Owls in Hinduism
A single owl can ruin the beauty of an orchard. If an owl sits on every branch what will be the result.
So goes a saying in Hindi. Sometimes I think Hinduism suffers from too many owls.
Case in point Following message from orkut (I have to waste my time)
Bhargo devasya dheemahi**Dhiyo yo nah prachodayat*Gayatri mantra has been bestowed the greatest importance in Vedc dharma............. The mantra, however, has a great scientific import too, which somehow got lost in the literary tradition.
The modern astrophysics and astronomy tell us that our Galaxy called Milky Way or Akash-Ganga contains approximately100,000 million of stars. Each star is like our sun having its own planet system. We know that the moon moves round the earth and the earth moves round the sun along with the moon. .........
(A) Om bhur bhuvah swah:Bhur the earth, bhuvah the planets (solar family), swah the Galaxy. We observe that when an ordinary fan with a speed of 900 RPM (rotation Per minute) moves, it makes noise. Then, one can imagine, what great noise would be created when the galaxies move with a speed of 20,000miles per second.This is what this portion of the mantra explains that the sound produced due to the fast-moving earth, planets and galaxies is Om. The sound was heard during meditation by Rishi Vishvamitra, who mentioned it to other colleagues. All of them, then unanimously decided to call this sound Om the name of God, because this sound is available in al the three periods of time, hence it is set (permanent).
Therefore, it was the first ever revolutionary idea to identify formless God with a specific title (form)called upadhi. Until that time, everybody recognized God as formless and nobody was prepared to accept this new idea. In the Gita also, it is said,"Omiti ekaksharam brahma", meaning that the name of the Supreme is Om, which contains only one syllable (8/12). This sound Om heard during Samadhi was called by all the seers nada-brahma a very great noise), but not a noise that is normally beyond a specific amplitude and limits of decibels suited to human hearing. Hence the rishis called this sound Udgith musical sound of the above, i.e., heaven.They also noticed that the infinite mass of galaxies moving with a velocity of 20,000miles/second was generating a kinetic energy = ? MV2 and this was balancing the total energy consumption of the cosmos. Hence they named it Pranavah, which means the body (vapu) or store house of energy(prana).
(B) Tat savitur varenyam:Tat that (God), savitur the sun (star), varenyam worthy of bowing orrespect. Once the form of a person along with the name is known to us, we may locate the specific person. Hence the two titles (upadhi)provide the solid ground to identify the formless God, Vishvamitra suggested. He told us that we could know (realize) the unknowable formless God through the known factors, viz., sound Om and light of suns (stars). A mathematician can solve an equation x2+y2=4; if x=2;then y can be known and so on. An engineer can measure the width of a river even by standing at the river bank just by drawing a triangle. So was the scientific method suggested by Vishvamitra in the mantra in the next portion as under
(C) Bhargo devasya dheemahi:Bhargo the light, devasya of the deity, dheemahi we should meditate.The rishi instructs us to meditate upon the available form (light of suns) to discover the formless Creator (God). Also he wants us to dojapa of the word Om (this is understood in the Mantra). This is how the sage wants us to proceed, but there is a great problem to realise it,as the human mind is so shaky and restless that without the grace of the Supreme (Brahma) it cannot be controlled. Hence Vishvamitrasuggests the way to pray Him as under:
(D) Dhiyo yo nah prachodayat:Dhiyo (intellect), yo (who), nah (we all), prachodayat (guide to right Direction). O God! Deploy our intellect on the right path. Full scientific interpretation of the Mantra:The earth (bhur), the planets (bhuvah), and the galaxies(swah) are moving at a very great velocity,the sound produced is Om, (the name of formless God.)That God (tat), who manifests Himself in the form of light of suns(savitur)is worthy of bowing/respect(varenyam). We all, therefore, should meditate(dheemahi) upon the light (bhargo) of that deity (devasya) and also do chanting of Om. ?May He (yo) guide in right direction(prachodayat) our (nah) intellect (dhiyo).So we notice that the important points hinted in the mantra are
1) The total kinetic energy generated by the movement galaxies acts asanumbrella and balances the total energy consumption of the cosmos. Hence it was named as the Pranavah (body of energy). This is equal to ?mv2(Mass of galaxies x velocity2).
