The Kingdom of Shambhala & the Sita River (Part 5)

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"…In 672 AD an Arab governor of Sistan, Abbad ibn Ziyad, raided the frontier of Al-Hind and crossed the desert to Gandhara, but quickly retreated again. The marauder Obaidallah crossed the Sita River (aka Kabul River)...and made a raid on Kabul in 698 AD only to meet with defeat and humiliation."… ..http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm

"Vincent Smith, in Early History of India, states that the Turkishahiya dynasty continued to rule over Kabul and Gandhara up until the advent of the Saffarids in the ninth century. Forced by the inevitable advance of Islam on the west, they then moved their capital from Kapisa to Wahund on the Indus, whence they contin­ued as the Hindushahiya dynasty. This was in 870 A.D. and marks the first time that the Kingdom of Shambhala actually came under Moslem domination. The Hindushahis recaptured Kabul and the rest of their Kingdom after the death of the conqueror Yaqub but never again maintained Kapisa as their capital."........-From a History of Uddiyana and the life of Padmasambhava

"The Kabul River (Persian/Urdu: دریای کابل‎; Pashto: کابل سیند‎, Sanskrit: कुभा ), the classical Cophes /ˈkoʊfiːz/, is a 700-kilometre (430 mi) long river that emerges in the Sanglakh Range of the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and empties into the Indus River near Attock, Pakistan. "

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Srivastava, also spelled Shrivastava, is a common surname in Northern India, notably among Kayasthas.....According to one theory, the name "Shrivastava" originates from "Shrivastu", the former name of the Swat River, said to be the place of origin of this clan."......S. S. Shashi, ed. (1996). Encyclopaedia Indica: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh: Volume 100.

"The Swat River (Pashto: د سوات سیند‎) is a perennial river in the northern region of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan.....The name is derived from an old Sanskrit term Suvastu which means crystal clear water like azure in colour. It is mentioned in Rig Veda 8.19.37 as the Suvastu river. With the passage of time, it was shortened to Swat by the people. Its source lies in the Hindukush Mountains, from where it is fed by the glacial waters throughout the year and flows through the Kalam Valley in a narrow gorge with a rushing speed up to Madyan and lower plain areas of Swat Valley up to Chakdara for 160 km. In the extreme south of the valley, once again the river enters to a narrow gorge and joins river panjkora at Qalangi and finally empties into Kabul river near Charsadda."

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"The Kabul River (Persian/Urdu: دریای کابل‎; Pashto: کابل سیند‎, Sanskrit: कुभा ), the classical Cophes /ˈkoʊfiːz/, is a 700-kilometre (430 mi) long river that emerges in the Sanglakh Range of the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and empties into the Indus River near Attock, Pakistan. It is the main river in eastern Afghanistan and is separated from the watershed of the Helmand by the Unai Pass. The Kabul River passes through the cities of Kabul and Jalalabad in Afghanistan before flowing into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan some 25 kilometres (16 mi) north of the Durand Line border crossing at Torkham. The major tributaries of the Kabul River are the Logar, Panjshir, Kunar, Alingar, Bara and Swat rivers."

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"In Arrian's The Campaigns of Alexander, the River Kabul is referred to as Κωφήν Kōphēn (Latin spelling Cophen), the accusative of Κωφής Kōphēs (Latin spelling Cophes)."

"In Sanskrit and Avesta.....The word Kubhā (कुभा ) which is the ancient name of the river is both a Sanskrit and Avestan word. Many of the rivers of Pakistan and Afghanistan are mentioned in the Rig Veda. The Sanskrit word later changed to Kābul......The Kubha is the modern Kabul river which flows into the Indus a little above Attock and receives at Prang the joint flow of its tributaries the Swat (Swastu) and Gauri .....In the older parts of the Rigved the Indian people appear to be settled on the north western border of India, in the Punjab and even beyond the Punjab on the borders of the Kubha river the Kowpher in Kabul. The gradual diffusion of these people from this point towards the east, beyond the Saraswati and Hindustan as far as the Ganges, can be traced almost step by step in the later portions of the Vedic writings."

Buddhist caves, which have been carved into a set of cliffs on the north side of the Kabul river.

"Kabul or Caboul, a former name: "Land of Kabul", a city probably deriving its name from the nearby Kabul River which was known in Sanskrit as the Kubhā, possibly from Scythian ku ("water")."

"In 672 an Arab governor of Sistan, Abbad ibn Ziyad, raided the frontier of Al-Hind and crossed the desert to Gandhara, but quickly retreated again. The marauder Obaidallah crossed the Sita River and made a raid on Kabul in 698 only to meet with defeat and humiliation. Vincent Smith, in Early History of India, states that the Turkishahiya dynasty continued to rule over Kabul and Gandhara up until the advent of the Saffarids in the ninth century. Forced by the inevitable advance of Islam on the west, they then moved their capital from Kapisa to Wahund on the Indus, whence they contin­ued as the Hindushahiya dynasty. This was in 870 A.D. and marks the first time that the Kingdom of Shambhala actually came under Moslem domination. The Hindushahis recaptured Kabul and the rest of their Kingdom after the death of the conqueror Yaqub but never again maintained Kapisa as their capital.".....http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm

"The Hindu Kush passes and the Kabul basin. The major obstacle formed by the great Hindu Kush range lying between lower Central Asia and India can be satisfactorily crossed only at a few points. The approach to Kabul from Balḵ, which used to be the main center of the northern foothills, presents two choices. One is the Sālang pass route—the pass itself or the 3,337-meter tunnel. The other, to the west, and more accessible in winter because of the lower altitude, is the road through the Āq-Rebāṭ pass, the Bāmiān basin, the Šibar pass (at 2,987 m), and the Ḡōrband valley. Both routes converge toward the confluence of the Sālang and Panjšir river valleys, where the latter provides another access northward across the mountains by way of the Ḵāwāk pass. The southern foothills of the Hindu Kush here are occupied by a large basin, at an average elevation of 1,800 meters, which slopes slightly southward, where it is drained from west to east by the Kabul river. The latter, with its tributary, the Lōgar, collects the waters of the northern slope of the Paktiā ranges before opening a route to the Jalālābād basin and the Khyber pass. These, in turn, provide direct access to the central basin of the Indus and all of northwestern India. This route from Bactria to Taxila, “the old road to India” (Foucher, p. 47) long before the area became Muslim, was always a main link between Central Asia and the subcontinent. "....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kabul-ii-historical-geography

"Alexander’s conquests united the two slopes of the Hindu Kush into one empire (329 BCE), the main settlement was situated north of the basin, on a terrace about 15-20 meters high, overlooking the alluvial bed. This was Kapisa (Katisa in Ptolemy, Geographia 6.18; Sk. Kapiśa, Chin. Ki-pin), ca. 15 km from the edge of the basin, which commanded the confluence of the Ḡōrband and Panjšir rivers. Its importance is indicated by numerous Buddhist ruins. It appears to have remained the main center of the basin for a long time. But its site, on a plain that could not easily be defended, proved a disadvantage in the face of successive nomadic invaders arriving from Central Asia, from the Sakas and the Yuezhi who overthrew the Greek kingdoms of Bactria, to the Hephthalites, who supplanted Sasanian rule, to be followed by Turks and Arabs.".......http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kabul-ii-historical-geography

"Tapa Ḵezāna, Kabul (accidental find, 1930s; studied by M. Taddei). 5th-7th century A.D.: A group of fifty terracotta sculptured heads show stylistic trends from Hellenistic to mature Gupta. They once belonged to a group of monuments above the Kabul river (N. H. Dupree, The National Museum of Afghanistan: An Illustrated Guide, Kabul, 1974).

