Meditation refers to a family of self-regulation practices that focuses on training attention and awareness to foster psycho-emotional well-being and to develop specific capacities such as calmness, clarity, and concentration. We report a prospective convenience-controlled study in which we analyzed the effect of two components of Preksha Dhyāna – buzzing bee sound meditation and color meditation on healthy college students. Mahapran and leśya dhyāna are two Preksha Dhyāna practices that are based on sound and green color, respectively. The study population (...) represents a suitable target as college students experience different stress factors during the school year. This study measures the individual and combined effects of two techniques, on short-term memory, attention, and affect, in novice meditators. We used a battery of cognitive, performance, and compared results with baseline and control values. We found improved cognition, especially attention, short-term memory, and affect in terms of positivity and reduced negativity. Overall, the two techniques produced variable benefits and subjects showed improved scores over baseline for short-term memory, cognitive function, and overall wellbeing. Further studies are required to understand underlying mechanisms for the observed differences between the two techniques and to elucidate mechanisms underlying the more pronounced and global benefits observed with the combined techniques. These results underscore a need to examine individual components of meditation practices in order to individualize treatment approaches for attention disorders in young adults.Clinical Trail Registration:ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03779269. (shrink)

Jainism is essentially a spiritual philosophy having a strong focus on the ultimate purification of the soul (ātmā). A human being usually when fails to understand things, when sorrows attack, etc., then he attributes to memorize the deva (celestial being) to seek help. Man can be guided both correctly and incorrectly by the deva and can establish a new system in a society that can be both in a positive form and a negative form. Thus, this involvement of deva in (...) human life brings change in his culture, behavior, spirituality, etc. There is a lot of misunderstanding about deva. In Jain literature, it is mentioned as the difference between Arhat (Supreme Divine) and deva (celestial being), which will help the man to move in the right direction. In various positive and negative ways, a human is affected by deva, in the past and the present. (shrink)

The word “privilege” has become a part of our everyday conversations. However, it is not evident whether the various interlocutors in discussions on privilege are using it in the same sense. While different instances of privilege like white, male, or caste privilege have been discussed in contemporary academic discourses, we believe there is a lack of clarity regarding the notion of privilege. We critically analyse existing accounts of privilege to show that they leave some room for improvement. We offer an (...) alternative account of privilege as “entitlements that fail to track deserts” that circumvents prevalent definitional ambiguities and emphasises the inherent undeserving nature of privilege. The hitherto underexplored links between privileges, deserts, entitlements, and rights can help us formulate a more accurate grasp of privilege. (shrink)

In this paper, we show that the Kirchhoff equations are derived from the Schrödinger equation by assuming the wave function to be a polynomial like solution. These Kirchhoff equations describe the evolution of n point vortices in hydrodynamics. In two dimensions, Kirchhoff equations are used to demonstrate the solution to single particle Laughlin wave function as complex Hermite polynomials. We also show that the equation for optical vortices, a two dimentional system, is derived from Kirchhoff equation by using paraxial wave (...) approximation. These Kirchhoff equations satisfy a Poisson bracket relationship in phase space which is identical to the Heisenberg uncertainty relationship. Therefore, we conclude that being classical equations, the Kirchhoff equations, describe both a particle and a wave nature of single particle quantum mechanics in two dimensions. (shrink)

The pupils of the eyes reflexively constrict in light and dilate in dark to optimize retinal illumination. Non-visual cognitive factors, like attention, arousal, decision-making, etc., also influence pupillary light response. During passive viewing, the eccentricity of a stimulus modulates the pupillary aperture size driven by spatially weighted corneal flux density, which is the product of luminance and the area of the stimulus. Whether the scope of attention also influences PLR remains unclear. In this study, we contrasted the pupil dynamics between (...) diffused and focused attentional conditions during decision-making, while the global CFD remained the same in the two conditions. A population of 20 healthy humans participated in a pair of forced choice tasks. They distributed attention to the peripheral decision cue in one task, and concentrated at the center in the other to select the target from four alternatives for gaze orientation. The location of this cue did not influence participants’ reaction time. However, the magnitude of constriction was significantly less in the task that warranted attention to be deployed at the center than on the periphery. We observed similar pupil dynamics when participants either elicited or canceled a saccadic eye movement, which ruled out pre-saccadic obligatory attentional orientation contributing to PLR. We further addressed how the location of attentional deployment might have influenced PLR. We simulated a biomechanical model of PLR with visual stimulation of different strengths as inputs corresponding to the two attentional conditions. In this homeomorphic model, the computational characteristic of each element was derived from the physiological and/or mechanical properties of the corresponding biological element. The simulation of this model successfully mimicked the observed data. In contrast to common belief that the global ambient luminosity drives pupillary response, the results of our study suggest that the effective CFD determined via the luminance multiplied by the size of the stimulus at the location of deployed attention in the visual space is critical for the magnitude of pupillary constriction. (shrink)

