Yoga: from cardiovascular benefit to the gates of God.

E-mail address: [email protected]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ihj.2015.02.018 0019-4832/Copyright © 2015, Cardiological Society of India. All rights Roberto Calasso in his enchantingly moving book ‘Ka’ quoted the contemplation by ancient Indians that the world “only exists if consciousness has perceived it as existing. And if a consciousness perceives it, within that consciousness there must be another consciousness that perceives the consciousness that perceives”. The same consciousness also called “Atman” is defined in the Upanishads as “that which sees you without being seen, that which hears you without being heard, that which feels you without being felt, and that knows you without being known”. Repeatedly the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Bhagwad Gita remind man that this consciousness cannot be attained by power, piety, wealth or penance. There are almost 30 million more manuscripts from ancient India in Sanskrit and Tamil waiting to be cataloged and translated; there are many more dazzling pearls of knowledge and wisdom in this massive body of literature apart from the Indian Scriptures. William Dalrymple (historian) was overwhelmingly charmed by this poem (in Telugu) written in honor of Lord Venkateswara of Tirupati (an incarnation of Lord Vishnu) sometime in the fifteenth century by the devotional poet Annamaya: