Tsunami

26 – Dec – 2004 …..that Sunday introduced a black word to the Indian dictionary, Tsunami. God!!! Thou took away lives ignorant of thy master’s plan. May the souls washed away reach the shores of your feet.

Harry and Me

Now-a-days, I immerse myself with Harry Potter. I am on a proper re-course on Harry.

 

I first came to know about Harry only when the first movie, the Philosopher’s stone, released. At that time, when in college I remember asking Kannapan ( http://gulmohar.blogspot.com ), who went to watch the movie, about the story. Again it was Kannappan who made me read the book, after I joined Infy, but this time it was book 5 (Order of the Phoenix). I started there. Though, I could not understand everything pretty well, I thought Jo gave enough info for newbies like me to read without feeling much stupid. This infact makes the latter versions of HP books a little boring though.

 

I bought all the books. I read the first book, and then watched the Chamber of Secrets (CoS) movie. Then I read the PoA (3) and GoF (4). Then I found that the CoS movie missed a lot of info in the book and read that.

 

I became so addicted that, I longed to have a proper read, starting from 1 to 5. After a fortnight, I am successfully into book 4 now. I must say the books are amusing even for a second time. Infact, I must’ve read the book 2 (CoS) atleast 4 times. Though, I am able to find a few glitches when I read through again, I really enjoy reading them. I read after returning from Work. Thus most of the time, it extends to 2-3 AM on weekdays and even till 5 AM in weekends.

 

I really don’t appreciate the idea of broomstick flying. I always felt and even now feel that is really stupid. But, Harry changed my opinion. Well, great work Jo. I have been regularly going through Jo’s website ( www.jkrowling.ciom ). It has changed a lot and became quite interesting for a few months now. Finding trap doors, secret things spread throughout the website make it lively.

Thinkings over the weekend

Buying vegetables and groceries, though a little irritating, make me feel confident. It lets me, who spends most of the week in front of my PC, get a little idea of the real world. Living in a rented house in the suburb of Chennai, you need to do such things to get a decent food. Well boy, you did something today.

 

I am looking forward to the Discovery channel’s feature this week, Rameses -> the wrath of god or man. I am recently fascinated with the similarities between the ancient Greeks, Egyptians and Indians. Many of the customs they followed seems to be the same. I am eager to know which one is the fountainhead of all these customs. I suppose its either India or Egypt. I found in the preview of the program, Rameses the great that in one of the temples of Egypt, the sun rays enters the sanctum sanctorum at particular days (Feb and Oct 21) to light up the deities. This is a feature that is more common or prevalent in South Indian temples. With the recent uncovering of the ancient silk route between India and Egypt, there is a sure possibility that cultural exchanges had taken place between Egypt and Southern India. I am not sure which one learned from which. Perhaps, Egypt might have been a part of the great ‘Sindhu-Saraswathi’ civilization.

 

Let me apply some plain logic to it. When we construct something, say a wonder, we build smaller model first and then develop the bigger thing. Most of the temples in India, which are wonderful engineering marvels, are small compared to those built by the Pharaohs. I hope these bigger temple complexes were built after learning the art from the smaller temples of India. This is just my opinion.

 

regards,

Ramesh

 

"There is no use in learning, if we do not worship the good feet of the one who is in the form of pure knowledge."

- Thiruvalluvar

 

Recent happenings

It might look as though I don't care about my blog now-a-days. Its both yes and no. However, I never forget this blog and I try to keep updating as frequently as possible. Till now I had posted info only on my primary passion and it has become a collection of some of articles than a blog in a real sense. I don't think I am sorry about that. However, I have decided to personalise it little to give it a real blog look and content.

Life is going on. With annual apparaisals aorund the corner, I am doing my bit of learning and stuff. Lots of plans. So little time. Will write about that latter.

A heroic act

Following is one of the real heroic acts that we could see in day to day life. I really appreciate the person who did this act. I sincerely believe this author has paid one of the 5 debts of a man, that of ‘Nr Rin’ (the debt of a man to build a progressive and healthy society). Its time we pay our debts back.

 

Kudos to Karthik.

 

Rising up to evil

 

regards,

Ramesh

 

"There is no use in learning, if we do not worship the good feet of the one who is in the form of pure knowledge."

- Thiruvalluvar

 

My Great Nation -The quest for Saraswati

It’s a very good read about the discovery of the great ancient river of Bharatvarsha, on the banks of which the Indian civilization developed. It has been mentioned in our scriptures that it is in the banks of Saraswathi that the humans learned the art of speech, writing and other skills. It clearly tells us that we are the continuation of the ancient ones of this world. At least, it makes us proud that we are very indigenous in our own and not a result of any cultural invasions. Let god be with us to save the dharma of this holy land.

 

http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/riversearch1.htm

 

Floating stones in Rameshwaram

Not got much details about it. Seems to be the ones used by the Lord and his aides.

 

http://www.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=39237&cat=India

 

Ramayana - Fact or Fiction

Following is my opinion I made in one of the discussion forums.

 

I would like to bring to your attention the following details. My native town is in the southernmost part of India. I would like to mention some of the places near my native town.

1) Ramanoothu (the spring of Rama): It is said that when Rama led his army to Lanka, he brought a spring to life here by piercing the earth with his arrow for his tired army.

2) Vanaramutti: When 'Kumbakarna' attacked, the Vanara or monkey army got freightened and made a fleeting escapt. It's been said that only in this place, Jambhavan, Hanuman and others were able to convince the monkey army to regain courage and fight.

We cannot say there are not convincing evidences to prove that these events happened etc.

