Vedic Culture:
The Difference It Can Make In Your Life
Edited by Stephen Knapp
This is a great book to introduce the many methods and
applications of the Vedic tradition of India, which is rooted in Sanatana
Dharma, the eternal and universal truths that are beneficial for everyone. It
includes many avenues of self-development that an increasing number of people
from the West and all over the world are starting to investigate and use to
reach their higher potential. These include:
Yoga, Meditation, Spiritual practices, Vedic Astrology, Ayurveda, Vedic gemology, Vastu or home arrangement, Environmental Awareness, Vedic science, Vegetarianism, Global Peace, and much more.
This book shows the advantages of the Vedic paths of improvement and self-discovery that you can use in your own life to attain personal higher awareness, happiness, and fulfillment. It also provides a new view of what these avenues have to offer from some of the most prominent writers on Vedic culture in the West, who discovered how it has affected and benefitted their own lives. These include David Frawley, Stephen Knapp, Jeffrey Armstrong, Pratichi Mathur, Subhash Kak, Michael Cremo, Howard Beckman, Arun Naik, Dhan Rousse, and others.
For the benefit of individuals and for social progress, the Vedic system is as relevant today as it was in ancient times. Discover why there is a growing renaissance in what the Vedic tradition has to offer in Vedic Culture: The Difference it can Make in Your Life.
From the Foreword by David Frawley:
“The following book, Vedic Culture: The Difference It Can Make In Your Life, is meant to provide a new view on Vedic Dharma from those inside the tradition, particularly from westerners who have made their home and found their true identity in a Vedic vocation. Such first hand and personal accounts are hard to find and seldom clearly articulated in available books today. Academic studies of the Vedic tradition are usually done from the outside, from people who do not have a first hand experience, and who often come from a world view which prevents them from really understanding the Vedic approach. They do not take you into the Vedic life but view it with their own colored glasses at a distance.
“This book presents statements from a broad array of individuals active in Vedic culture. It consists of different chapters by notable individuals in their respective fields, each one of which has imbibed the true spirit of Vedic Dharma and put it to work in their own particular life. Such living expressions of Vedic knowledge help us adapt it today to the circumstances of our own lives. These individuals are pioneers and prototypes for Vedic careers for the future and for the types of insights that a Vedic renaissance is likely to foster.
“Yet the purpose of the book is not simply to extol the value of Vedic culture, it aims at showing its relevance for everyone today, including for those who may not have previously considered it to be important. Vedic culture presents a remarkable array of teachings and practices that have value for all of us because they address the critical issues of life from how to eat and breathe, to how to think and feel, to how to be healthy, happy and responsible citizens of the entire world. Taking these teachings up is a matter of more conscious living, not of simply following some ritual or dogma. They only require that one is willing to look deeper into one’s own nature and into the nature of the universe as a whole.
“Please look into these Vedic systems that so many talented writers have presented with such personal insight. See if this knowledge can work for you, not in the mere outer sense of affording more personal happiness, but in the inner sense of giving you more spiritual fulfillment in life, greater self-knowledge and self-awareness. The Vedic prescription is always practical, reflecting the wisdom of life, not mere concepts, and can help you in many ways, including how to deal with the many karmas that all of us have to deal with.
“This book also presents the approach of a remarkable new organization, the Vedic Friends Association (VFA), whose main purpose is to promote this true Vedic culture in the modern world. VFA is not limited to any particular guru or sect, nor does it focus on only one branch of Vedic learning. It offers a doorway to all the resources of Vedic knowledge for the benefit of all sincere seekers. The book’s editor, Stephen Knapp, also the director of the VFA, has done a great job and service by organizing this project and bringing it out to the public.
“Vedic Culture: The Difference It Can Make In Your Life can spearhead a new literature on Vedic Dharma and bring a new view of it to the world as a whole. There is certainly much that Vedic Dharma has to offer the world today, particularly in this time of planetary crisis in which we must recognize the greater conscious universe and can no longer take a species centered view of life.
“May that wisdom of the Vedas come to you through these pages, not simply as a lofty philosophy, but as the profound life experience of these different writers who have so eloquently embodied it!
