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94-562: Nadi is an important concept in Hindu philosophy , mentioned and described in the sources, some as much as 3,000 years old. The number of nadis of the human body is claimed to be up to hundreds-of-thousands and even millions. The Shiva Samhita treatise on yoga states, for example, that out of 350,000 nadis 14 are particularly important, and among them, the three just mentioned are the three most vital. The three principal nadis are ida , pingala , and sushumna . Ida (इडा, iḍā "comfort") lies to

188-494: A 7th-century Vaishnava philosopher from the Andhra region which was further propounded by his disciple Srinivasacharya . According to this philosophy there are three categories of existence: Brahman, Self, and matter. Self and matter are different from Brahman in that they have attributes and capacities different from Brahman. Brahman exists independently, while Self and matter are dependent. Thus Self and matter have an existence that

282-474: A central channel extending to the feet, linking together the principal series of nine lotuses [i.e., Kapālīśabhairava, the four Devīs and the four Dūtīs] spanning the body’s axis from crest (śikhā) to feet (pāda), may underlie the Brahmayāmala’s conception of the śaktitantu. The nadis play a role in yoga, as many yogic practices, including shatkarmas , mudras and pranayama , are intended to open and unblock

376-476: A client, often understood to even comprise centers of vital force called chakras . Such claims are not supported by scientific evidence and are thus pseudoscience . When tested under scientific controlled experiments , the ability to see auras has not been proven to exist. In Latin and Ancient Greek , aura means wind, breeze or breath. It was used in Middle English to mean "gentle breeze". By

470-692: A color of the rainbow. Most of the subsequent New Age writers based their representations of the aura on Hill's interpretation of Leadbeater's ideas. Chakras became a part of mainstream esoteric speculations in the 1980s and 1990s. Many New Age techniques that aim to clear blockages of the chakras were developed during those years, such as crystal healing and aura-soma. By the late 1990s chakras were less connected with their theosophical and Hinduist roots, and more infused with New Age ideas. A variety of New Age books proposed different links between each chakras and colors, personality traits, illnesses, Christian sacraments , etc. Various type of holistic healing within

564-422: A contradiction, and argues that avidyā must either be non-different from Brahman or different from Brahman. If it is different from Brahman, the non-dualist position of Shankara is given up, but if it is non-different, it must exist ultimately as Brahman. Ramanuja claims that avidyā cannot be identical with Brahman because Brahman is pure knowledge, and avidyā is absence of knowledge. Ramanuja also argues that

658-559: A distillation of its theories on epistemology, metaphysics, axiology and soteriology. For example, it states, From the triad of suffering, arises this inquiry into the means of preventing it. That is useless – if you say so, I say: No, because suffering is not absolute and final. – Verse 1 The Guṇas (qualities) respectively consist in pleasure, pain and dullness, are adapted to manifestation, activity and restraint; mutually domineer, rest on each other, produce each other, consort together, and are reciprocally present. – Verse 12 Goodness

752-532: A high voltage across the object, he would obtain the image of a glowing contour surrounding the object. This process came to be known as Kirlian photography . Some parapsychologists, such as Thelma Moss of UCLA , have proposed that these images show levels of psychic powers and bioenergies. However, studies have found that the Kirlian effect is caused by the presence of moisture on the object being photographed. Electricity produces an area of gas ionization around

846-424: A metaphysical phenomenon. Psychologist Andrew Neher has written that "there is no good evidence to support the notion that auras are, in any way, psychic in origin." Studies in laboratory conditions have demonstrated that auras are instead best explained as visual illusions known as afterimages . Neurologists contend that people may perceive auras because of effects within the brain: epilepsy , migraines , or

940-469: A philosophical view that the Vedanta school disagreed with. Mīmāṃsā gave rise to the study of philology and the philosophy of language . While their deep analysis of language and linguistics influenced other schools, their views were not shared by others. Mīmāṃsākas considered the purpose and power of language was to clearly prescribe the proper, correct and right. In contrast, Vedantins extended

1034-401: A room with an opaque partition separating her from a number of slots which might contain either actual people or mannequins. The aura reader failed to identify the slots containing people, incorrectly stating that all contained people. In another televised test another aura reader was placed before a partition where five people were standing. He claimed that he could see their auras from behind

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1128-525: A sixth way of knowing to its canon of reliable epistemology: anupalabdi (non-perception, negative/cognitive proof). The metaphysics of the Mīmāṃsā school consists of both atheistic and theistic doctrines, and the school showed little interest in systematic examination of the existence of God. Rather, it held that the Self (Atma) is an eternal, omnipresent, inherently active spiritual essence, then focussed on

1222-471: A sunlike nature and masculine energy. Its temperature is heating and courses from the right testicle to the right nostril. It corresponds to the river Yamuna . The purpose of yoga is moksha , liberation and hence immortality in the state of samadhi , union, which is the meaning of "yoga" as described in the Patanjalayayogasastra . This is obstructed by blockages in the nadis, which allow

