Yoga breathing

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

The cosmogony of the rig-Veda may be looked at from two aspects, the mythological and the philosophical. The mythological aspect has in general two currents, as Professor Macdonell says, “The one regards the universe as the result of mechanical production, the work of carpenter’s and joiner’s skill; the other represents it as the result of natural generation (1).” Read more »

atman, births, brahmana, cosmogony, golden egg, hymn 5, immortality, navel, pantheistic, rig veda, supreme being

There seems to be a belief in the Vedas that the soul could be separated from the body in states of swoon, and that it could exist after death, though we do not find there any trace of the doctrine of transmigration in a developed form. Read more »

correct knowledge, doctrine of transmigration, hymns, karma, manas, rig veda, rita, sacrifices, shatapatha brahmana, soul of man, two fires

Looking at the advancement of thought in the rig-Veda we find first that a fabric of thought was gradually growing which not only looked upon the universe as a correlation of parts or a construction made of them, but sought to explain it as having emanated from one great being who is sometimes described as one with the universe and surpassing it, and at other times as being separate from it; the agnostic spirit which is the mother of philosophic thought is seen at times to be so bold as to express doubts even on the most fundamental questions of creation–”Who knows whether this world was ever created or not?” Read more »

aranyakas, atman, brahmanas, fate, fundamental questions, rig veda, sacrifices, soul of man, supreme masters, upanishads

The passage of the Indian mind from the Brahmanic to the Upanishad thought is probably the most remarkable event in the history of philosophic thought. We know that in the later Vedic hymns some monotheistic conceptions of great excellence were developed, but these differ in their nature from the absolutism of the Upanishads as much as the Ptolemaic and the Copernican systems in astronomy. Read more »

atman, brahman, one god, principle, rig veda, upanishads, vedic hymns

The change of the Brahmana into the Aranyaka thought is signified by a transference of values from the actual sacrifices to their symbolic representations and meditations which were regarded as being productive of various earthly benefits. Read more »

brahmana, brahmins, material substances, meditations, prana, real truth, rig veda, sacrificial rituals, samaveda, symbolic representations, vital functions

The word Upanishad is derived from the root sad with the prefix ni (to sit), and Max Muller says that the word originally meant the act of sitting down near a teacher and of submissively listening to him. Read more »

desires, genius, max muller, moral restraint, philosophy of the upanishads, right knowledge, sanskrit language, upanishad

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

There is the atman not in man alone but in all objects of the universe, the sun, the moon, the world; and Brahman is this atman. There is nothing outside the atman, and therefore there is no plurality at all. As from a lump of clay all that is made of clay is known, as from an ingot of black iron all that is made of black iron is known, so when this atman the Brahman is known everything else is known. The essence in man and the essence of the universe are one and the same, and it is Brahman. Read more »

atman, brahman, phenomenal world, upanishads, vedanta, visions

The conception of a world-soul related to the universe as the soul of man to his body is found for the first time in R.V.X. 121. I, where he is said to have sprung forth as the firstborn of creation from the primeval waters. Read more »

atman, brahman, cosmic creation, metaphysical reality, mythical character, philosophical significance, primeval waters, purusha, rig veda, soul of man, upanishads

When the Vedic people witnessed the burning of a dead body they supposed that the eye of the man went to the sun, his breath to the wind, his speech to the fire, his limbs to the different parts of the universe. They also believed as we have already seen in the recompense of good and bad actions in worlds other than our own, and though we hear of such things as the passage of the human soul into trees, etc., the tendency towards transmigration had but little developed at the time. Read more »

asceticism, charitable deeds, dark half, doctrine of transmigration, good deeds, recompense, sun moon, upanishads, vedic, way of the gods, womb

It is indeed true that in the Upanishads there is a large number of texts that describe the ultimate reality as the Brahman, the infinite, knowledge, bliss, and speak of all else as mere changing forms and names. The word Brahman originally meant in the earliest Vedic literature, mantra, duly performed sacrifice, and also the power of sacrifice which could bring about the desired result (l). Read more »

brahman, infinite knowledge, monistic, power of sacrifice, shankara, stage of development, upanishads, vedanta, vedic literature, water fire, yoga philosophy