Book Contents
Foreword by Dr. David Frawley (Pandit Vamadeva Shastri)
The Conscious Universe * The True Meaning of Culture * Vedic Teachings and the West * This Book
Introduction by Stephen Knapp
Part One: The Vedic Spiritual Paths
1. Vedic Culture: The Last Bastion of Deep Spiritual Truth, By Stephen Knapp
2. The King of Knowledge, By Robert Taylor
Discovering the Divine Self
3. Vishnu, the Wish for Sustainability, By Jeffrey Armstrong
4. Introduction to the Roots of Kundalinin and Kundalini Yoga, By Yogi Harinam Baba Prem Tom Beal (Vedakovid)
Roots of Kundalini * Is the Kundalini Sleeping * Illusory Kundalini Awakening * Challenges of Kundalini Awakening * Kundalini Manifestation in Other Cultures * Conclusion
6. Yoga and
Cooking, By George Vutetakis
The Roots of Civilization * Effecting Change With Food * Principals of Culinary Yoga * Sensuality and Indulgence * The Magic of Food & Cooking * Cooking as Yoga * Perspective * Saddhana * Breath * Cooking Meditation * Cleanliness * Taste & Touch * Sound & Light * Aroma * The Sixth Sense * Spirituality * Love and Yoga * Applying Bhakti-Yoga * Charity * Accepting Charity * Revealing One’s Mind * Inquiring Confidentiality * Accepting and Offering Prasada
7. The Main Vedic Spiritual Paths: Something for Everyone, By Stephen Knapp
The Purpose of Religion * Hatha-Yoga * Karma-Yoga * Jnana-Yoga * Yoga * Raja-Yoga * Bhakti-Yoga * Mantra-Yoga * Conclusion
8. The One World Religion, By Stephen Knapp
9. The Vedic Process for World Peace, By Stephen Knapp
Our Real Identity * Being Free of All Designations * Seeing the Divinity in Each of Us
Part Two: The Vedic Arts and Sciences
10. The Scientific Worldview—Truth or Consequences? By Dhan Roussé
Finding the Truth With Science * The Scientific Method * Science as a Legitimizing Tool * The Failure and Transgressions of Modern Cosmology * Are Chemicals the Origin of Life? * Scientific Make-Believe * Botany * Linguistics * Indology * Archeology * Connecting the Dots * Establishment Denial and Control * Failure of Modern Science * Controlling the Debate—To What End? * What is Matter and What is Life? * What Path Will We Take to the Future?
11. How I Discovered Vedic Science, By Subhash Kak
Surprising Ideas in the Vedic Texts * Vedanta and Physics * Evolution and Religioin * Driving Forces in Evolution * Alienation and Health
13. Ayurveda: The Living Tradition of Vedic Medicine, By Pratichi Mathur
14. How Vedic Astrology Can Assist Us, By Chakrapani Ullal
15. The Use of Gems in Vedic Astrology (Jyotish) and Ayurveda, By Howard Beckman
Gems Transmit Vibrational Energy * The Seven Rays * Planetary Gemology * Medicine for the New Millennium
The Definitions and Purpose of Vastu Shastra * Vastu Shastras and Vedas * The Vastu Literature * The Vastu Mandala * A Symbol of Cosmos * Marma * Theory of Shapes * The Deities of Vastumandal * East * South-East * South * South-West * West * North-West * North * North-East * The System of Measurement in Vastu Shastra * Manushyapramana * The Calculations in Vastu * Ayadi Calculations for the Owner’s Suitability to the Plot * Yoni Calculation: Direction of Energy Flow * Conclusion
Conclusion: by Stephen Knapp
Glossary / Index / The Writers
Ordering Information
PAPERBACK: It is now published as a paperback book, 6"x9", 272 pages, $19.95. This can be ordered through stores (ISBN: 979-8665315485).
FROM AMAZON.COM: It is also available through www.Amazon.com at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08DBNH6ZW Or as a Kindle Ebook at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005CJ97OE
AVAILABLE AS PAPERBACK OR KINDLE EBOOK ($3.99) AT THE FOLLOWING AMAZON LOCATIONS IN LOCAL CURRENCIES (Click on the letters): USUKDEFRESITNLJPBRCAMXAUIN
IN INDIA: You can also find this book in India through Amazon's outlet at: https://www.amazon.in/Vedic-Culture-Difference-Make-Your-ebook/dp/B005CJ97OE/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1555455155&sr=8-6
[More information at www.stephen-knapp.com]