بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

"Reciting Salawath on our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is an activity that will be accepted by Allah, even if we don't have Ikhlas (piety)".

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is an industrial specification for wireless personal area networks (PANs). Bluetooth provides a way to connect and exchange information between devices such as mobile phones, laptops, PCs, printers, digital cameras, and video game consoles over a secure, globally unlicensed short-range radio frequency. The Bluetooth specifications are developed and licensed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group.

Uses

Bluetooth is a standard and communications protocol primarily designed for low power consumption, with a short range (power-class-dependent: 1 meter, 10 meters, 100 meters) based on low-cost transceiver microchips in each device.

Bluetooth enables these devices to communicate with each other when they are in range. The devices use a radio communications system, so they do not have to be in line of sight of each other, and can even be in other rooms, as long as the received transmission is powerful enough.

Bluetooth profiles

In order to use Bluetooth, a device must be compatible with certain Bluetooth profiles. These define the possible applications and uses of the technology.

List of applications

More prevalent applications of Bluetooth include:

• Wireless control of and communication between a mobile phone and a hands-free headset or car kit. This was one of the earliest applications to become popular.
• Wireless networking between PCs in a confined space and where little bandwidth is required.
• Wireless communications with PC input and output devices, the most common being the mouse, keyboard and printer.
• Transfer of files between devices with OBEX.
• Transfer of contact details, calendar appointments, and reminders between devices with OBEX.
• Replacement of traditional wired serial communications in test equipment, GPS receivers, medical equipment, bar code scanners, and traffic control devices.
• For controls where infrared was traditionally used.
• Sending small advertisements from Bluetooth enabled advertising hoardings to other, discoverable, Bluetooth devices.
• Seventh-generation game consoles—Nintendo Wii[3], Sony PlayStation 3—use Bluetooth for their respective wireless controllers.
• Dial-up internet access on personal computer or PDA using a data-capable mobile phone as a modem.
• Receiving commercial advertisements ("spam") via a kiosk, e.g. at a movie theatre or lobby

Bluetooth vs. Wi-Fi in networking

Bluetooth and Wi-Fi have slightly different applications in today's offices, homes, and on the move: setting up networks, printing, or transferring presentations and files from PDAs to computers. Both are versions of unlicensed spread spectrum technology.

Bluetooth differs from Wi-Fi in that the latter provides higher throughput and covers greater distances, but requires more expensive hardware and higher power consumption. They use the same frequency range, but employ different multiplexing schemes. While Bluetooth is a cable replacement for a variety of applications, Wi-Fi is a cable replacement only for local area network access. Bluetooth is often thought of as wireless USB, whereas Wi-Fi is wireless Ethernet, both operating at much lower bandwidth than the cable systems they are trying to replace. However, this analogy is not entirely accurate since any Bluetooth device can, in theory, host any other Bluetooth device—something that is not universal to USB devices; therefore it would resemble more a wireless FireWire.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth exists in many products, such as phones, printers, modems and headsets. The technology is useful when transferring information between two or more devices that are near each other in low-bandwidth situations. Bluetooth is commonly used to transfer sound data with phones (i.e. with a Bluetooth headset) or byte data with hand-held computers (transferring files).

Bluetooth simplifies the discovery and setup of services between devices. Bluetooth devices advertise all of the services they provide. This makes using services easier because there is no longer a need to setup network addresses or permissions as in many other networks.

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi is more like traditional Ethernet networks, and requires configuration to set up shared resources, transmit files, and to set up audio links (for example, headsets and hands-free devices). It uses the same radio frequencies as Bluetooth, but with higher power output resulting in a stronger connection. Wi-Fi is sometimes called "wireless Ethernet." This description is accurate; it also provides an indication of its relative strengths and weaknesses. Wi-Fi requires more setup, but is better suited for operating full-scale networks because it enables a faster connection, better range from the base station, and better security than Bluetooth.

Computer requirements

A personal computer must have a Bluetooth adapter in order to be able to communicate with other Bluetooth devices (such as mobile phones, mice and keyboards). While some desktop computers already contain an internal Bluetooth adapter, most require an external Bluetooth dongle. Most recent laptops come with a built-in Bluetooth adapter.

Unlike its predecessor, IrDA, which requires a separate adapter for each device, Bluetooth allows multiple devices to communicate with a computer over a single adapter.

Operating system support

Apple has supported Bluetooth since Mac OS X version 10.2 released in 2002.

Of Microsoft platforms, Windows XP Service Pack 2 and later releases have native support for Bluetooth. Previous versions required the users to install their Bluetooth adapter's own drivers, which was not directly supported by Microsoft. Microsoft's own Bluetooth dongles (that are packaged with their Bluetooth computer devices) have no external drivers and thus require at least Windows XP Service Pack 2.

Linux provides two Bluetooth stacks, with the BlueZ stack included with most Linux kernels. It was originally developed by Qualcomm and Affix. BlueZ supports all core Bluetooth protocols and layers.

Specifications and features

The Bluetooth specification was developed in 1994 by Jaap Haartsen and Sven Mattisson, who were working for Ericsson Mobile Platforms in Lund, Sweden. The specification is based on frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology.

The specifications were formalized by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), organised by Mohd Syarifuddin. The SIG was formally announced on May 20, 1998. Today it has over 7000 companies worldwide. It was established by Ericsson, Sony Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Toshiba, and Nokia, and later joined by many other companies.

