[Quick links] [Pause]   For most of us asana or body posture is purely a physical thing – stretching, contracting and balancing the body in a specific way. So, you must be wondering what has neuroscience got to do with it! But you may be surprised that even this seemingly physical ‘thing’ has underlying neurological basis! That is what I am going to discuss in this episode.

[Quick links] [Pause]   In this episode, we will briefly discuss the neuroscience behind many techniques that result in a sharply focused mind – or ‘Ekaagra Citta as Patanjali calls it. Along with the well-known Pranayama of Patanjali, I will touch upon the so called ‘Mindfulness’ techniques as well.

[Quick links] [Pause]   In this episode, we will briefly discuss the neuroscience behind a very important step of Patanjali Yoga namely Pratyahara. This is an in between stage of ‘mundane’ and ‘spiritual’ steps of Yoga.

[Quick links] [Pause]          The topic of this episode is a strange case where a young girl declares herself to be God. It may sound crazy or height of arrogance, and even blasphemous, in some of the majority religions

[Quick links] [Pause]  In this episode, we will take up one of the well-known ‘creation hymns’ of the ancient Indian Vedas. But we will be looking at this hymn from a slightly different point of view.

[Quick links] [Pause] 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.

[Quick links] [Pause]  Almost all the meditation practices that are propagated today are based on the idea of Kundalini and associated Chakras. The concept of Kundalini is so popular that one has to think twice before calling it as a myth 😉 It can be viewed as blasphemous! 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.

[Quick links] [Pause]  Patanjali is normally credited with laying out a formal base for Yoga or meditation. The meditation talked about by Patanjali seems to be a reframing of early Buddhist meditative practices in the light of Upanishadic meditation, and under the strong logical framework of Samkhya. What does Patanjali say about meditation?

[Quick links] [Pause]   Once, one of my readers surprised me by saying that Upanishads never talk about meditation! Probably he was watching a bit too many of the videos by the Advaiti Swami that I talked about, a few episodes ago 😉 That Swami sometimes says that meditation is only an aid to move on the path of enquiry or Jnyana Marg; and as such, meditation cannot lead to ultimate realization. We have already discussed about this earlier, when I talked about that swami.Is it then true that Upanishads don’t talk about meditation?

[Quick links] [Pause]  Many modern Gurus propagate different techniques which they either call as ‘mindfulness meditation’ or ‘insight meditation’. They make tall claims about what these can really achieve. But actually, these are rehashing of well-known Buddhist meditative techniques. So, it is important to know about these Buddhist meditation techniques, that have a long history and are still being practiced among the Buddhists.

[Quick links] [Pause]  Nowadays one keeps coming across YouTube videos on ‘Guided Meditation’. Sitting face to face with a ‘live’ Guru and going through a session of guided meditation has become a thing of the past. It is time for running a ‘Meditation ap’ on your mobile phone, totally in the comfort of your cozy home. Of course, nothing comes free. Instead of paying a hefty fee to a Guru, you end up paying subscription fee to the ap maker 😉 Am I also talking about one such guided meditation?

[Quick links] [Pause]       After the heavy and philosophically intense previous episode, let me start this episode with a light and hilarious story.

[Quick links] [Pause]      Once someone asked Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Guru of Swami Vivekananda, the question “Is God Saakaara – with form, or is he Niraakaar – without form?”. Ramakrishna had spent most of his life worshipping God in a feminine form of Goddess Kaali. Even during meditation, he could see none other than the figure of Kaali. How could he have answered this question, other than by saying “Of course God has a form!”. But Ramakrishna was supposed to be a realized person. How did he actually answer this question?

[Quick links] [Pause]  The Advaita of Sankara says that “only the God exists and this world is just an illusion – or Mythya, - Brahma Satya, Jagat mythya”. And many modern Swamis like the one I was referring to in the previous episode, keep repeating this view. This in spite of the fact that many later Indian philosophers, who succeeded Sankara, strongly refuted this concept of mythya as put forth by Sankara. They did not agree that this world is an illusion.

[Quick links] [Pause] I know, those of you who have ever dirtied your hands trying to cultivate something, must be wondering what I am talking about! “Zero cost and Eco friendly”? Does it sound a bit oxymoronic? Or is it just a wishful thinking? 😉

[Quick links] [Pause]         When you interact with the world around you, have you ever noticed something? No matter what your eyes see, or ears hear, or tongue tastes, or nose smells or your hands touch, it is your mind that ultimately provides you the information. If you are asleep, or unconscious, no matter what your eyes see or ears hear, and so on, you will not be aware of anything! So, it is the mind that sees, or hears, touches, tastes, and smells. That being the case, how do you know that what you see, or what you hear, or what you touch etc. actually exists out there?

[Quick links] [Pause]   In the previous episode we saw how science adopts a monistic view of the world and reduces everything into mere objects. And that ‘everything’ includes each one of us. Science is also so paranoid about subjectivity that it emphasizes on objectivity and looks down on all subjective aspects of us. On the other hand, many of us, either by training or by intuition believe that we are not just the body, but we also have a soul that gives us the subjective experiences.

[Quick links] [Pause]    Most of us never get this question. We always assume that the world is indeed what we perceive it as. That is our notion of reality.

[Quick links] [Pause]   Probably you think that it sounds like a long list of unrelated practices. But they are not. All of them belong to an overlapping series of mystic practices. These practices can be found in almost any part of the world, in any time period, though these keep changing in terms of their meaning, details, and the purpose.

[Quick links] [Pause]     Have you ever tried listening to some wonderful music recital on your mobile phone, sitting in a bustling market place? You know it is futile, unless you are wearing noise cancelling earplugs. The surrounding noise would totally submerge the music coming from your phone. Either you have to move to a quiet place or use an appropriate device.