Site Welcome

About This Site
Flash Introduction
The Quest of Every Heart

Worldviews Contrasted

Seven Pillars of Wisdom
World Religions & Teachers
Celebrating Commonalities
Acknowledging Contradictions

Identifying the True Light

My Spiritual Journey
Other Personal Stories
Various Articles and FAQ

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Mike Shreve was a teacher of yoga at four universities. (The portrait above was drawn by one of his students in 1970.) Then a spiritual rebirth brought him into a real relationship with God and drastically changed his heart, his life and his belief system. Read his story here.

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TheTrueLight.Net
Site Completed–10/15/01
Major Revision—5/28/03
Last Updated–03/19/09

The True Light Project
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Phone: (423) 478-2843
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Mike Shreve.
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THE SACRED SYLLABLE - This is the Sanskrit symbol for the word 'OM,' taught to be the primal sound-vibration uttered by God in the beginning of creation. By repetitiously chanting this single-word mantra during long periods of meditation, yoga advocates believe they can access oneness with the Absolute, the Source of all things.

Hinduism

The word "Hindu" stems from the Sanskrit word sindhu meaning river (specifically the Indus River that flows through India and Pakistan). Dating historically from 1500 B.C., Hinduism is one of the oldest of the eleven main living religions. It boasts over 700 million adherents. A wide variety of beliefs exist in Hinduism, sometimes complementary and sometimes contradictory. Most likely this syncretism has resulted because of Hinduism's ease in absorbing ideas from other cultures and religions. Millions of gods are revered (the traditional number is 330 million), but the source of all personal deities is the Impersonal Absolute, that Ultimate Reality referred to as Brahman.

No ecclesiastical hierarchy, no specific doctrinal parameters and no universally defined moral boundaries are promoted in Hinduism. Each man discovers his own dharma, the divine order for his life. Commonly held beliefs include: reincarnation, the divinity of man and the quest for "enlightenment.' The highest source of written truth for Hindus is found in the four Vedas (a word meaning "knowledge" or "sacred teaching"). The most ancient is the Rig Veda, probably created between 1,300 and 1,000 B.C.

Hindus differentiate between shruti"�"hearing" (texts that adherents believe stream from divine revelation and are therefore infallible, absolute truth) and smriti"�"recollection, tradition" (texts based on traditions that are valid and authoritative only when drawing from shruti). Shruti includes certain portions of the Vedas (the Samhitas, Brahmanas, Upanishads and certain Sutras). Smriti includes certain traditional texts (including the Puranas and two lengthy Sanskrit epics: the Mahabharata and the Ramayana). One of the most popular texts is the Bhagavad-Gita ("the Song of the Lord"), which is actually part of the Mahabharata.

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