Secrets of Effective Work

Dr. R. L. Kashpyap is professor emeritus of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue university, Lafayette, Indian in USA. He had his master degree from Indian institute of science Bangalore and obtained Ph.D. from Harvard university. He is the recipient of many international awards. Recently he has received Vedanga Vidvan award instituted by Mhaharshi autonomous body of HRD Govt. of India. He has received Karnataka state Award for the year 2012.

He has authored more than 350 research articles of which 220 are published in scholarly journals and the rest were presented at conferences. He has guided above 50 doctoral students.

This book gives the psychological powers associated with the cosmic power Agni which are useful for everyone in everyday life, especially in all sorts of works done in waking hours. This book focuses on how to develop the psychological powers within us such as the will-power. This book quotes more than one hundred mantras from Rig Veda Samhita and Yajur Veda Samhita in support of the ideas delineated here. A simple perusal of the titles of the 17 chapters in. the table of contents gives a clue to the range of the powers associated with Agni.

The general impression conveyed by the verses of Rig Veda and Yajur Veda is that Agni is a Divine Force endowed with consciousness. The epithet Kavi or seer, or one who has supraphysical visions, is commonly used for Agni.

Agni manifests his power in human beings as the commonly used epithet, "born in man", implies. He summons the other divine powers also to manifest in man, hence the name summoner for Agni. Agni can be approached by thought as well by the recitation of the mantra. The rishi prays to the conscious power Agni, not merely for physical wealth like cows, but for all-round felicities, opulence and ultimately for the supreme knowledge and bliss. It is possible for a human being to enter into a conscious relationship with Agni like a friend, spouse, father, son, etc. We see in Rig Veda the beginnings of the yoga of devotion, bhakti yoga, described in later scriptures like Srimad Bhagavatam, Bhagavad Gita, the works of the ancient South Indian poets, alwars and nayanmars etc. The last hymn in this collection (1.99) is a prayer to Agni to carry us over all obstacles as in a boat to the shores of Supreme Bliss and Knowledge.

The sources of all the knowledge in this book are the Collected Works of Kapali Sastry, Volumes 4, 5 and 6 and the books SV and HMF of Sri Aurobindo .

We focus on the performance o! work aimed at perfection in the first three chapters. The titles of the remaining chapters indicate their content. To know more about Agni, see the references given at the end of Chap. 17.