Educators From India

"‘What we have to face,’ he wrote, ‘is that a Muslim living in a secular or a modern state must have the freedom and independence to obey fresh laws; and new legal norms, whether related to the Shariah or not, will have to be formulated. It is becoming increasingly clear that something good and legal may be entirely outside the rule of Shariah, just as, surprisingly enough, some rules which are unjust and indefensible may be within the orbit of acts permitted by the Shariah. I refer to some rules in the Hanafi law of talaq (divorce) in India, to take a simple example.’"

"‘My solution,’ Fyzee wrote, ‘is (a) to define religion and law in terms of twentieth century thought, (b) to distinguish between religion and law in Islam, and (c) to interpret Islam on this basis and give a fresh meaning to the faith of Islam. If by this analysis some elements that we have regarded as part of the essence of Islam have to be modified, or given up altogether, then we have to face the consequences. If, on the other hand, belief in the innermost core can be preserved and strengthened, the operation although painful will produce health and vigour in an anaemic body which is languishing without a fresh ideal to guide it.’"

"‘Iqbal and Abdur Rahim amongst recent Indian writers have rebelled against this doctrine, and yet none ventures to face the wrath of the Ulema.’"

"See how calm and reposeful Nature is and how restless is man... He doesn't know that he has to evolve in a certain direction, that he has to reach a dimension where he will combine the scientist, the sage and the illuminated in himself."

"What would be needed are men and women who are cultivated, trained, and who have reached to other dimensions of consciousness, in charge of important offices. That is the only way to safety."

"It is an admixture of natural life, lived in solitude, amid beautiful surroundings of nature and what we call an arboreal life, which is absolutely necessary for the poise and harmony of the human mind."

"We should have a population for which we have sufficient out of all that is produced by the earth. This can only be possible when the needs of the population and the planning done for it are on a global basis."

"For political leadership one needs more than a pure heart and a good intellect. He or she must have the talent for administration and the charisma to rule. People with less character but better talent sometimes prove to be better leaders than those who were good-hearted but did not know the art of leadership."

"Please don’t think that after the awakening of Kundalini all human problems will be automatically solved. The universe is so complicated and human nature so deep that to the last day man will continue to gather wisdom to enable him to live in greater and greater harmony and joy."

"At this moment mankind is unsafe in the hands of present-day politicians. Considering the progress she has made in physical science and technological skill, it is imperative that superconscious minds be placed in charge of human affairs."

"Solitude and nature are absolutely necessary for the proper development of a human being."

"Everyone who is transformed by the action of Kundalini blooms into a genius. When more and more facts about this still-mysterious and mighty force are known, more and more men and women will endeavour to arouse the power."

"True religion is a firm belief in an Almighty Creator, in immortality, in self-perfection, in service, truth, love and compassion for all fellow beings, as the only way for the sanctification of human life to manifest the glory of the soul."

"If we look for a moment at the great mystics of the past, the prophets like Christ and Buddha, Shankaracharya, Vyasa, or Mohammed, we find evidence of this in their own lives. It is a desire tospeak the truth, a desire to speak to mankind with unbounded love, compassion, mercy, and charity. This is found in all of them."

"It is a fallacy to hold That Life’s patrician is the prime, And outcast tribe the sterile old, Who live for death to bide their time."

"It soon will be a reality, To make it ready for the shift From the old order to the New, In which the strong the weak will lift, And the rich to the poorer give."

"This promised dream-world, as designed For man, by Heaven that has imbued With these ideals the human mind, Will ne’er be given up but pursued."

"Kundalini is the evolutionary mechanism in man. It is slowly but inexorably leading mankind towards a higher state of consciousness. In the normal human being the condition of one’s heart is always a matter for careful attention because the heart plays a most important function in keeping the body alive."

"But to act on the rules enjoined, For Man to be a Super-man. These rules no mortal brain has coined, But form a part of Heaven's Plan."

"And every year a golden crop, Of these Immortals will arise To help safely to the top, The savants who train for the prize. (Verses 381 - 386)"

"If I say that Kundalini performs no less important a function, not only for the individual but for the whole of the race, shouldn’t it be a matter of the deepest interest for us to know how it functions? It is at work every moment of our lives in building the brain and the nervous system, and it is therefore most necessary for the safety of mankind that some people deeply interested in it arouse this power so that the world might benefit by their experience."

"What I aver is not a dream Nor wishful thought nor fantasy Though it may now fantastic seem"

"As for those in whom the power awakens in a malignant way, it will be possible when physicians come into possession of more facts about it to apply methods and other remedies to counteract the effects of an unhealthy awakening."

"This book is from the Super-Mind A fast dictated gift sublime, The Message it contains will find Full confirmation in due time."

"This well-observed phenomenon, So new to modern intellect, Has been exhibited, off and on, In varied tongue and dialect,"

"Children should be brought up with the ideal cultivated in them that the universe is ruled by an intelligent power, that they must cultivate purity, honesty, truth, compassion and live ideal lives. In that way they will conform to the evolutionary needs. That is the best thing we can do for the children."

"We are not using the totality of the human brain. According to various estimates, most of us use only ten percent of the brain and according to some only eight percent. That means 90 percent of the brain is un-utilized, that there is still a large margin in the brain which could be used for other purposes, and nature has provided it for certain purposes which are not yet known to science."

