Quote:[Dwaraka Shankaracharya stated:] [...] People are worshipping a person [Shirdi Sai baba] who never took the name of anyone but "Allah", the one who said no to Ganga Snaan. People have made a God out him. [...]

Quote:Don't enter our temples, avoid taking dip in Ganga, Shankaracharya tells Sai Baba followers | VOTE

By : News Nation Bureau

Updated On : Wednesday, June 25, 2014 01:15 PM



New Delhi : -



Dwaraka Peeth Shankaracharya Swaroopananda Saraswati's remarks against Sai Baba have sparked controversy. The followers of the 20th century saint staged protest against Shankaracharya at various parts of the country and his effigy was also burnt in Varanasi, demanding immediate withdrawal of his remarks.



Despite the row, Shankaracharya still stands by his statement that "Sai Baba is not a God and should not be worshipped." He has refused to take back his controversial comments.



In what could ignite further controversy, Shankaracharya has now given a new advice to Sai Baba followers.



"We are ready to give them freedom. But they should not enter our temples, should not take dip in Ganga and should not chant the name of Ram. Only then they can worship Sai Baba, we don't have any problem," Shankaracharya said.



Defending his remarks, Shankaracharya exclusively told News Nation that he has not committed any crime and that FIR should not have been registered against him.



Shankaracharya had told News Nation earlier that in "Sanatan Dharma, only avatars should be worshipped and hence Sai Baba should not be worshipped as he is not an avatar. Hence, the followers of Sanatan Dharma should not worship him."

Quote:Jul 3, 2014



On Sunday, Bharti reacted saying she had no regrets over her devotion to Sai Baba, enraging Swaroopanand further. He has launched a fresh attack on her saying she was worshipping a Muslim. That is the reason she failed build the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. He argued that Sai Baba was a Muslim ascetic and thus could not be treated as a Hindu deity. He accused certain forces of corrupting the Hindu religion by creating new gods and there was a conspiracy to divide the Hindus. He even said foreign forces were behind the practice.

[Shankaracharya is too charitable, but there's no such thing as a muslim ascetic. There are islamic frauds, I mean fakirs. Sufis are islam's soft-power, who work on the minds of impressionable shake-nines among polytheistic idolators, to turn them gradually out of their attachment to their Gods and into redirecting this attachment to islamic frauds instead, eventually making them apologists for islam and ultimately making them mentally islamised.]



The issue took a grave turn when despite written clarification from the minister the sadhus persisted with venomous statements and directed the Sai disciples to be prevented from chanting the name of Lord Ram and taking a dip in the Ganga for purification. Interestingly, the Muslims devotees of the Shirdi saint are unaffected by Shankaraacharya's diktat. It is the devout Hindus who face the dilemma.

Quote:Enraged over the diktat Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand, devotees of Shirdi Sai Baba along with his idol took a dip in the holy water of Ganga.

Quote:Perform "shuddhikaran" and stop worshipping Sai Baba, Shankaracharya tells Hindus



By : News Nation Bureau



Updated On : Thursday, June 26, 2014 11:06 PM



Even as scores of people have been protesting against Dwaraka Peeth Shankaracharya Swaroopananda Saraswati for his controversial remarks against Shirdi Sai Baba, the spiritual guru is refusing to withdraw his statement.



Shankaracharya is making controversial statements one after another. In his first controversial comment he had told News Nation that Sai Baba is not a God and hence should not be worshipped.



Later, he said that Sai Baba followers "should not enter our temples, should not take dip in Ganga and should not chant the name of Ram. Only then they can worship Sai Baba."



Continuing his scathing attack on Sai followers, Shankracharya has now said that Hindus should undergo "shuddhikaran" or "purification" process and should stop worshipping Sai Baba.



"It's their (Hindus) obligation to perform shuddhikaran by keeping a nirjala (without water) Ekadashi fast, taking a dip in Ganga and never take Sai Baba's name," he said.



When asked why he want to remove the word Ram from Sai's name, he said: "Ram is worshipped since time immemorial, while Shirdi Sai Baba came after him, how can people worship him?"



First Published: Thursday, June 26, 2014 22:19 [IST]

Quote:The references to Adam and God are not coincidental according to Hatim Darwesh, a American-based Yezidis who maintains a Yezidi Facebook group. [...] While quick to say that he is not a "religious expert," Darwesh was clear on several points: God is the same being who is worshiped in Abrahamic faiths; the Peacock Angel is not any sort of devil and the Yezidi religion is definitely monotheistic. In addition, within Yezidi culture, he says that the term "pagan" is used as a pejorative and not a label they themselves would welcome.

Quote:[Vijaya Rajiva:] "Adi Shankara should be the Dwaraka Shankaracharya's example. The shanmata includes 6 deities : Vishnu, Shiva, Devi, Surya, Ganapati, Skanda (Kartikeyan). The Dwaraka shankarachariar left out Skanda."



[Shaastra Sevaka:] This again arises from your lack of knowledge of Hindu tradition (a lack that you ascribe to others). The pancayatana worship as established by Adya Shankaracharya doesn't include Skanda (go and check with someone rooted in a tradition). So, all your rants against the present Shankaracharya have been just but hot air.

[...]



shaastra sevaka

July 06, 2014

Quote:pravivesha tato raamaH siitayaa saha lakSmaNaH || 3-12-16

prashaanta hariNa aakiirNam aashramam hi avalokayan |



And then Rama entered the hermitage with Seetha and Lakshmana looking over it which is overspread with docile deer. [ 3-12-16b, 17a]



sa tatra brahmaNaH sthaanam agneH sthaanam tathaiva ca || 3-12-17

viSNoH sthaanam mahendrasya sthaanam caiva vivasvataH |

soma sthaanam bhaga sthaanam sthaanam kauberam eva ca || 3-12-18

dhaatur vidhaatuH sthaanam ca vaayoH sthaanam tathaiva ca |

sthaanam ca paasha hastasya vaaruNasya mahaatmanaH || 3-12-19

sthaanam tathaiva gaayatryaa vasuunaam sthaanam eva ca |

sthaanam ca naagaraajasya garuDa sthaanam eva ca || 3-12-20

kaartikeyasya ca sthaanam dharma sthaanam ca pashyati |

Quote:raudraaya vapuShe= appearing in the form of Rudra.

Quote:Harvard Yoga Scientists Find Proof of Meditation Benefit

HHR November 25, 2013 Articles, Hinduism and the World of Science



Scientists are getting close to proving what yogis have held to be true for centuries — yoga and meditation can ward off stress and disease.



John Denninger, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, is leading a five-year study on how the ancient practices affect genes and brain activity in the chronically stressed. His latest work follows a study he and others published earlier this year showing how so-called mind-body techniques can switch on and off some genes linked to stress and immune function.



While hundreds of studies have been conducted on the mental health benefits of yoga and meditation, they have tended to rely on blunt tools like participant questionnaires, as well as heart rate and blood pressure monitoring. Only recently have neuro-imaging and genomics technology used in Denninger’s latest studies allowed scientists to measure physiological changes in greater detail.



“There is a true biological effect,” said Denninger, director of research at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, one of Harvard Medical School’s teaching hospitals. “The kinds of things that happen when you meditate do have effects throughout the body, not just in the brain.”



The government-funded study may persuade more doctors to try an alternative route for tackling the source of a myriad of modern ailments. Stress-induced conditions can include everything from hypertension and infertility to depression and even the aging process. They account for 60 to 90 percent of doctor’s visits in the U.S., according to the Benson-Henry Institute. The World Health Organization estimates stress costs U.S. companies at least $300 billion a year through absenteeism, turn-over and low productivity.



Seinfeld, Murdoch



The science is advancing alongside a budding “mindfulness” movement, which includes meditation devotees such as Bill George, board member of Goldman Sachs Group and Exxon Mobil Corp., and comedian Jerry Seinfeld. News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch recently revealed on Twitter that he is giving meditation a try.



As a psychiatrist specializing in depression, Denninger said he was attracted to mind-body medicine, pioneered in the late 1960s by Harvard professor Herbert Benson, as a possible way to prevent the onset of depression through stress reduction. While treatment with pharmaceuticals is still essential, he sees yoga and meditation as useful additions to his medical arsenal.

Exchange Program



It’s an interest that dates back to an exchange program he attended in China the summer before entering Harvard as an undergraduate student. At Hangzhou University he trained with a tai chi master every morning for three weeks.

(Of course. Preying on Taoism too, so that that will be incorporated into an amalgamation and passed off as "western discovery" too.)



“By the end of my time there, I had gotten through my thick teenage skull that there was something very important about the breath and about inhabiting the present moment,” he said. “I’ve carried that with me since then.”



His current study, to conclude in 2015 with about $3.3 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health, tracks 210 healthy subjects with high levels of reported chronic stress for six months. They are divided in three groups.



One group with 70 participants perform a form of yoga known as Kundalini, another 70 meditate and the rest listen to stress education audiobooks, all for 20 minutes a day at home. Kundalini is a form of yoga that incorporates meditation, breathing exercises and the singing of mantras in addition to postures. Denninger said it was chosen for the study because of its strong meditation component.

(Which traitors are teaching alien demons Kundalini let alone its mantras?

And Kundalini yoga -and its mantras- stripped of the Hindoo Gods. Oh wait, Elst already tried the same, and his Hindu fandom acquiesced.)



Participants come into the lab for weekly instruction for two months, followed by three sessions where they answer questionnaires, give blood samples used for genomic analysis and undergo neuro-imaging tests.



‘Immortality Enzyme’



Unlike earlier studies, this one is the first to focus on participants with high levels of stress. The study published in May in the medical journal PloS One showed that one session of relaxation-response practice was enough to enhance the expression of genes involved in energy metabolism and insulin secretion and reduce expression of genes linked to inflammatory response and stress. There was an effect even among novices who had never practiced before.



Harvard isn’t the only place where scientists have started examining the biology behind yoga.



In a study published last year, scientists at the University of California at Los Angeles and Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Blackburn found that 12 minutes of daily yoga meditation for eight weeks increased telomerase activity by 43 percent, suggesting an improvement in stress-induced aging. Blackburn of the University of California, San Francisco, shared the Nobel medicine prize in 2009 with Carol Greider and Jack Szostak for research on the telomerase “immortality enzyme,” which slows the cellular aging process.

Build Resilience



Not all patients will be able to stick to a daily regimen of exercise and relaxation. Nor should they have to, according to Denninger and others. Simply knowing breath-management techniques and having a better understanding of stress can help build resilience.



“A certain amount of stress can be helpful,” said Sophia Dunn, a clinical psychotherapist who trained at King’s College London. “Yoga and meditation are tools for enabling us to swim in difficult waters.”



Source

Quote:raudraaya vapuShe= appearing in the form of Rudra.

Quote:Mantra 7

Parameswara has eight forms- Earth, Water, Agni, Vayu, Akasa, Chandra, Surya and Yajamana (individual sacrificer). Of them, Parameswara of the form of Surya is praised in the 7th and 8th mantras. The zone around Surya appears red-coloured at dawn time, a less deep red in colour after some time and golden later. Surya mandalam is praised as ‘Sumangala:’ –very auspicious, because it drives away darkness, dew etc. and brings comfort to all. Were there no Surya, the entire world will become inauspicious, enveloped in darkness. Just as Sun’s rays pervade the entire world, thousands of Parameswara’s ganas (armies), whose appearance is same as Parameswara’s, are spread in the earth region all around in many places and bless or curse people according to the merits and sins they commit. We douse the anger of Sri Parameswara of the form of the Sun’s zone and Rudraganas, who are spread everywhere in thousands, by songs of praise, prostration etc. May all of them bless us.



Heda:- This word has two meanings- dishonour and anger. Dishonour arises by not performing acts as laid down in Vedas and anger because of performing acts prohibited in Vedas. It is said that we nullify these two aspects.

Quote:Mantra 7



Having pacified through the 7th mantra, the Rishi prays in this 8th mantra for fulfillment of desires. Sri Parameswara himself travels in the sky in the form of Suryamandala every day owing to compassion that everyone might see him. Hence even unlettered, innocent people get an opportunity to look at Sri Rudra directly. Generally, while referring to uneducated people, it is usual to cite cowherds as examples. It is a practice to say ‘Aabaalagopalam’. In accord with that, ‘गोपा अदृशन्’ has been mentioned. Women, who fetch water, and who lack even the knowledge possessed by cowherds, look at this Rudra of the form of Suryamandala. Not only that; even animals like bull and sheep see and enjoy the Sun. The true form of Advaita, Sachchidananda, is beyond the reach of anyone’s intellect. The form with attributes, residing in Kailasam, is capable of being known only by worshippers. However the form of Sri Parameswara as the Suryamandala can be seen and enjoyed by all creatures. May Sri Parameswara, who, out of great compassion, travels in the sky so that all may have darshan and attain to higher state, bestow comfort on us; this is the prayer.

Quote: ccc 12 hours ago



What is the difference between Hindus and Christians, both pray to a god. Why have hindus not learned from "Aham Brahmasmi" "Sarvam khalvidam Brahma", that instead of praying they have to focus on their true nature though patanjali astang yog for example and draw energy and see things for what they are.



A god fearing hindu who prays is no better than a christian or a muslim.

[...]



ccc > Rajalakshmi J 10 hours ago

every society has passed through the same road with these milestones but the its only the Rishis and Tapasvis who have gone farthest and found that there is no god outside of us who is listening to all the prayers, judging us on the basis of our actions

Quote:Mantra 15



अयं मे हस्तो भगवानयं मे भगवत्तरः ।

अयं मे विश्वभेषजोयँ शिवाभिमर्शनः ॥



Meaning:

मे- My, अयं हस्तः- this hand, शिवाभिमर्शनः- touches the auspicious idol of Sri Parameswara. (performs Abhishekam, decoration etc.) अयं- This hand, भगवान्- is fortunate. मे- My, अयं- this hand, भगवत्तरः- is very fortunate. मे- My, अयं- this hand, विश्वभेषजः- becomes also medicine relieving from all diseases.



Explanation:

The idea is that as the hand which worships Sri Parameswara is very fortunate and capable of relieving from all diseases, everyone should worship Parameswara without fail.

Quote:rajeev srinivasan

@RajeevSrinivasa



Hindus but also other dharmics incl Yazidi should be given automatic refuge. Buddhists have Thailand doing same.



rajeev srinivasan added,

Quote:Naren Ramakrishna @NarenMenon1

This is what I've been saying all along. Like Jews, Hindus should have the ability to perform 'Aliyah' to India

https:// twitter.com/prasannavishy/status/601224950758780928

1 retweet 3 favorites

Quote:vikasraina @vikasraina



@RajeevSrinivasa Sir, How would you define Dharmic unless you want to say Non-Abhramic instead.

Quote:9 August 2014, 12.38am AEST

Explainer: who are the Yazidis?

Christine Allison

[...]

Yazidism, as we know it today, began in the 12th century, when the Muslim sheikh ‘Adi bin Musafir settled in the Kurdich hills north of Mosul, where he was acclaimed as a “khas by locals who followed an older religion from Iran, the origins of which are still debated.

Quote:Christine Allison (is the) Ibrahim Ahmed Professor of Kurdish Studies at University of Exeter

Quote:The references to Adam and God are not coincidental according to Hatim Darwesh, a American-based Yezidis who maintains a Yezidi Facebook group. [...] While quick to say that he is not a "religious expert," Darwesh was clear on several points: God is the same being who is worshiped in Abrahamic faiths; the Peacock Angel is not any sort of devil and the Yezidi religion is definitely monotheistic. In addition, within Yezidi culture, he says that the term "pagan" is used as a pejorative and not a label they themselves would welcome.

Quote:According to the narrative of the Druze, Jethro is considered an ancestor of all Druze and revered as the spiritual founder as well as chief prophet, who lived in Midian.(11)(12)(13)(14)(15) The Druze faith is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion based on the teachings of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Akhenaten, Hamza, and Al Hakim.(16)(17) The Epistles of Wisdom is the foundational text of the Druze faith alongside supplemental texts such as the Epistles of India.(18) (Like the 'Epistle to the Romans' concocted by christianism?) The Druze faith incorporates elements of Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, Pythagoreanism, Ismailism,(19) Judaism,(10) Christianity,(10) Hinduism,(20)(21) Buddhism(21) and other philosophies and beliefs, creating a distinct and secretive theology known to esoterically interpret religious scriptures and to highlight the role of the mind and truthfulness.(10)(20)

Quote:rajeev srinivasan

‏@RajeevSrinivasa



Hindus but also other dharmics incl Yazidi should be given automatic refuge. Buddhists have Thailand doing same.



rajeev srinivasan added,

Quote:Naren Ramakrishna @NarenMenon1

This is what I've been saying all along. Like Jews, Hindus should have the ability to perform 'Aliyah' to India

https:// twitter.com/prasannavishy/status/601224950758780928

1 retweet 3 favorites





vikasraina @vikasraina



@RajeevSrinivasa Sir, How would you define Dharmic unless you want to say Non-Abhramic instead.

Quote:The references to Adam and God are not coincidental according to Hatim Darwesh, a American-based Yezidis who maintains a Yezidi Facebook group. [...] While quick to say that he is not a "religious expert," Darwesh was clear on several points: God is the same being who is worshiped in Abrahamic faiths; the Peacock Angel is not any sort of devil and the Yezidi religion is definitely monotheistic. In addition, within Yezidi culture, he says that the term "pagan" is used as a pejorative and not a label they themselves would welcome.

Quote:Meditation is touted as a cure for mental instability but can it actually be bad for you?



If it's so powerful, might meditation also do harm to sensitive souls? Researching a mass murder, Dr Miguel Farias discovered that, far from bringing inner peace, it can leave devotees in pieces



Dr Miguel Farias



Thursday 21 May 2015



Aaron Alexis was looking for something. He started attending a Buddhist temple in Washington and learned to meditate; he hoped it would bring him wisdom and peace. "I want to be a Buddhist monk," he once told a friend from the temple. His friend advised him to keep studying, and Alexis did. He learned Thai and kept going to the temple – chanting, meditating. But other things got in the way.



On 16 September 2013, Alexis drove into Washington's Navy Yard. It was 8am. He'd been working there not long before, and security let him in. Minutes later, the security cameras caught him holding a shotgun, and by 9am, 12 people were dead. Alexis killed randomly, first using his shotgun and, after running out of ammunition, the handgun belonging to a guard he'd just killed. He died after an exchange of gunfire with the police.



It took only 24 hours for a journalist to notice Alexis had been a Buddhist, prompting her to ask: "Can there be a less positive side to meditation?" Western Buddhists immediately reacted: "This man represented the Dharma teachings no more than 9/11 terrorists represented the teachings of Islam," wrote one. Others explained that Alexis had a history of mental illness. However, some noted that meditation, for all its de-stressing and self-development potential, can take you deeper into the recesses of your mind than you may have wished for.



I'd come across the idea that, without the guidance of an expert, meditation can have adverse effects, but I'd thought this was a metaphor for the difficulties we might encounter as we venture into ourselves. Then, one day, I heard a first-hand account that opened my eyes. At the time, I was teaching a course on the psychology of spirituality, and the majority of students were in their late fifties and early sixties: a combination of retired lawyers, Anglican priests and psychiatrists, and three or four yoga and meditation teachers – of whom Louise was one.



In her late fifties and lean, Louise was quiet and spoke only when she felt she had something important to say. She had taught yoga for more than 20 years, stopping only when something unexpected happened that changed her life, and she had chosen to give a presentation about this as part of her assessment on the course.



During one meditation retreat, she said – she'd been on many – her sense of self changed dramatically. "Good," she thought initially, "it must be part of the dissolving experience." Still, she couldn't help feeling anxious. "Don't worry, just keep meditating and it will go away," her teacher told her. But it didn't. She couldn't get back to her usual self. It felt like something was messing with her sense of identity, how she felt in her body, the very way she looked at the world and at other people. The last day of the retreat was excruciating: her body shook, she cried and panicked.



The following day, back at home, her body was numb and she didn't want to get out of bed. Louise's husband took her to the GP; within hours, she was being seen by a psychiatrist; and she spent the next 15 years being treated for psychotic depression. Now, she talked lucidly about her illness and its possible origins (including a genetic predisposition). She explained that she had gradually taken up yoga again, but had never returned to meditation retreats. "I had to have electroconvulsive therapy," she said.

(Meditation IS Yoga. All yoga not good for aliens=dabblers.)



I was stunned – and more so when I looked through medical and psychological data bases to research the possible adverse effects of meditation. One paper, written in 2001 by a British psychiatrist, told of a 25-year-old woman who, like Louise, had a serious mental health problem following meditation retreats. The first time she was admitted to hospital her symptoms included "thought disorder with flight of ideas", elevated mood and grandiose delusions "including the belief that she had some special mission for the world… to offer 'undying, unconditional love' to everyone. She had no [critical] insight".