"Tapa Sekandar, near Sarā-ye Ḵᵛāǰa, Kōhdāman, Kabul (Kyoto University, Higuchi, 1970 on). Late 6th to late 9th century: A two-phase secular and religious complex was found (the later phase being 7th-century). A massive shrine contained a Saivite painted marble statue of Umamaheśvara (Plate XXII/2); style and inscription compare with the Ḵayr-ḵāna statue (above). The stamped pottery resembles that of Tapa Maranǰān (above), with animal, bird, floral, and humanoid motifs. A potter’s cylindrical seal was found, as well as terracotta figurines and objects of bronze, iron, stone, ivory, and glass (Kyoto University Archaeological Survey, Kyoto, 1972, 1974, 1976; see also S. Kuwayama, East and West N.S. 26/3-4, 1976).

Chogyam Trungpa: His Life and Vision.......Page 205.....By Fabrice Midal

Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan.....By Paul Kekai Manansala

Arktos: The Polar Myth .......Page 97.....By Joscelyn Godwin

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

May 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Dārā Šokōh (1615-1659 AD) & The Mingling of the Two Oceans

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"Sir William Jones reveals his admiration for the eldest son of Shah Jahān, the scholar prince Dārā Šokōh, who had inherited the syncretic mantle of his great-grandfather, Akbar, composing a Persian text entitled Majmaʿ al-baḥ-rayn (The Mingling of the Two Oceans) that maintained that the fundamental tenets of Hinduism were essentially monotheistic and identical with those of Islam. Jones also followed Dārā Šokōh’s lead in being drawn to the late Vedas, the Upanishads. Dārā Šokōh had assembled a team of pandits from Benares to translate the Upanishads into Persian, producing in 1657 the Serr-e akbar (The Great Secret). Jones also loved revealing great secrets and, although Anquetil-Duperron had translated four of the Upanishads from the Serr-e akbar into French in 1787, and later published the influential Oupnek’hat (1802) which included the entire fifty-one Upanishads of the Serr-e akbar, Jones’s Isa-Upanishad was the first direct translation of an Upanishad from the Sanskrit into a Western language....." Sir William Jones (1746-1794), orientalist and judge, noted for his enduring commitment to a syncretic East-West synthesis and unshakeable belief in cultural pluralism.

"DĀRĀ ŠOKŌH...(1615- 1659), first son of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahān and his wife Momtāz Maḥall, religious thinker, mystic, poet, and author of a number of works in Persian."

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"Dārā Šokōh’s interest was not so much in the reconciliation of Islam and Hinduism on the political and practical level, on which Akbar had focused; rather, it was focused on the experiential realization that esoteric understanding of both religions provides proof of a single divine principle behind the variety of outward manifestations, just “as the ocean is one and the waves and foam flecks cannot be distinguished from it once they disappear” (Resāla, p. 17)."...http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/dara-sokoh

"Dārā Šokōh’s interests were geared to philosophy and mysticism, and it is said that he accepted an appointment as governor of Allāhābād in 1055/1645 only because it was the seat of Moḥebb-Allāh Allāhābādī (d. 1648 AD), the most famous interpreter of the philosophy of Ebn al-ʿArabī (d. 1240 AD) in that period....... Ebn al-ʿArabī was the most influential Sufi author of later Islamic history, known to his supporters as al-Šayḵ al-akbar, “the Greatest Master.”....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/dara-sokoh

"Both Jahāngīr (1605-27 AD) and Shah Jahān had shown reverence for Sufis and saintly Hindus. Thus when Dārā Šokōh fell seriously ill as a teenager his father took him to Lahore to Mīān Mīr (d. 1635 AD), a shaikh of the Qāderīya order, which was becoming prominent in Sind and the southern Punjab in the late 16th century. The boy was cured and at the same time developed a deep veneration for Mīān Mīr. In his second book, Sakīnat al-awlīāʾ (comp. 1642 AD), Dārā Šokōh expressed his devotion to Mīān Mīr, to his saintly sister Bībī Jamāl Ḵātūn, and to Mollā Šāh Badaḵšī (d. 1661 AD), who had continued the spiritual chain after Mīān Mīr’s death and under whom Dārā Šokōh and his sister Jahānārā had joined the order in 1640 AD. This book is a useful introduction to mystical life and lore in Lahore and Kashmir, based mainly on firsthand information.".....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/dara-sokoh

"He became familiar with certain Sufi practices, like ḥabs-e dam, the retaining of one’s breath during the ḏekr, a practice that he described in detail (Resāla-ye ḥaqqnomā, p. 13). He did not, however, believe in exaggerated austerities, which in any case would have been difficult for him as heir apparent to a vast country."......http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/dara-sokoh

"He repeatedly called himself a Hanafite Qāderī; his mystical writings contain nothing that could not be found in the works of other Sufis. An interesting aspect of Safīnat al-awlīāʾ is that Dārā Šokōh incorrectly placed Jālāl-al-Dīn Rūmī (d. 1273 AD) and his family in the Kobrawī line, or selsela..... ...http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/dara-sokoh

"His next work, Resāla-ye ḥaqqnomā (comp. 1646 AD) is one of his most impressive studies of Sufism, in the vein of Ebn al-ʿArabī, by whose philosophy he was deeply influenced; most of the Sufis with whom he corresponded, like Moḥebb-Allāh and Shah Delrobā, were proponents of the theories of waḥdat al-wojūd (“unity of being,” as developed by Ebn al-ʿArabī, often incorrectly translated “pantheism”). In this small book he tried to explain the four planes of being, rising from nāsūt (the world of humanity) to the heights of lāhūt (the world of divinity). He considered this booklet to be a compendium of Ebn al-ʿArabī’s Fotūḥāt al-makkīya and Foṣūṣ al-ḥekam, as well as of the Lamaʿāt of Faḵr-al-Dīn ʿErāqī (d. 1289 AD) and the Lawāʾeḥ of Jāmī (d. 1492 AD). In his closing verse, which includes the date of completion, he claimed the book to have been divinely inspired. In the Resāla Dārā Šokōh called self-knowledge eksīr-e aʿẓam (the mightiest elixir), ....... some of the verses are interesting because of their bold assertion that “paradise is where there is no mollā (Mullah: Islamic clergy).”.... ...http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/dara-sokoh

"Dārā Šokōh’s interest in the esoteric aspects of Islam and his pursuit of genuine tawḥīd led him to study other religious traditions as well. An important step on his way to understanding the major religion of his future realm, Hinduism, was a series of conversations with the Hindu sage Baba Lal Das, a member of the reformist Kabirpanthi sect whom he met in the city of Lahore in late 1653 AD after his return from the disastrous siege of Qandahār. Dārā Šokōh’s secretary Chandar Bhan Brahman, a noted poet and master of Persian style, recorded in Persian the text of the discussions, which were conducted in Hindi. These “entretiens de Lahore,” as Clément Huart and Louis Massignon have called them, reveal the prince’s sound knowledge of Indian mythology and philosophy, which is not amazing at all, as his great-grandfather Akbar the Great (1542–1605 AD) had ordered Persian translations of numerous important Sanskrit works. The discussions ranged from purely philosophical concepts to problems of interpretation of the Ramayana."..... ...http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/dara-sokoh

"A book that displays even more clearly Dārā Šokōh’s interest in the terms common to Hindu thought and Islamic Sufism is Majmaʿ al-baḥrayn (comp. 1655 AD). Its very title, taken from Koran 18:60, underscores his intention to prove that on the level of monistic thought the “two oceans” of Islam and Hinduism become indistinguishable; the book in fact contains a number of Hindu technical terms, which he attempted to explain in Persian...After finishing this work the prince, by then slightly more than forty years old, embarked upon his major undertaking, a translation of fifty-two Upanishads, for which he had invited the consultation of a good number of Brahmans and pandits. ."....... ...http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/dara-sokoh

