Scientific Dating Of Vedas

This article appeared in the Op-ed column of deccan chronicle paper.I felt it is worth sharing.here is the Original article.Enjoy reading.Credits to Deccan chronicle news paper and the original author.

The Vedas are described as apaurusheya, that is, written by no man. They were transmitted down from one generation to the next without anyone having a clue as to who wrote them. This question of authorship of the Vedas is linked with another, perhaps more tractable, question: When were they written? From the study of the contents, the language and allusions to events, Western scholars arrived at the figure of around 3.5 to four thousand years ago as the age of Vedic literature.

Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, known to most Indians for his leadership of the Indian national movement for Independence, before the arrival on the scene of Mahatma Gandhi, had a multifaceted personality. He was well versed in mathematics, had written a learned commentary of the Bhagavad Gita called the Geetarahasya, had a philosophical bent and took great interest in social issues besides running a national newspaper, Kesari, of which he was also the editor. Last, but not the least, he possessed basic knowledge of astronomy which he put to use in a highly original fashion to decide the antiquity of the Vedas.

To understand the basis of Tilak’s approach, let us first look at the way the earth spins around its axis as it goes round the sun. It is because of that spin that we see the heavenly bodies go westward in the sky in a 24-hour cycle. Only the Pole Star appears to be fixed in space, because it lies on the axis of spin. An excellent comparison with the earth’s spin is provided by a spinning top, which can be spun by pulling the string wrapped around it. With sufficient practice, one can toss such a top on the floor and watch it move round as it spins.

Such a spinning top shows another feature. Its axis of spin is not fixed in space, but it precesses, that is, moves along a cone thus making the top wobble. The same applies to the earth: its spin axis too precesses in space. But, did we not say that it is fixed in the direction of the Pole Star? Well, that was an approximate statement. It will be more accurate to say that the axis precesses very slowly, making a single round on the cone in around 26,000 years. So to us mortals it seems fixed in space within our sub-century lifespan. However, if we compare astronomical records over several centuries we would discover this motion. For example, the star Polaris (or the star Dhruva in Indian literature) was not the Pole Star 5,000 years ago. Another star, today known as Thuban, had that status because the earth’s spin axis pointed in its direction then.

But can a layman notice any change in the stellar or terrestrial environment when looking at the astronomical records? The answer is “yes” and to see how that happens, let us see how, when viewed from the earth, the sun changes its direction through the year. Observers over the centuries have used known stellar groups to identify this change of direction. These are the so-called signs of the zodiac. So the sun moves against the zodiacal background and can be located with reference to the sign of stars at its back. The calendar of the year identifies the 12 signs of the zodiac with 12 months and the apparent path of the sun is called the ecliptic.

We learn in school geography that the length of the day changes through the year, being the longest on June 21 and the shortest on December 22. In between, there are two locations on the ecliptic where the day and night are equal. These are called the spring equinox and the autumn equinox. These fall on March 21 and September 21 respectively. This variation in the length of the day would not have occurred if the earth’s spin axis were perpendicular to the ecliptic. In reality, the axis makes an angle of approximately 66 degrees. And as we saw earlier, the spin axis is slowly precessing. The result is that the points of equinox also slowly move along the ecliptic, taking 26,000 years to make one round.

We also learn in geography texts that seasons arise because of the above configuration. Spring begins when the sun is at the spring equinox and autumn when it is at the autumn equinox. However, as we just saw, the equinoxal points slowly change their positions against the zodiacal groups of stars. Therefore, in the annual calendar, the months identified with a season will slowly change. In particular, if we decide to start the year with the sun at the spring equinox, the first month of the year would change because of the slow shift of the spring equinox.

This was the clue that Tilak worked on. He was led to it by a shloka from the Bhagavad Gita in which Lord Krishna, identifying himself with the best and most important in any class of objects or people, says: “I am Margashirsha amongst the months and spring amongst the seasons”.

