Bharatha's of this world are priceless

Born with Gaja Kersari Yoga, I have always been or aimed to be the leader wherever I am. If I am not, it makes me very uneasy.

 

Naturally born leaders in the Ithihasas like Sri Rama became my heroes. However, Age has brought with it the much wanted wisdom, broader perspective and a fine tuning of the mindset which makes me appreciate the contribution of non leaders too.

 

There are many silent contributors in our epics, and in our work place who deserve much more respect and recognition than we give them. They do silently efficient work all the time, without being in the limelight, thereby allowing the leader to focus on other issues. They are the workhorses, who take considerable load and whose maintenance cost is very less. They run the Organization. The nurses in the hospital are one example.

 

Though I have been fascinated by Ramayana since childhood, somehow I had never given a second thought to the character of Bharatha, until recently that is.

 

Bharatha stayed under the radar, but his virtues are unparalleled. Perhaps his devotion to Sreerama is even more than that of Lakshmana.

 

On hearing that his mother has conspired to banish Sree Rama for 14 years, and thus giving him the Kingdom on a platter, he berates her no end and flatly refuses to accept the Throne, which rightfully belonged to his brother. It took lot of convincing from Sreerama to make him go back to Ayodhya, but only on the condition that he will rule as a Caretaker alone. He also eschewed all the comforts of the palace, and chose to live a simple life like his brother for the 14 years.

 

Bharatha was a brilliant and wise king. During his 14 years, the GDP of Ayodhya grew 10 times! Thus he ensured his brother got to rule a much richer, stronger and prosperous kingdom on his return from Vanavasa.

 

Once Sree Rama was back, he quietly slipped back to his role of supporting him in his duties, and to his credit, not even for a moment did he have any thoughts of wanting the Kingdom for himself.

 

If ever one wants an example for Nishkama Karma, he has to only look up Bharatha.

 

Though India's original name Bharatham has nothing to do with the Bharatha of Ramayana, it is a fitting tribute to him that, though inadvertently, we call our great country Bharatham

Of Vows and Consequences

Ithihasams are replete with instances of many legends being forced to support adharma or a non rational act, just to uphold a promise given by them.

Take the case of Dasaradhan. He gave a boon to his wife Kaikeyi for showing presence of mind during a critical battle, which she redeemed at a later stage with tragic consequences. On the eve of Sreeraman's coronation as Crown Prince, she used the boon to insist that Dasaradhan banish Rama for 14 years to the jungle and to crown her son Bharathan as Crown Prince. Much against everyone's wish, including his Prajas, he had to accede to Kaikeyis wish and send Sreeraman to the Jungle. Did he forgo his responsibility to his Country and People for a boon given long ago, but was totally unjust and asked for a selfish purpose? Was his promise more worth than what was good for the Country?

Young Devavrata took a Bhishma Sapadham so that his aged father Shantanu can marry a young girl, Satyavathi. He relinquished his right to be the King and vowed to protect Hastinapuram against any usurper. Should he have done this to satisfy the whim of an aged man, who thought only about his personal pleasure? Did not the Country and people lose out the wisdom of a great warrior like Devavrata (Bhishma)? And much later, he was forced to side with the Kauravas, against Pandavas in the Kurukshetra war, thereby fighting against an Army that was waging a war for Dharma.

Karnan was known for his Dana Seelam. Indran, knowing fully well this sterling quality of Karna, comes in disguise and asks him to donate his Kavacham and Kundalam. Knowing his life will be in peril in the imminent War, Karnan does offer them as alms to Indra, thereby letting down himself, his close friend Duryodhana and the Kauravas. Karnan also gave a word to his mother Kunti that he will not kill any of his brothers other than Arjuna. Though he had chances to kill the other four, he let them off each time, honouring his word, but falls prey to Arjunans arrow in tragic circumstances. Another case of mistaken priorities perhaps?

While I am one for honouring one's word (what are we, if we cannot honour our words!), it should not be at the expense of the greater benefit to the mankind, or ones Country or ones Organization or ones Family.

Did not Krishna ask Yudhishtira to utter 'Aswathama hatha: Kunjara:' which ensured Drona keeping his Weapons down, so that Dhrishtadhyumnan can kill him? This turned the war in favour of Pandavas and greater good prevailed.

