Hindu texts

"धर्मक्षेत्रे कुरुक्षेत्रे समवेता युयुत्सवः ।मामकाः पाण्डवाश्चैव किमकुर्वत संजय ॥"

"Now seeing the armies of the Pandavas arrayed in battle formation,King Duryodhana, approaching his teacher, spoke these words: Behold these mighty warriors of the sons of Pandu, O Revered Teacher, Arrayed in battle formation by the son of Drupada, your own skillful student."

"Sanjaya; Chapter 1, verses 2–3; Graham M. Schweig translation"

"[Duryodhana said:] This force of ours guarded by Bhishma is unbounded; although this force, of theirs – guarded by Bhima, is bounded."

"Hrishikesha blew the conch shell named Panchajanya and Dhananjaya blew the conch shell named Devadatta. Vrikodara, whose deeds give rise to fear, blew the giant conch shell named Poundra."

"The blowing of these different conchshells became uproarious, and thus, vibrating both in the sky and on the earth, it shattered the hearts of the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra."

"All those for whom i'd want to live it up are here to die"

"And even if, because their minds are overwhelmed by greed, they cannot see the evil incurred by destroying one's own family, and the degradation involved in the betrayal of a friend, How can we be so ignorant as not to recoil from this wrong? The evil incurred by destroying one's own family is plain to see, Janardana."

"Out of the corruption of women proceeds the confusion of castes; out of the confusion of castes, the loss of memory; out of the loss of memory, the lack of understanding; and out of this, all evils"

"What is this crime I am planning, O Krishna? Murder most hateful,Murder of brothers!Am I indeed So greedy for greatness?"

"If me unresisting, Weaponless, with weapons in their hands Dhritarāshtra's men should slay in battle,That would be a safer course for me."

"Thus speaking Arjuna in the battle Sat down in the box of the car, Letting fall his bow and arrows, His heart smitten with grief."

"My dear Arjuna, how have these impurities come upon you? They are not at all befitting a man who knows the progressive values of life. They do not lead to higher planets, but to infamy. O son of Prtha, do not yield to this degrading impotence. It does not become you. Give up such petty weakness of heart and arise, O chastiser of the enemy."

"My Lord! How can I, when the battle rages, send an arrow through Bheeshma and Drona, who should receive my reverence?"

"You grieve for those who should not be grieved for; yet you speak wise words.Neither for the dead nor those not dead do the wise grieve.Never was there a time when I did not exist nor you nor these lords of men. Neither will there be a time when we shall not exist; we all exist from now on. As the soul experiences in this body childhood, youth, and old age, so also it acquires another body; the sage in this is not deluded."

"The senses, moving toward their appropriate objects, are producers of heat and cold, pleasure and pain, which come and go and are brief and changeable; these do thou endure, O son of Bharata!"

"As you put on fresh new clothes and take off those you've worn, You'll replace your body with a fresh one, newly born."

"Swords cut him not, nor may fire burn him, O son of Bharata, waters wet him not, nor dry winds parch. He may not be cut nor burned nor wet nor withered; he is eternal, all-present, firm, unshaken, everlasting. He is called unmanifest, unimaginable, unchanging; therefore, knowing him thus, deign not to grieve!"

"One sees This as a wonder; another speaks of This as a wonder; another hears of This as a wonder; yet, having heard none understands This at all!"

"Either slain thou shalt go to heaven; or victorious thou shalt enjoy the earth. Therefore arise, O Son of Kuntī (Arjuna), resolved on battle."

"You are only entitled to the action, never to its fruits. Do not let the fruits of action be your motive, but do not attach yourself to nonaction."

"The wise, engaged in devotional service, take refuge in the Lord, and free themselves from the cycle of birth and death by renouncing the fruits of action in the material world. In this way they can attain that state beyond all miseries."

"When your intelligence has passed out of the dense forest of delusion, you shall become indifferent to all that has been heard and all that is to be heard."

"When your mind is no longer disturbed by the flowery language of the Vedas, and when it remains fixed in the trance of self-realization, then you will have attained the Divine consciousness."

"When your intellect transcends the mire of delusion, then you will attain to disgust of what has been heard and what is yet to be heard. When, perplexed by what you have heard, you stand immovable in samadhi, with steady intellect, then you will attain yoga."

"When one's mind dwells on the objects of Senses, fondness for them grows on him, from fondness comes desire, from desire anger. Anger leads to bewilderment, bewilderment to loss of memory of true Self, and by that intelligence is destroyed, and with the destruction of intelligence he perishes"

"To him [the Sage], what seemeth the bright things of day to the mass, are known to be the things of darkness and ignorance—and what seemeth dark as night to the many, he seeth suffused with the light of noonday."

"If thou deemest that (the path of) understanding is more excellent than (the path of) action, O Janardana (Krishna), why then dost thou urge me to do this savage deed, O Kesava (Krishna)?"

"Not by not acting in this world does one become free from action, nor does one approach perfection by renunciation only. Not even for a moment does someone exist without acting. Even against one’s will, one acts by the nature-born qualities."

"From food come forth beings; from rain food is produced; from sacrifice arises rain, and sacrifice is born of action. Know you that action comes from BRAHMAJI (the Creator) and BRAHMAJI come from the Imperishable. Therefore, the all-pervading BRAHMAN (God-principle) ever rests in sacrifice."

"Not for me, partha, is there any duty in the three worlds, nor anything to attain that is unattained; and I am always at work."

"All actions are performed by the gunas of prakriti. Deluded by identification with the ego, a person thinks, "I am the doer.""

"One's own duty, even if imperfectly performed, is better than being done by other even if well performed. Death in (performance of) one's own duty is preferable. (The adoption of) the duty of another carries fear (with it)."

"I explained this eternal science of yoga to Vivasvān. Vivasvān shared it with Manu, then Manu imparted it to Ikṣvāku. This science was taught and handed down in succession, but in time it was broken and the science of yoga seems to be lost."

"Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all sentient beings, I still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form. Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion — at that time I descend Myself. In order to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I advent Myself millennium after millennium."

"Whensoever there is the fading of the Dharma and the uprising of unrighteousness, then I loose myself forth into birth. For the deliverance of the good, for the destruction of the evil-doers, for the enthroning of the Right, I am born from age to age."

"However men try to reach me, I return their love with my love; whatever path they may travel, it leads to me in the end."

"The four divisions of human order were created by me according to differences in quality, activities, and aptitude; although the creator of this, know me as the non-doer being immutable."

"Depending upon the distribution of the three attributes or guṇas and actions, I have created the four castes. Yet, I am to be known as the non-doer, the unchangeable."

"Works do not stain me, nor in me is there longing for fruit of works; who recognizes this to be my state, he is not bound by works."

"For verily (the true nature) of 'right action' should be known; also (that) of 'forbidden (or unlawful) action' and of 'inaction'; imponderable is the nature (path) of action. He who recognises inaction in action and action in inaction is wise among men; he is a YOGI and a true performer of all actions."

"Kill therefore with the sword of wisdom the doubt born of ignorance that lies in thy heart. Be one in self-harmony, in Yoga, and arise, great warrior, arise."

"You commend, O Krishna, the renunciation of action and you also praise yoga. Tell me definitely which is the better of the two."

"Both renunciation and the yoga of action lead to the supreme good. But of these two, performance of action is superior to the renunciation of action."

"He is unaffected by Karma, although engaged in action, who has yoked himself to the way of Yoga, whose mind is purified, whose self has triumphed and whose senses have been subdued, and whose self has, indeed, become the self of all beings. Although acting he remains unaffected by Karma."

"The humble sages, by virtue of true knowledge, see with equal vision a learned and gentle brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater [outcaste]."

"As enjoyments, born of contacts (with external objects), have a beginning and an end, they become the cause of unhappiness. The wise man, O Kaunteya! does not find happiness in them."

"To the sage who wishes to rise to devotion, action is said to be a means, and to him, when he has risen to devotion, tranquillity is said to be a means."

"Use the atman to raise the atman. Do not lower the atman. The atman is the atman’s friend and the atman is the atman’s enemy. The atman, which has been used to conquer the atman, is the atman’s friend. For someone who has failed to control the atman, the atman harms like an enemy."

"यो मां पश्यति सर्वत्र सर्वं च मयि पश्यति ।तस्याहं न प्रणश्यामि स च मे न प्रणश्यति ॥"

"O Madhusūdana, the mind is an unsteady thing. Hence it is unrealistic to expect evenness out of it as your system of yoga demands. O, Keśava, it is easier to control the wind than to try and control the fickle, unsettling, dominant, and stubborn mind."

"O strong armed arjuna no doubt the mind's moves are hard to stay you get a grip by practice & undifference"

"The yogin is greater than the ascetic; he is considered to be greater than the man of knowledge, greater than the man of ritual works, therefore do thou become a yogin, O Arjuna."

"Among thousands of men hardly one strives after perfections; among those who strive hardly one knows Me in truth."

"This divine illusion of Mine, caused by the qualities, is hard to pierce; they who come to Me, they cross over this illusion."

"Men without wisdom consider Me, the Unmanifest, as assuming embodiment (like a mortal being taking a form)—not understanding My unsurpassable state, My unchangeable unutterable nature."

"I am not plain to all, being cloaked by my yogamaya; this foolish world does not know me: un-born, immortal."

"I know all past and all present and future existences, O Arjuna, but Me none yet knows."

"Yogis not yet free from the world revolve back again (to the world) even from the high sphere of Brahma (union with God in samadhi). But on entering into Me (the transcendental Spirit) there is no rebirth, O son of Kunti (Arjuna)!"

"As an eon ends, all creatures fold into my nature, Arjuna; and I create them again as a new eon begins. Gathering in my own nature, again and again I freely create this whole throng of creatures, helpless in the force of my nature."

"But those acts do not affect Me, Arjuna – >I am neutral, unattached."

"For Nature while I supervise gives birth to moving and unmoving, and as this motive-force applies the cosmos is revolving."

"Fools scorn me when I dwell in human form: my higher being they know not as Great Lord of beings."

"Even those who are devotees of other gods and sacrifice to them with faith, they too worship me — but in the wrong way"

"I take upon Myself the concern for the welfare of those who worship Me with undistracted mind, and have thereby yoked themselves permanently to Divine Spirit."

"For even if the greatest sinner worships me with all his soul, he must be considered righteous, because of his righteous will. And he shall soon become pure and reach everlasting peace. For this is my word of promise, that he who loves me shall not perish."

"Worlds of flesh and spirit both originate with Me. Sages understand this well and serve me earnestly. My devotees think of Me and serve Me all the time. Speaking of Me makes their lives delightful and sublime."

"Of the Vrishnis, I am Vasudeva; of the sons of Pandu, Arjuna; of the sages, moreover, I am Vyasa; of poets, the poet Ushana."

"Arjuna said: My illusion is dispelled by Your profound words, that You spoke out of compassion towards me, about the supreme secret of the Self. O Krishna, I have heard from You in detail about the origin and dissolution of beings, and Your imperishable glory. O Lord, You are as You have said, yet I wish to see Your divine cosmic form, O Supreme Being. O Lord, if You think it is possible for me to see this, then O Lord of the yogis, show me Your imperishable Self. V. 1, 2, 3 & 4"

"The Supreme Lord said: O Arjuna, behold My hundreds and thousands of multifarious divine forms of different colors and shapes. See the Adityas, the Vasus, the Rudras, the Ashvins, and the Maruts. Behold, O Arjuna, many wonders never seen before. O Arjuna, now behold the entire creation; animate, inanimate, and whatever else you like to see; all at one place in My body. But, you are not able to see Me with your physical eye; therefore, I give you the divine eye to see My majestic power and glory. V. 5-8"

"(Arjuna saw the Universal Form of the Lord) with many mouths and eyes, and many visions of marvel, with numerous divine ornaments, and holding divine weapons. Wearing divine garlands and apparel, anointed with celestial perfumes and ointments, full of all wonders, the limitless God with faces on all sides. If the splendor of thousands of suns were to blaze forth all at once in the sky, even that would not resemble the splendor of that exalted being. Arjuna saw the entire universe, divided in many ways, but standing as (all in) One (and One in all) in the body of Krishna, the God of gods. Then Arjuna, filled with wonder and his hairs standing on end, bowed his head to the Lord and prayed with folded hands. V. 10-14"

"Tell me who are You in such a fierce form? My salutations to You, O best of gods, be merciful! I wish to understand You, the primal Being, because I do not know Your mission. V.31"

"Thou seest Me as Time who kills, Time who brings all to doom, The Slayer Time, Ancient of Days, come hither to consume; Excepting thee, of all these hosts of hostile chiefs arrayed, There shines not one shall leave alive the battlefield! Dismayed No longer be! Arise! obtain renown! destroy thy foes! Fight for the kingdom waiting thee when thou hast vanquished those. By Me they fall—not thee! the stroke of death is dealt them now, Even as they stand thus gallantly; My instrument art thou! Strike, strong-armed Prince! at Drona! at Bhishma strike! deal death To Karna, Jyadratha; stay all this warlike breath! ’Tis I who bid them perish! Thou wilt but slay the slain. Fight! they must fall, and thou must live, victor upon this plane!"

"The Supreme Lord said: I am death, the mighty destroyer of the world, out to destroy. Even without your participation all the warriors standing arrayed in the opposing armies shall cease to exist. The Lord said: I am Time, the mighty force which destroys everything, fully Manifesting Myself, I am here engaged in destroying the worlds. Even without you, none of the warriors arrayed in the enemy ranks shall survive."

"Saying thus to Arjuna, Krishna revealed again his own familiar form. Having thus assumed that gentle form, the Exalted One comforted the awe-struck Arjuna over again."

"This My form, which you have seen, is very difficult to see. Even the gods always desire to see this form. It is not possible for any one to see Me, as you have seen Me, whether by Vedas, or by austerity, or by charity, or by Yajnās. O Arjuna! only by exclusive devotion, is it possible to thus acquire knowledge of Me, and O Parantapa! to enter Me essentially."

"Which is considered to be more perfect, those who are properly engaged in Your devotional service, or those who worship the impersonal Brahman, the unmanifested?"

"The Blessed Lord said: Those who, fixing their minds on Me, adore Me, ever united to Me with supreme devotion, are in My eyes the perfect knowers of yoga."

"But those who seek after the indefinable unmanifested, immutable, omnipresent, unthinkable, self-poised, immobile, constant, having subdued all their senses, unprejudiced, intent on the welfare of all beings - they too come to Me alone."

"The difficulty of those who devote themselves to the search of the unmanifested Brahman is greater; it is a think to which embodied souls can only arrive by a constant mortification, a suffering of all the repressed members, a stern difficulty and anguish of the nature."

"But those who giving up all their actions to Me, and wholly devoted to Me, worship meditating on me with an unswerving Yoga, those who fix on Me all their consciousness, O Paartha, speedily I deliver them out of the sea of death-bound existence."

"On Me repose all your mind and lodge all thy understanding in Me; doubt not that you shall dwell in Me above this mortal existence."

"And if you are not able to consciousness fixed steadily in Me, then by the Yoga of practice seek after Me, O Arjuna."

"If you are unable even to seek by practice, then be it your supreme aim to do My work; doing all actions for My sake, you shall attain perfection."

"But if even this constant remembering of Me and lifting up of your works to Me is felt beyond your power, then renounce all fruit of action with the self-controlled."

"Verily, wisdom (born from yoga practice) is superior to (mechanical) yoga practice; meditation is more desirable than the possession of (theoretical) wisdom; the relinquishment of the fruits of action is better than (the initial states of) meditation. Renunciation of the fruits of actions is followed immediately by peace."

"He who is free from hatred toward all creatures, is friendly and kind to all, is devoid of the consciousness of "I-ness" and possessiveness; is evenminded in suffering and joy, forgiving, ever contented; a regular yoga practitioner, constantly trying by yoga to know the Self and to unite with Spirit, possessed of firm determination, with mind and discrimination surrendered to Me - he is My devotee, dear to Me."

"A person who does not disturb the world and who cannot be disturbed by the world, who is free from exultation, jealousy, apprehension, and worry - he too is dear to Me."

"He who is free from worldly expectations, who is pure in body and mind, who is ever ready to work, who remains unconcerned with and unafflicted by circumstances, who has forsaken all ego initiated desireful undertakings - he is My devotee, dear to Me."

"He who feels neither rejoicing not loathing toward the glad nor the sad (aspects of phenomenal life), who is free from grief and cravings, who has banished the relative consciousness of good and evil, and who is intently devout - he is dear to Me."

"He who is tranquil before friend and foe alike, and in encountering adoration and insult, and during the experiences of warmth and chill and of pleasure and suffering; who has relinquished attachment, regarding blame and praise in the same light; who is quiet and easily contented, not attached to domesticity, and of calm disposition and devotional - that person is dear to Me."

"But those who adoringly pursue this undying religion (dharma) as heretofore declared, saturated with devotion, supremely engrossed in Me - such devotees are extremely dear to Me."

"This body, O Kaunteya, is called the Field; he who knows it is called knower of the Field by those who know. And understand Me to be, O Bharata, the knower of the Field in all the Fields; and the knowledge of the Field and the knower of the Field, I hold, is true knowledge."

"O Arjuna! The Supreme Self, having no beginning, (no ending,) and no attributes, even though it dwells in a body (as a realized master), neither acts nor is touched by any action."

"Those who live in Sattva go upwards; those in rajas remain where they are. But those immersed in tamas sink downwards. The wise see clearly that all action is the work of the gunas. Knowing that which is above the gunas, they enter into union with me."

"There is a fig tree In ancient story, The giant Aswattha, The everlasting, Rooted in heaven, Its branches earthward: Each of its leaves Is a song of the Vedas, And he who knows it Knows all the Vedas."

"It is I who remain seated in the heart of all creatures as the inner controller of all; and it is I who am the source of memory, knowledge and the ratiocinative faculty. Again, I am the only object worth knowing through the Vedas; I alone am the origin of Vedānta and the knower of the Vedas too."

"There are two Beings (Purushas) in the cosmos, the destructible and the indestructible. The creatures are the destructible, the Kutastha is the indestructible. But there exists Another, the Highest Being, designated the "Supreme Spirit"—the Eternal Lord who, permeating the three worlds, upholds them."

"Since I am wholly beyond the perishable world of matter or Ksetra, and am superior even to the imperishable soul, Jivatma, hence I am known as the Purushottama, the Supreme Self, in the world as well as in the Vedas."

"These cruel and wretched haters, the vilest of men, I continually cast into demoniac wombs in mortal worlds. Fallen into demoniac wombs, deluded birth after birth, O son of Kunti, they, instead of attaining to Me, tread the lowest path."

"Hell has three gates – lust, anger, and greed; for your own sake, Arjuna, give up these three."

"Pure men worship the Shining Ones; the passionate the gnomes and giants; the others, the dark folk, worship ghosts and troops of nature-spirits."

"What's the nature of asceticism, i want to know how's renunciation different"

"Asceticism is giving up selfish activities as poets know & the wise declare renunciation is giving up fruits of action"

"Acts of sacrifice, charity and austerity should not be abandoned, but should be performed; worship, charity, and also austerity, are the purifiers of even the 'wise'. But even these actions should be performed leaving aside attachment and the fruits, O Partha; this is my certain and best belief."

"Better is one's own duty though performed faultily than another's duty well-performed. Performing the duty prescribed by (one's own) nature, one incurreth no sin. One must not abandon, O son of Kunti, one's natural duty though tainted with evil, for all actions are enveloped by evil like fire by smoke."

"If, having recourse to self-conceit, thou thinkest--I will not fight,--that resolution of thine would be vain, (for) Nature will constrain thee. That which, from delusion, thou dost not wish to do, thou wilt do involuntarily, bound by thy own duty springing from (thy own) nature."

"If you become conscious of Me, you will pass over all the obstacles of conditional life by My grace. If, however, you do not work in such consciousness but act through false ego, not hearing Me, you will be lost. If you do not act according to My direction and do not fight, then you will be falsely directed. By your nature, you will have to be engaged in warfare. Under illusion you are now declining to act according to My direction. But, compelled by your own nature, you will act all the same, O son of Kuntī."

"The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy."

"O Arjuna, God resides in the hearts of all beings, directing their wanderings by the magical power of Māyā, on which they are seated as if it were a machine."

"In him alone seek refuge with all thy being, Bharata; by his grace shalt thou win to peace supreme, the eternal resting place."

"Thus I have explained to you the most confidential of all knowledge. Deliberate on this fully, and then do what you wish to do."

"All duty abandoning, to me, the sole refuge, come; i will liberate you from every sin, do not grieve."

"Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear."

"Never share these truths with one who is without self-control or devotion, nor with one who won't share with others in a spirit of service, nor give them to one who is indifferent to them, or who finds fault with Me."

"And one who listens with faith and without envy becomes free from sinful reaction and attains to the planets where the pious dwell."

"Krishna, my delusion is destroyed, And by your grace I have regained memory; I stand here, my doubt dispelled, ready to act on your words."

"I heard by grace of Vyasa of Krishna’s highest mystery, Yoga from the Lord of Yoga explaining personally."

"Where Krishna is the Master of combinations, where Partha is the wielder of the bow, there, I am convinced, would be glory, victory, growth and firm morality."

"Wherever there is Kṛṣṇa, the master of all mystics, and wherever there is Arjuna, the supreme archer, there will also certainly be opulence, victory, extraordinary power, and morality."

"The Bhagavad-Gita is a true scripture of the human race a living creation rather than a book, with a new message for every age and a new meaning for every civilization."

"The thought of the Gita is not pure Monism although it sees in one unchanging, pure, eternal Self the foundation of all cosmic existence, nor Mayavada although it speaks of the Maya of the three modes of Prakriti omnipresent in the created world; nor is it qualified Monism although it places in the One his eternal supreme Prakriti manifested in the form of the Jiva and lays most stress on dwelling in God rather than dissolution as the supreme state of spiritual consciousness; nor is it Sankhya although it explains the created world by the double principle of Purusha and Prakriti; nor is it Vaishnava Theism although it presents to us Krishna, who is the Avatara of Vishnu according to the Puranas, as the supreme Deity and allows no essential difference nor any actual superiority of the status of the indefinable relationless Brahman over that of this Lord of beings who is the Master of the universe and the Friend of all creatures. Like the earlier spiritual synthesis of the Upanishads this later synthesis at once spiritual and intellectual avoids naturally every such rigid determination as would injure its universal comprehensiveness. Its aim is precisely the opposite to that of the polemist commentators who found this Scripture established as one of the three highest Vedantic authorities and attempted to turn it into a weapon of offence and defence against other schools and systems. The Gita is not a weapon for dialectical warfare; it is a gate opening on the whole world of spiritual truth and experience and the view it gives us embraces all the provinces of that supreme region. It maps out, but it does not cut up or build walls or hedges to confine our vision."

"That the spiritual man need not be a recluse, that union with the divine Life may be achieved and maintained in the midst of worldly affairs, that the obstacles to that union lie not outside us but within us—such is the central lesson of the Bhagavad-Gītā."

"Among the priceless teachings that may be found in the great Indian epic Mahabharata, there is none so rare and priceless as the Gita... This is the India of which I speak–the India which, as I said, is to me the Holy Land. For those who, though born for this life in a Western land, and clad in a Western body, can yet look back to earlier incarnations in which they drank the milk of spiritual wisdom from the breast of their true mother–they must feel ever the magic of her immemorial past; must dwell ever under the spell of her deathless fascination; for they are bound to India by all the sacred memories of their past and with her, too, are bound up all the radiant hopes of their future, a future which they know they will share with her who is their true mother in the soul-life."

"This (Bhagavad Gita) is a most inspiring book; it has brought comfort and consolation in my life—I hope it will do the same to you. Read it.’"

"The subject matter of the Gita ranges from vast universal cosmology to our innermost life. We learn to see the world around us from the perspective of sages who saw the beauty of God reflected in every aspect of nature – the rivers, the mountains, the sky, the ocean, the plants, the animals. And we then learn how to move from appreciation of the reflected beauty of God to contemplation of the original beauty of God Himself. We learn that the journey of life did not begin with birth and will not end with the death of the body—for the soul there is neither birth nor death. We learn how we can become modern yogis, satisfied with the pleasure that comes from within, undisturbed by the turbulence of life in even the fastest lanes of third millenium society."

"Embedded in the narrative of the great battle is the loftiest philosophical poem in the world’s literature—the Bhagavad-Gita, or Lord’s Song. This is the New Testament of India, revered next to the Vedas themselves, and used in the law-courts, like our Bible or the Koran, for the administration of oaths. Wilhelm von Humboldt pronounced it “the most beautiful, perhaps the only true, philosophical song existing in any known tongue; . . . perhaps the deepest and loftiest thing the world has to show.”..."

"The Gita does not present a system of philosophy. It offers something to every seeker after God, of whatever temperament, by whatever path. The reason for this universal appeal is that it is basically practical: it is a handbook for Self-realization and a guide to action."

"At some point, a theistic coup d’état has eclipsed the godless schools of thought and written them out of the record. The Gītā is a blatant instance, with Krishna imposing his presence as object of devotion on chapters named after (and giving an otherwise fair summary of) godless philosophies like Sānkhya.... The Gita is [in Prof. Kedar Nath Mishra's words] a “hodge-podge” of all the then-thriving schools of Hindu philosophy, given a veneer of “synthesis” by having them all gathered under a single umbrella of Krishna devotion... The Gita’s role in Hindu tradition is to incorporate diverse schools of thought, including Sankhya atheism, into an overarching theistic and devotional worldview."

"For, as we have now abundantly seen, the Gītā makes no attempt to be logical or systematic in its philosophy. It is frankly mystical and emotional. What we may, if we like, call its inconsistencies are not due to slovenliness in reasoning; nor do they express a balanced reserve of judgment. This is sufficiently proved in several cases by the fact that the Gītā deliberately brackets two opposing views and asserts the validity of both. It is only in the realm of logic that we must choose between yes and no, or else confess ignorance. The Gītā finds no difficulty in saying both yes and no, at the same time. For its point of view is simply unrelated to logic. Even what it calls "knowledge" is really intuitional perception; it is not, and is not intended to be, based on rational analysis. And, as we have seen, "knowledge" is not the Gītā’s favorite "way of salvation." To the Gītā, as to the Christian mystics, reason is an uncertain and flickering light. The truly "wise" man should abandon it wholly and follow the "kindly Light," the lux benigna, of God’s grace."

"I owed a magnificent day to the Bhagavad-gita. It was the first of books’ it was as if an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which in another rage and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions which exercise us."

"Today my position is that though I admire much in Christianity, I am unable to identify myself with orthodox Christianity. I must tell you in all humility that Hinduism as I know it, entirely satisfies my. soul, fills my whole being and I find a solace in the Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads that I miss even in the Sermon on the Mount. Not that I do not prize the ideal presented therein, not that some of the precious teachings in the Sermon on the Mount have not left a deep impression upon me, but I must confess to you that when doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and when I see not one ray of light on the horizon I turn to the Bhagavad Gita, and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. My life has been full of external tragedies and if they have not left any visible and indelible effect on me, I owe it to the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita."

"I am unable to identify with orthodox Christianity. I must tell you in all humility that Hinduism, as I know it, entirely satisfies my soul, fills my whole being, and I find solace in the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads that I miss even in the Sermon on the Mount....I must confess to you that when doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and when I see not one ray of light on the horizon I turn to the Bhagavad Gita, and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. My life has been full of external tragedies and if they have not left any visible and indelible effect on me, I owe it to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita."

"As a scripture, the Gītā embodies the supreme spiritual mystery and secret. It contains the essence of all the four Vedas. Its style is so simple and elegant that after a little study a man can easily follow the structure of its words; but the thought behind those words, is so deep and abstruse that even a lifelong constant study does not show one the end of it. Everyday the book exhibits a new facet to thought; hence the Gītā remains eternally new."

"It was also Bankim Chandra who restored the Mahabharata to its rightful place as a profound elaboration of what the Veda had said in the form of mystic mantras. The Gita which had been subjected to sectarian interpretations for several centuries past, was rescued by Bankim Chandra from the quagmire of casuistry. This great scripture had been interpreted by many ãchãryas either to support sannyãsa or to bolster bhakti. Its central core of karmayoga had been consigned to oblivion. Bankim Chandra was the first in modern times to restore the lost balance, so much so that in his Ãnandamatha it was the sannyãsin who took up the sword in defence of Dharma. In days to come, the Gita was to become the greatest single inspiration for revolutionary action. Many a freedom fighter mounted the gallows with the Gita in his hands and Bankim Chandra’s Vande Mãtaram on his lips."

"I hesitate not to pronounce the Gita a performance of great originality, of sublimity of conception, reasoning and diction almost unequalled; and a single exception, amongst all the known religions of mankind."

"The marvel of the Bhagavad-Gita is its truly beautiful revelation of lifes wisdom which enables philosophy to blossom into religion."

"The Gita, the most beautiful, perhaps the only true philosophical song existing in any known tongue—perhaps the deepest and loftiest thing the world has to show."

"The Bhagavad-Gita is the most systematic statement of spiritual evolution of endowing value to mankind. It is one of the most clear and comprehensive summaries of perennial philosophy ever revealed; hence its enduring value is subject not only to India but to all of humanity."

"The Bhagavad-Gita is perhaps the most systematic scriptural statement of the Perennial Philosophy. To a world at war, a world that, because it lacks the intellectual and spiritual prerequisites to peace, can only hope to patch up some kind of precarious armed truce, it stands pointing, clearly and unmistakably, to the only road of escape from the self-imposed necessity of self-destruction."

"I believe the Gita to be one of the major religious documents of the world. If its teachings did not seem to me to agree with those of the other gospels and scriptures, then my own system of values would be thrown into confusion, and I should feel completely bewildered. The Gita is not simply a sermon, but a philosophical treatise."

"The second school of yoga is that of Shri Krishna, particularly expounded in the great poem the Bhagavad-Gita... This teaches above all else the doctrine of love. The disciple Arjuna, to whom the Guru spoke, was a great lover of mankind; according to the scripture this great soldier sank down upon the floor of his chariot before the battle of Kurukshetra began, full of sorrow because he loved his enemies and could not bear to injure them. The teacher Shri Krishna then explained to him, amid much philosophical teaching, that the greatest thing in life is service, that God himself is the greatest server—for he keeps the wheel of life revolving, not because any benefit can possibly accrue to him in consequence, but for the sake of the world—and that men should follow his example and work for the welfare of mankind. Many Great Ones, he said, had reached perfection by following this path of life, by doing their duty without personal desire. To love without ceasing is the way of the second Ray; in the Gita it is shown how this love should be directed to men and other beings in karma yoga (the yoga by action or work) and to God in bhakti yoga (the yoga by devotion)."

"The sixth school is that of bhakti or devotion...taught to a large extent in the Bhagavad-Gita; indeed, we find it in every religion among those true devotees who put their trust entirely in the Divine— who do not pray for personal favours, but are quite convinced that God is perfect master of his world, that he knows what he is doing, and that therefore all is well; they are therefore more than content, they are thrilled with ecstasy, if they can but have the opportunity and the privilege to serve and obey him in any way."