1316-537: A theory of gunas (qualities, innate tendencies, psyche). Guna , it states, are of three types: Sattva being good, compassionate, illuminating, positive, and constructive; Rajas guna is one of activity, chaotic, passion, impulsive, potentially good or bad; and Tamas being the quality of darkness, ignorance, destructive, lethargic, negative. Everything, all life forms and human beings, state Samkhya scholars, have these three gunas , but in different proportions. The interplay of these gunas defines

1410-529: A valid and reliable source by Vaiśeṣikas were the Vedas. Vaiśeṣika metaphysical premises are founded on a form of atomism, that reality is composed of four substances (earth, water, air, and fire). Each of these four are of two types: atomic ( paramāṇu ) and composite. An atom is, according to Vaiśeṣika scholars, that which is indestructible ( anitya ), indivisible, and has a special kind of dimension, called "small" ( aṇu ). A composite, in this philosophy,

1504-639: Is Darshana ( Sanskrit : दर्शन; meaning: "viewpoint or perspective"), from the Sanskrit root 'दृश' ( drish ) meaning 'to see, to experience'. The schools of thought or Darshanas within Hindu philosophy largely equate to the six ancient orthodox schools: the āstika (Sanskrit : आस्तिक) schools, defined by their acceptance of the Vedas , the oldest collection of Sanskrit texts , as an authoritative source of knowledge. Of these six, Samkhya (सांख्य)

1598-820: Is a realist āstika philosophy. The school's most significant contributions to Indian philosophy were its systematic development of the theory of logic , methodology, and its treatises on epistemology. The foundational text of the Nyāya school is the Nyāya Sūtras of the first millennium BCE. The text is credited to Aksapada Gautama and its composition is variously dated between the sixth and second centuries BCE. Nyāya epistemology accepts four out of six prāmaṇas as reliable means of gaining knowledge – pratyakṣa (perception), anumāṇa (inference), upamāṇa (comparison and analogy) and śabda (word, testimony of past or present reliable experts). In its metaphysics ,

1692-401: Is a "closet Buddhist," suggesting as evidence his positions that selfhood is illusory and an experience of it disappears after one attains enlightenment. However, Shankara does believe that there is an enduring reality that is ultimately real. He specifically rejects Buddhist propositions in his commentary on Brahma Sutras 2.2.18, 2.2.19, 2.2.20, 2.2.25, among others. Ramanuja (c. 1037–1137)

1786-431: Is a colored emanation said to enclose a human body or any animal or object. In some esoteric positions, the aura is described as a subtle body . Psychics and holistic medicine practitioners often claim to have the ability to see the size, color and type of vibration of an aura. In spiritual alternative medicine , the human being aura is seen as part of a hidden anatomy that reflects the state of being and health of

1880-704: Is called pramana . It has been a key, much debated field of study in Hinduism since ancient times. Pramāṇa is a Hindu theory of knowledge and discusses the valid means by which human beings can gain accurate knowledge. The focus of pramāṇa is how correct knowledge can be acquired, how one knows, how one does not, and to what extent knowledge pertinent about someone or something can be acquired. Ancient and medieval Hindu texts identify six pramāṇas as correct means of accurate knowledge and truths: Each of these are further categorised in terms of conditionality, completeness, confidence and possibility of error, by

1974-422: Is considered to be alleviating and enlightening; foulness, urgent and persisting; darkness, heavy and enveloping. Like a lamp, they cooperate for a purpose by union of contraries. – Verse 13 There is a general cause, which is diffuse. It operates by means of the three qualities, by mixture, by modification; for different objects are diversified by influence of the several qualities respectively. – Verse 16 Since

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2068-513: Is defined to be anything which is divisible into atoms. Whatever human beings perceive is composite, while atoms are invisible. The Vaiśeṣikas stated that size, form, truths and everything that human beings experience as a whole is a function of atoms, their number and their spatial arrangements, their guṇa (quality), karma (activity), sāmānya (commonness), viśeṣa (particularity) and amavāya (inherence, inseparable connectedness of everything). The Nyāya ( Sanskrit : न्याय) school

2162-537: Is determinate, unnameable and non-erratic. Inference is knowledge which is preceded by perception, and is of three kinds: a priori, a posteriori, and commonly seen. Comparison is the knowledge of a thing through its similarity to another thing previously well known. Word is the instructive assertion of a reliable person. It [knowledge] is of two kinds: that which is seen, and that which is not seen. Soul, body, senses, objects of senses, intellect, mind, activity, fault, transmigration, fruit, suffering and release – are

