in the world which is not based on this divine paradigm. In a special jumbled manner, matrka, the mother, is also known as malini, literally meaning the garlanded one, garlanded by the letters. Various other meanings as that 'which illuminates' or 'fulfills' etc, are assigned to it. In this form, she (in the feminine) is particularly said to be highly prolific. Among these letters, the 'a' (as it is articulated as the first letter in Sanskrit) and 'h' (as it is articulated as the last letter in Sanskrit) are said to be the beginning and the end of all verbal phenomena, standing as such for Siva and Sakti respectively. In fact, 'a' is also known as anuttara, which means beyond which there is nothing superior; it is, in the deeper level, the un-manifest primeval sound phenomenon, which comes to the fore-front only with the will of revealing itself. In contrast to it, 'h' is said to be the expressed form of the primeval power of manifestation, which gives rise to all other sound phenomena, the consonants, requiring more pranic energy for articulation. In a more subtle form, when it is articulated as a half 'h' or ardha 'ha' kara, it is known as visarga, written as double dots ':' in Sanskrit, which literally means 'that which creates the varieties' It stands for the primeval power, supreme Sakti, variously known as prana (different from breath which is also meant by this word), kundalini, saparardha kala and yoni (the source of creation) etc. When these letters combine with the 'bindu' at the end, they express 'aham' or 'I', the Ego, the Supreme Self-Awareness, the Cosmic Consciousness as manifesting and subsuming the entire world. In the individual level, this word also stands for the individual ego which, in essence, is not different from the Cosmic. Since all the other letters come within these two, this word, in a symbolic form, also signifies the entire verbal phenomena. The Supreme Ego, parahanta , the Cosmic Divine Consciousness is said to be the 'soul' of the illusory letters, and as such is described as mantra-birya or the strength of the mantras. A mantra may consist of a sentence, a word or even a single syllable. The truth is that we have to go from the gross to the subtle, from the sound to its meaning, from meaning to that which cannot be meant by language and from the physical level to the level of consciousness. This is what forms the essence of a mantra. In the case of a mantra consisting of words and sentences, the conceptualistic meaning holds good, but in the bija-mantra, consisting mainly of a single syllable, having one or more consonants, no such fixed meaning is there. To an unaccustomed mind it seems to be a conglomeration of meaningless sounds, but, in fact, it has a multilayered significance. Of course, it may contextually be invested with multiple meanings, but it actually has a trans-conceptual significance in so far as it intends to transcend the level of duality caused by words and meanings. In fact, the syllabic form of mantra, in its trans-conceptual character, is said to be more true to its nature, thus more important for the comprehension of mantric language. We have earlier noted that there are four stages in language. The grossest form is vaikhari, the articulated language, comprising the illusory letters, words formed with them and the sentences derived from the words, both being impregnated with some conceptualistic significance. There are so many theories, both in the West and the East as to how the words actually express the ideas associated with them. Most of these theories, like so many other human endeavors, are utterly useless though interesting from the intellectual point of view. We are not here concerned with the formation of theories, but with a way by which we can understand the basis of all verbal transactions, thereby comprehending the ultimate mechanism of knowledge as a function and as a reality. Thus, the next two higher stages in language, going inward from the grosser to the subtler, the madhyama (middle) and the pasyanti (seeing) are very much important from the point of view of comprehending the dynamics operating in the mantric level. These two stages are not really the activity in the level of thinking preceding the verbal expression, as it is wrongly interpreted by some. These are actually the finer stages where the dualities of the world are not as real as they are seen in the grossest form. When the letters shed their illusory nature and become more and more unified with their ground, the Cosmic Consciousness, they are known as suddha paramarsa or pure knowledge (pure reference), conducive, as they are, to the understanding of the ultimate nature of the things. Though this point is difficult to understand unless one becomes aware of the subtler and finer perceptions of the mind, its intention is easily comprehensible. A bija-mantra (literally bija means seed, thus, a mantra in syllabic form) works more in this trans-conceptual and meaning-neutral dimension. So its application is universal, non-religious, esoteric and in the long run non-ideational. In understanding a mantra, we have to move gradually from the rigid, fixed, conceptualistic language to a more flexible language of multi-dimensional meaning, from an ideational language to an idea-neutral language, from words and sentences invested with conceptualistic meanings