Hinduism Goes Globalq

"...This temple complex was founded by Swaminarayan two centuries ago. It was here that he established the direct line of dynastic succession that all acharaya follow. Understandably then the Acharya considers himself to be closer to the origins of the faith overseeing a more authentic branch of the sect than his BAPS rivals. But he's careful not to claim for himself any God-like powers. "

"I see another extraordinary example of this symbolic power when the wife of the Acharya sweeps into the temple. She's totally veiled. Perhaps a better word would be tented, obeying Swaminarayan's command that women must be separate from the men when they worship at the temple. Yet apart from this dramatic symbolism, the division of the sexes at Acharya Temples has become quite relaxed at modern times..."

Hinduism Goes Global

"An Indian Temple in Ahmedabad in the Indian state of Gujurat where I've come to find out how this most ancient of religions operates in a rapidly changing world. But I know it's not going to be easy. Hinduism surely must be the most complex and most multidimensional of all the great faiths.

"I'm rubbing shoulders with the people who've come here to celebrate the birthday of Swaminarayan just one of the many many Hindu Gods - so many in fact that nobody can put a number to them."

Stanislav Grof

He has been the principal investigator in a psychedelic research program at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague, Czechoslovakia, chief of psychiatric research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and scholar-in-residence at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. It was at Esalen that he codeveloped, with his wife Christina Grof, Holotropic Breathwork, a technique that includes deep, connected breathing, music, art, and trained facilitation with the goal wholeness, healing, and wisdom.

Kabbalah

"Our environment consists of all of the stages of our development prior to where we are, which includes everything that went before and also the situation we find ourselves in at the moment. So, let's just go over what our situation is in terms of where we came from. In our original 'first state', as we were created in the creation of a creature - the four faces of the direct light - in this condition there was one soul in relation to the creator, with no boundaries on that connection. This is a collective soul Adam Harishon, and actually this is the state we still live in..."