Neither the Advaitis nor the Dwaitis would accept this equation. Each side is biased by what their preceptors have said. And the debate goes on, about which is the right view. I think if we can see that both are same, many confusions would get resolved. But how do we do that within the framework of the Upanishads?
Let's THINK : By Dr.King, Swami Satyapriya
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Thursday, August 29, 2024
Thursday, August 22, 2024
Tuesday, August 13, 2024
What is realization, and what happens when you reach there as per Upanishads?
As per the traditional belief, whatever truth one finds in the Upanishads is an attempt by the Upanishadic sages to explain their experience, that they had when they were in deep state of meditation. That is the realization they arrived at. It is a different matter whether they could describe their experience exactly as they went through it. But anyone who goes on their path, would surely experience the very same truth and it needs no further validation.
What is this realization as per the Upanishads?
Sunday, July 28, 2024
What is realization, and what happens when you reach there – as per Bhagavad Gita?
The Bhagavad Gita has a complete chapter on meditation – chapter 6, Dhyana Yoga. This deals with how someone undertakes this path of realization or attainment of ultimate truth. It also explains what happens when someone reaches the culmination of this path and what is the ultimate truth that one realizes.
Friday, July 26, 2024
Quick update
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
Romance 05. Have you seen my beloved?
Akka Mahadevi is on the final phase of her journey. She wants to make the impossible possible. Though without a body consciousness, she does have a body and that body has its own limitations. It wants to see the formless in some form. That is because it can only perceive forms. It does not understand abstract things.
Tuesday, April 2, 2024
Romance 04. I swear, you can’t trick me!
In the previous episode, we saw how a young girl namely Mahadevi dared to take on the entire world. She did not care how the worldly people look at her. She discarded all identities, even the identity as a female!
She went around naked without any hesitation or feeling of shame.
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Romance 03. He haunts me in my dreams, the curly haired one!
Before we get into this dreaming business, let us start this episode with a startling incident.
It was an assembly of great saints, all of whom had experienced God in their own way. There were men and women who had gathered together to share their individual experiences with each other. They had also come for a serious discussion about how the society can be reformed.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Romance 02. All is fair in love and war!
We were discussing the story of one of most revered mediaeval saints of India, namely Goda. Goda is in love with God! And she has no hesitation to admit it openly. So, she sings expressing her love to God. She imagines herself to be one of the cowherd girls who lived with Krishna, when the God descended on earth in the human form of Krishna.
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Romance 01. Romancing the divine!
Probably a Christian or a Muslim may even shudder to think of such a thing. Romance with God?! Maybe it sounds blasphemous. But not in India among Hindus. There, it is perfectly alright to have a ‘love affair with God’. Well, only if you are a female. As a female devotee, it is perfectly all right to look upon God as your male companion, your beloved, your lover.
Tuesday, February 27, 2024
Thought 41. Yoga is like the reverse of creation
Many modern Yoga teachers define Yoga as union. Union with what? Many definitions have been given. But the fact remains that most of us mean body exercises, when we say Yoga. It is about manipulation of the body, it is about fitness of the body, it is about ‘control’ of the body and its instincts. That is the domain of Hatayoga.
So, what is this union about?
Patanjali Yoga goes a step further. It talks about moving beyond the body and mind. It talks about the soul. And if at all you can use such a word, it talks about uniting with your real self, or attaining Kaivalya – a state where the soul is completely free.
But is that the end? That is what we will be seeing in this episode.
Sunday, February 25, 2024
¿De verdad quieres saber sobre Yoga? Sólo entra (Book talk by guest speaker in Spanish)
Con el tipo de popularidad que ha alcanzado el Yoga estos días, estoy segura de que habrás probado alguna "forma" de Yoga. Probablemente también te haya beneficiado. Pero si quieres saber más sobre lo que el yoga puede hacer y cómo funciona realmente, este episodio es para ti. Por favor sigue escuchando.
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Thought 40. Is your mental EPROM corrupted?
