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Showing posts from July 8, 2007

#054, Replies to comments--Half baked knowledge

HALF BAKED KNOWLEDGE One friend used a term 'half-baked knowledge' in his comments, referring to my criticism. Unfortunately, there is no definition of 'half-baked knowledge' or 'full-baked knowledge'. There are millions of Sanskrit verses in Sanskrit Literature. In Mahabharata itself, there are 115,000 verses and Ramayana has 24,000 verses. There are books like Bruhadaaranyakoopanishad, Yooga Vaasisht`am, Mahaa Bhaagavata which have thousands of verses. I do not think that there is any person with full-baked knowledge of Indian philosophy who has read and digested millions of these verses. I do not make any claim that I have read. I humbly say that I am not even half baked for which I have to digest at least 2.5 million verses. I read only a few thousand verses. Incidentally, I am unable to resist a temptation to discuss the enlarged image of Vivekananda's capability to grasp the meaning of all the contents of a book just by touching it or by reading

#053, Should we lose self=consciousness often?

Important: The undernoted things, I am not writing in a preaching mode. I do not intend to preach. We are only participating in an open discussion. We are subject to mutual corrections. SAMADHI The commonest meaning of samadhi is "tomb" or "monument for a dead person". The adjective "Maha (Great)" is added to the samadhi of great yogis out of reverence, to make the samadhi greater. When used for chartered jet-set Air Conditioned Mansion business type Maha Yogis, the Mahasamadhi may become a Maha Bar Rin Supreme Excel Soap. Yoga teachers often speak of a state of a person reaching a state of "samadhi" during meditation and contemplation. There is a claim that some of them become unconscious for several hours. There is also a claim that they enjoy supreme bliss during their samadhi. There is no way to verify the truth or veracity of these claims made by the gurus or the disciples/devotees. We may either believe or not believe. I shal