Ramayan : Scientific Truths 1

Ref : Article by By Blair A. Moffett


The reference to the "monkey" and "bear" people in the Ramayana simply reflected a straightforward reading of the English translation of the Ramayan of Valmiki made by R. T. H. Griffith, Principal of Benares College, in 1874. The two leading generals of the "monkeys" or Vanar -- Hanuman and Sugriva -- are named there and both play prominent roles in Rama's war against Ravana, the Vanar legions themselves figuring more prominently than do the "bear" legions in alliance with Rama. In fact, in the epic no "bear" is singled out by name, and the "bear" legions appear only relatively anonymously and in second place to the "monkeys." In addition, Rama asks his friend Hanuman to find Sita, his wife, who had disappeared. The loyal Hanuman, at great risk to his own life, and after many adventures testing his courage and intelligence, at last finds Sita who has been kidnapped by Ravana through a trick and taken to his stronghold on the island of Lanka, headquarters of the Rakshasa host.




Inasmuch as the "bears" are depicted as having the same distinctively human qualities as assigned to the "monkeys" in the epic, I think we are justified in concluding that they, too, were some sort of hominid and not a mere animal species such as the bears today. It would have been helpful if the epic had better delineated the "bears," for then we could more accurately analyze if and where they might figure among early hominids! By getting and reading a good translation of this marvelous Indian record of prehistory -- as I think it is -- one can decide for oneself how he or she would characterize the "bear" people.



Turning now to the query: neanderthaloid versus Homo sapiens fossilis, it is true that formerly anthropologists regarded the two types as quite distinct sorts of early men, and the former as hardly a man. This all came about because of a description of neanderthaloids based on the only skeleton then found (in La Chapelle-aux-Saints by the Abbe Bouyssonie), prepared by M. Boule of the Institute of Human Palaeontology in Paris in 1908. That report is now acknowledged by many anthropologists to have done much to disseminate misleading ideas about the whole neanderthaloid question. As recently as 1957 it was still being cited as a major source of information about the nature of the neanderthal man. But in that year the La Chapelle skeleton was re-examined by two anatomists, from Johns Hopkins University and St. Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College of London, who found that it was very atypical, being that of an old male who had suffered extensively from arthritis of the jaws, spine and lower limbs (which had led M. Boule to ascribe to neanderthaloids; a shuffling, ape-like gait with head lowered), and moreover that reconstruction of the skull had been defective. After that expert re-examination, and in the light of some 60-odd fossil skeletal remains of neanderthaloids since found (some 10 of them after 1950), the picture began to change in several major respects.

What Wikipedia says about Neanderthal

The Neanderthal (short for Neanderthal Man, in English pronounced /niːˈændərtɑːl/, /niːˈændərθɔːl/) or /neɪˈændərtɑːl/; also spelled Neandertal) is an extinct member of the Homo genus that is known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia. Neanderthals are either classified as a subspecies (or race) of humans (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) or as a separate species (Homo neanderthalensis).




The first proto-Neanderthal traits appeared in Europe as early as 600,000–350,000 years ago. Proto-Neanderthal traits are occasionally grouped to another phenetic 'species', Homo heidelbergensis, or a migrant form, Homo rhodesiensis. By 130,000 years ago, complete Neanderthal characteristics had appeared. These characteristics then disappeared in Asia by 50,000 years ago and in Europe by 30,000 years ago.Current (as of 2010) genetic evidence suggests interbreeding took place with Homo sapiens between roughly 80,000 to 50,000 years ago in the Middle East, resulting in non-ethnic sub-Saharan Africans (e.g. Caucasians) having between 1% and 4% more Neanderthal DNA than ethnic sub-Saharan Africans.

Classification




First reconstruction of Neanderthal manFor some time, scientists have debated whether Neanderthals should be classified as Homo neanderthalensis or as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, the latter placing Neanderthals as a subspecies of Homo sapiens.[not in citation given. Some morphological studies support that Homo neanderthalensis is a separate species and not a subspecies.Others, for example University of Cambridge Professor Paul Mellars, say "no evidence has been found of cultural interaction" and evidence from mitochondrial DNA studies have been interpreted as evidence Neanderthals were not a subspecies of H. sapiens.



