The orthodox systems of philosophy believe in the authority of the Vedas. The heterodox systems of philosophy do not believe in the authority of the Vedas.

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Orthodox And Heterodox Systems: Vedic Philosophy - The Orthodox And The Heterodox Systems Of Indian Philosophy

This is the foreword by José Argüelles to Carl Johan Calleman's latest book: Enlightenment: The Mayan Calendar as Our Guide to the Future

“…This also makes Dr. Carl J. Calleman's new book, Enlightenment, the Mayan Calendar as Our Guide to the Future, a land mark piece of literature. Besides presenting scientific evidence of a "Divine Plan" and factually establishing where we are in that plan, this book creates the unification of 100's of thousands of Mayan calendar students and practioners all over the world. “

Read more here: » Mayan Calendar as Our Guide to the Future

The Bhagavad-Gita: The most important part of the Mahabharata is the Bhagavad-Gita. It is a marvellous dialogue between Lord Krishna and Arjuna on the battle-field, before the commencement of the great war. Bhagavan Sri Krishna became the charioteer of Arjuna. Sri Krishna explained the essentials of Hindu religion to Arjuna. Just as the Upanishads contain the cream of the Vedas, so does the Gita contain the cream of the Upanishads.

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Bhagavad-Gita: The Bhagavad-Gita in the Hindu Scriptures

In our New Age and self-help literature, another important realization about feelings has been emerging strongly over the last six or eight years. More and more, we hear of the connection between suppressed feelings and chronic poor health. Healing professionals are venturing the idea that in order to resolve health issues, we must resolve the emotional issues behind them. The awareness is growing that the unreleased and trapped negative emotional energy keeps building inside and eventually manifests in the physical.

In this article, John Ruskan describes how he originated his system for releasing feelings, how the system works, and what benefits may be realized.

Read more here: » Emotional Clearing: Healing thru Emotional Clearing

''Shakti'' is another word for kundalini and ''pat'' means to descend. Shaktipat is a method by which an individual's kundalini is awakened by the direct intervention of a guru. Practially speaking shaktipat is known by its results: the awakening of of the student's kundalini.

This FAQ gives an overview of Siddha Mahayoga. Part I of III.

In Part II: 1) What is shaktipat?, 2) How does shaktipat work?, 3) Who can give shaktipat?, 4) Who can receive shaktipat?, 4) Are all shaktipat initiations the same?, 5) Can one receive shaktipat just by being in the presence of those with awakened shakti?, 6) So what happens after shaktipat?, 7) What is the practice of Siddha Mahayoga?

Read more here: » Siddha Mahayoga FAQ: What is shaktipat? (part I of III) -

This FAQ gives a background on the phenomenon of kundalini. Part III of III.

In Part II: 1) What are the signs of an awakened kundalini?, 2) Are these methods of awakening kundalini dangerous?, 3) What about Gopi Krishna's books?, 4) But even if kundalini is dangerous, isn't it a faster way to enlighenment?, 5) There have been many scandals among kundalini yoga teachers - particularly sexual scandals. Is there a correlation between sexual scandals and kundalini yoga practice?, 6) If my kundalini is awakened will I need to change my lifestyle? 7) Do I need to be celibate?, 8) Where can I learn more?

Read more here: » Kundalini FAQ: What is Kundalini? Signs of Awakened Kundalini (part III of III)

This FAQ gives an overview of those kundalini yoga practices which require conscious effort. Part I of III.

In Part II: 1) What are the techniques to unite prana and apana?, 2) What are the techniques to unite rajas and retas?, 3) Are those really the only techniques to awaken kundalini?, 4) Are these forceful methods of awakening kundalini dangerous? What about Gopi Krishna's books?

Read more here: » Kundalini Yoga: Kundalini Yoga FAQ (part II of III) -

Spengler's List And The Gitaian Soul

German philosopher Oswald Spengler wrote about the history of western civilisation in his work, Decline of the West . Spengler's work was based on the premise that the main thrust for high cultures which arose in Greece, the Middle East and post-renaissance Europe came from the physiognomy of men who were driven to direct the destiny of a whole people. Spengler has given them special names. All that is manifested in Greek art, architecture, literature and philosophy, for instance, he calls ÔClassical and Apollonian soul'.

Read more here: » Gitaian Soul: Spengler's List And The Gitaian Soul

Art is a collaboration between God and man, raising him to the exclusive band of creators and taking him deeply within and around his handiwork. It is a unique result of a unique temperament with its beauty derived from mutable disconcern of his environment. Leela Ganapathy, retired Professor of Arts, share her vivid knowledge about the Indian Arts and Dance are recognised as a bridge between the divine and our day to day life and our society.

Read more here: » Spiritual Dance: Dance in Spiritual Indian Art

There are numerous ways to awaken kundalini but generally these approaches may divided into two groups. In the first group are paths such as Mantra Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Laya Yoga or Raja Yoga. In these paths the kundalini is awakened through the effort of the individual. In the second group is the path that is variously called Sahaja Yoga, Kundalini Yoga or Siddha Mahayoga. In this path the kundalini is spontaneously awakened by the grace of the Siddha guru in a process that is called shaktipat.