"Readers of the Bhagavad Gita will also remember the teaching of love and devotion with which it is filled... He varies the type of religion to suit the period of the world’s history at which it is put forth, and the people to whom it is given; but though the form may vary as evolution proceeds, the ethics are ever the same."

"The Bhagwat Gita Is the most revered religious book in Hinduism. It is a acceptable to people of many different religious denominations. It has been translated into many different languages. It is considered to be a book not only of religion but also of ethics, espousing eternal moral values. … According to Ambedkar, the Bhagwat Gita is neither a book of religion nor a treatise on philosophy. What the Bhagwat Gita does is to defend certain dogmas of religion on philosophic grounds. It is a philosophic defence of the counter-revolution."

"In a very clear and wonderful way, under the guise of physical warfare, the Gita describes the duel that perpetually goes on in the hearts of each one of us; a fight of dharma, justice, against adharma, evil, injustice. The battle takes place not only on the fields of Kurukshetra but also on the elusive dharmakshetra 'field of dharma', a spiritual field within each of us where all moral struggles are waged."

"I believe that in all the living languages of the world, there is no book so full of true knowledge, and yet so handy as the Bhagawad Geeta..... It brings to men the highest knowledge, the purest love and the most luminous action. It teaches self-control, the threefold austerity, non-violence, truth, compassion, obedience to the call of duty for the sake of duty and putting up a fight against unrighteousness (Adharma)... To my knowledge, there is no book in the whole range of the world's literature so high above all as the Bhagawad Geeta which is treasure-house of Dharma not only for Hindus but for all mankind."

"In the Bhagavad Gita we have faith, a faith based on spiritual vision. In this vision we have Light. Shall we see? This Song calls us to Love and Life. Shall we hear?"

"I believe that the Bhagavad Gita contains the voice of God and that it speaks to each of us, to every mind and heart—individually. This intimate communion transcends the merely intellectual: sarvaśah, in every way."

"The Bhagavad-gita deals essentially with the spiritual foundation of human existence. It is a call of action to meet the obligations and duties of life; yet keeping in view the spiritual nature and grander purpose of the universe."

"We knew the world would not be the same. Few people laughed, few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." I suppose we all thought that, one way or another."

"The Bhagavad Gita... is the most beautiful philosophical song existing in any known tongue."

"The juxtaposition of Western civilization's most terrifying scientific achievement with the most dazzling description of the mystical experience given to us by the Bhagavad Gita, India's greatest literary monument."

"Through the centuries, the Gita has remained a relevant text, inspiring militant revolutionaries, non-violent truth-seekers and renouncers of the world. It has enlightened German philosophers such as Schopenhauer and Heidegger; it has inspired Victorian poets such as Sir Edwin Arnold; and it has grounded post-Independence philosophers such as Sarvapelli Radhakrishnan. It has become a literary 'site' which decision-makers turn to to understand their dilemmas, whether they be Indian women and men leading Gandhi's satyagraha, twenty-first-century South Asian-American officers deciding to go to war in the Gulf, or London housewives with their children deciding how to organize their day."

"The Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads contain such godlike fullness of wisdom on all things that I feel the authors must have looked with calm remembrance back through a thousand passionate lives, full of feverish strife for and with shadows, ere they could have written with such certainty of things which the soul feels to be sure."

"The Bhagavadgītā is more a religious classic than a philosophical treatise. It is not an esoteric work designed for and understood by the specially initiated but a popular poem which helps even those 'who wander in the region of the many and variable'."

"The Bhagavad-Gita professes to give nothing new beyond what has previously been taught by the Upanishads. It contents itself with a synthesis of the older teachings."

"The Bhagvad-Gita is the fountainhead of Eastern psychology."

"Time and time again in the Gita, Krishna declares love for the devotee, and seems to long for the devotee's wisdom and love. The Gita is not only a poem, it is a love poem. May fidelity, then, be deep, complex, and lively."

"I am so fond of a statement in the Bagavad Gita, this finest pearl of the Eastern writings, that I never tire of repeating it, and so I shall quote it to you as well. "Man comes to Me by various paths, but by whatever path man comes to Me, on that path I welcome him, for all paths are Mine.""

"If the Upanishads are the textbooks of philosophical principles discussing man, world and God, the Geeta is a handbook of instructions as to how every human being can come to live the subtle philosophical principles of Vedanta in the actual work-a-day world."

"In order to approach a creation as sublime as the Bhagavad-gita with full understanding it is necessary to attune our soul to it."

"In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagvat-Geeta, since whose composition years of the gods have elapsed, and in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial; and I doubt if that philosophy is not to be referred to a previous state of existence, so remote is its sublimity from our conceptions. I lay down the book and go to my well for water, and lo! there I meet the servant of the Bramin, priest of Brahma and Vishnu and Indra, who still sits in his temple on the Ganges reading the Vedas, or dwells at the root of a tree with his crust and water jug. I meet his servant come to draw water for his master, and our buckets as it were grate together in the same well. The pure Walden water is mingled with the sacred water of the Ganges."

"The Gītā was not preached either as a pastime for persons tired out after living a worldly life in the pursuit of selfish motives nor as a preparatory lesson for living such worldly life; but in order to give philosophical advice as to how one should live his worldly life with an eye to Release (mokṣa) and as to the true duty of human beings in worldly life."

"It is not a book teaching you how to worship God. Many other texts do the same. It focuses more on the eternal quest to reach Godhead."

"The message of the Gita is the message of courage, heroism and atmashakti. The Gita teaches us that weakness is a sin, while shakti is a spiritual virtue."

"The Geeta is a bouquet composed of the beautiful flowers of spiritual truths collected from the Upanishads."

"In summation, the sublime essence of the Bhagavad Gita is that right action, nonattachment to the world and to its sense pleasures, and union with God by the highest yoga of pranayama meditation, learned from an enlightened guru, constitute the royal path to God-attainment."

"The wise speak of what is One in many ways."

"May we not anger you, O God, in our worship By praise that is unworthy or by scanty tribute."

"Your ancient home, your auspicious friendship, O Heroes, your wealth is on the banks of the Jahnavi."

"Here did our human fathers take their places, fain to fulfil the sacred Law of worship."

"Do adore with salutations the deva asura[Rudra]."

"Brbu hath set himself above the Panis, o'er their highest head, Like the wide bush on Ganga's bank."

"Sarasvati, pure in her course from the mountains to the sea."

"We have drunk Soma and become immortal; we have attained the light, the Gods discovered. Now what may foeman's malice do to harm us? What, O Immortal, mortal man's deception?"

"The people deck him like a docile king of elephants."

"Favour ye this my laud, O Gangā, Yamunā, O Sutudri, Paruṣṇī and Sarasvatī: With Asikni, Vitasta, O Marudvrdha, O Ārjīkīya with Susoma hear my call. First with Trstama thou art eager to flow forth, with Rasā, and Susartu, and with Svetya here, With Kubha; and with these, Sindhu and Mehatnu, thou seekest in thy course Krumu and Gomati."

"Pischel and Geldner have done well to point out that these poems are not the productions of ignorant peasants, but of a highly cultured professional class, encouraged by the gifts of kings and the applause of courts (Einleitung p.xxiv). Just the same may be said of the Homeric bards and of those of Arthur‘s court [...]"

"It is impossible to read into the story of the Angirases, Indra and Sarama, the cave of the Panis and the conquest of the Dawn, the Sun and the Cows an account of a political and military struggle between Aryan invaders and Dravidian cave-dwellers. It is a struggle between the seekers of Light and the powers of Darkness; the cows are the illuminations of the Sun and the Dawn, they cannot be physical cows; the wide fear-free field of the Cows won by Indra for the Aryans is the wide world of Swar, the world of the solar Illumination, the threefold luminous regions of Heaven (Aurobindo [1914–20] 1998: 223)"

"We have in the Rig-veda,—the true and only Veda in the estimation of European scholars,—a body of sacrificial hymns couched in a very ancient language which presents a number of almost insoluble difficulties. ... The scholar in dealing with his text is obliged to substitute for interpretation a process almost of fabrication. We feel that he is not so much revealing the sense as hammering and forging rebellious material into some sort of shape and consistency."

"“the one considerable document that remains to us from the early period of human thought… when the spiritual and psychological knowledge of the race was concealed, for reasons now difficult to determine, in a veil of concrete and material figures and symbols which protected the sense from the profane and revealed it to the initiated. One of the leading principles of the mystics was the sacredness and secrecy of self-knowledge and the true knowledge of the Gods… Hence… (the mystics) clothed their language in words and images which had, equally, a spiritual sense for the elect, and a concrete sense for the mass of ordinary worshippers.”"

"“The ritual system recognised by SAyaNa may, in its, externalities, stand; the naturalistic sense discovered by European scholarship may, in its general conception, be accepted; but behind them there is always the true and still hidden secret of the Veda - the secret words, niNyA vacAMsi, which were spoken for the purified in soul and the awakened in knowledge. To disengage this less obvious but more important sense by fixing the import of Vedic terms, the sense of Vedic symbols, and the psychological function of the Gods is thus a difficult but a necessary task.”"

"Max Muller's dating of the Veda illustrates the arbitrariness involved in the production of theories that are then propagated as "facts" in generations of schoolbooks. Muller, as I have noted, was fully aware of the arbitrary nature of his calculations (which, as Goldstucker pointed out, were based on a "ghost story" written in the twelfth century C.E.): "I ... have repeatedly dwelt on the hypothetical character of the dates" (1892, xiv). As Whitney noted, however: "We have already more than once seen it stated that 'Muller has ascertained the date of the Vedas to be 1200-1000 B.C.'" ([1874] 1987, 78). Winternitz also objected that "it became a habit . . . to say that Max Muller had proved 1200-1000 B.C. as the date of the Rg Veda. . . . Strange to say it has been quite forgotten on what a precarious footing [this opinion] stood" ([1907] 1962, 256)."

"In the West, it is said that the whole tradition of philosophical thought is but a series of footnotes on the Greek philosopher Plato. Here, you could say that all Indian thought is but a series of footnotes on Dīrghatamas."

"“On the whole ... the language of the first nine Mandalas must be regarded as homogeneous, inspite of traces of previous dialectal differences... With the tenth Mandala it is a different story. The language here has definitely changed.”"

"Thus, the whole foundation of Mueller's date [for the Rigveda] rests on the authority of Somadeva, the author of "an Ocean of (or rather for) the River of Stories" who narrated his tales in the twelfth century after Christ. Somadeva, I am satisfied, would not be a little surprised to learn that 'a European point of view" raises a "ghost story" of his to the dignity of an historical document.""

"Goldstücker ([I860] 1965) objected that "neither is there a single reason to account for his allotting 200 years to the first of his periods, nor for his doubling this amount of time in the case of the Sutra period" (80). He points out that, ultimately, "the whole foundation of Muller's date rests on the authority of Somadeva . . . [who] narrated his tales in the twelfth century after Christ [and] would not be a little surprised to learn that 'a European point of view" raises a 'ghost story' of his to the dignity of an historical document" (91)."

"“As in its original language, we see the roots and shoots of the languages of Greek and Latin, of Celt, Teuton and Slavonian, so the deities, the myths and the religious beliefs and practices of the Veda throw a flood of light upon the religions of all European countries before the introduction of Christianity. As the science of comparative philology could hardly have existed without the study of Sanskrit, so the comparative history of the religions of the world would have been impossible without the study of the Veda.”"

"The Rigveda “reflects not so much a wandering life…. as a life stable and fixed, a life of halls and cities, and shows sacrificial cases in such detail as to lead one to suppose that the hymnists were not on the tramp, but were comfortable well-fed priests” [...] If the first home of the Aryans can be determined at all by the conditions topographical and meteorological, described in their early hymns, then decidedly the Punjab was not that home. For here there are neither mountains nor monsoon storms to burst, yet storm and mountain belong to the very marrow of the Rigveda. ...[it is] ―a district [...] where monsoon storms and mountain scenery are found, that district, namely, which lies South of Umballa (or Ambālā). It is here, in my opinion, that the Rigveda, taken as a whole, was composed. In every particular, this locality fulfils the physical conditions under which the composition of the hymns was possible, and what is of paramount importance, is the first district east of the Indus that does so."

"[The Vedic Gods] “are nearer to the physical phenomena which they represent, than the gods of any other Indo-European mythology”."

"Max Müller, Weber, Muir, and others held that the Punjab was the main scene of the activity of the Rgveda, whereas the more recent view put forth by Hopkins and Keith is that it was composed in the country round the SarasvatI river south of modem AmbAla.”"

"I need hardly say that I agree with almost every word of my critics. I have repeatedly dwelt on the entirely hypothetical character of the dates I ventured to assign to the first three periods of Vedic literature. All I have claimed for them has been that they are minimum dates"

"It is quite clear that we cannot fix a terminum a quo, whether the Vedic hymns were composed 1000 or 2000 or 3000 years BC, no power on earth will ever determine"

"The translation of the Veda will hereafter tell to a great extent on the fate of India and on the growth of millions of souls in that country. It is the root of their religion, and to show them what the root is, I feel sure, is the only way of uprooting all that has sprung from it during the last 3000 years."

"These dates Mueller later insisted were minimum dates only, , and latterly there has been a sort of tacit agreement.... to date the composition of the Rigveda somewhere about 1400-1500 BC, but without any absolutely conclusive evidence."

"That age [of the Rigveda] is not known with even an approximate degree of certainty."

"There was nothing in the Rgveda to look for a primitive or primarily nomadic society [sic]. . . . Chariots and wagons and boats which occur so frequently in the Rgveda do not agree well with nomadism. Movement of cars presupposes existence of roads and defined routes, which in turn presuppose settlements and regular traffic from point to point. Boats and ships are not floating logs. They presuppose ferry ghats and fixed destinations. . . , there was much in the Rgveda that defied explanation. . . . But instead of reconciling the discordant features, scholars either ignored them or distorted the facts and features. (Singh 1995, 8)"

"If we can dig beneath the assumptions about meaning that overlay the text... we shall uncover a very different Rigveda from the one that we have come to accept."

"There is nothing in any of the 1,028 poems that make up the collection to suggest that their authors were incomers to the area that they describe in their poems. Rather the opposite."

"All attempts to date the Vedic literature on linguistic grounds have failed miserably for the simple reason that (a) the conclusions of comparative philology are often speculative and (b) no one has yet suceeded in showing how much change should take place in a language in a given period."

"Of the Vedic poetic art Watkins writes: “The language of India from its earliest documentation in the Rigveda has raised the art of the phonetic figure to what many would consider its highest form”."

"Man, the period of whose life is one hundred years, should practise Dharma, Artha, and Kama at different times and in such a manner that they may harmonize, and not clash in any way. He should acquire learning in his childhood; in his youth and middle age he should attend to Artha and Kama, and in his old age he should perform Dharma, and thus seek to gain Moksha, that is, release from further transmigration."

"If variety is sought in all the arts and amusements, such as archery and others, how much more should it be sought after in the art of love."

"A man should fix his affections upon a girl who is of good family, whose parents are alive, and who is three years or more younger than himself. She should be born of a highly respectable family, possessed of wealth, well connected, and with many relations and friends. She should also be beautiful, of a good disposition, with lucky marks on her body, and with good hair, nails, teeth, ears, eyes and breasts, neither more nor less than they ought to be, and no one of them entirely wanting, and not troubled with a sickly body. The man should, of course, also possess these qualities himself."

"A girl who is called by the name of one of the twenty-seven stars, or by the name of a tree, or of a river, is considered worthless, as also a girl whose name ends in "r" or "l". But some authors say that prosperity is gained only by marrying that girl to whom one becomes attached and that therefore no other girl but the one who is loved should be married by anyone."

"A man who is of a low mind, who has fallen from his social position, and who is much given to traveling, does not deserve to be married; neither does one who has many wives and children, or one who is devoted to sport and gambling, and who comes to his wife only when he likes."

"A man may resort to the wife of another, for the purpose of saving his own life, when he perceives that his love for her proceeds from one degree of intensity to another. These degrees are ten in number, and are distinguished by the following marks: 1. Love of the eye 2. Attachment of the eye 3. Constant reflection 4. Destruction of sleep 5. Emaciation of the body 6. Turning away from objects of enjoyment 7. Removal of shame 8. Madness 9. Fainting 10. Death"

"The extent of the love of women is not known, even to those who are the objects of their affection, on account of its subtlety."

"Women are hardly ever known in their true light, though they may love men, or become indifferent toward them; may give them delight, or abandon them; or may extract from them all the wealth that they may possess."

"The Kama Sutra was composed, according to the precepts of Holy Writ, for the benefit of the world, by Vatsyayana, while leading the life of a religious student, and wholly engaged in the contemplation of the Deity."

"The Kama Sutra is neither exclusively a sex manual nor, as also commonly believed, a sacred or religious work. It is certainly not a tantric text. In opening with a discussion of the three aims of ancient Hindu life – dharma, artha and kama – Vatsyayana's purpose is to set kama, or enjoyment of the senses, in context. Thus dharma or virtuous living is the highest aim, artha, the amassing of wealth is next, and kama is the least of three."

"Various taxonomies of season, landscape, times, gunas or qualities (and their material bases), tastes, characters, emotions, essences (rasas), etc., are basic to the thought-work of Hindu medicine and poetry, cooking and religion, erotics and magic… Even the Kama-Sutra is literally a grammar of love, which declines and conjugates men and women as one would nouns and verbs in different genders, voices, moods and aspects. Genders are genres. Different body-types and character-types obey different rules, respond to different scents and beckonings."

"In our culture there is no seduction. Our marriages are arranged. There is no art of sex. Some of the boys here talk to me of the Kama Sutra. Nobody talked about that at home. It was an upper-caste text, but I don’t believe my poor father, Brahmin though he is, ever looked at a copy. That philosophical-practical way of dealing with sex belongs to our past, and that world was ravaged and destroyed by the Muslims."

"AUM! I bow down to Narayana and Nara, the most exalted Purusha, and to the Devi Saraswati, and utter the word Jaya. Ugrasrava is the son of Romaharshana; he is a Suta and a master of the Puranas. One day, bowing reverently, he came to the great Rishis of flinchless austerity... The Munis were eager to listen to the marvellous legends of Ugrasrava, who had come to their asrama in the forest. The holy ones welcomed him with respect. He greeted those Sages with folded hands and inquired after the evolution of their tapasya."

"Sauti said, ‘I heard the diverse, sacred and marvellous tales, which Krishna Dwaipayana composed in his Mahabharata, and which Vaisampayana narrated at the sarpa yagna of the noble Rajarishi Janamejaya, the son of Parikshit, foremost among Kshatriyas. Later, I ranged the Earth, visiting many tirthas and other shrines. I journeyed to Samantapanchaka, revered by the Dvijas, where the sons of Kuru and those of Pandu fought their Great War, with all the Kshatriyas of the land fighting for one side or the other. From there, being eager to meet you, I have come into your presence. Worshipful Sages, you are all like Brahman to me. Most blessed ones, you shine in this yagnashala with the splendour of the Sun. You have finished your dhyana and have fed the holy fire."

"Tell me, greatest of Dvijas, what would you hear from me? Shall I recount the sacred tales of the Puranas, which tell of dharma and artha, or shall I tell you about the deeds of enlightened Rishis and of the kings of men?’ The Rishis replied, ‘The Purana that was first propounded by the great Dwaipayana. When both the Devas and the Brahmarishis had heard it, they said it was the foremost of all Itihasas, histories. It varies in both diction and divisions, has intricate and subtle meanings, logically combined and gleaned from the Vedas, and it is a most holy work. It is composed in elegant language and includes the subjects of every other book. Other Shastras elucidate this Purana, and it reflects the inmost meaning of the four Vedas. We want to listen to that Itihasa, which is also called the Bharata, the magnificent Vyasa’s holy masterwork, which dispels the fear of evil. We would hear it exactly as the Rishi Vaisampayana told it, joyously, under the direction of Dwaipayana himself, at the sarpa yagna, the snake-sacrifice of Raja Janamejaya.’"

"Sauti then said, ‘I bow to the Primordial Being, Isana, to whom the people all make offerings, whom the multitude adores. He is the true and immortal One – Brahman, manifest, unmanifest and eternal. He both exists and appears not to. He is the Universe and also distinct from the Universe, the creator of all things, high and low, the ancient, exalted, inexhaustible One. He is Vishnu, benign and benignity personified, worthy of all worship, pure, perfect. He is Hari, sovereign of the faculties, the mover of all things, mobile and motionless."

"Discontent is the root of fortune."

"When the Gods deal defeat to a person, they first take his mind away, so that he sees things wrongly."

"With gentleness one defeats the gentle as well as the hard; there is nothing impossible to the gentle; therefore the gentle is the more severe."

"And the kings of the earth with souls steeped in ignorance, and discontented with what they have, will at such a time, rob their subjects by every means in their power..., the right hand will deceive the left; and the left, the right...."

"And men with false reputation of learning will contract Truth and the old will betray the senselessness of the young, and the young will betray the dotage of the old."

"And cowards will have the reputation of bravery and the brave will be cheerless like cowards... men will cease to trust one another... full of avarice... sin will increase and prosper, while virtue will fade and cease to flourish. And Brahmanas and Kshatriyas and Vaisyas will disappear, leaving, O king, no remnants of their orders... Jealousy and malice will fill the world. And no one will, at that time, be a giver (of wealth or anything else) in respect to any one else... Men will... become omnivorous without distinction, and cruel in all their acts... Urged by avarice, men will, at that time, deceive one another when they sell and purchase. And when the end of the Yuga comes, urged by their very dispositions, men will act cruelly, and speak ill of one another.. people will, without compunction, destroy trees and gardens. And men will be filled with anxiety as regards the means of living... overwhelmed with covetousness, men will kill... and enjoy the possessions of their victims... And when men become fierce and destitute of virtue and carnivorous and addicted to intoxicating drinks, then doth the Yuga come to an end..."

"Friends and relatives and kinsmen will perform friendly offices for the sake of the wealth only that is possessed by a person... When the end of the Yuga comes, men abandoning the countries and directions and towns and cities of their occupation, will seek for new ones, one after another. And people will wander over the earth, uttering, 'O father, O son', and such other frightful and rending cries."

"And when those terrible times will be over, the creation will begin anew. And men will again be created and distributed.. and about that time, in order that men may increase, Providence, according to its pleasure, will once more become propitious... And the clouds will commence to shower seasonably, and the stars and stellar conjunctions will become auspicious. And the planets, duly revolving in their orbits, will become exceedingly propitious. And all around, there will be prosperity and abundance and health and peace...."

"A gray head does not make an elder. The Gods know him to be an elder who knows, be he a child. Not by years, not by gray hairs, not by riches or many relations did the seers make the Law: "He is great to us who has learning.""

"Be he ever so wise and strong, wealth confounds a man. In my view, anyone living in comfort fails to reason."

"निर्वनो वध्यते व्याघ्रो निर्व्याघ्रं छिद्यते वनम् ।तस्माद्व्याघ्रो वनं रक्षेद्वनं व्याघ्रं च पालयेत् ॥"

"अक्रोधेन जयेत्क्रोधमसाधुं साधुना जयेत् । जयेत्कदर्यं दानेन जयेत्सत्येन चानृतम् ॥"

"The poor always eat better: hunger sweetens their dishes, and that is rare among the rich. It is generally found in the world that the rich have no appetite, but the poor, O Indra of kings, digest even wood."

"The intoxication with power is worse than drunkenness with liquor and such, for he who is drunk with power does not come to his senses before he falls."

"People are plagued by their senses if they act without restraint to attain their desires. ... If one is dragged along as the victim of his natural five senses, his adversities wax like the moon in the bright fortnight."

"A chariot, king, is a person's body: The soul is the driver, the senses his horses; Undistracted by his fine horses a driver Who is skilled rides happily, if they are trained."

"Senses out of control suffice to bring one to grief, as untrained and disobedient horses bring a driver to grief on the road. A fool who, guided by his senses, sees profit arising from the unprofitable and the unprofitable from profit mistakes misery for happiness."

"Do not do to another what is disagreeable to yourself: this is the summary Law."

"Once war has been undertaken, no peace is made by pretending there is no war."

"यथा च स्वगृहस्थः श्वा व्याघ्रं वनगतं भषेत् । तथा त्वं भषसे कर्ण नरव्याघ्रं धनंजयम् ॥"

"सृगालोऽपि वने कर्ण शशैः परिवृतो वसन् । मन्यते सिंहमात्मानं यावत्सिंहन पश्यति ॥"

"Freedom from fear, purity of heart, perseverance in (pursuit of) knowledge and abstraction of mind, gifts, self-restraint, and sacrifice, study of the Vedas, penance, straightforwardness, harmlessness, truth, freedom from anger, renunciation, tranquillity, freedom from the habit of backbiting, compassion for (all) beings, freedom from avarice, gentleness, modesty, absence of vain activity, noblemindedness, forgiveness, courage, purity, freedom from a desire to injure others, absence of vanity, (these), O descendant of Bharata! are his who is born to godlike endowments. Ostentatiousness, pride, vanity, anger, and also harshness and ignorance (are) his, O son of Prithâ! who is born to demoniac endowments. Godlike endowments are deemed to be (means) for final emancipation, demoniac for bondage. p. 115"

"Entertaining insatiable desire, full of vanity, ostentatiousness, and frenzy, they adopt false notions through delusion, and engage in unholy observances. Indulging in boundless thoughts ending with death, given up to the enjoyment of objects of desire, being resolved that that is all, bound down by nets of hopes in hundreds, given up to anger and desire, they wish to obtain heaps of wealth unfairly for enjoying objects of desire. p. 116"

"Honoured (only) by themselves, void of humility, and full of the pride and frenzy of wealth, these calumniators (of the virtuous) perform sacrifices, which are sacrifices only in name, with ostentatiousness and against prescribed rules; indulging (their) vanity, brute force, arrogance, lust, and anger; and hating me in their own bodies and in those of others. These enemies, ferocious, meanest of men, and unholy, I continually hurl down, to these worlds, only into demoniac wombs. Coming into demoniac wombs, deluded in every birth, they go down to the vilest state, O son of Kuntî! without ever coming to me."

"Threefold is this way to hell, ruinous to the self, lust, anger, and likewise [[Greed|avarice]]; therefore one should abandon this triad. Released from these three ways to darkness, O son of Kuntî! a man works out his own welfare, and then proceeds to the highest goal."

"Tuladhara said, 'O Jajali, I know morality, which is eternal, with all its mysteries. It is nothing else than that ancient morality which is known to all, and which consists of universal friendliness, and is fraught with beneficence to all creatures. That mode of living which is founded upon a total harmlessness towards all creatures or (in case of actual necessity) upon a minimum of such harm, is the highest morality. p. 234"

"This practice of universal harmlessness hath arisen even thus. One may follow it by every means in one's power... It is sure to lead also to prosperity and heaven. In consequence of their ability to dispel the fears of others, men possessed of wealth and followers are regarded as foremost by the learned. They that are for ordinary happiness practise this duty of universal harmlessness for the sake of fame; while they that are truly skilled, practise the same for the sake of attaining to Brahma. p. 236"

"Whatever fruits one enjoys by penances, by sacrifices, by practising liberality, by speaking the truth, and by paying court to wisdom, may all be had by practising the duty of harmlessness. p. 236"

"That person who gives unto all creatures the assurance of harmlessness obtains the merit of all sacrifices and at last wins fearlessness for himself as his reward. There is no duty superior to the duty of abstention from injuring other creatures. He of whom, O great ascetic, no creature is frightened in the least, obtains for himself fearlessness of all creatures. He of whom everybody is frightened as one is of a snake ensconced within one's (sleeping) chamber, never acquires any merit in this world or in the next. p. 236"

"Twice blessed be the man that reflects long before he acts. One that reflects long before he acts is certainly possessed of great intelligence. Such a man never offends in respect of any act. p. 248"

"There is no shelter (protection against the sun) like the mother. There is no refuge like the mother. There is no defense like the mother. There is no one so dear as the mother. p. 248"

"धर्मादर्थश्च कामश्च स किमर्थं न सेव्यते"

"dharmādarthaśca kāmaśca sa kimarthaṁ na sēvyatē"

"A Hindu scholar has rated the Mahabharata as “the greatest work of imagination that Asia has produced”; and Sir Charles Eliot has called it “a greater poem than the Iliad”. ... Upon this theme of love and battle a thousand interpolations have been hung. The god Krishna interrupts the slaughter for a canto to discourse on the nobility of war and Krishna; the dying Bhishma postpones his death to expound the laws of caste, bequest, marriage, gifts and funeral rites, to explain the philosophy of the Sankhya and the Upanishads, to narrate a mass of legends, traditions and myths, and to lecture Yudishthira at great length on the duties of a king; dusty stretches of genealogy and geography, of theology and metaphysics, separate the oases of drama and action; fables and fairy-tales, love-stories and lives of the saints contribute to give the Mahabharata a formlessness worse, and a body of thought richer, than can be found in either the Iliad or the Odyssey."

"In the Mahabharata, the ceremony for the oath of a new king includes the admonition: 'Be like a garland-maker, O king, and not like a charcoal burner.' The garland symbolizes social coherence; it is a metaphor for dharmic diversity in which flowers of many colors and forms are strung harmoniously for the most pleasing effect. In contrast, the charcoal burner is a metaphor for the brute-force reduction of diversity into homogeneity, where diverse living substances are transformed into uniformly lifeless ashes."

"It is precisely due to the lack of the knowledge of cultural subtleties on the part of the mere textual scholars…that their analyses sound worthless and useless to us. A profound literature like the Mahābhārata must essentially be understood by being firmly grounded in the Sanātana-dharma of Bhārata."

"It is sinful to even see the face of a man who does not feel his friend's pain. Treat your own mountain-like pain as though it were a speck. Treat your friend's speck-like pain as though it were a mountain."