to the sounds bereft of ideational meaning, from sounds to the subtler vibrations, and from subtle vibrations to finer and finer awareness, thus, ultimately reaching Supreme Awareness, which is the Supreme Reality itself. The effect of different types of sounds on the human psyche is quite conspicuous. It is noticeable in the case of musical notes affecting the mind in many different ways. The basic sound vibration known as nada is the root of all the sounds both ideated and non-ideational. The syllabic mantras work both in the ideational level and in the pure sound level transcending both of them at the end. Among these bija-mantras we may take into consideration the case of 'OM' articulated as 'AUM' with a lengthening of the nasal sound, which is accepted as the most sacred of all the mantras in the Indian traditions, both in Hinduism and other cognate religions. It is noteworthy that, in its actual significance, it has nothing to do with any particular religion. It has a multi-dimensional meaning as well an idea-neutral significance which reveal almost automatically when recited and contemplated in the right manner. The ringing effect of the vibration of 'OM' pervades the entire body even though one is not conversant with its real significance. Contemplation in silence with awareness of the meaning of its components gives rise to a rare uplift in consciousness apart from serenity and peace of mind. The japa of a mantra means its recitation and contemplation. Recitation is more fruitful in a low voice or in a voiceless manner. Contemplation requires understanding of the various components of the mantra and their significance. The techniques and procedures of japa when adhered to and pursued sincerely bring forth the immense benefits of this practice. After a long practice, japa continues in the sub-conscious level even without any effort. In the advanced sadhakas, it even goes on uninterrupted during sleep. Coming to the understanding of 'OM', we notice that this syllable consists of three letters, A, U and M. Apart from this; there is a ringing nasal effect of the sound. The first three letters stand for three cosmic dimensions of different strata and contemplated as such. They stand respectively for the three states of consciousness, namely, waking, dream and deep sleep; the three regions, the Earth, atmosphere and heaven; the three cosmic activities, creation, existence and dissolution; the three aspects of God known as Brahma, Visnu and Rudra responsible for the creation, existence and dissolution of the entire universe; the three Vedas, the Rk, Yajus and Sama; and the three round folds of Kundalini, the sleeping spiritual energy perceived by the yogins in the base-plexus of the spinal cord. The fourth half letter known as ardha matra with the ringing sound superscripted in Sanskrit as a dot or bindu is the most mysterious one. It stands for the fourth state of consciousness, the turiya, which is the same as the unbound Supreme Consciousness, the Godhead, which is the ultimate reality of the individuals and the world of duality, transcending all the threefold strata represented earlier by the three letters. This ardha matra also represents the other half fold of Kundalini, beyond the three folds, thus, representing her awaking. Contemplation on 'OM' means taking hold the entire strata of the universe in their manifold dimensions in mind, which gives rise to an inner expansion that rebuilds the personality in the image of a vaster reality. This is the multi-dimensional significance of this mystic syllable to be kept in mind at the time of japa, but a still more mystery which comes spontaneously to the sadhaka is yet to come. The Agamas reveal another dimension of the mantra. The discovery of the Agamic seers can revolutionize human perception with a rare scientific vision of spirituality; it only needs a sympathetic and correct understanding. The bija mantra which consists of one or more consonants with a vowel having either a bindu (nasal 'm' sound) or a visarga (a shortened 'h' sound) at the end is said to have infinite potency. We have seen how the mantra 'OM' contains a multilayered meaning covering different dimensions pervading both the microcosm and the macrocosm. Apart from this there is a deeper meaning in the syllabic mantras. The conspicuous aspects represent the gross levels of existence that we have already discussed. The subtler aspects consist of the finer and finer levels which remain hidden from the grasp of the ordinary human mind. Only the yogis of the highest order could grasp these finer principles. We may discuss briefly the subtler levels of 'OM' which are more or less the same for all other bija mantras. The first three letters of pranava (OM) are A, U and M. The fourth is the half nasal consonant, the bindu, superscripted as a dot or as a lunar crescent having a dot above it. However, this dot is not a simple resonant nasal sound. It consists of nine limbs pointing to nine subtle principles extending beyond the triads signified by the three letters of pranava (as discussed in the previous article) in the cosmic dimensions. The nine subtle principles as named in the Tantra are (1) bindu, (2) ardha candra, (3) rodhini, (4) nada, (5) nadanta, (6) sakti, (7) vyapini, (8) samana and (9) unmani. The bindu or the point represents all the aspects of the