Dharana means the act of holding, preserving or retaining in the mind. In yoga it indicates a steady abstraction of the mind. It is the first among the three constituents of antaranga yoga or esoteric concentration and the sixth part of Patanjali’s eight fold Yoga, where it is defined as “the binding of chitta or the mind to a desha (a restricted sphere of attention). Unlike dhyana (meditation), it is not ekagrata (a state of pin pointedness) but in it, the natural tendency of the mind to move from object to object is to be curbed and still it is focused on an object, which may be a picture, image, symbol, a part of the body, the tip of the nose, or chakra (a spiritual energy center) inside the body. Definitions of dharana are found in many texts. In Goraksha Paddhati (II.52-58) and Yoga Yajnavalkya (VII 1-15), dharana is defined on the basis of the five basic elements in the body such as earth, water, fire, air, and akasha (ether) giving their location and the effects of con

Ramal Shastra is a dice based method of fortune telling and many books on it have been written in Sanskrit, and the names of formations (sakals) are both in Urdu and Sanskrit. It is believed that this method of predicting future by people from west Asian regions especially Arabs. The dices used in Ramal Shastra are technically prepared by using eight metals – silver, gold, iron, lead, copper, zinc and pewter (alloy). Each dice contains four marked cubes, tightened in wire. These are thrown at the time of a query (prashna) and the figures are noted. A standard kundali (horoscope) contains sixteen figures (sakals) and the sakal chart is known as sthira kundali. For any prashna, the answer is drawn from the original four sakals. The mars on the cubes are dots, a single dot is show as ‘0’ and two are show by a line. There are sixteen ways of creating formations for cubes of the dice. The sixteen formations in Ramal Shastra are: Lahyan, Kabejtul, Dakhil, Kabajtul Kha

Words of Swami Adbhutananda – a humble disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Anger and ego are very bad — both are people’s enemies. One cannot recognize one’s true self while under the influence of anger and ego. Moreover, it is a sin to be violent. That is why Buddha said that non-injury is the highest dharma. There was no trace of hatred or sin in the mind of Yudhishthira. As much envy a person gives up, so much purer he will be. One will have peace of mind. The mind of a hateful person is impure and utterly restless. If you want peace, give up hatred. Even if you receive all these material objects, you should realize that they are like worthless clay to a person of renunciation; the guru is the only truth. Brahman alone is the truth. If someone praises you, your chest expands five and a half cubits, and the moment someone slanders you, your mind contracts. I see that this is the habit of people. One is highly fortunate whose mind does not waver in the least at praise or bla