"The people sing reverent praise to Thee (Indra) for strength: With terrors trouble Thou the foe"

"I find that Shankara had grasped much of Vedantic truth, but that much was dark to him. I am bound to admit what he realised; I am not bound to exclude what he failed to realise. Aptavakyam, authority, is one kind of proof; it is not the only kind: pratyaksa [direct knowledge] is more important. (...) It is irrelevant to me what Max Müller thinks of the Veda or what Sayana thinks of the Veda. I should prefer to know what the Veda has to say for itself and, if there is any light there on the unknown or on the infinite, to follow the ray till I come face to face with that which it illumines. Europe has formed certain views about the Veda and the Vedanta, and succeeded in imposing them on the Indian intellect.... When a hundred world-famous scholars cry out, “This is so”, it is hard indeed for the average mind, and even minds above the average but inexpert in these special subjects not to acquiesce.... Nevertheless a time must come when the Indian mind will shake off the darkness that has fallen upon it, cease to think or hold opinions at second and third hand and reassert its right to judge and enquire in a perfect freedom into the meaning of its own Scriptures. When that day comes we shall, I think, discover that the imposing fabric of Vedic theory is based upon nothing more sound or true than a foundation of loosely massed conjectures. We shall question many established philological myths,—the legend, for instance, of an Aryan invasion of India from the north, the artificial and inimical distinction of Aryan and Dravidian which an erroneous philology has driven like a wedge into the unity of the homogenous Indo-Afghan race; the strange dogma of a “henotheistic” Vedic naturalism; the ingenious and brilliant extravagances of the modern sun and star myth weavers. (...) Verification by experience and experiment is the only standard of truth, not antiquity, not modernity. Some of the ideas of the ancients or even of the savage now scouted by us may be lost truths or statements of valid experience from which we have turned or become oblivious; many of the notions of the modern schoolmen will certainly in the future be scouted as erroneous and superstitious. (...) Western Philology has converted it [the word arya] into a racial term, an unknown ethnological quantity on which different speculations fix different values.... [But] in the Veda the Aryan peoples are those who had accepted a particular type of self-culture, of inward and outward practice, of ideality, of aspiration.... Whoever seeks to climb from level to level up the hill of the divine, fearing nothing, deterred by no retardation or defeat, shrinking from no vastness because it is too vast for his intelligence, no height because it is too high for his spirit, no greatness because it is too great for his force and courage, he is the Aryan, the divine fighter and victor, the noble man."

"According to Aurobindo (1956): In ancient times the Veda was revered as a sacred book of wisdom, a great mass of inspired poetry, the work of Rishis, seers and sages. . . . Truth . . . not of an ordinary but of a divine inspiration and source. Is this all legend and moonshine, or a groundless and even nonsensical tradition? . . . The European scholars . . . went on to make their own etymological explanation of the words, or build up their own conjectural meanings of the Vedic verses and gave a new presentation often arbitrary and imaginative. What they sought for in the Veda was the early history of India, its society, institutions, customs, a civilisation- picture of the times. They invented the theory based on the difference of languages of an Aryan invasion from the north. . . . The Vedic religion was in this account only a worship of Nature-Gods full of solar myths and consecrated by sacrifices and a sacrificial liturgy primitive enough in its ideas and contents, and it is these barbaric prayers that are the much vaunted, haloed and apotheosized Veda."

"Modern Philology is an immense advance on anything we have had before the nineteenth century. It has introduced a spirit of order and method in place of mere phantasy; it has given us more correct ideas of the morphology of language and of what is or is not possible in etymology. It has established a few rules which govern the detrition of language and guide us in the identification of the same word or of related words as they appear in the changes of different but kindred tongues. Here, however, its achievements cease. The high hopes which attended its birth have not been fulfilled by its maturity. There is, in fact, no real certainty as yet in the obtained results of Philology. . . . Yesterday we were all convinced that Varuna was identical with Ouranos, the Greek heaven; today this identity is denounced to us as a philological error; tomorrow it may be rehabilitated. . . . We have to recognize in fact that European scholarship in its dealings with the Veda has derived an excessive prestige from its association in the popular mind with the march of European science. The truth is that there is an enormous gulf between the patient, scrupulous and exact physical sciences and these other brilliant, but immature branches of learning upon which Vedic scholarship relies."

"The Vedas haunt me. In them I have found eternal compensation, unfathomable power, unbroken peace."

"I can venture to affirm, without meaning to pluck a leaf from the never-fading laurels of our immortal Newton, that the whole of his theology, and part of his philosophy, may be found in the Vedas."

"For the Veda is tainted by three faults of untruth, self-contradiction, and tautology; then again the impostors who call themselves Vaidic pundits are mutually destructive, as the authority of the Jnan-Kanda is overthrown by those who maintain the authority of the Karma-Kanda and those who maintain the authority of the Jnan-Kanda reject that of the Karma-Kanda; and lastly, the three Vedas themselves are only the incoherent rhapsodies of knaves and to this effect runs the popular saying: “The Agnihotra, the three Vedas, the ascetic, three staves, and smearing oneself with ashes,” Brihaspati says, “these are but means of livelihood for those who have no manliness nor sense.""

"The whole character of these compositions and the circumstances under which, from internal evidence, they appear to have arisen, are in harmony with the supposition that they were nothing more than the natural expression of the personal hopes and feelings of those ancient bards of whom they were first recited. In these songs the Aryan sages celebrated the praises of their ancestral gods (while at the same time they sought to conciliate their goodwill by a variety of oblations supposed to be acceptable to them), and besought of them all the blessings which men in general desired—health, wealth, long life, cattle, offspring, victory over their enemies, foregiveness of sin, and in some cases also celestial felicity."

"Whenever I have read any part of the Vedas, I have felt that some unearthly and unknown light illuminated me. In the great teaching of the Vedas, there is no touch of the sectarianism. It is of ages, climes, and nationalities and is the royal road for the attainment of the Great Knowledge. When I am at it, I feel that I am under the spangled heavens of a summer night."

"What extracts from the Vedas I have read fall on me like the light of a higher and purer luminary, which describes a loftier course through a purer stratum. It rises on me like the full moon after the stars have come out, wading through some far stratum in the sky."

"One sentence of Vedas is worth the State of Massachusetts many times over."

"In the Rig-Veda we shall have before us more real antiquity than in all the inscriptions of Egypt or Ninevah....the Veda is the oldest book in existence..."

"If I were to look over the whole world to find out the country most richly endowed with all the wealth, power and beauty that nature can bestow — in some parts a very paradise on earth — I should point to India. If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed the choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solution of some of them which well deserve the attention even of those who have studied Plato and Kant-I should point to India. And if I were to ask myself from what literature we here in Europe, we who have been nurtured almost exclusively on the thought of Greeks and Romans, and of one Semitic race, the Jewish, may draw that corrective which is most wanted in order to make our inner life more perfect, more comprehensive, more universal, in fact more truly human, a life not for this life only, but a transfigured and eternal life-again I should point to India."

"There is more real antiquity in the Veda than in all the inscriptions of Egypt or Ninevah . . . old thoughts, old hopes, old faith, and old errors, the old Man altogether. (Müller 1895: 1.75–76)"

"The Rig-Veda, the first of the Vedas, is probably the earliest book that humanity possesses. In it we find the first outpourings of the human mind, the glow of poetry, the rapture at nature's loveliness and mystery."

"Whatever may be the date of the Vedic hymns, whether 1500 B.C.E. or 15,000 B.C.E., they have their own unique place and stand by themselves in the literature of the world. They tell us something of the early growth of the human mind of which we find no trace anywhere else."

"“With God, nothing is impossible”, the Christian thinks. But the Indian says: With piety and knowledge of the Veda, nothing is impossible: the gods are submissive and obedient to them. Where is the god who can resist the pious earnestness and prayer of a renouncing ascetic in the forest?"

"There is a no monument of Greece or Rome more previous than the Rig Veda."

"Access to the Vedas is the greatest privilege this century may claim over all previous centuries."

"Vedas are the most rewarding and the most elevating book which can be possible in the world."

"The Veda was the most precious gift for which the West had ever been indebted to the East."

"The Vedas "were undoubtedly the first monument of the world"."

"Anything can be believed if one cites the authority of the Veda, if one takes some passage from the Veda, juggles it, gives it the most impossible meaning and murders everything reasonable in it. If one presents one’s own ideas as ideas meant in the Vedas, “all fools will follow me in a crowd.”"

"Remember that once upon a time there was nothing on this earth, neither trees and plants, nor even mountains. For a period of eleven thousand [great] years the earth was covered by lava. In those days there was neither day nor night below the polar region: for in the rest of the earth neither the sun nor the moon shone. Only one half of the polar region was illumined. [Later] apart from the polar region the rest of the earth was covered with water. And then for a very long time the whole earth was covered with forests, except the polar region. Then there arose great mountains, but without any human inhabitants. For a period of ten thousand years the earth was covered with the corpses of the asuras."

"The four and thirty ribs of the strong steed, Kin of the gods, the axe meeteth; Skilfully do ye make the joints faultless; Declaring each part, do ye cut it asunder."

"The birthplace of the horse, indeed, is the sea, its kindred is the sea."

"Om, you for vigor, you for energy, you are breaths, may the God Savitar propel you to the most glorious action (SYV I.1)."

"May you purify my speech. May you purify my breath. May you purify my eye. May you purify my ear ... May your mind be abundant. May your speech be abundant. May your breath be abundant (SYV Ill. 14-5)."

"May your mind unite with the mind, your breath with the breath ... May the ruling Prana be placed in all your faculties. May the ruling Udana (upward moving breath) be placed in all your faculties (SYV III.18-9)."

"The Vajasaneyi Samhita also has miscellaneous historically significant references. Some sort of barter is implied by VS. Book III which is addressed to Indra: ìTo me present thy merchandize, and I to thee will give my wares ... O Satakratu, let us twain barter, like goods, our food and strength.î Book X (VS) prays for the bestowal of kingship to Varuna and Mitra, and XI (VS) prefers to put the burglars, thieves and robbers and criminals in the mouth of Agni or fire. Remarkably charming is the following description of the ploughing operation (Book XII, VS): Happily let the shares turn up the ploughland, happily go the ploughers with the oxen! / ... The keen-shared plough that bringeth bliss, good for the Soma-drinkerís need/ Shear out for me a cow, a sheep, a rapid drawer of the car, a blooming woman, plump and strong. Book XXIX (VS) has an evocative and graphic allusion to battles (also TS IV.6.6): ... She whispers like a womanóthis bow-string that preserves us in the combat/... slung on the back, pouring his brood, the quiver vanishes all opposing ... armies. Upstanding in the car the skilful charioteer guides his strong horses on whithersoíer he will. See and admire the strength of those controlling rains ... horses whose hoofs rain dust are neighing loudly, yoked to the chariots, showing forth their vigour. With their forefeet descending on the foemen, they, never flinching, trample and destroy them."

"About this time I also received a copy of the Yajur Veda from India, which I found, to my surprise since even Aurobindo hadn’t talked of it, to be as inspiring as the Rig Veda. The power of the mantras continued to unfold and new Vedic vistas arose."

"Sama Veda is the sum total of all that is pertaining to Samhita with a predominance of Rishi — observer value. Sama Veda represents the totality of the sensory systems and perceptual apparatus, including receptors, channels, pathways, and the structures involved in organizing, maintaining balance, and identifying and decoding inputs and information."

"The wakeful physiology receives all the flow of experience through these channels. They sustain the quality of flowing wakefulness."

"The Sama Veda consists of hymns (many of them common with the Rig Veda) which when sung in the appropriate manner will strike a chord in enabling one to understand the universal truths and order of life depending on their stage of spiritual evolution. The source of the musical patterns of the Sama Veda hymns is derived from the vibration/sounds of the cosmos. This reveals that spiritual evolution can be achieved through music (by hearing as well as singing)."

"The Sāma Veda is a collection of Sāma songs (a particular metre, which can be sung) from Rg Veda. There is no independent work in this Veda. The arrangement of its verses is with reference to their place and use in the Soma sacrifice. This Veda was handed over to Jaimini."

"He Jaimini divided the Veda into four, namely Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva. The histories and the Puranas are said to be the fifth Veda."

"Trayee: The three Vedas: The term 'tray', or triad, often used to denote the Vedas, is collectively applied to Rg, Sam, and Yajur."

"The Sama Veda represents the force of spiritual knowledge and the power of devotion. The book was revealed to Vayu rishi."

"It consists hymns of the Rigveda put to a musical measure. Hence the text of the Sama Veda is an alternative version of the Rig Veda. Its secret is in its musical annotation and rendering."

"If the Rig Veda is the word, the Sama Veda is the song or the meaning, and If Rig Veda is the knowledge, the Sama Veda is its realization."

"Sama Veda is the Veda of Bhakthi"

"Although puranas and later works make mention of no less than a thousand samhitas of the Samaveda only two have come down to us, viz., those of the Kauthumas (considered the vulgate), and of the Jaiminiyas or [[w:Talavakara|Talavakaras. P.313"

"The essence of Sama is Udgitha, the cosmic resonance of Aum. That Aum, chant, sing and worship in meditation."

"Lord Krishna, the divine persona of Gita, also says, of the Vedas, I am Sama. (10.22)."

"The singers of Gayatri celebrate you, Indra, lord of song and joy, with the hymns of Sama Veda."

"The Samaveda, or Veda of Holy Songs, third in the usual order of enumeration of the three Vedas, ranks next in sanctity and liturgical importance to the Rgveda or Veda of Recited praise."

"The Collection is made up of hymns, portions of hymns, and detached verses, taken mainly from the Rgveda, transposed and re-arranged, without reference to their original order, to suit the religious ceremonies in which they were to be employed."

"There are three recensions of the text of the Samaveda Sanhita, the Kauthuma Sakha or recension is current in Guzerat, the Jaiminiya in the Carnatic, and the Ranayaniya in the Mahratta country."

"1.With this mine homage I invoke Agni for you, the Son of Strength. Dear, wisest envoy, skilled in noble sacrifice, immortal, messenger of all. 2. His two red horses, all-supporting, let him yoke: let him, well-worshipped, urge them fast! Then hath the sacrifice good prayers and happy end, the heavenly gift of wealth to men."

"1. Advancing, sending forth her rays, the daughter of the Sky is seen. The mighty one lays bare the darkness with her eye, the friendly Lady makes the light. 2. The Sun ascending, the refulgent star, pours down his beams. together with the Dawn. O Dawn, at thine arising, and, the Sun's, may we attain the share allotted us!"

"1. So help ye us to riches, great celestial and terrestrial wealth Vast is your sway among the Gods! 2. Carefully tending Law with law they have attained their vigorous might: Both Gods, devoid of guile, wax strong. 3. With rainy skies and streaming floods, Lords of the food that falls in dew, A lofty seat have they attained."

"1. Yea, Waters, ye bring health and bliss: so help ye us to energy. That we may look on great delight! 2. Give us a portion of the dew, the most auspicious that ye have, Like mothers in their longing love! 3. For you we gladly go to him to whose abode ye speed us on, And, Waters, give us procreant strength!"

"Saam Veda is considered to be the source from which Indian music has originated."

"A compilation of richas (shlokas) is known as "Saama"."

"Richas form the basis of 'Saam'."

"The beauty of speech lies in the Richas, the beauty of richas lie in the 'Saama' and the beauty of the 'Saama' lies in the individual's capability to sing it."

"None other than Yogeshwar Sri Krishna has eulogised the greatness of Samaveda in the following manner-VEDAANAMA SAAMAVEDO ASMI meaning "Amongst Vedas, I am the Saamaveda."(Gita 10/22)"

"Saamaveda comprises of two main parts (i) Purvarchik (2) Uttararchik The middle portion is called Mahaanaam-nyaarchik, which itself comprises of 10 incantations. Purvarchik itself is sub-divided into 4 sections - Aagneya, Endra,Paavmaan and Aaranya."

"One gets divine peace while listening to the incantations of Saama Veda."

"Agni (fire) destroys the demons (vritras)."

"Agni is the deity, who shows us the (right) path"

"Agni blesses us with wealth."

"O Agni, Thou are great! Thou are the giver of happiness!"

"Agni is the protector of the people and the destroyer of demons!"

"O Agni! May you rise high like 'Suryadev' and be our provider!"

"Agni is the lord of noble valiance and good fortune!"

"Destroy 'people of hatred' with the help of knowledge."

"Do not speak harsh words."

"One, who maintains cleanliness keeps away diseases."

"One who does not observe 'vrata' can never accomplish anything."

"A scholar with exceptional knowledge is successful in vanquishing all his enemies."

"Virtuous deeds make you great."

"Benevolent scholars propagate knowledge."

"One, who wears gems possesses wealth."

"People of double standards never experience happiness."

"Nothing can be achieved without enduring the 'fire of tapa'."

"The provider of food protects one and all."

"One, who is not a provider of food, I (God) destroy his food."

"Knowledge propagated by scholars helps even the lowest category of ignorant ones to attain supremacy."

"To attain salvation, tread on the path of progress."

"Night,the provider of rest and relaxation, is propitious."

"Agni dev's intellect is pure and benedictory"

"O Deities! May I never speak that which is against your dignity."

"May 'fame' never abandon me."

"A man of self-control becomes the master."

"The yagya enkindles the flames of consciousness in human's mind."

"Soma enthuses in us the enthusiasm to win."

"A truthful person's speech is as sweet as honey."

"Deities never favour the lazy and indolent."

"Deities bless the diligent."

"Avoid the company of those who abhor knowledge."

"Never listen to anything that is evil."

"Engage yourself in all that is auspicious."

"You fight a battle everyday."

"Having realized the truth, never become indolent."

"The scholar by his specialized knowledge and by making best use of his 'energy' attains the ultimate goal and supremacy."

"Fire enkindles fire"

"The propagator of truth...one who is always in touch with truth..accomplishes great deeds with the help of truth."

"Adorn your speech."

"Develop in yourself the capabilities to perform virtuous deeds."

"A radiant scholar (master) is worshipped."

"O Scholars! your good deeds have disseminated everywhere."

"The fame of a scholar who has attained 'equilibrium' and whose deeds are 'supreme' spread everywhere"

"Religion makes it pure"

"A warrior who is well equipped for the great battle with appropriate weapons acquires wealth."

"Bless us with radiance! Give us happiness and good-fortune...bless us with benediction."

"Bless us with strength and power... Destroy our enemies and bless us with benediction."

"Keep us under the shadow of thine valour and protection"

"There are 10 characteristics of 'Dharma' - (1) Stability of mind, (2) forgiveness, (3) benevolence, (4) abstinence, (5) purity, (6) Control of senses, (7) intellect, (8) knowledge, (9) truth , (10) abstinence from anger."

"O Omniscient! fill the heaven and the earth with your divine radiance."

"O intelligent Vayu! Come to us embellished with all your qualities."

"One, who by the help of his 'knowledge',endeavours for the good of others, attains fame and makes rapid progress by the virtue of his capabilities."

"Those kings, who do not conspire against each other... they sit amongst their courtiers in the court of 1000 pillars."

"Imbibe the virtues of 'Vayu'."

"Just as the carpenter gives shape to wood, in the same way Agni (Fire) purifies us and blesses us with success in our endeavours."

"Salutations to the men of capabilities."

"A person of self-restraint kills the demon 'Vala'."

"May we live the best life in this world."

"O Soma! May humans adhere by your rules."

"The knowledgeable,in order to attain divinity, defeats all the wicked competitors."

"We praise Agni, who assists in accomplishing 'Yagya' and who refines our intellect... one, who invokes the deities...the annihilator of 'enemies'...and the supreme motivator."

"Indra and Agni are the embodiments of joy."

"He makes the worthless, knowledgeable."

"While making endeavours to purify his self, the 'sadhaka' practices the rigours of 'Yama' and 'Niyama'."

"Thou are great just like all-capable deities."

"The efulgence of 'yagya' appears pleasing and mellifluous."

"The 'dawn' knows how to protect."

"May we contemplate upon you in each 'parva'(dawn and dusk)."

"Help in accomplishing our 'Yagya' for the attainment of our long life."

"The devotee works assiduously to attain the wealth of salvation."

"Alike 'Dharma', 'yagya' too has a path."

"Friends never hurt or inflict pain on each other"

"Protect your children with your own efforts."

"Thou are the vanquisher of enemies, irrepressible and mightiest."

"A 'sadhaka' after having purified himself, illuminates the 'Sun of knowledge' in the 'heaven of mind'."

"Those, who study the knowledge accumulated by sages, 'Saraswati' blesses them with milk, ghee, honey and water."

"May humans enjoy bliss by the blessings of the 'purifying and benedictory' richas. He eats pure food and attains immortality."

"O Agni, thou prevent the body from getting destroyed."

"Just as the performer of 'yagya' is blessed with prosperity ,May we too be blessed in the same manner."

"The great 'Surya' illuminates the heaven."

"The king, by following the path of 'truth', gets benefitted in a special way."

"One, whose path is all encompassing, protects us."

"May your intellect protect us."

"May we be receptive to your supreme intelligence and become strong."

"Never allow us to fall prey to our pride."

"Thou are brave and benevolent. Enthuse 'desires' in humans."

"Just like Agnidev, who incinerates everything by His capability, in the same manner burn(destroy) the wicked and the ignorant ones."

"Realise the potential of the mind and then rule it."

"Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge is worthy of eulogisation."

"Savitadev, who inspires our intelligence, may we contemplate upon His radiant form."

"O Men! giving knowledge to ignorants, and forms to the formless thus rises the Sun after dawn."

"Agnidev, after having ignited the 'havan' and then inspiring us to perform the 'rituals', keeps on moving upwards efficiently."

"Great, brilliant and men of capabilities inspire us."

"The 'donor' sees the immediate fruits of his benevolent deeds."

"Agnidev blesses the 'donor' and the performer of 'yagya-karma' with 'wealth of reputation'."

"Bless people with the light."

"O Agni! Protect us from people of diabolic tendencies and miserliness."

"A scholar by his effulgence of knowledge, shines everywhere."

"O Agni! May you destroy all the diabolic forces one by one."

"Having taken your refuge, May we neither fear nor get tired."

"A scholar's fingers, by being constantly engaged in activities, acquire immense capabilities."

"O Agni! May thou not keep us away from 'battle'. Just as a labourer lifts loads!May thou prsented us the accumulated wealth, in the same way."

"O Men! Look at the divine deeds of Vishnu; contemplate and then follow them."

"A 'Gyani' treads on the path of truth."

"Agni helps all to settle well."

"O men! move ahead and be a winner."

"She who bears plants endowed with many varied powers, may Prithivī for us spread wide and favour us. In whom the sea, and Sindhu, and the waters, in whom our food and corn-lands had their being."

"God is really one, only one."

"Whoever knows Atharva Veda knows all."

"The Atharva Veda is a Vedic-era collection of spells, prayers, charms, and hymns. There are prayers to protect crops from lightning and drought, charms against venomous serpents, love spells, healing spells, hundreds of verses, some derived from the Rig Veda, all very ancient."

"A King should address the Assembly thus: Let the leader of the Assembly abide by the just laws passed by the Assembly, let other members do the same."

"O, men, let the man among you alone be made a king the President of the Assembly – who is a powerful conqueror of foes, is never beaten by them, has the capacity to become the paramount sovereign, is most enlightened, is worthy of being made a President, who possess noble qualities, accomplishments, character and disposition, who is thoroughly worthy of the homage, trust and respect of all."

"Who gave to whom?Desire gave to desire. Desire is the giver and receiver; Desire entered the ocean; With desire, I accept you; this is for you, for desire."

"In Atharva Veda, kama is associated with the broad range of human desire; wanting enemies to be defeated; wanting lovers to reciprocate feelings of infatuation, lust, affection, wanting more money and more power; in short wanting to be successful in love and work."

"The person who mistreats a noble woman does bad towards a friend, he who is senior but is ignorant is known as a degraded person. A person should refrain from all those things that take him towards, fallacy, misery and degradation."

"Destroy all those who are lustful, angry, greedy, enticed, proud and jealous."

"Water of river, well, pond, etc., if used and managed efficiently will reduce the intensity of drought and water scarcity;"

"In the heart of the waters, O, King Varuna, your golden home is built; Varuna is considered to be a deity associated with water."

"Earth is mother. Firmament the father. Earth is my mother, I am her son."

"May the waters from the snowy mountains bring health and peace to all people? May the spring waters calmness to you; may the swift currents be pleasing to you; and may the rains be a source of tranquility to all. May the waters of Oasis in the desert be sweet to you; and so be the waters of ponds and lakes. May the waters from the wells dug by humans be good to them, and may the healing powers of water be available to all human beings."

"Set me, O Earth. Amidst what is thy center and thy navel, and visualizing forces that emanate from the body Purify us from all sides. Earth is my mother; her son am I; and Heaven my father :may he fill us with plenty..."

"Aum, We pray for; Peace in the Devaloka, Peace in the pace and on the Earth;Peace in the Waters, peace in the Herbs, the Vegetation and the Forests, Peace among the Rulers of the World, Peace in the Divine, Peace everywhere and in every Thing, Peace, True and Real Peace, Let that Peace be in my mind Peace, Peace, Peace."

"The whole world is like one nest."

"Who is the wife of the year, may she be auspicious to us. Who is the replica of the year, we worship you as that night (AV Ill. 10.2-3)."

"Easy to invoke, oh Agni, may the Krittikas and Rohini be, auspicious Mrigashira and peaceful Ardra. Graceful be Punarvasu, beautiful Pushya, bright Aslesha, with the solstice at Magha for me. Virtuous be Purva Phalguni and Uttara, Hasta and Chitra peaceful and may Swati give me joy. Bounteous Vishakha, easy to invoke, Anuradha, the best Nakshatra Jyeshta, I invoke, and Mula. May Purva Ashadha provide me nourishment and Divine Uttara Ashadha give me strength. May Abhijit provide virtue, as Shravana and Shravishta grant beauty. May Shatabhishak give me greatness for expansion, and the two Proshtapadas give protection. May Revati and Ashwayujaur give me fortune and Bharani grant me wealth (AV XIX.7.2-4)."

"Peaceful for us be the planets and the Moon, peaceful the Sun and Rahu (AV XIX.9.10)."

"The bridal train of the Sun Goddess comes, which the Sun God has set in motion. In Magha (Leo) the cows are slain, in the Phalgunis (Virgo) she is wed."

"In the month of Magha the cows are slain, in Phalguni she is wed (AV XIV.1.13)."

"From which case we have taken the Veda, within that we place it (AV XIX.72.1)."

"At the place of the ship's descent at the top of the Himalayas, there resides the vision of immortality from which the Kushta plant was born; which the Ikshwakus previously knew (AV XIX.39.8-9)."

"The Earth is the Mother, I am her Son."

"The earth upon whom the noisy mortals sing and dance, upon whom they fight, upon whom resounds the roaring drum, shall drive forth our enemies, shall make us free from rivals!"

"To the earth upon whom are food, and rice and barley, upon whom live these five races of men, to the earth, the wife of Parganya, that is fattened by rain, be reverence!"

"The earth upon whose ground the citadels constructed by the gods unfold themselves, every region of her that is the womb of all, Pragapati shall make pleasant for us!"

"The earth that holds treasures manifold in secret places, wealth, jewels, and gold shall she give to me; she that bestows wealth liberally, the kindly goddess, wealth shall she bestow upon us!"

"The earth that holds people of manifold varied speech, of different customs, according to their habitations, as a reliable milch-cow that does not kick, shall she milk for me a thousand streams of wealth! (Bloomfieldís translation)."

"In the villages and in the wilderness, in the assembly-halls that are upon the earth; in the gatherings, and in the meetings, may we hold forth agreeably to thee!..."

"Gentle, fragrant, kindly, with the sweet drink (kÓlala) in her udder, rich in milk, the broad earth together with (her) milk shall give us courage!"

"O mother earth, kindly set me down upon a well-founded place! With (father) heaven cooperating, O thou wise one, do thou place me into happiness and prosperity!"

"The Supreme Being is called neither the second, nor the third, nor yet the fourth. He is called neither the fifth, nor the sixth, nor yet the seventh; he is called neither the eighth nor the ninth nor yet the tenth. He is the One, One alone and only One."

"After having been recited, the Veda is put back in a chest."

"God is verily great."

"Rig Veda is the Veda of Knowledge, Yajur Veda is the Veda of Karma, Sama Veda is the Veda of Bhakthi, and Atharva Veda is Brahma Veda, an umbrella, celebrating the Divine Presence, as in Book 10, hymns 7 and 8."

"The Vedas were revealed by the Supreme Purusha to four primeval Rishis; Rigveda to Agni, Yajurveda to Vayu, Sama Veda to Aditya, and Atharva Veda to Angira, directly into their spiritual consciousness. Brahma received and collected the four from them passed them on to other sages."

"The Atharvaveda stands apart from other Vedic texts. It contains both hymns and prose passages and is divided into 20 books...This text is an extremely important source of information for practical religion, particularly where it complements the Rig Veda. Many rites are also laid down in the “Kausika-sutra” (the manual of the w:Vishvamitra:Kausika family of priests) of the Atharva Veda."

"Atharva Veda is one of the structuring dynamics of Rk Veda. It highlights the quality of Reverberating Wholeness involved in structuring Rk Veda. With reference to consciousness, Atharva Veda comprises the specific sets of laws of Nature that are engaged in promoting the quality of Chhandas within Samhita level of consciousness, providing a structure to the eternally silent, self-referral, self-sufficient, fully awake state of consciousness, which is intimately personal to everyone."

"Atharva Veda is the sum total of all that is pertaining to Samhita with a predominance of Chhandas — observed, or object of observation value. Atharva Veda represents the totality of the musculo-skeletal system — the organs"

"This aspect of the physiology makes the totality of Veda move. This is the value of reverberating wholeness."

"I arise and come to Rig Veda, voice of Divinity. I come to Yajurveda, mind and resolution divine. I come to Sama Veda, energy and ecstasy divine. I come to Atharva Veda, vision and vibration of Divinity. That speech is my light and glory. That light and mind is my strength and spirit of courage and By virtue of the divine, the prana and apana energy is my real might."

"In Atharva Veda,in 13.4, 47-54, the divine virtues are described as: Shachipati or omnipotent, Vibhu or infinite, prabhu or lord of all, ambha, or cool as water, ama or energizer, mahasaha or constant, aruna rajata raja or brilliant, lovely and glorious, uru prithu or vast, subhu or grand, bhuva or omniscient, pratho vara or highest and best, vyacho loka or omnipresent, bhavas vasu or lord of universal honour, idadvasu or lord of the universal wealth, samyat vasu or perfectly self-controlled, and ayat-vasu or ever lustrous or honourable."

"Atharva Veda is the last of the four Vedas. It has not always been accepted as a Veda. It contains many hymns from Rig Veda but also has some popular magic spells which are outside of the strictly ritual knowledge orientation of other Vedas."

"It [Atharva Veda] is collection of hymns but of diverse character, some very exalted, like the Rig Veda, others of more common nature. It gives us a better idea of common people during Vedic times. The book was revealed to Angirasa Rishi."

"The deities of Atharva Veda are also the same as Rig Veda although Rudra-Shiva assumes a more visible role. The language is a little simpler and less variable in its forms."

"Atharvan is also an important figure in the Zoarashtrian religion. Atar is the Persian name for fire, and the Atharvan is the fire priest."

"Some Upanishad teachings are found Atharva Veda.as well."

"The Puranas are post-Vedic texts which typically contain a complete narrative of the history of the Universe from creation to destruction, genealogies of the kings, heroes and demigods, and descriptions of Hindu cosmology and geography. There are 18 canonical Puranas, divided into three categories, each named after a deity: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. There are also many other works termed Purana, known as 'Upapuranas."

"Vyasa is the compiler of the Puranas from age to age; and for this age, he is Krishna-Dvaipayana, the son of Parasara."

"The Puranas are authoritative scriptures of the Hindu dharma. Like the “Sruti” (the audible word), the “Smriti” (the divine word remembered) is an authoritative scripture though not of the same order."