Don DeLillo’s White Noise depicts a world of rapid techno-scientific and economical changes. Paul Virilio’s concepts of dromology and speed, as well as his notions of accident and technology, seem to be the most relevant in order to examine a novel centrally concerned with change, speed and technology. This article first offers an analysis of White Noise in the light of Virilio’s concept of integral accident in relation to the negative consequences brought about by industrial and technological progress. This is (...) followed by a discussion of the relevance to the novel of Virilio’s theories about architecture and space. Finally, Virilio’s theories about the replacement of conventional war with pure and info wars are discussed in the context of the central event of the novel. Reading the American writer through the lens of the French theorist can shed light on the enduring relevance of both. (shrink)

Plants growing in temperate regions are able to survive freezing temperatures from −5° to −30°C, depending on the species, through a process known as cold acclimation. In the last decade much work has been done on the molecular mechanisms of low temperature (LT) signal transduction and cold acclimation. Mutant studies and microarray analyses have revealed C-Repeat binding factor (CBF) -dependent and -independent signaling pathways in plants. Experimental evidence suggests the existence of ‘potential LT sensors’ but as yet there is no (...) direct proof. A number of signal transducers such as various kinases/phosphatases have been demonstrated but the signal transduction pathways have not been elucidated. An understanding of the molecular basis of the signaling process, however, is of potential practical application. Designing new strategies to improve cold tolerance in crop varieties could increase the plant productivity and also expand the area under cultivation. BioEssays 27:1048–1059, 2005. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Verse compendium of the Advaita school in Hindu philosophy; includes complete Sanskrit text with English translation.

Commentary, with text, on Amr̥tānubhava, Hindu philosophical work by Jñānadeva, fl. 1290.

Verse compendium of the Advaita school in Hindu philosophy; includes complete Sanskrit text with English translation.

On the reintegration of the biological sciences and humanities; second portion of a projected formulation of a comprehensive philosophy of freedom.

Treatise of the Vedanta philosophy ; based on discourses.

The current discourse on moral epistemology (ME), has hardly paid any attention to the question concerning the demarcation of the domain of ME within epistemology. Neither is the subject matter of ME considered unique, nor is the methodology adopted in its investigations considered distinct. We attempt to show in this paper that this omission does not restrict itself to a mere taxonomical oversight but rather leads to certain deeper conceptual concerns. We argue that a casual and porous understanding of the (...) subject matter of ME is the result of conflating moral beliefs and justification with non-moral beliefs and justification. If ME doesn't merit a clear demarcation within epistemology, then the very legitimacy of ME is brought under a cloud, thereby threatening the distinction between ethics and epistemology. We believe G. E Moore foresaw this predicament and our interpretation of his work could offer a possible solution. (shrink)

The consequences of foreign direct investment (FDI) for human rights protection are poorly understood. We propose that the impact of FDI varies across industries. In particular, extractive firms in the oil and mining industries go where the resources are located and are bound to such investment, which creates a status quo bias among them when it comes to supporting repressive rulers (“location-bound effect”). The same is not true for nonextractive multinational corporations (MNCs) in manufacturing or services, which can, in comparison, (...) exit problematic countries more easily. We also propose that strong democratic institutions can alleviate negative impacts of extractive FDI on human rights (“democratic safeguard effect”). Using U.S. FDI broken up into extractive and nonextractive industries in 157 host countries (1999–2015), we find support for these propositions.1 Extractive FDI is associated with more human rights abuse, but nonextractive FDI is associated with less abuse, after controlling for other factors, including concerns about endogeneity. We find also that the negative human rights impact of extractive FDI vanishes in countries where democratic institutions are stronger. Our results are robust to a range of alternative estimation techniques. (shrink)

Unilateral spatial neglect is a disorder characterized by the failure to report, respond to, or orient toward the contralateral side of space to a brain lesion. Current assessment methods often fail to discover milder forms, cannot differentiate between unilateral spatial neglect subtypes and lack ecological validity. There is also a need for treatment methods that target subtypes. Immersive virtual reality systems in combination with eye-tracking have the potential to overcome these shortcomings, by providing more naturalistic environments and tasks, with sensitive (...) and detailed measures. This systematic review examines the state of the art of research on these technologies as applied in the assessment and treatment of USN. As we found no studies that combined immersive VR and ET, we reviewed these approaches individually. The review of VR included seven articles, the ET review twelve. The reviews revealed promising results. All included studies found significant group-level differences for several USN measures. In addition, several studies found asymmetric behavior in VR and ET tasks for patients who did not show signs of USN in conventional tests. Particularly promising features were multitasking in complex VR environments and detailed eye-movement analysis. No VR and only a few ET studies attempted to differentiate USN subtypes, although the technologies appeared appropriate. One ET study grouped USN participants using individual heatmaps, and another differentiated between subtypes on drawing tasks. Regarding ecological validity, although no studies tested the prognostic validity of their assessment methods, VR and ET studies utilized naturalistic tasks and stimuli reflecting everyday situations. Technological characteristics, such as the field of view and refresh rate of the head-mounted displays, could be improved, though, to improve ecological validity. We found no studies that utilized VR or ET technologies for USN treatment up until the search date of the 26th of February 2020. In conclusion, VR-ET-based systems show great potential for USN assessment. VR-ET holds great promise for treatment, for example, by monitoring behavior and adapting and tailoring to the individual person’s needs and abilities. Future research should consider developing methods for individual subtypes and differential diagnostics to inform individual treatment programs. (shrink)