2256-591: Is important in Yoga and Tantra . It corresponds to the river Saraswati. Ida is associated with lunar energy. The word ida means "comfort" in Sanskrit . Idā has a moonlike nature and feminine energy with a cooling effect. It courses from the left testicle to the left nostril and corresponds to the Ganges river. Pingala is associated with solar energy. The word pingala means "orange" or "tawny" in Sanskrit. Pingala has

2350-552: Is interconnected oneness. This is the oldest and most widely acknowledged Vedantic school. The foundational texts of this school are the Brahma Sutras and the early Upanishads from the 1st millennium BCE. Its first great consolidator was the 8th century scholar Adi Shankara , who continued the line of thought of the Upanishadic teachers, and that of his teacher's teacher Gaudapada . He wrote extensive commentaries on

2444-400: Is not merely ignorance to Naiyayikas; it includes delusion. Correct knowledge is discovering and overcoming one's delusions, and understanding the true nature of the soul, self and reality. The Nyāya Sūtras begin: Perception, Inference, Comparison and Word – these are the means of right knowledge. Perception is that knowledge which arises from the contact of a sense with its object and which

2538-475: Is oneness in all of existence. They hold that dualities and misunderstanding of māyā as the spiritual reality that matters is caused by ignorance, and are the cause of sorrow, suffering. Jīvanmukti (liberation during life) can be achieved through Self-knowledge, the understanding that ātman within is same as ātman in another person and all of Brahman – the eternal, unchanging, entirety of cosmic principles and true reality. Some believe that Shankara

2632-469: Is related to the Nyāya school but features differences in its epistemology , metaphysics and ontology. The epistemology of the Vaiśeṣika school, like Buddhism , accepted only two means to knowledge as reliable – perception and inference. The Vaiśeṣika school and Buddhism both consider their respective scriptures as indisputable and valid means to knowledge, the difference being that the scriptures held to be

2726-466: Is separate yet dependent. Further, Brahman is a controller, the Self is the enjoyer, and matter the thing enjoyed. Also, the highest object of worship is Krishna and his consort Radha , attended by thousands of gopis ; of the Vrindavan ; and devotion consists in self-surrender. Śuddhādvaita is the "purely non-dual" philosophy propounded by Vallabha Acharya (1479–1531). The founding philosopher

2820-462: Is spiritually unreal". The empirical reality is considered as always changing and therefore "transitory, incomplete, misleading and not what it appears to be". The concept of ātman is of one Atman, with the light of Atman reflected within each person as jivatman . Advaita Vedantins assert that ātman is same as Brahman, and this Brahman is reflected within each human being and all life, all living beings are spiritually interconnected, and there

2914-400: Is that God takes on a personal role and is seen as a real eternal entity that governs and controls the universe. Like Vishishtadvaita Vedanta sub-school, Dvaita philosophy also embraced Vaishnavism , with the metaphysical concept of Brahman in the Vedas identified with Vishnu and the one and only Supreme Being . However, unlike Vishishtadvaita which envisions ultimate qualified nondualism,

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3008-487: Is the earliest school of dualism ; Yoga (योग) combines the metaphysics of Samkhya with meditation and breath techniques; Nyaya (न्याय) is a school of logic emphasising direct realism ; Vaisheshika (वैषेशिक) is an offshoot of Nyaya concerned with atomism and naturalism ; Mimamsa (मीमांसा) is a school justifying ritual, faith, and religious obligations; and Vedanta (वेदान्त) contains various traditions that mostly embrace nondualism . Indian philosophy during

3102-733: Is the most developed and best-known of the Hindu schools. The epistemology of the Vedantins included, depending on the sub-school, five or six methods as proper and reliable means of gaining any form of knowledge: pratyakṣa (perception), anumāṇa (inference), upamāṇa (comparison and analogy), arthāpatti (postulation, derivation from circumstances), anupalabdi (non-perception, negative/cognitive proof) and śabda (word, testimony of past or present reliable experts). All of these have been further categorised by each sub-school of Vedanta in terms of conditionality, completeness, confidence and possibility of error. The emergence of

3196-687: Is the oldest of the orthodox philosophical systems in Hinduism , with origins in the 1st millennium BCE. It is a rationalist school of Indian philosophy , and had a strong influence on other schools of Indian philosophies. Sāmkhya is an enumerationist philosophy whose epistemology accepted three of six pramāṇas as the only reliable means of gaining knowledge. These were pratyakṣa (perception), anumāṇa (inference) and sabda ( Āptavacana , word/testimony of reliable sources). Samkhya school espouses dualism between witness-consciousness and 'nature' (mind, perception, matter). It regards

3290-693: The Vaiśeṣika Sūtra , opens as follows: Dharma is that from which results the accomplishment of Exaltation and of the Supreme Good. The authoritativeness of the Veda arises from its being an exposition of dharma . The Supreme Good results from knowledge, produced from a particular dharma , of the essence of the Predicables, Substance, Attribute, Action, Genus, Species and Combination, by means of their resemblances and differences. The Vaiśeṣika school