Bluetooth 1.0 and 1.0B

Versions 1.0 and 1.0B had many problems, and manufacturers had difficulties making their products interoperable. Versions 1.0 and 1.0B also had mandatory Bluetooth hardware device address (BD_ADDR) transmission in the Connecting process, rendering anonymity impossible at a protocol level, which was a major setback for certain services planned to be used in Bluetooth environments.

Bluetooth 1.1

• Ratified as IEEE Standard 802.15.1-2002.
• Many errors found in the 1.0B specifications were fixed.
• Added support for non-encrypted channels.
• Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI).

Bluetooth 1.2

This version is backward-compatible with 1.1 and the major enhancements include the following:

• Faster Connection and Discovery.
• Adaptive frequency-hopping spread spectrum (AFH), which improves resistance to radio frequency interference by avoiding the use of crowded frequencies in the hopping sequence.
• Higher transmission speeds in practice, up to 721 kbit/s, as in 1.1.
• Extended Synchronous Connections (eSCO), which improve voice quality of audio links by allowing retransmissions of corrupted packets.
• Host Controller Interface (HCI) support for three-wire UART.
• Ratified as IEEE Standard 802.15.1-2005.

Bluetooth 2.0

This version, specified on 10th November 2004, is backward-compatible with 1.1. The main enhancement is the introduction of an EDR of 3.0 Mbit/s. This has the following effects:

• Three times faster transmission speed—up to 10 times in certain cases (up to 2.1 Mbit/s).
• Lower power consumption through a reduced duty cycle.
• Simplification of multi-link scenarios due to more available bandwidth.

The practical data transfer rate is 2.1 megabits per second and the basic signaling rate is about 3 megabits per second.

The "Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR" specification given at the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) includes EDR and there is no specification "Bluetooth 2.0" as used by many vendors. The HTC TyTN pocket PC phone, shows "Bluetooth 2.0 without EDR" on its data sheet and another source states Bluetooth 2.0 without EDR is equivalent to version 1.2 with additional bug fixes. In many cases it is not clear whether a product claiming to support "Bluetooth 2.0" actually supports the EDR higher transfer rate.

Bluetooth 2.1

Bluetooth Core Specification Version 2.1, is fully backward-compatible with 1.1, and was adopted by the Bluetooth SIG on August 1, 2007. This specification includes the following features:

• Extended inquiry response: provides more information during the inquiry procedure to allow better filtering of devices before connection. This information includes the name of the device, a list of services the device supports, as well as other information like the time of day, and pairing information.
• Sniff subrating: reduces the power consumption when devices are in the sniff low-power mode, especially on links with asymmetric data flows. Human interface devices (HID) are expected to benefit the most, with mouse and keyboard devices increasing the battery life by a factor of 3 to 10.
• Encryption Pause Resume: enables an encryption key to be refreshed, enabling much stronger encryption for connections that stay up for longer than 23.3 hours (one Bluetooth day).
• Secure Simple Pairing: radically improves the pairing experience for Bluetooth devices, while increasing the use and strength of security. It is expected that this feature will significantly increase the use of Bluetooth.
• NFC cooperation: automatic creation of secure Bluetooth connections when NFC radio interface is also available. For example, a headset should be paired with a Bluetooth 2.1 phone including NFC just by bringing the two devices close to each other (a few centimeters). Another example is automatic uploading of photos from a mobile phone or camera to a digital picture frame just by bringing the phone or camera close to the frame.

Future of Bluetooth

• Broadcast Channel: enables Bluetooth information points. This will drive the adoption of Bluetooth into cell phones, and enable advertising models based around users pulling information from the information points, and not based around the object push model that is used in a limited way today.
• Topology Management: enables the automatic configuration of the piconet topologies especially in scatternet situations that are becoming more common today. This should all be invisible to the users of the technology, while also making the technology just work.
• Alternate MAC PHY: enables the use of alternative MAC and PHY's for transporting Bluetooth profile data. The Bluetooth Radio will still be used for device discovery, initial connection and profile configuration, however when lots of data needs to be sent, the high speed alternate MAC PHY's will be used to transport the data. This means that the proven low power connection models of Bluetooth are used when the system is idle, and the low power per bit radios are used when lots of data needs to be sent.
• QoS improvements: enable audio and video data to be transmitted at a higher quality, especially when best effort traffic is being transmitted in the same piconet.

Bluetooth technology already plays a part in the rising Voice over IP (VOIP) scene, with Bluetooth headsets being used as wireless extensions to the PC audio system. As VOIP becomes more popular, and more suitable for general home or office users than wired phone lines, Bluetooth may be used in cordless handsets, with a base station connected to the Internet link.

High speed Bluetooth

On 28 March 2006, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group announced its selection of the WiMedia Alliance Multi-Band Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (MB-OFDM) version of UWB for integration with current Bluetooth wireless technology.

UWB integration will create a version of Bluetooth wireless technology with a high-speed/high-data-rate option. This new version of Bluetooth technology will meet the high-speed demands of synchronizing and transferring large amounts of data, as well as enabling high-quality video and audio applications for portable devices, multi-media projectors and television sets, and wireless VOIP.

At the same time, Bluetooth technology will continue catering to the needs of very low power applications such as mice, keyboards, and mono headsets, enabling devices to select the most appropriate physical radio for the application requirements, thereby offering the best of both worlds.