Neanderthals evolved from early Homo along a path similar to Homo sapiens, both deriving from a chimp-like ancestor between five and 10 million years ago. Like H.sap., Neanderthals are related to Australopithecus, Homo habilis, and Homo ergaster; the exact descent remains uncertain. The last common ancestor between anatomically modern Homo sapiens and Neanderthals appears to be Homo rhodesiensis, named after an archaic Homo sapiens fossil, Broken hill 1 (Kabwe 1) discovered in the territory of Rhodesia in 1921.



Homo rhodesiensis arose in Africa an estimated 0.7 to 1 million years ago. The earliest estimates for Homo rhodesiensis reaching Europe are approximately 800 thousand years ago when a type of human referred to as Homo antecessor or Homo cepranensis already inhabited the region. These two human types may be forerunners to European Homo heidelbergensis, however stone tools dating from 1.2 to 1.56 million years ago of an unknown creator have been discovered in Southwestern Europe. The evidence at the Sima de los Huesos (in the Atapuerca cave system on the Iberian Peninsula) suggest that Homo heidelbergensis was already in Europe by 600,000 years ago.



Molecular phylogenetic analysis suggests that Homo rhodesiensis and Homo heidelbergensis continued to intermix until 350,000 years ago, after which they were separate species and sometime within the last 200,000 years Homo heidelbergensis evolved into Homo neanderthalensis, the classic Neanderthal man. It appears that the original Neanderthal population was in fact more distantly related to today's human than is Homo heidelbergensis. However, recent evidence of successful interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans has made that issue moot, at least insofar as some Neanderthal populations were concerned.





The youngest Neanderthal finds include Hyaena Den (UK), considered older than 30,000 years ago, while the Vindija (Croatia) Neanderthals have been re-dated to between 32,000 and 33,000 years ago. No definite specimens younger than 30,000 years ago have been found; however, evidence of fire by Neanderthals at Gibraltar indicate that they may have survived there until 24,000 years ago. Cro-Magnon or early modern human skeletal remains with 'Neanderthal traits' were found in Lagar Velho (Portugal), dated to 24,500 years ago and controversially interpreted as indications of extensively admixed populations.[

