Stories of Vedanta Monks presents the reminiscences of the Second-Generation Monks of the Ramakrishna Order. The monastic disciples of Sri Ramakrishna constitute the first generation; their disciples in turn constitute the second. The second-generation monks had not seen Sri Ramakrishna. Nevertheless, they met many of the first-generation monks who had lived with Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi, and Swami Vivekananda. Just as the direct impact of the Holy Trio on the life and character of the first-generation monks is marked and distinct, so is the impact of the first generation of monks on the second. They are repositories of invaluable information about Sri Ramakrishna, his monastic disciples, and the glorious traditions of the Ramakrishna Order. The author, Swami Chetanananda, had close associations with some of these monks and has put on record the information that he gathered from them. In and through the life events of these monks, we find brahmavidya (Knowledge of Brahman) pervading their thoughts, speech, and actions in so many ways. The behavioural standards set by them and sacred traditions followed in the Ramakrishna monasteries also stand revealed. When carefully protected and passed on to the next generation, it is these living traditions and practices that become the conduit for the spiritual force and Divine knowledge that emanated from Sri Ramakrishna to pass on and enrich one and all. Published by Advaita Ashrama, a publication branch of Ramakrishna Math. Belur, this is volume 1 of the reminiscences and is a translation of the Bengali title ‘Prachin Sadhuder Katha – Vol. 1

This book published by Advaita Ashrama, a publication house of Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math, presents the teachings of Vedanta in an easy-to-read form through captivating stories from the Upanishads, the Puranas, and inspiring anecdotes from the lives of Shankaracharya, Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, and a few other seers of Truth.

A fascinating look at India’s remarkable impact on Western culture, this eye-opening popular history shows how the ancient philosophy of Vedanta and the mind-body methods of Yoga have profoundly affected the worldview of millions of Americans and radically altered the religious landscape. What exploded in the 1960s, following the Beatles trip to India for an extended stay with their new guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, actually began more than two hundred years earlier, when the United States started importing knowledge--as well as tangy spices and colorful fabrics--from Asia. The first translations of Hindu texts found their way into the libraries of John Adams and Ralph Waldo Emerson. From there the ideas spread to Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, and succeeding generations of receptive Americans, who absorbed India’s “science of consciousness” and wove it into the fabric of their lives. Charismatic teachers like Swami Vivekananda and Paramahansa Yogananda came west in waves, prompting leading intellectuals, artists, and scientists such as Aldous Huxley, Joseph Campbell, Allen Ginsberg, J. D. Salinger, John Coltrane, Dean Ornish, and Richard Alpert, aka Ram Dass, to adapt and disseminate what they learned from them. The impact has been enormous, enlarging our current understanding of the mind and body and dramatically changing how we view ourselves and our place in the cosmos. Goldberg paints a compelling picture of this remarkable East-to-West transmission, showing how it accelerated through the decades and eventually moved from the counterculture into our laboratories, libraries, and living rooms. Now physicians and therapists routinely recommend meditation, words like karma and mantra are part of our everyday vocabulary, and Yoga studios are as ubiquitous as Starbuckses. The insights of India’s sages permeate so much of what we think, believe, and do that they have redefined the meaning of life for millions of Americans—and continue to do so every day. Rich in detail and expansive in scope, American Veda shows how we have come to accept and live by the central teaching of Vedic wisdom: “Truth is one, the wise call it by many names.”

Brāhmanic Vignettes is a boon to readers of all ages interested in India's past, its traditions, as well as its possible future. The author's erudition in Sanskrit, English, and French has been used to illuminate his varied experiences first as student, then teacher, later as career diplomat, and after retirement, founder of a unique school in Mysore, India. The school emphasizes Sanskrit teaching; its students participate in a unique experiment called Dharmamananam (described in the book), introducing them to Vedantic values of ancient Indian culture. Glimpses of other countries, leaders, benefactors, and common folk are vividly brought to light, prompting the reader's intellectual and moral involvement. His meetings with Dr. S. Radhakrishnan (scholar and former president of India), Jawaharlal Nehru (first prime minister of India, who chose him as a diplomatic recruit in the new Indian Republic), and many events and encounters with fascinating people from varied cultures have many interesting insights. The author's unique Brāhmanic perspective of India's foreign policy, Shakespeare, the Indian epic Ramayana, and the need to revamp society and education using the Gurukula model of ancient India and the Kibutzims of Israel makes for compelling reading. His personal involvement with and the account of the Portuguese enclaves and Goa becoming integral with the nascent Indian republic, describes the pulls and pressures of history and political reality with his own clarity of vision and immediacy. There are many such sketches meriting study and reflection.

Presents the unifying world-concept long sought by scientists, mystics, and sages: an Integral Theory of Everything • Explains how modern science has rediscovered the Akashic Field of perennial philosophy • New edition updates ongoing scientific studies, presents new research inspired by the first edition, and includes new case studies and a section on animal telepathy Mystics and sages have long maintained that there exists an interconnecting cosmic field at the roots of reality that conserves and conveys information, a field known as the Akashic record. Recent discoveries in vacuum physics show that this Akashic Field is real and has its equivalent in science’s zero-point field that underlies space itself. This field consists of a subtle sea of fluctuating energies from which all things arise: atoms and galaxies, stars and planets, living beings, and even consciousness. This zero-point Akashic Field is the constant and enduring memory of the universe. It holds the record of all that has happened on Earth and in the cosmos and relates it to all that is yet to happen. In Science and the Akashic Field, philosopher and scientist Ervin Laszlo conveys the essential element of this information field in language that is accessible and clear. From the world of science he confirms our deepest intuitions of the oneness of creation in the Integral Theory of Everything. We discover that, as philosopher William James stated, “We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.”

Travel impressions of foreign visitors to a Hindu pilgrimage center in India.