sahiti

Myth 1: Britishers unified India. If not for Britishers, India would still have been a bunch of princely states

Some Facts: Britishers had Provinces for administrative ease. Princily states did exist during the British Raj. They were probably the kings who accepted the terms of Britishers instead of fighting them and a mutual agreement has been sorted out.

There were not one or two but nearly 600 such princely states!

To quote wiki

“There were between 570 and 600 princely states which enjoyed special recognition by and relationship with the British Raj. The British government announced in the Indian Independence Act 1947 that with the transfer of power on August 15, 1947, all of these states would be freed of their obligations to the British Empire, and thus would be free to join either India or Pakistan, or to choose to become independent.”

The states of Gwalior, Bikaner, Patiala and Baroda were the first to join India on April 28, 1947. Others were wary, distrusting a democratic government led by revolutionaries of uncertain, and possibly radical views, and fearful of losing their influence as rulers. Travancore and Hyderabad announced their desire for independence while the Nawab of Bhopal, Hamidullah Khan, expressed his desire to either negotiate with Pakistan or seek independence. The Nawab was a powerful influence on a number of princes, as he was the former chancellor of the Chamber of Princes. In addition, Jodhpur, Indore and Jaisalmer conducted a dialogue with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the slated Governor-General of Pakistan, to discuss terms for a possible accession to it. While this surprised many in both India and Pakistan, neither party could ultimately ignore the
fact that these kingdoms were Hindu-majority, which rendered their membership in overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan untenable.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was the Minister for Home and States Affairs, and was given the explicit responsibility of welding a
united and strategically secure India in time for the transfer of power. Patel was considered the best man for the task by the Congress Party, as well as Lord Mountbatten and senior British officials. Mahatma Gandhi had, in fact, said to Patel “the problem of the States is so difficult that you alone can solve it”. He was recognised by the Princes and parliamentarians alike to be a man of integrity; and, in addition, he was believed to have the practical acumen and resolve to accomplish the monumental task.

Quote ends.


So “Britishers” have not unified India..as we are popularly made to believe…! It was our own iron man, sardar vallabhai patel, who was instrumental in unifying all the princely states, using mostly diplomacy and even military action if and when needed!


Myth 2: Britishers “gave” us the railways.

The Steam engine was discovered in 1765, by James watt (though it was discovered much earlier The increased efficiency of the Watt engine finally led to the general acceptance and use of steam power in industry)and it was around 1811 that the worlds first commercial railway was run. It is no wonder that the railways were established in india at the same time when they were established all over the world.

Railways were established by the British for quicker transport of material and men to the areas required and not to “serve” Indians !!!! Afterall they have come to India for business (not social service, as they want us to believe!) and meant business till the very day they left !!!

The surmise that in absence of Britishers, independent kings of india would not have used that invention to their advantage or for the benifit of their citizens is too far fetched !!!

ditto with the postal system. The ancient postal systems or communication systems all over world were the same, the courier
personally carrying the message or a pigeon or a person running from one village to the other in relay. General postal systems as used today by the common public evolved only during the 18th and 19th centuries. Britishers happened to be in India during that time and hence they introduced it.

If postal and railway sytems existed long before Britishers came, but the incapable, uneducated, Indians or the self-centered kings did not take them up and were living in ignorance…then Britishers came and “introduced” or “gave” them to us….only then the argument holds some water…!!!!

More myths about the education system, administrative system and the medical care are to follow..am a bit hard pressed for time…




PS: Motivated by the comments of Mr. Bharatiya for my prev post


As for Mr. Bharatiyas medal to the Britishers about “human rights” i prefer not to say much. For, history speaks for
itself ..if throwing out someone out of train or stepping on someones back to step into carriage bcos they are not “white” is human rights, and if Jaliyan walah bagh is human rights….i have nth to say!!!!

If he is just comparing them to the muslim invaders and said they did not persecute as much as the later did…may be yes! But i wonder if that can be called human rights awareness !!

Some of the “secular” historians of today have took upon them the benovelant task of white washing the Indian history and of absolving the muslim invaders of the blood stained ruthless acts. Such versions of history would only incite hatred against “certain” sections and hence should be refrained from, is what they say!! Excuse me! Did you say you want to re-write history- literally? Oh! yes! It is being done very well already! The school text books are full of them! The school text books have become such a farce that they keep changing the content whenever the party in the power changes at the center..!!!! so much for the triumph of the truth !!! (Satyameva Jayate!)

Are these “secular” ppl happy by just absolving the invaders? No! That wouldnt suffice, right? There was distruction as can be seen and some one had caused the destruction…then who??? Whoelse, you block head! The hindus themselves! The “majority” hindus, drove away the “minority” Buddhists out of their motherland!!! The higher caste hindus or the “Brahmins” to be precise!!!They are the only reason, we see less buddhists in India and more in Nepal, Tibet, China and the far East..poor Buddhists fleed from Hindus !

Who says this? No, not some uneducated uninformed fellas! They are our own historians including our beloved first PM Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru who promoted this view !!! Dont believe, read it here … http://www.rediff.com/news/2001/mar/12spec.htm

Quotes Begin

“In 1965, André Malraux, the French philosopher, author and minister for culture, told an audience at Benares Hindu University about a conversation he had had with Jawaharlal Nehru. The French writer had asked the Indian prime minister, “What, according to you, is the reason Buddhism was lost to India, after India had given Buddhism to the world?” Nehru did not have an immediate answer, but later said he thought India had gradually made Buddha into one its gods and this had led to the disappearance of Buddhism from India.”

A more precise version of the history was given by B.R. Ambedkar in his book “The decline and fall of Buddhism,” “Such was the slaughter of the Buddhist priesthood perpetrated by the Islamic invaders. The axe was struck at the very root. For by killing the Buddhist priesthood, Islam killed Buddhism. This was the greatest disaster that befell the religion of the Buddha in India….”

As Arun Shourie says.. “But today the fashion is to ascribe the extinction of Buddhism to the persecution of Buddhists by Hindus, to the destruction of their temples by the Hindus. One point is that the Marxist historians who have been perpetrating this falsehood have not been able to produce even an iota of evidence to substantiate the concoction.”

V.S. Naipaul summed up the situation well. He said, “In art and history books, people write of the Muslims “arriving” in India as though they came on a tourist bus and went away again. The Muslim view of their conquest is a truer one. They speak of the triumph of faith, the destruction of idols and temples, the loot, the casting away of locals as slaves.”

“I think when you see so many Hindu temples of the 10th century or earlier disfigured, defaced, you realise that something terrible happened. I feel that the civilisation of that closed world was mortally wounded by those invasions … The Old World is destroyed. That has to be understood. Ancient Hindu India was destroyed.”