"The work, entitled Serr-e akbar, was completed in the first half of 1657 AD...... Dārā Šokōh was strongly convinced, as he wrote in his introduction, that religious truth is not solely contained in the books explicitly mentioned in the Koran: the Torah, Psalms, and Gospels. In the Koran itself (56:78) a “hidden book,” not yet discovered, is mentioned. He argued that this hidden book was the oldest revelation, as contained in the Vedas and in particular the Vedanta."....... ...http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/dara-sokoh

"Dārā Šokōh was deeply convinced of the reality of mystical experience.....He took Muslim mystics and miracle workers, as well as yogis and sannyasis, with him on his ill-fated expedition to Qandahār. It was quite natural that the more orthodox circles around him should have disapproved of his predilection for mystical thought and practice, as well as of his disinterest in practical political activity. His brother Awrangzēb......declared Dārā Šokōh a heretic (molḥed), whose possible ascent to the throne would be disastrous for Islam.....fter a trial for heresy he was executed in 1659 and buried in the mausoleum of his ancestor Homāyūn in Delhi."....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/dara-sokoh

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

May 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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The Vedas, Upanishads, the Avesta & Proto-Indo-Iranic Languages (2100 BC)

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"Grammatically there is little difference between the languages of the Avesta and the Vedas. Both languages underwent systematic phonetic change. However, according to Thomas-Burrow, in his book, The Sanskrit Language: ' It is quite possible to find verses in the oldest portion of the Avesta, which simply by phonetic substitutions according to established laws can be turned into intelligible Sanskrit.' ....The languages of the Avesta and the Vedas shared some vocabulary that is not shared with the other Indo-European languages....."...http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/sanskritavestan.htm

"The Vedas are perhaps the oldest written text on our planet today. They date back to the beginning of Indian civilization and are the earliest literary records of the whole Aryan race. They are supposed to have been passed through oral tradition for over 100,000 years. They came to us in written form between 4-6,000 years ago......The Vedas are divided into four groups, Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda and Atharvaveda. Each group has an original text (Mantra) and a commentary portion (Brahmana).....The Brahmana again has two portions, one interpreting ritual and the other the philosophy. The portions interpreting the philosophy of the original texts constitute the Upanishads......There are also auxiliary texts called Vedangas. Vedic literature refers to the whole of this vast group of literature. The whole of Rgveda and most of Atharvaveda are in the form of poetry, or hymns to the deities and the elements......Samaveda is in verses that are to be sung and Yajurveda is largely in short prose passages. Both Samaveda and Yajurveda are concerned with rituals rather than philosophy - especially Yajurveda."....http://www.crystalinks.com/vedas.html

"The Vedic forms of belief are one of the precursors to modern Hinduism. Texts considered to date to the Vedic period are mainly the four Vedas, but the Brahmanas, Aranyakas and the older Upanishads as well as the oldest Shrautasutras are also considered to be Vedic.....The rishis, the composers of the hymns of the Rigveda, were considered inspired poets and seers (in post-Vedic times understood as "hearers" of an eternally existing Veda, Śrauta means "what is heard")."

"The Upanishads are regarded as part of the Vedas and as such form part of the Hindu scriptures. They primarily discuss philosophy, meditation, and the nature of God; they form the core spiritual thought of Vedantic Hinduism. Considered as mystic or spiritual contemplations of the Vedas, their putative end and essence, the Upanishads are known as Vedanta ("the end/culmination of the Vedas"). The Upanishads do not belong to a particular period of Sanskrit literature. The oldest, such as the Brhadaranyaka and Chandogya Upanishads, may date to the Brahmana period (roughly before the 31st century BC; before Gita was constructed), while the youngest, depending on the canon used, may date to the medieval or early modern period......The word Upanishad comes from the Sanskrit verb sad (to sit) and the two prepositions upa and ni (under and at). They are sacred tests of spiritual and philosophical nature. Vedic literature is divided into karmakanda containing Samhitas (hymns) and Brahmanas (commentaries), and gyanakanda containing knowledge in the form of the Aranyakas and Upanishads. Thus each Upanishad is associated with a Veda, Isha-upanishad with Shukla Yajurveda, Kena-upanishad with Samaveda, and so on.......The earliest Upanishads may have been composed between B.C. 800 and 400.........There have been several later additions, leading to 112 Upanishads being available today. But the major Upanishads are ten, Isha, Kena, Kattha, Prashna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Taittiriya, Aitareya, Shwetashwatara, Chhandogya and Brihadaryanyaka. The teachings of the Upanishads, and those of the Bhagavat Gita, form the basis of the Vedanta philosophy......The Isha-upanishad emphasizes the identity of the human soul with the divine soul. The Kena-upanishad discusses the qualities of the divine essence (Brahman) and the relationship of the gods to the divine essence. The Katha-upanishad, through the story of Nachiketa, discussed death and the permanence of the soul (Atman). The fairly long Chhandogya-upanishad develops the idea of transmigration of souls. The rihadaryanaka -upanishad, the longest of the Upanishads, bears the message of the completeness of the divine essence, and the associated peace. As literary remnants of the ancient past, the Upanishads - both lucid and elegant - have great literary value. ".....http://www.crystalinks.com/vedas.html

“Avesta” is the name the Mazdean (Mazdayasnian) religious tradition gives to the collection of its sacred texts. The etymology and the exact meaning of the name (Pahlavi ʾp(y)stʾk/abestāg) can not be considered established...... The twenty-one nasks “books” of the Avesta, which were created by Ahura Mazdā, were brought by Zaraθuštra to king Vištāspa....... The Avestan texts can not be dated accurately, nor can their language be located geographically.....Avesta is the collection of texts in Avestan, and Zand their translation and commentary ..... The interest of the book of Avesta is twofold; on the one hand, it transmits to us the first Mazdean speculations and, on the other hand, it contains the only evidence for Avestan, an Old Iranian language which together with Old Persian constitutes the Iranian sub-division of the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European. The Avesta is a compilation of ancient texts, which we owe to the collaboration of the Mazdean priesthood and the Sasanian political power, but of which, unfortunately, only a fraction has been transmitted to us by the Parsi communities of India and Iran, which still remain true to the old religion. The corpus which Western scholarship has reconstituted is found in manuscripts that all date from this millennium; the most ancient dates from A.D. 1288."....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/avesta-holy-book

"The languages of the two scriptures, the Zoroastrian Avesta and Hindu Rig Veda, are similar but not identical, indicating that at the time of their composition, the people of the Avesta and the Rig Veda were related and close neighbours - in a fashion similar to two provinces within one country - provinces where the people spoke two dialects of the same language.....The following is an example of the closeness of the Avestan Old Iranian and Rig-Vedic (Sanskrit) languages:
Old Iranian/Avestan: aevo pantao yo ashahe, vispe anyaesham apantam (Yasna 72.11)
Old Indian/Rig Vedic: abade pantha he ashae, visha anyaesham apantham
Translation: the one path is that of Asha, all others are not-paths.
...At the time the earliest sections of the Avesta and Rig Veda were composed, the Aryans were residents of the Aryan lands or Aryan nation, called Airyana Vaeja or Airyanam Dakhyunam in the Avesta and Arya Varta in the Hindu scriptures. In the Avestan and Hindu texts, Airyana Vaeja or Arya Varta was a beautiful but mysterious mountainous land..... While the precise location of the original Aryan homeland is lost to us, we have been left with ample clues which allow us to draw reasonable conclusions about its likely location, the mountain regions of Central Asia.......The name Airyana Vaeja was contracted over the years to Airan Vej, Iran Vej (in Middle Persian texts) and finally to Iran.......The two Indo-Iranian Aryan groups eventually ceased to be close neighbours. They separated and migrated to present day India and Iran, becoming Indians and Iranians in the process.".......http://heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/aryans/index.htm

"Indo-Iranian migrations.......The Indo-Iranian language and culture emerged in the Sintashta culture (c. 2100–1800 BCE), where the chariot was invented. The Indo-Iranian language and culture was further developed in the Andronovo culture (c. 1800–1400 BC), and influenced by the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (c. 2300–1700 BC). The Indo-Aryans split off around 1800–1600 BC from the Iranians,[ whereafter Indo-Aryan groups moved to the Levant (Mitanni), northern India (Vedic people, c. 1500 BC), and China (Wusun)..... Thereafter the Iranians migrated into Iran.."....Anthony, David W. (2007). The Horse The Wheel And Language. How Bronze-Age Riders From the Eurasian Steppes Shaped The Modern World. Princeton University Press.

