BABA JI and the SCIENCE Spirltual
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Kabir: Towards a Culture of Religious Pluralism
198 Dr.ISSN Dharam 0972-1169 Singh Oct., 2003–Jan. 2003, Vol. 3/II-III KABIR: TOWARDS A CULTURE OF RELIGIOUS PLURALISM Dr. Dharam Singh Though globalization of religion and pluralistic culture are more recent terms, the human desire for an inter-faith culture of co- existence and the phenomenon of inter-faith encounters and dialogues are not entirely new. In the medieval Indian scenario we come across many such encounters taking place between holy men of different and sometimes mutually opposite religious traditions. Man being a social creature by nature cannot remain aloof from or indifferent to what others around him believe in, think and do. In fact, to bring about mutual understanding among people of diverse faiths, it becomes necessary that we learn to develop appreciation and sympathy for the faith of the others. The medieval Indian socio-religious scene was dominated by Hinduism and Islam. Hinduism has been one of the oldest religions of Indian origin and its adherents in India then, as even today, constituted the largest majority. On the other hand, Islam being of Semitic origin was alien to India until the first half of the 7th century when the “first contacts between India and the Muslim world were established in the South because of the age- old trade between Arabia and India.”1 However, soon these traders tuned invaders when Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni led a long chain of invasions on India and molestation of Indian populace. To begin with, they came as invaders, plundered the country-side and went back, but soon they settled as rulers. -
The Guru in America
GAKKOYTHISDKDKKDKKD The Skeptic’s Journal of Eckankar History Episode Two The FATE Debate 1982 to 1986 A Natural Way In the June 1982 issue of FATE, an article entitled "World's Oldest Astrological Record" by David Christopher Lane contains some misinformation about the teachings of ECKANKAR. [The author wrote: "It is of interest... that the Radhasoami movement has been the basis for several popular religious groups in America including... Eckankar..."] I would like to clarify the origin of ECKANKAR and the ECK Masters. ECKANKAR, as a way of life, is a natural way back to god. It embraces the purest of teachings dating back to the beginning of time. Traces of this spiritual teaching can be found as far back as the Nacaal records. ECKANKAR, ECK, and EK appear in the temple carvings of Greece, the Sanskrit scriptures of India and the Pali texts of Tibet and China. The ECK Masters of the Vairagi Order, also traceable throughout history, have always been present on this planet to serve as way-showers for those wishing to obtain Self-Realization. Sri Paul Twitchell was the 971st Living ECK Master and brought these ancient teachings to light in the modern world through his numerous manuscripts on ECKANKAR. Nowhere in the ECK teachings is there denial of the validity of other paths or teachings. ECKANKAR is available for those who freely choose to follow its principles. It offers spiritual techniques for proving to oneself that there is survival after death and that one may experience the heavenly worlds during this lifetime. It provides a method for the individual to demonstrate by his own volition total awareness, the awareness of God. -
Ritual and Reform in the Kabir Panth
1 RITUAL AND REFORM IN THE KABIR PANTH Peter Friedlander: La Trobe University [email protected] Introduction The Kabir Panth is a religious movement based on the teachings of the north Indian poet saint Kabir (1398-1518). This paper looks at the practice of rituals called chauka in the Kabir Panth and a campaign led by the leader of the Kabircaura branch of the Kabir Panth to abolish the chauka rituals. The paper starts by outlining the history of the Panth and the role of the chauka ritual in the practices of the branches of the Kabir Panth who follow the teachings of Kabir’s disciple Dharmdas. It then examines accounts of the life of Vivekdas, the leader of the Kabircaura branch of the Kabir Panth, and his arguments that the chauka ritual should be abandoned because it is a corrupt practice which is not based on the teachings of Kabir. I propose that the controversy over the practice of the chauka ritual reflects different branches of the Kabir Panth’s responses to modernity. The importance of this I suggest it that it shows how a religious movement can become divided into branches with some advocating conservative practices based on localised rituals at the same time as other branches can advocate reformist approaches based on establishing a universal global identity.1 1 This paper was presented to the 18th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia in Adelaide, 5-8 July 2010. It has been peer reviewed via a double referee process and appears on the Conference Proceedings Website by the permission of the author who retains copyright. -