This woman, called Miss X, was diagnosed with mania. After six weeks' medication, her symptoms were controlled. A psychiatrist saw her regularly for two years and she started twice-weekly psychotherapy. Then she took part in a Zen Buddhist retreat and was hospitalised again. She couldn't sleep for five days and displayed a number of unrestrained behaviours: she was irritable, sexually disinhibited and restless, made repeated praying gestures and attacked a member of staff.



[img caption:] Gun-toting Aaron Alexis, who immersed himself in meditation, killed 12 people in 2013 Gun-toting Aaron Alexis, who immersed himself in meditation, killed 12 people in 2013 (Getty)



I looked further into the literature. In 1992, David Shapiro, a professor at UCLA Irvine, published an article about the effects of meditation retreats. After examining 27 people with different levels of meditation experience, he found 63 per cent of them had suffered at least one negative effect and seven per cent profoundly adverse effects.



The negative effects included anxiety, panic, depression, pain, confusion and disorientation. But perhaps only the least experienced felt them – and might several days of meditation not overwhelm those who were relatively new to the practice? The answer was no. When Shapiro divided the larger group into those with lesser and greater experience, there were no differences: all had an equal number of adverse experiences. And an earlier study had arrived at a similar, but even more surprising conclusion: those with more experience also had considerably more adverse effects than the beginners.



Amid the small pile of articles on the topic, I found two by Arnold Lazarus and Albert Ellis, co-founders of CBT. In 1976, Lazarus reported that a few of his own patients had had serious disturbances after meditating, and strongly criticised the idea that "meditation is for everyone". And Ellis shared his misgivings. He believed it could be used as a therapeutic tool, but not with everyone – and overall, that it could be used only in moderation as a "thought-distracting" or "relaxing" technique. "Like tranquilisers," he wrote, "it may have both good and bad effects – especially, the harmful result of encouraging people to look away from some of their central problems, and to refrain from actually disputing and surrendering their disturbance-creating beliefs."



(I agree. All Hindoo stuffs and other heathen stuffs are not for aliens. I.e. not for "everyone". Even in heathendom they are not willy-nilly assigned to all and sundry. But aliens are delusional conceited entities with a huge self-entitlement complex that always makes them feel like they were meant to dabble in the Vedam, in yoga/meditation, that the Hindoo Gods have something to do with them, blablabla. They're very good at blatantly making up stuff to make themselves feel special and have special entitlement to heathen religions that don't concern them.)



Read more: Practice Mindfulness – says mental health charity

Airports are installing yoga rooms to help tense travellers relax

Mindfulness isn't going to cure our mental health crisis

Let GPs offer mindfulness meditation to patients, say experts

Mindfulness can help prevent relapses of depression



I felt like an archaeologist digging up long-forgotten artefacts. How could this be completely absent in the recent research? It was conceivable that clinicians and researchers simply did not report the negative consequences of meditation, but it was more likely that the meditators themselves did not talk about it: many who encounter difficulties during or after their practice may feel they're doing something wrong, or even that their distress is part of the process and will eventually pass. That was the case with Miss X, who eventually refused continuous treatment, explaining that her mania was just a release of blocked energy from years of not dealing with her emotions adequately. And many meditators thinking like Miss X could go towards explaining why negative reports didn't make it into journals – because the effects were seen as mere stones on the road to peace or spiritual attainment.



However, a number of Western Buddhists are aware that not all is plain sailing with meditation; and they have even given a name to the emotional difficulties that arise – the "dark night" – borrowing the phrase coined by the 16th-century Christian mystic St John of the Cross to describe an advanced stage of prayer and contemplation characterised by an emotional dryness, in which the subject feels abandoned by God.

(Trying to encroach on meditation for christianism by drawing parallels.)

Buddhists, in principle, ought not to feel abandoned by God, but a Buddhist blog on the subject is riddled with turmoil:



"Nine years on and off of periods of deep depression, angst, anxiety and misery"; "there was a nausea that kept coming up, terrible sadness, aches and pain"; "I've had one pretty intense dark night, it lasted for nine months, included misery, despair, panic attacks… loneliness, auditory hallucinations, mild paranoia, treating my friends and family badly, long episodes of nostalgia and regret, and obsessive thoughts (usually about death)".



Willoughby Britton, a neuroscientist and psychiatrist at Brown University, is now trying to map what she calls [size="5"]"the dark side of Dharma"[/size], an interest that arose from witnessing two people being hospitalised after intense meditation practice, together with her own experience after a retreat in which she felt an unimaginable terror. And reading through the classical Buddhist literature, she realised that such experiences are often mentioned as common stages of meditation.



"I was woefully uninformed," she now admits. Meditation retreats easily lead people to sense the world differently: the hearing gets sharper; time moves more slowly. But the most radical change that can occur is in what Britton calls "the narrative of the self". Try this out: focus on the present moment, nothing else than the present moment. You may be able to do it easily for a very short time. However, if you try extending this "presentness" for one or two hours, and keep trying for some days, your usual sense of self – that which has one foot in the past and the other in the future – collapses. The practice may feel great for some, but for others it is like being tossed around a roller coaster.



[img caption:] A study found 63 per cent of meditators in a group had suffered at least one negative effect A study found 63 per cent of meditators in a group had suffered at least one negative effect (AFP/Getty)



Other unpleasant things can happen, too, as Britton discovered through interviews with numerous individuals: arms flap, people twitch and have convulsions; others go through euphoria or depression, or report not feeling anything at all as their physical senses go numb. Still, unpleasant though they are, if these symptoms were confined to a retreat, there wouldn't be much to worry about – but they're not. Sometimes they linger, affecting work, child care and relationships. They can become a clinical health problem, which, on average, lasts for more than three years. What's more, meditation teachers know about it – Britton says – but researchers are usually sceptical; they ask about the psychiatric history of meditators who develop mental illness, as if meditation itself had little or nothing to do with it.



I used to think the same. But from the moment I started researching, I kept finding more and more evidence. Take the correspondence section on the website of the revered Deepak Chopra, where readers post their questions and Chopra answers. On 11 April 2014, an individual who had been meditating for one year – and finding in it "true bliss" – describes having twice experienced a deep emotional sensation, "like something is being ripped from me", that left her wanting to cry and yell. Chopra's reply is optimistic: "It's both normal and okay. It just means there is some deep emotional trauma from your past that is now ready to come to the surface and be healed. After meditation I would recommend you take a few minutes and sing out loud.



(Deepak Chopra is a major fraud and total new-ageist. More Hinduism Lite salesmen like this - and all salesmen of Hindoo stuffs to aliens are charlatans - and aliens will more quickly leave yoga alone.)



"Find a song you love that resonates with the emotional tone of your pain. Listen to it at above normal volume so that you can really feel the sonic effect of the song and music. When you feel it has engaged your emotions, start to sing so that your voice translates your feelings into sound. If you do this every time you feel some unresolved residue of emotion after your meditation, it will facilitate the release and healing process."

(New ageism. In case anyone wanted proof of it.)



But what if someone like Aaron Alexis had emailed Deepak Chopra and received a reply like this? Would singing along to his favourite song, turned up nice and loud, have healed his emotional traumas and led into the wisdom he sought, rather than a killing spree? Unlikely. Furthermore, there is a real danger that what Chopra's correspondent was feeling is not "normal and okay", and that if she keeps meditating without an expert teacher, it may disturb rather than heal her.



Despite its dark side and the limitations of the current scientific research, I still think meditation is a technique with real potential for personal change, if properly guided and taught within a larger spiritual-ethical framework. But I wanted to speak to someone who, coming from the West, had embraced the Eastern meditation tradition without denying its darker side – and I found that person in Swami Ambikananda, a South African woman living in England, who took religious Hindu vows and now teaches meditation and yoga in Reading.



("I still think meditation is a technique with real potential for personal change, if properly guided and taught within a larger spiritual-ethical framework." -> This argument is a way to in future introduce christianism through the backdoor, as serving that need of "larger spiritual-ethical framework" of Yoga and meditation. Modern christianism trying to appeal to backsliders tries to define itself exactly as a "spiritual ethical framework" - c.f. how it declares atheists lack both.

As if Buddhism doesn't already seek to provide just that framework for Buddhists. However, most western Buddhists - perhaps all, I don't know: there must be a reason why the Dalai Lama had always insisted (still?) that aliens should stick to their own religion - most western Buddhists tend to be sudden zealous converts, many of which deconvert in time, else borderline new-ageists or full new-ageists.

But the future hijack of yoga incl dhyana yoga is Indics' own fault. New-agey Indians and alien dabblers like Elst did try to divorce Yoga - at various levels, from a full divorce to partial divorce - from its heathen framework. Of course christianism is going to slip itself into that deliberate void others left and which cryptochristians encouraged.)



We sat in her living room and, when I told her I was looking into the potential dark side of meditation, she asked if I had heard of Aaron Alexis.



"There is a new dogma about meditation: when it fails, its limitations are never questioned," she said. "We are told they weren't doing it right. But maybe neither the practice nor the person is wrong. The truth about our human condition is that no one thing works for everyone. The spiritual journey is about the unmasking of oneself, being more authentically 'self', and whatever path leads us there is grand for each of us. That particular path is not necessarily good for all of us – but since it has moved out of the monastic environment into the wider secular world, meditation is being sold as that which will not only make us feel better but will make us better people – more successful, stronger, convincing …"



So what about the researchers claiming that meditation per se can turn you into a better, more compassionate person?



"No, no, no," she stressed. "Meditation needs to be embedded in its context; there are moral and emotional guidelines to be followed."



(I don't know if she's referring to Yama Niyama etc. But even the more determined alien dabblers that practice these things so they can dabble better in yoga are known to have crashed hard.

Many more aliens, however, just leap straight into yoguh, and then start speaking of seeing colours/having achieved some universal spiritual level and why yoga is therefore not Hindu but universal, equally christian, equally western, equally atheist, equally new-age.

If aliens tried to encroach on Taoist ritual practices, things would be even more dreary for the aliens than merely badly burning out.)



Really? Isn't the whole purpose of meditating to make you an enlightened and deeply moral individual; moral in the sense of unselfish and compassionate?



"Morality can be divorced from spirituality. My ego can dissolve while I meditate. But when I get up, it's reconstructed. You can meditate 22 hours a day, but in those two hours you have left, you're a human being living in matter, and this aspect of reality [she touched the ground] doesn't care too much if you're enlightened or not."