Statistical topic models provide a general data - driven framework for automated discovery of high-level knowledge from large collections of text documents. Although topic models can potentially discover a broad range of themes in a data set, the interpretability of the learned topics is not always ideal. Human-defined concepts, however, tend to be semantically richer due to careful selection of words that define the concepts, but they may not span the themes in a data set exhaustively. In this study, we (...) review a new probabilistic framework for combining a hierarchy of human-defined semantic concepts with a statistical topic model to seek the best of both worlds. Results indicate that this combination leads to systematic improvements in generalization performance as well as enabling new techniques for inferring and visualizing the content of a document. (shrink)

Recently, there has been an increased interest in developing statistical methodologies for analyzing single case experimental design data to supplement visual analysis. Some of these are simulation-driven such as Bayesian methods because Bayesian methods can compensate for small sample sizes, which is a main challenge of SCEDs. Two simulation-driven approaches: Bayesian unknown change-point model and simulation modeling analysis were compared in the present study for three real datasets that exhibit “clear” immediacy, “unclear” immediacy, and delayed effects. Although SMA estimates can (...) be used to answer some aspects of functional relationship between the independent and the outcome variables, they cannot address immediacy or provide an effect size estimate that considers autocorrelation as required by the What Works Clearinghouse Standards. BUCP overcomes these drawbacks of SMA. In final analysis, it is recommended that both visual and statistical analyses be conducted for a thorough analysis of SCEDs. (shrink)

This book focuses on one of the greatest saint/avatāras of all time: Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu. This charismatic religious leader popularized song and dance as a yogic science and conveyed teachings as relevant today as they were in his native Bengal some five hundred years ago. This is the story of how his message spread throughout the world.

On the philosophy of some Hindu Vaishnavaite religious leaders.

Contributed seminar papers with special reference to Orissa, India.

Exegesis, with text, of the classical treatise expounding the philosophy of Chaitanya school in Vaishnavism.

On Bhakti and Bhāgavata philosophy according to Chaitanya school.

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

Treatise, with commentaries, on ontology; according to the Chaitanya school in Vaishnavism.

Classical interpretation of the ontology of Bhāgavatapurāṇa, mythological text, and Krishna, Hindu deity; viewpoint of the Chaitanya school in Vaishnavism.

pt. 1. Ramanuja, Madhva, Chaitanya, Vedanta Desika, Meykandar, Asvaghosoa, Utpaladeva, Kumarila Bhatta, Udayanacharya.

On concept of doctrine of Bhakti according to Chaitanya sect.

ABSTRACT -/- Ayurveda is science of living being with an aim to live healthy life and curing of ailments. Arogyata (healthy life) is root to achieve the purushartha chatushtaya which are dharma(religious rituals), artha, kama and moksha. Kama in society is taken in sexual lust but Vatsayan has described kama as the enjoyment of appropriate objects by the five senses of hear- ing, feeling, seeing, tasting, and smelling, assisted by the mind together with the soul. The ingre- dient in this (...) is a peculiar contact between the organ of sense and its object, and the consciousness of pleasure which arises from that contact is called Kama. A well organised, controlled form of kama comes under brahmacharya. Acharya Charaka has specified brahmacharya among three subpillars which assists in healthy living being. Brahmacharya leads to conservation of shukra dhatu which is essence of ahara. This shukra dhatu is responsible for bala, virya, yash, dhairya, preeti. Development of these qualities assists higher faculty buddhi or pragya not to indulge in pragyaparadh leading to correct decisionary power and patience. Healthy state of mind is achieved with this brahmacharya. Through this paper a review over various parameters of brah- macharya have been discussed and concluded. -/- Keywords: Kama, dhairya, pragyaparadh, health, shukra dhatu. (shrink)

The present book attempts to look out for management lessons in Holy Mother’s life. The author is a disciple of Sri Akshaya Chaitanya who was himself a disciple and biographer of Holy Mother. This book is thus a product of inspired effort. Various facets of the Holy Mother’s personality have been traced through incidents from her life and these have been classified into different sections such as planning, organisation, motivation, leadership, decision-making, communication, and inspiration.

Becoming Vaishnava in an Ideal Vedic City centers on a growing multinational community of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) devotees in Mayapur, West Bengal. While ISKCON's history is often presented in terms of an Indian guru 'transplanting' Indian spirituality to the West, this book focusses on the efforts to bring ISKCON back to India. Paying particular attention to devotees' failure to consistently live up to ISKCON's ideals, and the ongoing struggle to realize the utopian vision of an 'ideal Vedic (...) city', this book argues that beyond a focus on virtue, the anthropology of ethics must account for how moral systems accommodate the problem of moral failure. (shrink)