Pattu Noolil Vazha Naaru Cherkaruthu (Dont try to add Plantain Thread to Silk Thread)

Once upon a time, a young boy called Prabhakaran was learning the Sasthrams in Gurukulavasam Sampradayam. Despite being exceptionally gifted, the Guru used to be extremely tough with him, though to lesser gifted students he was patience personified. The Guru used to abuse and beat Prabhakaran. Though baffled, Prabhakaran bore all these sufferings and ignomy with dignity and became versatile in all Sasthrams. Even though the time for him to complete his education was over, the Guru did not let him go. One day the Guru beat him on the thigh so harshly that it started bleeding. Prabhakaran couldnt take it any longer and went away from his classes for the day. Hurt, he wanted to take reprisal on the Cruel Guru and managed to find a place in the loft above the Gurus bedroom with a big stone, with the avowed purpose of killing him in the night. In the night, he heard the Guru remorsefully tell his wife that he was being tough on Prabhakar, only because he was exceptionally talented, and he didnt want him to be complacent, which he feared would happen, if he were to praise him. Hearing this, Prabhakaran was overcome with grief, and falls on the feet of the Guru, but revealing to him that he had intended to kill him. Though the Guru pardoned him, Prabhakaran took the issue of his intention to murder his Guru to a court of learned people, and sought a suitable punishment. Since even thinking of harming a Guru is unthinkable, murder was unpardonable in their eyes. The punishment given to him was to cover himself with rice husk (Umi) and set fire to it, slowly burning himself to death. Prabhakaran accepted the punishment and set about to carry it out. While he was slowly being burned to death, he thought "My this janmam is ending now. Let me at least create something eulogizing the God, which will be my contribution to my Guru and to the World' Thus he started creating and reciting the poem 'Sree Krishna Vilasam'. The brilliant poem was never completed. When he reached the 12th Sargam, his body got completely burnt and the last verse was 'Pasya Priye Konkana....."

Much later, the legendary Poet Kalidasan tried to complete the Poem. He took off from where Prabhakara Kavi left off 'Pasya Priye Konkana' by adding the word 'Bhoomi bhagaan'. At that time there was a divine voice (asareeri) "Pattu noolinondu vazha naaru echu koottan purappadenda" (dont try to add plantain thread to silk thread). Kalidasan was a genius, and one can imagine how good Prabhakara Kavi was by this incident. A peeved Kalidasan stopped his attempt to complete Sree Krishna Vilasam, and to this day it stays unfinished. Kalidasan felt a bit of jealousy and inferiority complex at this, and vowed to create one like this and thus was born 'Kumara Sambhavam', Prabhakara Kavi started his Poem with 'Asthisrayarassa thara sumeru nama', while Kalidasan commenced Kumarasambhavam with ' Asthyutharasyam Dishi Devathathma Himalayo Nama Nagaadhi Raja:'

The long and short of it is that it doesnt pay to add Plantain thread to a Silk Thread. But we continue to do so in many areas and in many countries with disastrous results.

I was reminded of this story when I see the Brazilian Football team of today. As an avid fan of Brazilian football of the 1980s when they played with the Latin American flair and swagger, so aesthetically pleasing, with wonderful results to show, I am dismayed at their current status. All their top players play in the more straitjacketed European football, which gets reflected in the Brazillian national teams performance on the field. They have tried, with disastrous consequences, merging the drab European Style (Vazhanaaru) to their Natural Style (Silk Thread), and the result is there for all to see.

Ditto with Indian Hockey. With the advent of Astro Turf, we went for a series of European coaches to adopt the ugly physical European style, and in the end we are neither here or there.

The Cricket Team almost fell into the same path. Wright, Chappel, Kirsten and Fletcher tried to mould India to another Australia or England, with emphasis on system than natural talent. Fortunately for India, our Silk threads ( players like Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid, Laxman, Kohli, Kumble, Zaheer) were much superior and we didnt lose out like our hockey team. Now it has dawned on the powers that be that it doesnt pay to buy Vazhanaaru coaches by paying huge sums from abroad.

We do see this in many Organizations. A team of brilliant people (pattu nool) will be saddled with a few mediocre ones (Vazha naaru) bringing down creativity and productivity

Kalidasan was wise enough to stop on hearing the Asareeri, but our Vazhanaaru people chug on merrily,........ and there lies the tragedy.

