This has been possible by the growing awareness of man about his own personal nature, about his larger society and culture and about the whole humanity. The foremost challenge of contemporary man is the discovery and affirmation of man’s spirituality and bringing it into full play in the play of life and for the attainment of some new leap forward in creation and transcendence. The cosmic dimension, therefore comprehends reason and faith, science and poetry. The cosmic dimension brings experience of (...) timelessness in love, worship and beauty The extension of this personal awareness to a larger awareness shared by thesociety enriches the social life and adds an essential element to all progress and development. This balance and harmony is the product of human creativity. Therefore the fullness of life is given to creative persons living harmoniously on all there dimensions of the cosmic, the elemental and the temporal. Some sense of discovery enters into the creative process. (shrink)

This book is a philosophical analysis of ordinary concepts like human action and, consciousness, and how they get represented in our language. It examines the philosophical history of the issues that emerge and places the discussion across different paradigms. It brings into contemporary focus some problems like intentionality, relation between mind, body and structure of explanations.

SummaryThis paper explores the hypothesis that gender attitude scales are associated with contraceptive use. Four hundred male and female respondents were interviewed using a pre-tested, structured questionnaire. Analyses included comparisons of means and prevalence rates on gender equity indicators, other related factors and socio-demographic characteristics;t-tests to compare mean scores on each gender scale for wives and husbands to identify any significant differences; chi-squared tests to compare associations between individual attributes, attitudes and contraceptive use; and multivariate logistic regression to examine associations (...) between each gender scale and contraceptive use. The findings revealed that, on average, wives endorsed more inequitable gender attitudes compared with husbands on all gender attitude scales. For wives, more equitable gender attitudes were positively associated with contraceptive use. For husbands, the role of gender attitudes had no significant association with wives' reported contraceptive use. Family planning programmes that aim to challenge inegalitarian gender norms should not overlook women in their efforts since both men and women often accept and support inequality in a social system and, in some cases, it may be women's gender attitudes that most influence family planning decisions. (shrink)

In the following thematic introduction, we seek to situate Confluence within the field of comparative philosophy and substantiate why we deem a new publication necessary. For this purpose, we reconstruct the salient stages in the development of comparative philosophy in Part I, and then proceed to expound the rationale underlying Confluence in Part II. Our reconstruction of these stages pursues an exploratory rather than a documentary approach.

We discuss N. I. Vavilov’s 1922 landmark publication, “The Law of Homologous Series in Variation,” and highlight its salient points. Vavilov drew upon his considerable experience in the field with wild and cultivated crop plants and summarized what he noticed in the form of a law. The law stated that comparable variant forms tended to appear in different varieties of the same species, different species of the same genus, different genera of the same family, and so on. His survey of (...) the older literature suggested that the law applied to multicellular animals as well. Vavilov acknowledged that such “parallel” series might be the outcome of convergent evolution (as conventionally understood). At the same time, by way of an alternative hypothesis, he posed a question that continues to engage evolutionary biology to this day. Namely, does the existence of such parallelisms reflect underlying structural and developmental principles (based on the laws of physics and chemistry) which constrain the range of possible plant and animal forms? Vavilov’s original 1922 paper from the _Journal of Genetics_ (12:47–89) is available as supplementary material in the online version of this article. (shrink)