3384-567: The Puranas and the Āgamas . Each school of Hindu philosophy has extensive epistemological literature called Pramana , as well as theories on metaphysics , axiology , and other topics. In the history of India , the six orthodox schools had emerged before the start of the Common Era , and some schools emerged possibly even before the Buddha . Some scholars have questioned whether

3478-534: The Self is held to end transmigration and lead to absolute freedom ( kaivalya ). In Indian philosophy , Yōga ( Sanskrit : योग) is, among other things, the name of one of the six āstika philosophical schools. The Yoga philosophical system aligns closely with the dualist premises of the Samkhya school. The Yoga school accepts Samkhya psychology and metaphysics, but is considered theistic because it accepts

3572-501: The Udâna leads us upward by virtue of good deeds to the good worlds, by sin to the sinful worlds, by both to the worlds of men indeed." (PU Q3) The medieval Sat-Cakra-Nirupana (1520s), one of the later and more fully developed classical texts on nadis and chakras, refers to these three main nadis by the names Sasi, Mihira, and Susumna. In the space outside the Meru, the right apart from

3666-442: The physical body , the nadis are channels carrying air, water, nutrients, blood and other bodily fluids around and are similar to the arteries , veins , capillaries , bronchioles , nerves , lymph canals and so on. In the subtle and the causal body, the nadis are channels for so-called cosmic, vital, seminal, mental, intellectual, etc. energies (collectively described as prana ) and are important for sensations, consciousness and

3760-473: The sagittal suture . The Vajrayana practice of Trul Khor is another practice used to direct and control the flow of energy within the body's energetic meridians through breath control and physical postures. Sometimes the three main nadis are related to the Caduceus of Hermes: "the two snakes of which symbolize the kundalini or serpent-fire which is presently to be set in motion along those channels, while

3854-569: The śruti which relates to ceremonial acts and sacrificial rites, the early parts of the Vedas), while the Vedanta school developed and emphasises jñānakāṇḍa (the portion of the Vedas that relates to knowledge of monism, the latter parts of the Vedas). The Vedānta ( Sanskrit : वेदान्त) school built upon the teachings of the Upanishads and Brahma Sutras from the first millennium BCE and

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3948-604: The Advaita position cannot coherently maintain that Brahman is non-intentional consciousness (consciousness that does not have an object), because all cognitions are necessarily about something. Dvaita refers to a theistic sub-school in Vedanta tradition of Hindu philosophy. Also called Tattvavāda and Bimbapratibimbavāda , the Dvaita sub-school was founded by the 13th-century scholar Madhvacharya . The Dvaita Vedanta school believes that God (Vishnu, Paramatman ) and

4042-735: The Mīmāṃsā school are the Purva Mimamsa Sutras of Jaimini . The classical Mīmāṃsā school is sometimes referred to as pūrvamīmāṃsā or Karmamīmāṃsā in reference to the first part of the Vedas. The Mīmāṃsā school has several sub-schools defined by epistemology. The Prābhākara subschool of Mīmāṃsā accepted five means to gaining knowledge as epistimetically reliable: pratyakṣa (perception), anumāṇa (inference), upamāṇa (comparison and analogy), arthāpatti (postulation, derivation from circumstances), and śabda (word, testimony of past or present reliable experts). The Kumārila Bhaṭṭa sub-school of Mīmāṃsā added

4136-494: The New Age movement claim to use aura reading techniques, such as bioenergetic analysis , spiritual energy and energy medicine . In yoga participants attempt to focus on, or enhance their "auric energy shield". The concept of auric energy is spiritual and is concerned with metaphysics . Some people think that the aura carries a person's soul after death. There have been numerous attempts to capture an energy field around

4230-423: The Nyāya school is closer to the Vaiśeṣika school than the others. It holds that human suffering results from mistakes/defects produced by activity under wrong knowledge (notions and ignorance). Moksha (liberation), it states, is gained through right knowledge. This premise led Nyāya to concern itself with epistemology, that is, the reliable means to gain correct knowledge and to remove wrong notions. False knowledge

4324-489: The Samkhya school theory that jñāna (knowledge) is a sufficient means to moksha. It suggests that systematic techniques/practice (personal experimentation) combined with Samkhya's approach to knowledge is the path to moksha. Yoga shares several central ideas with Advaita Vedanta, with the difference that Yoga is a form of experimental mysticism while Advaita Vedanta is a form of monistic personalism. Like Advaita Vedanta,