Bluetooth 3.0

The next version of Bluetooth after v2.1, code-named Seattle (the version number of which is TBD) has many of the same features, but is most notable for plans to adopt ultra-wideband (UWB) radio technology. This will allow Bluetooth use over UWB radio, enabling very fast data transfers of up to 480 Mbit/s, while building on the very low-power idle modes of Bluetooth.

Ultra Low Power Bluetooth

On June 12, 2007, Nokia and Bluetooth SIG announced that Wibree will be a part of the Bluetooth specification as an ultra low power Bluetooth technology. Expected use cases include watches displaying Caller ID information, sports sensors monitoring your heart rate during exercise, as well as medical devices. The Medical Devices Working Group is also creating a medical devices profile and associated protocols to enable this market.

Technical information

Communication and connection

A master Bluetooth device can communicate with up to seven devices. This network group of up to eight devices is called a piconet.

A piconet is an ad-hoc computer network, using Bluetooth technology protocols to allow one master device to interconnect with up to seven active devices. Up to 255 further devices can be inactive, or parked, which the master device can bring into active status at any time.

At any given time, data can be transferred between the master and one other device, however, the devices can switch roles and the slave can become the master at any time. The master switches rapidly from one device to another in a round-robin fashion. (Simultaneous transmission from the master to multiple other devices is possible, but not used much.)

Bluetooth specification allows connecting two or more piconets together to form a scatternet, with some devices acting as a bridge by simultaneously playing the master role and the slave role in one piconet. These devices are planned for 2007.

Many USB Bluetooth adapters are available, some of which also include an IrDA adapter. Older (pre-2003) Bluetooth adapters, however, have limited services, offering only the Bluetooth Enumerator and a less-powerful Bluetooth Radio incarnation. Such devices can link computers with Bluetooth, but they do not offer much in the way of services that modern adapters do.

Setting up connections

Any Bluetooth device will transmit the following sets of information on demand:

• Device name.
• Device class.
• List of services.
• Technical information, for example, device features, manufacturer, Bluetooth specification and clock offset.

Any device may perform an inquiry to find other devices to which to connect, and any device can be configured to respond to such inquiries. However, if the device trying to connect knows the address of the device, it always responds to direct connection requests and transmits the information shown in the list above if requested. Use of device services may require pairing or acceptance by its owner, but the connection itself can be started by any device and held until it goes out of range. Some devices can be connected to only one device at a time, and connecting to them prevents them from connecting to other devices and appearing in inquiries until they disconnect from the other device.

Every device has a unique 48-bit address. However these addresses are generally not shown in inquiries. Instead, friendly Bluetooth names are used, which can be set by the user. This name appears when another user scans for devices and in lists of paired devices.

Most phones have the Bluetooth name set to the manufacturer and model of the phone by default. Most phones and laptops show only the Bluetooth names and special programs that are required to get additional information about remote devices. This can be confusing as, for example, there could be several phones in range named T610.

Pairing

Pairs of devices may establish a trusted relationship by learning (by user input) a shared secret known as a passkey. A device that wants to communicate only with a trusted device can cryptographically authenticate the identity of the other device. Trusted devices may also encrypt the data that they exchange over the air so that no one can listen in. The encryption can, however, be turned off, and passkeys are stored on the device file system, not on the Bluetooth chip itself. Since the Bluetooth address is permanent, a pairing is preserved, even if the Bluetooth name is changed. Pairs can be deleted at any time by either device. Devices generally require pairing or prompt the owner before they allow a remote device to use any or most of their services. Some devices, such as Sony Ericsson phones, usually accept OBEX business cards and notes without any pairing or prompts.

Certain printers and access points allow any device to use its services by default, much like unsecured Wi-Fi networks. Pairing algorithms are sometimes manufacturer-specific for transmitters and receivers used in applications such as music and entertainment.

Air interface

The protocol operates in the license-free ISM band at 2.4-2.4835 GHz. To avoid interfering with other protocols that use the 2.45 GHz band, the Bluetooth protocol divides the band into 79 channels (each 1 MHz wide) and changes channels up to 1600 times per second. Implementations with versions 1.1 and 1.2 reach speeds of 723.1 kbit/s. Version 2.0 implementations feature Bluetooth Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) and reach 2.1 Mbit/s. Technically, version 2.0 devices have a higher power consumption, but the three times faster rate reduces the transmission times, effectively reducing power consumption to half that of 1.x devices (assuming equal traffic load).

Security

Bluetooth implements confidentiality, authentication and key derivation with custom algorithms based on the SAFER+ block cipher. In Bluetooth, key generation is generally based on a Bluetooth PIN, which has to be entered into both devices. This procedure might get modified slightly, if one of the devices has a fixed PIN, which is the case e.g. for headsets or similar devices with a restricted user interface. Foremost, an initialization key or master key is generated, using the E22 algorithm.

The E0 stream cipher is used for encrypting packets, granting confidentiality and is based on a shared cryptographic secret, namely a previously generated link key or master key. Those keys, used for subsequent encryption of data sent via the air interface, hardly rely on the Bluetooth PIN, which has been entered into one or both devices.

A demonstration of this reduction has been put effort in by Y. Shaked and A. Wool in. An overview of the most important vulnerabilities and the most common exploits to those vulnerabilities is presented in.

