The Creation Hymn of Rig Veda

There was neither non-existence nor existence then.

There was neither the realm of space nor the sky which is beyond.

What stirred?

Where?

In whose protection?

Was there water, bottlemlessly deep?

There was neither death nor immortality then.

There was no distinguishing sign of night nor of day.

That One breathed, windless, by its own impulse.

Other than that there was nothing beyond.

Darkness was hidden by darkness in the beginning,

with no distinguishing sign, all this was water.

The life force that was covered with emptiness,

that One arose through the power of heat.

Desire came upon that One in the beginning,

that was the first seed of mind.

Poets seeking in their heart with wisdom

found the bond of existence and non-existence.

Their cord was extended across.

Was there below?

Was there above?

There were seed-placers, there were powers.

There was impulse beneath, there was giving forth above.

Who really knows?

Who will here proclaim it?

Whence was it produced?

Whence is this creation?

The gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe.

Who then knows whence it has arisen?

Whence this creation has arisen

– perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not –

the One who looks down on it,

in the highest heaven, only He knows

or perhaps He does not know.

Happy Independence Day

जन गण मन अधिनायक जय हे
भारत भाग्य विधाता
पंजाब सिंध गुजरात मराठा
द्राविड उत्कल वंग
विंध्य हिमाचल यमुना गंगा
उच्छल जलधि तरंग
तव शुभ नामे जागे
तव शुभ आशिष मागे
गाहे तव जयगाथा
जन गण मंगल दायक जय हे
भारत भाग्य विधाता
जय हे, जय हे, जय हे
जय जय जय जय हे!

Translation

O! Dispenser of India's destiny, thou art the ruler of the minds of all people^[8]

Thy name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat, the Maratha country,

in the Dravida, Utkala and Bengal;

It echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and Himalayas,

it mingles in the rhapsodies of the pure waters of Yamuna and Ganga

They chant only thy name.

They seek only thy auspicious blessings.

They sing only the glory of thy victory.

The salvation of all people waits in thy hands,

O! Dispenser of India's destiny, thou art the ruler of the minds of all people

Victory to thee, Victory to thee, Victory to thee,

Victory, Victory, Victory, Victory to thee!

The powers of mind

This mind is a part of the universal mind. Each mind is connected with every other mind. And each mind, wherever it is located, is in actual communication with the whole world. Have you ever noticed the phenomenon that is called thought-transference? A man here is thinking something, and that thought is manifested in somebody else, in some other place. With preparations — not by chance — a man wants to send a thought to another mind at a distance, and this other mind knows that a thought is coming, and he receives it exactly as it is sent out. Distance makes no difference. The thought goes and reaches the other man, and he understands it. If your mind were an isolated something here, and my mind were an isolated something there, and there were no connection between the two, how would it be possible for my thought to reach you? In the ordinary cases, it is not my thought that is reaching you direct; but my thought has got to be dissolved into ethereal vibrations and those ethereal vibrations go into your brain, and they have to be resolved again into your own thoughts. Here is a dissolution of thought, and there is a resolution of thought. It is a roundabout process. But in telepathy, there is no such thing; it is direct. This shows that there is a continuity of mind, as the Yogis call it. The mind is universal. Your mind, my mind, all these little minds, are fragments of that universal mind, little waves in the ocean; and on account of this continuity, we can convey our thoughts directly to one another.