Introduction and Overview All texts like books, magazines, and papers for instance have two components: cognitive and aesthetic. The distinction between the cognitive and the aesthetic is apparent if we distinguish between prose and poetry. They can both convey the same meaning, but poetry says it more aesthetically. Similarly, you […]
Philosophy / Religion
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The Four Tiers of Reality
Introduction and Overview The soul in Vedic texts comprises sat, chit, and ananda—i.e. consciousness or relation to things, the search for meaning, and the search for happiness. The search for meaning creates a personality—i.e. how others know you. The search for happiness creates an individuality—i.e. what kinds of pleasures one […]
Computing / Logic / Mathematics / Philosophy
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Sāńkhya, Reductionism, and New Science
Introduction and Overview Many people believe modern science is reductionist and an alternative anti-reductionist science must replace it. This article discusses why Sāńkhya is reductionist—because it reduces everything to only three modes of nature (sattva, rajas, and tamas). It also discusses why Sāńkhya is anti-reductionist—because the first mode of nature in […]
Biology / Cosmology / Medicine
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Lessons of Ayurveda for Vedic Cosmology
Introduction and Overview The previous article discussed the model of the human body in Ayurveda. The most surprising aspect of Ayurveda is that it is silent on what modern medicine calls heart, lungs, intestines, brain, pancreas, spleen, etc. It is surprising because modern medical education begins with anatomy and memorizing […]
Biology / Cosmology / Medicine
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The Ayurveda Model of a Living Body
Introduction and Overview Vedic knowledge provides detailed information about many aspects of material nature such as cosmology, sociology, psychology, and biology. For example, the Śrimad Bhāgavatam provides a detailed cosmic model. Varṇāśrama is a sociological model. Sāńkhya is a cognitive model, and Ayurveda is a biological model. All these models […]
Philosophy / Politics / Sociology
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Dialectical Materialism and Sāńkhya
Introduction and Overview The world around us is filled with dualities or oppositions. There are two main resolutions of this duality as we have seen earlier—(1) finding the relation between the opposing ideas and the next “higher level” idea from which these oppositions were created, and (2) finding a quantitative […]
Cosmology / Philosophy / Sociology
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Space as a Model of Society and Ecosystems
Introduction and Overview In Vedic cosmology, space is meant for living beings, because the material universe exists for life. When space is the canvas on which we describe living phenomena, then macroscopic phenomena in the space constitute the evolution of society, while the microscopic phenomena indicate the evolution of the […]
Logic / Mathematics / Philosophy
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The Construction of Semantic Space
Introduction and Overview This article discusses how locations in a conceptual space are defined differently than in a physical space. A physical space defines locations in relation to an origin, whereas a conceptual space defines locations in relation to a boundary. In a physical space, points are constructed through absolute […]