Mipham's commentary on the Shambhala sections of the Kalachakra Tantra......Page 9......https://www.scribd.com/doc/220888297/Mipham-Commentaries-About-Kalachakra-Tantra#scribd

"The Rigdens other than Rigden Raudrachakrin are of the Asura family because of bestowing fear. If one thinks this explanation is not suitable, Palden Raudrachakrin having a short spear bestows fear in the asura family. So it is taught.... The linguistic history indicates that the Aryans ("Indo-Europeans"....."Iran") originally formed a single people until the beginning of the 2nd millenium BC when the Deva worshipping Indian Aryans and the Asura worshiping Iranian Aryans went separate ways....... ... The Kalachakra discusses the expulsion of the Deva worshippers from Shambhala and refers to the Rigden kings as Asura." (Ehsan Yarshater: 1987..pg 684..... Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. III/2, 1987. ) .....Ehsan Yarshater is the founder and director of The Center for Iranian Studies, and Hagop Kevorkian Professor Emeritus of Iranian Studies at Columbia University. He is one of the 40 editors of the Encyclopædia Iranica.

"Sir William Jones reveals his admiration for the eldest son of Shah Jahān, the scholar prince Dārā Šokōh, who had inherited the syncretic mantle of his great-grandfather, Akbar, composing a Persian text entitled Majmaʿ al-baḥ-rayn (The Mingling of the Two Oceans) that maintained that the fundamental tenets of Hinduism were essentially monotheistic and identical with those of Islam. Jones also followed Dārā Šokōh’s lead in being drawn to the late Vedas, the Upanishads. Dārā Šokōh had assembled a team of pandits from Benares to translate the Upanishads into Persian, producing in 1657 the Serr-e akbar (The Great Secret). Jones also loved revealing great secrets and, although Anquetil-Duperron had translated four of the Upanishads from the Serr-e akbar into French in 1787, and later published the influential Oupnek’hat (1802) which included the entire fifty-one Upanishads of the Serr-e akbar, Jones’s Isa-Upanishad was the first direct translation of an Upanishad from the Sanskrit into a Western language....." Sir William Jones (1746-1794), orientalist and judge, noted for his enduring commitment to a syncretic East-West synthesis and unshakeable belief in cultural pluralism.

"The Vedic period (or Vedic age) (ca.1750–500 BC) was the period in Indian history during which the Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, were composed.....During the early part of the Vedic period, the Indo-Aryans settled into northern India, bringing with them their specific religious traditions. The associated culture (sometimes referred to as Vedic civilization) was initially a tribal, pastoral society centred in the northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent; it spread after 1200 BC to the Ganges Plain, as it was shaped by increasing settled agriculture, a hierarchy of four social classes, and the emergence of monarchical, state-level polities.....The end of the Vedic period witnessed the rise of large, urbanized states as well as of shramana movements (including Jainism and Buddhism) which challenged the Vedic orthodoxy.".....Samuel, Geoffrey (2010), The Origins of Yoga and Tantra. Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century, Cambridge University Press

"Stephanie W. Jamison and Michael Witzel in Arvind Sharma, editor, The Study of Hinduism. University of South Carolina Press, 2003, page 65: "... to call this period Vedic Hinduism is a contradiction in terms since Vedic religion is very different from what we generally call Hindu religion - at least as much as Old Hebrew religion is from mediaeval and modern Christian religion. However, Vedic religion is treatable as a predecessor of Hinduism."

"Rishi (Sanskrit: ṛṣi, Devanagari: ऋषि) originates from the ancient Hindu culture of the Indus region earth-based cultures. Rishis were the scribes of the large body of nature hymns and spiritual science known as the Vedas….A Rishi (or rishika, when referring to female rishis) is a sage of insight, one who practices self-cultivation as a Yogini or Yogi and attains asamprajñata Samadhi. ....…In the Kalachakra…..there is an event which shows that this country was not entirely free of historical conflict. This concerns the protest of a group of no less than 35 million (!) Rishis (seers) led by the sage Suryaratha ("sun chariot”). As the first Kulika king, Manjushrikirti, preached the Kalachakra Tantra to his subjects, Suryaratha distanced himself from it, and his followers, the Rishis, joined him. They preferred to choose banishment from Shambhala than to follow the “diamond path” (Vajrayana)…….The Rishis worshipped only the sun. For this reason they also called their guru the “sun chariot” (suryaratha). But the Kulika king had as Kalachakra master and cosmic androgyne united both heavenly orbs in himself. He was the master of sun and moon." ….. (Bernbaum, 1980, p. 234).

Map of northen India in the later Vedic Period

"The Upanishads are sometimes referred to as Vedanta, variously interpreted to mean either the "last chapters, parts of the Veda" or "the object, the highest purpose of the Veda". The concepts of Brahman (Ultimate Reality) and Ātman (Soul, Self) are central ideas in all the Upanishads......The Upanishads are the foundation of Hindu philosophical thought and its diverse traditions. Of the Vedic corpus, they alone are widely known, and the central ideas of the Upanishads are at the spiritual core of Hindus.......More than 200 Upanishads are known, of which the first dozen or so are the oldest and most important and are referred to as the principal or main (mukhya) Upanishads. The mukhya Upanishads are found mostly in the concluding part of the Brahmanas and Aranyakas and were, for centuries, memorized by each generation and passed down verbally. The early Upanishads all predate the Common Era, some in all likelihood pre-Buddhist (6th century BC), down to the Maurya period. Of the remainder, some 95 Upanishads are part of the Muktika canon, composed from about the start of common era through medieval Hinduism. New Upanishads, beyond the 108 in the Muktika canon, continued to being composed through the early modern and modern era, though often dealing with subjects which are unconnected to the Vedas."....

"The Upanishads (Sanskrit: उपनिषत्, IAST: Upaniṣat, IPA: [upəniʂət̪]; plural: Sanskrit: उपनिषदः) are a collection of texts in the Vedic Sanskrit language which contain the earliest emergence of some of the central religious concepts of Hinduism, some of which are shared with Buddhism and Jainism."

"Avestan language.....Avestan /əˈvɛstən/, formerly also known as "Zend", is an Iranian language of the Eastern Iranian division, known only from its use as the language of Zoroastrian scripture, i.e. the Avesta, from which it derives its name. Its area of composition comprised ancient Arachosia, Aria, Bactria, and Margiana, corresponding to the entirety of present-day Afghanistan, and parts of Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The Yaz culture of Bactria-Margiana has been regarded as a likely archaeological reflection of the early Eastern Iranian culture described in the Avesta.....Avestan's status as a sacred language has ensured its continuing use for new compositions long after the language had ceased to be a living language. It is closely related to Vedic Sanskrit, the oldest preserved Indo-Aryan language.".....Witzel, Michael. "THE HOME OF THE ARYANS" Harvard University. "Since the evidence of Young Avestan place names so clearly points to a more eastern location, the Avesta is again understood, nowadays, as an East Iranian text, whose area of composition comprised -- at least -- Sīstån/Arachosia, Herat, Merw and Bactria."