Astrology and Newton's Law of Gravity - Interesting

I was reading the Force of Gravity between two objects on a Science Text Book, where it was mentioned that

Fgravity  is directly proportional to the Product of Their Masses and Inversely Proportional to the Square of the Distance between them

F = G*(M1M2/D*D), where G is the Gravitational Constant

It set me thinking.

Can we extend this principle to our Astrology, which is based on the impact of each planet on us (who lives in Earth) or rather their Gravitational Attractions and Mass?

Guru / Sukran			Rahu
Ravi/Kujan /Sani/Budhan	RAASI CHART
			Lagnam
Ketu	Maandi		Chandran

We know that Sun, Moon, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Mars, Mercury - in that order, has the influence in descending order on our life as per our Astrology.

I did some research and my findings are as follows, which is astonishing to say the least. The Mass of Each Planet is in the First Column, and the Distance in AU (1 AU = Distance from Sun to Earth = 149,600,000 Kms) in the second column, and their Force of Gravity on the last. I leave it to you to wonder at the wisdom of our Forefathers. Also this explains why they did not take into consideration the impact of Uranus and Neptune (Many a Skeptic of Astrology has raised this query saying our Solar System has 7 planets other than Earth (Pluto excluded) but our Astrological chart don't take into account Uranus and Neptune). It is also clear why we attach so much importance to the movement of Sun, Moon and mainly Jupiter.

	Mass 1021 Kg	Distance in AU	D2	F=KM1M2/D2
Sun	1,988,550,000	1	1	11,878,802,280,000
Moon	74	0.00257	0.0000066049	66,474,829,293
Jupiter	1,898,600	4.2	17.64	642,940,871
Venus	4,868	0.28	0.0784	370,911,796
Saturn	568,460	8.52	72.5904	46,779,638
Mars	641	0.52	0.2704	14,160,790
Mercury	330	0.61	0.3721	5,297,737
Uranus	86,832	18.21	331.6041	1,564,214
Netptune	102,430	29.09	846.2281	723,063
Earth	5,973

Random thoughts on Onam, Mahabali and Vamanan

Another Onam is here. Wishes to All the Readers of this Blog.

Despite the diminishing relevance of Onam, which is essentially an Agrarian Festival, in a State that is highly Service Sector oriented, it is still a time for family get together, socialization and general lifting of the mood for the people. Any diversion from day to day struggles is welcome.

Mahabali, who ruled the Earth, and in whose memory Onam is celebtrated, was a just and wise king. So why was he sent back to Pathala by Vamanan, thus depriving everyone of the benefactors rule, where as the saying goes, 'there was no lies, cheating,  under measurement, theft', but only prosperity prevailed?

The reason lies elsewhere. The Swarga lokam is for Devas. Bhoomi for Humans and Pathala for Asuras. Pathala is not the hell we make it out to be. It is as prosperous as Swarga lokam. This was the law of nature.

But ambitious Kings, many a time, transgressed to others territory with a view to expand their Kingdom. Mahabali, an Asura, was not supposed to conquer the Earth as that meant occupation by force. As an analogy, one can imagine a British Ruler, however benevolent he may be, ruling over India. We will never accept it. 'Bandhoora Kanjana Kottilanengilum, Bandhanam Bandhanam thane paaril'. (Even if it is a golden cage, it still denotes confinement)

So Mahabali had to be sent back to Pathala and Lord Vishnu, in the guise of Vamanan, helped Humans get back their rightful Kingdom from the usurper, though a good one.

Again Contrary to what many thinks, Vamanan did not send Mahabali to Pathala by force. When there was no place for Vamanan to place his third step, Mahabali, a Vishnu Bhakthan, gracefully asked the Almighty to place it on his head, thus accepting his complete subservience to God. Even today in Vishnu temple, we allow Gods padam or  leg (mounted on a Kireedam) to be placed on our head. It is for this devotion that Vishnu blessed Mahabali and allowed him to come up to Earth once in a year.

Guruthwam

Guru Brahma Guru Vishnu Guru Devo Maheswara:

Guru Sakshath Parabrahma

Thasmai Sree Guruve Namaha:

In our Culture, we give utmost importance and respect to the Guru.

We have always advocated that one should have 'Guruthwam'. The belief is that for one to get the benefit of any knowledge or skill, he or she should have the whole hearted blessings of the Guru. Without it, he or she may possess the skill, but will not be able to deploy it effectively.

Guru is not a mere teacher. He is much more than that. He is a Teacher, Friend, Philosopher and Guide, who passes on knowledge accumulated over generations to the student.