Distance Between Sun and Earth in Rig Veda

It is amazing how much Western science has taught us. Today, for example, kids in grammar school learn that the sun is 93 million miles from the earth and that the speed of light is 186,000 miles per hours. Yoga may teach us about our Higher Self, but it can't supply this kind of information about physics or astronomy.Or can it?Professor Subhash Kak of Louisiana State University recently called my attention to a remarkable statement by Sayana, a fourteenth century Indian scholar. In his commentary on a hymn in the Rig Veda, the oldest and perhaps most mystical text ever composed in India, Sayana has this to say: "With deep respect, I bow to the sun, who travels 2,202 yojanas in half a nimesha."A yojana is about nine American miles; a nimesha is 16/75 of a second. Mathematically challenged readers, get out your calculators!2,202 yojanas x 9 miles x 75 - 8 nimeshas = 185,794 m.p.s.Basically, Sayana is saying that sunlight travels at 186,000 miles per second! How could a Vedic scholar who died in 1387 A.D. have known the correct figure for the speed of light? If this was just a wild guess it's the most amazing coincidence in the history of science!The yoga tradition is full of such coincidences. Take for instance the mala many yoga students wear around their neck. Since these rosaries are used to keep track of the number of mantras a person is repeating, students often ask why they have 108 beads instead of 100. Part of the reason is that the mala represent the ecliptic, the path of the sun and moon across the sky. Yogis divide the ecliptic into 27 equal sections called nakshatras, and each of these into four equal sectors called padas, or "steps," marking the 108 steps that the sun and moon take through heaven.Each is associated with a particular blessing force, with which you align yourself as you turn the beads.Traditionally, yoga students stop at the 109th "guru bead," flip the mala around in their hand, and continue reciting their mantra as they move backward through the beads. The guru bead represents the summer and winter solstices, when the sun appears to stop in its course and reverse directions. In the yoga tradition we learn that we're deeply interconnected with all of nature. Using a mala is a symbolic way of connecting ourselves with the cosmic cycles governing our universe.But Professor Kak points out other coincidences: The distance between the earth and the sun is approximately 108 times the sun's diameter. The diameter of the sun is about 108 times the earth's diameter. And the distance between the earth and the moon is 108 times the moon's diameter.Could this be the reason the ancient sages considered 108 such a sacred number? If the microcosm (us) mirrors the macrocosm (the solar system), then maybe you could say there are 108 steps between our ordinary human awareness and the divine light at the center of our being. Each time we chant another mantra as our mala beads slip through our fingers, we are taking another step toward our own inner sun.As we read through ancient Indian texts, we find so much the sages of antiquity could not possibly have known-but did. While our European and Middle Eastern ancestors claimed that the universe was created about 6,000 years ago, the yogis have always maintained that our present cosmos is billions of years old, and that it's just one of many such universes which have arisen and dissolved in the vastness of eternity.In fact the Puranas, encyclopedias of yogic lore thousands of years old, describe the birth of our solar system out of a "milk ocean," the Milky Way. Through the will of the Creator, they tell us, a vortex shaped like a lotus arose from the navel of eternity. It was called Hiranya Garbha, the shining womb. It gradually coalesced into our world, but will perish some day billions of years hence when the sun expands to many times it present size, swallowing all life on earth. In the end, the Puranas say, the ashes of the earth will be blown into space by the cosmic wind. Today we known this is a scientifically accurate, if poetic, description of the fate of our planet.The Surya Siddhanta is the oldest surviving astronomical text in the Indian tradition. Some Western scholars date it to perhaps the fifth or sixth centuries A.D., though the text itself claims to represent a tradition much, much older. It explains that the earth is shaped like a ball, and states that at the very opposite side of the planet from India is a great city where the sun is rising at the same time it sets in India. In this city, the Surya Siddhanta claims, lives a race of siddhas, or advanced spiritual adepts. If you trace the globe of the earth around to the exact opposite side of India, you'll find Mexico. Is it possible that the ancient Indians were well aware of the great sages/astronomers of Central America many centuries before Columbus discovered America?Knowing the unknowableTo us today it seems impossible that the speed of light or the fate of our solar system could be determined without advanced astronomical instruments. How could the writers of old Sanskrit texts have known the unknowable? In searching for an explanation we first need to understand that these ancient scientists were not just intellectuals, they were practicing yogis. The very first lines of the Surya Siddhanta, for of the Golden Age a great astronomer named Maya desired to learn the secrets of the heavens, so he first performed rigorous yogic practices. Then the answers to his questions appeared in his mind in an intuitive flash.Does this sound unlikely? Yoga Sutra 3:26-28 states that through, samyama (concentration, meditation, and unbroken mental absorption) on the sun, moon, and pole star, we can gain knowledge of the planets and stars. Sutra 3:33 clarifies, saying: "Through keenly developed intuition, everything can be known." Highly developed intuition is called pratibha in yoga. It is accessible only to those who have completely stilled their mind, focusing their attention on one object with laser-like intensity. Those who have limited their mind are no longer limited to the fragments of knowledge supplied by the five senses. All knowledge becomes accessible to them."There are [those] who would say that consciousness, acting on itself, can find universal knowledge," Professor Kak admits. "In fact this is the traditional Indian view."Perhaps the ancient sages didn't need advanced astronomical instruments. After all, they had yoga.Source:

Ram Sethu : Flight View

Selected Vesrses from Bhagavad Gita

This is after showing the global form , Vishwa Roopa darshan

The form which you are seeing with your transcendental eyes cannot be understood simply by studying the Vedas, nor by undergoing serious penances, nor by charity, nor by worship. It is not by these means that one can see Me as I am.
Chapter 11, Verse 53.