He further says,"How do you ignore history? But the nationalist movement, Independence movement ignored it. You read the Glimpses of World History by Jawaharlal Nehru, it talks about the mythical past and then it jumps the difficult period of the invasions and conquests. So you have Chinese pilgrims coming to Bihar, Nalanda and places like that. Then somehow they don't tell you what happens, why these places are in ruin. They never tell you why Elephanta Island is in ruins or why Bhubaneswar was desecrated."

Disown your past and you are half a people! V.S. Naipaul told Indians, “There is this great denial of the past, this shame to acknowledge of 500-600 years of great defeat. You must understand that other countries have had them too.”

It is only Indian Nehruvians like Romila Thapar who pretend that Islamic rule was benevolent. We should face facts: Islamic rule in India was at least as catastrophic as the later Christian rule. The Christians created massive poverty in what was a most prosperous country; the Muslims created a terrorised civilization out of what was the most creative culture that ever existed."

"India was wrecked and looted, not once but repeatedly by invaders with strong religious ideas, with a hatred for the religion of the people they were conquering.

Quotes end:

One may rightly wonder how a handful of invaders were able to conquer India and demolish the temples, viharas, the culture and wisdom. It was possible bcos of the differece in war-culture. The issue is, such an attack was totally unexpected. Hindus/Buddhists never considered that non-combatants could be killed, women ravaged and towns/cities raged to ashes!! Imagine well after the king and the soldiers have died or fled, a throng of barbarians descend upon the priests at the temples and the teachers at the Viharas! Who would stop them? The Buddhist monks who dont even care to raise a finger in voilence? The looming threat was underestimated. There was no unity amongst Indian rulers. There was no single powerful king and small split up kingdoms only helped the invader.

The first muslim invader had struck in 7th-10th century and it went on till the europeans came in 15th century ! A minimum of 500 years! That is five generations of no patronage no proper guidance for Hindu scholars! Then is it a wonder that there is nobody left who understands it, the sanatana dharma of India? Idol worship was scorned by Muslims and Christians(15h -19th century) alike !!!

The level of destruction left such a scar on the psychology and resulted in such a loss of self-respect and self-confidence that it took 500 years for the Indians to stage the first war of Independance ! (1847) Generations and generations of Indians were made to believe that they were unclivilized and un-competent as a race. The extent of the brain washing given to the convent educated Indians of today can be gauged from the fact that my Btech roommate at the prestegious Institution where i studied declared one fine day “We should be thankful that Britishers had ruled us and civilized us! They gave us universities, hospitals,railways, postal system, civil admistration ..what not! If not for them we would still be riding horses and using pegions !! ” No, thats not enough, she concluded “Actually, we are not capable of ruling ourselves. Look at our politians! It would have been better if britishers had continued to rule us!!”(Thankfully, my room was on ground floor, else i would have jumped off the balcony in shame!!! :-)))

What pains me is that most of the “educated”, “intellectual” “secular” “objective” Hindus still think that Hinduism or Indian culture is nothing but idol worship and a bunch of dogmas like the caste system and sati. Most of them or atleast some of them are ashamed to call themselves Hindus..and it pains me!

That keeps me wondering, if such is the state of the “educated” and well informed Indian…how easy it would be to manipulate the uneducated Indians into hating their culture and country !!!??

walking down the lanes of history (2)

Note: Please do not leave comments of hatred towards Muslims after reading this. My view of history is more intellectual and less emotional. We need know the truth, so as to learn a lesson from history bcos as someone said, History has the strange habit of repeating itself!!! An innocent Muslim is thousands of times better than a rogue Hindu and an innocent Hindu is thousands of times better than a rogue Muslim. It is high time that both Hindus and Muslims understand this! Am putting the note in the beginning and not at the end, so that you will read this as "history" and with right "prespective". This should also serve to restore the self-respect of Indians. Indians were not barbarians before our "saviors" (the Europeans) came and it was not the British who taught us "culture" brought us "civil service" "education" and "science"!(More on this later) Read on!

We had a glimpse of the glory that India has basked in in the previous post. The glory of India has reached so far and wide that number of sailors from west (Europe, as America was not discovered yet :-)) set out to find a route to India. It was such a lucrative option that the kings of those countries even sponsored such sailors. It is a well known fact that Colombus discovered America during one such expedition to find out a sea route to India. Till his death, he still thought he was travelling on west of India towards India. Hence he named the islands that he found enroute as “West Indies"!!

Coming back to where we left, India was albeit peaceful and prospered till 11th-12th century. The existing religions hinduism, budhism co-existed peacefully. So much so that it was common place for the king to be a hindu and the prince to be a Buddhist and vice-versa. Even Hindu Kings patronaged the Buddhist viharas and the university of Nalanda and other universities. The Hindu wars left the non-combatants like peasants, teachers, businessmen as well as women and children unharmed and untouched.

Islamic imperialism knew no such code of honor. The only rule of war they observed without fail was to fall down the helpless civil population after a decisive victory had been won on the battlefield. They sacked and burnt down villages and towns after the defenders had died fighting or had fled. The cows, the Brahmins and Buddhist Bhikshus invited their special attention in a mass murder of non-combatants. Their temples and shrines were their special targets in an orgy of pillage and destruction. Those that they did not kill, they captured and sold as slaves.

Lured by tales of the fertile plains of the Punjab and the fabulous wealth of Hindu temples, Mahmud of Ghazni first attacked India in 1000 AD. Other raiders from Central Asia followed him.

The invasions

Muhammad Ghajni had famously vowed to invade India every year. He did invade 13 times and carried back countless riches. Temples were his main target as they served his religious purpose of "holy war" as well. He burnt in 1018 of the temples of Mathura, razing Kanauj to the ground and destroying the famous temple of Somnath, sacred to all Hindus. His successors were as ruthless as Ghazni: 103 temples in the holy city of Benaras were razed to the ground, its marvelous temples destroyed, its magnificent palaces wrecked.
Mohammed Ghori had the Hindu temples of Ajmer demolished and ordered the construction of mosques and Quran schools on their ruins He plundered Kanauj and Kashi and destroyed their temples. While his generals destroyed in passing the remaining Buddhist communities of Bihar and destroyed the universities of Nalanda. Bakhtiar Khilji "established a Muslim capital in Lakhanauti (Gaur) on the Ganga and destroyed, in 1197, its basalt temples. In Odantpuri University, in 1202, he massacred two thousand Buddhist monks. "
I had personally visited Hampi and it gave me goose bumps to see the scale of the mindless destruction!! I wonder what kind of ppl and what kind of mindset is required to carryout such destruction. It took complete 6 months to bring down the entire vijayanagara empire to ashes.

Robert Sewell (1845-1925) the British civil servant who discovered the ruins of Vijayanagar, wrote of its tragic end, ‘Never perhaps in the history of the world has such havoc been wrought, and wrought suddenly, on so splendid a city’. In A Forgotten
Empire says writes about the missing, defaced or vandalized temples and about the destruction of the mighty Vijayanagar kingdom. An empire where “it used to rain gold and gems in the days of the mighty rulers here,” He has written: “for five months the Mohammeddans with fire and sword, with crowbars and axes carried on day after day their work of destruction. Never perhaps in the history of the world has such havoc been wrought so suddenly, and reduced to ruins amid scenes of savage massacre and horrors beggaring description”.