objectivity, the entire ranges of existence put together in a condensed form (may be termed as 'singularity' ). It is a point without any dimension. It not only subsumes all the diversities of the world but also all space and time which provide ground for all the cosmic play. In the individual body, it is contemplated in the 'ajna chakra' at the middle of the eye brows. It is articulated in ½ a matra (mora). A consonant, in Sanskrit, without any vowel is said to be articulated in half a matra, where as a short vowel is articulated in the time of a matra. The bindu being articulated in the time of half a matra is also known as ardha matra. According to ancient Hindu conception, a matra consists of two hundred and fifty six lavas, a lava being the subtlest perceptible time by human mind. So bindu is articulated in 128 lavas. In the finer and finer components of 'OM' kara, the time of articulation is gradually reduced till time is totally transcended at the end. Thus, ardha candra (literally, half moon) is articulated in ¼ of a matra or 64 lavas; rodhini (lit. that which debars an unqualified from entering the highest level of spiritual realization) in 1/8 of a matra or 32 lavas, nada (lit. the condensed cosmic sound in the subtlest vibration) in1/16 of a matra or 16 lavas, nadanta (lit. end of all subtle sound vibrations) in 1/32 of a matra or 8 lavas, sakti in 1/64 of a matra or 4 lavas, vyapini in 1/128 of a matra or 2 lavas, samana in 1/256 of a matra or 1 lava and unmani is not at all articulated in time: here time comes to an end. Though after nadanta, articulation of the sound is not discernible, it persists as subtle vibration. Sakti (different from the Supreme Sakti or Cosmic Consciousness) is the stage where an overwhelming feeling of a cosmic energy comes to the sadhaka. In the stage of samana, all spatial, temporal limitations and all subtle vibrations are transcended. Samana means 'with the mind' ; hence in this state, there is no touch of any objectivity. It is contemplated in the sikha or tuft of hair on the head. Unmani is beyond samana, which literally means 'where mind is transcended'. With the removal of the trace of the last lava at the end of samana, time comes to the end, thus, removing all the bondages of the individual. With the transcendence of time space is also transcended since both of them form one space-time continuum and are inseparable. There reveals the state of Pure Consciousness, beyond the touch of all duality. Through intense awareness, the mind penetrates the finer and finer realities till it gets dissolved in Supreme Awareness. Time, space and the dualities of experience which bind the individual (jiva) are completely transcended. The individual becomes the Universal. This is the real consummation of the practice of a mantra. If one practices mantra simply out of curiosity, he may not get any benefit. Like any other serious pursuits in science and business, the practice of mantra is to be undertaken with earnestness and dedication. The practice of mantra is based on a great spiritual knowledge. It is not simply a religious practice, nor can it be studied and investigated as an objective science in its entirety. Unlike philosophical thinking it is not a speculative activity. It is a more serious and deeper pursuit than any other pursuits that we encounter in life. It is a way of rediscovering the deeper levels of our own being which remain submerged under the waters of maya or delusion. It gives us a new vision of the world by awakening us to a greater reality that forms the ground of the drama of samsara. A mantra gives its result only when it is contemplated and recited in the proper manner as prescribed in the scriptures. Though it is a long and complicated process which should be learnt from an adept, the aim is very simple. The aim of the entire process is to be in communion with a vaster reality known as maha hrada or the Great Ocean of Cosmic Consciousness in the Tantric works which gives rise to the experience of the potency of the mantra or mantra virya. The practice also requires a certain disciplines of both the mind and the body as without them the required stability of mind cannot be achieved. Another important aspect of the practice of the mantra is diksa or initiation. In the case of some advanced sadhakas who have acquired some progress in their previous lives there may not be any requirement of a guru or spiritual guide, but in most cases the help of an enlightened master is urgently required. Since the sadhaka is not conversant with the dynamics of the finer levels of the inner world, he is likely to commit mistakes which may hinder his progress. At these junctures an accomplished master can lead the practitioner to the goal. He can arouse the latent spiritual power in the disciple if the latter has acquired a certain level of progress. This is technically known as Saktipata or the bestowing of or the transferring of the spiritual energy. But it does not happen all and a sudden unless the disciple has the required attainments. Saktipata can only be performed by an enlightened master and it can only be received by a person who has the capacity to receive it. (Unfortunately this has become a fashion in this new-age spiritualism commercialized by fake gurus and their branded disciples). However, if an enlightened master is not