Social concerns

Security concerns

2003:

In November 2003, Ben and Adam Laurie from A.L. Digital Ltd. discovered that serious flaws in Bluetooth security may lead to disclosure of personal data. It should be noted, however, that the reported security problems concerned some poor implementations of Bluetooth, rather than the protocol itself.

In a subsequent experiment, Martin Herfurt from the trifinite.group was able to do a field-trial at the CeBIT fairgrounds, showing the importance of the problem to the world. A new attack called BlueBug was used for this experiment.

This is one of a number of concerns that have been raised over the security of Bluetooth communications. In 2004 the first purported virus using Bluetooth to spread itself among mobile phones appeared on the Symbian OS. The virus was first described by Kaspersky Lab and requires users to confirm the installation of unknown software before it can propagate.

The virus was written as a proof-of-concept by a group of virus writers known as 29A and sent to anti-virus groups. Thus, it should be regarded as a potential (but not real) security threat to Bluetooth or Symbian OS since the virus has never spread in the wild.

In August 2004, a world-record-setting experiment (see also Bluetooth sniping) showed that the range of Class 2 Bluetooth radios could be extended to 1.78 km (1.08 mile) with directional antennas and signal amplifiers. This poses a potential security threat because it enables attackers to access vulnerable Bluetooth-devices from a distance beyond expectation. The attacker must also be able to receive information from the victim to set up a connection. No attack can be made against a Bluetooth device unless the attacker knows its Bluetooth address and which channels to transmit on.

2005:

In April 2005, Cambridge University security researchers published results of their actual implementation of passive attacks against the PIN-based pairing between commercial Bluetooth devices, confirming the attacks to be practicably fast and the Bluetooth symmetric key establishment method to be vulnerable. To rectify this vulnerability, they carried out an implementation which showed that stronger, asymmetric key establishment is feasible for certain classes of devices, such as handphones.

In June 2005, Yaniv Shaked and Avishai Wool published the paper "Cracking the Bluetooth PIN1," which shows both passive and active methods for obtaining the PIN for a Bluetooth link. The passive attack allows a suitably equipped attacker to eavesdrop on communications and spoof if they were present at the time of initial pairing. The active method makes use of a specially constructed message that must be inserted at a specific point in the protocol, to make the master and slave repeat the pairing process. After that, the first method can be used to crack the PIN. This attack's major weakness is that it requires the user of the devices under attack to re-enter the PIN during the attack when the device prompts them to. Also, this active attack probably requires custom hardware, since most commercially available Bluetooth devices are not capable of the timing necessary.

In August 2005, police in Cambridgeshire, England, issued warnings about thieves using Bluetooth-enabled phones to track other devices left in cars. Police are advising users to ensure that any mobile networking connections are de-activated if laptops and other devices are left in this way.

2006:

In April 2006, researchers from Secure Network and F-Secure published a report that warns of the large number of devices left in a visible state, and issued statistics on the spread of various Bluetooth services and the ease of spread of an eventual Bluetooth worm.

In October 2006, at the Luxemburgish Hack.lu Security Conference, Kevin Finistere and Thierry Zoller demonstrated and released a remote root shell over Bluetooth on Mac OSX 10.3.9 and 10.4. They also demonstrated the first Bluetooth PIN and Linkkeys cracker, which is based on the research of Wool and Shaked.

Bluejacking:

(Example for Bluejacking)

Bluejacking allows phone users to send business cards anonymously using Bluetooth wireless technology. Bluejacking does NOT involve the removal or alteration of any data from the device. These business cards often have a clever or flirtatious message rather than the typical name and phone number. Bluejackers often look for the receiving phone to ping or the user to react. They then send another, more personal message to that device. Once again, in order to carry out a bluejacking, the sending and receiving devices must be within range of each other, which is typically 10 meters for most mobile devices. Phone owners who receive bluejack messages should refuse to add the contacts to their address book. Devices that are set in non-discoverable mode are not susceptible to bluejacking. However, the use of the Linux application Redfang, allows this to be bypassed.

Health concerns

Bluetooth uses the microwave radio frequency spectrum in the 2.4 GHz to 2.4835 GHz range. Maximum power output from a Bluetooth radio is 1 mW, 2.5 mW, and 100 mW for Class 3, Class 2, and Class 1 devices respectively, which puts Class 1 at roughly the same level as cell phones, and the other two classes much lower.[29] Accordingly, Class 2 and Class 3 Bluetooth devices are considered less of a potential hazard than cell phones, and Class 1 may be comparable to that of cell phones.

Origin of the name and the logo

Bluetooth was named after a late tenth century king, Harald Bluetooth, King of Denmark and Norway. He is known for his unification of previously warring tribes from Denmark (including now Swedish Scania, where the Bluetooth technology was invented), and Norway. Bluetooth likewise was intended to unify different technologies, such as computers and mobile phones.

The name may have been inspired less by the historical Harald than the loose interpretation of him in The Long Ships by Frans Gunnar Bengtsson, a Swedish Viking-inspired novel.

Bluetooth Special Interest Group

In 1998, Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Toshiba, and Nokia, formed a consortium and adopted the code name Bluetooth for their proposed open specification. In December 1999, 3Com, Lucent Technologies, Microsoft, and Motorola joined the initial founders as the promoter of Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). Since that time, Lucent Technologies transferred their membership to their spinoff Agere Systems, and 3Com has left the promoter group. Agere Systems was later merged with LSI Corporation and left the Bluetooth promoters group in August 2007.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) is a privately held, not-for-profit trade association with headquarters in Bellevue, Washington. As of September 2007 the SIG is composed of over 9,000 member companies that are leaders in the telecommunications, computing, automotive, music, apparel, industrial automation, and network industries, and a small group of dedicated staff in Hong Kong, Sweden, and the USA. SIG members drive the development of Bluetooth wireless technology, and implement and market the technology in their products varying from mobile phones to printers. The Bluetooth SIG itself does not make, manufacture, or sell Bluetooth enabled products.