KRAKAUER-DISSERTATION-2014.Pdf (10.23Mb)
Copyright by Benjamin Samuel Krakauer 2014 The Dissertation Committee for Benjamin Samuel Krakauer Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Negotiations of Modernity, Spirituality, and Bengali Identity in Contemporary Bāul-Fakir Music Committee: Stephen Slawek, Supervisor Charles Capwell Kaushik Ghosh Kathryn Hansen Robin Moore Sonia Seeman Negotiations of Modernity, Spirituality, and Bengali Identity in Contemporary Bāul-Fakir Music by Benjamin Samuel Krakauer, B.A.Music; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2014 Dedication This work is dedicated to all of the Bāul-Fakir musicians who were so kind, hospitable, and encouraging to me during my time in West Bengal. Without their friendship and generosity this work would not have been possible. জয় 巁쇁! Acknowledgements I am grateful to many friends, family members, and colleagues for their support, encouragement, and valuable input. Thanks to my parents, Henry and Sarah Krakauer for proofreading my chapter drafts, and for encouraging me to pursue my academic and artistic interests; to Laura Ogburn for her help and suggestions on innumerable proposals, abstracts, and drafts, and for cheering me up during difficult times; to Mark and Ilana Krakauer for being such supportive siblings; to Stephen Slawek for his valuable input and advice throughout my time at UT; to Kathryn Hansen -
Download Honest Living
HONEST LIVING A MEANS TO AN END HONEST LIVING A MEANS TO AN END M. F. SINGH RADHA SOAMI SATSANG BEAS Published by: J. C. Sethi, Secretary Radha Soami Satsang Beas Dera Baba Jaimal Singh Punjab 143 204, India © 1997, 2001 Radha Soami Satsang Beas All rights reserved First edition 1997 Fourth edition 2001 20 19 18 17 16 15 8 7 6 5 ISBN 978-81-8466-382-2 Printed in India by: Thomson Press (India) Ltd. Contents Introduction 1 The spiritual perspective 2 The law of cause and effect: the imperative for moral living 5 THE INVISIBLE PRISON 7 Who is in charge? 9 Empowering the mind and freeing the soul 11 Ignorance: the prison of our soul 13 Our thoughts and actions—the prison walls 17 We alone have to account for our actions 19 Living dishonestly—cementing our prison walls 21 Material or spiritual: a question of priorities 24 Hypocrisy—the dishonourable companion of greed 27 A disturbed mind: we are the wardens of our own prison 31 The extreme subtleties of the law 34 A rare and precious opportunity missed 36 What is right action? 37 THE WAY FORWARD 39 The transforming power of right action 41 Facing in the right direction: the positive way 41 An honest livelihood 44 Sailing with the winds of contentment and detachment 48 Charity supports detachment 49 Contentment, self-surrender and joy 52 The saints: the mirrors of truth 54 The battle of life 55 The saints live among us 56 The transformation 58 Conclusion 61 ENDNOTES 63 BOOKS AND AUTHORS CitED 67 BOOKS ON SpiRitUALitY 73 ADDRESSES FOR INFORMAtiON AND BOOKS 75 Introduction Morality, in our present days, is a delicate subject. -
Towards a Comparative Poetics of Buddha, Kabir and Guru Nanak: Aparna Lanjewar Bose from a Secular Democratic Perspective
Towards a Comparative poetics of Buddha, Kabir and Guru Nanak: Aparna Lanjewar Bose From A Secular Democratic perspective Artículos atravesados por (o cuestionando) la idea del sujeto -y su género- como una construcción psicobiológica de la cultura. Articles driven by (or questioning) the idea of the subject -and their gender- as a cultural psychobiological construction Vol. 4 (2), 2019, abril-septiembre ISSN 2469-0783 https://datahub.io/dataset/2019-4-2-e85 TOWARDS A COMPARATIVE POETICS OF BUDDHA, KABIR AND GURU NANAK: FROM A SECULAR DEMOCRATIC PERSPECTIVE HACIA UNA POÉTICA COMPARATIVA DE BUDA, KABIR Y GURÚ NANAK DESDE UNA PERSPECTIVA DEMOCRÁTICA SECULAR Aparna Lanjewar Bose [email protected] Department of English Literature, School of Literary Studies at The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, India Cómo citar este artículo / Citation: Bose A. L. (2019). «Towards a Comparative poetics of Buddha, Kabir and Guru Nanak: From A Secular Democratic perspective». Revista Científica Arbitrada de la Fundación MenteClara, 4(2) abril-septiembre 2019, 19-44. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32351/rca.v4.2.85 Copyright: © 2019 RCAFMC. Este artículo de acceso abierto es distribuido bajo los términos de la licencia Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). Recibido: 27/05/2019. Aceptado: 03/06/2019 Publicación online: 30/10/2019 Conflict of interests: None to declare. Abstract This article shows how democratic secular values existed 2500 years ago with the Buddha and later during the saint tradition in India, around 14th and 15th century, with Kabir and Guru Nanak even before they were legalized and enshrined in the Indian constitution. -