"This is my experience, that the human brain is still organically evolving in the direction of the great mystics, in the same direction as the great geniuses. For this evolution a certain type of life is necessary."

"Right from the old Egyptian times, By many a richly gifted mind, Of which the evidence in some climes, One can in holy scriptures find."

"The legend runs that only a small number of families of Kashmiri Hindus survived the massacre and all the present population of Kashmiri Pandits is descended from them. It was said that cartloads of sacred threads, which the Hindus wear, were collected and thrown into the Dal Lake from the decapitated bodies of the killed and tortured. Crowds of women committed suicide to escape the clutches of the ravishers. Women, it is said, carried lethal poisons in their pockets to be swallowed when no other way was left to save their honor."

"Properly speaking, Yoga is an adjunct to religion and has always been treated as such in India, the country of its birth. The word Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj which means to yoke or join. As such, Yoga signifies the union of the individual soul with universal Consciousness or, in the language of the Upanishads, with the uncreated, all-pervading Brahman."

"O people of the world unite, and pave the way to peace sublime, Divided you yourself invite disastrous wars, unrest and crime."

"There is no way to find this out, No way to wake up from the dream, No method to remove the doubt, Save knowledge of the State Supreme."

"The word yoga is met for the first time in Vedas in the Katha Upanishad and some description of it is contained in Svetasvatra, the last of the early Upanishads. It is more frequently met with in Puranas, the epics and other later literature, and is sometimes synonymously used for tapa and dhyana (i.e., religious austerity and meditation). Basically Yoga is nothing more or less than systematized concentration. Fixity of attention, whether on a God or a Goddess, on a symbol or a diagram, on the void or any material object, or whether on a mantra or any particular region of the body, is the main exercise of every ancient form of Yoga."

"Religion is, in truth, a route To be pursued unto the last, Not for discussion or dispute Nor ostentatious rite or fast (Verses 291 - 294)"

"The knowledge of the secret of Kundalini, when accepted and amplified by the experience of other competent investigators, will bring home to humanity the need for strict adherence to the laws of evolution and for adjusting their social and political systems in harmony with these laws."

"The destruction of temples even by Hindu rulers was not unknown, but Mahmud’s was a regulated activity and inaugurated an increase in temple destruction compared to earlier times"

"Though she was already well-known, her hour of glory came with the unnecessary and artificial Ayodhya controversy. But in that controversy, she was on the wrong side. It doesn’t always come about, but in this case it did happen: justice. The wrong side, though absolutely dominant for more than a decade, was proven wrong. Her major claim to fame is now as the historian who was proven wrong, and this in a self-created controversy. I feel for her, she threw away her good reputation at the end of her career. Then again, she can still win it back by crossing the floor in time. She is in an excellent position, for instance, to create the much-needed dialogue between the different schools and disciplines in East and West; to stop the stonewalling, the guilt-by-association and the ridiculing that obstruct or poison the debate."

"Romila Thapar, an Indian historian... is reviled by some Indian scholars for her acquiescence to many western points of view."

"Nations are not easily forged since many identities have to be coalesced."

"Rajendra I ruled jointly with his father for two years, succeeding him in 1014. The policy of expansion continued with the annexation of the southern provinces of the Chalukyas, the rich Raichur doab and Vengi. Campaigns against Sri Lanka and Kerala were also renewed. But Rajendra’s ambitions had turned northwards. An expedition set out, marching through Orissa to reach the banks of the Ganges. From there, it is said, holy water from the river was carried back to the Chola capital. Bringing back the water through conquest symbolized ascendancy over the north. But Rajendra did not hold the northern regions for long, a situation parallel to that of Samudra Gupta’s campaign in the south almost 700 years earlier."

"By making too much of fundamentalism, Thapar and her fellow travellers have made fundamentalism almost respectable. The fact that they are silent about the fundamentalism of other non-Hindu religious groups throws clear light on what is their attitude to the Indian religious scene."

"I have over the years of my research been struck by the frequency with which the present makes use of the past either in a detrimental manner where it becomes a part of various political ploys, or alternatively in a positive manner to claim an enviable legitimacy and inheritance."

"The political ideologues of the Hindu Right endorse a history rooted in colonial interpretations and are anxious to make that period of history a Hindu utopia."

"Epic literature is not history but is again a way of looking at the past."

"Some have argued that as language is the medium of knowledge, that which comes in the form of language constitutes a text; since language is interpreted by the individual, the reading by the individual gives meaning to the text; therefore each time a text is read by a different individual it acquires a fresh meaning. Taken to its logical conclusion, this denies any generally accepted meaning of a text and is implicitly a denial of attempts at historical representation or claims to relative objectivity, since the meaning would change with each reading. However, the prevalent views are more subtle."

"Strangely, Indians travelling outside the subcontinent do not seem to have left itineraries of where they went or descriptions of what they saw. Distant places enter the narratives of storytelling only very occasionally."

"(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."

"To categorize some people as indigenous and others as alien, to argue about the identity of the first inhabitants of the subcontinent, and to try and sort out these categories for the remote past, is to attempt the impossible."

"In the questioning of existing explanations the validity of periodizing Indian history as Hindu, Muslim and British was increasingly doubted. It had projected two thousand years of a golden age for the first, eight hundred years of despotic tyranny for the second, and a supposed modernization under the British."