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

May 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Sushruta (1000- 600 BC): The Bower Manuscript, Ayurveda & Soma

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"Suśruta (Devanagari सुश्रुत, an adjective meaning "very famous") was an ancient Indian surgeon commonly credited as the author of the treatise Sushruta Samhita.....He is said to have been a physician originally active in Varanasi. His period is usually placed between the period of 1200 BC - 600 BC.....One of the earliest known mention of the name is from the Bower Manuscript (4th or 5th century), where Sushruta is listed as one of the ten sages residing in the Himalayas..... Texts also suggest that he learned surgery at Kasi from Lord Dhanvantari, the god of medicine in Hindu mythology."

"Sushruta, one of the earliest surgeons of the recorded history (600 B.C.) is believed to be the first individual to describe plastic surgery. Sushruta who lived nearly 150 years before Hippocrates vividly described the basic principles of plastic surgery in his famous ancient treatise 'Sushruta Samhita' more than 2500 years ago.".....https://ispub.com/IJPS/4/2/8232

"The great early Ayurvedic doctor, Sushrut, mentions 24 Soma plants, growing mainly on Himalayan lakes and named after Vedic meters. He mentions 18 additional Soma like plants, which are mainly nervine herbs. Soma, therefore, was likely part of an entire science of sacred plant preparations and not just one plant in particular. A number of Soma-producing and Somalike plants existed. The search for one single Soma plant is therefore misleading."....http://vedanet.com/2012/06/13/the-secret-of-the-soma-plant/

"The mythico-religious shlokas (hymns) associated with this civilization were compiled in Sanskrit language between 3000 and 1000 B.C. in the form of Vedas, the oldest sacred books of the Hindu religion. This era is referred to as the Vedic period (5000 years B.C) in Indian history during which the the four Vedas, namely the Rigveda, the Samaveda, the Yajurveda, and the Atharvaveda were compiled. All the four Vedas are in the form of shlokas (hymns), verses, incantations and rites in Sanskrit language.3 ‘Sushruta Samhita' is believed to be a part of Atharvaveda. ....‘Sushruta Samhita'(Sushruta's compendium), which describes the ancient tradition of surgery in Indian medicine is considered as one of the most brilliant gems in Indian medical literature. This treatise contains detailed descriptions of teachings and practice of the great ancient surgeon Sushruta which has considerable surgical knowledge of relevance even today."....https://ispub.com/IJPS/4/2/8232

"The exact period of Sushruta is unclear but most scholars put him him between 600 to 1000 BC......Sushruta lived, taught and practiced his art in the area that corresponds presently to the city of Varanasi (Kashi, Benares) in northern part of India. "

"...This master literature remained preserved for many centuries exclusively in the Sanskrit language which prevented the dissemination. of the knowledge to the west and other parts of the world. Later the original text was lost and the present extant one is believed to be a revision by the Buddhist scholar Vasubandhu (circa AD 360-350). In the eighth century A.D., ‘Sushruta Samhita' was translated into Arabic as Kitab-Shaw Shoon-a-Hindi and Kitab-i-Susrud. The translation of ‘Sushruta Samhita' was ordered by the Caliph Mansur (A.D.753 -774)..... One of the most important documents in connection with ancient Indian medicine is the Bower Manuscript, a birch-bark medical treatise discovered in Kuchar (in Eastern Turkistan), dated around AD 450 and is housed in the Oxford University library..... The first European translation of ‘Sushruta Samhita' was published by Hessler in Latin and into German by Muller in the early 19th century. The first complete English translation was done by Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna in three volumes in 1907 at Calcutta."......https://ispub.com/IJPS/4/2/8232

"The Bower Manuscript is an early birch bark document, dated to the Gupta era (between the 4th and the 6th century). It is written in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit using the Late Brahmi script. The manuscript is notable for preserving one of the earliest treatises on Indian medicine (Ayurveda). Rudolf Hoernle (1910) suggested that the text of the manuscript contains excerpts of the (otherwise unknown) Bheda Samhita on medicine.The medical parts (I-III) constitute may be based on similar types of medical writings antedating the composition of the saṃhitās of Caraka, Suśruta, and as such rank with the earliest surviving texts on Ayurveda.....It is today preserved as part of the collections of the Bodleian Library in Oxford. "

"Captain H. Bower, who arrived in the Tarīm Basin in 1890 by order of the British Indian army, was at first not particularly interested in old manuscripts One day, however, he decided—perhaps on a whim—to buy an old manuscript for sale at a shop in the market ..... along the path which had served as the main route to enter the Tarīm Basin from Northern India. Probably Bower decided to buy the manuscript from a local man in Kucha .....this purchase, which would ignite the great era of exploration in Central Asia......The manuscript purchased by Bower was written in the Brāhmi script of ancient India. Deciphered by the British scholar of Indian studies, A. F. Rudolf Hoernle, it was revealed that the manuscript could be as old as the 5th century. It was older than any other manuscript found in India up till that time, and it came as a tremendous surprise that such old manuscripts were found in the outlying Tarīm Basin, rather than India."...... http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/rarebook/09/index.html.en

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Soma...."The Sushruta Samhita localizes the best Soma in the upper Indus and Kashmir region.....In the Vedas, the same word is used for both the drink and the plant. Drinking Soma produces immortality (Amrita, Rigveda 8.48.3). Indra and Agni are portrayed as consuming Soma in copious quantities. The consumption of Soma by human beings is well attested in Vedic ritual.....According to Anthony, Soma was introduced into Indo-Iranian culture from the Bactria–Margiana Culture. .....among Indo-European immigrants in the contact zone between the Zeravshan River (present-day Uzbekistan) and (present-day) Iran....Vedic texts mention that the best soma plants came from Mount Mūjavant, which may be located as in northern Kashmir and in neighboring western Tibet"..........

"The Ancient Ayurvedic Writings.....THE GREAT THREE AUTHORS: Charaka of Kashmir, Sushruta, Vagbhata of Kashmir.....he Charaka Samhita is believed to have arisen around 400-200 BC.....by Michael Dick, MS....https://www.ayurveda.com/online_resource/ancient_writings.htm

Sushruta Samhita. English translation by Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna, Calcutta, 1907

2. Bhishagratna KK. The Sushruta Samhita. [English translation based on the original Sanskrit text.] Varanasi, India, 1963; Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office.

"The traditional medical massage of Thailand, more commonly known as Thai Massage, is one of the world’s oldest healing modalities. It originated in India during the Buddha’s lifetime, over 2500 years ago, and was brought to this world by a saint, the “Father Doctor Shivago Komarpahj”, a contemporary of the Buddha and some say his personal physician and the physician to the King of India."......http://www.aitheinhealing.com/

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

May 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Moksha, Liberation, Mukti, Nirvana

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"Moksha, also spelled mokṣa, also called mukti, in Indian philosophy and religion, liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth (samsara). Derived from the Sanskrit word muc (“to free”), the term moksha literally means freedom from samsara. This concept of liberation or release is shared by a wide spectrum of religious traditions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism......Alternate titles: apavarga; mukti."....http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/387852/moksha

".....the concept of moksa appears much later in ancient Indian literature than the concept of dharma. The proto-concept which appears all along most of the Upanishads, specially the later ones, is “mucyate” which means liberate, free; so the word itself “moksa” is rarely seen. On the other hand, in Hinduism, as Gavin Flood appoints, dharma and moksa, being the most important asramas or stages of Hindu life, remain in tension most of the time, specially all along the vedic literature."......from: 'Moksa – The soma of knowledge in the Upanishads' -by Ana Pinilla (April 2015).