2) Realising the great importance of the syllable OM, the other later date religions adopted this word with a slight change in accent, viz.,amen and Ameen.
3)The God could be realised through the saguna (gross), upasana(method), i.e.,a) by chanting the name of the supreme as OM andb) by meditating upon the light emitted by stars (suns)
What is wrong with the people! Yes I also believe that Hinduism does hold great promise. However manufacturing accomplishments where none exists is beyond stupid. For the last time Hindus did not invent light bulb or anti-biotics or aerodynamics. We have to thank modern science for this.
PS. And murtis do not drink milk for God sake ! ^*& #&## ! Religion is not a conjurer's trick.
5 comments:
Hi Gaurav,
Broadly agree...some comments though:
1)
> Yes I also believe that Hinduism does hold great promise.
Didn't quite get this. 'Hold great promise' as in : in terms of something to achieve - something specific that it has failed to do so far? or as in 'lot of things in yet to be discovered'?
To me, i don't think a religion needs to prove anything to anyone - if it is a true religion.
2)
> For the last time Hindus did not invent light bulb or anti-biotics or aerodynamics.
...or even if they did :), we should be calling it an 'Indian' invention. for eg. there's a tendency to call zero a 'Hindu' invention. I'd prefer 'Indian'.
Also, giving scientific ideas a religious hue discourages the credit-due mechanism to the country. Though of course, in the ancient days they were very intermingled eg. many geometrical acheivements had their basis in what we now call religion - construction of altars etc. But i'd still prefer saying 'Indian'.
3) I feel the tendency you point to in some Indians, is a reaction to the long suppresion of true achievements of ancient Indians.
I do not ever recall reading about real achievements of ancient Indians in our history textbooks. All i read was about the 'glorious Mughal empire'.
So what's hapenning is that people who now are exposed (in large part due to the internet) about some of the real achievements are 'over-compensating'.
4) The remedy to this is to teach our children true historically proven achievements. Not only in history textbooks but also in the relevant subject : for eg. how about telling math students that the much-used 'Taylor series'/'tests of convergence for infinite series' etc. were discovered by Madhava of Sangamagrama long, long before the Europeans.
Or a computing class being taught the 'Panini-Backus' form.
5) Lastly, i'd say there are far more people denigrating ancient Indians and Hinduism, than people who are crowing (or should that be 'owling' :) about achievements. And of course, you'll ALWAYS have the extreme fellows anytime.
Sharan wait for detailed reply
Regards
Really, I didn't see much wrogn with the extract you quoted, except for the claim that Hindus knew e=mc^2. Really, as Sharan said, it seems to be true that Indians were far far ahead of all other civilisations of their time, but no one can claim that they were far ahead of the present world too! Certainly not in scientific achievement, though one knows not the exact extent of India's achievement in spirituality in the past, so we can't comment on it.
kArttik : The guy has simply given some fancy imaginative interpretation, there is absolutely no substantiation given to any of the claims.
gaurav :
1. There is a beautiful saying by Osho, something like "Don't mix Indian science with western spirituality".
2. I agree with sharaN's point 1 : who cares about beauty etc. except people who don't believe in higher things to aspire for?
sharaN : what is wrong with calling some inventions hindu rather than Indian ( as long as we consider Guptas hindus etc. )?
Hi FITW,
> what is wrong with calling some inventions hindu rather than Indian ( as long as we consider Guptas hindus etc. )?
Oh, nothing wrong factually in many cases. Of course, one must remember that a lot of ancient mathematical development were made by Jains. In which case, do we then say 'Jain invention'? To me the nation gains precedence and is more relevant when to talk about it in the present-day world.
Another loose parallel, it's kind of like saying that the origin of modern martial arts came from a Buddhist. Here again, i'd stick to saying an 'Indian' - Bodhidharma.
Giving *national* attribution to inventions/discoveries also gives it certain 'identity continuity' - so all discoveries, past or future, get 'branded' as Indian, rather than Hindu, Muslim, Christian etc. So a future discovery by an Indian is an 'Indian' discovery and not, say, a Muslim discovery. Therefore, regressing into time, i apply the same set of rules to branding and call everything Indian.
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