Maharishi Viswamithra takes on himself to teach Sree Raman and Lakshmanan Divyasthrams in the guise of taking them away from the Palace to protect his Yajnas. A Sage with the Supreme Powers of Viswamithra do not actually need any help to ward off those trying to disrupt his Yajnas. The tutelage under Viswamithra was to stand in good stead for Sree Raman and Lakshmanan in the long run.

His own father Jamadagni was the Guru of Parasurama. When his father asked him to cut his mother Renukas head, for a mental indiscretion, Parasurama did not hesitate for a moment. But he atoned for killing his mother by asking Jamadagni to restore her life, which was done.

Contrast this with Karnan. He lied his way to become the student of Parasurama, who, on becoming aware of his true identity, cursed him that his skills will fail him when he needed most. Thus, Karnan, despite being a much better skilled Archer than Arjunan, had to die, for his skills did not stand him in good stead during Kurukshetra War.

There is an element of pathos in Ekalavya's story. He takes Dronacharyar as Manasika Guru and becomes a supremely skilled Self Taught Archer. Drona was astounded at the Nishada boy's skills, but asks him his thumb as 'Guru Dakshina'. Without the thumb, an Archer cannot shoot an Arrow. I have always wondered why Drona did this? Was it to ensure no one is better than Arjunan, his most favourite disciple? Why did he have to punish an innocent boy?

Probably because knowledge obtained without proper guidance can lead to improper usage which can be dangerous.

But, after all these years, while I can understand the curse on Karna, as he tried to learn through Subterfuge, I still cannot accept the young Nishada boy being incapacitated, to be heard of no more.

Education is also supposed to develop humility in the students. A story unknown to many is reiterated here. Hanuman, who was blessed by all the Gods when he was a child, went in search of a suitable Guru, and zeroed in on Sage Thrinabindu. But the Sage refused citing he was a Vanara, and a Vanara acquiring education, in his opinion, was of no use to anyone. A dejected Hanuman remembered that Surya Bhagavan had given a word to his father, Vayudevan, that he will be responsible for the education of Hanuman when the time comes. Promptly Hanuman met Surya Bhagavan at sunrise and reminded him of his word to his father. Surya Bhagavan agreed to teach him everything, on the  condition that Hanuman has to learn everything in one day, and that too before Sunset. Hanuman agreed and learned from the Gurumukham of Surya Bhagavan, by facing him and walking backwards while Surya Bhagavan undertook his journey around the Earth. All in one day.

Having acquired the knowledge, Hanuman meets Sage Thrinabindu and bragged how he got a better teacher than him. It was then that the Sage cursed him that he will be unaware of his knowledge and strength till someone tells him. Lack of humility led to this situation, even to Hanuman.

Years have rolled on. Today there are hardly any Gurus, not even Teachers, only Information imparters, who lacks the dedication, the tapasya, and the knowledge required of a Guru.

This is reflected in the quality and mindset of Students these days. They have no respect for anyone, leave alone their Teachers.

We have degraded our Education system to such an extend that we are creating a Generation of 'Kurutham Kettavars' which actually means 'Guruthwam Kettavar' or those who are not blessed with Guruthwam.

Is there any wonder the moral values of the society are going down day by day?

Vada Malai or Jilebi for Lord Hanuman

I have often wondered about the significance of offerings made to Gods.

Why do we (South Indians) offer Vada Malai to Anjaneyar?

Clarification to this question was given once by Kanchi Sankaracharya, the learned Periyavar, when this was put to him by a North Indian (In North India, they offer Jilebi , instead of Vada )

When Hanuman was a child, he saw the rising Sun, mistook it for a ripe fruit and jumped to catch it. Unfortunately, this happened at the precise time Rahu was about to swallow the sun, as it was a day of Eclipse (As per the myth, Eclipse occurs when Rahu swallows the Sun). Curious at seeing Rahu on the verge of snatching his fruit, Hanuman grabs him and starts toying with him. After a while Rahu manages to get out of Hanumans grasp and approaches complaining to Indran, with tears streaming down his eyes. To make a long story short, Indran mounts the Airawatam, and uses his Vajrayudham on Hanuman, stunning him.

Vayu, the father of Hanuman, got upset on seeing his Son unconscious, carries him and withdrew from the three worlds, causing unease and discomfort all over.