"Fanaa : Sufism).......Fanaa (Arabic: فناء‎ fanāʾ ) is the Sufi term for "passing away" or "annihilation" (of the self) or extinction..... It means to annihilate the self, while remaining physically alive. Persons having entered this state are said to have no existence outside of, and be in complete unity with, Allah. Fanaa is equivalent to the concept of nirvana in Buddhism, Sikhism and Hinduism or moksha in Hinduism which also aim for annihilation of the self or mukhti in Sikhism......The nature of fanaa consists of the elimination of evil deeds and lowly attributes of the flesh. In other words, fanaa is abstention from sin and the expulsion from the heart of all love other than the Divine Love; expulsion of greed, lust, desire, vanity, show, etc. In the state of fanaa the reality of the true and only relationship asserts itself in the mind.".....Fana represents a breaking down of the individual ego and a recognition of the fundamental unity of God, creation, and the individual self.."The state of Fana is represented by Rumi in Book Six of the Masnavi ."

"About the middle of the 1st millennium BC, new religious movements spreading along the Ganges River valley in India promoted the view that human life is a state of bondage to a recurring process of rebirth..... These movements spurred the eventual development of the major religions of Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism. These and many other religious traditions offered differing conceptions of bondage and diverging paths to moksha. Some, such as Jainism, posited an abiding self that became liberated, while others, such as Buddhism, denied the existence of a permanent self......Some Indian traditions also place greater emphasis within their respective paths to liberation on concrete, ethical action within the world. Devotional religions such as Vaishnavism, for example, present love and service to God as the one sure way to moksha. Others stress the attainment of mystical awareness. Some forms of Buddhism and the monistic theologies of Hinduism—e.g., Advaita (non-dualistic) Vedanta—consider both the mundane world and human entrapment within it to be a web of illusion whose penetration requires both mental training through meditative techniques and the attainment of liberating insight. In this case, the passage from bondage to liberation is not a real transition but an epistemological transformation that permits one to see the truly real behind the fog of ignorance.....Some traditions present the plurality of Indian religions as different paths to moksha. More frequently, however, one tradition will understand its rivals as lower and less effective paths that ultimately must be complemented with its own.".......Patrick Olivelle.........http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/387852/moksha

"Indian spirituality is other-worldly, the goal being the attainment of a state of eternal existence beyond the cosmos - nirvana or moksha (liberation). The Indian ideal is the renunciate sage - the sadhu or sanyasin - who gives up the world for a life as a homeless yogi and holy-man, dependent on the offerings of others for sustenance. Hence Indian Tanta is orientated to attaining a transcendent state of Liberation......Taoist & Chinese culture and spirituality is generally this-worldly. The ideal sage is the Confucian"gentleman"or"superior man", who knows the best way to respond to family, social, or political situations. And although there is a quietest element to the Chinese soul (just as there is an extroversive one to the Indian) one finds that even Chinese meditation is this-worldly: the cultivation of the vital-force for health and longevity for example (Tai-Chi-Chuan), the search for alchemical immortality, or attuning oneself to the currents or flow of the cosmos."......www.kheper.auz.com/#sthash.UH9YiBe0.dpuf

"How are Dzodgchen, Mahamudra, and Moksha of Hinduism different?......'Moksha, as I understand it – is the highest Hindu expression of enlightenment. The difference between this and the Buddhist versions such as those approaches named above, is basically, the cultivation of bodhicitta. In practical terms, moksha represents an initial liberation from the drama of the ego-illusion, a radical awakening to non-dual truth, very similar to what is realized by sravakas who mature into arhats. According to the Nyingmas, this realization would be classified within the first two yanas. The short version of the Mahayana critique of the lower vehicles is that the wisdom element is emphasized at the expense of compassion.....From the perspective of Dzogchen, Mahamudra is a sublime preliminary, associated with the seventh and eighth yanas.......Dzogchen is a transmission which goes beyond the teachings of buddhism but is so resonant with Buddhadharma that it is considered the highest among the nine yanas .".....http://www.hologramthoughts.com/dharma/are-dzodgchen-mahamudra-and-moksha-essentially-the-same/

".....early Vedic Hinduism was primarily focused on maintaining the order (dharma ) in this world through sacrificial offerings to the gods with a sophisticated ritualism officiated exclusively by the brahmins. The Upanishads are a quantum leap from this conception since they turn the focus towards the goal of attaining personal liberation (moksa)."..........from: 'Moksa – The soma of knowledge in the Upanishads' -by Ana Pinilla (April 2015).

"Moksa for Islam means going to Jenna or Heaven after death....."

"A key concept in Jain beliefs is that the world or reality is made of two distinct dimensions:
- the visible world – made up of souls in their various forms, matter, space, the principles of motion and rest, time – it is eternal and formless, continually in the process of change but is indestructible
- the invisible world – a realm behind the visible world, unperceived by the senses – an indestructible and eternal realm of limitless knowledge and infinite power, a pure state of “release” or moksha....the primary goal of Jainism is the perfection of the soul – for it to be perfected from the all its layers of karma, from its current place in the visible world to the invisible world. Thus, moksha is the ultimate goal.."...http://www.world-religions-professor.com/karmabody.html.

How Plato and Pythagoras Can Save Your Life: The Ancient Greek Prescription for Health and Happiness........by Nicholas Kardaras.....2011

"The teachings of Yajñvalkya (c. 700 BC), in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad are the oldest teachings of moksa in Hinduism.....The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is one of the Upanishads which elaborates in more detail not only the theory of transmigration but the concept of liberation: “ Thus does the man who desires transmigrates. But as to the man who does not desire—who is without desire, who is freed from desire, whose desire is satisfied, whose only object of desire is the Self—his organs do not depart.....Rishi Yajnavalkya, give also an advance of the necessity of yogic discipline in one of the earliest Upanishads, the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, where he speaks of the need of purifying the heart to attain liberation and of the method of such purification: "The purification of the heart is the duty of all aspirants, especially of world-renouncing sannyasins; for this is the means of cultivating knowledge which leads to the freedom of the soul. As a mirror stained with impurities cannot reflect an image, so the impure heart cannot reflect Self-Knowledge”.......from: 'Moksa – The soma of knowledge in the Upanishads' -by Ana Pinilla (April 2015).

"Nirvāṇa (Sanskrit: निर्वाण; Pali: निब्बान nibbāna ; Prakrit: णिव्वाण) literally means "blown out", as in a candle. It is most commonly associated with Buddhism.....In the Buddhist context nirvana refers to the imperturbable stillness of mind after the fires of desire, aversion, and delusion have been finally extinguished. In Hindu philosophy, it is the union with Brahman, the divine ground of existence, and the experience of blissful egolessness. In Indian religions, the attainment of nirvana is moksha, liberation from samsara, the repeating cycle of birth, life and death......

Bardo Thodol (Tibetan: བར་དོ་ཐོས་གྲོལ, Wylie: bar do thos grol), Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State....BAR-DO THOS-GROL (properly Bar-do Thos- grol chen-mo .....The Tibetan word bardo (བར་དོ་ Wylie: bar do) means literally "intermediate state"—also translated as "transitional state" or "in-between state" or "liminal state". In Sanskrit the concept has the name antarabhāva. It is a concept which arose soon after the Buddha's passing, with a number of earlier Buddhist groups accepting the existence of such an intermediate state, while other schools rejected it......ཐོས་གྲོལ་.....liberation through hearing {thos pas grol ba} liberation by hearing; that which liberates when heard......thos: hear; listen; hearing.....grol: (གྲོལ་ )released; loosened; freed, mukta; mukti; vimukti; vimokSa.

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

May 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Yājñavalkya of Videha ( c. 7th c BC) the Hridaya & the Kati Crystal Heart Channel

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....Yājñavalkya (Devanagari: याज्ञवल्क्य) of Videha ( c. 7th century BC) , ..... the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, As a mirror stained with impurities cannot reflect an image, so the impure heart cannot reflect Self-Knowledge”.