4418-644: The Tantric beliefs to the West, he reconstructed and reinterpreted them by mixing them with his own ideas, without acknowledging the sources of these innovations. Some of Leadbeater's innovations are describing chakras as energy vortices, and associating each of them with a gland, an organ and other body parts. In the following years, Leadbeater's ideas on the aura and chakras were adopted and reinterpreted by other theosophists such as Rudolf Steiner and Edgar Cayce , but his occult anatomy remained of minor interest within

4512-532: The Vedanta school represented a period in which a more knowledge-centered understanding began to emerge, focusing on jnana (knowledge) driven aspects of the Vedic religion and the Upanishads. These included metaphysical concepts such as ātman and Brahman , and an emphasis on meditation, self-discipline, self-knowledge and abstract spirituality, rather than ritualism. The Upanishads were variously interpreted by ancient- and medieval-era Vedanta scholars. Consequently,

4606-404: The Vedanta separated into many sub-schools, ranging from theistic dualism to non-theistic monism, each interpreting the texts in its own way and producing its own series of sub-commentaries. Advaita literally means "not two, sole, unity". It is a sub-school of Vedanta, and asserts spiritual and universal non-dualism. Its metaphysics is a form of absolute monism , that is all ultimate reality

4700-787: The Yoga school discusses this concept more generically as "seer, experiencer" and "seen, experienced" than the Samkhya school. A key text of the Yoga school is the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali . Patanjali may have been, as Max Müller explains, "the author or representative of the Yoga-philosophy without being necessarily the author of the Sutras." Hindu philosophy recognises many types of Yoga, such as rāja yoga , jñāna yoga , karma yoga , bhakti yoga , tantra yoga, mantra yoga, laya yoga , and hatha yoga . The Yoga school builds on

4794-480: The Yoga school of Hindu philosophy holds that liberation/freedom in this life is achievable, and that this occurs when an individual fully understands and realises the equivalence of Atman (Self) and Brahman. The Vaiśeṣika ( Sanskrit : वैशेसिक) philosophy is a naturalist school. It is a form of atomism in natural philosophy. It postulates that all objects in the physical universe are reducible to paramāṇu ( atoms ), and that one's experiences are derived from

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4888-637: The ancient Upanishads use the concept of nadis (channels). The nadi system is mentioned in the Chandogya Upanishad (8~6 cc. BCE), verse 8.6.6. and in verses 3.6–3.7 of the Prasna Upanishad (second half of the 1 millennium BCE). As stated in the last, 3.6 "In the heart verily is Jivātma . Here a hundred and one nāḍis arise. For each of these nāḍis there are one hundred nāḍikās . For each of these there are thousands more. In these Vyâna moves." 3.7 "Through one of these,

4982-400: The ancient and medieval periods also yielded philosophical systems that share concepts with the āstika traditions but reject the Vedas. These have been called nāstika (heterodox or non-orthodox) philosophies, and they include: Buddhism , Jainism , Charvaka , Ajivika , and others, which are thus broadly classified under Indian but not Hindu philosophy. Western scholars have debated

5076-455: The assemblage of perceivable objects is for use (by man); Since the converse of that which has the three qualities with other properties must exist (in man); Since there must be superintendence (within man); Since there must be some entity that enjoys (within man); Since there is a tendency to abstraction (in man), therefore soul is. – Verse 17 The soteriology in Samkhya aims at the realisation of Puruṣa as distinct from Prakriti; this knowledge of

5170-471: The authority of the Vedas are nāstika philosophies, of which four nāstika (heterodox) schools are prominent: Besides the major orthodox and non-orthodox schools, there have existed syncretic sub-schools that have combined ideas and introduced new ones of their own. The medieval scholar Madhavacharya , identified by some as Vidyaranya , in his book ' Sarva-Darsana-Sangraha ', includes 16 philosophical systems current as of 14th century. Along with some of

5264-656: The body placed on the left and the right, are the two nadis, Sasi and Mihira. The Nadi Susumna, whose substance is the threefold Gunas, is in the middle. She is the form of Moon, Sun, and Fire even water also; Her body, a string of blooming Dhatura flowers, extends from the middle of the Kanda to the Head, and the Vajra inside Her extends, shining, from the Medhra to the Head. In hatha yoga theory, nadis carry prana , life force energy. In

5358-500: The central Sushumna channel. The mudras in particular close off various openings, thus trapping prana and directing it towards the Sushumna. This allows kundalini to rise up the Sushumna channel, leading to liberation. Other cultures work with concepts similar to nadis and prana. Systems based on Traditional Chinese Medicine work with an energy concept called qi , analogous to prana . Qi travels through meridians analogous to

5452-489: The character of someone or something, of nature and determines the progress of life. Samkhya theorises a pluralism of Selfs ( Jeevatmas ) who possess consciousness. Samkhya has historically been theistic or non-theistic, and there has been debate about its specific view on God. The Samkhya karika , one of the key texts of this school of Hindu philosophy, opens by stating its goal to be "three kinds of human suffering" and means to prevent them. The text then presents

