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SVARUPA is a reflection and wellbeing companion. It is not a licensed therapist, a diagnostic tool, or a substitute for professional care.
Valmiki Ramayana 1.1.1
Traditional perspective
The Gita holds several yogas together — knowledge, action, devotion, meditation — inside a dramatic crisis of duty.
Traditional perspective
Vedanta names several schools reading the Upanishads. They agree that liberation and knowledge of Brahman matter, and disagree about the world's status and the self's relation to God.
Traditional perspective
Classical Yoga maps the mind's movements and a path of stilling them. It is allied with Sankhya metaphysics more than with Advaita, despite modern blending.
Traditional perspective
Sankhya enumerates the principles of experience. Consciousness (purusha) is many, nature (prakriti) evolves the world of experience.
Traditional perspective
Bhakti centres love and relationship with the divine. It is not one church. It includes quiet remembrance and public song, philosophy and folk life.
Traditional commentary
The opening frames the Ramayana as inquiry into an ideal person. Later bhakti readings hear Rama as divine; other readings hear a dharma-epic about a prince. Both histories exist.
Modern interpretation
A long story starts with asking who is worth becoming. That question remains usable even if you never open the rest of the poem today.