It is important for the history of Samkhya philosophy that Caraka’s treatment of it, which so far as I know has never been dealt with in any of the modern studies of Samkhya, should be brought before the notice of the students of this philosophy. Read more »

akasa, atman, auditory sense, cognition, five elements, five senses, illuminations, karma, manas, pleasure pain, purusha, samkhya philosophy, sense of touch, visual sense

Pancashikha speaks of the ultimate truth as being avyakta (a term applied in all Samkhya literature to prakriti) in the state of purusha (purusavasthamavyaktam). If man is the product of a mere combination of the different elements, then one may assume that all ceases with death. Read more »

annihilation, atman, existence, gunas, moksha, moral responsibility, purusha, renunciation

A word of explanation is necessary as regards my interpretation of the Samkhya-Yoga system. The Samkhya karika is the oldest Samkhya text on which we have commentaries by later writers. Read more »

commentaries, gunas, intelligence, reference to, sutras, upanishads, yoga system

The word yoga occurs in the rig-Veda in various senses such as yoking or harnessing, achieving the unachieved, connection, and the like. Read more »

asceticism, bhagavadgita, brihadaranyaka upanishad, highest power, middle path, panini, philosophical ideas, rig veda, sanskrit literature, vow of celibacy, word yoga, yuj

The question is raised, how can the prakriti supply the deficiencies made in its evolutes by the formation of other evolutes from them? When from mahat some tanmatras have evolved, or when from the tanmatras some atoms have evolved, how can the deficiency in mahat and the tanmatras be made good by the prakriti? (1). Read more »

cause and effect, concomitant conditions, gross body, gunas, karana, latent powers, manifestation, material cause, potential energy, shakti, ultimate energy

When we compare the Nyaya sutras with the Vaisheshika sutras we find that in the former two or three differentstreams of purposes have met, whereas the latter is much more homogeneous. Read more »

authorities, caraka samhita, chala, debates, hindus, jalpa, logical categories, practical art, refutation, sanskrit literature, sutras

It is useless I think to attempt to bring out the meaning of the Vedanta thought as contained in the Brahma-sutras without making any reference to the commentary of Shankara or any other commentator. There is reason to believe that the Brahma-sutras were first commented upon by some Vaishnava writers who held some form of modified dualism. Read more »

brahma sutras, dualism, nagarjuna, philosophy, prajnaparamita, shankara, upanishads, vaishnava, vedanta

Vedanta philosophy is the philosophy which claims to be the exposition of the philosophy taught in the Upanishads and summarized in the Brahma-sutras of Badarayana. The Upanishads form the last part of the Veda literature, and its philosophy is therefore also called sometimes the Uttara-Mimamsa or the Mimamsa (decision) of the later part of the Vedas as distinguished from the Mimamsa of the previous part of the Vedas and the Brahmanas as incorporated in the Purvamimamsa sutras of Jaimini. Read more »

brahmanas, brahma sutras, commentaries, hindu, ramanuja, shankara, upanishads, vedanta philosophy, vedas

Shakti is both maya, that by which the Brahman creating the universe is able to make Itself appear to be different from what It really is, and mula-prakriti, or the unmanifested (avyakta) state of that which, when manifest, is the universe of name and form. It is the primary so called “material cause,” consisting of the equipoise of the triad of guna or “qualities” which are sattva (that which manifests) rajas (that which acts), tamas (that which veils and produces inertia). The three gunas represent Nature as the revelation of spirit, Nature as the passage of descent from spirit to matter, or of ascent from matter to spirit, and Nature as the dense veil of spirit. The Devi is thus guna-nidhi (”treasure-house of guna” ). Read more »

brahman, coiled serpent, guna, kundalini, material cause, maya, mula, prana, shakti, spirit and nature, three and a half, triad, universe, womb

The passage of time within a maha-yoga influences for the worse man and the world in which he lives. This passage is marked by the four ages (yuga), called Satya, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali-yuga, the last being that in which it is generally supposed the world now is. The yuga is a fraction of a kalpa, or day of Brahma of 4,320,000 human years. Read more »

avatara, brahma, garden of eden, kali yuga, kalpa, maha yoga, passage of time, righteous path, satya

Many people who are devotional by nature prefer to meditate on the ideal human being, instead of on the virtues. Sometimes they choose for this (I) a real historical person and sometimes (2) a symbolic figure. Thought here is two-fold — one group finds delight in self-abandonment or adoration, the other in service of the ideal person. The latter, however, is like the former for purposes of meditation, for without the knowledge and nearness that meditation brings one is not likely to perform true service, that is, act with intelligent love. Read more »

adoration, benefit, devotees, devotion, devotional meditation, hindu, schools of thought, symbolic figure