In modern times Margashirsha does not fall in the spring season; rather it falls closer to the autumn. So why this discrepancy? The discrepancy is resolved if we argue that the statement was made when Margashirsha fell in the spring season. By turning the earth clock backwards, we move the equinoxes backwards until the spring equinox was in the zodiacal group identified with Margashirsha. This gave him an estimate of the antiquity of the statement.

Tilak used this approach to look at astronomical allusions in Vedic literature and from them sought to build up the stellar framework that must have existed when the statement was made. His monograph, The Orion: Research into the Antiquity of the Vedas, is a scholarly discussion of this approach. He arrived at an age for the Vedas much older than the age estimated by Western scholars. This opened the door to controversy as to which method is correct. While Tilak’s reliance on astronomical data gave him a reliable clock, the weakness of his method probably lay in the authenticity of the allusions he had used. Whatever the eventual outcome of this ongoing exercise of dating our ancient literature, we have to give credit to Tilak for his ingenious approach.

- Jayant V. Narlikar is a professor emiritus at
Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune University Campus, and a renowned astrophysicist

 

Principle of astrology proven to be scientific

I was browsing through some group pages and found this article. Hope this was worth sharing.here is the original part of the article.Credits to the original author.

Principle of astrology proven to be scientific: planetary position imprints biological clocks of mammals

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

(NaturalNews) Mention the word "astrology" and skeptics go into an epileptic fit. The idea that someone's personality could be imprinted at birth according to the position of the sun, moon and planets has long been derided as "quackery" by the so-called "scientific" community which resists any notion based on holistic connections between individuals and the cosmos.

According to the conventional view, your genes and your parenting determine your personality, and the position of planet Earth at the time of your birth has nothing to do with it.

Then again, conventional scientists don't believe the position of the moon has anything to do with life on Earth, either. They dismiss the wisdom that farmers have known for ages -- that planting seeds or transplanting living plants in harmony with the moon cycles results in higher crop yields. Even the seeds inside humans are strongly influenced by the moon, as menstruation cycles and moon cycles are closely synchronized (28 days, roughly).

Researchers demonstrate scientific principle of astrology

Skeptics must be further bewildered by the new research published in Nature Neuroscience and conducted at Vanderbilt University which unintentionally provides scientific support for the fundamental principle of astrology -- namely, that the position of the planets at your time of birth influences your personality.

In this study, not only did the birth month impact personality; it also resulted in measurable functional changes in the brain.

This study, conducted on mice, showed that mice born in the winter showed a "consistent slowing" of their daytime activity. They were also more susceptible to symptoms that we might call "Seasonal Affective Disorder."

The study was carried out by Professor of Biological Sciences Douglas McMahon, graduate student Chris Ciarleglio, post-doctoral fellow Karen Gamble and two additional undergraduate students, none of whom believe in astrology, apparently. They do, of course, believe in science, which is why all their study findings have been draped in the language of science even though the findings are essentially supporting principles of astrology.

"What is particularly striking about our results is the fact that the imprinting affects both the animal's behavior  and the cycling of the neurons in the master biological clock in their brains," said Ciarleglio. This is one of the core principles of astrology: That the position of the planets at the time of your birth (which might be called the "season" of your birth) can actually result in changes in your brain physiology which impact lifelong behavior.

Once again, such an idea sounds preposterous to the scientifically trained, unless of course they discover it for themselves, at which point it's all suddenly very "scientific." Instead of calling it "astrology," they're now referring to it as "seasonal biology."

How to discredit real science

It all reminds me of the discovery of cold fusion in 1989 by Fleishmann and Pons, who were widely ridiculed by the arrogant hot fusion researchers who tried to destroy the credibility (and careers) of cold fusion researchers (http://www.naturalnews.com/025925_c...). After the very idea of "cold fusion" was attacked and demolished by these arrogant scientists, it soon returned under a new name: Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR).