Difference between the two Kings

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

"Reciting Salawath on our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is an activity that will be accepted by Allah, even if we don't have Ikhlas (piety)".

A minister of a king suddenly disappeared. The king asked his people to search for him and he was found in a far away place leading a normal life. When asked to come back to the palace, he refused and said that he is now in the service of a great king. When this was conveyed to the king he got curious and went in person to meet the minister.

After exchange of pleasantries, the king asked the minister who was the king he was serving. The minister replied saying that he is the greatest king of all and I found 5 differences between him and all other kings of this world. The minister said that these differences made him love this great king more and he will serve him till his death. The king asked him to list the differences and the minister listed them.

1. All kings of this world will be sitting while their slaves have to stand while conversing with them. But, this king actually carries his slaves wherever the slaves go.

2. All kings of this world sleep in palaces and their slaves have to keep a watch on them and serve them, many a times sacrificing their own sleep. But, this king lets the slaves sleep and he keeps a watch on them. He himself never sleeps or naps.

3. All kings of this world eat the best of foods and his slaves who cook the food hardly get to taste any of them. They may even lose their lives if the king dislikes the food. But, this king feeds his slaves all through the life and he has no need for food.

4. The punishment for a mistake from the kings of this world is multiple times bigger than the mistake. But, this kings Forgiveness is bigger than the biggest of the mistakes of his slaves.

5. I used to fear the death of the king worrying about my future. The new incumbent may throw me out or even put me in prison for my loyalty to the previous regime. But, this king has no death.

This king is Allah, my creator and sustainer, the one without any needs, fulfiller of all our needs. If you have been His slave once, you will not be a slave to anyone else.

The king went back to his palace with something to think.

PATHS TO GOD

By Parveen Chopra & Swati Chopra (http://www.lifepositive.com/Spirit/god/god-realization.asp)

It is said that there are as many ways to God-realization as there are seekers. We present some oft-traveled paths to God—Sufism, Shamanism, Kabbalah, Buddhism and Jainism, Zen, Tantra, and three yogic paths from Hinduism

An analogy favorite with the Indian sages talks of a lump of salt that goes to plumb the depths of the ocean. What happens to it? The lump dissolves in seawater in no time and becomes the ocean. Similarly, knowing God intellectually is impossible, it is only possible by dissolving your identity as the small self into God, becoming God. Brahma vidam brahamaiva bhavati (the knower of Brahman becomes Brahman), declare the Vedas.

Indian philosophy is also clear that the goal of human life is self-realization or enlightenment—and that it is a real blessing being born in human incarnation. The aim of all mystical traditions is the same. It can even be said of most major religions of the world that each one started off as a path to God, containing some esoteric knowledge, which tends to get eroded over time.

They are called paths to God or self-realization because they contain specific practices and instructions. There is also the assurance that some others before you have walked that path and reached the goal. Those people may even have left accounts of their journey. Holy books and scriptures enshrine some of those accounts.

The importance of the living guru, sheik or roshi is clear then. He knows the terrain firsthand. The master is also there to keep the student from forgetting what he has learnt. The guru-shishya (master-disciple) relationship is of dynamic give and take, not passive taking by the shishya.

But, even if you are walking the path of your religion or master, you are in effect carving your own, because you have to claim it for yourself, and all those truths have to be intuited all over again firsthand. for real transformation to take place.

Even a cursory study of the different paths—some summarized in the following lines—shows you the similarities between them. The techniques may be different, the language and terminology may vary, but they all seem to arise from the same source. They also make it clear that no matter how desirable, ecstasy or other mystical states are not for their own sake. The idea is to increase awareness in daily life. God realization will come when it comes, meanwhile become a better human being: kind, compassionate, tolerant.

No matter how good the path, for real progress the importance of persistence, perseverance, discipline and regularity cannot be emphasized enough. And, of course, one ounce of practice is better than tons of reading spiritual books or discussing them.

Meditation, of any kind, is a useful practice to follow for anyone. It is the easiest method to quieten the mind. A well regulated, honest, clean life, evenness of temperament, and following the basic good health principles also help.

If you don't want to or cannot follow any practices, try Karma Yoga, one of the four main paths of yoga besides Bhakti, Jnana, and Raja Yoga. It constitutes performing actions without a feeling of doership or expectation of the fruits thereof, as an agent of God. That should be easy, and is highly recommended in the Bhagavad Gita.

KABBALAH: WAY OF THE CHOSEN ONE

Kabbalah are the secret mystical teachings of Judaism aimed at achieving union with God. Though they are founded on the Torah (Jewish scriptures) they are not an intellectual discipline and were traditionally transmitted orally from master to pupil.

Many versions of the kabbalah exist, the oldest being the Merkabah, also called 'shamanistic mysticism' as it required going into trance and sending one's soul to enter the Merkabah, 'God's throne chariot'. The mystics prepared for this ascension using talismans and incantations.

