The word ‘consciousness’, derived from Latin, literally means ‘knowledge of things together’. This concept, it has been rightly said, is commonly invoked but imperfectly understood and contradictorily defined. In recent times, apart from philosophers and psychologists, who have been traditional investigators of consciousness, it has also received the attention of researchers in neuroscience, information theory, and cybernetics. This book contains the papers delivered on the occasion of the fourth International Seminar on Consciousness held in January 2008 at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture.
I am the thread that runs through all these pearls, and each pearl is a religion or even a sect thereof. Such are the different pearls, and God is the thread that runs through all of them; most people, however, are entirely unconscious of it.
-Swami Vivekananda
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