My dear Arjuna, only by undivided devotional service can I be understood as I am, standing before you, and can thus be seen directly. Only in this way can you enter into the mysteries of My understanding.
Chapter 11, Verse 54.

To be continued...

The four pillars of devotion

I am starting this article to explain about the four pillars of
devotion in hinduism view.

To be started ...

Why be a Vegetarian - 4

Thirukural in tamil

தன்னூன் பெருக்கற்குத் தான்பிறிது ஊனுண்பான்
எங்ஙனம் ஆளும் அருள்? 251

தன் உடலை வளர்பதற்காக வேறொரு உயிரின் உடலை உணவாக்கி கொள்பவர் எப்படி
கருணை உள்ளம் கொண்டவராக இருக்க முடியும்


பொருளாட்சி போற்றாதார்க்கு இல்லை அருளாட்சி
ஆங்கில்லை ஊன்தின் பவர்க்கு. 252

பொருளை பேணி காதிடதவர்க்கு பொருள் உடையவர் எனும் சிறப்பு இல்லை ;
புலால் உண்பவற்கு அருள் உடையவர் என்னும் சிறப்பு இல்லை

படைகொண்டார் நெஞ்சம்போல் நன்னூக்காது ஒன்றன்
உடல்சுவை உண்டார் மனம். 253

படை கருவியை பயன் படுத்துவோர் நெஞ்சமும், ஒரு உயிரின் உடலை
சுவைத்து உண்பவர் நெஞ்சமும் அருளுடமையை போற்ற கூடியவை அல்ல.


அருளல்ல யாதெனின் கொல்லாமை கோறல்
பொருளல்லது அவ்வூன் தினல். 254

கொல்லாமை அருளுடைமை ஆகும் ; கொல்லுதல் அருளற்ற செயலாகும் .
எனவே ஊன் அருந்துதல் அறம் ஆகாது

உண்ணாமை உள்ளது உயிர்நிலை ஊனுண்ண
அண்ணாத்தல் செய்யாது அளறு. 255

உயிர்களை உணவாக்கி கொள்ள சகதிக்குழியும் வாய் திறவாது; புலால் உண்ணாதவர்கள்
இருப்பதால் பல உயிர்கள் கொல்லபடாமல் வாழ்கின்றன


தினற்பொருட்டால் கொல்லாது உலகெனின் யாரும்
விலைப்பொருட்டால் ஊன்றருவா ரில். 256

புலால் உண்பதற்காக உலகினர் உயிர்களை கொல்லதிருபின், புலால் விற்பனை செய்யும்
தொழிலை எவரும் மேற்கொள்ள மாட்டார்கள்.


உண்ணாமை வேண்டும் புலாஅல் பிறிதொன்றன்
புண்ணது உணர்வார்ப் பெறின். 257

புலால் என்பது வேறொரு உயிரின் உடற்புன் என்பதை உணர்ந்தோர்
அதனை உண்ணாமல் இருக்கவேண்டும்

செயிரின் தலைப்பிரிந்த காட்சியார் உண்ணார்
உயிரின் தலைப்பிரிந்த ஊன். 258

மாசற்ற மதி உடையோர் , ஒரு உயிரை பிரித்து அதன் ஊனை உன்ன மாட்டார்கள்

அவிசொரிந் தாயிரம் வேட்டலின் ஒன்றன்
உயிர்செகுத் துண்ணாமை நன்று. 259

நெய் போன்ற பொருட்களை தீயில்இட்டு ஆயிரம் வேள்விகள் நடத்துவதைவிட
உண்பதற்காக ஓர் உயிரை போக்காமல் இருப்பது நல்லது


கொல்லான் புலாலை மறுத்தானைக் கைகூப்பி
எல்லா உயிருந் தொழும். 260

புலால் உன்னதவர்களையும் அதற்காக உயிர்களை கொல்லதவர்களையும்
எல்லா உயிரினங்களும் வணங்கி வாழ்த்தும்

To be continued..