"Yājñavalkya was a sage and philosopher of Vedic India. He was one of the first philosophers in recorded history, alongside Uddalaka Aruni.In the court of King Janaka of Mithila, he was renowned for his expertise in Vedic ritual and his unrivaled talent in theological debate. He expounded a doctrine of neti neti to describe the universal Self or Ātman. He later became a wandering ascetic. His teachings are recorded in the Shatapatha Brahmana and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad......He is traditionally credited with the authorship of the Shatapatha Brahmana (including the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad), besides the Yoga Yajnavalkya and the Yājñavalkya Smṛti. He is also a major figure in the Upanishads."

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"Videha (Sanskrit: विदेह) was an ancient South Asian kingdom, located in what is now eastern Terai-Madhesh region of Nepal and the northern Indian state of Bihar. During the late Vedic period (c.850-500 BC), it became a dominant political and cultural centre of South Asia. Late Vedic literature such as the Shatapatha Brahmana and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad both mention Janaka (c. 7th century BC) as a great philosopher-king of Videha, renowned for his patronage of Vedic culture and philosophy, and whose court was an intellectual centre for Brahmin sages such as Yajnavalkya......Towards the end of the Vedic period (c. 500 BC), Videha was absorbed into the Vajji confederation and subsequently into the Magadha empire. The Videha kingdom is also mentioned in the Sanskrit epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. The latter mentions a marriage alliance between the kingdoms of Kosala and Videha. The capital of Videha was Mithila, identified with the modern town of Janakpur in Southern Nepal."

"The Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upanishad (Sanskrit: बृहदारण्यक उपनिषद्) is one of the oldest, mukhya (primary) Upanishads. It is contained within the Shatapatha Brahmana, which is itself a part of Shukla Yajur Veda......Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is estimated to have been composed about 700 BC."

"Then Yājñavalkya said....The thirty-three Gods are the principal manifestations, and others are only their glories, radiances, manifestations, magnificences or forces, energies, powers... The term 'god' means a power that causally works inside a form. That which regulates from inside any particular individual, groups of individuals, etc. is the god of that individual or the god of that group of individuals. In a broad sense we may say, the cause of anything is the deity of that thing. Now again we have to bring to our mind the meaning of the word 'cause'. The deity does not operate as an external cause. The sun as the cause of the eye is not the sun that is ninety-three million miles away, disconnected from the eye in space. The god of any particular phenomenon is the invisible presence."......The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

"Then Yājñavalkya said......Darkness is the abode of something. Is there something whose abode is darkness? And for whom the heart is the perceiving medium, hṛdayaṁ lokaḥ, and the mind is the guide...."....The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

"Heart....hṛdayaṁ lokaḥ......The Heart Sūtra (Sanskrit: प्रज्ञापारमिताहृदय Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya) is a famous sūtra in Mahāyāna Buddhism. Its Sanskrit title, Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya, literally means "The Heart of the Perfection of Understanding....The word Hridaya is a composite of hrid and ayam - "center, this". It is the center on the right, which we reach as a result of meditation (Samadhi). From the Hridaya, consciousness arises to the sahasrara through the sushumna and from there spreads out to all the parts of the body through the several 'nadis'. Then alone we become conscious of the objects around us....due to the illusion that these have real existence, experiences suffering, man strays far away from his Self. The seat from where all these arise and manifest is the Hridaya."

Yājñavalkya Hridaya.....“Yajnavalkya said: ‘Indha is the Self identified with the physical self. Viraj, the physical world is his wife, the object of his enjoyment. The space within the heart is their place of union in dream, when the Self is identified with the subtle body, or mind. The Self in dreamless sleep is identified with the vital force. Beyond this is the Supreme Self–he that has been described as Not This, Not That. He is incomprehensible, for he cannot be comprehended; he is undecaying, for he never decays; he is unattached, for he does not attach himself; he is unfettered, for nothing can fetter him. He is never hurt. You have attained him who is free from fear, O Janaka, and free from birth and death.’..(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4:3:1-7).

"When the sun has set, and the moon has set, and the fire has gone out, and no sound is heard, what serves then as his light?’ Yajnavalkya said: ‘The Self indeed is his light; for by the light of the Self man sits, moves about, does his work, and when his work is done, rests.’
King Janaka said: ‘Who is that Self?’ .......Yajnavalkya said: ‘The self-luminous being who dwells within the lotus of the heart, surrounded by the senses and sense organs, and who is the light of the intellect, is that Self. Becoming identified with the intellect, he moves to and fro, through birth and death, between this world and the next. Becoming identified with the intellect, the Self appears to be thinking, appears to be moving. While the mind is dreaming, the Self also appears to be dreaming, and to be beyond the next world as well as this.’” (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4:3:1-7).

"...I keep the Awareness on the Heart Center, and on “Breathing-in the Light into my Eyes, then flowing it into the Heart”, to fill the Heart......the Kati Channel becomes better defined, warmer, more perceivable, more and more active and energised....".. http://hridaya-yoga.com/category/blog/

"Position your body with the seven attributes like before. Steadily fix your gaze in the space in front of you, into the vacuity at the level of the tip of your nose, without any disorderliness or duplicity. This is the benefit of this gaze: in the center of the hearts of all beings there is the hollow crystal kati channel, which is a channel of primordial wisdom. If it points down and is closed off, primordial wisdom is obscured, and delusion grows. Thus, in animals that channel faces downwards and is closed off, so they are foolish and deluded. In humans that channel points horizontally and is slightly open, so human intelligence is bright and our consciousness is clear. In people who have attained siddhis and in bodhisattvas that channel is open and faces upwards, so there arise unimaginable samādhis, primordial wisdom of knowledge, and vast extrasensory perceptions. These occur due to the open quality of that channel of primordial wisdom. Thus, when the eyes are closed, that channel is closed off and points down, so consciousness is dimmed by the delusion of darkness. By steadily fixing the gaze, that channel faces up and opens, which isolates pure awareness from impure awareness. Then clear, thought-free samādhi arises, and numerous pure visions appear. Thus, the gaze is important. ..".....http://thedaobums.com/topic/36286-more-about-the-kati-crystal-heart-channel/

http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/upanishads/brihad.asp

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

May 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Robert Göbl & Bactrian/Kushan Coinage (171 BC - 232 AD)

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GÖBL, ROBERT, Austrian numismatist (b. Vienna, 1919-1997)...... University of Vienna, Professor of Ancient Numismatics and the Pre-Islamic History of Central Asia

Gold coin of Kanishka I, with a depiction of the Buddha, with the legend "Boddo" in Greek script

Göbl’s acquaintance with Franz Altheim made him interested in the coinage of the Sasanians......at the University of Vienna. He also took over from Pink the Numismatischer Lehrapparat, which had been founded by Wilhelm Kubitschek at the Department of Ancient History, Epigraphics and Classical Archeology....His mentor in studying numismatics was Karl Pink.... In 1973, Göbl published his Sasanidischer Siegelkanon, which has become a tool for the analytical classification of Sasanian seal stones. This contribution was closely connected to the recording of a large hoard of clay sealings from Taḵt-e Solaymān, which were assigned to Göbl for classification by the Deutches Archäologisches Institut....Some of his lectures have been published in his Antike Numismatik, which is an analytical handbook on ancient numismatics."........http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gbl-

Gold dinar, c. 195 AD.....Crowned, diademed king standing facing, nimbate, holding trident and sacrificing at altar at left,......Bactrian legend around: þAONANOþAO BA ... ZOΔηO KOþANO......(King of Kings Bazodeo Kushan) .....Reverse: Two-armed Shiva standing facing, holding trident and diadem, Bull Nandi left behind,Bactrian legend left: OηþO, tamgha at right........Göbl 504

Bactria: Eucratides I, Silver tetradrachm, c. 171-145 BC......Helmeted and diademed bust of king facing right, bead and reel border around, the helmet plumed and decorated with the ear and horn of a bull / Dioscuri riding horses prancing right, carrying spears and palms.......Greek legend: BAΣIΛEΩΣ MEΓAΛOY EYKPATIΔOY (of Great King Eucratides)