After our talk, Ambikananda gave me a lift to the station. I thanked her for her time and asked again about Alexis. Did she think his killing spree had anything to do with meditation?



"I don't know. I don't dispute that he had serious mental health problems; but meditation probably didn't help him either. Meditation is about looking into the abyss within. It wasn't created to make you or me happy, but to help us fight the illusions we have and find out who we truly are."



(Don't know about meditation being about looking into the 'abyss' within. Maybe in Zen. And in Hindoo heathenism, all and sundry never did hardcore yoga. In any ritual practice=serious matter, be it of mantra and other tantra/yoga, they always worked up to the level that was right for them. And never went beyond until they were allowed to.

In Taoism, Taoists practice their ritual practices and eventually the Gods or Immortals themselves will intervene directly - correcting mispractice and furthering cultivation by revealing the next stage.

Aliens and their self-entitlement never realise what heathens mean when these say that dabbling in the Vedam, yoga and tantra etc are just that: dabbling (and without exception in the alien case). It's dangerous besides.)



'The Buddha Pill: Can Meditation Change You?' by Dr Miguel Farias and Catherine Wikholm (Watkins, £10.99) is out now

Quote:Meditation is touted as a cure for mental instability but can it actually be bad for you?



If it's so powerful, might meditation also do harm to sensitive souls? Researching a mass murder, Dr Miguel Farias discovered that, far from bringing inner peace, it can leave devotees in pieces



Dr Miguel Farias



Thursday 21 May 2015

Quote:Also, officials said, the yoga protocol, prepared in consultation with Baba Ramdev, Sri Sri Ravi ShankarBaba Ramdev, Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev and yoga institutions in India, will stick to the simplest of yoga postures. "This is to ensure yoga appeals even to the uninitiated in many countries."

Quote:K.harapriya, on 20/05/2015 at 5:35 PM said:



One day, even Vedas and Vedanta will be secular Indo-European literature with no Hinduness inherent in them. That is what Sanskrit is now being touted as an Indo-European language .

Quote:dr. bulusu prasad, on 21/05/2015 at 12:08 AM said:



really disgusting !

we should understand that ‘yoga’ is just a small set of bodily postures !

this is how our R.shis are honored !

by ignoring OM !!



Maharshi Patanjali says :



योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः — yogaa: chitta vr.tti niro’dha:



yoga is the control of the thought-modifications of the mind ;



and to achieve that end ,

the surest , the safest , and the easiest method shown is :

( from Paatanjalayogasutras : chapter I – sutras 23 to 28 , with simple translation )



ईश्वरप्रणिधानाद्वा — Is’vara pran’idhaanaadvaa



profound devotion to Is’vara [3]



क्लेशकर्मविपाकाशयैरपरामृष्टः पुरुषविशेष ईश्वरः — kle’s’a karma vipaakaas’ayai: aparaamr.sht’a: Purusha vis’e’sha Is’vara:



here is one of the best definitions of Is’vara that can ever be found :

Is’vara is a particular kind of Being , unaffected by — kle’s’a ( ignorance ) , karma ( actions ) , vipaaka ( fruits of the actions ) , and aas’aya ( the resultant latent impressions )



तत्र निरतिशयं सर्वज्ञवीजम् — tatra niratis’ayam sarvaj*na beejam



He is Omniscient ( simple translation )



पूर्वेषामपि गुरुः कालेनानवच्छेदात् — poorve’shaam api Guru: kaale’na anavacche’daat



He is the first Guru , the Timeless One [1]



तस्य वाचकः प्रणवः — Tasya vaachaka: Pran’ava:



His vaachaka , denoting sound , is Pran’ava , OM .





तज्जपस्तदर्थभावनम् — Tat japa: Tat artha bhaavanam



This Sound is to be repeatedly chanted , and Its meaning is to be meditated upon .



and here , these people are all set to avoid and drop OM !

can anything be done ?

Quote:पूर्वेषामपि गुरुः कालेनानवच्छेदात् — poorve’shaam api Guru: kaale’na anavacche’daat



He is the first Guru , the Timeless One

Quote:तस्य वाचकः प्रणवः — Tasya vaachaka: Pran’ava:



His vaachaka , denoting sound , is Pran’ava , OM .

Quote:Mantra 8



नमस्ताराय ।





Meaning:



ताराय- Of the form of Pranava.





Explanation:



It is stated in Veda** and Sivapuranas that the meaning of Pranava (Omkara) is Sri Parameswara. In the sense that there is no difference between word and direct meaning, and word and intended import, Sri Rudra can be said to be of the form of Pranava.



‘तारः’ can also be interpreted to mean one who helps in rescuing Jivas from the ocean of samsara and bestows Mukti.

(E.g. Sri Rama nama being taaraka mantram.)



The import of this mantra is that Sri Parameswara should be worshipped for Moksha also.

Quote:ईश्वरप्रणिधानाद्वा — Is’vara pran’idhaanaadvaa



profound devotion to Is’vara [3]

Quote:Thus, "Īśvara" is defined merely as "a distinct purusa untouched by afflictions, actions, fruitions or their residue" in YS 1:24, but has been assigned the exclusive meaning of "God/Shiva", nowadays assumed in the expression "Īśvarapranidhāna" (YS 1:23, 2:1, 2:32, 2:45). It is on the basis of little else than this expression’s repeated appearance that the YS is classified among the theistic systems. Even if it means "devotion to God", that still does not make Yoga theistic, for God still plays no role in the definition and structure of the system, only the devotion itself is credited with playing a helpful role in the yogi’s progress. Nowhere does Patañjali say that "union" is sought with God nor with anything else. On the contrary, the stated goal of his system is kaivalya, "isolation, separation", the very opposite of "union", and equivalent with the notion kevala of the atheistic Jaina system. Patañjali accommodates the devotee yet avoids burdening the unbeliever with a requirement to believe.

Quote:(Translation of KoormapurAna shlokas

I am Parameshwara who is the Maya among Paashaas or the hard rope strings, Kaala or the Mrityu among the destroyers and among the Pathways am the destination of Mukti; You should realise that the Most Lustrous and the Mightiest ‘Satwa Padaartha’ or the Virtuous Entity is myself and am the highest powerful provocator of actions among all of the Pashus or Jeevaas / Beings in the Univese is myself; as the Beings in Srishti are Pashus, I am indeed the Pashupati. I tie up the Pashus with Paashaas for fun; Vedagnaas seek to help release the Pashus from the ‘Samsaara Paashaas’ and are called the facilitating ‘Mochakaas’ or Helping Liberators as I tie them all with the strong strings from their birth to death. Let it be made clear that there could be none else that might liberate from these Paashaas excepting Paamatma the Eternal.



(Notes that the link then provides)

The twenty four Tatwaas, Maya, Karma and Tri- Gunas all put together hold the Jeevas or Pashus as ‘Paaashas’are enforced by Pashupati. The Tatwas are Manas or Mind, Buddhi or thought , Ahamkara or Ego, Prithvi, Jala, Vaayu and Akasaha; Ear, Skin, Eyes, Tongue, Nose, the two Marmendriyas, hands, feet, voice, shabda, sparsha, Rupa, Rasa, and Gandha which are all a part of Prakriti and the rest are all Vikaras or aberrations. There are two kinds of Paashaas viz. Dharma and Adharma besides the Karma bandhana; Avidya, Asmitaa or Ego, Raaga , Dwesha, Abhinivesha or attachment –these Five are constant Paashaas called Taatvika bandhanas. Maya is stated to be the root of these bandhanas. Mula Prakriti, Pradhaana, Purusha, Mahat, Ahamkaaran are all manifestations of Sanatana Deva; he is the one creating bandhanaas; he is the Paasha-Pashu-and in the final analysis, he is the Pashupati!

Quote:This first shloka ... is also known as the OMkaara dhyaanam.

The great yogis meditate upon the praNava mantram "Aum", united with central Bindu. I offer my worship to that state of OMkaara that fulfills all desires and bestows Moksha. Note that the Central Bindu in "Aum" is the sacred dot and denotes Shakti: the Divine Mother (Uma) is that dot and Shiva is the father in the form of the sound of "Aum".

Quote:Mantra 1



नमस्सोमाय च रुद्राय च ।





Meaning:



सोमाय च- To One with Uma, रुद्राय च- to Parameswara, who relieves one of the misery of samsara, नमः- prostration.





Explanation:



In this eighth Anuvakam, Sri Parameswara is adored through 17 internal mantras, establishing that he is to be adored by all, bringing out some of his qualities and stating that he is the indwelling soul of all creation.



The term 'Rudra' shows that Parameswara alone is capable of removing the misery of samsara. रुतं संसारदुःखं द्रावयतीति रुद्रः- Further, Svetasvatara Upanishad states that relief from the misery of samsara will result only from knowledge of Sri Parameswara.



"यदा चर्मवदाकाशं वेष्टयिष्यन्ति मानवाः ।

तदा शिवमविज्ञाय दुःखस्यान्तो भविष्यति ॥"



"When men roll the sky like a piece of skin, it is only then that reief from the misery of samsara will result without knowing Siva." The import is that just as sky can never be rolled, it is impossible to get relief from the troubles of samsara without the knowledge of Siva.





In order to establish that Parameswara's greatness in such removal of the misery of samsara is only due to his being together with Uma, the term 'सोमाय' has been used in conjunction. In the word 'Uma', the letters of Pranava (Om) are interchanged. The meaning of the word 'Uma' is same as that of Pranava, viz. Parsasakti. The resident Devata of Brahmavidya is the power of Sri Parameswara alone, called 'Parasakti' and 'Chichchakti'. It is therefore clear that Parameswara, in association with that Sakti, bestows Atmagnanam and relieves the devotee from the misery of samsara. Passages of Svetasvatara Upanishad like 'ते ध्यानयोगानुगता अपश्यन् देवात्मशक्तिं स्वगुणैर्निगूढाम्' make it clear that Atmagnanam was attained by Maharishis only through the grace of Uma. This has also been referred in detail in Talavakara Upanishad, Sivapuranam, Kurmapuranam etc. That is why it is stated in the passage of Kaivalyopanishad,



'उमासहायं परमेश्वरं प्रभुं त्रिलोचनं नीलकण्ठं प्रशान्तम् ।

ध्यात्वा मुनिर्गच्छति भूतयोनिं समस्तसाक्षिं तमसः परस्तात् ॥'



and in passages from Puranas like



'पार्वती परमा देवी ब्रह्मविद्याप्रदायिनी ।

तस्मात्सह तया शक्त्या हृदि पश्यन्ति ये शिवम् ।

तेषां शाश्वतिकी सिद्धिर्नेतरेषामिति श्रुतिः ।'



that Parameswara is able to grant Moksha only because he is with Uma.