"The Puranas are of the same class as the Itihasas (the Ramayana, Mahabharata, etc.). They have five characteristics (Pancha Lakshana), viz., history, cosmology (with various symbolical illustrations of philosophical principles), secondary creation, genealogy of kings, and of Manvantaras (the period of Manu’s rule consisting of 71 celestial Yugas or 308,448,000 years). All the Puranas belong to the class of Suhrit-Sammitas, or the Friendly Treatises, while the Vedas are called the Prabhu-Sammitas or the Commanding Treatises with great authority."

"The Puranas, the Tantras, and all the other books, even the Vyasa Sutras, are of secondary, or tertiary authority, but primary are the Vedas."

"In Puranas, the supreme truth is made known to one and all, including ordinary men, in a very simple manner....There are many Puranas. It is believed that there were approximately 64 Puranas consisting of 18 Mahapuranas, 18 primary Upa Puranas and the rest secondary Upa Puranas."

"The Mahapuranas contain 400,000 slokas. They are four times the size of Mahabharata. In these, six are Satvic or Vaishnava Puranas and glorify Lord Vishnu, six are Rajasic or Brahma Puranas and glorify Lord Brahma, and six are Tamasic or Shiva Puranas and glorify Lord Shiva."

"The Vasihnva Puranas are Vishnu Purana, Naradiya Purana, Vamana Purana, Matsya Purana, Garuda Purana, and Shrimat Bhagavata Purana."

"The Brahma Puranas that glorify Brahma are Brahma Purana, Bhavishya Purana, Agni Purana, Brahmavaivarta Purana, Brahmanda Purana, and Padma Purana."

"The Shiva Puranas are Shiva Purana, Linga Purana, Kurma Purana, Markandeya Purana, Skanda Purana, and Varaha Purana."

"According to Puranas, there are five characteristic features or subjects dealt with in each Maha Purana and these are: Sarga – the process of creation of Universe; Pratisarga – the periodical process of destruction and creation; Manvantara – the various eras; Vamsa – the histories of the solar and lunar dynasties; and Vamsanucharita – the royal lineage."

"The 18 Mahapuranas (great Puranas), as the origins of the Puranas, may have overlapped to some extent with the Vedas, but their composition stretched forward into the 4th-5th centuries,... the earliest parts of the Puranic genealogies are either entirely or partly w:Mythicalmythical. The oldest of the Puranas are the Matsya, Vayu and the Brahmanda and for our purposes, the Vishnu Purana, somewhat later than the first three … the Vedic link also goes back to the earlier statement that the itihasa-purana was the fifth Veda."

"If the Purana written by Vyasa were still existing, then it would be honoured as a “Sruti”. In the absence of this Purana and the one written by Lomaharshana, the eighteen Puranas that still exist cannot all be given the same place of honour; among them, the Vishnu and the Bhagwata Purana composed by accomplished yogis are definitely more precious and we must recognise that the Markandeya Purana written by a sage devoted to spiritual pursuits is more profound in Knowledge than either the Shiva or the Agni Purana."

"The Puranas are the most important among the “Smritis”. The spiritual knowledge contained in the Upanishads has, in the Puranas, been transformed into fiction and metaphors; we find in them much useful information on Indian history, the gradual growth and expression of the Hindu dharma, the condition of the society in ancient times, social customs, religious ceremonies, Yogic methods of discipline and ways of thinking."

"The composers of the Puranas are either accomplished yogis or seekers of Truth. The Knowledge and spiritual realisations obtained by their sadhana remain recorded in the respective Puranas. The Vedas and the Upanishads are the fundamental scriptures of the Hindu religion, the Puranas are commentaries on these scriptures."

"The division created by the English educated scholars who separate the Vedas and the Upanishads from the Puranas and thus make a distinction between the Vedic dharma and the Puranic dharma is a mistake born of ignorance. The Puranas are accepted as an authority on the Hindu dharma because they explain the knowledge contained in the Veda and the Upanishads to the average man, comment upon it, discuss it at great length and endeavour to apply it to the commonplace details of life."

"The Purana carry on propaganda in favour of a particular deity or a place sacred to that deity, and are sectarian. … The Vayu, Brahmanda, Matsya, and the Vishnu Puranas give ancient royal genealogies. The original Puranas existed long before the Christian era, were revised and modified in later times and chapters on Hindu rites and customs were added to them. They attempted to being Vaishnavism and Saivism within the orthodoxy and combined new doctrines with Vedic rituals, ..."

"All the Vedic literature and the Purāṇas are meant for conquering the darkest region of material existence. The living being is in the state of forgetfulness of his relation with God due to his being overly attracted to material sense gratification from time immemorial. His struggle for existence in the material world is perpetual, and it is not possible for him to get out of it by making plans. If he at all wants to conquer this perpetual struggle for existence, he must reestablish his eternal relation with God. And one who wants to adopt such remedial measures must take shelter of literature such as the Vedas and the Purāṇas. Some people say that the Purāṇas have no connection with the Vedas. However, the Purāṇas are supplementary explanations of the Vedas intended for different types of men. All men are not equal. There are men who are conducted by the mode of goodness, others who are under the mode of passion and others who are under the mode of ignorance. The Purāṇas are so divided that any class of men can take advantage of them and gradually regain their lost position and get out of the hard struggle for existence."

"The manifestation of unfit elements is great at the end of Kali Yuga. The fiercer Armageddon is, the better it serves as purifier of the dross. (66) The end of Kali Yuga is significant, for many cosmic events are connected with this period... Armageddon was predicted ages ago, and the abnormalities at the end of Kali Yuga were described in the Puranas, but even keen thinkers underestimated those clear indications.However, the unusualness of the events does not impress humanity, whose mental confusion was also predicted ages ago. (106) The significance of Armageddon is little understood. Anyone who knows about the approaching end of Kali Yuga recognizes that it cannot occur without world upheavals. The forces that were particularly powerful during the Black Age must now struggle for survival, and they prefer a general catastrophe to defeat... The tension of spatial currents and the discovery of Primal Energy could not be mentioned in the Puranas even though they were intended for the seeking, advanced thinkers. But both of these conditions have now been manifested in a pronounced form, making the significance of the approaching end of Kali Yuga the more obvious.(127)"

"It is true that Armageddon is raging and incredible crimes have been committed, but it is also true that against the background of these terrors a speedy evolution rushes onward. Is it possible that people do not see how much of the new is entering life? We should not permit the doubting worldlings to proclaim that the dark forces are victorious. That which belongs to Infinity cannot be conquered. The Thinker wisely encouraged His disciples, and prophesied the victory of the Forces of Light. (259) In the Puranas it was predicted that toward the end of Kali Yuga humanity would be driven to acts of madness. It is very dangerous that people do not recognize this state, for while it is possible to cure a patient who does not resist treatment, if he struggles against it the beneficial effects of the medicine will be diminished. But how do you explain to people that their leaders and their teachers are insane? ...such mental confusion fully corresponds with the end of Kali Yuga... Most people hate the messenger who brings knowledge... let them at least remember the warning that humanity is acting insanely. The Thinker warned, “Do not fall into madness.” (285)"

"The Srimad Bhagavatam is the very essence of all the Vedanta literature. One who has enjoyed the nectar of its rasa never has any desire for anything else."

"The Srimad Bhagavatam teaches nine primary forms of bhakti, as explained by Prahlada as:(1) śravaṇa ("listening" to the scriptural stories of Kṛṣṇa and his companions), (2) kīrtana ("praising," usually refers to ecstatic group singing), (3) smaraṇa ("remembering" or fixing the mind on Viṣṇu), (4) pāda-sevana (rendering service), (5) arcana (worshiping an image), (6) vandana (paying homage), (7) dāsya (servitude), (8) sākhya (friendship), and (9) ātma-nivedana (complete surrender of the self)."

"This Bhāgavatam is the essence of all Vedanta philosophy because its subject matter is the Absolute Truth, which, while nondifferent from the spirit soul, is the ultimate reality, one without a second. The goal of this literature is exclusive devotional service unto that Supreme Truth.(BP 12.13.12)"

"Vishnu Purana is one of the eighteen traditional puranas, which were an important genre of smriti text, and the repository of much of traditional Indian mythology... Most of the puranas are highly sectarian as is the Vishnu Purana which is focused on the worship of Vishnu. It gives an exhaustive account of Vishnu’s mystic deeds – many of which have become the common mythic currency for many traditional Hindus – as well as instructions for how, where, and when Vishnu is to be worshipped."

"It is a primary text of the Vaishnava branch of Hinduism, and one of the Cnanonical puranas of the Visnhu Category. Among the portions of interest are a cycle of legends of the boyhood deeds of Krishna and Rama."

"The Narada or Naradiya Purana is where Narada has described the duties which were observed in Vrihat Kalpa, that is called Naradiya, having twenty five thousand stanzas....It is communicated by Narada to the rishis in Naimisharanya, on the Gomati River."

"Vamana Purana is that in which the four faced Brahma taught the three objects of existence, as subservient to the account of the greatness of Trivikrama, which treats also of the Shiva Kalpa, and which consists of ten thousand stanzas. It contains an account of the dwarf incarnation of Vishnu; but it is related by Pulastya to Narada, and extends to but about seven thousand stanzas. Its contents can scarcely establish its claim to the character of a Purana."

"Matsya Purana is that in which, for the sake of promulgating the Vedas, Vishnu, in the beginning of the Kalpa related to Manu the story of Narasimha and the events of seven Kalpas, that O, sages know to be the Matsya containing twenty thousand stanzas...the subjects of the Purana were communicated by Vishnu, in the form of a fish to Manu. The Purana, after the usual prologue open with the account of the Matsya or ‘fish’ Avatars of Vishnu, in which he preserves a king named Manu, with the seeds of all things, in an ark, from the waters of the inundation which in the season of Pralaya overspreads the world. This story is told in the Mahabharata, with reference to the Matsya as its authority; from which it might be inferred that the Purana was prior to the poem."

"The Garuda Purana is one of the Vishnu Puranas. It is in the form of a dialog between Vishnu and Garuda, the King of Birds... Portions of the Garuda Purana are used by some Hindus as funeral liturgy…. The Garuda Purana starts with the details of the afterlife. The final part of this text is an appeal to self-knowledge as the key to liberation, going beyond austerities and study of the texts: "The fool, not knowing that the truth is seated in himself, is bewildered by the Shastras,--a foolish goatherd, with the young goat under his arm, peers into the well.""

"Brahma Purana is the whole of which was formerly repeated by Brahma to Marichi and contains ten thousands stanzas. In all the lists of Puranas, Brahma Purana is placed at the head of the series, and is thence sometimes also entitled to Adi or ‘First’ Purana. It is also designated as Saura, as it is in great part appropriated to the worship of Surya, the ‘sun’. There is a supplementary or concluding section called the Brahmottara Khanda, which contains about three thousand more; but there is every reason to conclude that this a distinct and unconnected work...The immediate narrator of the Brahma Purana is Lomaharshana, who communicates it to the Rishis or sages assembled at Naimisharanya, as it was originally revealed by Brahma, not to Marichi as the Matsya affirms, but to Daksha, another of the patriarchs: hence the denomination of the Brahma Purana."

"Bhavishya Purana is the Purana in which Brahma, having described the greatness of the sun, explained to Manu the existence of the world, and the characters of all created things, in the course of the Aghora Kalpa, the stories being for the most part of the events of a future period. It contains fourteen thousand five hundred stanzas. This Purana, as the name implies should be a book of prophesies, foretelling what will be (bhavishyat), as the Matsya Purana intimates."

"The cyclopedial character of the Agni Purana, as it is now described, excludes it from any legitimate claims to be regarded as a Purana, and proves that its origin cannot be remote. It is subsequent to the Itihasas; to the chief works on grammar, rhetoric, and medicine; and to the introduction of the Tantrika worship of Devi. When this latter took place is yet far from determined, but there is every probability that it dates long after the beginning of our era. The materials of the Agni Purana are however, no doubt of some antiquity. The medicine of Sushruta is considerably older than the ninth century; and the grammar of Panini probably precedes Christianity. The chapters on archery and arms, and on regal administration, are also distinguished by an entirely Hindu character, and must have been written long anterior to the Mohammedan invasion. So far the Agni Purana is valuable, as embodying and preserving relics of antiquity, although compiled at a more recent date."

"The knowers of ancient things call this Purana Brahma Vaivarta because in it Brahman (I Khanda [chapter]) and the Universe (II Khanda) are unfolded by Krishna. The actual structure of the Brahma and the Prakriti khandas, is a further corroboration that in the word ‘Brahma-Vivarta’ what is meant is Brahman and not Brahma. It is the Purana of manifested Brahmin, which seems to be comprehensive of all topics of the Purana."

"Radha’s elevated status, her role as a cosmic queen equal to or superior Krishna giving her a central role in the cosmogony in the Brahma Vivarta Purana...As creator of the universe we find Radha playing a role that is extremely atypical of her earlier history, the role of a mother. In the Brahma Vaivarta Purana, however, she is often called by names that suggest that her motherly role, vis-à-vis the created world. She is called mother of Vishnu, mother of the world, and mother of all."

"Brahmananda Purana, has declared in twelve thousand two hundred verses, the magnificence of the egg of Brahma, and in which an account of the future Kalpa is contained, as was revealed by Brahma. It is usually considered to be in much the same predicament as Skanda, no longer procurable in a collective body, but represented by a variety of Khandas and Mahatmyas, professing to be derived from it."

"Padma Purana is that which contains an account of the period when the world was a golden lotus (padma)), and of all the occurrences of that time, is therefore called Padma by the wise. It contains fifty five thousand stanzas. The second Purana in the usual lists is always Padma, a very voluminous work, containing according to its own statement, as well as of other authorities fifty-five thousand slokas; an amount not far from the truth. These are divided amongst five books or Khandas: 1. Srishti Khanda, or section on creation; 2. the Bhumi Khanda, description of the earth; 3. the Swarga Khanda, chapter on heaven; 4. the Patala Khanda, chapters on regions below the earth; and 5. The Uttara Khanda, last or supplementary chapter. There is also current a sixth division, the Kriya Yoga Sara, a treatise on the practice of devotion."

"Most of the puranas are highly sectarian as is the Shiva Purana, which is one of the longer and larger puranas. It gives an exhaustive account Shiva’s mythic deeds – many of which have become the common mythic currency for many traditional Hindus – as well as instructions for how, where, and when Shiva is to be worshipped."

"Linga Purana is where Maheshwara, present in the Agni Linga, explained {the objects of life) virtue, wealth, pleasure, and final liberation at the end of the Agni Kalpa, and this Purana, consists of eleven thousand stanzas. It is said to have been originally composed by Brahma and the primitive Linga is a pillar of radiance, in which Maheswara is present."

"Linga Purana, listed eleven in the order of composition, enunciates many rituals in the text with legends and stories that date back to a hoary period. It gives details of Shiva Puja and has two parts – the first part is said to be ‘Poorva Bhaga’ and the other ‘Uttara Bhaga'. It has 180 chapters in the first part and 55 in the second. The language of the Purana is difficult."

"Kurma Purana is that in which Janardhana, in the form of a tortoise, in the regions under the earth, explained the objects of life – duty, wealth, pleasure, and liberation - in communication with Indradyumna and the Rishis in the proximity of Sakra, which refers to the Lakshmi Kalpa, and contains seventeen thousand stanzas. The first chapter of the Purana gives an account of itself. Suta the narrator says: “This most excellent Kurma Purana is the fifteenth. Samhitas are fourfold, from the variety of the collections. The Brahmi, Bhagavathi, Sauri, and Vaishnavi (Matrika goddess, are well known to the four Sanhitas [religious character] which confer virtue, wealth, pleasure, and liberation…]]."

"Markandeya Purana is that in which, commencing with the story of birds that were acquainted with right and wrong, everything is narrated fully by Markandeya, as it was explained by holy sages, in reply to the question of the Muni. It contains nine thousand verses, This is called from its being, in the first instance, narrated by Markendaya Muni, and, in the second instance place by certain fabulous birds."

"Markandeya Purana along with Bhagavat Purana is considered to be quite a celebrated work. Ranked seventh in the list of Puranas, probably one of the oldest works, its recitation is believed to free one from taints of sin. Named after the sage Markandeya, who acquired its knowledge from Brahma, the creator, its narration starts with sage Jaimini (author of Mimamsa sutras) approaching the wise birds (Dronaputras appearing as birds residing in the Himalayas) to get answers at the behest of Markandeya. Initially the Purana gets answers to the five basic questions: How was Vishnu born as a mortal? How Draupadi became the wife of five Pandavas? Why did Balabadra undertake the penance (pilgrimage) for having committed brahmanicide (killing of Brahmins) and why were the children of Draupadi destroyed so unceremoniously? These questions cover the whole gamut of ancient history, logic, morality, astronomy and so forth."

"Varaha Purana is that in which the glory of the great Varaha is predominant, as it was revealed to Earth by Vishnu, in connection, wise Munis, with the ManAva Kalpa, and which contains twenty-four thousand verses...It is narrated by Vishnu as Muni or in the boar incarnation, to the personified Earth. Sumantu, a Muni observed :”The divine Varaha in former times expounded a Purana, for the purpose of solving the perplexity of Earth.”... Like the Linga Purana, it is a religious manual, almost wholly occupied with forms of prayer, and rules for devotional observances, addressed to Vishnu; interspersed with legendary illustrations, most of which are peculiar to itself; though some are taken from the common and ancient stock; many of them, rather incompatibly with the general scope of compilation, relate to the history of Shiva and Durga. A considerable portion of the work is devoted to descriptions. In the sectarianism of the Varaha Purana there is no leaning to the particular adoration of Krishna, nor are the Rathyatra or Janmshtami included amongst the observances enjoined."

"One who visits Ayodhya the way enjoined sheds all one’s sins and finds one’s abode in the House of Hari (Hari-mandira). Likewise, ‘for one who takes bath in the Svargadvara and visits the Rama temple (Ramalaya) nothing remains to be done here and he has fulfilled his duty."

"Skanda Purana is that in which the six faced deity (Skanda) has related the events of the Tatpurusha Kalpa, enlarged with many tales, and subservient to the duties taught by Maheshwara. It is a said to contain eighty-one thousand one hundred stanzas. In a collective form it is not noteable, but in fragments in the shape of Samhitas, Khandas [chapters], and Mahtmyas; the most celebrated of these portions in Hindustan is the Kali Khanda, a very minute description of temples of Shiva in or adjacent to Benares, mixed with directions for worshipping Mahehwara, and a great variety of legends explanatory on its merits, and of the holiness of Kashi. Many of them are puerile and uninteresting, but some are of a higher character."

"Armageddon was predicted ages ago, and the abnormalities at the end of Kali Yuga were described in the Puranas, but even keen thinkers underestimated those clear indications... (106) ...It is true that Armageddon is raging and incredible crimes have been committed, but it is also true that against the background of these terrors a speedy evolution rushes onward. Is it possible that people do not see how much of the new is entering life? We should not permit the doubting worldlings to proclaim that the dark forces are victorious. That which belongs to Infinity cannot be conquered. (259)"

"In the Puranas it was predicted that toward the end of Kali Yuga humanity would be driven to acts of madness. It is very dangerous that people do not recognize this state, for while it is possible to cure a patient who does not resist treatment, if he struggles against it the beneficial effects of the medicine will be diminished. But how do you explain to people that their leaders and their teachers are insane? ...such mental confusion fully corresponds with the end of Kali Yuga... Most people hate the messenger who brings knowledge... let them at least remember the warning that humanity is acting insanely. The Thinker warned, “Do not fall into madness.” (285)"

"We are in the Kali Yuga [a Sanskrit term meaning Dark Age] and its fatal influence is a thousand-fold more powerful in the West than it is in the East; hence the easy preys made by the Powers of the Age of Darkness [evil] in this cyclic struggle, and the many delusions under which the world is now laboring. One of these is the relative facility with which men fancy they can get at the "Gate" and cross the threshold of Occultism without any great sacrifice. It is the dream of most Theosophists, one inspired by desire for Power and personal selfishness, and it is not such feelings that can ever lead them to the coveted goal. For, as well said by one believed to have sacrificed himself for Humanity--"Strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life" eternal, and therefore "few there be that find it." (Matthew 7:14) So strait indeed, that at the bare mention of some of the preliminary difficulties the affrighted Western candidates turn back and retreat with a shudder... Let them stop here and attempt no more in their great weakness. For if, while turning their backs on the narrow gate, they are dragged by their desire for the Occult one step in the direction of the broad and more inviting gates of that golden mystery which glitters in the light of illusion, woe to them!"

"As the “ Satya-yuga” is always the first in the series of the four ages or Yugas, so the Kali ever comes the last... Anyhow, it is curious to see how prophetic in almost all things was the writer of Vishnu Purâna when foretelling to Maitreya some of the dark influences and sins of this Kali Yug. For after saying that the “barbarians” will be masters of the banks… he adds: “ There will be contemporary monarchs, reigning over the earth— kings of churlish spirit, violent temper, and ever addicted to falsehood and wickedness. They will inflict death on women, children, and cows; they will seize upon the property of their subjects, and be intent upon the wives of others; they will be of unlimited power, their lives will be short, their desires insatiable... People of various countries intermingling with them, will follow their example; and the barbarians being powerful... in the patronage of the princes, while purer tribes are neglected... Wealth and piety will decrease until the world will be wholly depraved. Property alone will confer rank; wealth will be the only source of devotion; passion will be the sole bond of union between the sexes; falsehood will be the only means of success in litigation; and women will be objects merely of sensual gratification."

"I shall quote an interesting passage from The Secret Doctrine taken from the Puranas. "... a man if rich will be reputed pure; dishonesty... will be the universal means of subsistence, weakness the cause of dependence, menace and presumption will be substituted for learning; liberality will be devotion; mutual assent, [will replace] marriage; fine clothes [will be regarded as] dignity. . . . He who is the strongest will reign.. the people, unable to bear the heavy burden, Kara-bhara (the load of taxes) will take refuge among the valleys. . ."

"Thus, in the Kali age will decay constantly proceed, until the human race approaches its annihilation (pralaya). . . . When the close of the Kali age shall be nigh, a portion of that divine being which exists, if its own spiritual nature . . . shall descend on Earth . . . as Kalki (Avatar) endowed with the eight superhuman faculties. . . . He will re-establish righteousness on Earth, and the minds of those who live at the end of Kali-Yuga shall be awakened and become as pellucid as crystal. The men who are thus changed. . . shall be the seeds of human beings, and shall give birth to a race who shall follow the laws of the Krita age, (the age of purity). As it is said, 'When the sun and moon and the lunar asterism Tishya and the planet Jupiter are in one mansion the Krita (or Satya) age shall return.'"

"Fortunately the Puranic genealogies from the time of the founder of Buddhism onward can be tested by the evidence supplied by the Buddhist and Jain literature, dramas and inscriptions. (…) the mistakes regarding the names, the order of succession and the regnal years of kings are certainly not many."

"“If the Puranic genealogies from the time of the Buddha onward are almost faultless, the presumption naturally is that the earlier genealogies too are not mere figments of the imagination. (…) In the first place a large number of these names occur in the Vedic literature which is quite independent of the Purāṇas. Secondly, even those names which do not occur in the Vedic literature are so archaic that they could not have been coined by the authors of the present Purāṇas in whose time the style of names had completely changed.”"

"“There are numerous synchronisms recorded in the Vedic, Puranic and epic literatures which are in consonance with the arrangement of names in the dynastic lists of the Puranas. These facts clearly establish the correctness of the arrangement of names in the Puranic genealogies.”"

"The Puranic tradition, even if not in written form, existed already “in the Upaniṣadic period if not earlier” (Siddhantashastree 1977) and was mentioned in the Mahābhārata (18.6.97, “eighteen Purāṇas”) and in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad (7:1:2-4).... These distortions are common fare in any appropriation of ancient history by later writers, and only corroborate that we are dealing with authors really trying to do history, though it was an embellished and ideologically streamlined history. So, we have to treat would-be historical information from the Purāṇas with care; but with that caveat, we dare provisionally to draw upon at least the Puranic genealogies. These are the hard core of their pretended narrative of the past."

"There is actual mention in the Samhita and Brahmana literature of a work called Purana."

"The (hymns of the) Atharvangiras are the bees, the Itihasa-Purana is the flower."

"Contrary to popular scholarly opinion, the genealogies found in the Puranas, which list over a hundred and twenty kings in one Vedic dynasty alone, fit into the new model of ancient Indian history. The Puranic records are far more trustworthy than has hitherto been assumed. They are the distillate of countless generations of remembered knowledge, especially knowledge concerning the vicissitudes of royal houses. They date back to the third millennium B.C.E. and earlier. Greek accounts point to the existence of Indian royal lists (perhaps coinciding with those of the Puranas) that are reported to go back to the seventh millennium B.C.E."

"The Atharvaveda and the Itihasa-Veda are also Vedas."

"They alone contain something like a continuous historical narrative, and it is absurd to suppose that the elaborate royal genealogies were all merely figments of imagination or a tissue of falsehoods."

"There is nothing in them (Puranic accounts), as far as I am aware, really inconsistent with the most ancient book we possess, namely, the Rigveda, and they throw much light thereon, and on all problems concerning ancient India."

"Admittedly, the Vedas are a defective source of history. As religious books, they only deal with historical data in passing. But that has never kept the invasionist school from treating the Vedas as the only source of ancient Indian history, to the neglect of the legitimate history books, the ItihAsa-PuraNa literature, i.e. the Epics and the Puranas. It is like ignoring the historical Bible books (Exodus, Joshua, Chronicles, Kings) to draw ancient Israelite history exclusively from the Psalms, or like ignoring the historians Livius, Tacitus and Suetonius to do Roman history on the basis of the poet Virgil. What would be dismissed as “utterly ridiculous” in Western history is standard practice in Indian history."

"Those who seek great prosperity and happiness should never inflict pain on women. Where women are honored, in that family great men are born, but where they are not honored, all acts are fruitless. Where women pass their days in misery and sorrow because of the misdeeds of their husbands, that family soon entirely perishes, but where they are happy because of the good conduct of their husbands, the family continually prospers."

"पूजयेदशनं नित्यं अद्याच्चैनमकुत्सयन् । दृष्ट्वा हृष्येत् प्रसीदेच्च प्रतिनन्देच्च सर्वश: ॥ पूजितं ह्यशनं नियं बलमूर्जं च यच्छति । अपूजितं तु तद्भुक्तं उभयं नाशयेदिदं ॥"

"अनारोग्यमनायुष्यं अस्वर्ग्यं चातिभोजनं । अपुण्यं लोकविद्विष्टं तस्मात् तत्परिवर्जयेत् ॥"

"इन्द्रियाणां विचरतां विषयेष्वपहारिषु । संयमे यत्नमातिष्ठेत् विद्वान् यन्तेव वाजिनां॥"

"Evil actions performed in this world do not bear fruit immediately like the cow, which gives milk after being fed, but gradually gnaw the roots of him who commits them."

"Meat can never be obtained without injury to living creatures, and injury to sentient beings is detrimental to (the attainment of) heavenly bliss; let him therefore shun (the use of) meat. Having well considered the (disgusting) origin of flesh and the (cruelty of) fettering and slaying corporeal beings, let him entirely abstain from eating flesh."

"धर्मो रक्षति रक्षितः"

"Learn that sacred law which is followed by men learned (in the Veda) and assented to in their hearts by the virtuous, who are ever exempt from hatred and inordinate affection."

"When a man has studied the Veda in accordance with the rules, and begotten sons in accordance with his duty, and sacrificed with sacrifices according to his ability, he may set his mind-and-heart on freedom. (MS 6.36)"

"That land where the black antelope naturally roams, one must know to be fit for the performance of sacrifices; (the tract) different from that (is) the country of the Mlekkhas."

"Where women are honored there the gods are pleased; but where they are not honored no sacred rite yields rewards."

"[Brahmāvarta or] ―the district between the Sarasvatī and Dṛṣadvatī is the home of the Veda."

"Only in the case of a girl is the whole body pure."

"Circumcision, was prescribed for male children and the removal of the small labia from the females."

"They are forbidden to write from left to right or to use their right hand in writing: the use of the right hand and writing from left to right are reserved to people of virtue, to people of race."

"I cannot oversee whether the Semites have not already in very ancient times been in the terrible service of the Hindus: as Chandalas, so that then already certain properties took root in them that belong to the subdued and despised type (like later in Egypt). Later they ennoble themselves, to the extent that they become warriors […] and conquer their own lands and own gods. The Semitic creation of gods coincides historically with their entry into history."

"One thing I want to impress upon you is that Manu did not give the law of caste and that he could not do so. Caste existed long before Manu. He was an upholder of it and therefore philosophized about it, but certainly he did not and could not ordain the present order of Hindu Society [...] The spread and growth of the caste system is too gigantic a task to be achieved by the power or cunning of an individual or of a class [...] The Brahmins may have been guilty of many things, and I dare say they were, but the imposing of the caste system on the non-Brahmin population was beyond their mettle."

"In the opinion of the best contemporary orientalists, it [Manusmriti] does not, as a whole, represent a set of rules ever actually administered in Hindustan. It is in great part an ideal picture of that which, in the view of a Brahmin, ought to be law."

"[Calling it a law book] skews it towards what the British hoped to make of it: a tool with which to rule the Hindoos. A broader title like 'teaching' would better suggest what the text is."

"There is no historical evidence for either an active propagation or implementation of Dharmasastra [Manusmriti] by a ruler or any state – as distinct from other forms of recognizing, respecting and using the text. Thinking of Dharmasastra as a legal code and of its authors as lawgivers is thus a serious misunderstanding of its history."

"The Manu Smrti is usually referred to, especially by its modern leftist critics in India, as the casteist manifesto pure and simple. This is fair enough in the sense that there is no unjustly disregarded anti-caste element tucked away somewhere in Manu’s vision of society; the text is indeed casteist through and through. However, the scope of the Manu Smrti is broader, dealing with intra-family matters, the punishment of crime, the king’s (in the sense of: the state’s) duties, money-lending and usury, et al."

"“The cosmogony of the Manava Dharmashastra is the broadest and most comprehensive we have thus far encountered.”"

"We know nothing more interesting than to read Manu with the Bible in front of us. The latter book, a code of pillage and debauchery, which never knew the immortality of the soul, can not sustain the tiniest comparison with the ancient law book of the Hindus."

"The laws of Manu very probably were considerably older than those of Solon or even of Lycurgus, although the promulgation of them, before they were reduced to writing, might have been covered with the first monarchies established in Egypt and India."

"Manu Smriti was the foundation upon which the Egyptian, the Persian, the Grecian and the Roman codes of law were built and that the influence of Manu is still felt in Europe."

"Even the much-maligned Manusmriti (commonly known in the West as the Laws of Manu) was never enforced as the divine and all-encompassing law of Hindus – except by the British rulers who enforced it to show that the colonizers were ruling in accordance with 'Hindu Law' (a canon they had constructed themselves). Moreover, Manu's code is explicit in stating that it is not universal. It calls for updates, amendments and rewrites in order to suit different circumstances."

