About the Book

The light of knowledge from this book is definitely going to illumine and enlighten the society, nation and the world. This book is a revolutionary step to usher in the golden era of ethics, morals and value-based living.

- Dr. Chinmay Pandya, Vice Chancellor, Dev Sanskriti University, Haridwar, Uttarkhand, India.

About the Author

Dr. Yogi Devaraj is the founder President of "Swami Vivekananda Yoga Research & Holistic Health Trust". His qualifications are M.A. (Economics), L.L.B. and in his professional life, he retired as the manager of State bank of Mysore. For more than 20 years he has been passionately pursuing his interests in Yoga, obtained the degrees M.Sc, M.Phil and has been awarded Hon. Doctorate in Yoga. Dr. Devaraj is an expert in Yoga Therapy and counselling and has helped thousands of people recover from stress related disorders. He has trained a number of Yoga teachers and Yoga therapists on behalf of the Govt. of India through SVYASA Yoga University. As a renowned Yoga expert and an International speaker, he has conducted several successful Yoga camps all over the world.

Arun Kumar is an Engineer by qualification, a software veteran with 30 years of experience. He holds 6 patents, all related to software engineering and 2 more are in pending status. He has been part of design and development of several successful software products that have been sold and used worldwide. He is currently working as a Principal Software Engineer at Cisco Systems, Bangalore. At Cisco, along with his junior colleague, he has successfully innovated and implemented a Timeseries Graph Database. It is a Graph Database that stores Vertices (entities) and Edges (relationships between entities) but is also capable of instantaneously providing the snapshot of the database for any given point in time. it is being used for analyzing the network structure, traffic, user interests, utilization of {bandwidth, applications, network, devices} etc. Besides software, for the past 15 years, he has been intensely pursuing his interests in Vedic philosophy and is an ardent reader of Indian Vedic literature.

Venugopala C.V. is a multi-faceted personality. A mechanical Engineer by qualification has worked as a software delivery manager with well-known multi-nationals like IBM, Verisign, HCL. Perot to name a few. Besides, he is a writer by passion and a personality development mentor by choice. He is also a Technical Advisor for Affordable Housing & Urban Development Society by invitation. He has authored a book titled "Empower You Mind and Succeed".

Foreword

This book has brought about innovations in the effective treatment of psychological disorders. This is an area of increasing relevance and importance for the alleviations of the personality aberrations of the homo-economicus. Modern man is finding it increasingly difficult to balance his relentless pursuit of worldly goods on the one hand and peace and tranquility of the mind so essential for true happiness on the other. Western science took-up the investigations to understand and de-mystify the function of the human brain. The last decade of the last century (called "the Decade of the Brain") intensified the pursuit of this area.

Wealth, status, authority and power are not evils by themselves. They contribute to the advancement of human welfare and happiness; but they should be regarded only as mere way-side stops in the exciting journey of the exploration of the moral and spiritual dimensions of human personality. "Pearls of Vedic Wisdom to Succeed" is really a tidy Hand Book in helping this process.

Preface

"Pearls of Vedic Wisdom to Succeed" is an honest and sincere attempt to bring out the essential Vedic concepts by explaining them in a simple manner with examples applicable to the present times. This book is not about any faith, belief or religion.

This work is not just for the spiritually oriented. This humble work of ours is also intended for college students, professionals, doctors, engineers, scientists, mathematicians, philosophers and all others who delight in getting their intellect churned.

We believe that the abundant timeless wisdom found in Vedic literature can be used in our day-to-day lives to make our lives peaceful, cheerful and meaningful. The goal of Vedanta is to wipe every sorrowful tear off from every eye and instead make the eyes gleam with love springing from blissful inner peace and abundant joy. The great Vedic masters understood that the very purpose of human life is to live happily, healthily and harmoniously.

Immaculate thinking expounded in Vedic concepts could also be easily applied and adopted in our professions to increase our efficiency, creativity and productivity while making our work more enjoyable and ensuring success in all our endeavors.

This book mainly covers the topics related to Jnana Yoga (path of knowledge). That means logic and reason are relied upon to convey the ideas convincingly rather than merely accepting the concepts based on belief and blind faith.

The book intends to cater to three different kinds of readers.