5546-526: The concept of personal god ( Ishvara , unlike Samkhya. The epistemology of the Yoga school, like the Sāmkhya school, relies on three of six prāmaṇas as the means of gaining reliable knowledge: pratyakṣa (perception), anumāṇa (inference) and śabda ( āptavacana , word/testimony of reliable sources). The universe is conceptualised as a duality in Yoga school: puruṣa (witness-consciousness) and prakṛti (mind, perception, matter); however,

5640-588: The connection between auras and synaesthesia is speculative and based on superficial similarities that are likely coincidental." Other causes may include disorders within the visual system provoking optical effects. Bridgette Perez, in a review for the Skeptical Inquirer , wrote: "perceptual distortions, illusions, and hallucinations might promote belief in auras... Psychological factors, including absorption, fantasy proneness, vividness of visual imagery, and after-images, might also be responsible for

5734-503: The different schools. The schools vary on how many of these six are valid paths of knowledge. For example, the Cārvāka nāstika philosophy holds that only one (perception) is an epistemically reliable means of knowledge, the Samkhya school holds that three are (perception, inference and testimony), while the Mīmāṃsā and Advaita schools hold that all six are epistemically useful and reliable means to knowledge. Sāmkhya ( Sanskrit : सांख्य)

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5828-475: The dualism of Dvaita was permanent. Dvaita sub-school disagrees with the Vishishtadvaita claim that Brahman is linked with the individual self and the world in the way that a soul is with its body. Madhvacharya argues that Brahman cannot be the material cause of the world. Salvation , in Dvaita, is achievable only through the grace of God Vishnu. Dvaitādvaita was proposed by Nimbarkacharya ,

5922-617: The end of the 19th century, the word was used in some spiritualist circles to describe a speculated subtle emanation around the body. The concept of auras was first popularized by Charles Webster Leadbeater , a former priest of the Church of England and a member of the mystic Theosophical Society . He had studied theosophy in India, and believed he had the capacity to use his clairvoyant powers to make scientific investigations. He claimed that he had discovered that most men came from Mars but

6016-562: The epistemology and metaphysics of dharma . To them, dharma meant rituals and duties, not devas (gods), because devas existed only in name. The Mīmāṃsākas held that the Vedas are "eternal authorless infallible", that Vedic vidhi (injunctions) and mantras in rituals are prescriptive karya (actions), and that the rituals are of primary importance and merit. They considered the Upanishads and other texts related to self-knowledge and spirituality to be of secondary importance,

6110-444: The esoteric counterculture until the 1980s, when it was picked up by the New Age movement. In 1977, American esotericist Christopher Hills published the book Nuclear Evolution: The Rainbow Body , which presented a modified version of Leadbeater's occult anatomy. Whereas Leadbeater had drawn each chakras with intricately detailed shapes and multiple colors, Hills presented them as a sequence of centers, each one being associated with

6204-484: The human body, going as far back as photographs by French physician Hippolyte Baraduc in the 1890s. Supernatural interpretations of these images have often been the result of a lack of understanding of the simple natural phenomena behind them, such as heat emanating from a human body producing aura-like images under infrared photography . In 1939, Semyon Davidovich Kirlian discovered that by placing an object or body part directly on photographic paper, and then passing

6298-584: The individual Selfs (Atman) ( jīvātman ) exist as independent realities, and these are distinct. Dvaita Vedanta is a dualistic interpretation of the Vedas ; it espouses dualism by theorising the existence of two separate realities. The first and the only independent reality, states the Dvaita school, is that of Vishnu or Brahman. Vishnu is the Paramatman , in a manner similar to monotheistic God in other major religions. The distinguishing factor of Dvaita philosophy, as opposed to monistic Advaita Vedanta ,

6392-410: The influence of psychedelic drugs such as LSD . It has been suggested that auras may result from synaesthesia . However, a 2012 study discovered no link between auras and synaesthesia, concluding "the discrepancies found suggest that both phenomena are phenomenological and behaviourally dissimilar." Clinical neurologist Steven Novella has written: "Given the weight of the evidence it seems that

6486-415: The interplay of substance (a function of atoms, their number and their spatial arrangements), quality, activity, commonness, particularity and inherence. Knowledge and liberation are achievable by complete understanding of the world of experience, according to Vaiśeṣika school. The Vaiśeṣika darśana is credited to Kaṇāda Kaśyapa from the second half of the first millennium BCE. The foundational text,

6580-400: The left of the spine, whereas pingala (पिङ्गल, piṅgala "orange", "tawny", "golden", "solar") is to the right side of the spine, mirroring the ida. Sushumna (Suṣumṇa "very gracious", "kind") runs along the spinal cord in the center, through the seven chakras . When the channels are unblocked by the action of yoga, the energy of kundalini uncoils and rises up the sushumna from the base of