"Nelson in 1887, in a legal brief before the Madras High Court of British India, had stated, "there are various contradictions and inconsistencies in the Manu Smriti itself, and that these contradictions would lead one to conclude that such a commentary did not lay down legal principles to be followed but were merely recommendatory in nature.""

"What a yes-saying Aryan religion, born from the ruling classes, looks like: Manu’s law-book. What a yes-saying Semitic religion, born from the ruling classes, looks like: Mohammed’s law-book, the Old Testament in its older parts. What a no-saying Semitic religion, born from the oppressed classes, looks like: in Indian-Aryan concepts; the New Testament, a Chandala religion. What a no-saying Aryan religion looks like, grown among the dominant classes: Buddhism."

"I owe to these last weeks a very important lesson: I found Manu's book of laws in a French translation done in India under strict supervision from the most eminent priests and scholars there. This absolutely Aryan work, a priestly codex of morality based on the Vedas, on the idea of caste and very ancient tradition-not pessimistic, albeit very sacerdotal-supplements my views on religion in me most remarkable way. I confess to having the impression that everything else that we have by way of moral lawgiving seems to me an imitation and even a caricature of it-preeminently, Egypticism does; but even Plato seems to me in all the main points simply to have been well instructed by a Brahmin. It makes the Jews look like a Chandala race which learns from its masters the principles of making a priestly caste the master which organizes a people."

"Now let us consider the other case which is called morality, the case of the rearing of a particular race and species. The most magnificent example of this is offered by Indian morality, and is sanctioned religiously as the “Law of Manu.” In this book the task is set of rearing no less than four races at once: a priestly race, a warrior race, a merchant and agricultural race, and finally a race of servants—the Sudras. It is quite obvious that we are no longer in a circus watching tamers of wild animals in this book. To have conceived even the plan of such a breeding scheme, presupposes the existence of a man who is a hundred times milder and more reasonable than the mere lion-tamer. One breathes more freely, after stepping out of the Christian atmosphere of hospitals and prisons, into this more salubrious, loftier and more spacious world. What a wretched thing the New Testament is beside Manu, what an evil odour hangs around it!—But even this organisation found it necessary to be terrible,—not this time in a struggle with the animal-man, but with his opposite, the non-caste man, the hotch-potch man, the Chandala. And once again it had no other means of making him weak and harmless, than by making him sick,—it was the struggle with the greatest[Pg 47] “number.” Nothing perhaps is more offensive to our feelings than these measures of security on the part of Indian morality. The third edict, for instance (Avadana-Sastra I.), which treats “of impure vegetables,” ordains that the only nourishment that the Chandala should be allowed must consist of garlic and onions, as the holy scriptures forbid their being given corn or grain-bearing fruit, water and fire. The same edict declares that the water which they need must be drawn neither out of rivers, wells or ponds, but only out of the ditches leading to swamps and out of the holes left by the footprints of animals. They are likewise forbidden to wash either their linen or themselves since the water which is graciously granted to them must only be used for quenching their thirst. Finally Sudra women are forbidden to assist Chandala women at their confinements, while Chandala women are also forbidden to assist each other at such times. The results of sanitary regulations of this kind could not fail to make themselves felt; deadly epidemics and the most ghastly venereal diseases soon appeared, and in consequence of these again “the Law of the Knife,”—that is to say circumcision, was prescribed for male children and the removal of the small labia from the females. Manu himself says: “the Chandala are the fruit of adultery, incest, and crime (—this is the necessary consequence of the idea of breeding). Their clothes shall consist only of the rags torn from corpses, their vessels shall be the fragments of broken pottery, their ornaments shall be made of old iron, and their religion shall be the worship of evil spirits; without rest they shall wander from place to place.[Pg 48] They are forbidden to write from left to right or to use their right hand in writing: the use of the right hand and writing from left to right are reserved to people of virtue, to people of race.”"

"These regulations are instructive enough: we can see in them the absolutely pure and primeval humanity of the Aryans,—we learn that the notion “pure blood,” is the reverse of harmless. On the other hand it becomes clear among which people the hatred, the Chandala hatred of this humanity has been immortalised, among which people it has become religion and genius. From this point of view the gospels are documents of the highest value; and the Book of Enoch is still more so. Christianity as sprung from Jewish roots and comprehensible only as grown upon this soil, represents the counter-movement against that morality of breeding, of race and of privilege:—it is essentially an anti-Aryan religion: Christianity is the transvaluation of all Aryan values, the triumph of Chandala values, the proclaimed gospel of the poor and of the low, the general insurrection of all the down-trodden, the wretched, the bungled and the botched, against the “race,”—the immortal revenge of the Chandala as the religion of love."

"The morality of breeding and the morality of taming, in the means which they adopt in order to prevail, are quite worthy of each other: we may lay down as a leading principle that in order to create morality a man must have the absolute will to[Pg 49] immorality. This is the great and strange problem with which I have so long been occupied: the psychology of the “Improvers” of mankind. A small, and at bottom perfectly insignificant fact, known as the “pia fraus,” first gave me access to this problem: the pia fraus, the heirloom of all philosophers and priests who “improve” mankind. Neither Manu, nor Plato, nor Confucius, nor the teachers of Judaism and Christianity, have ever doubted their right to falsehood. They have never doubted their right to quite a number of other things To express oneself in a formula, one might say:—all means which have been used heretofore with the object of making man moral, were through and through immoral."

"In the last analysis it comes to this: what is the end of lying? The fact that, in Christianity, "holy" ends are not visible is my objection to the means it employs. Only bad ends appear: the poisoning, the calumniation, the denial of life, the despising of the body, the degradation and self–contamination of man by the concept of sin—therefore, its means are also bad.—I have a contrary feeling when I read the Code of Manu, an incomparably more intellectual and superior work, which it would be a sin against the intelligence to so much as name in the same breath with the Bible. It is easy to see why: there is a genuine philosophy behind it, in it, not merely an evil–smelling mess of Jewish rabbinism and superstition,—it gives even the most fastidious psychologist something to sink his teeth into. And, not to forget what is most important, it differs fundamentally from every kind of Bible: by means of it the nobles, the philosophers and the warriors keep the whip–hand over the majority; it is full of noble valuations, it shows a feeling of perfection, an acceptance of life, and triumphant feeling toward self and life—the sun shines upon the whole book."

"I know of no book in which so many delicate and kindly things are said of women as in the Code of Manu; these old grey–beards and saints have a way of being gallant to women that it would be impossible, perhaps, to surpass. "The mouth of a woman," it says in one place, "the breasts of a maiden, the prayer of a child and the smoke of sacrifice are always pure." In another place: "there is nothing purer than the light of the sun, the shadow cast by a cow, air, water, fire and the breath of a maiden." Finally, in still another place—perhaps this is also a holy lie—: "all the orifices of the body above the navel are pure, and all below are impure. Only in the maiden is the whole body pure.""

"One catches the unholiness of Christian means in flagranti by the simple process of putting the ends sought by Christianity beside the ends sought by the Code of Manu—by putting these enormously antithetical ends under a strong light. The critic of Christianity cannot evade the necessity of making Christianity contemptible.—A book of laws such as the Code of Manu has the same origin as every other good law–book: it epitomizes the experience, the sagacity and the ethical experimentation of long centuries; it brings things to a conclusion; it no longer creates. The prerequisite to a codification of this sort is recognition of the fact that the means which establish the authority of a slowly and painfully attained truth are fundamentally different from those which one would make use of to prove it. A law–book never recites the utility, the grounds, the casuistical antecedents of a law: for if it did so it would lose the imperative tone, the "thou shall," on which obedience is based. The problem lies exactly here."

"To draw up such a law–book as Manu’s means to lay before a people the possibility of future mastery, of attainable perfection—it permits them to aspire to the highest reaches of the art of life."

"It is not Manu but nature that sets off in one class those who are chiefly intellectual, in another those who are marked by muscular strength and temperament, and in a third those who are distinguished in neither one way or the other, but show only mediocrity—the last–named represents the great majority, and the first two the select."

"The belief in the authenticity of Kulluka's text was openly articulated by Burnell (1884, xxix): "There is then no doubt that the textus receptus, viz., that of Kulluka Bhatta, as adopted in India and by European scholars, is very near on the whole to the original text." This is far from the truth. Indeed, one of the great surprises of my editorial work has been to discover how few of the over fifty manuscripts that I collated actually follow the vulgate in key readings."

"[The Aryan] religion was, in its poetic fancies, as far exalted above [the native's] crude systems of worship as the sublime teachings of Christianity soar above the doctrines of the code of Menu."

"Hindu Sashtras also contain a Sanitary Code no less correct in principle, and that the great law-giver, Manu, was one of the greatest sanitary reformers the world has ever seen."

"The other side of the coin is equally important. Before using hyperbolic pejoratives to describe how oppressive Indian society has been for ‘thousands of years’, and basing the most far-reaching policy prescriptions on that construction, should the judges, who quote a sentence or two from Manusmriti, not adduce evidence to establish, first, that the half a dozen verses that are cited again and again are representative of the work; second, that the smritis are intrinsic to Hinduism; third, that the kind of oppression and differentiation that these verses imply actually prevailed in practice? Manusmriti is said to have been compiled over seven to eight hundred years. Which verse is authentic and which an interpolation? Second, what is the evidence that this text was in fact being lived out in practice? Even the ‘eminent historians’ who have built their careers on such assertions have not been able to point to any evidence that even vaguely suggests that Indian society was characterized by the tales of caste oppression that are their stock-in-trade.50 With these ‘historians’ unable to adduce any evidence to substantiate their assertions, on what do the judges base their characterizations? And yet, not only do our judges repeat the assertions, they do so in grandiloquent prose, and they base their policy prescriptions on those very assertions."

"Should the judges, who quote a sentence or two from Manusmriti, not adduce evidence to establish, first, that the half a dozen verses that are cited again and again are representative of the work; second, that the smritis are intrinsic to Hinduism; third, that the kind of oppression and differentiation that these verses imply actually prevailed in practice?"

"More serious is Nietzsche’s uncritical reliance on the flawed translation of the text by Jacolliot, an amateur openly denounced by leading philologists like Friedrich Max Muller. Uncritical reading of this text led Nietzsche to quote mistranslations and later insertions in support of the claim concerning the Chandala (low caste) origins of the Semites, used to attack Christianity in TI and AC. Elst goes on to highlight what Nietzsche missed or omitted in his reading of the text, including not just the actual politics and institutions of the caste system, but also some striking affinities with his own views and teachings. Despite these philological blunders and misjudgements, however, Nietzsche seems to have landed on his feet after all; for in Elst’s view, he did succeed in grasping Manu’s view of man and society."

"Says our great law-giver, Manu, giving the definition of an Aryan, "He is the Aryan, who is born through prayer". Every child not born through prayer is illegitimate, according to the great law-giver. The child must be prayed for."

"A child materially born is not an Aryan; the child born in spirituality is an Aryan."

"He is of the 'aryan' race, who is born through prayer, and he is a nonarian, who is born through sensuality."

"According to Manu a child who is born of lust is not an Aryan. The child whose very conception and whose death is according to the rules of the Vedas, such is an Aryan. Yes, and less of these Aryan children are being produced in every country, and the result is the mass of evil which we call Kali Yuga."

"The witness must take an oath before deposing. Single witness normally does not suffice. As many as three witnesses are required. False evidence must face sanctions."

"He should not spend the morning, midday or afternoon fruitlessly, but pursue righteousness, wealth and pleasure, to the best of his ability, but among them he should attend chiefly to righteousness."

"The Dharma-Shâstras give a completely far-fetched theory of the origins of the castes, e.g. the Gautama-Dharma-Shâstra (4.17) relays the view that the union of a Shûdra woman with a Brâhmana, a Kshatriya or a Vaishya man brings forth the Pârashava c.q. the Yavana (‘Ionian’, Greek or West-Asian) and the Karana jâti."

"Ayu went eastwards, the Kuru-Pañcalas and Kasi-Videha are (his descendants) the Ayavas; (And) Amavasu (went) westwards, the Gandharas, Parsus and Arattas are (his descendants) the Amavasyavas."

"“The Apsaras Purvacitti was her Urvasi’s) sister. She thought, "My sister has been living among human beings for a long time. I shall meet her." (Even after) Coming to her, she could not meet her. She resided with the herd of sheep in her (Urvasi’s) possession because such was the appearance of old ladies. She assumed the form of a wolf and caused a violent stir up (in the herd of sheep). A young ram, still sucking its mother was tied to a foot of her (Urvasi’s) bed. She (Purvacitti) snatched it away. As it was stolen away, (Urvasi) wept, "My ram is stolen". Hearing it, the king jumped up. He approached her (Purvacitti). He met (came close to) her. Transformed as a female ichneumon, she went to him. She deprived him of his inner garment. She (Purvacitti) generated lightning. She (Urvasi) saw him naked in the light of the lightning. The king came and said, "I could not help; my ram had indeed disappeared."(2) (Urvasi said-) "I shall leave thee." (Pururava said-) "What is happened?" (Urvasi replied-) "I saw you naked." After her departure the king, with the harm already done, and suffering from grief, wandered. Brhaspati, son of Angiras said to him, "I shall cause you to perform the Sada sacrifice. I shall help thee in the wandering." Brhaspati made him perform the Sada sacrifice. After having returned from the Avabhrta (the king) saw her (Urvasi). The sons approached her and said, "Do thou take us there where thou are going. We are strong. Thou hast put our father, one of you two, to grief." She said, "O sons, I have given birth to you together. (Therefore) I stay here for three nights. Let not the word of the brahmana be untrue." The king wearing the inner garment lived with her for three nights. He shed semen virile unto her. She said, "What is to be done?" "What to do?", the king responded. She said, "Do thou fetch a new pitcher?" She disposed it into it. In Kurukshetra, there were ponds called Bisavati. The northern-most among then created gold. She put it (the semen) into it (the pond). From it (the banks of the pond) came out the Asvattha tree surrounded by Sami. It was Asvattha because of the virile semen, it was Sami by reason of the womb. Such is the creation of (Asvattha tree) born over Sami. This is its source. It is indeed said, "Gods attained heaven through the entire sacrifice." When the sacrifice came down to man from the gods, it came down upon the Asvattha (tree). They prepared the churning woods out of it; it is the sacrifice. Indeed, whichever may the Asvattha be, it should be deemed, as growing on the Sami (tree). When it is said, "Thou art Urvasi, Ayu and Pruvasas," one utters the names of the father and the sons. This may also be taken in general sense. After her departure, the king, with the harm already done, and suffering from grief, wandered. Brhaspati, son of Angiras said to him, "I shall cause thee perform the Aupasada sacrifice; thereby thy harm will disappear." Brhaspati, son of Angiras made him perform the Aupasada sacrifice. Thereby his harm disappeared. The Sadaupasada (sacrifices) are also known as Paururavasau. One who desires to obtain wealth, him should one cause to perform he Sada. In his sacrifice the Bahispavamana is in ten Stomas. ……."

"One must be extremely wary of using at least the Vedic versions of this legend to construct real history of human migrations, otherwise we would have to deduce an emigration from India in the direction of Central Asia. There is absolutely no need to read modern and colonial Aryan invasion and migration theories into ancient ritual texts."

"An over-arching theme in the versions of the Purur ava-Urvasi legend in the Vedic texts is the semi-divine origin of the Vedic ritual. The yajna is said to have reached mankind through Pururava, who got it through semi-divine beings, the Gandharvas, via the intervention of Urvasi, who herself was an apsaraa and belonged to the Gandharvas. Coupled with the Baudhayana Srautasutra 18.44-45 passage, we may interpret the names of Ayu and Amavasu to mean that the former represents the ancestor of peoples (Kuru- Panchalas and Kasi-Videhas) who are ‘alive and bright’, and ‘vibrant’ or ‘moving’ 39 because they sacrificed to the Devas. In contrast, the Gandharis, Parsus and Arattas did not perform Vedic sacrifices for Devas and hoarded their ‘possessions in their homes’, due to which they were ‘stationary’ or ‘dead’ and ‘devoid of light’, like the ‘amavasya’ or moonless night. This interpretation would be completely consistent with later traditions concerning the conformity to orthopraxy by the Kurus etc., and the lack of the same in the case of Arattas etc."

"It is beyond dispute that the interpretation Witzel gives to this passage does not accord with its syntax. This was pointed out, though without considering details, by Elst... This text cannot serve to document an Indo-Aryan migration into the main part of the subcontinent."

"The passage (from Baudha_yana S'rautasu_tra), part of a version of the Puruuravas and Urva'sii legend concerns two children that Urva'sii bore and which were to attain their full life span, in contrast with the previous ones she had put away. On p. 397, line 8, the text says: saayu.m caamaavasu.m ca janayaa.m cakaara 'she bore Saayu and Amaavasu.' Clearly, the following text concerns these two sons, and not one of them along with some vague people. Grammatical points also speak against Witzel's interpretation. First, if amaavasus is taken as amaa 'at home' followed by a form of vas, this causes problems: the imperfect third plural of vas (present vasati vasata.h vasanti etc.) would be avasan; the third plural aorist would be avaatsu.h. I have not had the chance to check Witzel's article again directly, so I cannot say what he says about a purported verb form (a)vasu.h. It is possible, however, that Elst has misunderstood Witzel and that the latter did not mean vasu as a verb form per se. Instead, he may have taken amaa-vasu.h as the nominative singular of a compound amaa- vasu- meaning literally 'stay-at-home', with -vas-u- being a derivate in -u- from -vas. In this case, there is still what Elst points out: an abrupt elliptic syntax that is a mismatch with the earlier mention of Amaavasu along with Aayu. Further, tasya can only be genitive singular and, in accordance with usual Vedic (and later) syntax, should have as antecedent the closest earlier nominal: if we take the text as referring to Amaavasu, all is in order: tasya (sc. Amaavaso.h). Finally, the taddhitaanta derivates aayava and aamaavasava then are correctly parallels to the terms aayu and amaavasu. In sum, everything fits grammatically and thematically if we straightforwardly view the text as concerning the wanderings of two sons of Urva'sii and the people associated with them. There is certainly no good way of having this refer to a people that remained in the west."

"This text actually speaks of a westward movement towards Central Asia, coupled with a symmetrical eastward movement from India's demographic centre around the Saraswati basin towards the Ganga basin."

"The most explicit statement of immigration into the Subcontinent."

"(The Srauta Sutra of Baudhayana) "refers to the Parasus and the arattas who stayed behind and others who moved eastwards to the middle Ganges valley and the places equivalent such as the Kasi, the Videhas and the Kuru Pancalas, and so on. In fact, when one looks for them, there are evidence for migration."

"There is the following direct statement contained in the (admittedly much later) BSS, 18.44:397.9 sqq which has once again been over-looked, not having been translated yet: ‘Ayu went eastwards. His (people) are the Kuru-PañcAla and the KASI-Videha. This is the Ayava (migration). (His other people) stayed at home in the West. His people are the GAndhArI, ParSu and AraTTa. This is the AmAvasava (group)’."

"The reason for this unpleasant pattern of falsely attributing silly opinions to me is probably not far to seek. It is the fact that I have exposed a mistake made by Witzel in a crucial part of his pro-AIT argumentation. In his paper “Rgvedic history”, he had mistranslated a verse from the Baudhayana Shrauta Sutra (18.44:397.9) to the effect that Ayu’s clan “went eastwards” while Amavasu’s clan “stayed at home in the west”, meaning in Afghanistan or Iran. So, there at long last was the hoped-for Vedic testimony to the Aryan invasion from the west, the “missing link” between Vedic literature and the elusive invasion. Pro-AIT crusaders like R.S. Sharma (Advent of the Aryans, p.87-89) have gleefully invoked the Harvard professor’s prestige in reproducing his OIT-shattering translation of Baudhayana, “the most explicit statement of an immigration into the Subcontinent”. But the translation was wrong. Like the “missing link” between ape and man found in Piltdown, it was a hoax, though presumably a somewhat bonafide hoax. As Prof. George Cardona and other authorities have meanwhile confirmed, the sentence describes how from a middle position (which we can infer to be somewhere in Haryana, India), one clan went east to the Ganga basin and another went west into Afghanistan. I have never accused Prof. Witzel of deceit or fraud. I prefer to live by Napoleon’s dictum: “Never attribute to malice what can be explained through incompetence”,-- or in this case, through over-enthusiasm for a long-hoped-for “discovery”. When people are very very thirsty, they start to see an oasis on the horizon; no malice intended, just self-delusion. Only, after his innocent mistake had been highlighted, Witzel’s reaction was rather unsportsmanlike. He claimed that it was all due to a printing error. That sounds a bit random for such a precise and sensational reading. As if you can put monkeys at a typewriter and let them produce an AIT-friendly translation by coincidence. What’s the big deal about standing corrected once in a while?"

"Kazanas rejects Michael Witzel’s attempt [1995:320-321] to find a testimony of the Aryan invasion in the Baudhāyana Śrauta Sūtra (BSS 18.44). According to Witzel, the text has Purūravas and Urvaśī’s son Amāvasu “stay home” somewhere in Afghanistan while his brother Āyu “migrates” into India. This would provide the “missing link” between the AIT and Sanskrit literature, which to the dismay of the AIT school had failed to provide any testimony of the Aryan invasion. But just as the Piltdown Man proved to be a false trail in the search for the evolutionary “missing link” between ape and man, Witzel’s translation proves to be incorrect.... On that point, we couldn’t agree more, having been the first to analyse Witzel’s rendering as a mistranslation [Elst 1999:164-165]. The passage actually refers to a westward emigration by Amavasu from India, in particular from the Saraswati basin, whence his brother Ayu migrated eastward into the Ganga basin. Amavasu’s progeny is described as including the Gāndhāris, the Persians (Parśu) and the Arāţţas, located in Iran or Afghanistan. This was already assumed in passing in earlier translations of the BSS (surveyed by Vishal Agarwal [2002]), starting with Willem Caland in 1904. Though Witzel’s translation has by now been rejected by all specialists who have cared to speak out [e.g. Cardona & Dhanesh 2007:38-40], there was an objective need for Kazanas to draw attention to it, viz. because it has remained quite influential, especially in the Indian polemic against the OIT. Thus, Romila Thapar and Ram Sharan Sharma have used this passage as evidence for the AIT, so that it has passed into the received wisdom in Indian academic circles."

"Among more recent attempts, motivated explicitly by the desire to counter the increasing skepticism regarding the Aryan invasion theory, the most precise endeavour to show up an explicit mention of the invasion turns out to be based on mistranslation... In fact, the meaning of the sentence is really quite straightforward, and doesn’t require supposing a lot of unexpressed subjects: “Ayu went east, his is the Yamuna-Ganga region”, while “Amavasu went west, his is Afghanistan, Parshu and West Panjab”. Though the then location of “Parshu” (Persia?) is hard to decide, it is definitely a western country, along with the two others named, western from the viewpoint of a people settled near the Saraswati river in what is now Haryana. Far from attesting an eastward movement into India, this text actually speaks of a westward movement towards Central Asia, coupled with a symmetrical eastward movement from India’s demographic centre around the Saraswati basin into the Ganga basin. The fact that a world-class specialist has to content himself with a late text like the Baudhayana Shrauta Sutra, and that he has to twist its meaning this much in order to get an invasionist story out of it, suggests that harvesting invasionist information in the oldest literature is very difficult indeed."

"This passage consists of two halves in parallel, and it is unlikely that in such a construction, the subject of the second half would remain unexpressed, and that terms containing contrastive information (like "migration" as opposed to the alleged non- migration of the other group) would remain unexpressed, all left for future scholars to fill in. It is more likely that a non-contrastive term representing a subject indicated in both statements, is left unexpressed in the second: that exactly is the case with the verb pravavrâja "he went", meaning "Ayu went" and "Amavasu went". Amavasu is the subject of the second statement, but Witzel spirits the subject away, leaving the statement subject-less, and turns it into a verb, "amâ vasu", "stayed at home". In fact, the meaning of the sentence is really quite straightforward, and doesn't require supposing a lot of unexpressed subjects: "Ayu went east, his is the Yamuna-Ganga region", while "Amavasu went west, his is Afghanistan, Parshu and West Panjab". Though the then location of "Parshu" (Persia?) is hard to decide, it is definitely a western country, along with the two others named, western from the viewpoint of a people settled near the Saraswati river in what is now Haryana. Far from attesting an eastward movement into India, this text actually speaks of a westward movement towards Central Asia, coupled with a symmetrical eastward movement from India's demographic centre around the Saraswati basin towards the Ganga basin.” The fact that a world-class specialist has to content himself with a late text like the BSS, and that he has to twist its meaning this much in order to get an invasionist story out of it, suggests that harvesting invasionist information in the oldest literature is very difficult indeed. Witzel claims (op.cit., p.320) that: "Taking a look at the data relating to the immigration of Indo-Aryans into South Asia, one is struck by a number of vague reminiscences of foreign localities and tribes in the Rgveda, in spite [of] repeated assertions to the contrary in the secondary literature." But after this promising start, he fails to quote even a single one of those "vague reminiscences".”"

"Anyway, the damage had been done and the Sulvasutras have never taken the position in the history of mathematics that they deserve."

"However, Seidenberg was told by the Indologists that these Sutras, or any Vedic text for that matter, were definitely written later than 1700 BC. But mathematical data cannot be manipulated just like that, and Seidenberg remained convinced of his case: “Whatever the difficulty there may be [concerning chronology], it is small in comparison with the difficulty of deriving the Vedic ritual application of the theorem from Babylonia. (The reverse derivation is easy)… the application involves geometric algebra, and there is no evidence of geometric algebra from Babylonia. And the geometry of Babylonia is already secondary whereas in India it is primary.” [To satisfy the indologists, he said that the Shulba Sutra had conserved an older tradition, and that it is from this one that the Babylonians had learned their mathematics:] “Hence we do not hesitate to place the Vedic (…) rituals, or more exactly, rituals exactly like them, far back of 1700 BC. (…) elements of geometry found in Egypt and Babylonia stem from a ritual system of the kind described in the Sulvasutras.”"

"In the Shulba Sutra appended to Baudhayana’s Shrauta Sutra, mathematical instructions are given for the construction of Vedic altars. One of its remarkable contributions is the theorem usually ascribed to Pythagoras, first for the special case of a square (the form in which it was discovered), then for the general case of the rectangle: “The diagonal of the rectangle produces the combined surface which the length and the breadth produce separately.”"

"The Sulvasutras are a class of works, preserved in various schools, such as those of Baudhayana, Apastamba, and Katyayana, which are often referred to as manuals of altar construction. (Others include those of Satyasadha, Manava, Maitrayani, and Varaha.) In these texts, the construction of a wide variety of altars is described—square, circular, or falcon-shaped—the form depending on the type of ritual to be performed. In certain of these sutras, the formula that came to be known in the West as the theory of Pythagoras is expressed. Thibaut (1875), who was the first to translate the sutras into English, felt that "the general impression we receive from a comparison of the methods employed by Greeks and Indians respectively seems to point to an entirely independent growth of this branch of Indian science" (228). Such a statement was quite significant in Thibaut's time, since the scientific achievements known to the Indo-Aryans were generally held to have been borrowed from the Greeks."

"Neugebauer has shown that these values [of irrational numbers in the Sulvasutras] are identical with those found in certain Babylonian cuneiform texts. . . .He tried to imply that the Indian value after all represented the Babylonian one. . . .As we have shown, there is certainly no proof of such an assertion and the Indian value is certainly derivable from the methods contained in the sulbasutras themselves" (Sen and Bag 1983, 11)."

"Yet long before 1937 people had suggested a non-Greek origin to Greek mathematics; and long before 1943 people had pointed out that sacred books of the East contain the ‘Pythagorean numbers’ [and indeed the ‘theorem’]. Such numbers are mentioned in the Sulvasutras; ancient Indian works on altar constructions. […] Neugebauer does not mention the Sulvasutras in his book Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Antiken Mathematischen Wissenschaften, nor does B. L. van der Waerden them in his book Science Awakening. Why this omission?"

"Patanjali's rules compel the student not only to acquire a right knowledge of what is and what is not real, but also to practice all virtues, and while results in the way of psychic development are not so immediately seen as in the case of the successful practitioner of Hatha Yoga, it is infinitely safer and is certainly spiritual, which Hatha Yoga is not. In Patanjali's Aphorisms there is some slight allusion to the practices of Hatha Yoga, such as "postures," each of which is more difficult than those preceding, and "retention of the breath," but he distinctly says that mortification and other practices are either for the purpose of extenuating certain mental afflictions or for the more easy attainment of concentration of mind. In Hatha Yoga practice, on the contrary, the result is psychic development at the delay or expense of the spiritual nature. These last named practices and results may allure the Western student, but from our knowledge of inherent racial difficulties there is not much fear that many will persist in them. (Preface)"

"This book is meant for sincere students, and especially for those who have some glimmering of what Krishna meant, when in Bhagavad-Gita he said, that after a while spiritual knowledge grows up within and illuminates with its rays all subjects and objects. (Preface)"

"It should be ever borne in mind that Patanjali had no need to assert or enforce the doctrine of reincarnation. That is assumed all through the Aphorisms. That it could be doubted, or need any restatement, never occurred to him, and by us it is alluded to, not because we have the smallest doubt of its truth, but only because we see about us those who never heard of such a doctrine, who, educated under the frightful dogmas of Christian priestcraft, imagine that upon quitting this life they will enjoy heaven or be damned eternally, and who not once pause to ask where was their soul before it came into the present body. Without Reincarnation Patanjali's Aphorisms are worthless. Take No. 18, Book III, which declares that the ascetic can know what were his previous incarnations with all their circumstances; or No. 13, Book II, that while there is a root of works there is fructification in rank and years and experience. Both of these infer reincarnation. In Aphorism 8, Book IV, reincarnation is a necessity. The manifestation, in any incarnation, of the effects of mental deposits made in previous lives, is declared to ensue upon the obtaining of just the kind of bodily and mental frame, constitution and environment as will bring them out. Where were these deposits received if not in preceding lives on earth — or even if on other planets, it is still reincarnation. And so on all through the Aphorisms this law is tacitly admitted. (Preface)"

"1. Assuredly, the exposition of Yoga, or Concentration, is now to be made. The Sanskrit particle atha, which is translated "assuredly," intimates to the disciple that a distinct topic is to be expounded, demands his attention, and also serves as a benediction. Monier Williams says it is "an auspicious and inceptive participle often not easily expressed in English.""