Ferishta, the late 16th Century Persian traveler describes the 1565 rout thus ? “the river which ran near the field was dyed red with their blood. It is computed that 1,00,000 infidels were slain during the pursuit.”

Summary
Right from Mohammed bin Qasim who conquered the lower Indus basin in 712 CE. to Aurangzeb, the last mughal, hindu and Buddhists scholars were ruthlessly murdered. It is said that when Ghori invaded Somnath he got the 50,000 inmates killed. Almost 1 lakh teachers and scholars of Nalanda were beheaded when Nalanda was plundered. All the Hindu teachers and scholers either were killed or fled. Any educational institution needs patronage of the rules. No such patronage was given to Hindu Sanatana Dharma, the Ancient Indian Science. Almost all the books were burnt. The only bits and pieces we have is from the direct orders given by kings (Aurangzebs order for forceful conversion or to pay “hindu-religion-tax” is still there in mumbai musesum)The only accounts of the prosperity available are from the travellers like Megasthesne, Hien-Tsang(stayed in Nalanda for 13 yrs and Mastered Yoga. He carried copies of some of the books to china which are still there in a chinese musesum), Fa-Hein, Marco Polo. Arurangzebs hatred for Hinduism is so complete that he even killed his brother for evincing interest in Hindu way of life!There were some moderate muslim emporeres like Akbar. But they were very very very rare and too far apart to really help preserving any of the wisdom.

Hindu Society has been suffering a sustained attack from Islam since the 7th century, only to be joined by Christianity in 15th century to make the obliteration complete!!!!

Note 1: The educational institutions of India were called Viharas or Biharas and hence the name Bihar(vihar) is what i read in one of the websites and it was eye-opening Most of the famous ancient Indian Universities were in Bihar.

Note 2: The list of the invaders given is only a tip of the iceberg. It includes, Alaudddin Khilji, Firuz Tughlaq, Husain Nizam shah,Mohammad Ghori,Ghazni Mohammad,Qutb-ud-Din Aibak,Balban,
Mohammaed bin Qasim,Mohammad Tughlak to name a few, the most ruthless of the lot!
TBC: The role of the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British in completing whatever little was left (missed?!)by Muslims shall be seen in next post and we can see that the alienation of Indians from everything that was "Indian" was hence complete!!!


source:hinduwisdom.com

After my few previous posts which indicate that the “hindu dharma” was infact “Indian Science” which agrees well with the current day science. It even dares to explore the vast vistas albeit untouched and unexplored by the scientists of today. Indians as well as few ancient civilizations of the world (Egypt, tibet, Greece..etc) seems to have independently (or otherwise, doesnt matter) arrived at similar conclusions about man and Nature. Given that the Absolute Truth is beyond all the boundaries this does not come as a complete surprise. It only comes a proof.

What surprises me is how and when was it that this ancient wisdom was lost? I began my googling and shall take you down the lanes of history that i could gather. Ofcourse, there are missing links. We have got only bits and peices, but there are enough of them for us to imagine the rest or even give us a wholistic view without imagining anything at all.

3rd century BC - 1st century BC: The Mauryas

The Maurya Empire,founded in 322 BC by Chandragupta Maurya, was the largest and most powerful political and military empire of ancient India. It included almost all of India including Pakistan, Afghanistan and parts of Persia. Chandragupta’s minister Kautilya Chanakya wrote the Arthashastra, one of the greatest treatises on economics, politics, foreign affairs, administration, military arts, war, and religion ever produced in the East. The Lion Capital of Asoka at Sarnath, is the emblem of India.

Farmers were freed of tax and crop collection burdens from regional kings, paying instead to a nationally-administered and strict-but-fair system of taxation as advised by the principles in the Arthashastra. Chandragupta Maurya established a single currency across India, and a network of regional governors and administrators and a civil service provided justice and security for merchants, farmers and traders. A vast espionage system collected intelligence for both internal and external security purposes and they had the largest standing army of the times. Its decline began fifty years after Ashoka’s rule ended, and it dissolved in 185 BC with the foundation of the Sunga Dynasty in Magadha.

3rd - 6th th century AD: The Guptas

The time of the Gupta Empire is referred to as Golden Age of India in science, mathematics, astronomy, religion and Indian philosophy. The peace and prosperity created under leadership of Guptas enabled the pursuit of scientific and artistic endeavors. Sanskrit language and literature reached its peak during the Gupta era. Poets Kalidasa, Dandi, Visakhadatta, Shudraka, and Bharavi all belong to this period. Most of the twenty-eight Ajanta caves were constructed during this period.
Books on medicine, veterinary science, mathematics, astronomy and astrophysics were written. The famous Aryabhata and Varahamihira belong to this age. Overseas trade and commerce flourished. Hindu and Buddhist mythology, architecture, along with religion took root in Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia and other countries. The Chinese monk Lui Kang who was in India and Sri Lanka between 399 and 414 noticed general prosperity and peace-loving nature of the people. He wrote of beautiful cities, fine hospitals and universities, and described a content and prosperous people. Panchatantra, the animal fables by Vishnu Sharma, were also written in this period. The Gupta Dynasty also left behind an effective administrative system. During times of peace, the Gupta system was decentralized, with only taxation flowing to the capital at Pataliputra. Education included grammar, composition, logic, metaphysics, mathematics, medicine, and astronomy. These subjects became highly specialized and reached an advanced level. The Indian numeral system?sometimes erroneously attributed to the Arabs, who took it from India to Europe where it replaced the Roman system?and the decimal system are Indian inventions of this period. Aryabhatta’s expositions on astronomy in 499, moreover, gave calculations of the solar year and the shape and movement of astral bodies with remarkable accuracy.

In medicine, the Guptas were notable for their establishment and patronage of free hospitals. Indian physicians excelled in pharmacopoeia, caesarean section, bone setting, and skin grafting and were soon adopted in the Arab and Western worlds.

The University of Nalanda was founded during this period. It is credited to be the worlds first known residential university, i.e., it had dormitories for students. In its heyday it accommodated over 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers. The university was considered an “architectural masterpiece”. The library was located in a nine storied building where meticulous copies of texts were produced.(I read somewhere that it took the muslim invader, kilji, 6 months to burn ALL the books! ) The subjects taught at Nalanda University covered every field of learning, and it attracted pupils and scholars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey. The Tang Dynasty Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang left detailed accounts of the university in the 7th century. (Note 1)

6th century AD to 12th century AD: The Chalukyas in the south

The most enduring legacy of the Chalukya dynasty is the architecture and art that they left behind. More than one hundred and fifty monuments attributed to the Badami Chalukya, remain in the Malaprabha basin in Karnataka. The rock-cut temples of Pattadakal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Badami and Aihole are their most celebrated monuments. Two of the famous paintings at Ajanta cave no. 1, “The Temptation of the Buddha” and “The Persian Embassy” are attributed to them. Karnataka and Telugu literature flourished.

