Fwd: Dr Harish Chandra's article in SpiritMag Nov '06 - 15

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Here is the Nov issue of SpiritMag. Some members receive it direct. If you would like to receive it direct then send a blank email in reply to this email. Thanks,

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Dayananda Inst of Vedic Studies

 

SpiritMag <spiritmag > wrote:

Sun, 26 Nov 2006 10:02:28 -0500

SpiritMag <spiritmag >

spiritmag (AT) centerforinnersciences (DOT) org

Dr Harish Chandra's article in SpiritMag Nov '06 - 15

 

CIS News

1. Dr. Harish Chandra's ongoing lecture tour has generated a great deal of excitement about spiritual sciences. Glasgow group of spiritualists has now decided to organize a one-day seminar "Towards a Scientific Basis for Spirituality," Saturday, Dec 23, 2006 with him as the key speaker.

 

2. Dr. Chandra's ideas on universality of the spiritual sciences have been intensely heard by young inquisitive minds in Windsor, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver (in Canada) and then in Seattle, Portland and San Francisco (in the USA).

 

3. Dr. Chandra has counted the rationale and virtues of vegetarianism in Calgary while speaking under the banner of "People Against Violence for Food" and then at the San Francisco Vegetarian Society.

Volume I, No. 3

Inner Sciences: Can We Prove Them? – Part I

The term "inner sciences" pertains to a scientific inquiry when we traverse inward of a subject of interest. If our inquiry pertains to the human beings then we are interested in the innermost core of a human being where resides a tiny infinitesimal soul – the individual spirit. Thus, a scientific inquiry towards the study of our spirit would be the first arm of the inner sciences. In addition to this, the second arm of the inner sciences would relate to a scientific inquiry pertaining to the cosmic spirit that permeates through the infinitely large universe. In other words, our definition of inner sciences includes both the spirits – the tiny individual spirit and the infinite cosmic spirit. Both the spirits possess consciousness as their inherent and intrinsic property. While the first spirit is infinitesimally small – a singularity in our body structure, the cosmic spirit is an infinitely large entity.

When we discuss spirituality (study of both the spirits – the tiny one and the infinite one) then the very first question arises: can we discuss and examine spirituality in a well-accepted scientific manner. It is generally assumed that spirituality is a matter of faith and personal belief. This is where the Center for Inner Sciences (CIS) makes a firm point that nobody should accept anything without ascertaining its truthfulness based on a rigorous scientific inquiry. This being the case, we must state at the outset that the so-called inner sciences must be provable. If it cannot be proven then we shouldn't accept it.

An ancient sage Kapila discusses the pleasure and pain in his classical treatise Samkhya-Darsana. This is our basic instinct that we get away from what causes pain and then we tend to get towards what is pleasant. Indeed, come to think of it, the ability to feel the pleasure and pain is the proof of our consciousness. However, the discussion here is not whether we are a conscious being or we are void of consciousness. Everybody knows that we are a conscious being – we differ on the seat of consciousness. Is it an attribute of our body or that of the mind. Else, could it be that an entity such as a soul must be thought of that is the ultimate seat of our consciousness.

Let us come back to Kapila. He raises a question: what gives us pain and what gives us pleasure. The question sounds simple enough that even a child can list ten things that give her pain and another ten things that give pleasure. But a deeper thought will indicate that it is not easy for all the human beings to concur on a universal source of pain and another universal source of pleasure.

Yes, it is not easy to find the universal source of pain or pleasure that every human being has come across in his/her life. Let us first look at a more positive side, namely, the source of pleasure. A cup of coffee may give pleasure to many people. But there are many people who may not derive pleasure from it, or have no idea of its taste, and therefore, they may not say that it gives pleasure to them. Similarly, one may say that it pains when his/her finger comes in contact with a fire. But there are many who may not have experienced such a thing, especially those who are small infants and children.

Then Kapila continues further to state his observation that "hunger" is the commonest pain that everyone has suffered. Even an infant child of the richest person, a few moments after birth, has cried out of hunger. Thus, hunger is the universal source of pain every human being has had first hand experience about. Kapila, furthermore, says that the universal source of pleasure, which everybody has experienced in his/her life is deep sleep or sound sleep – what he calls susupti. Try to recall the last time you had deep sleep void of any dream and you were not awakened by an alarm or any other event in the external world. In other words, you emerged out of the deep sleep in a natural manner. Try to recall the very next moment after you emerged from the deep sleep – you definitely felt that "I had a nice sleep" or that "I enjoyed the sleep."

Next month we will see how Kapila goes on to make the most powerful statement from such a trivial event of the life, namely the sleep. How he proves the existence of our spirit and that of the cosmic spirit from the observation that "the sound sleep is the only experience every human being has gone through and whenever one goes through that he/she finds it to be a pleasant experience."

- Dr. Harish Chandra

Forthcoming Events

 

1. Dr. Harish Chandra's current lecture tour in the USA will further take him to Lansing (517 485 1060), New York (631 981 5730), Tallahassee (850 321 0654), Miami (954 431 4508) and Atlanta (770 638 9750) before he travels to Glasgow (0044 79333 36111) in the UK. The telephone numbers appearing against the names of the places can give informtaion about the events planned in the respective locations.

 

2. Dr. Chandra's brief talk in Toronto on the principles of Yoga led a number of people requesting him to write a book on Yoga that can clarify a number of misunderstandings prevailing on Yoga. He has started writing the manuscript on a brief booklet that should be ready in January 2007.

 

We remind you:

1. To request the back issues of SpiritMag, write to

spiritmag (AT) centerforinnersciences (DOT) org .

 

2. To from SpiritMag, send a blank email to

spiritmag (AT) centerforinnersciences (DOT) org with the subject line Un.

 

3. To know more about the activities of the Center for Inner Sciences, visit us at

www.centerforinnersciences.org

 

Thanking you,

 

 

SpiritMag Team

 

 

 

 

 

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