available, it is better to accept God as the preceptor than falling a prey to the trade of the so-called instant spiritualism of the fake gurus. Our mind is our only laboratory and the sole equipment in all our spiritual experiments. Unless it is kept fit there is no possibility of making any spiritual progress. The modern age has changed our mindset and afflicted our minds by different maladies of permissiveness and consumerism. Trying to be free in our pursuits of the sense-pleasures, we have really become the prisoners of the senses. We can discover the inner realm only when the external turbulence is pacified. So, a person who desires to reach the ultimate goal has to get rid of the hankering after the senses. But, for the common practitioners, a moderate dose of sense-enjoyment is not harmful. Only an attitudinal change is necessary. To achieve the goal of the practice of mantra one should have sincerity and regular practice. When one makes some noticeable progress in japa, many spiritual experiences may happen. These are not common to all. They happen to a sadhaka depending on the state of his progress and his peculiar idiosyncrasies. In all these diverse experiences, the only thing that is notable is his progress in the inner world. One needs not be swayed away by these experiences. The ultimate goal is the realization of Brahman by ascending the higher and higher levels of spiritual experience. As we enter the space through a spacecraft with an escape velocity by overcoming the pull of gravity, we enter the space of Supreme Consciousness through the mantra with a certain spiritual potency that helps us overcome the pull of maya. The japa of a powerful mantra is a great experience. Even though we do not know the proper method, have not received initiation from an enlightened master and do not have the firm state of mind, let us start with the preliminaries. In a certain level the mantra will reveal its secrets. Then only we can discover that the mantra is not a simple word but it is a living word.   Dr. Haramohan Mishra Department of Sanskrit, G.M.College Sambalpur http://www.reflectionsindia.org/ http://reflectionsindia.org/article.php?nav=5 In the infinite varieties of the world, nature presents itself as the greatest mystery before man. It is a challenge and a wonder, an allurement and a fulfillment, which man can never escape but has to encounter. Every moment in his life, he has to confront, perceive, conceive, enjoy and even discard the things of the world. Through the scientific methods of observation and experiment, through the philosophical speculations and reasoning, through the empathy and emotions of literature, he tries to understand the things of the world. The more he knows, the more remains incomprehensible. The mystery of the universe is hidden in every object of it. Even if we understand the tiniest particle in its entirety, we can very well comprehend the great universe. But what is meant by understanding the thing in its entirety? It means to comprehend the particular thing with all its possibilities, with its basis, beginning and end. Since the basis of all the things of the world is the same reality, the comprehension of any of them in its entirety, is tantamount to the understanding of the universe. .The microcosmic and the macrocosmic are the same. The beginning is itself the end. The entire possibilities of the things of the world, as a whole or as fragments, are due to this underlying ultimate basis, which is the beginning as well as the end of them. That is why the sages of the Upanisads declare -“By the knowledge of a lump of earth, everything that is made of earth is known, the effects are nothing but the cause in different names and forms. The real is the earth.” (Chandogya Upanisad, 6.14) Likewise, the multitudinous things of the world are, in essence nothing other than the self-same Reality, Brahman. According to the sages of the Upanisads, this is the final point of enquiry, the consummation of life, the fulfillment of the world-process, beyond which nothing is there to know. Of course, this is too great a truth to be comprehended in our ordinary states of consciousness. However, we may introspect a little and question the way we look at the things, so that we may be free from the deep-rooted ignorance which springs from our too much familiarity with the way we perceive the things. There are so many different manners of looking at the world. We perceive the things differently in their multifarious dimensions. Ordinarily, we perceive the things in their face-value. But if we go deeper and analyze the objects either scientifically or philosophically, we have altogether a different perception. For example, we ordinarily perceive an apple as a sweet, round, red and juicy fruit. For our day to day transactions, this much of perception of an apple is sufficient. But to ascertain its physical, chemical and botanical properties, we have to examine it scientifically, which gives us a different understanding of the apple. Likewise, we may conceptually analyze an apple into a substantive having inherent in it attributes such as sweetness, redness, roundness, etc., and we may further doubt the reality of any such substantive at all, holding that the apple is merely a conglomeration of its attributes. We may go further and say that the so-called attributes (sense-data) are really ideal in character. We may hold that the so-called objects are partly real and partly ideal. Speculations as such may be partly meaningful or totally useless depending on the truth they give us. All these metaphysical speculations, notwithstanding their truth or falsity, show how much man is eager to understand the ultimate nature of the things of the world. Even though we scientifically analyze the thing or philosophically analyze its concept, we cannot explain why such and such physical or chemical properties, or such and such attributes or sense-data are combined together to give rise to such an object that presents itself as a thing. The ultimate “why”, “how” and “what” of the things remain unanswered. Thanks to modern science; the horizon of human knowledge is expanding day by day. Since the beginning of scientific inquiry, we have been able to understand many mysteries of the universe. From the Copernican understanding of the cosmos till present time, we have been fairly acquainted with the external universe beginning with the “big-bang” to the “black- hole”. From the Newtonian mechanics through Maxwell’s electromagnetism to the Quantum physics, we have been fairly acquainted with the nature of the things and the principles working behind them. With the deciphering of human genetic code, man hopes to play the role of the maker of his destiny. The scientific method of the analysis of the concrete thing itself has a definite precedence over the philosophical method of analyzing the concept of the thing, as the former is more definite and less confusing than the latter. However, the ultimate answer to the most fundamental questions eludes both science and philosophy. All these methods have their inherent limitations. They are tenable within a certain frame-work and to a certain extent. Human eyes can never perceive the spectra of light beyond red and violet. Observation, experiment, speculation and reasoning are applicable within a certain level beyond which they become futile. This is why we find a new paradigm-shift in modern scientific approach. According to Heisenberg, we cannot speak about nature without speaking about the observer who perceives it. It is not only important what we know; it is equally important how we know. Any branch of knowledge, how much objective it may be, must have to refer to epistemology, and thus can never dispense with the observer. The Vedantic understanding of the world is not really contradictory to the scientific or the philosophical. Scientific observations, experiments and discoveries, as well as sound philosophical speculations regarding the world can be well-maintained and assimilated under the Vedantic way of understanding. The methodological difference is that while other methods fix their attention on the surface, Vedanta directs its attention to the bottom. Nature is to be approached with reverence, says Vedanta, since it is the manifestation of the divine consciousness. Both the Advaita Vedanta and the Advaya Agama schools hold that there is no essential difference between the world and the individual. According to the sages, key to the mystery of the world does not rest on the objects; it lies hidden in man himself. Here, man does not mean a biological or a social being. Essence of man lies in his spiritual dimension. However, it does not amount to solipsism. The object is as much real as the subject. But for its deeper understanding, understanding of the self is indispensable. According to Advaita Vedanta, the world is nothing more than a false appearance. Though it is compared frequently with such false objects as rope- serpent or shell-silver, it does not mean that the world of phenomena is as much false as rope-serpent or shell-silver. This is why the world is said to be vyavaharika or empirically real in contrast to them which are said to be pratibhasika or apparently real. The point is that the world, divorced from its basis, the ultimate reality, cannot be real. So, it is said to be false as such. Unless the basis is understood, its real nature remains unperceived. But how can we perceive the basis? The Advaitins say that by disciplining the mind and entering the immaculate solitude of the self, one can have access to a higher field of understanding. Till then our so-called scientific and philosophical methods are to be tentatively maintained. But, after that, there is no need of any such method. There enquiry comes to an end. Reality lies beyond the duality of causes and effects. It cannot be perceived through the relational modes of understanding. So far as operates the principle of causality, says Gaudapada, there extends samsara, the world of experience, but when the causal link is lost, one cannot find samsara there. How can we grasp the unmanifest, immutable, Reality, either scientifically or philosophically, with the lost link of causality which is so much fundamental to the scientific or philosophical methods? How can, on the other hand, we understand the world without understanding its underlying basis? That which matters is a paradigm-shift in understanding, a non- relational way of understanding which Vedanta advocates. For some, it is possible, though the majority may thing to the contrary.   Dr. Haramohan Mishra Principal, Govt. Women’s Jr. College Bolangir http://www.reflectionsindia.org/