To work through a religious or philosophical book and meditate on the sentences is another frequent practice. It supplements (a) reading and (b) study, on the assumption that the writer is expressing deep thought worthy of the profoundest consideration. Read more »

concentrate, deep thought, frequent practice, meditation, philosophical book, realization, wisdom

An esteemed friend has asked me: “Is it not correct to do that sort of Meditation in which one stills one’s own thinking, and remains in a state of active expectancy of an intuition?” This arose apropos of a statement of mine that Patanjali had taught Meditation as a continued mental effort to understand some subject, not as a voluntary stoppage of mentality. Read more »

contemplation, illumination, intuition, knowing, meditation, mental effort, patanjali, peaceful thinking, purity of intent

Mind as we know it, as well as Matter and Energy, is held by the highest occult teachers to be but an appearance and a relativity of something far more fundamental and enduring, and we are compelled to fall back upon that old term which wise men have used in order to describe that Something Else that lies back of, and under, Matter, Energy and Mind–and that word is “Spirit.” Read more »

essence of life, matter and energy, personal god, relativity, spirit, universal life, wise men, word god

In our first lesson of this series, we stated that among the other qualities and attributes that we were compelled, by the laws of our reason, to think that the Absolute possessed, was that of Omnipotence or All-Power. In other words we are compelled to think of the One as being the source and fount of all the Power there is, ever has been, or ever can be in the Universe. Not only, as is generally supposed, that the Power of the One is greater than any other Power,–but more than this, that there can be no other power, and that, therefore, each and every, any and all manifestations or forms of Power, Force or Energy must be a part of the great one Energy which emanates from the One. Read more »

Absolute, Conservation of Energy, Energy, Force, Power, the One

On all sides of us we may see this constant and steady urge and pressure behind living forces, and inorganic forms as well–always a manifestation of Energy and Power. And all this Power is in the Will–and the Will is but the manifestation of the All-Power–the Absolute. Remember this. Read more »

Creative Will, Energy and Power, mental energy, Psychic Phenomena

At this point we may be confronted with the objection of the student of material science, who will ask why we begin our consideration of Cosmic Evolution at a point in which matter has reached the limit of its lowest vibrations, manifesting in the grossest possible form of matter. These students may point to the fact that Science begins its consideration of evolution with the nebulae, or faint cloudlike, vaporous matter, from which the planets were formed. But there is only an apparent contradiction here. The nebulae were part of the Process of Involution, and Science is right when it holds that the gross forms were produced from the finer. But the process of change from finer to grosser was Involution, not Evolution. Do you see the difference? Evolution begins at the point when the stage of Unfoldment commenced. When the gross forms begin to yield to the new upward urge, and unfold into finer forms–then begins Evolution. Read more »

Cosmic Evolution, material part, Process of Involution, Science, single cell, Temple of the Soul, Yogi Teachings

The next step in the ascending scale of life-forms is occupied by the polyps, which are found in water, fastened to floating matter. The polyps fasten themselves to this floating matter, with their mouths downward, from the latter dangling certain tentacles, or thin, long arms. These tentacles contain small thread-like coils in contact with a poisonous fluid, and enclosed in a cell. When the tentacles come in contact with the prey of the creature, or with anything that is sensed as a possible enemy, they contract around the object and the little cells burst and the tiny thread-like coils are released and twist themselves like a loop around the object, poisoning it with the secreted fluid. Some of the polyps secrete flint-like tubes, which they inhabit, and from the ends of which they emerge like flowers. From these parent polyps emerge clusters of young, resembling buds. Read more »

Modern Science, outward details, sense organs, Yogi Teachings

It is said (1) that there are 3½ crores of nadis in the human body, of which some are gross and some are subtle. Nadi means a nerve or artery in the ordinary sense; but all the nadis of which the books on Yoga (2) speak are not of this physical character, but are subtle channels of energy. Read more »

ajna, caduceus, cakra, candra, earth centre, left nostril, meru, moon, mukta, nadi, nectar, physical character, triveni, yamuna