"Kushan coinage......In the coinage of the North Indian and Central Asian Kushan Empire (approximately 30-375 CE) the main coins issued were gold, weighing 7.9g., and base metal issues of various weights between 12g and 1.5g. Little silver coinage was issued, but in later periods the gold used was debased with silver.......The coin designs usually broadly follow the styles of the preceding Greco-Bactrian rulers in using Hellenistic styles of image, with a deity on one side and the king on the other. Kings may be shown as a profile head, a standing figure, typically officiating at a fire altar in Zoroastrian style, or mounted on a horse. The artistry of the dies is generally lower than the exceptionally high standards of the best coins of Greco-Bactrian rulers. Continuing influence from Roman coins can be seen in designs of the late 1st and 2nd century CE, and also in mint practices evidenced on the coins, as well as a gradual reduction in the value of the metal in base metal coins, so that they become virtual tokens. Iranian influence, especially in the royal figures and the pantheon of deities used, is even stronger. Under Kanishka the royal title of "King of kings" changed from the Greek "ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΝ" to the Persian form "ϷAONANOϷAO" (Shah of Shahs).......Much of what little information we have of Kushan political history derives from coins. The language of inscriptions is typically the Bactrian language, written in a script derived from Greek. Many coins show the tamga symbols as a kind of monogram for the ruler. There were several regional mints, and the evidence from coins suggests that much of the empire was semi-independent.".......MacDowell, David W., "Mithra": "Mithra's Planetary Setting in the Coinage of the Great Kushans", in Études Mithriaques: 1975

Coin of Kaniska Kushan, Late or Early 2nd c. A.D.......The view that the halo is the Hvareno of the Persians et Zoroastre and by Dhalla, the great authority on Zoroastrianism, who records the fact that "the Magi had established themselves during the Parthian period (248 B.C.-A.D. 222) in large numbers in eastern Asia Minor, Galatia, Phrygia, Lydia and even in Egypt and that the kings of Cappadocia, Pontus and Bactria honoured the 'Glory’.” ....http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Zarathushtrian/halo_its_origin.htm

"Kushan Dynastic Ring.....Gold finger ring from Ancient India. Kushan period, early 3rd century AD. Solid gold ring, of typical Roman shape, fabricated rather than cast......portraits of Septimius Severus (laureate head left) and Julia Domna (draped bust right with elaborate coiffure), beneath which is a Gupta Brahmi inscription in a characteristic square-serif style: Damputrasya Dhanguptasya ([Seal of] Dhangupta son of Dama). ....The use of gold, the method of fabrication, and the fine quality of the engraving all suggest than the owner was a person of significant wealth and position....There was a tradition in north West India for Greek rulers to adopt Indian names. King Menander was called Milinda, .....Demetrios is called Dattamitri, Appollodotus is Apaladatas, Azes is Aya, Azilezes is Ayilisha, and Gondophares is Devarata Gudupphara. Therefore, it is not unlikely that the Damaputrasya on this ring meant the son of Dama or, more appropriately, the son of Domna -- Julia Domna herself whose picture is in situ..... The important person, the owner of the ring, thus associates himself with the Roman imperial family.".....http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=115376

"The patronage of Buddhism by the Kushan rulers is attested by the appearance of Buddha among the divinities portrayed upon the coinage of Kanishka. This image may celebrate the Third Buddhist Conference, which, according to Buddhist tradition, was convened during this reign. One should not, however, suppose that the Kushans themselves professed Buddhism, and the predominance of coin types reflecting a variety of Iranian religion suggests that they practiced an eclectic form of Zoroastrianism. Specific to that faith were renderings of three of the six Amahraspands (see AMƎŠA SPƎNTA), Šaoreoro (Šahrewar), Ashaeixsho, and Manaobago, if the last two are correctly identified with Ardwahišt and Wahman. At the same time, representations of “pagan Iranian” or possibly Mithraic deities, such as Mithra, Nana, Vərəƒraγna (Orlagno, Wahrām “Mars”), and Tīr “Mercury” (not Tistriya “Sirius,” as later conceived) are prominent. The figuring of Vēš “Vayu” in the form of the Brahmanical Śiva was already mentioned. Several classical deities appear, including Serapis (Göbl, p. 69; photo no. 185) and Heracles. Again, there are several enigmatic figures such as Mozdooano (probably not identical with Ahura Mazdā) with his two-headed horse. Ahura Mazdā, the supreme deity of Zoroastrianism, is in fact a rare type, if reported specimens are genuine at all (Göbl, p. 65)."...........http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kushan-dynasty-i-history

"One of the most famous ancient coins, the massive gold 20-stater of Eucratides, now in the collection of the National Library in Paris, was surely also the largest gold coin minted in antiquity. It may well have been a victory medal to celebrate Eucratides's conquest of "India," presumably some land south of the Hindu Kush, perhaps Gandhara....Eucratides was the last Greek king to rule at Ai-Khanoum, which was overrun most probably by the Yuezhi, the tribes that later coalesced into the Kushans. "...http://coinindia.com/galleries-eucratides1.html

"Göbl’s interest in ancient oriental numismatics extended beyond the geographical limits of the Sasanian state. Prompted by Franz Altheim, he published in 1957 an article about Kushano-Sasanian coinage that eventually became the groundwork for his Dokumente zur Geschichte der iranischen Hunnen in Baktrien und Indien (4 vols, Wiesbaden, 1967), a major contribution that revived a fascinating chapter in Asian history and that will undoubtedly remain as one of the milestones in the study of Oriental numismatics. Roman Ghirshman (q.v.) arranged for Göbl’s participation at the second Kanishka conference, which was held in London in 1960. This conference induced Göbl to make the coinage of the Kushans the central part of all his future research. In 1984, he published his monograph on the system and chronology of Kushan coinage, in which he gave an in-depth commentary on its controversial chronology. He published another study of the subject, DONUM BURNS: Die Kušānmünzen im Münzkabinett Bern und die Chronologie (Vienna, 1993), which he considered his “Kushan testament.” At the request of the present writer, however, he made further studies of the chronology problem following the publication of the Rabatak inscription in 1996."......http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gbl-

"In 1962, Ghirshman brought Göbl to Afghanistan as a UNESCO field expert in order to arrange the coin collection at the Museum of Kabul. During the course of his stay Göbl also traveled to Pakistan and discovered that some of the inscriptions of the Tochi-Agency kept in the Museum of Peshawar were not written in Mongolian, as had previously been presumed, but in Bactrian. Helmut Humbach read the bilingual texts, and the double datings included in them from then on formed a central point in Göbl’s argument for considering year 1 of Kanishka’s rule to be 232 AD"..........http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gbl-

"The Kushan religious pantheon is extremely varied, as revealed by their coins and their seals, on which more than 30 different gods appear, belonging to the Hellenistic, the Iranian, and to a lesser extent the Indian world. Greek deities, with Greek names are represented on early coins. During Kanishka's reign, the language of the coinage changes to Bactrian (though it remained in Greek script for all kings). After Huvishka, only two divinities appear on the coins: Ardoxsho and Oesho.".....wikipedia.org/wiki/Kushan_coinage

"A tamga or tamgha "stamp, seal" (Mongolian: tamga, Turkish: damga) is an abstract seal or stamp used by Eurasian nomadic peoples and by cultures influenced by them. The tamga was normally the emblem of a particular tribe, clan or family. They were common among the Eurasian nomads throughout Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages (including Alans, Mongols, Sarmatians, Scythians and Turkic peoples).....Similar "tamga-like" symbols were sometimes adopted by sedentary peoples adjacent to the Pontic-Caspian steppe both in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Archaeologists prize tamgas as a first-rate source for the study of present and extinct cultures."......Yatsenko, S. A., "Tamga-signs of Iranic-speaking peoples of antiquity and the early medieval period"....Moscow (2001).

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

May 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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