To placate Vayu, and amazed at the fantastic ability of the young child,  all the Gods came down and blessed the baby Hanuman, and gave him many boons, including protection from water, ability to change forms etc.

At his turn, Rahu, who by now was impressed by the strength of the baby, blessed him that any devotee who makes an offering of food made of Urad Dal (Urad Dal is the favourite of Rahu) in the form of a Malai ( a malai or string resembles a Serpent, which is the base form of Rahu) to Anjaneyar will be cured of any inflictions as a result of Rahu, which is essentially malefic in nature.

Salt is plentiful in South India while North India has more of Sugar Cane. Thus, in South India devotees offer Urad Vadai Malai, which is made of Urad dal dough and salt, while in North India, they offer Jilebi , which is also made of Urad Dal Dough in Sugar Syrup. And Jilebi has the shape of a coiled Serpent.

Thus it is basically to avert the ill effects of Rahu, that one offers Vada Malai to Anjaneyar

To build a team, you need people with different core competencies

A team should be multi skilled that has synergy to make it function effectively and to achieve success. More often than not, we see leaders pack their team with like minded people, or people having similar skill sets and view point, so that their comfort zone is not disturbed. Same is true of CEOs of Companies. While such a course of action will apparently make life easier on a day to day basis, the team may not achieve great success.

Probably someone like Saurav Ganguly, under John Wright, managed players who varied in skill and temperament to create a wonderful team. The maverick Sehwag, the sedate/solid Dravid, the genius Sachin, the artistic VVS Laxman, temperamental Harbhajan, the rock like Anil Kumble, mercurial Zaheer Khan was a pot pourri of characters, seemingly not having anything in common. None of them had anything in common with Saurav, who himself was an highly excitable character with leadership skills. And Saurav had the rock solid but quietly efficient John Wright as Coach to back him.

When Greg Chappel took over as Coach, he tried to have players who will be comfortable with him, and of particular nature in the team, which led to the team under performing badly.

And Dhoni packed his team, of late, with yes men, taking out all dissenters one by one, and he the team performance took a nose dive.

One has to just have a look at Mahabharatham to understand the concept better.

Yudhishtira was the Conscience, the moral/ethical guy who was supreme in Chariot war.

Bheema was the source of strength, the powerhouse, who intimidated everyone.

Arjuna the masterly skilled Archer, in possession of an enviable range of Celestial Weapons.

Nakula, the ace horseman, whose skill was so essential in maintaining an Army whose backbone was Horses. It also brings forth the importance of having a good maintenance man in any team. One who will ensure everything is in its place and working. He was also a master swordsman, well versed in Ayurveda.

Sahadeva, the astrologer was also known for his wisdom. He could look into the past or future. A visionary who was an immense source of knowledge about the history.

Add to this, the Sagacity and Counsel of Sree Krishnan, and you got an enviable team which is multi skilled and having diverse core competencies.

Individually, they might not have become world beaters, but collectively they were formidable.

There is a lesson to be learned in team building from this.

Significance of 108 in Hinduism

108 is a holy number for Hindus. When we do Pushpanjali to a particular deity, we chant 108 synonyms of the concerned deity as a method of pleasing him/her.

 

I have always wondered at the significance of 108. Why is it 108 and not 100 or 110 or 150? Knowing the wisdom of our forefathers, this could not have been accidental or something that happened on a whim.

 

Recently, I think, I probably found the appropriate reason. Life revolved around the sun during the Vedic Ages, to which we can assign the origin of the sanctity of 108.

 

108 is the result you get when divide Sun's distance from Earth by Sun's Diameter

 

149,600,000km/ 1,391,000 km = 107. 55 or 108 (rounding off)

(Data sourced from NASA)

It is also interesting to note that the Moon's distance from Earth/Divided by Moons diameter (382,500km/3485km = 109.75) is  more or less equal to 108, though slightly more. We can give a benefit of doubt to our sages who lived thousands of years ago, as they didn't have accurate tools to measure.

Amazing isn't it?

Gayathri Mantra and Science

In a bit of a spiritual mood today. Kindly bear with me

Gayathri is the Supreme Japa Mantra among all Vedic Scripts.