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Why be a Vegetarian - 3

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The Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita View of Vegetarianism
The very name of the cows is aghnya, indicating that they should never be slaughtered. Who, then could slay them? Surely, one who kills a cow or a bull commits the most heinous crime.
Mahabharata, Shantiparva 262.47. FS,pg. 94

The purchaser of flesh performs himsa (violence) by his wealth; he who eats flesh does so by enjoying its taste; the killer does himsa by actually tying and killing the animal. Thus, there are three forms of killing: he who brings flesh or sends for it, he who cuts off the limbs of an animal, and he who purchases, sells or cooks flesh and eats it -all of these are to be considered meat-eaters.
Mahabharata, Anu. 115.40. FS, pg 90

He who desires to augment his own flesh by eating the flesh of other creatures lives in misery in whatever species he may take his birth.
Mahabharata, Anu. 115.47. FS, pg. 90

One should never do that to another which one regards as injurious to one's own self. This, in brief, is the rule of dharma. Yielding to desire and acting differently, one becomes guilty of adharma.
Mahabharata 18.113.8.

Those high-souled persons who desire beauty, faultlessness of limbs, long life, understanding, mental and physical strength and memory should abstain from acts of injury.
Mahabharata 18.115.8.

Ahimsa is the highest dharma. Ahimsa is the best tapas. Ahimsa is the greatest gift. Ahimsa is the highest self-control. Ahimsa is the highest sacrifice. Ahimsa is the highest power. Ahimsa is the highest friend. Ahimsa is the highest truth. Ahimsa is the highest teaching.
Mahabharata 18.116.37-41.

He who sees that the Lord of all is ever the same in all that is-immortal in the field of mortality-he sees the truth. And when a man sees that the God in himself is the same God in all that is, he hurts not himself by hurting others. Then he goes, indeed, to the highest path.
Bhagavad Gita 13. 27-28. BgM, pg. 101

Nonviolence, truth, freedom from anger, renunciation, serenity, aversion to fault-finding, sympathy for all beings, peace from greedy cravings, gentleness, modesty, steadiness, energy, forgiveness, fortitude, purity, a good will, freedom from pride-these belong to a man who is born for heaven.
Bhagavad Gita 16.2-3. BGM, pg. 109

To be continued..
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Why be a Vegetarian - 2

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VEDA'S View about vegetarianism

LET YOUR AIMS BE COMMON, and your hearts be of one accord, and all of you be of one mind, so you may live well together.
Rig Veda Samhita 10.191

Protect both our species, two-legged and four-legged. Both food and water for their needs supply. May they with us increase in stature and strength. Save us from hurt all our days, O Powers!
Rig Veda Samhita 10.37.11. VE, 319

One who partakes of human flesh, the flesh of a horse or of another animal, and deprives others of milk by slaughtering cows, O King, if such a fiend does not desist by other means, then you should not hesitate to cut off his head.
Rig Veda Samhita, 10.87.16, FS 90

Peaceful be the earth, peaceful the ether, peaceful heaven, peaceful the waters, peaceful the herbs, peaceful the trees. May all Gods bring me peace. May there be peace through these invocations of peace. With these invocations of peace which appease everything, I render peaceful whatever here is terrible, whatever here is cruel, whatever here is sinful. Let it become auspicious, let everything be beneficial to us.
Atharva Veda Samhita 10. 191. 4

Those noble souls who practice meditation and other yogic ways, who are ever careful about all beings, who protect all animals, are the ones who are actually serious about spiritual practices.
Atharva Veda Samhita 19.48.5. FS, 90

If we have injured space, the earth or heaven, or if we have offended mother or father, from that may Agni, fire of the house, absolve us and guide us safely to the world of goodness.
Atharva Veda Samhita 6.120.1. VE, 636
You must not use your God-given body for killing God's creatures, whether they are human, animal or whatever.
Yajur Veda Samhita 12.32. FS, 90

May all beings look at me with a friendly eye. May I do likewise, and may we all look on each other with the eyes of a friend.
Yajur Veda 36.18.

