INTRODUCTION

The Consciousness Project at the Centre for Neuroscientific Studies, Vasai, is well on track to reach the azimuth of its intent, viz. the elucidation of specific aspects of the phenomenon of consciousness.

The immediate concern of the Consciousness Project is to provide the scientific community with the scientific, perhaps, mechanistic, workings of consciousness; even as, on a parallel track, we study the universal attributes of consciousness.

People are wont to talk about the "enormous wealth of spiritual treasures" in India. Yet, of what use is this inheritance, if we cannot apply it to the problems of the contemporary moment. The answer to this question obtains from an effort to understand the principle inherent in that treasure using the frame of reference of the post-modern era. Given the circumstances of this inheritance, viz. the abstruse philosophy of our illustrious Master, Sri Adi Sankaracharya, combined with the recent trend toward investigating religious phenomena from a scientific point of view, we are confident of possessing a distinctly superior environment for this pursuit than is possible anyplace else in the world at the moment.