7th century AD to 11th century AD: The Palas in the North

The founder of the empire was Gopala. He was the first independent Buddhist (however Vaishnavite) king of Bengal and came to power in 750 in Gaur by democratic election, which was unique at the time. Palas legacy gets remembered not much in Bengal but elsewhere. Tibet’s modern culture and religion is heavily influenced by Palas. Palas are credited with spreading Buddhism to Tibet and around the world through missionaries.

In summary:
People showed brilliancy in all departments of Mathematics, Astronomy, Medicine, Chemistry, Poetry, Drama, Grammar and Philosophy. From the 4th century B.C. to the 11th century A.D. all foreigners who came in contact with India and studied her civilization critically were very much impressed by it. This included Megasthanese, Fa-hein, Huein-Tsang etc. They spoke highly of Indian prosperity, Civilization, Science, Arts and even Indian character was praised, especially their truthfulness, honesty, and sense of justice.

Ofcourse, India was a country with plenty of wars fought by Hindu princes &
kings(before the advent of Islamic imperialism). But in all their wars the Hindus had observed some time honored conventions sanctioned by the Shastras. The Brahmins and Bhikshus were never touched. The chastity of women was never violated. The cows & domestic cattle were never killed. The temples were never touched. The non-combatants were never killed or captured. A human habitation was never attacked unless it was a fort. The civilian population was never plundered. The martial class (kshatriyas) who clashed, mostly in open fields, had a code of honor.

As early as as the 4th century B.C. Megasthenes (c. 350 BC-290 BC) Greek Scholar and historian, noticed a peculiar trait of Indian warfare. “Whereas among other nations it is usual, in the contests of war, to ravage the soil and thus to reduce it to an uncultivated waste, among the Indians, on the contrary, by whom husbandmen are regarded as a class that is sacred and inviolable, the tillers of the soil, even when battle is raging in their neighborhood, are undisturbed by any sense of danger, for the combatants on either side in waging the conflict make carnage of each other, but allow those engaged in husbandry to remain quite unmolested. Besides, they never ravage an enemy’s land with fire, nor cut down its trees.”

Hence even though there were wars, Science, mathematics, logic, philosophy, art, everything was growing at an unlimited pace.

Earth is round was never disputed in India, so much so that we find Varahavatar lifting the rounded earth on His tusks in many ancient sculptures. The law of conservation of matter and energy and the law of cause and effect were the two fundamental laws of Hinduism. Anybody not accepting these two laws would be considered a nastic. The agnostics and people who refuted the existence of God were considered equally respected as others. The last in the glorious tradition of scholars was Bhaskaracharya , who invented the gravitational force also. David E. Duncan writes in his book The Calendar, "After Brahmagupta, India continued to produce noted mathematicians, including Bhaskara (1114–1185), considered by mathematicians to be the most brilliant in his field anywhere during the twelfth century.” At this period North India fell to Muslim invaders!

Note 1: The known and excavated ruins extend over an area of about 150,000 square metres, although if Xuanzang’s account of Nalanda’s extent is correlated with present excavations, almost 90% of it remains unexcavated. source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalanda

Sahasrara

Sahasrara or the crown chakra is said to be the chakra of consciousness, the master chakra that controls all the others. Its role would be very similar to that of the pituitary gland, which secretes hormones to control the rest of the endocrine system, and also connects to the central nervous system via the hypothalamus. The thalamus is thought to have a key role in the physical basis of consciousness. Symbolised by a lotus with a thousand petals, it is located above the head outside the body.

Ajna

Ajna (said by some to correspond to the third eye) is linked to the pineal gland. Ajna is the chakra of time and awareness and of light. The pineal gland is a light sensitive gland, that produces the hormone melatonin, which regulates the instincts of going to sleep and awakening. Symbolised by a lotus with two petals.

Vishuddha

Vishuddha (also Vishuddhi) or the throat chakra is said to be related to communication and growth, growth being a form of expression. This chakra is paralleled to the thyroid, a gland that is also in the throat, and which produces thyroid hormone, responsible for growth and maturation. Symbolised by a lotus with sixteen petals.

Anahata

Anahata or the heart chakra is related to higher emotion, compassion, love, equilibrium, and well-being. It is related to the thymus, located in the chest. This organ is part of the immune system, as well as being part of the endocrine system. It produces T cells responsible for fighting off disease, and is adversely affected by stress. Symbolised by a lotus with twelve petals.

Manipura/Nabhi

Manipura (also Nabhi) or the solar plexus chakra is related to the transition from base to higher emotion, energy, assimilation and digestion, and is said to correspond to the roles played by the pancreas and the outer adrenal glands, the adrenal cortex. These play a valuable role in digestion, the conversion of food matter into energy for the body. Symbolised by a lotus with ten petals.


Swadhisthana

Swadhisthana or the sacral chakra is located in the groin, and is related to base emotion, sexuality and creativity. This chakra is said to correspond to the testicles or the ovaries, that produce the various sex hormones involved in the reproductive cycle, which can cause dramatic mood swings. Symbolised by a lotus with six petals.

Muladhara

Muladhara or the base or root chakra is related to instinct, security, survival and also to basic human potentiality. This centre is located in the region between the genitals and the anus. Although no endocrine organ is placed here, it is said to relate to the inner adrenal glands, the adrenal medulla, responsible for the fight and flight response when survival is under threat.

I am yet to study the reason behind the symbolism in each chakra, why the color, element and why only so many number of petals..etc
But one quick obeservation about the colors

sahasrara : Violet
ajna : Indigo
visuddha : Blue
anahata : Green
manipuraka : Yellow
swadhistana: Orange
mooladhara : Red

Did u observe anything? It is VIBGYOR!!!! The chakras form a rainbow in us!!!

The pineal gland is a reddish-gray body about the size of a pea and i couldnt get the colors of the other glands from my preliminary google search…can some doctor out there help?

Now, the glands are mapped to the chakras or vice versa..so what next???The scientists now know that the hormones decide what we are and how we behave but they do not know how to manipulate the secretions by the glands. The best they could do was to inject them into the blood externally. As is well known, doing so has side effects. As it is micro micro levels of hormones that are needed in the body, if less is a prob, more is a prob too! Both hyper and hypo are diseases!