Nonviolence is all the offerings. Renunciation is the priestly honorarium. The final purification is death. Thus all the Divinities are established in this body.
Krishna Yajur Veda, Prana Upanishad 46-8. VE, 413-14

To the heavens be peace, to the sky and the earth; to the waters be peace, to plants and all trees; to the Gods be peace, to Brahman be peace, to all men be peace, again and again-peace also to me! O earthen vessel, strengthen me. May all beings regard me with friendly eyes! May I look upon all creatures with friendly eyes! With a friend's eye may we regard each other!
Shukla Yajur Veda Samhita 36.17-18. VE, 306; 342

No pain should be caused to any created being or thing.
Devikalottara agama, JAV 69-79. RM, 116

To be continued...

Why be a Vegetarian - 1

Today’s mechanical life makes us to only run, it does not allow us to stand and think. We are in a great nation blessed with lot of natural resources, Proper climate, etc and other essential things for leading a peaceful life. But the important thing is we INDIA had provided the greatest wisdom to the world. Our nation is rich in wisdom; every child born here will be able to achieve the highest level of wisdom, if there is even a minimal effort. Now let us discuss about one of the preaching’s of our nation to the world ‘The Vegetarianism’.
When we look into the Indian history, the 2000 year old Tamil literature ‘THIRUKURAL’ clearly emphasis on the vegetarianism. ‘THIRUKURAL’ is considered as holy book for all Tamil peoples. Thirukural is a 2 line poem that speaks about moral living. Saint Thiruvalluvar has composed that. There are 1330 poems totally in 130 Titles. Out of that 2 Titles are completely dedicated to Vegetarianism, so we have 20 poems in total.
We can see the from Thirukural View here.

The Tirukural, Preeminent Ethical Scripture

Perhaps nowhere is the principle of nonmeat-eating so fully and eloquently expressed as in the Tirukural, written in the Tamil language by a simple weaver saint in a village near Madras over 2,000 years ago. Considered the world's greatest ethical scripture, it is sworn on in South Indian courts of law.

It is the principle of the pure in heart never to injure others, even when they themselves have been hatefully injured. What is virtuous conduct? It is never destroying life, for killing leads to every other sin.
312; 321, Thiru Walluwar (TW)


Harming others, even enemies who harmed you unprovoked, assures incessant sorrow. The supreme principle is this: never knowingly harm any one at any time in any way.
313; 317, TW


What is the good way? It is the path that reflects on how it may avoid killing any living creature. Refrain from taking precious life from any living being, even to save your own life.
324; 327, TW


How can he practice true compassion Who eats the flesh of an animal to fatten his own flesh?
TK 251, TW


Riches cannot be found in the hands of the thriftless. Nor can compassion be found in the hearts of those who eat meat.
TK 252, TW


Goodness is never one with the minds of these two: one who wields a weapon and one who feasts on a creature's flesh.
TK 253, TW


If you ask, "What is kindness and what is unkind?" it is not killing and killing. Thus, eating flesh is never virtuous.
TK 254, TW


Life is perpetuated by not eating meat.The clenched jaws of hell hold those who do.
TK 255, TW


If the world did not purchase and consume meat, there would be none to slaughter and offer meat for sale.
TK 256, TW


When a man realizes that meat is the butchered flesh of another creature, he must abstain from eating it.
TK 257, TW


Perceptive souls who have abandoned passion will not feed on flesh abandoned by life.
TK 258, TW


Greater than a thousand ghee offerings consumed in sacrificial fires is to not sacrifice and consume any living creature.
TK 259, TW


All that lives will press palms together in prayerful adoration of those who refuse to slaughter and savor meat.
TK 260, TW

To be continued ....