"2. Concentration, or Yoga, is the hindering of the modifications of the thinking principle. In other words, the want of concentration of thought is due to the fact that the mind — here called "the thinking principle" — is subject to constant modifications by reason of its being diffused over a multiplicity of subjects. So "concentration" is equivalent to the correction of a tendency to diffuseness, and to the obtaining of what the Hindus call "one-pointedness," or the power to apply the mind, at any moment, to the consideration of a single point of thought, to the exclusion of all else... Upon this Aphorism the method of the system hinges. The reason for the absence of concentration at any time is, that the mind is modified by every subject and object that comes before it; it is, as it were, transformed into that subject or object. The mind, therefore, is not the supreme or highest power; it is only a function, an instrument with which the soul works... (Book I, Concentration)"

"24. I's'wara is a spirit, untouched by troubles, works, fruits of works, or desires. 25. In I's'wara becomes infinite that omniscience which in man exists but as a germ. 26. I's'wara is the preceptor of all, even of the earliest of created beings, for He is not limited by time. 27. His name is OM. 28. The repetition of this name should be made with reflection upon its signification."

"The utterance of OM involves three sounds, those of long au, short u, and the "stoppage" or labial consonant m. To this tripartiteness is attached deep mystical symbolic meaning. It denotes, as distinct yet in union, Brahma, Vishnu, and S'iva, or Creation, Preservation, and Destruction. As a whole, it implies "the Universe." In its application to man, au refers to the spark of Divine Spirit that is in humanity; u, to the body through which the Spirit manifests itself; and m, to the death of the body, or its resolvement to its material elements. With regard to the cycles affecting any planetary system, it implies the Spirit, represented by au as the basis of the manifested worlds; the body or manifested matter, represented by u, through which the spirit works; and represented by m, "the stoppage or return of sound to its source," the Pralaya or Dissolution of the worlds. In practical occultism, through this word reference is made to Sound, or Vibration, in all its properties and effects, this being one of the greatest powers of nature. In the use of this word as a practice, by means of the lungs and throat, a distinct effect is produced upon the human body. In Aphorism 28 the name is used in its highest sense, which will necessarily include all the lower. All utterance of the word OM, as a practice, has a potential reference to the conscious separation of the soul from the body."

"29. From this repetition and reflection on its significance, there come a knowledge of the Spirit and the absence of obstacles to the attainment of the end in view. (Book I, Concentration)"

"26. स ऩवू षे ाभ ् अणऩ गरुु ् कारेनानवच्छदे ात ॥् २६॥ sa poorvesham api guruh kalenanavachchhedat He is the Teacher of even the ancient teachers, being not limited by time. It is true that all knowledge is within ourselves, but this has to be called forth by another knowledge. Although the capacity to know is inside us, it must be called out, and that calling out of knowledge can only be got, a Yogi maintains, through another knowledge. Dead, insentient matter, never calls out knowledge. It is the action of knowledge that brings out knowledge. Knowing beings must be with us to call forth what is in us, so these teachers were always necessary. The world was never without them, and no knowledge can come without them. God is the Teacher of all teachers, because these teachers, however great they may have been—gods or angels—were all bound and limited by time, and God is not limited by time. ..."

"27. तस्य वाचक् प्रिव् ॥ २७॥ tasya vachakah prannavah His manifesting word is Om... The commentator says the manifesting word of God is Om. Why does he emphasise this? There are hundreds of words for God. One thought is connected with a thousand words; the idea, God, is connected with hundreds of words, and each one stands as a symbol for God... Is there any material sound of which all other sounds must be manifestations, one which is the most natural sound? Om (Aum) is such a sound, the basis of all sounds. The first letter, A, is the root sound, the key, pronounced without touching any part of the tongue or palate; M represents the last sound in the series, being produced by the closed lip, and the U rolls from the very root to the end of the sounding board of the mouth. Thus, Om represents the whole phenomena of sound producing. It must be the natural symbol, the matrix of all the variant sounds. It denotes the whole range and possibility of all the words that can be made. Apart from these speculations we see that around this word Om are centred all the different religious ideas in India; all the various religious ideas of the Vedas have gathered themselves round this word Om. The word has been retained at every stage of religious growth in India, and it has been manipulated to mean all the various ideas about God. Monists, Dualists, Mono-Dualists, Separatists, and even Atheists, took up this Om. Om has become the one symbol for the religious aspiration of the vast majority of human beings. Take, for instance, the English word God. It conveys only a limited function, and if you go beyond it, you have to add adjectives, to make it Personal, or Impersonal, or Absolute God. So with the words for God in every other language; their signification is very small. This word Om, however, has around it all the various significances. As such it should be accepted by everyone."

"28. तज्जऩस्तदथबय ावनभ ॥् २८॥ tajjapastadarthabhavanam The repetition of this (Om) and meditating on its meaning (is the way). Why should there be repetition? We have not forgotten that theory of Samskaras, that the sum-total of impressions lives in the mind. Impressions live in the mind, the sum-total of impressions, and they become more and more latent, but remain there, and as soon as they get the right stimulus they come out. Molecular vibration will never cease. When this universe is destroyed all the massive vibrations disappear, the sun, moon, stars, and earth, will melt down, but the vibrations must remain in the atoms. Each atom will perform the same function as the big worlds do. So the vibrations of this Chitta will subside, but will go on like molecular vibrations, and when they get the impulse will come out again. We can now understand what is meant by repetition. It is the greatest stimulus that can be given to the spiritual Samskaras. “One moment of company with the Holy makes a ship to cross this ocean of life.” Such is the power of association. So this repetition of Om, and thinking of its meaning, is keeping good company in your own mind. Study, and then meditate and meditate, when you have studied. The light will come to you, the Self will become manifest. But one must think of this Om, and of its meaning too. Avoid evil company, because the scars of old wounds are in you, and this evil company is just the heat that is necessary to call them out. In the same way we are told that good company will call out the good impressions that are in us, but which have become latent. MVR<There is nothing holier in this world than to keep good company, because the good impressions will have this same tendency to come to the surface."

"29. तत् प्रत्यक्चेतनाणधगभोऽप्यन्तयामाबावि ॥ २९॥ tatah pratyakchetanadhigamopyantarayabhavashch From that is gain (the knowledge of) introspection, and the destruction of obstacles. The first manifestation of this repetition and thinking of Om will be that the introspective power will be manifested more and more, and all the mental and physical obstacles will begin to vanish. What are the obstacles to the Yogi?"

"30. व्याणधस्त्यानसंशमप्रभादारस्याणवयणतभ्राणन्तदशनय ारब्धबणू भक - त्वानवणस्थतत्वाणन णचत्तणवऺऩे ास्तऽे न्तयामा् ॥ ३०॥ vyadhistyanasanshayapramadalasyaviratibhrantidar shanalabdhabhoomikatvanavasthitatvani chittavikshepastentarayah Disease, mental laziness, doubt, calmness, cessation, false perception, non-attaining concentration, and falling away from the state when obtained, are the obstructing distractions."

"33.... Nature’s task is done, this unselfish task which our sweet nurse Nature had imposed upon herself. As it were, she gently took the self-forgetting soul by the hand, and showed him all the experiences in the universe, all manifestations, bringing him higher and higher through various bodies, till his glory came back, and he remembered his own nature."

"Then the kind mother went back the way she came, for others who have also lost their way in the trackless desert of life. And thus she is working, without beginning and without end. And thus through pleasure and pain, through good and evil, the infinite river of souls is flowing into the ocean of perfection, of self-realisation."

"Glory unto those who have realised their own nature! May their blessings be on us all!"

"The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are in themselves exceedingly brief, less than ten pages of large type in the original. Yet they contain the essence of practical wisdom, set forth in admirable order and detail. The theme, if the present interpreter be right, is the great regeneration, the birth of the spiritual from the psychical man: the same theme which Paul so wisely and eloquently set forth in writing to his disciples in Corinth, the theme of all mystics in all lands."

"We think of ourselves as living a purely physical life, in these material bodies of ours. In reality, we have gone far indeed from pure physical life; for ages, our life has been psychical, we have been centred and immersed in the psychic nature.... The teaching of the East is, that all these are true powers overlaid by false desires; that though in manifestation psychical, they are in essence spiritual; that the psychical man is the veil and prophecy of the spiritual man."

"The purpose of life, therefore, is the realizing of that prophecy; the unveiling of the immortal man; the birth of the spiritual from the psychical, whereby we enter our divine inheritance and come to inhabit Eternity. This is, indeed, salvation, the purpose of all true religion, in all times."

"1. OM: Here follows Instruction in Union. Union, here as always in the Scriptures of India, means union of the individual soul with the Oversoul; of the personal consciousness with the Divine Consciousness, whereby the mortal becomes immortal, and enters the Eternal. Therefore, salvation is, first, freedom from sin and the sorrow which comes from sin, and then a divine and eternal well-being, wherein the soul partakes of the being, the wisdom and glory of God."

"2. Union, spiritual consciousness, is gained through control of the versatile psychic nature. The goal is the full consciousness of the spiritual man, illumined by the Divine Light. Nothing except the obdurate resistance of the psychic nature keeps us back from the goal. The psychical powers are spiritual powers run wild, perverted, drawn from their proper channel. Therefore our first task is, to regain control of this perverted nature, to chasten, purify and restore the misplaced powers."

"The first book of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras is called the Book of Spiritual Consciousness. The second book, which we now begin, is the Book of the Means of Soul Growth. And we must remember that soul growth here means the growth of the realization of the spiritual man, or, to put the matter more briefly, the growth of the spiritual man, and the disentangling of the spiritual man from the wrappings, the veils, the disguises laid upon him by the mind and the psychical nature, wherein he is enmeshed, like a bird caught in a net."

"The question arises: By what means may the spiritual man be freed from these psychical meshes and disguises, so that he may stand forth above death, in his radiant eternalness and divine power? And the second book sets itself to answer this very question, and to detail the means in a way entirely practical and very lucid, so that he who runs may read, and he who reads may understand and practise. The second part of the second book is concerned with practical spiritual training, that is, with the earlier practical training of the spiritual man."

"The most striking thing in it is the emphasis laid on the Commandments, which are precisely those of the latter part of the Decalogue..."

"Therefore Patanjali, like every great spiritual teacher, meets the question: What must I do to be saved? with the age-old answer: Keep the Commandments..."

"1. The practices which make for union with the Soul are: fervent aspiration, spiritual reading, and complete obedience to the Master. The word which I have rendered "fervent aspiration" means primarily "fire"; and, in the Eastern teaching, it means the fire which gives life and light, and at the same time the fire which purifies. We have, therefore, as our first practice, as the first of the means of spiritual growth, that fiery quality of the will which enkindles and illumines, and, at the same time, the steady practice of purification, the burning away of all known impurities. The very study of Patanjali's Sutras is an exercise in spiritual reading, and a very effective one..."

"2. Their aim is, to bring soul-vision, and to wear away hindrances. The aim of fervour, spiritual reading and obedience to the Master, is, to bring soul vision, and to wear away hindrances. Or, to use the phrase we have already adopted, the aim of these practices is, to help the spiritual man to open his eyes; to help him also to throw aside the veils and disguises, the enmeshing psychic nets which surround him, tying his hands, as it were, and bandaging his eyes. And this, as all teachers testify, is a long and arduous task, a steady up-hill fight, demanding fine courage and persistent toil..."

"3. These are the hindrances: the darkness of unwisdom, self-assertion, lust, hate, attachment. Let us try to translate this into terms of the psychical and spiritual man. The darkness of unwisdom is, primarily, the self-absorption of the psychical man, his complete preoccupation with his own hopes and fears, plans and purposes, sensations and desires; so that he fails to see, or refuses to see, that there is a spiritual man; and so doggedly resists all efforts of the spiritual man to cast off his psychic tyrant and set himself free."

"4. The darkness of unwisdom is the field of the others. These hindrances may be dormant, or worn thin, or suspended, or expanded. Here we have really two Sutras in one. The first has been explained already: in the darkness of unwisdom grow the parasites, hate, lust, attachment. They are all outgrowths of the self-absorption of the psychical self... they must be fought and conquered, or, as Patanjali quaintly says, they must be worn thin,-as a veil might, or the links of manacles."

"5. The darkness of ignorance is: holding that which is unenduring, impure, full of pain, not the Soul, to be eternal, pure, full of joy, the Soul."

"6. Self-assertion comes from thinking of the Seer and the instrument of vision as forming one self. ... To translate this into our terms, we may say that the Seer is the spiritual man; the instrument of vision is the psychical man, through which the spiritual man gains experience of the outer world."

"7. Lust is the resting in the sense of enjoyment... Sensation, as, for example, the sense of taste, is meant to be the guide to action; in this case, the choice of wholesome food, and the avoidance of poisonous and hurtful things. But if we rest in the sense of taste, as a pleasure in itself; rest, that is, in the psychical side of taste, we fall into gluttony, and live to eat, instead of eating to live. So with the other great organic power, the power of reproduction. This lust comes into being, through resting in the sensation, and looking for pleasure from that..."

"8. Hate is the resting in the sense of pain. Pain comes, for the most part, from the strife of personalities, the jarring discords between psychic selves, each of which deems itself supreme. A dwelling on this pain breeds hate, which tears the warring selves yet further asunder, and puts new enmity between them, thus hindering the harmony of the Real, the reconciliation through the Soul..."

"9. Attachment is the desire toward life, even in the wise, carried forward by its own energy. The life here desired is the psychic life, the intensely vibrating life of the psychical self. This prevails even in those who have attained much wisdom, so long as it falls short of the wisdom of complete renunciation, complete obedience to each least behest of the spiritual man, and of the Master who guards and aids the spiritual man..."

"10. These hindrances, when they have become subtle, are to be removed by a countercurrent. The darkness of unwisdom is to be removed by the light of wisdom, pursued through fervour, spiritual reading of holy teachings and of life itself, and by obedience to the Master. Lust is to be removed by pure aspiration of spiritual life, which, bringing true strength and stability, takes away the void of weakness which we try to fill by the stimulus of sensations... Hate is to be overcome by love. The fear that arises through the sense of separate, warring selves is to be stilled by the realization of the One Self, the one soul in all. This realization is the perfect love that casts out fear."

"1. The binding of the perceiving consciousness to a certain region is attention (dharana). Emerson quotes Sir Isaac Newton as saying that he made his great discoveries by intending his mind on them. That is what is meant here.... It is the power to focus the consciousness on a given spot, and hold it there Attention is the first and indispensable step in all knowledge. Attention to spiritual things is the first step to spiritual knowledge."

""Before the soul can see, the harmony within must be attained, and fleshly eyes be rendered blind to all illusion....” From The Voice of the Silence"

"The Science of Raja Yoga, or the "Kingly Science of the Soul," as laid down by its main exponent, Patanjali, will eventually find its greatest demonstration in the West... exemplified in the right use of the mind and its utilisation by the soul for the achievement of group objectives and the development of group consciousness upon the physical plane."

"Hitherto the mind has either been prostituted to material ends or has been deified. Through the science of Raja Yoga, the mind will be known as the instrument of the soul and the means whereby the brain of the aspirant becomes illuminated and knowledge gained of those matters which concern the realm of the soul."

"All the various Yogas have had their place in the unfoldment of the human being. In the first purely physical race, which is called the Lemurian, the Yoga at that time imposed upon infant humanity was Hatha Yoga, the Yoga of the physical body, that Yoga which brings into conscious use and manipulation the various organs, muscles and parts of the physical frame. The problem before the adepts of that time was to teach human beings, who were then little more than animals, the purpose, significance and use of their various organs, so that they could consciously control them..."

"In Atlantean days, the progress of the sons of men was procured through the imposition of two Yogas....Laya Yoga, the Yoga of the centres... Later on, Bhakti Yoga, growing out of the development of the emotional or astral body... Now... the subjugation of the mental body and the control of the mind is brought about through the practice of Raja Yoga, and the fifth initiation, that of adept, is the goal for evolving humanity. Thus, all the Yogas have had their place and served a useful purpose and it will become apparent that any return to Hatha Yoga practices or those practices which deal specifically with the development of the centres, brought about through various types of meditation practices and breathing exercises, is, from a certain aspect, a retrogression."

"How does man, the victim of his desires and lower nature become man, the victor, triumph over the world, the flesh and the devil? It is brought about when the physical brain of the incarnated man becomes aware of the self, the soul, and this conscious awareness only becomes possible when the true self can "reflect itself in the mind-stuff.""

"The man is no longer what his physical body makes him, when identified with it, the victim of the world. He walks free, with shining face (I. Cor. 3) and the light of his countenance is shed abroad upon all he meets. No longer do his desires swing the flesh into activity, and no longer does his astral body subjugate him and overcome him."

"Patanjali was a compiler of teaching which, up to the time of his advent, had been given orally for many centuries... The Yoga Sutras are the basic teaching of the Trans Himalayan School to which many of the Masters of the Wisdom belong, and many students hold that the Essenes and other schools of mystical training and thought, closely connected with the founder of Christianity and the early Christians, are based upon the same system... the Sutras have been dictated and paraphrased by the Tibetan Brother and the commentary upon them has been written by myself, and subjected to revision and comment by the Tibetan."

"The translation is not literal, and is not an exact definition of each original Sanskrit term. It is an attempt to put into clear and understandable English the exact meaning, insofar as it is possible to do so through the medium of that non-elastic and unimaginative tongue."

"1. AUM (or OM). The following instruction concerneth the Science of Union. 2. This Union (or Yoga) is achieved through the subjugation of the psychic nature, and the restraint of the chitta (or mind). 3. When this has been accomplished, the Yogi knows himself as he is in reality. 4. Up till now the inner man has identified himself with his forms and with their active modifications. 5.The mind states are five, and are subject to pleasure or pain; they are painful or not painful. 6. These modifications (activities) are correct knowledge, incorrect knowledge, fancy, passivity (sleep) and memory. 7. The basis of correct knowledge is correct perception, correct deduction, and correct witness (or accurate evidence). 8. Incorrect knowledge is based upon perception of the form and not upon the state of being. 9. Fancy rests upon images which have no real existence. 10. Passivity (sleep) is based upon the quiescent state of the vrittis (or upon the non-perception of the senses.) 11. Memory is the holding on to that which has been known. 12. The control of these modifications of the internal organ, the mind, is to be brought about through tireless endeavour and through non-attachment.... 27. The Word of Ishvara is AUM (or OM). This is the Pranava. 28. Through the sounding of the Word and through reflection upon its meaning, the Way is found. 29. From this comes the realisation of the Self (the soul) and the removal of all obstacles. 30. The obstacles to soul cognition are bodily disability, mental inertia, wrong questioning, carelessness, laziness, lack of dispassion, erroneous perception, inability to achieve concentration, failure to hold the meditative attitude when achieved. 33. The peace of the chitta (or mind stuff) can be brought about through the practice of sympathy, tenderness, steadiness of purpose, and dispassion in regard to pleasure or pain, or towards all forms of good or evil. 34. The peace of the chitta is also brought about by the regulation of the prana or life breath. 35. The mind can be trained to steadiness through those forms of concentration which have relation to the sense perceptions. 36. By meditation upon Light and upon Radiance, knowledge of the Spirit can be reached and thus peace can be achieved. 37. The chitta is stabilized and rendered free from illusion as the lower nature is purified and no longer indulged.... 51. When this state of perception is itself also restrained (or superseded), then is pure Samadhi achieved."

"1. AUM (or OM). The following instruction concerns the Science of Union. AUM is the Word of Glory; it signifies the Word made flesh and the manifestation upon the plane of matter of the second aspect of divinity. This blazing forth of the sons of righteousness before the world is achieved by following the rules herein contained. When all the sons of men have demonstrated that they are also Sons of God, the cosmic Son of God will likewise shine forth with increased intensity of glory. The great initiate, Paul, had a vision of this when he said that "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain . . . waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God." (Rom. VIII.)"

"2. This Union (or Yoga) is achieved through the subjugation of the psychic nature and the restraint of the chitta (or mind). The follower after union has two things to do: 1. To gain control of the "versatile psychic nature, 2. To prevent the mind from assuming the many forms it so easily does."

"3. When this has been accomplished, the Yogi knows himself as he is in reality. This might be described in the following way: The man who knows the conditions and has fulfilled them as indicated in the preceding sutra, 1. Sees the self, 2. Realises the true nature of the soul, 3. Identifies himself with the inner Reality, and no longer with the concealing forms..."

"4. Up till now the inner man has identified himself with his forms and with their active modifications. These forms are the modifications mentioned in the various translations, conveying the subtle [12] truth concerning the infinite divisibility of the atom; these are the veiling sheaths and rapidly changing transformations which prevent the true nature of the soul becoming manifest. These are the externalities which hinder the light of the inner God from shining forth, and which are occultly spoken of as "casting a shadow before the face of the sun." The inherent nature of the lives which constitute these active versatile forms has hitherto proved too strong for the soul (the Christ within, as the Christian puts it) and the soul-powers have been prevented full expression. The instinctual powers of the "animal soul," or the capacities of the aggregate of lives which form the sheaths or bodies, imprison the real man and limit his powers... He becomes "enmeshed in their activities" and must free himself before he comes into his heritage of power and peace and bliss."

"9. Fancy rests upon images which have no real existence. This means that these images have no real existence in so far as they are conjured up by men themselves, constructed within their own mental auras, energized by their will or desire and are consequently dissipated when attention is directed elsewhere. "Energy follows thought" is a basic tenet of the Raja Yoga system and is true even where these images of fancy are concerned. These fancied images fall primarily into three groups, which the student would do well to consider. 1. Those thought forms which he constructs himself... 2. Those thought forms which are created by the race, the nation, the group or the organization. Group thought forms of any kind... form the sum total of the "great illusion." Herein lies a hint to the earnest aspirant... 3. That thought form created by a man since his first appearance in physical form, and called the "Dweller on the Threshold." Being created by the lower personal self and not by the soul, it is impermanent and is simply held together by the man's lower energy. When the man begins to function as the soul this "image" he has created, through his "fancy" or his reaction to delusion, is dissipated by a supreme exertion. It has no real existence once there is nothing in the aspirant to feed it, and the realization of this enables him to free himself from its thraldom."

"1. The Yoga of action, leading to union with the soul is fiery aspiration, spiritual reading and devotion to Ishvara. 2. The aim of these three is to bring about soul vision and to eliminate obstructions. 3. These are the difficulty producing hindrances: avidya (ignorance) the sense of personality, desire, hate and the sense of attachment. 4. Avidya (ignorance) is the cause of all the other obstructions whether they be latent, in process of elimination, overcome, or in full operation. 5. Avidya is the condition of confusing the permanent, pure, blissful and the Self with that which is impermanent, impure, painful and the not-self. 6. The sense of personality is due to the identification of the knower with the instruments of knowledge. 7. Desire is attachment to objects of pleasure. 8. Hate is aversion for any object of the senses. 9. Intense desire for sentient existence is attachment. This is inherent in every form, is self-perpetuating, and known even to the very wise. 10. These five hindrances, when subtly known, can be overcome by an opposing mental attitude. 11. Their activities are to be done away with, through the meditation process. 12. Karma itself has its root in these five hindrances and must come to fruition in this life or in some later life.... 22. In the case of the man who has achieved yoga (or union) the objective universe has ceased to be. Yet it existeth still for those who are not yet free. 23. The association of the soul with the mind and thus with that which the mind perceives, produces an understanding of the nature of that which is perceived and likewise of the Perceiver. 24. The cause of this association is ignorance or avidya. This has to be overcome. 25. When ignorance is brought to an end through non-association with the things perceived, this is the great liberation..... 30. Harmlessness, truth to all beings, abstention from theft, from incontinence and from avarice, constitute yama or the five commandments... 32. Internal and external purification, contentment, fiery aspiration, spiritual reading and devotion to Ishvara constitutes nijama (or the five rules)... 34. Thoughts contrary to yoga are harmfulness, falsehood, theft, incontinence, and avarice, whether committed personally, caused to be committed or approved of, whether arising from avarice, anger or delusion (ignorance); whether slight in the doing, middling or great. These result always in excessive pain and ignorance. For this reason, the contrary thoughts must be cultivated.... 38. By abstention from incontinence, energy is acquired. Incontinence is usually regarded as the dissipation of the vitality or the virility of the animal nature. The power to create upon the physical plane & to perpetuate the race is the highest physical act of which man is capable. The dissipation of the vital powers through loose living & incontinence is the great sin against the physical body. It involves the failure to recognize the importance of the procreative act, the inability to resist the lower desires & pleasures, & a loss of self control. The results of this failure are apparent throughout the human family at this time in the low health average, in the full hospitals, & the diseased, enfeebled & anemic men, women & children everywhere to be found. There is little conservation of energy, & the very words "dissipation" & dissipated men" carry a lesson. 41. Through purification comes also a quiet spirit, concentration, conquest of the organs, and ability to see the Self... 51. There is a fourth stage which transcends those dealing with the internal and external phases... 52. Through this, that which obscures the light is gradually removed... 53. And the mind is prepared for concentrated meditation... 55. As a result of these means there follows the complete subjugation of the sense organs."

"We must here bear in mind that we are beginning the book which outlines the practical part of the work, which gives the rules which must be followed if the aspirant hopes to achieve, and which indicates those methods which will bring about the realization of spiritual consciousness. The objective has been dealt with in Book I. The aspirant naturally says on concluding Book I, "how desirable and how right, but how shall this be? What must I do? Where shall I begin?" Patanjali starts at the very beginning and in this second book he indicates:"

"It might be of value here if we dealt with the various "yogas" so as to give to the student a clear concept as to their distinctions and thus cultivate his discrimination. The principal yogas are three in number, the various other so-called "yogas" finding their place in one of these three groups:"

"Raja Yoga stands by itself and is the king science of them all; it is the summation of all the others, it is the climax and that which completes the work of development in the human kingdom. It is the science of the mind and of the purposeful will, and brings the higher of man's sheaths in the three worlds under the subjection of the Inner Ruler. This science coordinates the entire lower threefold man, forcing him into a position where he is nothing but the vehicle for the soul, or God within. It includes the other yogas and profits by their achievements. It synthesises the work of evolution and crowns man as king."

"Bhakti Yoga is the yoga of the heart; it is the bringing into submission of all the feelings, desires and emotions, to the one beloved, seen and known in the heart. It is the sublimation of all the lower loves and the bringing captive of all longings and desire, to the one longing to know the God of love and the love of God. It was the "kingly" or crowning science of the last rootrace, the Atlantean, just as the science of Raja Yoga is the great science of our Aryan civilization. Bhakti Yoga made its exponent an arhat or led him to the fourth initiation. Raja Yoga makes him an adept and leads him to the portal of the fifth initiation. Both lead to liberation, for the arhat is released from the cycle of rebirth but Raja Yoga liberates him to complete service and freedom to work as a White Magician. Bhakti Yoga is the yoga of the heart, of the astral body."

"Karma Yoga has a specific relation to physical plane activity, and to the working out into objective manifestation of all the inner impulses. In its ancient and simplest form it was the yoga of the third or Lemurian root race and its two best known expressions are: a. Hatha Yoga, b. Laya Yoga. The former has specifically to do with the physical body, its conscious (not subconscious and automatic) functioning and all the various practices which give man control over the different organs and the entire mechanical apparatus of the physical body. The latter has to do with the etheric body, with the force centers or chakras found in that body..."

"...if we divide the human torso into three departments it might be stated that:"

"Raja Yoga, which Patanjali primarily deals with, includes the effects of all the others. It is only possible when the others have been worked with, but not in the sense of working with them in this life. Evolution has brought all the sons of men (who are ready to be chelas or disciples), through the various races, and whilst in the Lemurian race (or else on the preceding chain or greater cycle) they were all hatha and laya yogins. This resulted in the development and control of the dual physical body, dense and etheric."

"...the entire human family (with the exception of a percentage which entered the race too late to permit of the full flowering of the soul) will manifest as Sons of God with all the powers of the God unfolded and consciously used on the physical plane and in the physical body. Patanjali says that three things will bring this about, coupled with the following of certain methods and rules, and these three are:"

"Fiery aspiration is the sublimation of karma yoga. Devotion to Ishvara is the sublimation of bhakti yoga, whilst spiritual reading is the first step to Raja Yoga. "Devotion to Ishvara" is a large and general term covering the relation of the personal self to the higher self, the Ishvara or Christ principle in the heart."

"Devotion involves certain factors which it is valuable for the devotee to realize. 1. A capacity to decentralize oneself, to change one's attitude from self-centredness and selfishness to one of outgoing to the loved one... 2. Obedience to the beloved object once that beloved is known. This has been called in some translations "complete obedience to the Master" and this is the true and accurate translation but in view of the fact that the word Master connotes (to the occult student) one of the adepts, we have chosen to translate the word as "Ishvara," the one God in the heart of man, the divine Jiva or "point of divine life" at the centre of man's being. This is the same in all men, whether savage or adept; the difference only lies in degree of manifestation and of control. Complete obedience to any guru or mahatma in the sense of complete subjugation of the will is never taught in the true science of yoga. Subjugation of the lower man to the will of the inner God is taught and all the methods and rules of yoga are to this specific end. This should be carefully borne in mind. "Spiritual reading" is the most significant and occult preliminary thereto."

"a. Meditation, and its stages"

"b. Twenty-three results of meditation"

"a. Consciousness and form."

"b. Union or at-one-ment."

"Time, which is the sequence of the modifications of the mind, likewise terminates, giving place to the Eternal Now. (Sutra 33)"

"The Yoga Sutras are the basic teaching of the Trans Himalayan School to which many of the Masters of the Wisdom belong, and many students hold that the Essenes and other schools of mystical training and thought, closely connected with the founder of Christianity and the early Christians, are based upon the same system... the Sutras have been dictated and paraphrased by the Tibetan Brother and the commentary upon them has been written by myself, and subjected to revision and comment by the Tibetan."

"Virtuous Avantikā, i.e. Ujjaina is the foot of Vishnu and Kāñchīpurī is His waist. Yogis consider Dvarakā His navel and Haridvāra His heart. Mathurā is considered His neck and Varanasī the tip of His nose. Ayodhyā is the head of Vishnu. Sages call all these the limbs of Vishnu."

"Rare are the opportunities to reside at Ayodhyā, to bathe in the Sarayū river, to visit the birthplace of Rāma and to have the darśana of Lord Rāma. Even if one remembers the auspicious pilgrim city Ayodhyā, he is bound not to be born till the deluge."

"He, who dwells on the bank of the Sarayū river and lives on vegetables, roots and fruits and feeds one Vipra, will get the benefit of feeding one crore Vipras."

"All sins of those persons, who after being purified by bathing on the Sarayū’s bank visit the janma-bhūmi, are effaced, by its mere glimpse, for hundreds, thousands and crores of kalpas."

"Having reached the temple of Rāma men, who have his darśana (glimpse) or even his rememberance, are liberated from the charana-trayam, i.e. birth, life and death."

"By a darśana of the Janma-bhūmi or remembrance of the Rāma-nāma or bathing in the Sarayū river all sins are destroyed."

"He, who remembers the sacred Ayodhyā, is blessed with wealth, reputation, long life, virtues and destruction of sins."

"The water of the Sarayū river at Ayodhyā provides bliss, good luck and health. He, who listens to the story of the birth of Rāma or has a glimpse (of him or his temple or idol) or remembers him, is liberated from all sins."

