Science of Knowledge & Wisdom

The Pranava Om is the bija of all mantras. Within a seed (bija) is the potentiality of manifestation, and Om was the sound of the initial spandana (vibration) out of which the whole cosmos was manifested. Om, therefore, can be considered as the/symbol of total creativity and it is also said to be the creator, for in Hindu philosophy, the creator and the creation are inseparable. This is what is meant by the declaration in the Rig Veda (the oldest Veda, where the word Om was first mentioned) that Om is the symbol of the cosmos. The whole cosmos is time, space and matter, and the first verse of the Mandukya Upanishad, which is a small Upanishad dealing with the significance of Om, says: "The past, the present and the future, everything, is just Om. And whatever else transcends the three divisions of time that too is only the syllable Om." The Mandukya, although consisting only of twelve verses, is in itself a complete treatise on Om. It relates the individual matras o...

By Swami Amritananda Saraswati. The symbols of the chakras form the basis for many of the advanced practices of yoga. For these practices, you need to be familiar with the names, colours and shapes of the chakras. Of course, it is not strictly necessary that you visualize only these particular symbols throughout your practice. Your experience and your visualization of the chakras can be different according to your choice. But the symbols that I am about to describe are the traditional ones, and they have a scientific meaning as well as a sacred history behind them. The attributes of the chakras: There are three gunas, or qualities - rajo guna, tamo guna and sato guna, and all three are present in the chakras. However, in certain chakras there are more tamo guna qualities, fewer rajasic ones, and even fewer sattvic. Other chakras are more rajasic, less tamasic or more sattvic. Each chakra also contains innumerable other faculties. For example, you might have heard that w...

Dr. Swami Karmananda Saraswati; MB, BS (syd)  Psychologists and medical workers throughout the world have conducted an impressive number of investigations into the alterations of physiological, endocrine and metabolic functions which accompany meditative states of consciousness. Meditation has been found to bring about relaxation and balance in cardiac, respiratory, hormonal and circulatory systems, and is being recommended by many doctors for patients suffering from diverse psychosomatic and stress induced illnesses. In addition, large numbers of men and women are integrating simple meditation as an effective preventive and relaxative therapy into their highly stressed and competitive modern lifestyles. At the same time, psychologists and psychiatrists have reported profound alterations in mental health and emotional well being, together with diminished subjective and objective manifestations of anxiety, in individuals who practise meditation for a short period each day. Lab...

Edited by Allie M. Frazier (Source: Readings in Eastern Religious Thought – Hinduism vol. 1. Edited by Allie M. Frazier pg 10-16) In considering the beginning and development of Western philosophy  G.W. Hegel  remarked, that in the West the  “mind’s way is roundabout”.  By this he points to the significant fact that Western thinkers first directed their attention to the  external world.  The most significant development in Western philosophy, is build upon the premise that truth is a relationship which exists between judgements and real things. The problem of the relationships and between thinking and reality thus emerged as a central concern for Western thinkers.  Part of our heritage in the West is the recurring attempts to evade the transcience of earthly life by means of religious hopes, metaphysical systems and vigorous activism. Time exists by virtue of its “perpetual perishing”. Any being subject to time is subj...

By Alok K. Bohara, Ph.D.  Professor  University  of  New Mexico   Until the turn of the 19th Century, the Western view of the Hindu religion was mostly identified with a dazzling array of cultural mosaic and mysticism of  India   filled with both imaginable and unimaginable. It began to change after Swami Vivekananda gave his famous speech on the teachings of the Vedanta in  Chicago   in 1900 during the gathering of the World Parliament of Religions. The true teaching of the Vedanta contained in the Gita, Vivekananda told his mesmerized Western audience, has very little to do with the flying sadhus, the endless Hindul rituals, and the caste-system.    Citing the Gita, he voiced his opposition to organized religion, priestly control of spirituality, and then he also informed us of the existence of the female Rishis  (Vedic teachers)  in the Vedanta. Over night, Vivekananda introduced to the West the true liberated...

A common belief among ancient cultures was that the laws of numbers have not only a practical meaning, but also a mystical or religious one. This belief was prevalent amongst the Pythagoreans. Prior to 500 B.C. E., Pythagoras, the great Greek pioneer in the teaching of mathematics, formed an exclusive club of young men to whom he imparted his superior mathematical knowledge. Each member was required to take an oath never to reveal this knowledge to an outsider. Pythagoras acquired many faithful disciples to whom he preached about the immortality of the soul and insisted on a life of renunciation. At the heart of the Pythagorean world view was a unity of religious principles and mathematical propositions. In the third century B.C. E. another great Greek mathematician, Archimedes, contributed considerably to the field of mathematics. A quote attributed to Archimedes reads, "There are things which seem incredible to most men who have not studied mathematics." Yet accordi...