LENR has now been verified as true by none other than the U.S. Navy -- along with hundreds of other researchers around the world (see link above). And yet, even today, the conventional scientific community still insists cold fusion doesn't exist and cold fusion researchers are frauds.

Just as there is a solid scientific basis for LENR, there is a scientific basis for astrology, too. The relationship between the Earth, Moon and Sun naturally alter light exposure, temperature, gravitational pull and other conditions that may be sensed by living organisms. To believe in astrology, all that's really required is to grasp the basic concepts of the interrelationships between all living things. Does the position of the sun or moon influence life on Earth? Of course it does: Life as we know it wouldn't even exist without the moon tugging on Earth and preventing its rotational axis from shifting around to the point where radical changes in seasonal temperatures would make life far more challenging. (The moon, in other words, is one of the key "stabilizers" of life on planet Earth because it tends to stabilize the seasons and keep the Earth on a steady rotational plane.)

None of this, of course, means that the position of Saturn today is going to make you win the lottery or find a new love. That's the tabloid version of astrology, not real astrology.

Don't confuse tabloid astrology with real astrology

Even astronomy has its tabloid versions, too, which are entirely non-scientific. For example, every model of our solar system that I've ever seen is a wildly inaccurate tabloid version of reality, with planet sizes ridiculously exaggerated and planet distances not depicted to scale. These silly, non-scientific solar system models imprint a kind of solar system mythology into the minds of schoolchildren and even school teachers. Virtually no one outside the communities of astrophysics and astronomy has any real grasp of the enormity of not merely our solar system, but of our galaxy and the space between neighboring galaxies.

To show a giant sun the size of a basketball, with a depiction of the Earth as a marble-sized planet three inches away is the astronomical equivalent of a gimmicky horoscope claiming you're going to win the lottery today because you were born under the sign of Pisces. Both are fictions. And both are an insult to real science.

In fact, even the whole idea that an "electron" is a piece of physical matter, made up of other "particles" is an insult to real science. The sobering truth of the matter is that "particle physics" doesn't have much to do with actual particles at all. It's all about energies that might, on occasion, vibrate in just the right way so that they momentarily appear to take on the illusion of a particle as measured by our observers -- observers who inevitably alter the outcome of the entire experiment, by the way, once again proving the interrelated nature of things in our universe, including observer and experiment.

The horoscope predictions in the Sunday paper -- as well as much of the hilarious mythology found in the modern description of an atom -- are both simplified, comic-book versions of a larger truth -- the truth that we live in a holistic universe where every bit of physical matter, every bit of energy and every conscious mind impacts the rest of the universe in subtle ways. There is no such thing as an individual who is isolated from the cosmos, because we are of the cosmos and we exist as the physical manifestations of energies that, for our lifetimes, are momentarily organized as beings.

We are made of star stuff, says Carl Sagan. He he's right: We are not only made of star stuff, we are influenced by that stuff, too. And finally, modern science is beginning to catch up to this greater truth that astrologers have known since the dawn of human existence on our tiny planet.
 

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Secret Behind OM

"OM" is a word known to all of us .But its benefits ??
ok let me start this post with an amazing fact
** OM is a word which can be spoken by DUMB people also**
Amazing isn't it?? yeah why dont you try it out ??Just try pronouncing OM without shaking your tongue?? were you able to tell??
OM is made up of three components A,U.M and it is derived from Vedas.It is representative of the Supreme God Principle (Parabrahman).

If you observe the nature of sound you'll find that all ordinary audible sound are produced by the striking of two objects : bow and strings, drum and stick, two vocal cords, waves against the shore, winds against the leaves, bat against the ball, tyers against the road etc. In short all sounds within our range of listening are produces by things visible or invisible, striking each other or vibrating together, resulting in pulsating waves of air molecules which we interprets as sound.

In contrast to the above, OM is the sound which is not the result of the striking of two objects. It, rather emanates on its own. It is the primal sound of the universe that contains all sounds in itself.

