Tratak has many potential uses, but the word may simply be translated as (intense) concentration. Actually it means an unbroken gaze or attention fixed on an object, a steady gazing at a particular point or object without winking - looking at or into it. Read more »
exercises, eye exercise, gaze, hatha yoga, intense concentration, psychic center, relaxation, tensions, tratak, unconscious movements Neti is a Hatha Yoga cleaning process. Neti is cleansing of the nasal passage of the respiratory system. By cleaning and affecting the mucous membranes inside the nose, they are stimulated so that the whole surrounding area is also strengthened, including the eyebrow centre, which is an important point of contact for the Anja Chakra, the third eye, or, physiologically, the pineal gland. The entire breathing system is affected by Neti. The little cilia hairs which clean the air passages by ’sweeping’ up the dirt are also activated as the mucous membranes are affected. Read more »
air passages, breathing exercise, breathing system, bronchi, cilia, dust particles, effects of air pollution, hatha yoga, mucous membrane, mucous membranes, nasal cavity, nasal passage, pineal gland, respiratory system, third eye, trachea Hatha Yoga builds on the lesson of the two aspects that we consist of: consciousness and energy. Read more »
body tension, consciousness, dealing with stress, emotions, nervous diseases, nervous systems, psyche, psychosomatic diseases, soma, sun and the moon, ulcers, yoga It is indeed true that the magical element involved in the discharge of sacrificial duties lingered for a while in the symbolic worship of Brahman in which He was conceived almost as a deity. The minds of the Vedic poets so long accustomed to worship deities of visible manifestation could not easily dispense with the idea of seeking after a positive and definite content of Brahman. Read more »
atman, brahman, deities, mahat, neti, universe, visible manifestation The doctrine which next attracts our attention in this connection is that of emancipation (mukti). Already we know that the doctrine of Devayana held that those who were faithful and performed asceticism (tapas) went by the way of the gods through successive stages never to return to the world and suffer rebirth. Read more »
asceticism, doubts, emancipation, knowledge of self, nothingness, passions, rebirth, tapas, transmigration, true knowledge, true nature, upanishads, virtues, way of the gods, wise man The Hindus classify the systems of philosophy into two classes, namely, the nastika and the astika. The nastika (na asti “it is not”) views are those which neither regard the Vedas as infallible nor try to establish their own validity on their authority. These are principally three in number, the Buddhist, Jaina and the Carvaka. The astika-mata or orthodox schools are six in number, Samkhya, Yoga, Vedanta, Mimamsa, Nyaya and Vaisheshika, generally known as the six systems (shaddarshana (1)). Read more »
atman, carvaka, kapila, liberation, metaphysical position, mystical practices, orthodox schools, patanjali, philosophy, vedas, vedic texts, yoga practices, yoga sutras, yoga system, yoga vedanta Samkhya believes that before this world came into being there was such a state of dissolution–a state in which the guna compounds had disintegrated into a state of disunion and had by their mutual opposition produced an equilibrium the prakriti. Read more »
Cosmic Evolution, gunas, manifestation, mutual opposition, phenomenal product, phenomenon, rajas, resistance, sattva, tendencies The Vaisheshika is so much associated with Nyaya by tradition that it seems at first sight quite unlikely that it could be supposed to represent an old school of Mimamsa, older than that represented in the Mimamsa sutras. But a closer inspection of the Vaisheshika sutras seems to confirm such a supposition in a very remarkable way. We have seen in the previous section that Caraka quotes a Vaisheshika sutra. Read more »
aphorisms, cognition, demerit, dharma, enumerated, gunas, samskara, sense qualities, sneha, supposition, universality The Nyaya-Vaisheshika in most of its speculations took that view of things which finds expression in our language, and which we tacitly assume as true in all our ordinary experience. Thus they admitted dravya, guna, karma and samanya, Vishesha they had to admit as the ultimate peculiarities of atoms, for they did not admit that things were continually changing their qualities, and that everything could be produced out of everything by a change of the collocation or arrangement of the constituting atoms. Read more »
antecedent, atoms, axiom, guna, hypothesis, karma, material cause, molecular movement, speculations, unseen power The doctrine of pralaya is accepted by all the Hindu systems except the Mimamsa (1). According to the Nyaya-Vaisheshika view Ishvara wishing to give some respite or rest to all living beings desires to bring about dissolution (samhareccho bhavati). Simultaneously with it the adrishta force residing in all the souls and forming bodies, senses, and the gross elements, ceases to act (shakti-pratibandha). Read more »
atoms, bodies, desire, dharma, disintegration, dissolution, intelligent entities, manas, natural condition, samskara, senses, shakti, tejas, world creation In the previous section I have described a mind-cycle, beginning with a coruscation or up-welling of ideas of mental pictures, continued with a desire and ending with a decision to act. We started the engine ticking over, engaged the transmission and then handled the steering wheel. This process is a full cycle, for at this point the ideas begin to flow again, but in a prescribed direction determined by the will. Read more »
blood stream, conscious, desire, digestive process, full cycle, steering wheel Yes, the Yogi Philosophy does teach that there is a real basis for the popular religious beliefs in “Heaven,” and that there are states of being, the knowledge of which has filtered through to the masses in the more or less distorted theories regarding “heavens.” Read more »
astral world, attainment, higher planes, planes of existence, rays of the sun, religious beliefs, spiritual development, vibrations and waves, yogis When the soul passes out from the body at the moment of death it carries with it the “Astral Body” as well as the higher mental and spiritual principles (see the first three lessons in the “Fourteen Lessons”). The Astral Body is the counterpart of the material or physical body, although it is composed of matter of a much finer and ethereal nature than is the physical body. It is invisible to the ordinary eye, but may be seen clairvoyantly. Read more »
astral body, astral plane, ethereal nature, higher planes, intelligence, magnetism, physical body, spiritual principles, vitality The first, or cleansing, is effected by the six processes known as the satkarma. Of these, the first is Dhauti, or washing, which is fourfold, or inward washing (antar-dhauti), cleansing of the teeth, (dantadhauti), etc., of the “heart” (hrddhauti), and of the rectum (muladhauti). Read more »
celestial vision, danda, divya, inhalation and exhalation, jala, jama, kapala, krama, mudra, navel, spinal column, tantrika, upasana, vata, yogi Another argument which the Vedantists advance in support of the theory of Reincarnation is that “Nothing is destroyed in the universe.” Destruction in the sense of the annihilation of a thing is unknown to the Vedantic philosophers, just as it is unknown to the modern scientists. They say “non-existence can never become existence and existence can never become non-existence;” or, in other words, that which did not exist can never exist, and conversely that which exists in any form can never become non-existent. Read more »
births and deaths, existence, impressions, law of nature, reincarnation, sleep of death
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