What the ancient scientists of India discovered was a way to control the glands and their secretions and hence have ABSOLUTE control over your emotions and what you are and how u behave! Sounds absurd? Thats bcos the idea is new to us. consider this. When a baby is born, he/she has no control over the limbs. There is no brain to hands co-ordination. Even as they grow up, the hand co-ordination, ability to pick up a piece of paper using fingers from ground comes only after 8th month. All the nerves and muscles are in place since birth but the baby has to activate that faculty
by using it. If someone fails to do that due to different reasons, they bcom under developed or mentally challenged as we put it..

The rishis of the yore held the same view with regard to the glands, their secretions and emotions. Now, as we live, we are slaves of our emotions. We cant control them and mess up things the same way a baby cannot co-ordinate his hands and messes up while making initial attempts at eating food..etc. Rishis suggest that we can be the masters of everything that is within us..every function. The faculty is already there, only that we need to know to activate it! This is not just theory! They were scientists in addition to being philosophists. They experimented on themselves and evolved the procedure, laws and actually achieved the mastery over themselves!!!!

Now, there is another Natural law “As above so below” or that The true you(the self) is The Nature(The God). So by mastering the true you(the self) you can master the Nature!!! It is as simple as, if you know the Ohms law, you can apply it to play with electricity ….you can actually control electricity and you can “dictate/decide” which direction it should flow, in what amount and what is the device it should run!!!! Similarly, the sages knew the laws of Nature and they could actually play with nature…the materialization of things, clarvoiyance, tele-vision, telepathy were obvious applications of laws of Nature for them as is the application of electricity to run the fans/lights/computers and machines!

It is one electricity to run any appliance! Look around and imagine the world with out electricity…no operation theatres, no scietific research, no aeroplanes, no satillites, no communitaions …nth would be there…
One electricity and infinite gadgets! Similarly there is “one life force” and one absolute truth, which when mastered will give you knowledge about the way the Nature runs the infinite gadgets called living beings!!!!

For now I rest my case ..

Views and counter views are welcome! I hope i had conveyed what i really wanted to!

After successfully dissecting the not-so-visible human actions, emotions, abstract functions of brain ..etc, here comes the grand finale, dissecting the human body itself! In this post i would like to discuss the endocrine gland system, which the chakras of the kundalini are supposed to represent. For those who are uninitiated, there are 2 types of glands in the body, one with ducts, called exocrine, secreting enzymes and the other without ducts, called endocrine, secreting hormones.

When scientists first discovered hormones, they are supposed to have thought that they hit the jackpot, the cure all for all diseases. They discovered that the micro micro levels of iodine in blood is the only differce between the idiot and scholar. They discovered that it is a hormone that makes the difference between a coward and a couragous person. It is a hormone that can make a depressed person suddenly happy and satisfied. It is a hormone that makes a frail person feel suddenly strong enought to face scwazenagger (excuse the spelling and actually win :-)))

You must have read/heard about various atheletes taking hormone shots to enhance their performance. Now let us see from where in the body these much hyped about hormones come from.

The very word hormone says, that which creates harmony! Harmony between different functions of the body cells! Now read on!

Endocrine Glands

Endocrine glands are glands that secrete their product directly into the blood rather than through a duct. The glands of the Endocrine system secrete the juices called “hormones” into the blood that dictate the brain and the nervous system which intern dictates how we feel and behave.

To Quote from wikipedia: “Hormones are molecules that act as signals from one type of cells to another. All multicellular organisms need “coordinating systems to regulate and integrate the function of differentiating cells.” Two mechanisms perform this function in higher animals: the nervous system and the endocrine system.”

There are seven such glands in human body

1. Pineal gland
2. Pituitary gland
3. Thyroid gland
4. Thymus
5. Adrenal gland
6. Pancreas
7. Ovary (Female) or Testis (Male)

1. Pineal Gland

The pineal gland is a small endocrine gland in the brain. It is located near the center of the brain, between the two hemispheres, tucked in a groove where the two rounded thalamic bodies join. It secretes hormone, melatonin.

The production of melatonin by the pineal gland is stimulated by darkness and inhibited by light.

2. Pitutary gland

The pituitary gland, or hypophysis, is an endocrine gland about the size of a pea that sits in a small, bony cavity covered by a dural fold at the base of the brain. The pituitary gland secretes hormones regulating homeostasis, including trophic hormones that stimulate other endocrine glands.

3. Thyroid

The thyroid is one of the larger endocrine glands in the body. This gland is found in the neck just below the Adam’s apple. The thyroid controls how quickly the body burns energy, makes proteins and how sensitive the body should be to other hormones.

Note: PPl put on weight due to less Thyriod secretions and the body burns the energy slowly and it is converted to fat?!

4. Thymus

In human anatomy, the thymus is an organ located in the upper anterior portion of the chest cavity. It is of central importance in the maturation of T cells. Once mature, T cells emigrate from the thymus and constitute the peripheral T cell repertoire responsible for directing many facets of the adaptive immune system. Loss of the thymus at an early age through genetic mutation or surgical removal results in severe immunodeficiency and a high susceptibility to infection.

Note: The first thing that came to my mind when i read this paragraph about Thymus is…any guess….it’s obvious, right?…AIDS..Aquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome !!!!

5. Adrenaline

Adrenal gland (also known as suprarenal glands) are the triangle-shaped endocrine glands that sit atop the kidneys; their
name indicates that position (ad, “near” or “at” + renes, “kidneys”).
They are chiefly responsible for regulating the stress response.

6. Pancreas

The pancreas is an organ in the digestive and endocrine system. It is both exocrine (secreting pancreatic juice containing digestive enzymes) and endocrine (producing several important hormones, including insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin).

Function:secretes hormones that regulate blood glucose levels. Produces enzymes that break down digestible foods.

7a. Ovaries (7 in the pic)

Ovaries are egg-producing reproductive organs found in female organisms. Estrogen and progesterone are the most important hormones secreted by ovaries.

functions:

-They induce and maintain the physical changes of puberty and the secondary sex characteristics.
-They support maturation of the uterine endometrium in preparation of implantation of a fertilized egg.
-They provide signals to the hypothalamus and pituitary that help maintain the menstrual cycle.
-Estrogen plays an important role in maintaining subcutaneous fat, bone strength, and some aspects of brain function.

7b. Testis (8 in the pic)

The testicles are the male generative glands in animals.Like the ovaries (to which they are homologous), testicles are components of both the reproductive system (being gonads) and the endocrine system (being endocrine glands). The respective functions of the testicles are:

-producing sperm (spermatozoa)
-producing male sex hormones, of which testosterone is the best-known


Note:

Be there for the grand finale in the next post, juxtraposing the endocrine glands and the chakras of kundalini.