Read more here: » Siddha Mahayoga: The Lineage of Swami Shivom Tirth

The Aphorisms Of Kanada: This system is chiefly concerned with the determination of the Padarthas and yet, Kanada opens the subject with an enquiry into Dharma, because Dharma is at the root of the knowledge of the essence of the Padarthas. The first Sutra is: Yatobhyudayanihsreyasa-siddhih sa dharmah - Dharma is that which exalts and bestows the Supreme Good or Moksha (cessation of pain).

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Aphorisms Of Kanada: Vedic Philosophy - The Aphorisms Of Kanada

Knowledge of Ancient Indian History and Culture: The Mahabharata contains also the immortal discourse of Bhishma on Dharma, which he gave to Yudhishthira, when he was lying on the bed of arrows. The whole Mahabharata forms an encyclopaedia of history, morals and religion unsurpassed by any other epic in the world.

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Ancient Indian History and Culture: Knowledge of Ancient Indian History and Culture in the Hindu Scriptures

How can dreams be used for healing? Many of the people I interviewed were women who had suffered breast cancer. Their stories were as varied and individual as the dreamers themselves and ranged from little bears helping with house cleaning to dramatic stories of physical and spiritual loss and rebirth played out in dreaming and in waking.
When we finally feel confident in exploring the elements of dream diagnosis, the next step is to explore the elements of healing in our dreams. Diagnosis is presented not to frighten us, but to allow us to begin a journey of healing.

This article is adapted from SHE WHO DREAMS By Wanda Easter Burch.

Read more here: » Healing dreams: What is Healing dreams?

The Eighteen Puranas: There are eighteen main Puranas and an equal number of subsidiary Puranas or Upa-Puranas. The main Puranas are: Vishnu Purana, Naradiya Purana, Srimad Bhagavata Purana, Garuda (Suparna) Purana, Padma Purana, Varaha Purana, Brahma Purana, Brahmanda Purana, Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Markandeya Purana, Bhavishya Purana, Vamana Purana, Matsya Purana, Kurma Purana, Linga Purana, Siva Purana, Skanda Purana and Agni Purana.

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Eighteen Puranas: The Eighteen Puranas: in the Hindu Scriptures

The Hymns of Dirghatamas in the Rig Veda

Some scholars have claimed that the Babylonians invented the zodiac of 360 degrees around 700 BCE, perhaps even earlier. Many claim that India received the knowledge of the zodiac from Babylonia or even later from Greece. However, as old as the Rig Veda, the oldest Vedic text, there are clear references to a chakra or wheel of 360 spokes placed in the sky. The number 360 and its related numbers like 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 108, 432 and 720 occur commonly in Vedic symbolism. It is in the hymns of the great Rishi Dirghatamas (RV I.140 - 164) that we have the clearest such references.

Read more here: » Vedic Origins of the Zodiac: The Hymns of Dirghatamas in the Rig Veda

Dharma and Religion - Many Paths to One

A four-line verse of wisdom in Sanskrit - Subhashit - pronounces the commonness among animals and men of certain primal appetites and urges, and proclaims the supremacy of Dharma in man's actions and life, without which he would be no different from animals. Here, Dharma is to be understood as encompassing man's entire life, including all his thoughts and deeds, and is not to be confused with any religion.

Read more here: » Dharma and Religion: Dharma and Religion - Many Paths to One

Ten celebrated formulae of Vedanta.

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Vedantic Wisdom: Vedic Philosophy - Celebrated Vedantic Wisdom Quotes

The Four Vedas and Their Sub Divisions : The Veda is divided into four great books: the Rig-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, the Sama-Veda and the Atharva-Veda. The Yajur-Veda is again divided into two parts, the Sukla and the Krishna. The Krishna or the Taittiriya is the older book and the Sukla or the Vajasaneya is a later revelation to sage Yajnavalkya from the resplendent Sun-God.

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Four Vedas: The Four Vedas in the Hindu Scriptures

There is much evidence in existence to support the notion that we all possess the potential to incubate dreams - in other words, conjure up dreams to order. Whether they are romantic encounters, dreams that furnish solutions to problems, or even lucid dreams, with time and effort, they can be evoked. Ancient civilizations were well aware of the potential of dream incubation. The Egyptians, for example, built temples called Serapeums, named after Serapis, the god of dreams. It wasn't unusual for the expectant dreamer to undergo various procedures including cleansing, purging, offering up prayer and so forth, in order to experience the desired dream.

Read more here: » Dream incubation: To evoke a specific dream

Pineal Gland, Conarium, or Epiphysis Cerebri A small organ in the brain with a fancied resemblance to a pine cone; technically called the epiphysis, as being an "upgrowth" from the embryonic tissues which later form part of the ventricular or hollow center of the brain, which space is continuous with the central canal of the spinal cord.

The pineal gland is described as a rounded, oblong body, about one-third of an inch long, of a deep reddish color, connected with the posterior part of the third ventricle, and intimately related to the optic thalami which physiologists find to be the organs of reception and condensation of the most sensitive and sensorial incitations from the periphery of the body.