Chanting of Om has several benefits – therapeutic, psychological and spiritual. Even if you don’t know the meaning of Om or are otherwise skeptic about it, you can still avail the therapeutic benefits from it.
The vibration produced by chanting Om in the physical universe corresponds to the original vibration that first arose at the time of creation. The sound of Om is also called Pranava, meaning that it sustains life and runs through Prana or breath.
It has been scientifically proved that singing OM has invaluable vibratory effects in our bodies, helps to achieve slow, regular and complete exhalation, aids to control and relax our breathing system and has several soothing effects in our minds.

Lets now look at the benefits of OM

The sustained 'O' -formed by the 'AU'- sound makes all the bones of the thoracic cage vibrate, proving that vibration is communicated to the mass of air contained in our lungs and that the delicate membrane of alveolus in contact with this air vibrates too, this stimulates the pulmonary cells and enables an optimum gaseous exchange in our lungs. Furthermore, the latest research of many Western physiologists has also shown how this vibration produces very accentuated effects in the endocrine glands, to which Science is gradually attributing an increasing importance.

Besides, the vibrant internal massage resulting from the emission of the vowels 'au', acts especially in the abdominal organs and the organs of the thoracic cage, whilst the vibration of the 'mmm' in our skulls induces a vibration of the cranial nerves.

The therapeutic or health benefits:-

Om is a foolproof method to add healthy years to your life.

a. Chanting of Om several times would relax your entire body and regulate your hormonal system.

b. If you have disorders due to anxiety or worry, or you tend to lose temper, there can be no better remedy.

c. It acts like a detoxifying agent for entire body. If your environment is polluted, you MUST use it.

d. It strengthens heart and circulatory system.

e. It will make your digestion stronger.

f. It will bring youthfulness in body and face.

g. If you are tired and exhausted, it can serve as a great rejuvenator.

h. It can solve most worrisome sleep disturbance patterns, in case you suffer from it. You would wake up alert from sleep if you practice it in night.

i. It strengthens your lungs with some practice.

Psychological benefits:-

a. It can make you much more relaxed to face the world around comfortably.

b. It can help you control your anger and frustration. If you have been chanting Om regularly, it is unlikely that you get angry.

c. It can help you be in resonance with nature. Thus you would find yourself much more intuitive and in control of things. Your gut feel will become much higher.

d. Your interpersonal relationships will improve. You would be able to develop rapport with people much better and make friends from enemies.

e. You will find life much more meaningful and purposeful and carry that natural smile.

f. You will find a jump in your enthusiasm and activity level. Your alertness would increase.

Other Benefits:-

-The chanting of Om drives away all worldly thoughts and removes distraction and infuses new vigour in the body.

-When you feel depressed, chant Om fifty times and you will be filled with new vigour and strength. The chanting of Om is a powerful tonic. -When you chant Om, you feel you are the pure, all pervading light and consciousness.

-Those who chant Om will have a powerful, sweet voice. Whenever you take a stroll, you can chant Om. You can also sing Om in a beautiful way. -The rythmic pronunciation of Om makes the mind serene and pointed, and infuses the spiritual qualifications which ensure self-realization.

-Those who do meditation of Om daily will get tremendous power. They will have lustre in their eyes and faces.

The OM being chanted during the exhalation, it directly contributes to make it slow, regular and complete. The emission of the 'Au' sound limits the pace of the expired air, and the benefits of slow breathing are numerous and well known by Yoga practitioners

So get on and start Chanting OM to reap the sweetest fruits. Wonder How?? Here are some tips to get you started

-Sit in a quiet place in a comfortable posture.

-close your eyes relax your body and nerves.

-Take few deep breaths

-Start chanting OM and feel its vibration.

-continue till you feel comfortable.

-When finished just relax and open your eyes.

Om is the ladder which takes the aspirant to the loftier levels of superconsciousness and spiritual heights of splendor and glory.