Note: ALL the information presented here including the picture is got from wikipedia, a non-spiritual, non-philosophical source.
So what you read is ABSOLUTELY scientific and agreed by the doctor/scientist who lives round the corner in the 21st century :-))

Friends, i call it serendipity that stumbled upon a website that talks about the concepts on which ancient Egyptian medicine is based on! And not so surprisingly it says what Ancient Indian Science has said!!! I choose to use “Ancient Indian Science” in preference to “Sanatana Hindu Dharma” to remove the religious stigma that is attached to those concepts. After all it is the true knowledge that matters and not the labels! This post is a light reading…given that you managed to put up with my prev posts…this one should be a cake walk :-))))

I was looking to see what the micro-cosm and the macro-cosm is all about. About how the cosmos can be mapped to the human body. The science educated "me" doesn't accept anything that doesn't atleast "define" something, if not prove! Vivekanada stated the quandary in which the Western educated Easterner is in. "The problem with science is that it doesn't believe till it sees and the problem with God (The self or The Nature) is that you can't see till you believe!" Very well said, isnt it!?!

The ancient Egyptians were worshippers of Nature as were the Ancient Indians. (The Egyptian pyramids speak volumes of their advancement in these areas as compared to the science of present day) They too had studied the cosmos vs man and came to a conclusion that the human body is the micro-cosm or a miniature version of the macro-cosm. To quote, "the Egyptian god of writing, Tehuti (Hermes) is reputed to have stated “that which is above is like unto that which is below, and that which is below is like unto that which is above”". It agrees with the "As above so below" concept of Madame Blavetksy of the theosophy fame. The same can be paraphrased as "How goes the part, so goes the Whole", which was the main principle at work behind the science of politics that Socrates and Plato of Greece have propounded. The same concept when read deeper states that the microcosm and the macrocosm are held to be one, a reflection of each other! This is what the Buddhists meant when they say that the Buddha-essence or Buddha-nature is already latent within each person or when the enlightened ancient Indian exclaimed "Aham Brahmasmi" (I am the Cosmos, the God!)


Before I wander and meander, lets do some justice to the title, a quick comparison of the Egyptian and the Indian Natural Science. According to the ancient Egyptians, there are seven principles operating in man, each of which constitutes a different type of substance that obeys a unique set of natural laws.

1) Egyptian: The Khat, which most of us simply call the physical body.
Indian: The annamaya kosa, the physical body that sustains on food.

2) Egyptian: The Ba, the soul of breath, or what is termed the “bio-plasmic body”, or vital body.
Indian: the Pranamaya Kosa, or the layer of us that sustains on the flow of Breath.

3) Egyptian:The Khaba, the astral body, or what is called the emotional body.
Indian: Manomaya kosa, the mind which floating in a sea of thoughts

4)Egyptian: The Khaibit, the intellectual body which consists of the lower and middle states of consciousness.
Indian: (vignana maya kosa, The Intellect which reasons sth as good and bad and prefers one over the other

5)Egyptian: The Ka, the spiritual Self, or Higher Mind.
Indian: Ananda maya kosa, the intuition. The 5 kosas as per Indian System end here.

6)Egyptian: The Sekhen, the Super-consciousness. The plane where Universal knowledge is available to those attuned to it.
Indian: The level of demi gods, or Super Conscious beings (my attempt to map the concept to Indian system!)

7) Egyptian:The Ren, the pure spirit, or divine mind.
Indian: The Self, The God (my attempt to map the concept to Indian system!)

According to Egyptians, human being is surrounded by these seven energy principles, or “quantum mechanical fields,” which they referred to as the “Aura,” sth that surrounds. Indians have called the same thing as a kosa, or a sheath, a layer.
This aura has two poles - a positive, Shu (Indian: ida) and a negative Tefnut (Indian: pingala). The ancient Egyptians believed that all aspects of nature and reality are underlined by the principles of “Shu” and “Tefnut.” Shu and Tefnut were understood as metaphors for abstract qualities and correspondences that could be applied to energy states in the body. Egyptians believe that the solar nutrition (Indians call this, Savitha shakti, the Power of the Sun, which is the objective of the Gayatri Mantra) is continually entering through the positive-pole (Shu), circulating through the auric field, which in turn, nourishes the vital organs and sensory functions of the human body. Through the negative-pole (Tefnut), waste materials are eliminated.

The shu - Tefnut can be taken as the Prana ' Apana duo, where Prana is the outward force that takes in the breath with "the life" (solar nutrition) and Apana is the downward force that eliminates waste from the Anus.

Solar Energy and the Auric Field

Egyptians believe that the energy body or bio-plasmic body as three main functions in relation to the sun: to receive energy from the sun; to assimilate and circulate it to all parts of the body; and to act as the blueprint for all physical growth of the cells, molecules and genetic patterns.

Indians put the same thing as the Pranamaya kosa takes in the life force, the Prana vaayu, to circulate it to all parts of the body, the Vyana vaayu and the samana at the navel which is said be the seat of creativity.

Egyptians discovered that the Bio plasmic body also acts as the mediator, like the bridge between our higher states of consciousness and the brain and its nervous system. The Indian scientists experimented with the same when they tried to control the brain using the breath!!


Egyptian Diagnosis and Treatment of the Energy Fields

Centuries ago, Egyptian physicians would classify different illnesses with their corresponding energy bodies. They believed that many sicknesses began with obstructions in the aura bodies, or impairment of free circulation and interaction between the fields.

The ancient Egyptians maintained that most of the common conditions of the body come from the food that we eat, and the air that we breathe. The body draws on many different sources of energy, which reside in different energy centers in the body such as the liver, heart, kidneys, adrenals, gall bladder, prostate, pineal and the pituitary glands. Yet the body also absorbs energy from the solar system, which mixes and transforms in our body. The human body cannot capture or absorb the solar energy directly to sustain itself; hence it is indirectly consumed through the plants which are capable of doing the same. If, for any reason, essential elements are lacking, the energy bodies gradually becomes incapable of maintaining healthy patterns and electro-magnetic polarities.

The principal field upon which the energy bodies must labor is defined as the solar plexus, or the Khaba, by Egyptians. The Indian science of breath states that The Samana Vayu, that resides in the stomach, is the seat of consiciousness and the root among the 5 pranas

The picture illustrates the frontal site of the seven energy bodies including the astral body which constitute THE AURIC ENERGY CHANNELS, as per Egyptians. These are located at the same place as the shat charkas of the Kundalini of the Indian System and at the same location as the spleen, adrenal, pancreas, pineal, pituitary, thyroid and heart.
(More about the map between the endocrine glands and the charkas in future posts)

Source:: http://www.blackherbals.com/Egyptian_medicine.htm

Paganism has been defined broadly, to encompass many or most of the faith traditions outside the Abrahamic monotheistic group of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In another sense, as used by modern practitioners, Paganism is a polytheistic(worship of multiple gods or deities)religious practice, often nature-based.

Looking at the environmental hazards that the mankind faces now, I can say without batting an eyelid that the hazards would have been much less had we all remained nature worshipers!!! You cannot abuse sth that you worship! Now man has got the attitude that Nature is there is serve him ! Even blind faith in Nature worship would have done miracles!