Witchcraft, Religious Transformation, and Hindu Nationalism in Rural Central India
University of London The London School of Economics and Political Science Department of Anthropology Witchcraft, Religious Transformation, and Hindu Nationalism in Rural Central India Amit A. Desai Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2007 UMI Number: U615660 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U615660 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Abstract This thesis is an anthropological exploration of the connections between witchcraft, religious transformation, and Hindu nationalism in a village in an Adivasi (or ‘tribal’) area of eastern Maharashtra, India. It argues that the appeal of Hindu nationalism in India today cannot be understood without reference to processes of religious and social transformation that are also taking place at the local level. The thesis demonstrates how changing village composition in terms of caste, together with an increased State presence and particular view of modernity, have led to difficulties in satisfactorily curing attacks of witchcraft and magic. Consequently, many people in the village and wider area have begun to look for lasting solutions to these problems in new ways. -
Milestones and Signposts in Inter-Faith Relations: a Hindu Perspective
Australian eJournal of Theology 17 (December2010) Milestones and Signposts in Inter‐faith relations: a Hindu Perspective1 Anita C. Ray Abstract: This is the last of three papers initially delivered at the Parliament of World Religions, Melbourne 9th December 2009, on approaches in Interfaith Relations. The first two are presented in the prior issue of AEJT [16] representing Muslim and Christian perspectives on interreligious dialogue. Here, Anita C. Ray takes up the same theme from the Hindu point of view, beginning with some typical ‘western’ misconceptions of Hinduism and then introducing us to the contribution of the northern Indian Sants in the 15th to 17th centuries. Their contemporary relevance as a signpost for interfaith harmony is defended. [Editor] Key Words: interreligious conflict; BhagavadGita; the Sants; bhakti; Kabir; Brahmin; Muslim ewsweek recently declared that Americans have a predilection for a “divine‐deli‐ cafeteria religion, much in the spirit of Hinduism.”2 The author of the article asserts, “A Hindu believes there are many paths to God ... none is better than any other; all are equal.” She supports this statement with a quotation from the most ancient of all Hindu texts, the Rig Veda (c. 1500 BCE), “Truth is one but the sages speak of it by many names.”3 Unfortunately, this is a misrepresentation of Hinduism. The poets of the Rig Veda are merely referring to the sages of their own tradition, and they are in fact at pains to clarify that the reason their sages use so many names for God is because human language is incapable of capturing divine Infinitude. -
BOHR Vs. EINSTEIN
SACH KHAND THE JOURNAL OF RADHASOAMI STUDIES | Issue Two | MSAC Philosophy Group | Mt. San Antonio College | Walnut, California 91789 | USA | The Guru in America The Radhasoami tradition, as founded by Shiv Dayal Singh in Agra in 1861, has been highly influential in the development of several new religions in North America and elsewhere. However, little work has been done in showing how Radhasoami has been transplanted into American soil and the impact it has had on the spiritual marketplace. Utilizing socio-historical/textual analysis, this study begins by exploring the emergence of Radhasoami as a transnational religion, focusing on the development of Radhasoami in America since the early part of this century. The objective is to illustrate its influence on several guru movements in America, paying close attention to how society, in particular, alters the Bhagat Singh Thind manifestation of religious groups and their respective theology. By charting such lines of influence among religions, we may then begin to get a much keener understanding of how and why religions evolve the way they do. Among the guru movements genealogically and theologically connected to Radhasoami are: Paul Twitchell's Eckankar; John- Roger Hinkins' Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness [MSIA]; and Dr. Bhagat Singh Thind's Sikh Study Groups. In addition, there are numerous smaller groups who have been influenced by Radhasoami which do not have as yet many members. Nonetheless, these "virtual" groups are important not only because they contribute to the plurality of religion in America, but they give us access to study the evolutionary beginnings of a group which may develop into a well known entity or at least serve as a micro-bridge for future movements. -
Faqir Library Charitable Trust Manavta Mandir, Sutheri Road, HOSHIARPUR Punjab H