"Then one should go to the Janma-sthana, which is saluted by sages and gods. By seeing which, one is liberated from all miseries and the cycle of birth. Without donation or penance or pilgrimage or sacrifices."

"If people fast on the Rāmanavamī day, bathe in the Sarayū and make donation, they are liberated from the bound of birth."

"By a mere glimpse of the Janma-bhūmi one gets that much virtue which is accumulated by donating a thousand Kapilā cows everyday. By a mere glimpse of the Janma-bhūmi one gets that much virtue which is obtained by donating a thousand crore gems to Brāhmanas."

"By a mere glimpse of the Janma-bhūmi one obtains that much virtue which is gathered by the devotion to mother, father and the Guru."

"O King! Ayodhyā, Mathurā, and Dvārakā are three cities which provide Dharma, Artha, Kāma and Moksha and are dear to Hari."

"One gets salvation by remembering Kr+ishna at Dvārakā, Rāma at Ayodhyā and Hari at Mathurā."

"Ayodhyā fulfils all desires and is revered among glorified cities. It is protected by Rāma himself, the embodiment of wisdom."

"Whatever merit one gets by dwelling at Prabhasa and Kurukshetra for hundreds of years is obtained by living at Ayodhyā for half nimish (1/3 second)."

"It is difficult to recite the names of Rāma, the Lord of Ayodhyā, Keśava of Mathurā and Krishna, the resident of Dvārakā."

"One gets the most sacred post by reciting the name at Mathurā, hearing the names of Dvārakā and by a glimpse of Ayodhyā."

"To the north-east of that spot is the place of the birth of Rāma. This holy spot of the birth is said to be the means of achieving salvation etc. It is said that the place of birth is situated to the east of Vighneśvara, to the north of VasisTha and to the west of Laumaśa."

"Only by visiting it a man can get rid of staying (frequently) in a womb (i.e. rebirth). There is no need for making charitable gifts, performing penance or sacrifices or undertaking pilgrimages to holy spots. On the Navamī day the man should observe the holy vow. By the power of the holy bath and charitable gifts, he is liberated from the bondage of births."

"By visiting the place of birth, one attains that benefit which is obtained by the person who gives thousands of tawny-coloured cows everyday. By seeing the place of birth, one attains the merit of ascetics performing penance in hermitage, of thousands of Rājasūya sacrifices and Agnihotra sacrifices performed every year."

"By observing sacred rites, particularly at the place of birth, he obtains the merit of the holy men endowed with devotion to their mother and father as well as preceptors."

"After having worshipped formally, one should go to the Janma-bhūmi which is in the east from the Vighneśvara, in the north from VasishTha, in the West from Lomaśa. It is called Janmasthāna."

"It is at a distance of 500 dhanush from Lomaśa, 1008 dhanush from Vighnesvara and 100 dhanush from Unmatta. At the centre a royal house was built by Brahmā."

"It is called Janmasthāna and gives all fruits like liberation, by glancing at which, a man overcomes the stay in the womb, i.e. birth without any donation, penance, pilgrimage and sacrifice."

"He, who fasts on the (Rāma) Navamī, takes bath and makes a donation, is liberated from all perils of birth by having a glance at the Janmasthāna."

"By glancing at the Janma-bhūmi one gets the fruit of donating a thousand Kapilā (tawny colored) cows. By a glance at the Janma-bhūmi, all the sins gathered in thousands of births are liquidated."

"By a glance at the Janma-bhūmi, one gets all the merits obtained by devotion to mother, father and elderly people. By a glance at the Janma-bhūmi, one gets all merits of those who serve teachers, render service in pilgrim places, tread the path of truthfulness and follow their dharma."

"Those who perform penances in hermitages and perform a thousand Rajasūya sacrifices and Agnihotra, obtain equal merit by glancing at the Janmasthāna."

"Then he (the pilgrim) should go to the birthplace (of Rāma) which is worshipped by sages and gods. It is situated in the east from Vighneśvara (temple), in the north from VasishTha and in the west from Lomaśa. It is 500 dhanush above Lomaśa site and 1008 dhanush from Vighneśvara and 100 dhanush from Unmatta (Mattagajendra)."

"At the centre is the royal palace built by Brahmā. It is called Janmasthāna and gives salvation, etc. and the mere sight of which releases a man from returning to the mother’s womb without donation, penance, pilgrimage and sacrifice."

"By glancing at the Janma-bhūmi, one gets the fruit of donating a thousand Kapilā cows. By a glance at the Janma-bhūmi, all the sins gathered in thousands of births are liquidated. By a glance at the Janma-bhūmi, one gets all the merits obtained by his devotion to mother, father and elderly people."

"By a glance at the Janma-bhūmi, one gets all merits of those who serve their teachers, render service in pilgrim places, tread the path of truthfulness and follow their dharma."

"If a man specially glances at the Janmasthāna, following traditions and becomes wan and cleans dust, he is liberated from the peril of rebirth after glancing at the birthplace."

"If a pious person, having bathed at the Svargadvar ghāTa, visits the Ramālaya i.e. the house of Rāma (where he was born?) is blessed with everything."

"People, who visit Ayodhyā, the city which grants salvation, are liberated from all sins and go to the abode of Hari (Hari-mandir). They, who render various services toVishnu and worship him, perform dance, or recite His charita and renounce home, overcome death by meditation on Hari. If a pious person, having bathed at the Svargadvār ghāt, visits the Ramālaya, i.e. the house of Rāma (where he was born?) is blessed with everything."

"“Then Pãrvati said, “I shall now be glad to hear the advantages of the Kitchen of Jãnaki.” Mahãdeva answered, “O Goddess, listen to its sin-destroying story. Her kitchen is always filled with articles of food; its mere sight accomplishes our wants. Its pilgrimage is performed at all times: no one can fully describe its benefits, but I will do so in a brief manner. The house of one who daily visits it, remains filled with victuals. On seeing it, Parasurãma was released from the crime of destroying the Kshatriyas. A mere visit to it removes sins committed knowingly or unknowingly. It freed Balarãma from the sin of killing Sùt. What more shall I say about it? It is the bestower of all sorts of joy. It is situated north-west of the Birthplace. Forty yards north of the Birthplace lies the house of Kaikeyi, where Bharata was born. Sixty yards south of it is the dwelling of Sumitrã, where Lakshman and Satrughna were born. Their sight releases man from worldly ties, and gives salvation. South-east of the Birthplace is Sìtã Kùpa, which is also called ‘ Jãnakì-kùp.’ Drinking its water renders a man intelligent. Brihaspati, Vasishtha, and Vamadeva drank its water, and attributed to it their dignity and prosperity.” (Chapter X)"

"For the faithful, it is the holiest of places, as in the Praise of Kāśī, or Avimukta, the city never forsaken by Śiva in the Kāśī Khaṅḍa of the Skanda Purāṇa, 35.6–10: Jñānavāpī, a speck in the middle of Kāśī, helps in attaining liberation (mokṣa). Aren’t there many holy places on this earth? But none equals one speck of Kāśī’s dust. Don’t many rivers flow into the sea? But none compares with the heavenly river in Kāśī. Aren’t there many fields of liberation on earth? Yet none equals even ten-millionth part of Avimukta. The Gaṅgā, Śiva, and Kāśī: the watchful three, grant the grace for perfect bliss."

"“Skandapurana pp. 8 and 141, No. 229, is in Gupta character. Professor and myself carefully examined the palaeography of the MS. at the Durbar Library, and we came to the conclusion that the work must have been copied at least two hundred years before the ‘Paramesvara tantra’ in transitional Gupta character, described by Prof. Bendall in his Cam. Cat. So the MS. must have been copied before 659 A.D. as the Paramesvaratantra was copied in Harsa era 252=859 A.D.” (p. 52)"

"One should worship the supreme God with different types of auspicious flowers. Obeisance to Rāghava whose feet should be worshipped first."

"Madhusūdan (Vishnu) himself was born as his (Daśarath’s) son. O sage, Vishnu, having been pleased, became four brothers from his four parts."

"All sins of that person (who performs the Rāghava-dvādaśī) vanish and he obtains all the desired objects. He who performs it without any desire gets the permanent ‘nirvāna-pada’."

"“The Kalpataru has size (though it is not as extensive as the Viramitrodaya), has great range, but in quality it is very inferior not only to Mitãkshara but also to some other digests. Lengthy discussions in the Kalpatru are few and far between. It is more in the nature of a collection from all smritis.”"

"By the merit of visit to Janmabhūmi, the darśana of the idol of Lord Rāma, bathing in the Sarayū river and the impact of the festival of the Rāmanavamī (the birthday of Rāma)all went to the Santanaka Loka in a plane."

"They visit Janmasthāna after having taken bath in the water of Sarayū. You, too, should make a pilgrimage for the termination of all sins."

"Today is the ninth day of the bright fortnight of the Chaitra month, i.e. Rāmanavami."

"By the impact of the festival of the Rāmanavami, bathing in the Sarayu river, having a darśan of the idol of Lord Rāma and beholding the Janmabhūmi, all they went to the Sāntānaka Loka by planes."

"Even Brahmā is not competent to describe the importance of the Janmabhūmi."

"On the ninth day of the Chaitra month if a man, bristling with millions of sins, visits the Janmabhūmi, he is liberated from all vices and goes to the Supreme World where there is no worry."

"That which cannot be conquered by sins is Ayodhyā."

"This Satyā is the primeval city of Vishnu and its merit is described here."

"I made a visit to the Janma-bhūmi along with gods."

"O best of sages! I made a darśana on the Rāmanavamī day."

"After taking bath in the water of Sarayū they visit Janmasthāna. You, too, should make a pilgrimage for the termination of all sins."

"After having taken bath in the Sarayū river and by the darsana of Janmasthāna; devotees of Rāmachandra are liberated from sins."

"On the bright ninth day of the Chaitra month by the darsana of Janma-bhūmi one gets liberated from millions (crores) of sins and goes to the supreme ‘loka’ (world) where he is neverin distress."

"All went to the Sāntānaka Loka in a plane by virtue of visit to Janma-bhūmi, the darśana of the idol of Lord Rāma, bathing in the Sarayū river and the impact of the festival of the Rāmanavamī."

"That which cannot be attacked by sinful acts is Ayodhyā."

"Visnu - my dwelling place Puskara has been overcome with terror of the matangas [Turks]. The place where I myself performed the final ablutions after the great sacrifice of world creation, the mleccha army now uses to refresh themselves after their violent destruction of temples and brahman settlements."

"In the last few pages I have repeatedly referred to Prthvīrāja Vijaya, the only surviving literary text from the king’s reign. Much of what we know about Prithviraj’s predecessors comes from Prthvīrāja Vijaya, whose more detailed genealogy agrees quite closely with the genealogies contained in Chahamana inscriptions. Among the deeds narrated are the founding of Ajmer and the construction of various temples and tanks there. The text repeatedly situates the royal family in Ajmer and praises the city’s beauty, as well as nearby Pushkar’s holiness."

"These few points, plus some details on Prithviraj’s ancestors, are the main political facts to be gleaned from Prthvīrāja Vijaya, but the text is more interesting and informative when it comes to cultural attitudes towards the Muslim enemies of the Chahamanas. We have already seen that it describes Shihab al-Din as a wicked eater of cows, portrays his ambassador as alien in appearance to the point of extreme ugliness, and castigates the “Goris” for their destructive nature. At the outset of the poem, Brahma makes a plea to Vishnu to be born on earth in order to rectify the Muslim desecration of Pushkar, the holy site dedicated to Brahma that is near Ajmer – the answer to his prayer is our hero Prithviraj, frequently identified in the text as a form of Vishnu. Subsequently, we are told that King Arnoraja had a lake created in order to cleanse the earth of impurity from the many Muslim deaths that occurred during the course of an assault on the Chahamana capital. The Chahamana kings are hence firmly placed on the side of the gods, fighting against the forces of evil, in these flattering scenarios."

"In parts of their careers, Arjuna and Odysseus show similarities so numerous and detailed that they must be cognate figures, sharing an origin in the proto-hero of an oral proto-narrative. For present purposes many questions about this proto narrative can be left unanswered. Was it told in prose or in verse or in a mixture of the two? Was it told in the Urheimat or original homeland (whatever the location and date of that logically necessary zone of space-time), or did it diffuse somewhat after the dispersal began? It does not matter. The similarities cannot be explained either by chance, or by Jungian archetypes, or by diffusion of the Homeric epics from Greece to India; and if they are as striking as I think then, one way or another, they must be due to common origin in a proto-narrative.” (Allen 1998:2)"

"The Indologists had for so long told themselves that Indians lacked access to the “true” meaning of their texts that they no longer considered it a prejudice but a methodological principle and a necessary one at that."

"[Hindu lore, like the Mahābhārata, ] must have already been current in some form (…) as many have realized, the Vedic texts relate only a small part of the culture of the Vedic period. But it is much less recognized how much comparison can do to fill out the picture, and identify the material that bypassed the Vedas."

"One of the most enriching yet frustrating aspects of the study of Hinduism is its huge body of religious writing. The fledgling scholar is confronted by a vast array of sacred literature that presents confusing and often conflicting ideas. Because Hinduism is such an ancient religion, its textual heritage has been compiled over considerable time. Most importantly, the sacred books of the Hindus do not replace each other but instead have built up into an extensive mass of sacred knowledge."

"A time must come when the Indian mind will shake off the darkness that has fallen upon it, cease to think or hold opinions at second and third hand and reassert its right to judge and enquire in a perfect freedom into the meaning of its own Scriptures."

"The Upanishads supply the basis of later Hindu philosophy; they alone of the Vedic corpus are widely known and quoted by most well-educated Hindus, and their central ideas have also become a part of the spiritual arsenal of rank-and-file Hindus."

"It is, I believe, no exaggeration to say that all the historical information which has been collected from all the books written in the Sanskrit language is less valuable than what may be found in the most paltry abridgement used at preparatory schools in England."

"But in the first place, Sanskrit literature alone is a very big mass. Although, perhaps, three-fourths of it has been destroyed and lost through successive invasions, yet, I think, the sum total of the amount of literature in Sanskrit would outbalance any three or four European languages taken together, in number of books. No one knows how many books are there yet and where they are, because it is the most ancient of all these Aryan languages. And that branch of the Aryan race which spoke the Sanskrit language was the first to become civilized and the first to begin to write books and literature. So they went on for thousands of years. How many thousands of years they wrote no one knows. There are various guesses - from 3000 B.C. to 8000 B.C. - but all of these dates are more or less uncertain."

"Almost the largest portion of the Vedas has been lost. The priests who carried it down to posterity were divided into so many families; and, accordingly, the Vedas were divided into so many parts. Each part was allotted to a family. The rituals, the ceremonies, the customs, the worship of that family were to be obtained from that [respective] portion of the Vedas. They preserved it and performed all the ceremonies according to that. In course of time, [some of] these families became extinct; and with them, their portion of the Vedas was lost, if these old accounts be true."

"Some of you know that the Vedas are divided into four parts. One is called the Rig-Veda, another Yajur-Veda, another Sâma-Veda, and the fourth Atharva-Veda. Each one of these, again, was divided into many branches. For instance, the Sama-Veda had one thousand branches, of which only about five or six remain; the rest are all lost. So with the others. The Rig-Veda had 108, of which only one remains; and the rest are all lost."

"Then [there were] these various invasions. India has been the one country to which every nation that has become strong wants to go and conquer - it being reputed to be very rich. The wealth of the people had become a fable, even in the most ancient history. [Many foreign invaders] rushed to become wealthy in India and conquered the country. Every one of these invasions destroyed one or more of these families, burned many libraries and houses. And when that was so, much literature was lost. It is only within the last few years that ideas have begun to spring up about the retention of these various religions and books. Before that, mankind had to suffer all this pillaging and breaking down. Most stupendous creations of art were lost forever. Wonderful buildings - where, from a few bits of remnants now in India, it can be imagined how wonderful they were - are completely gone. . . ."

"References to the story of Rama occur in the earliest part of the Sangama literature of Tamil Nadu, dating back to a period almost as old as the Ramayana of Valmiki. [... a theme from the Ramayana] forms the subject-matter of a terracotta representation from Kausambi, ascribable to the 2nd-1st century BCE."

"In the Buddhist literature there are the Jatakas, three of which deal with the story of Rama... The most noteworthy of these is the one called Dasaratha Jataka... The carry-over of these Jataka stories to China only serves to emphasize how popular was the Rama story even with the Buddhists."

"Whether people like it or not, the fact is that there is no credible proof that Valmiki's Ramayana post-dates the Buddha. There is a complete absence of mention of Buddha or Mahavira or their followers or of Nandas, Mauryas or Shungas and so on. There is no mention of Pataliputra or Rajagriha. Rather, the latter's predecessor Girivraja is mentioned. Even if there were additions to the text in subsequent centuries, the data in the text itself is clear that it belongs to a much older era. In a country of 1.2 billion people, you will find all sorts of interpretations and retellings... When even early Buddhist authors can claim (e.g., the Spitzer Manuscript, dated to 200 AD or earlier on palaeographic grounds) that the omniscience of Buddha is proven because he had studied the Ramayana and Mahabharata, the obvious conclusion is that these texts were considered pre-Buddha even by Buddhist writers at that time. Otherwise, they would not fool their readers. For that matter Jatakas etc. have their own versions of Krishna's life too. But it is obvious which one is older and which is a recast."

"The Kural (second to seventh century AD), authored by the celebrated Tiruvalluvar, is often described as an “atheistic” text, a hasty misconception. True, Valluvar’s 1,330 pithy aphorisms mostly deal with ethics (aram), polity (porul) and love (inbam), following the traditional Sanskritic pattern of the four objects of human life : dharma, artha, kàma, and moksha—the last implied rather than explicit. Still, the very first decade is an invocation to Bhagavan : “The ocean of births can be crossed by those who clasp God’s feet, and none else” ; the same idea recurs later, for instance in this profound thought : “Cling to the One who clings to nothing ; and so clinging, cease to cling”. The Kural also refers to Indra , to Vishnu’s avatar of Vamana , and to Lakshmi, asserting that she will shower her grace only on those who follow the path of dharma . There is nothing very atheistic in all this, and in reality the values of the Kural are perfectly in tune with those found in several shastras or in the Gita."

"From Robert Caldwell's point of view, nothing ethical could emerge from the Dravidian mind, either by itself or under the influence of Vedic religion. Consequently, he attributed the Thirukural to Jain influences. G.U. Pope, another evangelist, maintained that it was Christian influence on Thiruvalluvar that produced this literary work. Christian scholars at his time, and for decades later, rejected this theory. However, it is being revived today by evangelical movements in Tamil Nadu."

"...Kural refers to the Puranas and other Hindu texts in many of its couplets, including frequent references to Hindu gods. Indra is mentioned in several couplets. There is an obvious reference to the measuring of the world by Vamana, an incarnation of Vishnu. Kural states that the goddess of wealth resides in the houses of men who show hospitality. It warns against sloth as something disrespectful to Lakshmi. In tune with the Hindu shastras, it links the prosperity and spirituality of the land to the rule of a just king. It further states that the power of the king forms the mainstay of the scriptures of Brahmins and dharma."

"The country north of the sea and south of the Himalayas Is Bharata and her children are Bharati. A thousand yojanas from north to south, It has kiratas in the east and yavanas in the west."

"The equinoxes occur in the seasons of spring and autumn, when the Sun enters the signs of Aries and Libra. When the Sun enters Capricorn, his northern course commences; and his southern when he enters Cancer (VP 11.8.63)."

"When the Sun is in the first part of the lunar mansion Krittika, and the Moon in the fourth of Vishakha; or when the Sun is in the third part of Vishakha, and the Moon is in the head of Krittika (these positions being contemporary with the equinoxes), that equinoctial season is holy and is styled the Mahavishubha, or great equinox (VP VIII.71- 3)."

"When the Sun, Moon, Jupiter and the constellation Tishya are in the same sign, then the Golden Age will return (VP IV.23.30)."

"Anartta was the religious son of Sharyati. His son was named Revata who ruled over the region called Anartta after his father and dwelled in a city named Kusasthali (VP IV. 1.20)"

"The corpse of Nimi was preserved from decay by being embalmed with fragrant oils and resins, and it remained as entire as if it were immortal (VP IV.5.7)."

"The sun is stationed for all time, in the middle of the day... The rising and the setting of the sun being perpetually opposite to each other, people speak of the rising of the sun where they see it; and, where the sun disappears, there, to them, is his setting. Of the sun, which is always in one and the same place, there is neither setting nor rising."

"O lord! All of us will find shelter at your lotus feet, the remembrance of which grants freedom from fear to the men who are devoted to you. There are those who are bound down to non-permanent bodies and homes. They are deeply attached to the undesirable elements of “I” and “mine”. Though you reside within the body, such men are extremely far away from you. O illustrious one! We will worship at your lotus feet. O supreme lord! Those who are attached to futile objects in their conduct and to the senses are those whose minds are far away from the supreme. O great one! Therefore, they do not see the bliss at your feet, discerned by those who seek shelter there. O god! There are those who drink the nectar of your account. Their store of devotion is extensive. They obtain the comprehension that is the essence of non-attachment. They swiftly obtain their place in Vaikuntha."

"The interaction of the elements, the senses, the objects of the senses and the mind is said to be subtle creation. Brahma’s creation, through a disequilibrium in the qualities, is said to be Pourusha or gross creation. Preservation represents the triumph of the one in Vaikuntha, while sustenance results from his favours. Manvantaras provide for virtuous dharma, while addiction to the senses represents the desire to undertake action. Accounts of the lord are said to be descriptions of his avataras, conduct and detailed narrations of those who follow Hari. Withdrawal is his act of lying down, together with his powers. Liberation results when he gives up all other forms and resorts to his own form."

"A son born from your two sons will be revered by virtuous ones. They will chant about his pure fame and his glory will be like that of the illustrious one. Just as inferior gold is purified, virtuous ones will follow his good conduct and purify themselves, such as by not engaging in enmity. Everyone in the universe will be pleased with him, since the illustrious one will be himself pleased with him. He will use the intelligence in his atman to be devoted to no one else. He will be extremely fortunate and great-souled. He will be great in his sentiments and will be the greatest of the great. Through his increased devotion, when he gives up this life, he will enter Vaikuntha and find bliss there. He will not be lustful. He will be a store of good conduct and a store of qualities. He will be happy when others are happy and miserable when others are miserable. He will have no enemies in this world and he will be the reliever of all sorrows. He will be like the king of the stars, relieving the heat of the summer. Both inside him and outside him, he will see the unblemished lotus-eyed one, who assumes the form desired by his own devotees."

"Sanaka and the others were my sons through my mental powers and were born before you. Without any desires, they travel through the sky and go to all the worlds and the residents there. They once went to Vaikuntha, where the illustrious one with the unblemished atman resides. All the worlds revere Vaikuntha. All the people who reside in Vaikuntha have a form like Vaikuntha. They are not driven by any material aspirations, but worship Hari because of dharma. The original and illustrious Purusha is there and he can be approached through the use of words. He accepts the pure form of sattva and the foremost confers happiness on us, his devotees."

"In the tract of land known as Bhārata-varṣa, as in Ilāvṛta-varṣa, there are many mountains and rivers.... The inhabitants of Bhārata-varṣa are purified because they always remember these rivers."

"Samasya dwikaraṇi pramāṇam tṛtīyena vardhayettacca caturthenātmacatustriṃśonena saviśeṣaḥ."

"Like the crests on the heads of peacocks, like the gems on the hoods of the cobras, mathematics is at the top of the Vedanga s."

"The serpents are these worlds."

"Verily, in the beginning this [world] was water… The waters desired a way to be reproduced… When they were heated up a golden egg was produced… In a year’s time… Prajapati [=Lord of creatures, Creator-god] was produced therein... He broke open this egg."

"The nymph Urvasi loved Pururavas, the son of Ida. When she wedded him, she said, ‘Thrice a day thou shalt embrace me; but do not lie with me against my will, and let me not see thee naked, for such is the way to behave to us women.’"

"[One] should,therefore, consecrate [the sacred fires] on Krittikah. These, certainly, do not deviate from the Eastern direction. All other naksatras deviate from the Eastern direction."

"(Uttering), bhuh,’ Prajapati generated this earth. (Uttering) bhuvah ’ he generated the air, and (Uttering) svah ' he generated the sky. This universe is co-extensive with these worlds. (The fire) is placed with the whole. Saying bhuh,’ Prajapati generated the Brahman ; saying bhuvah,’ he generated the Kshattra ; (and saying) ‘svah,’ he generated the Vis. The fire is placed with the whole. (Saying) bhuh,’ Prajapati generated himself ; (saying) bhuvah,’ he generated offspring; saying ‘svah,’ he generated animals. This world is so much as self, offspring, and animals. (The fire) is placed with the whole."

"The SB text is famous for containing references to the wide spread of metallurgy during that period, none perhaps as important as the following (SB.13.2.2.15-18): for the horse is the nobility (chieftain), and the other animals are the peasantry (clan); and those who do this really make the peasantry equal and refractory to the nobility; and they also deprive the Sacrificer of his vital power. Therefore the horse alone belongs to Pragapati 1, and the others are sacred to the gods: he thus, indeed, makes the peasantry obedient and subservient to the nobility; and he also supplies the Sacrificer with vital power. The slaughtering-knife of the horse is made of gold, those of the ëparyangyasí of copper, and those of the others of iron; for gold is (shining) light, and the Asvamedha is the royal office: he thus bestows light upon the royal office. And by means of the golden light (or, by the light of the gold), the Sacrificer also goes to the heavenly world; and he, moreover, makes it a gleam of light shining after him, for him to reach the heavenly world. But, indeed, the horse is also the nobility; and this alsoóto wit, goldóis a form (symbol) ofthe nobility: he thus combines the nobility with the nobility. And as to why there are copper (knives) for the ëparyaEgyas,íóeven as the non-royal kingmakers, the heralds and headmen, are to the king, so those ëparyangyasí are to the horse; and so, indeed, is thisóto wit, copperóto gold: with their own form he thus endows them.And as to why there are iron ones for the others, óthe other animals, indeed, are the peasantry, and thisó to wit, ironóis a form of the peasantry: he thus combines the peasantry with the peasantry."

"There is hardly any specific geographical information in the TS. The Satapatha Brahmana (SB)is richer from this point of view (Eggeling 1882-1900, Parts 1-4). Its most famous passage (1.4.1.14-16) describes the journey of fire to the Sadanira or Gandak of modern north Bihar: Mathava, the Videgha, was at that time on the (river) Sarasvati. He (Agni) thence went burning along this earth towards the east, and Gotama Rahugana and the Vigha Mathava followed after him as he was burning along. He burnt over (dried up) all these rivers. Now that (river) which is called Sadanira flows from the northern (Himalaya) mountain: that did not burn over. That one the Brahmans did not cross in former times, thinking it has not been burnt over by Agni Vaisvanara. Nowadays, however, there are many Brahmanas to the east of it. At that time it (the land east of the Sadanira) was very uncultivated, very marshy, because it had not been tasted by Agni Vaisvanara. Nowadays, however, it is very cultivated, for the Brahmans have caused (Agni) to taste it through."

"The concept of universal sovereignty is apparent in SB.11.4.3.10: May Varuna, the universal sovereign, the lord of universal sovereign, bestow universal sovereignty upon me at this sacrifice."

"The Sun is the origin of time. His form, from the instant as the first division of time, is the twelvefold year. The year has two halves, one belonging to Agni (fire) and the other to Varuna (water). From Magha to the middle of Shravishta, step by step, belongs to Agni. From Sarpa at the beginning to the middle of Shravishta, step by step, belongs to Soma (MaiU VI. 14)."

"The Self carries himself twofold, as the life-force (Prana) and as the Sun. Two are his paths within and without by which he revolves by day and by night. The Sun is the outer Self; the life-force is the inner Self. Hence by the movement of the outer Self, the movement of the inner Self is measured. But according to the Knower, who is free of sin, whose eye is turned within, it is by the movement of the inner Self that the movement of the outer Self is measured (MaiU VI. 1)."

"Aiyar (1922) produces another verse from the Maitrayana Brahmana Upanisad, which he translates as follows: "The manifest form of time is the year. . . . One half of this year is Agneya (the warm half) and one half Vdruna (watery or cold). When the sun moves from the beginning of Magha to half (the segment of) Sravishtha in the regular order . . . it is Agneya [warm]. When the sun moves from the beginning of Sarpa (Aslesha) to the end of Sravishtha half, in the inverse order, it is Saumya [cool]" (1 88). Aiyar interprets this as a direct reference to the uttardyana and the daksindyana of the sun when it was situated in Maghd at the summer solstice... MagKd was at the summer solstice in the era when Krttikd was at the vernal equinox. Dikshit and Aiyar have thus produced additional references in an endeavor to support Jacobi and Tilak's contention that the texts refer to Krttikd coinciding with the vernal equinox which would have been the case in about 2500 B.C.E."

"If, therefore, we limit the age of the Brahmanas to the two centuries from 600 to 800 b.c., it is more likely that hereafter these limits will have to be extended than that they will prove too wide."

"Considering, therefore, that the Brahmana period must comprehend the first establishment of the threefold ceremonial, the composition of separate Brahmanas, the formation of Brahmana-charanas, and the schism between old and new Charanas, and their various collections, it would seem impossible to bring the whole within a shorter space than 200 years. Of course this is merely conjectural; but it would require a greater stretch of imagination to account for the production in a smaller number of years of that mass of Brahmanic literature which still exists, or is known to have existed. Were we to follow the traditions of the Brahmanas themselves, we should have . much less difficulty in accounting for the great variety of authors quoted, and of opinions stated in the Brahmanas. They contain lists of teachers through whom the Brahmanas were handed down, which would extend the limits of this age to a very considerable..."

"The chronological limits assigned to the Shtra and Brahmana periods will seem to most Sanskrit scholars too narrow rather than too wide, and if we assign but 200 years to the Mantra period, from 800 to 1000 b.c., and an equal number to the Ohhandas period, from 1000 to 1200 B.O., we can do so only under the supposition that during the early periods of history the growth of the human mind was more luxuriant than in later times, and that the layers of thought were formed less slowly in the primary than in the tertiary ages of the world."

"We must confess that we are disposed to look upon this limit |two hundred years for the Brahmanas] as much too brief for the establishment of an elaborate ritual, for the appropriation of all the spiritual authority by the Brahmans, for the distinctions of races or the institutions of caste, and for the mysticism and speculation of the Aranyakas or Upanishads: a period of five centuries would not seem to be too protracted for such a complete remodelling of the primitive system and its wide dissemination through all those parts of India where the Brahmans have spread."

"The world of heaven is as far removed from this world, they say, as a thousand earths stacked one above the other."

"At a distance of a journey of forty days on horseback from the spot where the Sarasvati is lost (in the sand of the desert), (is situated) Plaksa Prasravaja."