I want to present the real incident that happened in Bishnois tribe in Rajastan

Origin of the Bishnois

The sect was founded by Guru Jambheshwar (b. 1451) after a drought in marwar region of India. He had laid down 29 principles to be followed by the sect. Further the Guru told to worship lord Vishnu (Bishnu). Thus the sect called vishnoi or Bishnoi. Killing animals and felling trees were banned. One of his 29 principles says “JEEV DAYA PALNI, RUNKH LILA NAHI GHAVE” means protect trees and animals. That’s why the trees and animals are considered to be sacred by the Bishnois.

Amrita Devi and the Khejarli Massacre

On a Tuesday (The 10th day of the month of Bhadrapad according to the Indian lunar Calendar) in 1730 A.D., Amrita Devi, a Bishnoi woman was at her home with her three daughters (Asu, Ratni and Bhagu bai) when she came to know that a number of people had descended on their otherwise sleepy village of Khejarli. The name Khejarli was derived from “Khejri”, since these trees were found in abundance in the village. The people were a party of men sent by Maharaja Abhay Singh, the ruler of the kingdom of Jodhpur in the Marwar region, who wanted to fell green Khejri trees to burn lime for the construction of the Maharaja’s new palace. Since there was a lot of greenery in the Bishnoi villages even in the middle of the Thar Desert, the king ordered his men to get the wood by cutting the Khejri trees. The Chipko movement people must have take inpiration from this insident of the Bisnois.

The martyrdom of Amrita Devi

Amrita Devi protested against the Maharaja’s men who were attempting to cut green trees as it was prohibited according to Bishnoi principles. The malevolent feudal party told her that if she wanted the trees to be spared, she would have to give them money as bribe. She refused to acknowledge this demand and told them that she would consider it as an act of insult to her religious faith and would rather give away her life to save the green trees. It is at that stage she spoke these words:

Sar santey rookh rahe to bhi sasto jaan (If a tree is saved even at the cost of one’s head, it’s worth it)

Saying these words, she offered her head. The axes, which were brought to cut the trees, severed her head. The three young girls Asu, Ratni and Bhagu were not daunted, and offered their heads too.

The Khejrali Massacre

The news spread like wildfire. The Bishnois of Khejrali gathered and sent summons to their counterparts in eighty-three Bishnoi villages in the vicinity to come and decide on the next course of action. Since the supreme sacrifice by Amrita Devi and her daughters had not satisfied the royal party, and the felling of green trees was continued, it was decided that for every green tree to be cut, one Bishnoi volunteer would sacrifice his/her life. In the beginning, old people voluntarily started holding the trees to be cut in an embrace as in the 20th Century Chipko Movement.

Despite many valiant old persons giving away their lives, the Hakim (the royal party’s leader) , Girdhar Das Bhandari taunted the Bishnois that they were offering unwanted old persons. Soon, young men, women (including recently married ones) and children were sacrificing themselves in a similar manner.

There was intense pandemonium. The tree-felling party was badly shaken. They left for Jodhpur with their mission unfulfilled and told the Maharaja about what had happened. As soon as he learnt about it, he ordered the felling of trees to be stopped.

By that time, three hundred and sixty three (363) Bishnois, young and old, men and women, married and unmarried, rich and poor had already become martyrs.

Tree felling banned

Honouring the courage of the Bishnoi community, Maharaja Abhay Singh, apologised for the mistake committed by his officials and issued a royal decree, engraved on a copper plate ordering the following:

* All cutting of green trees and hunting of animals within the revenue boundaries of Bishnoi villages was strictly prohibited.
* It was also ordered that if by mistake any individual violated this order, he would be prosecuted by the state and a severe penalty imposed.
* Even members of the ruling family would not shoot animals in or near Bishnoi villages.

Although, Bishnois paid a huge price for saving a few trees, this incident had inspired, and will continue to do so in future, many others to fight and protect trees and wild life.

A must read link: Latest account of Bishnoi tribe
http://www.lifepositive.com/spirit/traditional-paths/tribal-faiths/bishnoi.asp

PS: If u remember, it was Bishnois who caught salman khan and mansoor ali khan patoudi hunting deers.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishnois

Do you know what stands in between “the self” and you, as you are now? Ever tried to disrobe “the self” of the sheaths behind which it hides and eludes us? Again, let us take an objective look at the “sheaths” or layers in which “the self” is wrapped up.

According to the wise old men, there are 5 “sheaths” or “layers” or “kosas” of existance. These are the grabs in which the self is wrapped so that it gets to “feel” and “act” the way it is acting now in all of us. We have seen the types of pranas in the prev post. That itself is the part of “Pranamaya kosa” - the sheath of “Prana”

The 5 sheaths/kosas/layers are

1. The annamaya kosa : The part/layer of us that sustains on “anna” or “food”, which is the physical body

2. The Pranamaya kosa : The part/layer of us that sustains on “Prana” or loosly “air” which are the 5 life forces we have seen in the prev blog

3. The Manomaya kosa : The Manas, the mind and the uncontrollable thoughts and the sea of ideas in which we float,

4. The vignanamaya kosa: The intellect, the buddhi in us which tries to distinguish between good and bad, wrong and right and
selects one above the other

5. The Anandamaya kosa : The absolute “self” which is just pure unadulterated unconditional bliss


Some rishis have tried dealing with the very same Kosas in a different way, namely, by the elucidation of the involvement of
“consciousness” in these Kosas.

The five layers have been classified into three groups -
1. the physical state,
2. the subtle state,
3. the causal

The wakeful state / jagratha avastha

In the waking state in which we are now, for instance, the physical body (Annamaya kosa) is intensely operative and we always think in terms of physical body, physical objects and physical sensations. In the waking condition, all the five are operating, concentrating their action on the physical body mostly.

The subtle(dream) state/ swapna avastha

This physical sensation is absent in the state of dream, but three of the Kosas operate in dream. In the dream state the physical body is not operating, but the vital(Prana), the mental(Manomaya) and the intellectual(Vignana maya) sheaths are active. The Prana is there, the mind is there, the intellect also is there also in a diminished intensity. We breath, we think and we understand in the state of dream. That means Prana, Manas and Buddhi all are active in the state of dream, minus the physical element, namely the body consciousness.

The causal(dreamless) state/ sushupti avasta

In the state of deep sleep, none of these are active; neither the body is operating there, nor the mind, nor the intellect, nor is there any consciousness that we are even breathing. The consciousness is withdrawn entirely from all the sheaths -physical, vital, mental and intellectual. There is only one sheath that is operating in the state of sleep - that is the causal sheath, called Anandamaya Kosa in Sanskrit.