Classical kabbalah is sourced from the 13th century Sefer ha-Zohar (Book of Splendour) written by Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai and sees God as 'Ein-Sof', the endless. Since Ein-Sof created the world from Himself, everything exists in dependence of everything else. Thus the merger of the kabbalist with Ein-Sof is not only the supreme spiritual achievement but also an act of altruism, as it brings the rest of the cosmos closer to God.

Central to the kabbalist's practice was the 'Tree of Life', which he ascended symbolically through meditation. The Tree illustrated the path of reaching the Divine during one's lifetime. The seven lower sephirot (paths) were Sovereignty, Foundation, Endurance, Majesty, Beauty, Loving-kindness and Judgment, and corresponded to the seven energy centers along the spine (chakras). The top three—Understanding, Wisdom and Crown (Humility)—were mystical steps to unity with God.

To ascend the Tree of Life, the kabbalist visualized each sephirot vibrating with its specific color, along with images of corresponding Hebrew letters denoting names of God (like YHVH), and planets, angels, metals, body parts and energy centers. Breath and sound were important in this.

The 'short path' to God was developed by Spanish kabbalist Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia in the 13th century. This was through tzeruf (letter permutation) and based on the belief that each Hebrew letter has attributes and numerical values, which when meditated upon, unify mind and body and bring the mystic in contact with higher planes of consciousness. To meditate on these letters is to meditate on all Creation, and to become one with the Whole. The tzeruf would begin at midnight and the mystic would write sacred letters, visualize the Tree and do breathing techniques. An ecstasy, called shefa, would descend upon the mystic, bathing him in sensations of air, heat, and rushing water or oil.

The kabbalah has always been an exclusive path to God-realization, divorced from mainstream Judaism. It is to be transmitted to only those "who were ready".

SUFISM: CREED OF THE ENLIGHTENED LOVERS

Sufism is a branch of Islam devoted to personal worship of Allah. Its basic tenets are mystical love and oneness with God (tawhid). It takes a lifetime of love on the part of the Sufi to realize his own innate oneness with God, the Eternal Beloved. The path, tariqa, is but a means of this realization.

The Sufi moves towards knowledge of the divine through study, prayer, and especially the dhikr—endless repetition of God's name or sacred Koranic passages—often resulting in a trance-like state of mystical ecstasy. In his daily life, the Sufi observes faqr, pious poverty, and so is also known as a 'fakir'. The importance of simplicity is evident from the very word 'sufi', that comes from the Arabic suf (wool) and refers to rough woolen gowns worn by early adherents.

Guidance of a teacher, 'sheikh', is considered essential to staying on the path. Sheikhs are venerated as saints to whom disciples bind themselves by oaths of allegiance. They then pledge to do their master's bidding without any sense of their own desires—a first-step towards unconditional surrender to God.

The Sufi must move through four stages of spiritual evolution—fana (annihilation of worldly attachment), baqa (permanency of God-consciousness), spiritual guidance, and helping others evolve on an esoteric plane. In fana, the Sufi is intoxicated with divine love and seeks union with God. In baqa, he has surrendered himself completely to God and lives in and through Him. This is also when he becomes a qutub, a disseminator of wisdom. Higher stages make him a 'perfect master', guiding others towards God.

Although poetry addressed to the Beloved, music, dance, whirling, drum-beating have come to be inextricably interlinked with Sufism, they are not the be-all and end-all of the Sufi experience. The real achievement is the translation of the mystical experience in the temporal world in the form of love towards all, and freedom from afflictive emotions. To 'be in the world but not of it' is the core of the Sufi's life.

BHAKTI YOGA: LOVING GOD ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE

Indian saints dexterously used stories or analogies to drive home a point. To illustrate the difference between jnana and bhakti practices, they referred to the difference between the way infant monkeys and cats are carried by their mothers.

The baby monkey wraps his arms around his mother and clings to her as she moves across the ground or swings from tree to tree. All responsibility to stay attached rests with the baby. If he lets go he falls and may die. The mother cat, however, grabs her offspring firmly behind the neck with her teeth. For the process to be smooth and painless, the kitten must not move at all-it must completely let go and surrender to the mother. That is what an aspirant in Bhakti Yoga needs to do.

Bhakti Yoga is the path of love and devotion. The devotee uses the combined energies of all emotions and transmutes them, sublimating them into the highest of all emotions: prem, which is pure, unconditional, divine love. The devotee is, in fact, not even seeking enlightenment or God, he is just overflowing with his love for God. This path obviously suits and appeals to people with an emotional temperament. It may also be the easiest—no mind and body control as in Raja Yoga, no intellectual or intuitive prowess required as in Jnana Yoga.

Bhakti Yoga proceeds by qualities of the heart. Love, emotion, happiness, kindness, and surrender are the qualities of the heart that sustain this path. Love of God is the greatest virtue that a man can cultivate; through this develops love for the creation of God and for his children, all beings. Compassion, tolerance and helpfulness to others emanate from the heart in which the love of God grows.

Bhakti is classified as apara bhakti and para-bhakti. In the former, the beginner decorates the image of his deity with flowers and garlands, rings the bell, offers food items, performs aarti, and observes rituals and ceremonies. The devotee regards the Lord as the supreme person, who is immanent in the image and can be propitiated through that form only. To that extent the devotee is sectarian and he still has to expand his heart. In para-bhakti, the devotee sees the Lord and Lord alone everywhere and feels his power manifest in the entire universe. Para-bhakti then becomes one with jnana.