Quote:Mantra 5



नमो अग्रेवधाय च दूरेवधाय च ।



Meaning:



अग्रेवधाय च- To one who stands ahead of his devotees in the battlefield and kills the enemies, दूरेवधाय च- to one who destroys the strength, valour etc. of the enemies of devotees, who are at a great distance, even before commencement of battle.





That he fights the battle standing ahead of his devotees is described as under by Arjuna in Mahabharata in Drona Parva.



"संग्रामे शास्त्रवानीकं शरौघैर्विमृदन्नहम् ।

अग्रतो लक्षये यान्तं पुरुषं पावकप्रभम् ।।



ज्वलन्तं शूलमुद्यम्य यां दिशं प्रतिपद्यते ।

तस्यां दिशि विशीर्यन्ते शत्रवो मे महामते ॥

ततो दग्धानरीन् सर्वान् पृष्टतोनुदहाम्यहम् ।

तेन भग्नानरिगणान् मद्भग्नान्मन्यते जनः ॥"



"While felling the enemies with arrows in the battlefield, I find a Person standing ahead of me. He is brilliant like Agni, with a Trisula in the hand. In whichever direction he goes, my enemies in that direction are burnt and killed by him. I follow him and attack the same persons, who have already been attacked by him. Onlookers are unaware of this truth and think that my enemies have indeed been attacked and felled by me.





That Sri Parameswara drains away the strength etc. of the distant enemies even before commencement of battle has also been stated by Sri Krishna to Arjuna in Santhi Parva in Mokshadharma Prakaranam.



"यस्तु तेह्यग्रतो याति युद्धे संप्रत्युपस्थिते ।

तं विद्धि रुद्रं कौन्तेय.................. and



निहतान् तेन वै पूर्वं हतवानसि वै रिपून् ।

अप्रमेयप्रभावं तं देवदेवमुमापतिम् ।

भजस्व प्रयतो नित्यं विश्वेशं हरमव्ययम् ॥"



"Arjuna! Know that the person whom you saw going in front of you during the war is Rudra. You killed those enemies whom he initially attacked and killed. Hence adore with a controlled mind, that Umapati, Devadeva, of immeasurable greatness, Lord of the universe, the Changeless."



With the view that he and Parameswara are the same, Gitacharya states in the Gita 'मयैवैते निहताः पूर्वमेव', i.e. these enemies were killed by me alone earlier. Hence there is no conflict between his statements in Mokshadharma and Gita.



The import of this mantra is that as Parameswara alone is the cause of victory, those desirous of victory should worship Sri Parameswara alone.

Quote:'Arjuna said, "Tell me, O holy one, this story that I may understand it, viz., this illustration about Valaka and about Kausika (living) among rivers."



"'Vasudeva said, "There was a certain hunter of animals, O Bharata, of the name of Valaka. He used, for the livelihood of his son and wives and not from will, to slay animals. Devoted to the duties of his own order and always speaking the truth and never harbouring malice, he used also to support his parents and others that depended upon him. One day, searching for animals even with perseverance and care, he found none. At last he saw a beast of prey whose sense of smell supplied the defect of his eyes, employed in drinking water. Although he had never seen such an animal before, still he slew it immediately. After the slaughter of that blind beast, a floral shower fell from the skies (upon the head of the hunter). A celestial car also, exceedingly delightful and resounding with the songs of Apsaras and the music of their instruments, came from heaven for taking away that hunter of animals. That beast of prey, having undergone ascetic austerities, had obtained a boon and had become the cause of the destruction of all creatures. For this reason he was made blind by the Self-born. Having slain that animal which had resolved to slay all creatures, Valaka went to heaven. Morality is even so difficult of being understood.



There was an ascetic of the name of Kausika without much knowledge of the scriptures. [Not to be confused with the Rishi Kaushika, obviously.] He lived in a spot much removed from a village, at a point where many rivers met. He made a vow, saying, 'I must always speak the truth.' He then became celebrated, O Dhananjaya, as a speaker of truth. At that time certain persons, from fear of robbers, entered that wood (where Kausika dwelt). Thither even, the robbers, filled with rage, searched for them carefully. Approaching Kausika then, that speaker of truth, they asked him saying, 'O holy one, by which path have a multitude of men gone a little while before? Asked in the name of Truth, answer us. If thou hast seen them, tell us this'. Thus adjured, Kausika told them the truth, saying, 'Those men have entered this wood crowded with many trees and creepers and plants'. Even thus, O Partha, did Kausika give them the information. Then those cruel men, it is heard, finding out the persons they sought, slew them all. In consequence of that great sin consisting in the words spoken, Kausika, ignorant of the subtilities of morality, fell into a grievous hell, even as a foolish man, of little knowledge, and unacquainted with the distinctions of morality, falleth into painful hell by not having asked persons of age for the solution of his doubts. There must be some indications for distinguishing virtue from sin. Sometimes that high and unattainable knowledge may be had by the exercise of reason. Many persons say, on the one hand, that the scriptures indicate morality. I do not contradict this. The scriptures, however, do not provide for every case. For the growth of creatures have precepts of morality been declared. That which is connected with inoffensiveness is religion. Dharma protects and preserves the people. So it is the conclusion of the Pandits that what maintains is Dharma. O Partha, I have narrated to you the signs and indications of Dharma.

Quote:vaijayanthi

vaijayanthi a month ago



Perhaps you have chosen a style that would make Sankara sound appealing to modern minds or actually I don't want to even get into it. I am not sure this is the right introduction to Sankara for those who don't him. Two points I want to make - in a free flowing style you have just made a sweeping statement dragging Sri Krishna in to the picture to show Vedas are not infallible. There is no questioning the Pramanas and with reference to Sankara it is only an issue of if Karma Kanda is to be followed or not. (And even then, wouldn't any such conclusions on the Karma Kandam only be applicable to sannyasis? Plus didn't the Gita say renunciation is of the phalam not karma - or something?) That is left to experts to debate. Later to bring in Caravakas to "lambast the Vedas"? What else does one expect of Caravakas, and how on earth their non-theistic school and Sankara's theistic school both the be "dealing Vedas with impunity"?

Quote:Sharan Sharma a month ago



Am sorry to be critical - but am not sure where this article is positioned



1) The title talks of why we should venerate sri bhagvatpAda but a big

chunk is devoted to lambasting rituals and trying to propagate a

'rational' mindset.



It is the same sankarAchArya who said vedOnityamadhiyatAm (study the veda daily). Across our shastrAs, whenever a (supposed) anti-ritual stand is adopted, the context is a philosophical karma vs jnana debate vis-a-vis mokSa; nothing really changes from a practical/daily life point of view. In fact, in the sAnkara sAmpradAya, your access to vEdAnta is barred until you've been punctilious with your ordained rituals.

(Exactly.)



It is probably very fashionable to talk about how 'rational' our

dharma/saints/philosophers are - yes, but let's not throw the baby with

the bathwater. Cherry-picking verses is not helping. It's giving the

wrong impression - comparing the guru's statements to what chArvakAs say is especially ludicrous.



(To blame are all the countless universalising Indic types seen on the web, all going by the "Hindu/Hindu nationalist" tag: the ones who declare there is no such thing as a distinct Hindoo heathenism and equate it with Buddhisms and Jainisms and increasingly with the Charvakas (and then deliberately conflate Charvaka with modern day plain vanilla atheism or even communism and pseudo-'rationalism'). All in order to declare that it is all one Indic 'civilisation' or 'Dharma', which modern "rationalists" (misnomer), to whom heathenism doesn't compute, can still feel they have a right to claim. <- And that is the *only* reason that Hindoos' heathenism=SD/Vedic Religion/Hinduism/etc is being conflated with Buddhism/Jainism/current Sikhism/Charvaka etc.

Sadly for the de-heathenised who want to piggyback on Vedic religion and its inextricable cultural and civilisational expressions by claiming the now-generalised Hindu tag, heathenism is lost to them. They're just wandering post-Hindus, pretending they're a natural product of something - the ancestral heathenism of the subcontinent - that ceased to have any connection to or continuation in them.

De-heathenised should move on. They have no claims on Hindoo-dom anymore. And I doubt Jains or Buddhists want de-heathenised/post-Hindus to similarly parasite on=subvert Jainism and Buddhism either, via the universalising equations.)



2) "his ideas draw upon human experience and not belief"

This is wrong. The starting point is belief in the infallibility of the vEda. vEdic statements are taken to be axiomatic but which need to be properly interpreted and validated through personal experience. Experience and belief and not contradictory as portrayed here.

(W.r.t. the usage of the word "belief" in the above, I think the above means the infallibility is assumed by traditionalists when they're starting off, who then go on to prove it for themselves (?))



3) Finally, this: "The golden age that we must go back to, is not one of flying machines, test tube babies and nuclear technology". It's irksome when the outlier case of 'flying machines' is brought up time and again without context - proof that we seem to have bought into the mainstream media's shrill campaign. Surely, we can be proud of our scientific achievements - there's a huge amount to talk about and research there - "flying machines" is just one insignificant data point (re: Sri Roddam Narasimha's editorial in Current Science, 25/02/2015). Bringing this up here without context is doing great disservice to ancient Indian thought.



Again, sorry for being critical but i strongly feel for these points.

Quote: Indian > Sharan Sharma a month ago



The point is that Sanatana Dharma is not just Vedanta. The Charvakas, Mimamsakas and Samkhyas were also "Hindu" but were atheist. Some sects accepted the Brhman but denounced the Vedas. So, you see; dogmatism is not, and should never be a part of our culture. This piece is wonderful, in that it shows the true liberalism of Hindu culture, you can be a Hindu without believing in any God.

Quote: Sharan Sharma > Indian a month ago



The title of the article is "why India must celebrate Shankara". What has atheism or vEda-bashing got to do with bhagvatpAda? Nothing.



If you want to celebrate atheism or anti-vEdic thinking, another post would be totally appropriate. Invoking the great AchArya's name in the discussion is a sign of muddled thinking or trying to find favor with the modern Joneses.