"The Tandya Mahabrahmana (V.92) similarly states: The Ekashtaka day is the wife of the year. When this night comes the Lord of creation (Prajapati) resides with her. Immediately from the beginning of the year, the rites of initiation are observed."

"If the Puranic genealogies from the time of the Buddha onward are almost faultless, the presumption naturally is that the earlier genealogies too are not mere figments of the imagination."

"But that has never kept [these scholars] from treating the Vedas as the only source of ancient Indian history, to the neglect of the legitimate history books, the Itihasa-Purana literature, i.e. the Epics and the Puranas. It is like ignoring the historical Bible books (Exodus, Joshua, Chronicles, Kings) to draw ancient Israelite history exclusively from the Psalms, or like ignoring the historians Livius, Tacitus and Suetonius to do Roman history on the basis of the poet Virgil. What would be dismissed as “utterly ridiculous” in Western history is standard practice in Indian history."

"The Puranic records are far more trustworthy than has hitherto been assumed. They are the distillate of countless generations of remembered knowledge, especially knowledge concerning the vicissitudes of royal houses."

"True, the tradition, which is found in Epics, Puránas and astronomers, which knows nothing of an invasion but, on the contrary, has the IAs spreading out with their culture in all directions, and which places the R V (its arrangement) just before 3102, appears to be late, within, say, 1st-6th centuries CE. But we must not ignore the weighty evidence of the classical sources (the Megasthenes report c 312- 280 BC) giving related chronologies. Arrian (Indika 1, 9), Pliny (VI, 21, 4) and Solinus (52, 5)—all give dates of 6000+ for Indian royal genealogies: so this aspect of the tradition is at the very latest of the 4th century BC. I am not claiming here that the tradition is necessarily correct in all (though it could be in most of) its aspects but only that it is not as late as it seems at first sight."

"We have three versions of a statement by Megasthenes... Pliny (VI. xxl.4-5) reports about the Indians: "From the days of Father Bacchus to Alexander the Great, their kings are reckoned at 154, whose reigns extend over 6451 years and 3 months." Solinus (52.5) says: "Father Bacchus was the first who invaded India, and was the first of all who triumphed over the vanquished Indians. From him to Alexander the Great 6451 years are reckoned with 3 months additional, the calculation being made by counting the kings, who reigned in the intermediate period, to the number of 153." Arrian (Indica, I. ix.) observes: "From the time of Dionysus to Sandrocottus the Indians counted 153 kings and a period of 6042 years, but among these a republic was thrice established... and another to 300 years, and another to 120 years. The Indians also tell us that Dionysus was earlier than Heracles by fifteen generations, and that except him no one made a hostile invasion of India but that Alexander indeed came and overthrew in war all whom he attacked...""

"There is nothing in them, as far as I am aware, really inconsistent with the most ancient book we possess, namely, the Rigveda, and they throw much light thereon, and on all problems concerning ancient India."

"It is absurd to suppose that the elaborate royal genealogies were all merely figments of imagination or a tissue of falsehoods."

"They say ‘The eye came; it was a serpent; thus did poison come to the priests; he used these (verses) connected with (Soma) the purifying, and repelling poison, in praise’."

"On the new Moon of Magha he rests, being about to turn northwards: the priests also rest, being about to sacrifice with the introductory Atiratra chant; thus for the first time they obtain him (the Sun or the year); on him (the year) they lay hold with the Chaturvinsha rite; this is why the lay hold rite has its name. He goes north for six months; him they follow with six month rites in forward arrangement. Having gone north for six months he stands still, being about to turn southwards; the priests also rest, being about to sacrifice with the Vishuvat (solstice) day; thus for the second time they obtain him. He goes south for six months; him they follow with six month rites in reverse order. Having gone south for six months he stands still, being about to turn north; these also rest, being about to sacrifice with the Mahavrata day; thus for the third time they obtain him. In that they serve him (the year) three times, and the year is in three ways arranged, verily it serves to obtain the year. With regard to this the following sacrificial verse is sung, Ordaining the days and nights, Like a cunning spider, For six months south constantly, For six months north the Sun goes (KB XIX.3)."

"The year is a revolving wheel of the Gods; this is immortality (KB XX.1)."

"Soma (the Moon), the king, is the year. Coming with the seasons he approaches (KB VII. 10)."

"The year is sixfold having six seasons; by this sixfold offering the Gods obtained the sixfold year with its six seasons, and by the year all desires, all immortality (KB XIV.1)."

"The Vishuvat is the head of the sacrifice (KB XXVI. 1)."

"The full Moon night in the Phalgunis (Virgo) is the beginning of the year (the winter solstice)."

"In silence, with closed eyes, the priests sit until the Nakshatras (lunar constellations) appear. When the Nakshatras appear, they open their eyes; the Nakshatras are light. They enter the two oblation holders by the western door; thenthe Adhvaryu approaching the pole of the northern oblation holder says, "May you sing prosperity to the sacrificial session." They creep beneath the axle of the northern oblation holder, muttering an Atichandas verse to Indra; verily by the Atichandas verse the sacrificers smite away evil under the axle. "We go around the oblation holders to the north," Kaushitaki used to say, "following the path of the sacrifice, not being concealed from the Seven Rishis." (KB XXVII.6)"

"The full Moon night in the Phalgunis is the beginning of the year; the latter Phalgunis are the beginning, the former the end. Just as the two ends of a circle unite, so these two ends of the year are connected. In that he sacrifices with the Vaishwadeva sacrifice on the full Moon night in the Phalgunis, verily at the beginning he delights the year. Again the four monthly sacrifices are sacrifices of healing; therefore are they performed in the joinings of the seasons, for in the joinings of the seasons, pain is born (KB V.1)."

"Soma is the breath (KB IX.6)."

"Breath is immortality, thus by immortality he crosses death (KB XIV.2)."

"Each quarter verse of these chants he recites, taking it separately; thus each breath he places in himself. With the last he utters the Pranava (Om); thus he lets go of this breath: therefore all the breaths breathe along this breath (KB XV.4)."

"The eye comes into existence first when man comes into existence."

"May I be all-encompassing, possessed of all the Earth, possessed of all life, from the one end up to the further side of the Earth bounded by the ocean, sole ruler."

"With this great anointing of Indra, Vasishta the priest anointed Sudas Paijavana the king. Therefore, Sudas Paijavana went around the Earth completely, conquering on every side, and offered the horse in sacrifice."

"Then the Vasus, the Gods in the eastern quarter, anointed Indra for six days with the Paficavinsha rite, with this chant, this sacrificial formula and these exclamations, for overlordship. Therefore in this eastern quarter, whatever kings there are of the eastern peoples, they are anointed for overlordship; "Oh overlord" they call their kings when thus anointed in accordance with the action of the Gods. Then in the southern quarter the Rudras, the Gods, anointed him for six days with the Pancavinsha rite, with this chant, this sacrificial formula and these exclamations, for paramount rule. Therefore in this southern quarter, whatever kings there are of the Satvants, they are anointed for paramount rule; "Oh paramount ruler" they call their kings when thus anointed in accordance with the action of the Gods. Then in the western quarter the Adityas, the Gods, anointed him for six days with the Pancavinsha rite, with this chant and this sacrificial formula and these exclamations, for self rule. Therefore in this western quarter, whatever kings there are of the southern and western peoples, they are anointed for self rule; "Oh self ruler" they call their kings when thus anointed in accordance with the action of the Gods. Then in the northern quarter the All-Gods anointed him for six days with the Pahcavinsha rite, with this chant, this sacrificial formula and these exclamations, for sovereignty. Therefore in this northern quarter, the lands of the Uttara Kurus and the Uttara Madras, beyond the Himalayas, their kings are anointed for sovereignty; "Oh sovereign" they call their kings when thus anointed in accordance with the action of the Gods. Then in this firm middle established quarter the Sadhyas and the Aptyas, the Gods, anointed him for six days with the Paficavinsha rite, with this chant, this sacrificial formula and these exclamations, for kingship. Therefore in this firm middle established quarter, whatever kings there are of the Kuru-Pancalas along with the Vashas and Ushinaras, they are anointed for kingship; "Oh king" they call their kings when thus anointed in accordance with the action of the Gods."

"Then in the upward quarter the Maruts and the Angirasas, the Gods, anointed him for six days with the Pancavinsha rite, with this chant, this sacrificial formula and these exclamations, for supreme authority, for great kingship, for suzerainty, for supremacy, for preeminence. He became the supreme authority, as connected with Prajapati (the Lord of creation). Anointed with this great anointment, Indra won all victories, found all the worlds, attained the superiority, pre-eminence and supremacy over all the Gods, and having won the overlordship, paramount rule, self-rule, the sovereignty, the supreme authority, kingship, great kingship, the suzerainty in this world, self-existing, self-ruling, immortal, in yonder world of Heaven, having obtained all desires, he became immortal"

"May I win all victories, find all worlds, attain the superiority, preeminence, and supremacy over all kings and overlordship, paramount rule, self-rule, sovereignty, supreme authority, kingship, great kingship and suzer ainty; may I be all encompassing, possessed of all the Earth, possessed of all life, from the one end up to the further side of the Earth bounded by the ocean sole ruler (AB VIII.15)."

"With this great anointing of Indra, Tura Kavasheya anointed Janamejaya Parikshit. Therefore, Janamejaya Parikshit went around the Earth completely, conquering on every side, and offered the horse in sacrifice. With this great anointing of Indra, Chyavana Bhargava anointed Sharyata Manava. Therefore, Sharyata Manava went around the Earth completely, conquering on every side, and offered the horse in sacrifice. With this great anointing of Indra, Somasushman Vajaratnayana anointed Shatanika Satrajita. Therefore, Shatanika Satrajita went around the Earth completely, conquering on every side, and offered the horse in sacrifice. With this great anointing of Indra, Parvata and Narada anointed Ambasthya. Therefore, Ambasthya went around the Earth completely, conquering on every side, and offered the horse in sacrifice. With this great anointing of Indra, Parvata and Narada anointed Yudhamshraushti Augrasainya. Therefore, Yudhamshraushti Augrasainya went around the Earth completely, conquering on every side, and offered the horse in sacrifice. With this great anointing of Indra, Kashyapa anointed Vishwakarman Bhauvana. Therefore, Vishwakarman Bhauvana went around the Earth completely, conquering on every side, and offered the horse in sacrifice. With this great anointing of Indra, Vasishta anointed Sudas Paijavana. Therefore, Sudas Paijavana went around the Earth completely, conquering on every side, and offered the horse in sacrifice. With this great anointing of Indra, Samvarta Angirasa anointed Marutta Avikshita. Therefore, Marutta Avikshita went around the Earth completely, conquering on every side, and offered the horse in sacrifice. With this great anointing of Indra, Udamaya Atreya anointed Anga. Therefore, Anga went around the Earth completely, conquering on every side, and offered the horse in sacrifice. With this great anointing of Indra, Dirghatamas Mamateya anointed Bharata Dauhshanti. Therefore, Bharata Dauhshanti went around the Earth completely, conquering on every side, and offered the horse in sacrifice. This great anointing of Indra, Brihaduktha the seer proclaimed to Durmukha, the Pancala. Therefore, Durmukha Paficala, being a king, by this knowledge went around the Earth completely, conquering on every side (AB VIII.21)."

"This food Rama Margaveya proclaimed to Vishwantara Saudasamana ... This also Tura Kavasheya proclaimed to Janamejaya Parikshit; this Parvata and Narada proclaimed to Somaka Sahadevaya, to Sahadeva Sarnjaya, to Babhru Divavridha, to Bhima of Vidarbha, to Nagnajit of Gandhara; this Agni proclaimed to Sanashruta Arimdama and to Kratuvid Janaki; this Vasishta proclaimed to Sudas Paijavana. All of them attained greatness having partaken of this food. All of them were great kings; like the Sun, established in prosperity, they gave warmth, obtaining tribute from all the quarters (AB VII.34)"

"Of the cows for which the Brahmin Udamaya Atreya gave at the middle of the offering, the Praiyamedha seers aided in sacrificing, two thousand of myriads day by day. Eighty-eight thousand white horses, side steeds, Vairoch- ana loosing them, the king gave when his Brahmin was sacrificing. With these brought from each country, all daughters of wealthy men, ten thousands Atreya gave, with necklaces on their necks. By reason of the gift of King Anga, having given tens of thousands of elephants at Avachatnuka, the Brahmin Atreya, wearied sought for attendants. "A hundred to you, a hundred to you," so saying he grew weary; by saying "a thousand to you," he got back his breath (AB VII.22).f"

"Three hundred and sixty are the days of the year; so great is the year; the Lord of creation is the year; the sacrifice is the Lord of creation (AB II. 167)."

"The Vishuvat is like a man; the first half of the Vishuvat is like the right half of a man; the second half of the Vishuvat is like the left half (AB IV.22)."

"Prajapati (the lord of the year) felt love towards his own daughter, the sky some say, the dawn others. Having become a stag he approached her in the form of a doe. The Gods saw him. "A deed unknown Prajapati now does." They sought someone to punish him; they could not find anyone among them to do this. So they brought their most terrible forms together in one being. To him (Rudra) the Gods said, "Prajapati here has done a deed unknown; pierce him." Having aimed at him he pierced him; being pierced he flew upwards; him they call "the deer" (mriga). The piercer of the deer is he called by that name (mrigavyadha). The female deer is Rohini; the threepointed arrow is the constellation of the three-pointed e arrow."

"Savitar is the breath (AB I.19)."

"The kindling sticks for the sacred fire are the breaths ... The Divine invokers are expiration and inspiration (AB 11.4)."

"The Upamshu and Antaryama cups are expiration and inspiration (AB 11.2 1)."

"The cups for the two deities are the breaths (AB 11.26)."

"The offerings to the seasons are the breaths (AB 11.29)."

"The Prauga is a litany of the breaths; seven deities he celebrates; seven are the breaths in the head; thus he places the breaths in the head (AB 111.3)."

""Forward" is the breath, for all these creatures advance following after the breath; thus he creates the breath, he makes the breath perfect (AB 11.40)."

"Therefore they say, "the breath is Vayu (God of the wind), seed is breath; seed comes into being first when man comes into existence." In that he recites a triplet to Vishnu, thus he makes his breath perfect. A triplet to Indra and Vayu he recites. Where there is expiration, there is inspiration; in that he recites a triplet to Indra and Vayu, thus his expiration and inspiration he makes perfect (AB 111.2)."

"Verily does the Invoker establish speech and expiration and inspiration in the self, with a full life, for fullness of life; a full life he lives who knows this (AB 111.8)."

""Your offspring shall inherit the ends of the Earth." There are the people, the Andhras, Pundras, Shabaras, Pulindas, and Mutibas, who live in large numbers beyond the borders; most of the Dasyus are descendants of Vishwamitra (AB VII. 18)."

"The [sun] never really sets or rises. In that they think of him “He is setting,” having reached the end of the day, he inverts himself; thus he makes evening below, day above. Again in that they think of him “He is rising in the morning,” having reached the end of the night he inverts himself; thus he makes day below, night above. He never sets; indeed he never sets."

"Later books, such as the Aitareya Brāhmana, which belong to the 2nd millennium BCE, speak of the expansion of the Vedic religion into regions called Uttarakuru and Uttaramadra beyond the Himalayas to the northwest. Aitareya Br. 8.14 says Uttarakuru had Vedic consecration for their kings. Ptolemy knows of these regions as Ottorokorrha and describes them lying between the Aral and the Caspian Seas and Megasthenes and Strabo are emphatic that the Uttarakuruvah [Hyperboreans] are connected with the Indians."

"Only relative chronology has been well argued for."

"We may reasonably argue that such a fixed form and substance would not easily be possible in the beginnings of thought and psychological experience or even during their early progress and unfold- ing. We may therefore surmise that our Sanhita represents the close of a period, not its commencement, nor even some of its successive stages. It is even possible that its most ancient hymns are a comparatively modern development or version of a more ancient lyric evangel couched in the freer and more pliable forms of a still earlier human speech... The Veda itself speaks constantly of 'ancient' and 'modern' Rishis tpurvebhib... nutanaihy. the former remote enough to be regarded as a kind of demigods, the first founders of knowledge."

"Max Muller's dating of the Veda illustrates the arbitrariness involved in the production of theories that are then propagated as "facts" in generations of schoolbooks."

"By his [= Playfair’s] attempt to uphold the antiquity of Hindu books against absolute facts, he thereby supports all those horrid abuses and impositions found in them, under the pretended sanction of antiquity. Nay, his aim goes still deeper, for by the same means he endeavours to overturn the Mosaic account, and sap the very foundation of our religion: for if we are to believe in the antiquity of Hindu books, as he would wish us, then the Mosaic account is all a fable, or a fiction."

"The whole foundation of Mueller's date [for the Rigveda] rests on the authority of Somadeva, the author of 'an Ocean of (or rather for) the River of Stories' who narrated his tales in the twelfth century after Christ. Somadeva, I am satisfied, would not be a little surprised to learn that 'a European point of view" raises a 'ghost story' of his to the dignity of an historical document."

"The period between the arrival of the Indo-Aryan in the Indian subcontinent and the composition of the oldest Vedic hymns must have been much longer than was previously thought."

"The opinions of best researchers in the matter of the age of the Ṛgveda differed not by a few centuries but by a few thousands of years. Now it is clear that the presumption of 200 years for each of the literary epochs in the birth of the Veda is purely arbitrary... it was strangely forgotten on how weak a footing the prevailing view actually stood."

"It was once said that dates in Indian studies are like bowling pins, set up only to be knocked down later. I do not think that this ought to stop us from making suggestions."

"It is quite clear that we cannot fix a terminum a quo, whether the Vedic hymns were composed 1000 or 2000 or 3000 years BC, no power on earth will ever determine."

"I need hardly say that I agree with almost every word of my critics. I have repeatedly dwelt on the merely hypothetical character of the dates which I ventured to assign to the first three periods of Vedic literature. All I have claimed for them has been that they are minimum dates, and that the literary productions of each period which either still exist or which formerly existed, could hardly be accounted for within shorter limits of time than those suggested."

"As to the actual date of the Veda … if we were to place it at 5000 BC, I doubt whether anybody could refute such a date, while if we go back beyond the Veda, and come to measure the time required for the formation of Sanskrit … I doubt whether even 5,000 years would suffice for that. There is an unfathomable depth in language, layer following after layer, long before we arrive at roots, and what a time and what an effort must have been required for their elaboration, and for the elaboration of the ideas expressed in them."

"These dates Mueller later insisted were minimum dates only, and latterly there has been a sort of tacit agreement... to date the composition of the Rigveda somewhere about 1400-1500 BC, but without any absolutely conclusive evidence."

"That age [of the Rigveda] is not known with even an approximate degree of certainty."

"All attempts to date the Vedic literature on linguistic grounds have failed miserably for the simple reason that (a) the conclusions of comparative philology are often speculative and (b) no one has yet suceeded in showing how much change should take place in a language in a given period."

"It became a habit already censured by W. D. Whitney, to say that Max Muller had proved 1200-1000 B.C. as the date of the Rg Veda. It was only timidly that a few scholars, like L. von Schroeder ventured to go as far back as 1500 or even 2000 B.C. And when all at once, H. Jacobi attempted to date Vedic literature back to the third millenary B.C. on the grounds of astrological calculations, scholars raised a great outcry at such heretical procedure... Strange to say it has been quite forgotten on what a precarious footing stood the "opinion prevailing hitherto, which was so zealously defended."

"We cannot, however, explain the development of the whole of this great literature, if we assume as late a date as round about 1200 or 1500 B.C. as its starting point. ... The more prudent course, however, is to steer clear of any fixed dates..."

"It is remarkable however how strong the power of suggestion is even in science. Max Muller's hypothetical and purely arbitrary determination of the Vedic epochs in the course of years, received more and more the dignity and the character of a scientifically proven fact, without any new arguments or actual proofs having been added."

"Oral tradition, too, presupposes longer intervals of time than would be necessary, had these texts been written down. Generations of pupils and teachers must have passed away before all the existing and the many lost texts had taken definite shape in the Vedic schools,"

"The calculations and conjectures of Professor Muller cannot be looked upon as having in any essential manner contributed to the final settlement of the question. Doubtless he would himself make no such pretensions in their favor; but he is in danger of being misunderstood as doing so; we have already more than once seen it stated that "Muller has ascertained the date of the Vedas to be 1200-1000 B. C.," or to that effect."

"It is amazing to note that all the supporters of the date 1200-1000 B.C. for the Veda very conveniently ignore the caution which Max Muller had initially observed."

"It is unfortunate that the most ancient Sangam compositions are probably lost for ever ; we only know of them through brief quotations in later works. An early text, the Tamil grammar Tolkàppiyam, dated by most scholars to the first or second century AD,35 is “said to have been modelled on the Sanskrit grammar of the Aindra school.”"

"Its content, says N. Raghunathan, shows that “the great literature of Sanskrit and the work of its grammarians and rhetoricians were well known and provided stimulus to creative writers in Tamil.... The Tolkàppiyam adopts the entire Rasa theory as worked out in the Nàtya øàstra of Bharata.”"

"It also refers to rituals and customs coming from the “Aryans,” a word which in Sangam literature simply means North Indians of Vedic culture ; for instance, the Tolkàppiyam “states definitely that marriage as a sacrament attended with ritual was established in the Tamil country by the Aryas,”"

"The Tolkàppiyam also formulates the captivating division of the Tamil land into five regions (tiõai ), each associated with one particular aspect of love, one poetical expression, and also one deity : thus the hills (kuriji ) with union and with Cheyon (Murugan) ; the desert (pàlai ) with separation and Koççavai (Durga) ; the forests (mullai ) with awaiting and Mayon (Vishnu-Krishna) ; the seashore (neytal ) with wailing and Varuna ; and the cultivated lands (marutam) with quarrel and Ventan (Indra). Thus from the beginning we have a fusion of non-Vedic deities (Murugan or Koççavai), Vedic gods (Indra, Varuna) and later Puranic deities such as Vishnu (Màl or Tirumàl). Such a synthesis is quite typical of the Hindu temperament and cannot be the result of an overnight or superficial influence ; it is also as remote as possible from the separateness we are told is at the root of so-called “Dravidian culture.”"

"The “Eight Anthologies” of poetry (or eññuttokai ) abound in references to many gods : Shiva, Uma, Murugan, Vishnu, Lakshmi (named Tiru, which corresponds to Sri) and several other Saktis. The Paripàóal, one of those anthologies, consists almost entirely of devotional poetry to Vishnu. One poem begins with a homage to him and Lakshmi, and goes on to praise Garuda, Shiva on his “majestic bull,” the four-faced Brahma, the twelve âdityas, the Ashwins, the Rudras, the Saptarishis, Indra with his “dreaded thunderbolt,” the devas and asuras, etc., and makes glowing references to the Vedas and Vedic scholars. So does the Puranànåru, another of the eight anthologies, which in addition sees Lord Shiva as the source of the four Vedas and describes Lord Vishnu as “blue-hued” and “Garuda-bannered”. Similarly, a poem of a third anthology, the Akanànåru, declares that Shiva and Vishnu are the greatest of gods."

"Let us briefly turn to the famous Tamil epic Shilappadikaram (second to sixth century AD), which relates the beautiful and tragic story of Kannagi and Kovalan ; it opens with invocations to Chandra, Surya, and Indra, all of them Vedic Gods, and frequently praises Agni, Varuna, Shiva, Subrahmanya, Vishnu-Krishna, Uma, Kàli, Yama and so forth. There are mentions of the four Vedas and of “Vedic sacrifices being faultlessly performed.” “In more than one place,” writes V. Ramachandra Dikshitar, the first translator of the epic into English, “there are references to Vedic Brahmans, their fire rites, and their chanting of the Vedic hymns. The Brahman received much respect from the king and was often given gifts of wealth and cattle.”"

"When Kovalan and Kannagi are married, they “walk around the holy fire,” a typically Vedic rite still at the centre of the Hindu wedding. Welcomed by a tribe of fierce hunters on their way to Madurai, they witness a striking apparition of Durga, who is addressed equally as Lakshmi and Sarasvati—the three Shaktis of the Hindu trinity. There are numerous references to legends from the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, and the Puranas. After worshipping at two temples, one of Vishnu and the other of Shiva, the Chera king Shenguttuvan goes to the Himalayas in search of a stone for Kannagi’s idol, and bathes it in the Ganges—in fact, the waters of Ganga and those of Cauvery were said to be equally sacred."

"An Arya is one who hails from a noble family, of gentle behavior and demeanor, good-natured and of righteous conduct."

"To place the two Indian epics on a par with Homer or Virgil is to ignore how the Indian poems have been adored and how they have moulded the character and faith of the people."

"The written law of the śāstras and the customary laws of the different groups of humanity thus existed side by side, equally respected though often in notable disagreement with each other. The former acted upon the latter and restricted its mobility; but the latter also acted upon the former through the medium of interpretation. The result was an extremely variable and diverse law."

"The year has two halves, white and black; two sides, right and left. Hence is this verse (of the Rig Veda), "White is one, holy is the other, two days diverse in form are yours, you are like Heaven ... Pushan let your blessing be here.""

"As far and wide the vernal breeze Sweet odors wafts from blooming trees, So, too, the grateful savor speeds To distant lands of virtuous deeds."

"The Sun, therefore, goes by the south for six months and for six months by the north."

"Whoso worships God under the thought, "He is the foundation," becomes founded; under the thought, "He is great," becomes great; under the thought, "He is mind," becomes wise."

"The level of agricultural operations is suggested vividly by TS.IV.2.5: The well with buckets fastened with strong straps that yieldeth abundantly... yoke the ploughs, stretch apart the yokes. May the ripe (grain) be brought low by the sickle. The plough, of keen share, propitious, with well-polished handle."

"Battles are graphically described in TS.IV.6.6: He whizzeth as he goes to battle/ The quiver, slung on the back, yielding its content/Doth conquer every band and army./Standing on the chariot he guideth his steeds before him..../ Skilfully the strong- hooved horses neigh/As with the cars they show their strength;/Trampling with their fore feet the enemy?They unflinchingly destroy the foe."

"One should consecrate the (sacred) fire in the Krittikas; ... the Krittikas are the mouth of the Nakshatras (TB 1.1.2.1)."

"The Nakshatras are the houses of the Gods ... the Nakshatras of the Gods begin with the Krittikas and end with Vishakha, whereas the Nakshatras of Yama begin with Anuradha and end with the Apabharani (TB 1.5.2.7)."

"Brihaspati as he was born revealed Tishya Nakshatra (TB 111. 1.1.5)."

"Chitra is the head of Prajapati (the God of the sacrifice or the year), Swati the heart, Hasta the hand Vishakha the thighs, and Anuradha the foot (TB I.5.2.2).'"

"This entire (universe) has been created by Brahma. Men say that the Vaishya class was produced from rig verses. They say that the Yajur Veda is the womb from which the Kshattriya was born. The Sama Veda is the source from which the Brahmins sprang. This word the ancients declared to the ancients."

"Uttara Phalguni is the mouth of the year. Purva Phalguni is its tail, just as two ends of a thing meet so these two ends of the year meet together (GB I.19)."

"Moments drag on for ages Eyes shower storms of tears The whole world is an empty void Without you, Govinda"

"Yuga-yitam nimo-shena Chakshusha pravrisha-yitam Shunya-yitam jagat sarvam Govinda-virahena me"

"Long ago there was a King called Kakutstha in the Ikṣvāku dynasty. When he was ruling over the kingdom of Ayodhyā, a war broke out between Devas and Asuras. In that war, the Devas were not able to defeat the Asuras. Seeing no other way, Indra assumed the form of a bull and Kakutstha, riding on the back of the bull fought against the Asuras and defeated them."

"In case of multiples from the units place, the value of each place (sthana) is ten times the value of the preceding place."

"The cord stretched in the diagonal of an oblong produces both [areas] which the cords forming the longer and shorter sides of an oblong produce separately."

"The diagonal cord of a rectangle makes both (the squares) that the vertical side and the horizontal side make separately."

"Like a flash his love vanished A trinket gets dangled in your world you reach for it and it’s gone"

"Mother, were he abroad I’d bear the separation but to live in separate houses in the same village is worse than death"

"You may think you have much to say about the night spent with your lover. The whisperings, the teasings, the little quarrels, and even how he smelt. But my friends, in truth from the moment his hand felt my skirt I remember nothing."

"The Vaiśeṣika Sūtra (VS) is a central Indian text, but somehow it was ignored by scholars during the past century or so. I have seen books mention that Kaṇāda presented an atomic theory of matter independent and prior to the atomic doctrine of Democritus and leave it at that."

"As I began to study the VS I was astonished by the sophistication of the system. Concluding that Kaṇāda’s work is a masterpiece of world science, I decided to spend all the time I could get to do a new translation along with a commentary."

"The VS takes the world to be atomic, with atoms of four kinds. Each material substance is composed of these atoms, two (or perhaps three) of which have mass and the remaining do not. The ordinary molecules of matter have all the four basic atoms present in them for by heating a solid substance changes into liquid, and later into gas; with still further heating it burns, converting into heat and light."

"The intuition behind the theory is that one atom is indicative of solidity and this is the heaviest; the second atom makes the liquid state possible and therefore it should be lighter; the third atom represents decay and it has (probably) no mass (this is not expressly stated); and the fourth is the constituent of light and heat and it definitely has no mass. It is astonishing that these atoms have turned out to be similar to proton, electron, neutrino, and photon."

"The VS anticipates most of Newton’s laws of motion, including the one on how an object continues in its state of rest or motion unless impressed with forces and that each action has an equal and opposite reaction."

"The VS considers reality to have two aspects: physical and consciousness, with the two interacting when an observation is made. It anticipates the principle of psychophysical parallelism that lies at the basis of the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum theory."

"The Vaiśeṣika system has categories not only for space-time-matter but also for attributes related to perception of matter. It starts with six categories (padārthas) that are nameable and knowable, asserting that nothing beyond these six is necessary."

"There are nine classes of substances (dravya), some of which are non-atomic, some atomic, and others all-pervasive. The non-atomic ground is provided by the three substances of ether (ākāśa), space (dik), and time (kāla), which are unitary and indestructible; earth (pṛthvī), water (āpas), fire (tejas), and air (vāyu) are atomic composed of indivisible, and indestructible atoms (aṇu); self (ātman), which is the eighth, is omnipresent and eternal; and, lastly, the ninth, is the mind (manas), which is also eternal but of atomic dimensions, that is, infinitely small."

"Put simply, the main insight of the Vaiśeṣika is that consciousness is not to be found as a property that emerges out of matter. The best analogy to understand it is to take reality as a coin of which one side is physical matter and the other side is consciousness, and ordinarily neither may be reduced to the other. Kaṇāda says that consciousness cannot be a substance for it is not something that is modified by time or space, and therefore it should be a separate ontological category."

"Kaṇāda speaks of nitya as a property that does not change or is invariant. From the perspective of physics, the idea of nitya is astonishingly modern. The property of nitya guarantees that the atom is spherical since it cannot have different characteristics along different directions."