Devotion and love for God increases through the nine modes of devotion (nava-vidha bhakti), described in Srimad Bhagavata (containing the lilas of Lord Krishna):

• Sravanam:
Listening to stories of the lilas or play of the Lord or your deity. One source of these stories is the Puranas, each one being dedicated to a deity or incarnation of God.

• Kirtanam:
Singing of God's glories. Many mystics and yogis have spontaneously composed and written devotional songs, which can be chanted.

• Smaranam:
Constantly remembering the presence—name and form—of the Lord. Unceasing prayer is one form of it.

• Padasevanam:
Developing the bhava (state of mind) that you are serving and worshipping the Lord's Feet.

• Archanam:
Worship of God through rituals such as puja, havan or homa. Ideally, rituals should be accompanied by true feelings, but their regular practice is also a way to develop true feelings of devotion.

• Vandanam:
Prostration to the Lord to express one's respect and love. Prostrating physically to the ground even develops humility. As a bhava you cultivate the awareness that the Almighty is present in the altar in front of you and in all names and forms.

• Dasyam:
The devotee is developing the feeling of being the Lord's servant. This will weed out pride, selfishness, arrogance and egoism, which are all based on avidya, ignorance.

• Sakhyam:
Feeling of friendship. This bhava helps the devotee establish a personal relationship with God, picturing him as his best friend.

• Atmanivedanam:
Complete surrender of self, which is the highest aspect of bhakti. One's ego is offered to the Lord and nothing but the atman remains and non-duality is experienced.

RAJA YOGA: AS PRECISE AND PREDICTABLE AS A LAB EXPERIMENT

The term 'Raja Yoga' was first coined by Swami Vivekananda. 'Raja' means royal, and this path is called so because it is precise, systematic and the results of different practices are predictable and assured. It combines philosophy, psychophysiology and, of course, lots of practice.

The premise of Raja Yoga is that our mind creates our world. Our whole life, with its pleasures and pains, is nothing but our mind's creation. If the mind is unsteady, it will waver with each and every distraction, obstacle or event happening in its environment. The yogi, who has achieved mind control, is the true king of this world. He has controlled all his desires and enjoys absolute peace and contentment that constitute true happiness.

In Raja Yoga, the mind is compared to a lake. Owing to the wind and undercurrents, the lake gets agitated and some waves are created. Similarly, external distractions, sensory perceptions of the outside world and internal factors, memories and sanskaras, create modifications at the surface of the mind, the conscious mind. These modifications, thoughts and emotions, are called vrittis. In Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, the key text of Raja Yoga, yoga is defined as prevention and control of these vrittis.

The waves when quietened return back to merge with and become the lake. Similarly, a quiescent mind, experienced as samadhi or pure consciousness, is no different from the Self, your true nature.

Patanjali Yoga or Ashtanga Yoga is a practical eightfold path. The first two are yamas and niyamas (don'ts and do's), constituting 10 commitments.

Asana (yogic postures) and pranayama (breathing practices) come next. These are followed by pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses from the objects of the world), dharana (fixed flow of consciousness) and dhyana (meditation). The last one is samadhi, pure consciousness. But samadhi is not the final goal. Regular and repeated experience of samadhi gradually makes this fourth state of consciousness stabilize with the other three-sleeping, waking and dreaming. Along the way, you attain siddhis (occult powers like precognition and levitation), but the final goal, according to Patanjali, is kaivalya.

Erroneously, Patanjali's system has been called an eight-step system, implying that you master the first before moving on to the second and so on, which is not practicable. Modern masters emphasize meditation, supported by some asanas and pranayama. This starts giving glimpses of the inner infinite reservoir of sat-chid-ananda (truth, consciousness and bliss), assuring quick progress on the path.

JNANA YOGA: TELLING THE REAL FROM THE UNREAL

Jnana, or knowledge of the real, is the goal of every yogic path. But Jnana Yoga turns it into a path. According to Vedanta, the ever-changing phenomenal world is not really existing, it only appears to be so. Discrimination, or the power of the intellect, is the vehicle that leads you beyond all forms and phenomena, to a transcendental reality, which is permanent, never changing, eternal and absolute. That is Brahman and Thou art That.

In practice, there are three steps in Jnana Yoga:

• Sravanam:
The guru explains to an attentive student the teachings of Vedanta and what is Brahman. It is superior to mere reading of the scriptures because a mystical transfer of the spiritual state of consciousness takes place from the guru to the student.

• Mananam:
The student deeply reflects upon what he has heard, trying to comprehend the subtle truths taught to him.

• Nididhyasanam:
The student meditates on the Brahman, which leads to the intuitive, direct experience of Truth.

To make you fit to receive the knowledge of Brahman, four means (Sadhana Chatushtaya) are recommended:

• Viveka:
Discrimination. This is the intellectual ability to discriminate, or discern, between the real and the unreal.

• Vairagya:
Dispassion, detachment.

• Shad-sampat:
Developing six virtues which are: sama, tranquility or control of mind; dama, control of the senses; uparati, renunciation of activities which are not duties; titiksha or endurance; shraddha, faith; samadhana, perfect concentration, one-pointedness of the mind.

• Mumukshutva:
Intense longing for liberation.