(and, no - mImAmsakAs are not atheistic and no AstIka darsana denounces the vEda)

Quote:“मातः!” “किं यदुनाथ?” “देहि चषकं” “किं तेन” “पातुं पयः”

“तन्नास्त्यद्य” “कदास्ति वा?” “निशि” “निशा का?” “वाऽन्धकारोदयः”।

आमील्याक्षियुगं निशाप्युपगता देहीतिमातुर्मुहुः

वक्षोजांशुककर्षणोद्यतकरः कृष्णस्स पुष्णातु नः ॥



“Mother!” “What is it, Krishna?”

“Give me a cup” “Why?” “I want to drink milk”

“No drinking milk now.” “Then when?” “At night”

“What is night?” “When it’s dark”

Krishna then closed his eyes and demanded

“It’s now night. Give it now, give me, give!”

while pulling at Yashoda’s garment.

May this Krishna nourish us all.

(Līlāśuka’s śrīkṛṣṇakarṇāmṛtaṁ)



(Magnificent double meaning. But also good is to recall how Hindoos' heathenism was a lived religion, a live one, in Leelaashuka's time, as it was still until more recently, as it remains still in some ever-dwindling pockets untouched by the gangrene which hasn't reached these yet.)





रामो नाम बभूव हुं तदबला सीतेति हुं तां पितुर्

वाचा पञ्चवटीतटे विहरतस्तस्याहरद्रावणः ।

निद्रार्थं जननीकथामिति हरे हुंकारतः शृण्वतः

सौमित्रे क्व धनुर्धनुर्धनुरिति व्यग्रा गिरः पान्तु वः ||



“Once upon a time there was Rāma” “hmmm”

“Sītā was his wife” “hmmm”

“In the forest, Rāvana kidnapped Sīta”

The sleepy Krishna listening to his bed time story,

Suddenly shouted—

“Lakshmaṇa, where is my bow! my bow! my bow!”

May his alarmed words protect you.





There is yet another verse in which the sleeping Krishna fancies himself as Vishnu:

(Uh, he doesn't fancy himself as Vishnu. [And I could be totally wrong, but it looks like even the previous shloka refers to Krishna as Hari in the line where he's listening to his mother's narration of the Ramayanam, and where he is himself uttering auspicious humkaaras while drifting off, just before that line where he - ('accidentally'?) in Rama mode - calls out to the Soumitra.]



But it's illegal now to observe so, since Elst/Elstians/similar-sounding will threaten how their anal-ysis knows better*, and everyone else - those following tradition - are merely deluding themselves.

* Of course, all such should hold to this forever, and be made to forever hold to it too; and all their progeny, for all time to come. Backpeddling being utterly disallowed. There is something immensely satisfying about knowing that works like the above by Leelaashuka etc is permanently out of bounds for these people, and that they should know in themselves that encroaching and poaching on such is not allowed them.



Anyway, statements like "Krishna fancies himself as Vishnu" - no, at most it's his mother who infers that this ('fancying'/delusions of grandeur) is what the little Yadunaatha is doing while napping - is what the future state of so-called 'Hindus' is going to be like: people for whom traditional views don't compute but militate with their own tendencies~>conclusions, and their own interpretations is what they will be passing on. At most they think it's all 'quaint' and amusing - like aliens looking in - which condescension is not even accepted from non-Indian aliens. I don't know why modern 'Hindus' even bother. Gangrene.)



शंभो स्वागतमास्यतामितयितो वामेन पद्मासन

क्रौञ्चारे कुशलं सुखं सुरपते वित्तेश नो दृश्यसे।

इत्थं स्वप्नगतस्य कैटभजितः श्रुत्वा यशोदा गिरः

किं किं बालक जल्पसीति रचितं धूधूकृतं पातु नः ॥



“Shambhu, Welcome! Please sit down”

“Brahma! Come here to the left”

“Subrahmanya! Is all well?”

“Indra! Everything good?”

“Kubera! You haven’t been around”

Hearing this prattle of the sleeping Krishna, Yashoda thought

“What all this boy says!”

And chanted dhoo-dhoo to ward off evil spirits.

May it protect you too.



(Leelashuka could have mentioned the first-line as "Dear brother-in-law (Shambhu)...". Would make it even funnier/more endearing.

Isn't it 'long time no see/haven't seen you in a while' (to the Vittesha)? Am only guessing, of course, being utterly unfamiliar with Skt.)

Quote:Internet Hindoo !

@DrShobha



Internet Hindoo ! retweeted Firstpost



Dear @firstpost it's media who is bringing politics and religion into yoga. Promote yoga & c how public embraces it.



Internet Hindoo ! added,

Quote:Firstpost @firstpost

Dear @narendramodi ,Don't take yoga out of schools. Take religion and politics out of yoga.

http://bit.ly/1G8ReG3

Retweets

47

Favorites

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Kamlesh Gupta

S V K Swamy

Bimal Pr. Mohapatra

mUKesH

ब्राह्मणत्व:

CleanGreen+veEnergy

sampada nakhare

Avinash Saxena

Parveen



8:52 AM - 4 Jun 2015

Quote:Sankrant Sanu सानु

‏@sankrant



Sankrant Sanu सानु retweeted Internet Hindoo !



De-Hinduizing Yoga has become important for its appropriation while denigrating and killing its Hindu roots.



Sankrant Sanu सानु added,

Quote:Internet Hindoo ! @DrShobha

Dear @firstpost it's media who is bringing politics and religion into yoga. Promote yoga & c how public embraces it. https://twitter.com/firstpost/status/606444345068101632 …

Retweets

84

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omprakash sharma

Atul Pratap Agrahari

tapan p

Swadeshi Vichaar

Pratima Sharma

K

mUKesH

Govind Nishar

Avinash M



9:12 AM - 4 Jun 2015

Quote:Nearly 80% of the Dalit population come from 10 Indian states. Of these Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal account for more than 30% of the Dalit population. In the case of Uttar Pradesh, over 75% of the Dalit communities consume meat but discourage beef eating. Nearly 20% encourage vegetarianism. However, fewer communities in West Bengal are into vegetarianism (around 5%). There, around 80% Dalit communities are meat eating but discourage beef.

Quote:As a great believer in Hinduism and Hindu philosophy, his [Shri M Venkatesan's] sensitive soul was tortured by the baseless attacks of Periyar on Hindu Gods and Goddesses. I would like to quote his own words in this context: 'I could not help viewing Periyar's uncivilised and barbarous attacks upon my chosen Gods and Goddesses and my own Hindu faith as wanton attacks on my dear and sacred mother who begot me. My search into the works of Periyar and my extensive reading of all his articles gave a rude cultural shock to me. I was greatly dismayed by the hellish hatred of Periyar towards my faith and towards my chosen Gods and Goddesses'.

Quote:I feel awe of the Gods, I love, I revere, I venerate them, and in short have precisely the same feelings towards them as one would have towards kind masters or teachers or fathers or guardians or any beings of that sort.

Quote:The symbolic breaking of caste barriers also extended to the issue of temple entry and common worship of Harijans with what came to be called "non-Harijan Hindus". In Minakshipuram the Arya Samaj conducted prayers and performed a sacrifice with the participation of Harijans40. The Swamiji of Pejawar Mutt inaugurated tiruvillaku puja at the Kaliyamman temple in the village with participation of 300 women and a sanctum for Lord Venkateswara of Tirupati was set up at which villagers queued up for worship41. In Kuriyur village in Ramnad District the BSS organised the local Murugan festival at the request of unconverted Harijans42. In AP Chatram near Madras, Harijans "beamed with joy when enthusiastic caste-Hindus took out, for the first time, the Mariamman idol in procession to the Harijan colony during Sunday's temple festival"43 (Never doubt that the HindOOs love their Gods: the heathens beamed with joy to have darshanam of their Mother come to see them.) and in Perambalur in Tiruchirapalli District caste Hindus were reported to 14 worship with Harijan in the local Shiva temple and the 'Hindu Equality and Brotherhood Organisation' called on them to visit and worship in Harijan temples44. The head of Madurai Adhinam performed sumangali puja for the welfare of the people in honour of five women scavengers employed by Madurai city, instead of the usual Brahman women, because he considered them as "equals"45. The International Aryan League began a campaign to teach Harijans the gayatri mantram, traditionally privileged knowledge of Brahmans46. The jeer of Sriperumbudur temple assured the Hindu Solidarity Conference in Minakshipuram that his temple had employed Harijans as temple servants47 and the Kanchipuram Sankaracharya announced the establishment of a school to train Harijans as temple priests48. In June 1982 he inaugurated the gnana ratham of the VHP, a mobile idol of the Palani Murugan - one of the most famous temples in South India - mounted on a van in order to bring Brahman religion into Harijan settlements all over the state.



(^ Use of "Brahman religion" to describe the ancestral heathenism of the region. =More proof of christianism, also seen in earlier missionary writers. The alien demon's use of "brahman religion" is the typical missionary tactic - SOP employed by ALL missionary religions in India - to present Hindoo religion as alien to all non-brahmin HindOOs like Harijans. Alien christo-demons, but also Buddhists and Jains, pretend that there is no Hindoo laity, and that all non-Brahmin HindOOs have no religion therefore and belong equally to christoislamism or the Indic missionary religions. But heathenisms are the ancestral religion of every native population on the planet, from Africa to Europe, from Americas to Asia. The native religion of the Harijan HindOOs - as even seen in the paras above of how they requested a festival for their Murugan be organised, and how *they* beamed with great joy to see their divine Mother, Mariamman coming to see them, is proof that it is not any case of "bringing Brahman religion into Harijan settlements" but merely a case of the bringing of utsavamoorties of their own ancestral Gods coming into their villages.

Alien christodemons can't even hold their argument together by keeping it consistent with their own earlier statements.)



Apart from ritual paraphernalia, it also carried a public address system, cinema equipment, as well as leaflets and books for distribution. From the start of its tour of the state, its visits repeatedly led to violent communal clashes, which will be discussed below.



(Let me guess: "Communal clashes" refers to christoislamics rioting violently - as they still do* - whenever Hindoo processions took place on the ancestrally=eternally Hindoo soil of the Hindoo homeland, to allow Hindoos to have darshanam of the Gods of the procession, in this case Pazhani Murugan?

* See Tripura/NE, where christian terrorist outfits banned Hindoo processions and Durga pooja. See the countless news reports on islamaniacs in *India* pelting stones on Hindoo processions and now even throwing acid at Hindus during the recent Hanuman Jayanti procession. Alien christodemons - like their echoes in the Indian christomedia - will of course pretend that such christoislamic violence is a natural "retaliation" against Hindoos daring to observe Hindoo rituals in the Hindoo homeland among Hindoos. Hindoos are the "communal" ones for observing Hindoo festivals and rituals, despite it not even involving aliens.

