Let's think : By Dr.King, Swami Satyapriya

[Quick links] [Pause] Patanjali starts off his Yoga process with a set of do’s and don’ts almost akin to Buddha’s steps for right way of living. These steps are meant to prepare the right mental condition needed for Yoga practice.

[Quick links] [Pause] When I talk about Yoga, I normally talk about Patanjali’s Ashtanga Yoga as described in the Yoga Sutra which is a primary text of Yoga, composed sometime during 200 B.C.  This Yoga has 8 steps. These steps are Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi.

[Quick links] [Pause] We were discussing the magical solution developed by an Indian scientist namely Dr. Krishan Chandra. We also saw how easy it is to prepare it, not to mention about almost zero cost of the solution. In many of his YouTube videos Dr. Chandra never gets tired listing the myriad ways of using his magical solution. For him, it appears as if it is a most sacred religious artefact

[Quick links] [Pause] Sometimes I get amazed by the rat race that goes on in the name of enjoyment. People go to any extent to ‘enjoy’. For many people enjoyment is the very purpose of their life. I am not against enjoyment per se. I am not like those ancient Buddhists who shunned enjoyment as a cause of all miseries. But they frowned only upon worldly enjoyment. They had no problem with the enjoyment or bliss one experiences as a result of meditative practices.

[Quick links] [Pause] Who does not want to be happy? All our actions and endeavors are directed towards that end. We all want to be happy.  But what is happiness? Have you ever pondered over it seriously?

[Quick links] [Pause] Brain is such a complex part of our body that you may need a detailed book to understand that. That is what I have attempted to do in my book “How does the Mind work?”. But still, what I have presented in that book is just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.

[Quick links] [Pause] Love is one of the human emotions that is often eulogized to the extent of raising it to divinity! Not that animals don’t exhibit this emotion. But they probably don’t believe in God as we do

[Quick links] [Pause] I know it sounds a bit absurd to ask such a question. It is like asking someone whether he or she is asleep! If you are not conscious, there is no way you can answer my question.

[Quick links] [Pause] We started our discussions with the fundamental premise that brain and mind are almost synonymous. One by one, we saw how many aspects of our mind can be mapped on to the activities of the brain. We said that our feelings, thoughts, consciousness and even the so called ‘free will’ are all just happenings in our brain. We were almost close to concluding that even the illusive entity namely the soul does not exist. We can explain everything about our existence without taking recourse to concepts like soul etc. But do we really have all the answers?

[Quick links] [Pause] Buddhism is generally attributed to the great reformer philosopher Siddhartha Gautama who probably lived during 623-543 B.C. Buddha was more concerned with the miseries that afflicted common people and he gave up his throne and went in search of a solution to all the miseries of mankind. The early form of the religion that got formulated sometime during 300 B.C., i.e. two centuries after the death of Buddha, was called ‘Teravada’ Buddhism – a word that simply meant – ‘the path of the elders’.  Most of what I am going to talk in this episode pertains to this early form of Buddhism which is believed to be based on the preaching of Buddha as recorded in the Tipitakas.