• A curious reader who is interested in getting a comprehensive introduction to the ancient Indian Vedic philosophy and to realize how even in the modern era the time-tested Vedic wisdom could be applied to lead a happy, peaceful and stress-free life. Vedic concepts also help to staunchly face one's challenges and difficulties of life without losing the smile or enthusiasm.
• A sincere seeker who is interested in knowing about the energy that is powering our heart, lungs, eyes, ears, hands, legs, the entire body and is providing us with life every moment. Vedanta calls this energy as 'Chit' meaning Consciousness or Sentience. This book helps one in attaining the ultimate goal of realizing and grasping the life-giving Sentient Life Energy, the Self, Awareness, Consciousness or Atman.
• An aspiring and motivated individual with an open mind to explore how Vedic ideas and methods could in fact be used to succeed in attaining the desired goals in any field.

The salient feature of this book is the "Chart of Blissful Life" which is a chart that fits in a single page capturing the quintessence of the vast Vedic philosophy. The chart is unique as it beautifully connects the various important Vedic concepts while being a guide and a ready reckoner for easier understanding.

This is an attempt to cover the Vedic philosophy comprehensively yet crisply and to provide enough information to the readers in a single book. This book tries to elucidate in a lucid manner the pearls contained in the treasure of ancient Vedic literature, some of which are mentioned below.

• Clear clarity, sharp focus, unwavering concentration, channelized energy, relentless effort, deftly overcoming challenges, steadfastly enduring difficulties, burning desire and avid zeal are the essential requirements to succeed in attaining the desired goal in a guaranteed manner.
• Ego is the main culprit responsible for the restlessness of the mind due to endless self-centered thoughts. Ego is the root cause of pain, suffering and worrisome thoughts.
• Ego, the lower self, "i" is the veil over the real and higher Self, Atman, the real "I". Using the sword of Knowledge and Discrimination, the ego should be crucified so that the real Self, Atman could be resurrected.
• Drop the ego to experience Happiness, Peace, Oneness and Unity in Diversity. Vedic philosophy provides the knowledge and the path to emerge successful in dropping the ego.
Drop the ego to immerse in Blissful Individual Peace thereby gaining the eligibility to contribute towards establishing glorious World Peace.
• Nothing can move or function without the help of energy. Similarly, the heart or lungs or any of the body organs cannot move or function on their own without energy. There is indeed verily a life-giving energy present within every one of us and it is also sentient.
• This "Sentient Life Energy" powers all the organs of the body including the subtle organs which are the mind and the intellect.
• All the energies such as electrical, mechanical, heat, light, etc., are inert, whereas Life Energy is the only sentient energy. The Vedic literature calls it as "Chit" meaning Sentience, Consciousness or Awareness.
• The Sentient Life Energy is the Chit Shakti, Chetana, Self, Consciousness, Awareness or Atman.
• Instead of wrongly identifying ourselves with ego, name and form, identifying with the Sentient Life Energy, the Self, the Atman and existing as a mass of Consciousness or as a Silent Awareness is the Liberation, Freedom and the Ultimate Goal.

The Vedic scholars of ancient times were quite advanced in various fields such as Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy, Grammar, Literature, Architecture, Medicine, etc. However, they were not satisfied with the progress made in the scientific fields alone. They wanted to study, explore and understand the very purpose of human life. They firmly believed that life could not be just a journey from womb to tomb.

Hence, the Vedic scholars embarked on the journey of internal exploration of the human mind in their quest to realize the Truth. Vedic philosophy is not based on a single personality or a single book. Spread across several centuries, various masters have shared their wisdom gained in their enlightened state and contributed to the Vedic literature. The Vedic scholars called it the "Science of Sciences". The knowledge postulated in these works holds true even today and is required more so than ever in this modern era to lead a happy, peaceful and stress-free life.

In this book, we might have used certain words and examples repeatedly to drive home the point. In case if you find the repetition excessive and notice any other flaws we beg your pardon and admit that all those mistakes solely belong to us. If you find anything good, useful and worthy in this book, then the credit wholly belongs to the Vedic literature and the great masters with enlightened minds who relentlessly propounded the Vedic philosophy for the benefit of all of us.

This effort is our humble tribute to the revered masters, great sages, noble souls and enlightened beings, who out of their love and compassion were kind enough to share their vast knowledge and sublime wisdom for the betterment, upliftment and harmonious existence of the entire humanity.

**Contents and Sample Pages**