THE MASTER S P E A K S TO THE FOREIGNERS Seekers from Abroad Edited By :- B. R. KAMAL Faqir Library Charitable Trust Manavta Mandir, Sutheri Road, HOSHIARPUR Punjab H. H. PARAM SANT PARAM DAYAL FAQIR JI MAHARAJ INTRODUCTION Mr. David Lane, Research Assistant to Prof. Juergensmeyer Mark of Berkeley California, U. S. A., Was having a regular correspondence with His Holiness Param Sant Param Dayal Faqir Chand Ji Maharaj for quite some time. On the auspicious occasion of Guru Purnima on 20-7-78, Mr. David Lane personally visited the Manavta Mandir, Hoshiarpur, to sit at the Holy Feet of His Holiness Param Dayal Ji Maharaj and to have a face-to-face talk. After visiting the Manavta Mandir and having sat with His Holiness, Mr. David wrote to Prof. Mark to come and visit the Manavta Mandir and listen to the Great Truth from His Holiness. After a month Prof. Mark also visited the Manavta Mandir as an eager seeker. Luckily I was present on both the occasions and had the privilege of tape- recording the entire conversation of His Holiness with these two learned seekers. These two conversations cover many important aspects of the Sublime-Truth and Reality about the Divinity as realised by His Holiness during his life long research (of 92 years). I have recorded them in the form of this book-let for the benefit of other like minded seekers from India and abroad. In these two conversations, His Holiness has touched a great many aspects of human life with examples from his personal life. -
The Real Form of the Master Is Shabd — Sound Current New Delhi, India — March 14, 2015
Published by ISHA. All rights reserved. This English transcript of a YouTube talk by Ishwar C. Puri is published under a CC BY-NC-SA license, which means that you can copy, redistribute, remix, and freely distribute sections of the transcript, provided that any derivative works or new resulting creations are not used for any commercial purpose and as long as you give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. License details: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ Copyright 2019. Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA). The Real Form of the Master is Shabd — Sound Current New Delhi, India — March 14, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzXaZfkXlE8 Welcome, friends, brothers, sisters. I am very happy to be here again today for this three-day visit, and it is essentially to meet some of you who have requested for that on a one-on-one interview, a one-on-one personal meeting, so that if you have any personal questions which you don’t discuss in a common auditorium like this, you can come up and talk to me about it. You can ask questions, or you can give answers or make any comments. It’s all open. The spiritual path, Sant Mat, is a open invitation to seekers of all faiths, all religions, all nationalities, all ages. It does not distinguish between any two people. All human beings have the same Creator in them, no matter what name you call him by, no matter what you call her by. -
The Arya Samaj in Gujarat 1895-1930
1 Purifying the Nation: The Arya Samaj in Gujarat 1895-1930 David Hardiman Department of History, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK [email protected] Tel: 02476572584 Fax: 02476523437 2 Abstract This article examines the impact of the Arya Samaj in Gujarat from 1895 to 1930. Although the founder of this body, Dayanand Saraswati, was from Gujarat, it proved less popular there initially than in the Punjab. The first important Arya Samajists in Gujarat were Punjabis, brought there by Sayajirao Gaekwad of Baroda to carry out educational work amongst untouchables. The Arya Samaj only became a mass organisation in Gujarat after a wave of conversions to Christianity in central Gujarat by untouchables, with Arya Samajists starting orphanages to ‘save’ orphans from the clutches of the Christian missionaries. The movement then made considerable headway in Gujarat. The main followers were from the urban middle classes, higher farming castes, and gentry of the Koli caste. Each had their own reasons for embracing the organisation, ranging from a desire for higher social status, to religious reform, to building caste unity, and as a means, in the case of the Koli gentry, to ‘reconvert’ Kolis who had adopted Islam in medieval times. The movement lost its momentum after Gandhi arrived on the political scene, and many erstwhile Arya Samajists embraced the Gandhian movement. When the Gandhian movement itself flagged after 1922, there was an upsurge in communal antagonism in Gujarat in which Arya Samajists played a provocative role. A riot in Godhra in 1928 is examined. 3 Over the past decade, Gujarat has come to be seen as a hotbed of communalism, ruled by a state government that has connived at, and even encouraged, murderous attacks on Muslims and Christians.