Contents: Preface. Foreword. Introduction. Contributions of India. Essence of the Vedas. 1. Vrata in the Rgveda/Satya Pal Narang. 2. Vedic Vrata/S. Kalyanaraman. 3. Annam (food) and Vasati (shelter) : a Vedic view/C.L. Prabhakar. 4. The oral tradition of education during the Vedic period/Deepak Raajan and D. Purushothaman. 5. Gayatri : the prayer for light/Indulata Das. 6. Mantra in social flux/Alka B. Bakre. 7. Rgvedic concept of Agni/P. Syamala Devi. 8. RV IV. 40.5--Hamsavati Rc : a study/Gauri Mahulikar. 9. Marriage in Rgveda/M.N. Shylaja. 10. Unification of cultural contexts : Ramacharitamanasa and its translation in Malayalam/Vijaykumaran C.P.V. 11. A scrutiny of elements of Samkhya Philosophy in the Mahabharata--a critique/Sunanda S. Joshi. 12. Environment, health and safety : guidance from the Bhagavadgita/Lollah G.K. Murthy. 13. Yoga, spirituality and medicine/N. Govindarajulu. 14. Becoming divine : crossing culture boundaries/Isha Gamlath. 15. Yoga for physical, psychological and spiritual well-being : a critical study/M. Parameswaran. 16. Description of the heart in Upanisads/Manmohan Acharya. 17. Performance of music during Vedic times/T. Seetharamalakshmi. 18. The concept of human resource and spirit of democracy in the Gita/Arun Chandra Bordoloi. 19. A Vedic basis for the stoic concept of God/Isha Gamlath. 20. The relation of philosophy and kavya/Sundari Siddhartha. 21. Hindu-Christian inter-religious dialogue in India : present-day trends/Anand Nayak. 22. Hindu Dharma and Christianity : a comparative reflection/Prashant Bhardwaj. 23. Nama-Siddhanta: genesis and growth in South India/S. Vaidyanathan. 24. Whole of the existence is one mass of energy/Rakesh Pandey. 25. Value paradigms and re-engineering in management of Indian heritage/S. Ram Mohan. 26. Ecology in ancient Indian traditions/Shashi Tiwari. 27. Eroticism and flower blossoms in Gathasaptasati/Sushma Kulshreshtha. 28. Drinks or foods of fertility in Indian myths : the precursors or prototypes of hormonal treatment/Ruchita Vasant Somane. 29. Women's rights in ancient India : a study of Manu/Sanjay Kumar. Sahoo. 30. Eco-friendly ethos in the Mahabharata/Avanindra Kumar. 31. Kautilya's philosophy on war and peace in context to present world order/Lallan Prasad. Abstracts of papers not included in the proceedings. "The present volume covers a wide spectrum of topics related to Vedic and Indian studies especially in reference to contemporary world order. Here only thirty one papers are published which were presented in the Seventh India International Conference of WAVES held at Pondicherry in December 2003. Conflict between different peoples, cultures and societies has been in existence since time immemorial. In this present scenario, India has a responsibility, as an emerging world power, to bring forward its ancient Vedic concepts for the benefit of suffering populations and for bettering the lives of future generations. Time, space and circumstances can not decay or change truths revealed in the Vedas and ancient Indian scriptures. In this volume, papers are included on some important fields of study such as environment, management, safety, health, medicine, music, eroticism, philosophy, spirituality, psychology, ecology, comparative religion, world peace, and women's rights.