6674-421: The major Vedantic scriptures and is celebrated as one of the major Hindu philosophers from whose doctrines the main currents of modern Indian thought are derived. According to this school of Vedanta, all reality is Brahman, and there exists nothing whatsoever which is not Brahman . Its metaphysics includes the concept of māyā and ātman. Māyā connotes "that which exists, but is constantly changing and thus

6768-516: The major orthodox and non-orthodox schools and sub-schools, it includes the following sub-schools: The above sub-schools introduced their own ideas while adopting concepts from orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy such as realism of the Nyāya, naturalism of Vaiśeṣika, monism and knowledge of Self (Atman) as essential to liberation of Advaita, self-discipline of Yoga, asceticism and elements of theistic ideas. Some sub-schools share Tantric ideas with those found in some Buddhist traditions. Epistemology

6862-576: The more advanced men came from the Moon , and that hydrogen atoms were made of six bodies contained in an egg-like form. In his book Man Visible and Invisible, published in 1903, Leadbeater illustrated the aura of man at various stages of his moral evolution, from the "savage" to the saint . In 1910, he introduced the modern conception of auras by incorporating the Tantric notion of chakras in his book The Inner Life . Leadbeater did not simply present

6956-514: The multitude of individual Selfs and the world. The Jagat or Maya is not false or illusionary, the physical material world is. Vallabha recognises Brahman as the whole and the individual as a "part" (but devoid of bliss) like sparks and fire. This sub-school thus denies the Advaita conception of Maya because the world is considered to be real insofar as it is non-different from Brahman, who is believed to be Krishna. Aura (paranormal) According to spiritual beliefs, an aura or energy field

7050-515: The nadis. The microcosmic orbit practice has many similarities to certain Indian nadi shuddha (channel clearing) exercises and the practice of Kriya Yoga . Tibetan medicine borrows many concepts from Yoga through the influence of Tantric Buddhism . One of the Six Yogas of Naropa is a cleansing of the central channel called phowa , enabling the transfer of consciousness to a pure land through

7144-448: The nadis. The ultimate aim of some yogic practices are to direct prana into the sushumna nadi specifically, enabling kundalini to rise, and thus bring about moksha , or liberation. "The nāḍis penetrate the body from the soles of the feet to the crown of the head. In them is prāṇa , the breath of life and in that life abides Ātman , which is the abode of Shakti , creatrix of the animate and inanimate worlds." (VU 54/5) Several of

7238-502: The object if it is moist, which is the case for living things. This causes an alternation of the electric charge pattern on the film. After rigorous experimentations, no mysterious process has been discovered in relation to the Kirlian photography. More recent attempts at capturing auras include the Aura Imaging cameras and software introduced by Guy Coggins in 1992. Coggins claims that his software uses biofeedback data to color

7332-469: The objects of right knowledge. The Nyāya school uses a three-fold procedure: enumeration, definition, and examination. This procedure of enumeration, definition, and examination is recurrent in Navya-Nyāya texts like The Manual of Reason ( Tarka-Sangraha ). The Mīmāṃsā ( Sanskrit : मीमांसा) school emphasises religious hermeneutics and exegesis . It is a form of philosophical realism . Key texts of

7426-452: The orthodox and heterodox schools classification is sufficient or accurate, given the diversity and evolution of views within each major school of Indian philosophy, with some sub-schools combining heterodox and orthodox views. Since ancient times, Indian philosophy has been categorised into āstika and nāstika schools of thought. The orthodox schools of Indian philosophy have been called ṣaḍdarśana ('six systems'). This schema

7520-578: The partition. As each person moved out, the reader was asked to identify where that person was standing behind the slot. He identified two out of five correctly. Attempts to prove the existence of auras scientifically have repeatedly met with failure; for example people are unable to see auras in complete darkness, and auras have never been successfully used to identify people when their identifying features are otherwise obscured in controlled tests. A 1999 study concluded that conventional sensory cues such as radiated body heat might be mistaken for evidence of

7614-466: The picture of the subject. The technique has failed to yield reproducible results. Tests of psychic abilities to observe alleged aura emanations have repeatedly been met with failure. One test involved placing people in a dark room and asking the psychic to state how many auras she could observe. Only chance results were obtained. Recognition of auras has occasionally been tested on television. One test involved an aura reader standing on one side of

7708-605: The relationship and differences within āstika philosophies and with the nāstika philosophies, starting with the writings of Indologists and Orientalists of the 18th and 19th centuries, based on limited availability of Indian literature and medieval doxographies . The various sibling traditions included in Indian philosophies are diverse and are united by: shared history and concepts, textual resources, ontological and soteriological focus, and cosmology. Some heterodox ( nāstika ) traditions such as Charvaka are often considered as distinct schools within Hindu philosophy because