Thus this organ is in central relation to the coordinating organs of all the senses and sensations, and to the thinking brain which perfects and coordinates ideas. Its purpose, however, remains a mystery to the medical profession. A standard anatomy says: "The ancients had a grotesque theory that the epiphysis is the favorite and peculiar abiding-place of the human soul. Modern morphologists have shown it to be the homologue of the third eye which some reptiles possess."

Blavatsky, repeating the ancient belief, says that this concealed third eye is the "seat of the highest and divinest consciousness in man -- his omniscient spiritual and all-embracing mind" (Key 121). She sketches the evolutionary history of this Deva Eye (SD 2:294 et seq) which was the only seeing organ in the beginning of the present human race, when the spiritual element in the then humanity reigned supreme over the as yet unawakened intellectual and psychic elements in the nature. Later on, as the ethereal and psychospiritual early races became self-conscious and physicalized, they used their spiritual and intellectual powers and faculties for selfish and sensual purposes. Meantime, the third eye withdrew, pari passu, into the central cavity of the developing brain. There it has remained until the present -- a symbol of that past spiritual vision which we will regain as we progress consciously along the upward arc of the evolutionary cycle. As to scientific evidence of a once active third eye of objective vision in animals, the Hatteria punctata, a lizard type found in New Zealand, is pointed out. This land, being a part well above the waters of the ancient continent Lemuria, the home of the third root-race, would be likely to retain some remnants of early types of the creatures which once existed when "the third eye was primarily, as in man, the only seeing organ" (SD 2:299).

An ancient commentary says that by the middle of the fourth root-race, the "inner vision had to be awakened and acquired by artificial stimuli, the process of which was known to the old sages" (SD 2:294). Even now, the adept, with trained will, can arouse this ordinarily quiescent organ into activity, so that he becomes illuminated throughout and by it with a vision of infinitude. It was this sublime vision which overwhelmed Arjuna when Krishna, acting as the Logos within, gave the aspiring human monad the divine eye (BG ch 11). The analogy of enlarged vision holds good, in degree, when the spiritual teacher arouses the chela's latent ability to see for himself hidden truth.

Descartes reasoned that the seat of the soul was the pineal gland which, he said, though it was tied to the brain, was yet capable of being put into a kind of swinging motion by the animal spirits that cross the cavities of the skull. He was right about the cavities being open during life, and about the organ's response in oscillations; and what the ancients called animal spirits, is otherwise expressed in theosophical literature as circulating currents of the nerve-aura of occultism.

In the adept, the third eye is aroused by aspiration and concentration of his human will upon the attainment of union of his mental with his spiritual faculties. By this conscious effort, he rises to the higher powers of will which, in its ordinary automatic and emotional phases, is usually diffused throughout the activities of the animal body and brain, by way of the main organ of will, the pituitary gland, the psychic associate of the pineal center. The x-ray may yet reveal ethereal emanations of nerve-aura in the human brain, as living evidence of the interrelation of mind and matter. Meantime, concrete examples of such interaction are found in the pineal gland, in the form of "brain sand," or (acervulus cerebri).

See also EYE OF SIVA; THIRD EYE; CYCLOPES; DEVAKSHA; TRI-LOCHANA

(See also: Pineal Gland, Conarium, Epiphysis Cerebri , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

For more dictionary entries, see » Literature Dictionary

A Theosophical definition of Brahmana :

Brahmana

(Sanskrit) A word having several meanings in Hindu sacred literature. Brahmana is both noun and adjective, as noun signifying a member of the first of the four Vedic classes, and as adjective signifying what belongs to a Brahmana or what is Brahmanical. Secondly, it signifies one of the portions of the Vedic literature, containing rules for the proper usage of the mantras or hymns at sacrifices, explanations in detail of what these sacrifices are, illustrated by legends and old stories.

Another adjective with closely similar meaning is Brahma. An old-fashioned English way of spelling Brahmana is Brahmin.

See also: Brahmana , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

For more dictionary entries, see » Literature Dictionary

A Theosophical definition of Elementaries :

Elementaries

"Properly, the disembodied souls of the depraved; these souls having at some time prior to death separated from themselves their divine spirits, and so lost their chance for immortality" (Theosophical Glossary, H. P. Blavatsky).

Strictly speaking, the word "elementaries" should be used as H. P. Blavatsky defines it in this quotation from her. But in modern theosophical literature the word has come to signify more particularly the phantoms or eidola of disembodied persons, these phantoms or eidola really being the kama-rupic shades, with especial application to the cases of grossly materialistic ex-humans whose evil impulses and appetites still inhering in the kama-rupic phantom draw these phantoms to physical spheres congenial to them. They are a real danger to psychical health and sanity, and literally haunt living human beings possessing tendencies akin to their own. They are soulless shells, but still filled with energies of a depraved and ignoble type.

Their destiny of course is like that of all other pretas or bhutas  - ultimate disintegration; for the gross astral atoms composing them slowly dissolve through the years after the manner of a dissolving column of smoke or a wisp of dark cloud on a mountainside.

See also: Elementaries , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

For more dictionary entries, see » Literature Dictionary