Suddha Dharma Mandalam (SDM) is name of an ancient Hierarchy which watches over the evolutionary progress of the Humanity. In the whole Universe the Bhagavad Gita—the Yogic art of Brahman—occupies the most exalted position. The aim of this study is to explain the composition and the mystic-philosophical principles that sustain SDM Bhagavad Gita of 745 slokas and 26 chapters. Suddha Gita contains 745 verses in 26 chapters conformed by the dual extreme “The Pranava” (first and last chapters) and the central (...) body “The Gayatri” of 24 chapters (4 feet). The first (Proem) and last one (Epilogue) represent Vyasthi- and Samasthi-para aspects of The Pranava; these aspects correspond to the Brahman conception of One and Many, respectively. While 4 feet or headings (Gñana-knowledge, Bhakti-desire, Karma-action and Yoga-synthesis) correspond to 4 aspects of eternal Dharma and the 4 keys for life learning (quadruple life-path), the 24 chapters represent the 24 material tatwas. By the other hand, the greatest symbols known are The Pranava or the syllable Om and The Gayatri consisting of 24 syllables. The syllable of Pranava contains 2 expressions: 1) the analytical three-letters AUM which normally appear at the beginning of important mantras, where the first letter represents Atma or the Self-aspect of Brahman; U the Prakriti or the Not-self aspect; M the Shakti or the Force-aspect; 2) the synthetical two-letters OM which normally appear at the end of important mantras, where O (pronounced at center of the palate) integrates the 2 extreme vowels and M similar like before. The AUM at the beginning signifies that Brahman is the source from which the factors manifest themselves, and Om at the end signifies that these factors merge and become synthesized in that very Brahman. No reference has been made to the reason for the introduction by the author of the first and the twenty-sixth chapters and his linking them with the body of the twenty-four chapters compacted together under the four groups. The whole of the current recension is divided into 18 chapters and empirically divided into three shatkas—Kriya, Bhakti and Gñana shatkas, which are based on “tripada gayatri”, although Gayatri to be complete has to be “chatuspada-shadangula” representing the well-known 24 principles, six in each pada. The absence, thus, of a fourth pada as such is a serious unfortunately omission. Today Suddha Gita is valid and it is being read by many people around world, since SDM Order as an outer organization has several schools distributed in American and European countries. (shrink)

भारतीय दर्शन में श्रीमदभगवदगीता को महत्वपूर्ण स्थान प्राप्त है. इस दर्शन की व्याख्या विभिन्न विद्वानों ने अपने-अपने जीवन उद्धेश्यों के अनुसार की है, जिसे कभी ज्ञानयोग, कभी कर्मयोग और कभी भक्तियोग के द्वारा प्रतिपादित किया जाता रहा है. श्रीमदभगवदगीता ही एकमात्र ऐसा ग्रन्थ है, जो हमें श्रीकृष्ण की वैचारिक परिपक्वता और विराट चरित्र से परिचित करवाती है तथा योगेश्वर श्रीकृष्ण के रूप में हमारे समक्ष स्थापित करती है. जीवन के विभिन्न संघर्षो को देखते हुए, वर्तमान समय में मानव-उत्कर्ष शिक्षा का (...) मुख्य बिंदु होना चाहिए. आज के मनुष्य को भौतिक विकास के साथ-साथ, मानसिक, शारीरिक, मनोवैज्ञानिक और आत्मिक स्तर पर भी सामान्तर विकास की जरूरत है. श्रीमदभगवदगीता के सभी 18 अध्यायों में एक उद्देश्य समाहित है और यह हमें मानव उत्कर्ष से सम्बन्धित सिद्धांतों का पूर्णरूपेण परिचय देती है. इस शोध-पत्र का मुख्य उद्देश्य इन्हीं सिद्धांतों को चिन्हित करना है. (shrink)

Yoga is the spiritual science for holistic development of physical, mental and spiritual aspect of living being. Ayurveda believes an interrelationship between psyche and body and thus if psyche is effected leads to an adverse effect on body and vice versa. Ayurveda is a science of living being which has its broad aim of living healthy life and curing of ailments. The instability of inner psyche (manas) is controlled through yoga. Bhagwat geeta emphasizes yoga as the state of sama (...) sthiti or equilibrium in actions. Acharya Patanjali’s yoga darshan has an impact on Ayurveda and later hatha yoga pradeepika and gheranda samhita’s various yogasana, kriya, mudra, bandha and pranayama were used as a part of treatment. The yogic concept of health and disease enables us to understand that the cause of physical disorder is result of higher levels of psyche (manas).Ayurveda believes that pragya paradh is root cause to diseases and thus pragyashodhan is very important. Ayurveda emphasis yoga and is a way to achieve atma gyana throughpragya shodhana. Ayurveda has given definition of yoga, powers of yogi, scope of yoga, its implication in attainment to highest stage of moksha. Ayurveda and yogic methods can beapplied for preventive, promotive and rehabilitatory health of human being. (shrink)