The following article on "Gayatri" was sent to me by a good friend through E-mail. No one can deny the values of this Great asset of Indian Vedic scripts among which

The Gayatri Mantra tops and is most important one for Daily recital as Japam. Now let us see the real values :

Gayatri mantra has been bestowed the greatest importance in Vedic dharma. This mantra has also been termed as Savitri and Veda-Mata, the mother of the Vedas. The literal meaning of the mantra is:

God! You are Omnipresent, Omnipotent and Almighty. You are all Light. You are all Knowledge and Bliss.You are Destroyer of fear; You are Creator of this Universe,You are the Greatest of all. We bow and meditate upon your light.You guide our intellect in the right direction.

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 approximately 100,000 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. All planets round the sun.

Each of the above bodies revolves round at its own axis as well. Our sun along with its family takes one round of the galactic center in 22.5 crore years.

All galaxies including ours are moving away at a terrific velocity of 20,000 miles per second. And now the alternative scientific meaning of the mantra step-by-step:

(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 (rotations Per minute) moves, it makes noise. Then, one can imagine, what great noise would be created when the galaxies move with a speed of 20,000 miles 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 too their colleagues. All of them, then unanimously decided to call this sound Om the name of God, because this sound is available in all 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 20,000 miles/second was generating a kinetic energy= 1/2MV2 and this was balancing the total energy consumption of the cosmos. Hence they named it Pranavah, which means the body (vapu) or storehouse of energy (prana).

(B) Tat savitur varenyam:

Tat that (God), savitur the sun (star), varenyam worthy of bowing or respect. 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 riverbank 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 do Japam 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 realize it, as the human mind is so shaky and restless that without the grace of the Supreme (Brahma) it cannot be controlled.

Hence Vishvamitra suggests 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 as an umbrella and balances the total energy consumption of the cosmos. Hence it was named as the Pranavah (body of energy). This is equal to 1/2 mv2 (Mass of galaxies x velocity)

2) Realizing 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 realized through the saguna (gross), upasana (method), i.e.,
(a) by chanting the name of the supreme as OM and(b) by meditating upon the light emitted by stars (suns) .

Dasavatharam and Evolution of Mankind

I have heard many ridicule the past and the scriptures. While I am not fully taken in by what is in scriptures, sometimes I am stunned as to the wisdom of our forefathers.........here is one example.....

Those who have followed the hindu faith or are familiar with hinduism know about the 10 avatharams of Mahavishnu called the 'Dasavatharam'.

For those who don't know, they are,

Matsya, Koorma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Parasurama, Sreerama, Balarama, Sreekrishna , Kalki

Recently, I happened to read a take on the Dasavatharam by Sri Aurobindo.

"Avatarhood would have little meaning if it were not connected with the evolution. The Hindu procession of the ten Avatars is itself, as it were, a parable of evolution. First the Fish Avatar, then the amphibious animal between land and water, then the land animal, then the Man-Lion Avatar, bridging man and animal, then man as dwarf, small and undeveloped and physical but containing in himself the godhead and taking possession of existence, then the rajasic, sattwic, nirguna Avatars, leading the human development from the vital rajasic to the sattwic mental man and again the overmental superman. Krishna, Buddha and Kalki depict the last three stages, the stages of the spiritual development – Krishna opens the possibility of overmind, Buddha tries to shoot beyond to the supreme liberation but that liberation is still negative, not returning upon earth to complete positively the evolution; Kalki is to correct this by bringing the Kingdom of the Divine upon earth, destroying the opposing Asura forces. The progression is striking and unmistakable."Letters on Yoga; SABCL; 400; ( I sincerely thank an Anonymous friend for giving me the original source through the comment section and correcting me. I thought my friend would reveal who he or she is. Maybe an avatharam of vishnu??)

Though exactly not what Aurobindo implied, someone else interpreted Dasavatharam as "Matsya (life in water), Koorma (amphibian), Varaha(land animal) , Narasimha (half man half animal denoting man evolving from his animal instincts), Vamana (the dwarf indicating the incompleteness of the development of man), Parasurama (uses axe so necessary to survive in forest), Sreerama (kingdom, use of bow and arrow meaning fighting from a distance rather than fighting at a close range using the axe), Balarama ( the agriculturist- man moving on to become a food producer) , Sreekrishna ( the advanced version of man - more intellectual - maybe the first known Consultant and Service provider) and yet to come saviour Kalki" .....Even this interpretation is something to be contemplated............

We may agree or disagree, but I thought this interpretation a little different as I certainly had not looked at Dasavatharam from that angle before ..........

Just passing on an information I found interesting......It was thought provoking