While to many the idea of Metempsychosis may seem new and unfamiliar, still it is one of the oldest conceptions of the race, and in ages past was the accepted belief of the whole of the civilized race of man of the period. And even today, it is accepted as Truth by the majority of the race. Read more »

ancient druids, ancient egypt, ancient inhabitants, cabbala, eleusinian mysteries, empedocles, german philosophers, legendary history, metempsychosis, modern german, ovid, plato, pythagoras, roman mysteries, science and philosophy, universal acceptance

Another startling evidence of the proof of Metempsychosis is afforded us in the cases of “infant prodigies,” etc., which defy any other explanation. Take the cases of the manifestation of musical talent in certain children at an early age, for instance. Take the case of Mozart who at the age of four was able to not only perform difficult pieces on the piano, but actually composed original works of merit. Read more »

children at school, genius, heredity, instinctive ability, metempsychosis, obscure origin, physical attributes, previous life, prodigies, startling evidence

The Yogi traditions hold that just prior to the great cataclysm which destroyed the races of the Second Cycle, there was a body of the Chosen Ones which migrated from Lemuria to certain islands of the sea which are now part of the main land of India. These people formed the nucleus of the Occult Teachings of the Lemurians, and developed into the Fount of Truth which has been flowing ever since throughout the successive periods and cycles. Read more »

atlantis, attainment, cataclysm, chosen ones, civilization, continent, lemuria, yogi

Edwin Arnold, in his wonderful poem, “The Light of Asia,” which tells the story of the Buddha, explains the doctrine of Karma from the Buddhist standpoint. We feel that our students should become acquainted with this view, so beautifully expressed, and so we herewith quote the passages referred to: Read more »

dharma, edwin arnold, karma, light of asia, retribution, righteousness, virtues, worthiness

The third, or highest, class of man is he of the divya-bhava (of which, again, there are several degrees-some but a stage in advance of the highest form of vira-bhava, others completely realizing the deva-nature), in which rajas operates on sattva-guna to the confirmed preponderance of the latter. Read more »

bhairava, deva, divya, guru, japa, nitya, pasu, rajas, sastra, sattva, vira

According to the temperament of the sadhaka, so is the form of worship and sadhana. In fact, the specific worship and sadhana of the other classes is strictly prohibited by the Tantra to the pasu. Read more »

acara, animal creation, asrama, divya, kali age, kali yuga, observances, pasu, rajas, sadhana, vedas

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

The Tantra enforces the Vaidik rule in the cases, ritual or otherwise, for those who are governed by the vaidikacara. The Nitya-Tantra says: ‘(They (pasu) should never worship the Devi during the latter part of the day, in the evening or at night” (ratrau naiva yajeddevim samdhyayam va paranhake); for all such worship connotes maithuna prohibited to the pasu. In lieu of it, varying substitutes (1) are prescribed, such as either an offering of flowers with the hands formed into the kaccapamudra, or union with the worshipper’s own wife. Read more »

adhikari, fish meat, maithuna, mudra, pasu, poison, sadhana, tantra, vira, wine and women

Like many of the Church Fathers the Cabalists used as their main argument in favor of the doctrine of metempsychosis the justice of God. But for the belief in metempsychosis, they maintained, the question why God often permits the wicked to lead a happy life while many righteous are miserable would be unanswerable. Read more »

divine providence, first body, good deeds, happy life, justice of god, metempsychosis, origen

The students of history are interested to know where the idea of resurrection first arose and how it was adopted by other nations. If we read carefully the writings ascribed to Moses and other writers of the Old Testament we find that the ancient Israelites did not believe in the Christian heaven or hell, nor in reward or punishment after death. It is doubtful whether they had any clear conception of the existence of soul after the dissolution of the human body. They had no definite idea of the hereafter. They did not believe in the resurrection either of the soul or body. Job longed for death thinking that it would end his mental agony. Read more »

definite idea, mental agony, resurrection, resurrection of the dead, solomon

The soul or germ of life, after passing through the lower stages, comes to the human plane and gains experience and knowledge; and after coming to the human plane, it does not retrograde to animal bodies. The Platonic theory teaches that human souls migrate into animal bodies or angelic bodies and return from the angelic to the human or the animal, and that some of them prefer to become animals; while the theory of Reincarnation, taking its stand upon the scientific truth of gradual evolution, teaches that the human souls have already passed through different grades of the animal, nay, of the vegetable kingdom, by the natural process of evolution. Read more »

human organism, human souls, karma, manifestation, platonic theory, reincarnation, transmigration