Musings:

When you are sleeping, a very good, sound sleep, you dont know you are sleeping! Isnt it? when u r in deep sleep you dont know of anything that happens around you or to some extent even anything that happens to you. But how is it that you “know” you slept well when you get up? When you get up you say “I slept well” who is telling you that “you slept well”? Sometimes when you are in deep sleep and someone wakes you up suddenly, you are disoriented…you are like “where am i” you look at the person who woke u up and think “who is this”. Thats only for a fleeting second and then everything is reloaded into your “brain”/mind/intellect. There is sth like the boot file that is started and the processor of the brain is loaded and up again. Who is THAT who runs the boot file when we wake up? THAT was not sleeping…isnt it, if so it would be infinite loop of sleep and sleep with no one to wake up the body. Someone is still watchful when “we”are in the deep and dreamless
sleep..waiting to catch an interrupt and boot the system. who is THAT?!?

This is called the process of “the observer being observed”, a way of meditation that leads to knowing THAT through self-enquiry and awareness. It is developing the awareness that, THAT is seeing through your eyes, speaking through you and listening through you. even when all your senses, body and brain rest, THAT does not rest. THAT keeps observing “us”. So when we start observing the observer, it closes the loop, we turn inwards and find THAT(God!) within us, which is beyond the body (annamaya kosa), mind(manomaya kosa), intellect(vignana maya kosa) and which is just there (anandamaya kosa) Thou art THAT !!!

********************************************************************
This kind of brings to logical conclusion the topic that we were discussing in the prev few posts. Hope I did make some sense and was able to give u a glimpse into the unknown where i happened to peep in. I found the landscape so enticing, that i wanted to share it with you all..

Till a new bug finds me, its time to ruminate over what is learnt..


Btw did u realize that we were learning about nth but the concepts from the upanishads in these few prev posts? That was indeed a revealation for me!!

FYI
1. The Taittiriya Upanishad dealt with subject of the five layers, known as the Kosas;
2. The Mandukya Upanishad deals with the 3 states of wakefulness, dreamful state and dreamless state
3. The kathopanishat investigates the intellectual processes in sensation, perception and cognition; the techniques of abstraction, concentration and meditation; the nature and experience of the merger of the individual in the Universal.

Interested ppl can refer: http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/books_3a.html

well, i guess the bug already found me :-))))

budhoose kanjoose(http://budhoosekanjoose.rediffiland.com) was kind enough to write his views in a couple of posts, on the thoughts i express in my posts. It bcoms my responsibility to respond and reciprocate the gesture of a healthy debate…so here i go

BK: “Not agreeing to all the old, traditional, dogmatic view of this world is not being churlish. In fact most people exposed to modern days and ways hold many of our traditional customs, rituals and views as humbug and hog wash. They might be sacred to some, but not to all and sundry. I just happened to express them in so many words.”

I absolutely agree with you. Not agreeing to sth based on sound logic is definitely not being churlish. Also, you have to distinguish between religion and philosophy. There are dogmas, rituals and customs in religion and not philosophy. Please do not confuse both. In all my posts in recent times i have not talked about any “religious” stuff. We are just discussing human body and “the self” (who am I) and the fucntions of mind and body. From where did religion and dogmas come in ? While discussing schools of thought of Plato and Aristotle we dont bring in christianity(or whatever religion they belonged to)..do we?
Be clear about the difference between religion and philosophy. “wearing a bindi, mangalsutra, toe rings, black beads, offering coconut in temple” is different…”the body, the mind, intellect, the breath, the memory..how they interoperate is different”…I hope you can see the difference…



BK: “In fact we have a strong tradition of trying to pick holes in philosophical theories. I am of course referring to naasthika thoughts and Pathanjali.”

What do u mean by naasthika? Ppl who dont believe in God or ppl who dont believe they breathe?? Can you name 3 prominent naasthikas in Indian history? Need not be ancient..can be few decades old or even living now…can you name them?
Pantanjali was not a naasthika. His was the school of yoga..Patanjali yoga sutras gel very well with the theories of Prana, Chitta..etc that the latest post deal with..If you wish i can give you the actual Patanjali yoga sutras which talk about them. You can see the musings at the end of the post “Dissecting our actions” for a sample. Picking holes in sth is called tarka (logic) Nyaya (doubt) which are branches of Indian philosophy. My dear, believe me, you have not even scratched the surface of Indian philosophy!!! All you need to do is just do a google search and then read read and read….!You can start with wikipeida to begin with…


BK: “Science is something which affords different angles of view, review and logical rejection. It is subject to reappraisal and correction. Where is the question of review and correction in Indian system of philosophy? “

My latest post on the six schools of Indian philosophy may bring you out of the wrong notion that there are no different angles in Indian philosophy. Or that there is no review and correction in Indian system of philosophy.

BK: “That was because I feel that Indian way of looking at this world is not a particularly scientific. What goes as 'scientific' in Indian philosophy is just dogma. “

You declare without proof “Indian way is not scientific”. Before that can you define what is “Indian way”? what do u mean by science? And then what makes you think that they both have nth in common..on what basis do u make that stmt?
I personally would refrain from making such comment as we have not even hardly scratced the surface of either “science” or “indian way”. To make such a assertive statement about sth you do not know would amount to prejudice.

BK: “So where is the life factor? In the DNA? Is DNA the very life factor? Is life factor a set of nucleotides and chemicals?'we' are a bundle of biochemical reactions? Possibly!

I think you are almost on the right track, all by urself! Bravo! Scientists have found that the brain is influenced by hormornes which are secreted by endocrine glands(adreneline, thyriod, pitutary, pineal…)Adreneline is the gland of “fear and flight” ie when it secrets more of its hormones, we are “afraid” or vice versa…I am about to touch this in my posts in near future. The point is that the rishis have talked about “chakras” And the observation is that these chakras are at same location as the glands and share the same “quality” ….Is that true?? If so, was it by chance??? I donno, for now, Lets see…

BK: “Our brain is too small for that sort of fundamental knowledge. When we get a bigger brain (in the course of the evolution)..”

According to the theory of use and disuse by Darwin, if we dont use the brains we have now(all the computers/calculators/automation), our brains may even shrink as a part of “evolution” That can be prevented by racking our brains with the thought provoking discussions as this

BK: “She was looking at the Indian philosophical prana and life forces. I looked at it from a more skeptical point of view. “

I think you said it all when you said “I looked at it from a more skeptical point of view.” You did not read it with open mind and then get skeptical. You were skeptical even before u started reading and then you read it !! Do some self enquiry and correct me if I am wrong. I would be glad to be wrong..atleast in this.

BK : “I do not think I will sacrifice my commonsense and free thinking on the altar of some hard core uncritical tradition monger.”

way to go….!keep it up..only suggession from my side would be..dont confuse prejudice with commonsense… Refine ur commonsense with more and more information and logic.


BK: “A few thousands of years ago it might have sounded very rational and was acceptable.But right now it is not. We know better. “

I would not like to answer these lines..i think you may want to review or refine them after reading all my answers to ur thoughts.. if u still feel “We know better”….Peace!So be it!