ZEN: DIRECT SEEING INTO ONE'S NATURE

Zen is a Buddhist sect that developed in China and Japan. It is non-theological and emphasizes development of intuitive wisdom to see the oneness of all, rather than relying on intellect and logic. Zen is the way of meditation as the Japanese term 'zen' is a corruption of the Sanskrit dhyan (meditation), which was called chan in China.

In the words of Hui-neng, its founder, Zen is "seeing into one's own Nature". It is believed that we are all already enlightened; it just needs to be realized. One way to achieve this is zazen, literally 'sitting meditation'. Zazen is done while sitting in a lotus posture with eyes open and cast slightly downward. To empty the mind of thoughts and train it to achieve a one-pointed state of concentration (samadhi), breath counting is also employed.

As the mind matures into greater awareness through zazen, it might achieve a breakthrough of consciousness, a sudden leap, called satori. This, however, is not the ultimate aim but only the beginning of the Zen experience. Satori may come after a period of samadhi, or even unexpectedly in the form of a sudden intuitive understanding of one's true nature.

Zen masters often use the koan for achieving this breakthrough. Koan are seemingly nonsensical riddles, for example: "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" Since these could not be solved with logic, the practitioner would be forced to work through the layers of conditioning obscuring the mind's true nature. The answer would often come in a flash of satori.

The initial satori experience was subsequently deepened through meditation until a state of 'no-mind' evolved. No-mind is real seeing, beyond all dualities of subject-object. In this state, the clarity of satori permeates daily life and manifests in all of one's actions.

Regardless of whether s/he has achieved satori or no-mind, the Zen student practices the Ten Grave Precepts of the bodhisattvas. These are—no killing, no stealing, no misuse of sex, no lying, no consumption of intoxicants, no speaking ill of others, no self-praise, no sparing of Dharma, no anger, and no slandering of the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha).

BUDDHISM AND JAINISM: ATHEISTIC RELIGIONS

Both Buddhism and Jainism arose from the ascetic Shramanic tradition that had coexisted since time immemorial in India with the ritualistic Vedic religion. Along with their belief in the importance of individual effort for enlightenment, both religions are singular in having denied the existence of God—as Brahman, Creator, or anything else. Whereas Bhagwan Mahavir, the 23rd Jain Tirthankara, categorically stated that there is no God, Gautama Buddha remained silent on the issue. Jainism and Buddhism therefore became perhaps the only atheistic religions in the world.

Buddhism, in addition to being an expression and exposition of the Buddha's nirvana experience, was also a movement for reform in the era's caste-ridden, Brahmin-dominated society. Said the Sakyamuni: "The Truth of the universe can only be realized within the framework of the physical body." By saying this, he not only negated Brahmanical theism, in which the Brahmins had all but appropriated God as a figure to be propitiated with innumerable rites and rituals, but also empowered the individual as the facilitator of his/her own salvation. Buddhism is, for that reason also, a religion based very much in the here and now.

It went on to develop as an honest, and practical, inquiry into Truth and the nature of Reality, sometimes even brutally so. There was no place for anything divine. Avoiding, even ignoring to a large extent, all the theological hairsplitting about God, the Buddha got down to business. Nirvana, Buddhist enlightenment, would not be some ecstatic paramananda (extreme bliss) state, but the cessation of the commonest human complaint—suffering. Also, it was described, not as union with God or expansion of the soul, but as a direct perception of shunyata, nothingness, the truest aspect of Reality where all afflictive emotions and karma dissolved. The way to achieve this was the Eight-Fold Path.

The Buddha is said to have come upon the Eight-Fold Path while meditating on how to liberate mankind from the endless cycle of birth and death, marked by suffering. The path consists of—right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. Repetition of the word 'right' might give it the appearance of being moralistic, but what practice of this path really does is lead one to constantly analyze and contemplate one's actions and thoughts, thereby enhancing one's awareness.

Later centuries saw the elevation of the Buddha mostly in the Buddhist Mahayana sect into a Godlike figure and being worshipped as so. Tibetan Buddhism, which incorporated features of Tibet's earlier Bon religion (a kind of shamanism) and also shades of Tantra, further brought the element of worship of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas as means of gaining positive karma. In Tantric Tibetan Buddhism also developed Vajrayana—the thunderbolt vehicle. If practiced correctly, Vajrayana is considered to be a short path to enlightenment as it transforms instead of destroying afflictive emotions—passion, aggression and ignorance.

Buddhist path to God-realizationWorship is also an integral part of Jainism, the creed of those who have conquered their baser selves and become enlightened Jinas. It is inhabited, like Tibetan Buddhism, with godlike figures that will help you on the material plane, but for kaivalya (enlightenment), you would still have to get rid of all karma by personal effort. Only then would it be possible to escape from the vicious cycle of life and death and go on to eternal life. And the way to do this would be through conducting one's life according to ahimsa (nonviolence), satya (harmless truth), asteya (non-stealing), aparigraha (non-attachment) and brahmacharya (celibacy).

It is interesting to note that though both Buddhism and Jainism believe in karma and reincarnation, the concept of what reincarnates differs widely. Jainism believes it to be the atma, soul, which due to defilement by karma, is drawn again and again into the world. Buddhism, on the other hand, has the doctrine of anatta, no-self, according to which there is no permanent essence of any human being (like the atma) and what reincarnates is a constantly changing collection of attributes (skandhas) that come together at each birth. The component in every creature that is capable of enlightenment is 'Buddhanature', which is cultivated through the Eight-Fold Path, contemplation, and so on.