In contrast, in Europe, christians used to deliberately enact jeebus-passion plays screaming out that Jews were to blame for non-existent jeebus' death - though paradoxically monogawd had willed this death himself - all specifically in order to incite christian pogroms against Jews, which was always the direct result. Comparable to Friday sermons against kafirs in mosques always resulting in muslims going on a rampage and killing Hindus.

Note how Hindoo religious practices make no mention of - and don't know of - christoislamania, and so Hindoo processions - which do not concern the christoclass terrorists and terrorisms - only feature the Hindoo Gods for Hindoos to look at, and which (totally opposite to jeebus passion plays and friday mosque sermons) makes Hindoos blissfully forget the monotheistic parasitism/terrorism. <- And yet it is this that gets branded as "communal" by alien christo writers, because of the actual crime: that Hindoo heathen observances promote heathenism and encourage reversion among rice 'converts'.)



A logical implication of the assumption that casteism was an affliction of Indian society rather than of Hindu religion, is the argument that it equally affects other religious communities in Indian society and that consequently conversion to Islam was no way to escape Untouchability. Soon after the first news of the Minakshipuram conversions reports appeared about the converts' disappointment with Islam and their desire to reconvert49. A reconvert in Ramnad was reported complaining that the converts had not been accepted as equals and expressed fear that they would remain isolated from mainstream Muslim society and not be able to intermarry with the Muslims50. The General 15 Secretary of the BJP predicted that "those getting converted would be 'disenchanted' in Islam as that religion was also beset with practices which widened the gap between groups of people"51 and claimed that many converted women wanted to reconvert to Hinduism52. In addition to facing the same castism as among Hindus, converts were said to face additional oppression due to gender discrimination in Islam. Converted women were reported to find the restrictions on leaving their houses unbearable, particularly as they prevented them from performing agricultural labour53. The MP for Tenkasi, for example, claimed that Hindu women had the utmost freedom and honour, while Muslim women were oppressed54. Others claimed that such women had never really wanted to convert in the first place and had been forced by male relatives55. Together with calls for a reform of Hindu society went therefore the allegation that Muslim society was even more oppressive. Instead of the brotherhood and equality which Harijans sought by converting to Islam, they had to labour under the double oppression of casteism and sexism, one of which Hindus were trying hard to eradicate and the other they had never known. Demands for reconversion were reported to be widespread and many of the mass rallies featured reconversion ceremonies. Already fifty reconversions were claimed to have taken place by the time the Hindu Solidarity Conference was held at Minakshipuram five months after the first conversion56. At the Second Hindu Solidarity Conference in Ramnad the organisers had secured agreement of a number of converts to reconvert, but these failed to turn up at the planned ceremony and in their place five Christians were reconverted to Hinduism57. The main Hindu organisation active in organising reconversions was the Arya Samaj. During a visit of its leader to Minakshipuram on Independence Day 1981 16 eleven Harijans reconverted58 and during another visit by Arya Samaj leaders reports spoke of the reconversion of several more families59. After a visit to the village the Janata Party leader announced that 25 families of converts had expressed their intention to reconvert60 and in November another five people reconverted in Minakshipuram in a ceremony arranged by the Arya Samaj61. Within a year of the first conversions the Sankaracharya of Kanchipuram claimed at a conference held in Madurai that there had been a large-scale return to Hinduism62. Since the causes of the conversions were defined as socio-economic rather than as religious, charitable donations and development measures were a logical strategy in the prevention and reversal of conversions. These generally took the form of distributing saris and dhotis to non-converts and reconverts, 63. for example, when Arya Samaj leaders visited Minakshipuram The Swamiji of Pejawar Mutt announced that during his visit to Minakshipuram and Ramnad he would not only give spiritual advice against conversions, but also entertain requests for financial assistance from poor Harijans64. A delegation of BSS camped in Minakshipuram and inaugurated a well project at the temple65. The Tamil Nadu Sarvodaya Mandal promised that it would start village industries, a spinning unit, and other projects for creating employment, such as a co-operative farm. It also announced that seventeen of its members had adopted twenty Harijan children from Minakshipuram and surrounding villages for whose education and boarding they would pay66 and the General Secretary of the Janata Party declared after a visit to Minakshipuram that his party had decided to adopt all Harijan villages in the District for economic development67. As a result of intense political pressure the government itself began to take economic measures to prevent further conversions. Following a 17 visit in July the Union Home Minister blamed the government of Tamil Nadu for the conversions because of its failure to implement socioeconomic reforms and protect Harijans.

Quote:R Nanjappa



It is good to see an article in honour of Tamil. The issue of language is so charged with political overtones, especially in Tamil Nadu, that one feels hesitant to mention facts. Yet some facts must be mentioned.



1. Before the Dravidian parties took over, scholars had always reckoned its origin as divine, tracing it to Sage Agastya who came to the South as directed by Lord Siva. Tamil Saivite Saints like Appar talked of Sanskrit and Tamil as the two languages originating directly from lord Siva.



2 Tamil was developed by groups of poets, sitting in congregation, called 'Sangam'.. Lord Subrahmanya was also part of it at times. Any new poetic work had to be approved by the Sangam. There were three Sangams spanning long intervals. The first one was at 'Kapatapuram"; (mentioned in Valmiki); the second was at 'South Madurai'. Both these were located south of Kanyakumar but were submerged in sea. So, the last Sangam came to the present Madurai. The Pandya kings had always been associated with Sangam.



3 Many poetic works of the Sangam period , long and short,are avilable in tact. It is these which truly reflect the antiquity, magnificence and majestry of the language. They are colleced in three compilations called '10 songs', 'Group of 8' and the 'Collection of 18',, though the last is not considered strictly or wholly of the Sangam age. Tirukkural belongs to this group. Dating is subject to disputes , both scholarly and other wise.

But some clues are available. For instance, the very first work in the very first collection is dedicated to Lord Subrahmanya (Muruga) who was the Deity of the hills and hilly regions, the highest part of land, and the first to emerge out of water! Such was their devotion to God. This poem describes how the people of different tribes and communities worshiped the Lord at different centres, especally six of them. Describing how Brahmins worshipped at Swamimalai. the poem says that they had 'dedicated 48 years to 'brahmachaya and learning' The poet actually says "those who had dedicated 6x4x2 years on this path of discipline". Now, the normal reckoning for brahmacharya and Vedic learning is up to 24 years, even according to Manu. So this must be a period even prior to that!



4. Agastya was supposed to have written a grammar for Tamil but that is extinct. The oldest grammar available now is that of Tholkappiar , a student of Agastya. In the olden days, his original name was taken as 'Trunadhumagni'. But after the rise of Dravidian politics, this is obscured. This is a book not just covering linguistic grammar, but the very grammar of life!



5. Tirukkural belongs to the group of 18, which deals with Dharma, called in Tamil, Aram. In fact Tirukkural deals with Aram. Porul, Inbam, which are the exact Tamil rendering of Dharma, Artha and Kama. The only difference is that while in Sanskrit, kama stands for any desire, though predominantly associated with human sexualty in the popular mind, the Kural deals with just human sexuality. One important question here is why did Valluvar leave out Moksha (Called Veedu in Tamil) when he adopted the other 3 of the standrd 4 purusharthas? One of the celebrated ancient commentators , Parimelazhagar, answered this that while the human mind can think and talk of the other three, Moksha was beyond human thought and expression- (anirvachaniyam as we would say)it had to be realised by other means and not lalked about! ' and so Valluvar did not deal with it separately. But he does mention it in appropriate contexts.



6. It is necesary to remember that Tirukkural is a dharmasastra. It starts with praise of God and asks what is the use of learning if does not lead to the feet of God. It departs boldly from certain usages of ancient Tamils of the sangam age- such as meat eating, drinking and prostitution. The whole Kural is a reflection of our dharma sastras, without any contradiction anywhere: the panchayajna, the six duties of brahmins, the duties of the kings etc. In dealing with artha, he deals with both economic and political aspects, which are reflective of the respective provisions in Manu and Kautilya. These have led some scholars to say that the Kural belongs to a later age. Political interests today would like to paint the Kural as a secular ie non-religious, non- Hindu literature dealing with mundane matters. This is not so..Indian spirtuality never separated the two facets of life.



7. The Silappadhikaram (now written as Cilappadikaram) is a unique work, which was spedifically written to teach three truths through a tale:

i. For a ruler who falls from Dharma, Dharma itself will become (cause) death.

ii. A true Pativrata will be honoured by the sages.

iii.One's fate or destiny will pursue him, no matter what!

The work is classified as 'kappiam' ie kavya. it is rather encyclopaedic, mirroring the poltical social economic and religious life of the people and all the three kings of the Tamil land. Its coverage of music and other arts is one of the main sources of our knowledge of those aspects of ancient Tamil life.



8. In ancient and Classical times, there was no prejudice or hatred against Sanskrit or any other language. Tolkappiam in fact prescribes rules as to how those words from other languages are to be adapted into Tamill usage. But the ancient poets, including Tolkappiar and Tiruvalluvar used direct Sanskrit words where necessary. In the first Kural itself, he uses three Sanskrit words.



9. Many important words in Tamil are adaptations from Sanskrit , which most Tamilians do not know eg.



ilakkanam= grammar= Lakshana ( hence Lakshmana becomes Ilakkuvan in Kamban)

ilakkiyam = literature= Lakshya

Kaappiam = epic = kavya

deivam = deity, god, etc = Deva.

vulagam= world = Lokam

vulogam = metal =Loham

The very word Sangam is Sanskrt!

etc.



10. But Tamil also has stunning direct originals for important Sanskrit words.

eg. Veda is called Marai in Tamil It means literally what is hidden. That is because the Vedic truths are not apparent, and are to be reflected upon, intuited, and learned through proper authorities.

Veda is called Shruti in Sanskrit, because it is to be heard, not written. This is stunningly called " Ezhudhaak kilavi" ie that which is not written. It is also called 'vottu' in Tamil, because it is recited in a particlar way, which is called "Vodudal".There are innumerable such examples



11. Sri Aurobindo who studeid the Veda intensely on his own, and also Tamil has said that the knowledge of very ancient Tamil words ( of very great antiquity) enabled him to understand certain Vedic words better!