Just like our modern-day computers, our minds too have EPROMS with pre-stored instructions that enables us to boot strap, and go on with our lives. These instructions are essential for living. But they become a problem when they somehow get corrupted. Imagine how a computer would behave if its EPROM is corrupted. It just crashes 😉 That would also be our state, if we have a faulty mental EPROM. Before we talk about how the practice of Yoga helps in setting right a corrupted mental EPROM, let us face the fundamental question namely -
Tuesday, February 13, 2024
Thought 39. What happens in the final stage of Samadhi?
Sunday, February 4, 2024
New Book: Amazing Upanishads
Upanishads always fascinated me. For those people who are not familiar, Upanishads are the philosophic parts of the ancient Indian Vedas. And Vedas are probably, the oldest available scriptures of the world. While most Indians view Upanishads with lot of reverence, many westerners, which include well known scientists and intellectuals, consider them as the peak of human intellectual endeavors.
Tuesday, January 30, 2024
Thought 38. The mind as Patanjali sees it
Patanjali’s Yoga is centered around mind. But throughout the discussion about Yoga, Patanjali rarely describes this mind nor how it functions. The reason is that Patanjali assumes the model of the mind as put forth by Samkhya. So, it becomes necessary to know what Samkhya says about the mind in order to fully understand Yoga. In this episode, we will be doing exactly that.
Tuesday, January 23, 2024
Thought 37. The mind as Buddha saw it
It is amazing how ancient Indians were preoccupied with coming up with various theories about the mind. These theories were not aimed at understanding the mind, the way our modern neuroscience does. But they were driven by practical applications.
One such theory of mind was Buddhist theory of mind as recorded in the Buddhist scripture, namely the Abhidamma Pitaka. Based on this theory, Buddhists developed various meditative practices. We will discuss this Buddhist theory of mind in this episode.
Tuesday, January 16, 2024
Thought 36. What is mind - did you ever mind?
Whether mind is just the brain or is it something mysterious, has always been a point of debate. The more we understand our brain, more we will be closer to understanding the mind, as well as the limitations in our scientific methodology. For more than one reason, it seems that there is something more to the mind than just the brain.
In this episode, we will see why it is necessary to keep an open mind before arriving at any conclusions.
Tuesday, January 9, 2024
Thought 35. Is there a mind beyond the brain?
In the previous episode we stopped at ‘stages of samadhi with awareness’ and showed how all the steps of Yoga till that point can be completely explained in terms of neuroscience. That means, all that can be scientifically verified.
Tuesday, January 2, 2024
Thought 34. What happens when you meditate?
Contrary to common perception, Yoga has more to do with Meditation than physical exercises. There are lot of misconception about these real aspects of Yoga. Lack of knowledge and willful distortion by many commercially motivated Gurus, have earned the name pseudoscience to Yoga. This is quite unfortunate.
Tuesday, December 26, 2023
Thought 33. Some interesting aspects of meditation
In the past episodes we saw how yoga helps in minimizing the thought-wars that generally give rise to stress. But mere stress reduction is not the ultimate goal of Yoga.
Tuesday, December 19, 2023
Thought 32. The Yogic way of fooling the thoughts!
Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Tuesday, October 31, 2023
Thought 30. Neuroscience of Asana or body postures (Thought soup series)
Tuesday, October 24, 2023
Tuesday, October 17, 2023
Tuesday, October 10, 2023
Tuesday, October 3, 2023
Tuesday, September 26, 2023
Thought 25: Were ancient Indians aware of BIG BANG theory?
Big bang theory is the most widely accepted scientific theory about how our universe emerged 13.7 billion years ago. Though there is not much of empirical evidence about this theory yet, except for mathematical derivations, it is most likely to be true. This theory was propounded in the late 1940s and refined in the past few decades.
But what is amazing is that there are seemingly similar descriptions of the origins of the universe, in the more than 5000-year-old Vedas. – the most ancient scriptures of India. In this talk, I will briefly touch upon one such description.
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
Thought 24: Is Kundalini meditation a myth?
I had discussed earlier how one of the well-known Gurus of our times, namely Swami Dayananda Saraswati, brushes aside Kundalini based meditation as “not meditation”.
Let me look at this practice a bit more in depth before sharing the views of some of the well-known Yogis of our times, on this idea.