7802-432: The scope and value of language as a tool to also describe , develop and derive . Mīmāṃsākas considered orderly, law-driven, procedural life as the central purpose and noblest necessity of dharma and society, and divine (theistic) sustenance means to that end. The Mimamsa school was influential and foundational to the Vedanta school, with the difference that Mīmāṃsā developed and emphasises karmakāṇḍa (the portion of

7896-442: The sense of subject-object perception was illusory and a sign of ignorance. However, the individual's sense of self was not a complete illusion since it was derived from the universal beingness that is Brahman. Ramanuja saw Vishnu as a personification of Brahman. The Viśiṣṭādvaita sub-school also disagrees with the Advaita claim that misconception ( avidyā ) is indescribable as either real or unreal ( anirvacanīya ). It sees this as

7990-490: The spine. While the sushumna came to be envisioned as a vertical channel extending upwards from the heart, navel region, or base of the torso, there is an old precedent for the idea that it extends, like the śaktitantu, to the feet: the Mataṅgapārameśvara, a comparatively early Siddhāntatantra, envisions the sushumna running from the tips of the big toes to the crown of the head via the navel and heart. This archaic model of

8084-567: The spiritual aura . Yoga texts disagree on the number of nadis in the human body. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika and Goraksha Samhita quote 72,000 nadis, each branching off into another 72,000 nadis, whereas the Shiva Samhita states 350,000 nadis arise from the navel center, and the Katha Upanishad (6.16) says that 101 channels radiate from the heart. The Ida and Pingala nadis are sometimes in modern readings interpreted as

8178-399: The two hemispheres of the brain . Pingala is the extroverted (Active), solar nadi, and corresponds to the right side of the body and the left side of the brain . Ida is the introverted, lunar nadi, and corresponds to the left side of the body and the right side of the brain . Sushumna is the central and most important channel. It connects the base chakra to the crown chakra . It

8272-613: The universe as consisting of two realities: Puruṣa (witness-consciousness) and prakriti ('nature'). Jiva (a living being) is that state in which puruṣa is bonded to prakriti in some form. This fusion, state the Samkhya scholars, led to the emergence of buddhi (awareness, intellect) and ahankara (individualised ego consciousness, "I-maker"). The universe is described by this school as one created by Purusa-Prakriti entities infused with various permutations and combinations of variously enumerated elements, senses, feelings, activity and mind. Samkhya philosophy includes

8366-452: The vital air, prana , to languish in the Ida and Pingala channels. The unblocking of the channels is therefore a vital function of yoga. The various practices of yoga, including the preliminary purifications or satkarmas , the yogic seals or mudras , visualisation, breath restraint or pranayama , and the repetition of mantras work together to force the prana to move from the Ida and Pingala into

8460-411: The wings typify the power of conscious flight through higher planes which the development of that fire confers". Hindu philosophy Traditional Hindu philosophy or Vedic philosophy is the set of Indian philosophical systems that developed in tandem with early Hindu religious traditions during the iron and classical ages of India. In Indian tradition, the word used for philosophy

8554-580: The word Hindu is an exonym historically used as a geographical and cultural identifier for people living in the Indian subcontinent . Hindu philosophy also includes several sub-schools of theistic philosophies that integrate ideas from two or more of the six orthodox philosophies. Examples of such schools include: Pāśupata Śaiva , Śaiva siddhānta , Pratyabhijña , Raseśvara and Vaiṣṇava . Some sub-schools share Tantric ideas with those found in some Buddhist traditions, which are nevertheless found in

8648-544: Was also the guru of the Vallabhā sampradāya ("tradition of Vallabh") or Puṣṭimārga , a Vaishnava tradition focused on the worship of Krishna. Vallabhacharya enunciates that Brahman has created the world without connection with any external agency such as Māyā (which itself is His power) and manifests Himself through the world. That is why Shuddhadvaita is known as "Unmodified transformation" or "Avikṛta Pariṇāmavāda". Brahman or Ishvara desired to become many, and he became

8742-481: Was created between the 12th and 16th centuries by Vedantins . It was then adopted by the early Western Indologists , and pervades modern understandings of Indian philosophy. There are six āstika (orthodox) schools of thought. Each is called a darśana , and each darśana accepts the Vedas as authority. Each āstika darśana also accepts the premise that Atman (eternal Self) exists. The āstika schools of philosophy are: Schools that do not accept

8836-482: Was the foremost proponent of the philosophy of Viśiṣṭādvaita or qualified non-dualism. Viśiṣṭādvaita advocated the concept of a Supreme Being with essential qualities or attributes. Viśiṣṭādvaitins argued against the Advaitin conception of Brahman as an impersonal empty oneness. They saw Brahman as an eternal oneness, but also as the source of all creation, which was omnipresent and actively involved in existence. To them

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