Quote:[Julian's] revulsion at [christians'] efforts to assimilate (=inculturate on) the literary and philosophic heritage of the Greeks without accepting the religious values voiced in it. To Julian's mind, that seemed wreckage, not assimilation.



On this point Julian's stance was basic and closed to argument: 'Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.'"

Quote:[The Indic Darshanas] depend on 'darshana' or 'seeing' or 'experiencing' the truth* in mystical states. Hence the appropriateness of the term ["Darshana"].

[* Not to be confused with deliriums like those concocted by the christoclass mindvirus/'monogawdisms' which these last call 'truth'. Only unsaved kafir notions of 'truth' are meant, obviously.]



The darshanas have been classified into 2 groups: the Astika and the nAstika. Those that are based on the authority of the Vedas are called 'Astika' and the rest are 'nAstika'. The chArvaka, the Jaina and the Bauddha systems come under the latter category and the ShaD-darshanas, or the six traditional systems of Hindu philosophy*, under the former.



[* The usual: N, V, [classical, atheistic] SAMkhya, Yoga darshana, M, V.

Despite some other Indic traditions poaching on SAMkhya and Yoga - via the backprojected ur-Shramanism concoction - all Yoga and sAMkhya views, pre-dating the separate categorisation of them as "darshanas", are known to be derived from Vaidika perspectives/perceptions, thereby showing the direction of travel of any of the ideas contained in these - or indeed any of the 6 classical Astika darshanas - into the so-called Shramanisms, capital-S, which eventually appeared.]



[The ShaD-darshanas of the Astikas] generally deal with four topics:

- existence and nature of Brahman or Ishvara [pre-emptively: the Vaidika Ishavara/Brahman onle; as there is no and never shall be any other. E.g. not the Buddhist clones/inculturation+re-interpretation];

- nature of the jIva (jIvAtman)

- creation of the jagat

- mokSha as also the disciplines that lead to it.



[^ Note that the above shows that these 4 pre-occupations of Vaidika religio - even the 6 eventually delineated Astika darshanas thereof - concern questions on points of interest/inquiry pertaining to Vaidika cosmological matters onlee. Some of the latecomers - the nouveau religions - being but spin-offs, poached on some of these questions/topics; but the direction of travel of such matters is again from Vaidika religion and traditions to the late Shramanisms, even though vocalists of the latter now pretend they were the originators. They were never even 'equal' originators, let alone the sole ones (as they now seek to pretend via their Ur-Shramanism nonsense theory/falsehood). Can even straightforwardly deduce the timeframe when these last entered the scene: some questions had already long been phrased and answered (e.g. upaniShads to MBh had already dealt on jIva and mokSha and jagat and Brahman/Ishvara), and some views and associated practices (sankhya-yoga) had long been established, and others were still being answered or contested by some (is Ishvara/is Ishvara relevant, is Ishvara Dhaataa or not and the old question: is Ishvara only nimittakAraNa or also upAdAnakAraNa etc), when the nouveau religions emerged and spun-off, thus inheriting certain features extant then, or specifically denying others in noticeable distinction, and further absorbing selectively or wholesale from frameworks of Vaidika cosmology already long established in detail by then.]



[In the classical sAnkhya darshana] j~nAna [is] the sole or primary means of attaining mokSha called kaivalya [here].



[The sAnkhya darshana, i.e. classical sA~Nkhya] accepts only puruSha (the jIva) and pradhAna or prakR^iti as the fundamental realities and does not accept Ishvara (Parabrahman). Hence it [classical sAnkhya] is sometimes called 'nirIshvara-sA~Nkhya' ('sAMkhya without Ishvara'). The Yogadarshana which accepts all the principles of the (classical) SA~Nkhya and also Ishvara (Parabrahman), in addition, has been designated as 'Seshvara-sAMkhya' ('sA~Nkhya with Isvara').



In the sAMkhya system [i.e. classical sAMkhya], tattvaj~nAna or enquiry into the nature of truth is of primary importance. But the Yoga system [i.e. what's dubbed the darshana by that name] deals primarily with sAdhanAs. That is why the YogasUtras of Pata~njali, the basic text of the Yoga system, begins with the words atha yogAnushAsanam ('Now the teaching of Yoga [is begun].'), instead of the words "jij~nAsA" or "mImAMsA" ('enquiry').





What is Yoga?



The word 'yoga' can be derived from two verbal roots: yuj (to yoke) or yuj (to concentrate).

Hence 'yoga' is that which helps a jIva to attain concentration on Ishvara and ultimate union with said Ishvara.



The word 'yoga' in its several senses has been used in the R^igveda and some of the upanishads like KaTha and ShvetAshvatara. [Leaving out shloka references.] The BhagavadgItA contains many ideas which appear to reflect the teachings of the YogasUtras.*

(* Why so careful in wording, why "appear to reflect"? They reflect the same because BG is *about* sankhya-yoga-vedanta, i.e. Vedic views, Hindoo cosmology.

After all, Elst and similars declare that Gita stole from classical Sankhya - in the inverse direction of time - and thus repeated much of it before adding a theistic alleged 'spin' to it. When everyone else is thus allowed to theorise as per their own interest, why aren't Hindu heathens allowed to simply state the facts?)

It is likely that there might have been a more ancient work on Yoga attributed to HiraNyagarbha, and this could have influenced other works.





The author and his times



Hindu tradition attributes the origin of the science of Yoga to HiraNyagarbha, an aspect of Ishvara himself. Two sages [Rishis]--sanatkumAra and jaigiShavya--are sometimes stated to be the authors of Yogashaastra. However, their works have not been traced yet.

[...]

Scholars opine that Pata~njali might have lived [any time] during the period 200 B.C.E.-300 C.E.





Philosophy of the YogasUtras [of Pata~njali]



Though the yogasUtras of Pata~njali is primarily a work heavily oriented towards sAdhanA or spiritual practice, a basic knowledge of its sAMkhyan background is ncessary to understand it.



Yogadarshana accepts 3 fundamental realities: Ishvara, puruShas and pradhAna or prakR^iti.**



PuruShas are the individual jIvAtmas. They are chidrUpa or of the nature of consciousness and are infinite in number.

The existence of Ishvara, called PuruShavisheSha ('special or unique puruSha') can be known only through the scriptures [i.e. Vaidika scriptures, shruti specifically, not Bauddha, Jina etc stuffs, nor for that matter babble also called 'scripture']. He [Ishvara, the puruShavisheSha who 'can be known only through the Vaidika scriptures=shruti'] is sarvaj~na. Being untouched by the shackles of prakRiti he is ever free [contrastive with jIva again.]. He is the Adiguru. He is designated by praNava, OM. It is by his will and in accordance with the karmas of the puruShas that prakRiti, comprising the three guNas, evolves into this universe. The evolutes of prakRiti are mahat, aha~NkAra, manas, the tanmAtras and so on, just as in the SA~Nkhyan system.



The puruSha [each jIvAtman], somehow--due to avidyA--forgets his real nature as pure consciousness, gets involved with the evolutes of prakRiti and suffers all the pangs of [samsAra]. However, when he performs sAdhanAs--the aShTA~Ngas of yoga--he once again realises his essential nature and is instantly freed from saMsAra. Being established in one-self, thus transcending saMsAra, is called 'kaivalya'.**

Quote:Like the [later] classical sAMkhya, [the older, pre-classical sAMkhya of the MBh Mokshadharma] recognises 24 categories of PrakRiti and the PuruSha as the 25th, but it differs from the former in holding that there is no ultimacy in the multiplicity of the 25th as in the classical sAMkhya. The PuruSha in association with PrakRiti in the creative cycle seems to be many. But in liberation, with the effacement of the bondage of Prakriti, the separateness of the puruSha is effaced and it becomes the one and only puruSha that exists in the nature of things (i.e. Ishvara, paramapuruSha)*.

(Sort of comparable with the primordial undivided Tao, i.e. when in completely unmanifested state, which is also "all there is" at that stage.)

Quote:aShTA~Ngas



[... the usual. But this bit is relevant:]

Niyama includes shaucha, santosha, tapas (i.e. of body, speech and mind [tapas as covered in shruti]), svAdhyAya (study of holy books [no, not the babble nor even the Dhammapaada, etc, as "svAdhyAya" originally=actually literally means the vedam, the study of veda and veda onlee, and specifically also the recitation of the Vedam] and repetition of mantras like OM), and IshvarapraNidhAna (devotion to Ishvara). [*Goes without saying but Ishvara=Vaidika Ishvara onlee (there is no other: none of the re-interpretations qualify, incl. now or in the future.)]

[...] The 3 disciplines of tapas, svAdhyAya and IshvarapraNidhAna are grouped together by Pata~njali and termed 'kriyAyoga'. It is effective as a shortcut to yoga.



[Note that tapas - the same as those specified in the upaniShads, which are specifically the various particular ritual observances used to prepare for Vaidika rites too (as explained in several upaniShads) - and especially OM (+study of the veda) and Ishvara-praNidhAna are exactly what some upaniShads including the ShvetAshvatara Upanishad were on about and which they explained as leading to mukti. That is, they already touched upon kriyAyoga as a most effective means to the ends aimed for in Hindoo cosmology.]



<The bits on Asana and prANAyAma that summarise Pata~njali's YogasUtras concerning these niyamas repeat the practices already taught and enjoined in several upaniShads.>



[The last 3 aShTangas] dhAraNA, dhyAna and samAdhi--are actually 3 continuous steps of the same process. [...] SamAdhi can be attained by IshvarapraNidhAna or devotion to Ishvara* also (1.23). Pata~njali terms these 3 steps together as 'saMyama'. And this saMyama should always be on one and the same object.





Yogasiddhis

The belief that one can attain siddhis by tapas and by the grace of Ishvara is very ancient. Pata~njali describes quite a few of such...



SaMyama on different objects will endow the yogi with several siddhis. For instance, saMyama on [the pa~nchabhUtas leads to aShTasiddhis].

<Plus examples given of other siddhis.>

(Hmm, among the *additional* yogasiddhis summarised, recognised 2 among the descriptions that match Hindoos I know. -> So heathenism=Hindoo genuine tradition - as opposed to the new-age replacement - not dead yet.

On the other hand, they were born with it, which isn't quite relevant. (Unless it's residual?) Same conclusion still though: proof of Hindoo heathenism having been alive and well until the younger generations.)



[...]

Quote:Mahaperiyavaa told them that the lingam had been previously worshipped as “Jalakantheswara”. He also directed them to check the documents available in the nearby Raj Bhavan for further details.