3) Muthumalaiamman temple:
Once a washerman was doing his duty in the river, when he saw a pearl necklace dropped from the sky from a flying object. To get hold of the necklace without the knowledge of the others, he placed a big metal bucket over the necklace and went home. When he returned to collect the necklace, he could not lift the bucket off. It is said that monkey fetched the necklace. The legend is that the necklace is of Sita devi, who dropped her ornaments along the way to Lanka for Rama to identify.

These kind of incidents/evidences are mixed with People and their lives throughout India. If you cannot count them as evidences then what else can. How could these stories exactly match with what we read from the epics? It would be foolish to say that the people constructed such stories after reading the epics. Such kind of efforts would not be this long lasting. Noreover, it needs a wide collboration of people all over India to 'create' evidences that are so widespread, so common and so accurate.

It is to be noted here that most of the ancient knowledege were passed to us orally because those happened aeons before where writing was not developed. You cannot look for written proof for everything and ruins for every building when we talk about such ancient past. Got it.

 

My Great Nation

Atomic war in Mahabharatha

 

The following quote from Mahabharatha does seems so.

 

“..(the weapon was) a single projectile charged with all the power of the Universe. An incandescent column of smoke and flame as bright as the thousand suns rose in all its splendor... An iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death, which reduced to ashes the entire race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas.... the corpses were so burned as to be unrecognizable. The hair and nails fell out; pottery broke without apparent cause, and the birds turned white.... after a few hours all foodstuffs were infected.... to escape from this fire, the soldiers threw themselves in streams to wash themselves and their equipment...”

 

regards,

Ramesh

 

Indian civilization and culture

The following is also a very good read. I feel this is an essential read for every Indian.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2004/aug/16rajeev.htm

 

and its second part is available at,

http://www.rediff.com/news/2004/aug/17rajeev.htm

 

The following is also a thought provoking article.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/aug/22kak.htm

 

 

regards,

Ramesh

 

My Great Nation

The myth of Aryan invasion

 

 

This is to inform you friends about the most common myth about the history of our great nation.

 

This theory was founded by some racist English junk heads who thought that whites are superior to other races. They refused to believe that a society as sophisticated as the indus valley could have evolved from a non-white group. The result of course is the invasion of Aryans and the resultant foundation of the highly civilized society along the banks of the great rivers Saraswathi, Ganga and Yamuna.

 

We should look like morons to buy their theory in half of our wits. The absurdity that is so apparent in the theory is appalling. One is left to wonder how such a theory could be postulated, without much sense had been got into that. Since, this was one of that master propaganda by the English, it is obvious that, it did not cared about the truth.

 

The theory:

 

There was a civilization along the banks of Sindhu (River Indus) which flourished from 3000 BC to 1500 BC and was halted by the invasion of a tribe from Europe-Central Asia, called Aryans. They fought and drove the people of Indus valley civilization to down south of India. The Vedas and all the majority of thoughts of Hinduism were result of this Aryan Invasion.

 

You might be clear by now that how on earth this was accepted with some critical flaws.

 

Well, lets face it now. Please ponder over the following questions.

 

1)     Aryans were said to have invaded India around 1500 BC and brought with them all the Vedas and the scriptures. The data of Mahabharata is now thought to either of 1900 BC or 3200 BC. The latter fits the evidence more based on the fact that, Mahabharata specifies that ‘Kali Yuga’ started during the reign of Yudhistra after the war was fought and the Kali calendar shows that it is around 5000 years old. This clearly means the war has happened around 3200 BC. There were many references to Vedas and other scriptures in Mahabharata. It is said that Veda Vyas wrote the epic much later. Do you expect the invading tribes to honor and write one of the great epics of the world for the people who are defeated by them?

 

2)     If the Aryans invaded India from other land and found a society here then why no reference to their homeland could be found anywhere in the Vedas and other scriptures?

 

3)     For heaven’s sake, why a group of nomadic people invading a new country should compare the rivers and the banks of the newfound land to gods and goddesses of their own. Why should the invaders praise the rivers and the land of their new settlement alone without a reference or a comparison being made to their homeland or the lands on their way to India? Isn’t always obvious that humans tend to compare everything they see to what they already saw and align.

 

4)      How could a group of nomadic people produce such stunning marvels that describe about air planes running on eight different fuels, creation of universe and various ‘Yagnas’ or rituals, some of which last for months and years. If they are essentially grazers then could you expect them to settle in one land and perform pujas and rituals?

 

More to follow.

Happenings

I slog and that’s the flaw that makes my blog a blah. Made two successive trips to Home and to Kodaikanal in the past two weekends. It was great to be at home after 3 months. Kodai trip was total fun and one of the finest trips I ever had. Will write upon that later. I slog now to complete my work. Just commited myself to write atleast this much to my, now ailing, blog. Anyway, I’ve got some very interesting things to share, things I gained from the trip and my thoughts etc. Will write upon that later. Hope the lord lets me keep my words this time.

 

Re-renew

Oops! It successfully became 4 long weekends without blogging. Fell ill the last weekend. Heavy cold and fever.

Hope I will be posting my regular updates without any breaks from now on.

Renew

As I had said earlier, I've been a weekender, who blogs at leisure during the weekends.
But for the past 3 weeks,i.e. during weekends, I was no where near a PC. So my last post became a month ago.
I could just post with a mail, but wanted to limit the usage of offical mail.

Will continue blogging regularly in the coming weeks.

Quote for a life time - 4

Kurral:

" Kootrrudan vandhumaelvarinum kooodiyethir nirrkkum
aatrra ladhuvae padai"

Meaning:

A real army is one which stands united and fightback even if the god of death comes down
with all his fury.

Description:

The valour and teamwork have been beautifully explained here. A country builds a troop to
save itself and the ment constituting the army must live up to all challenges and be
ready to lay their lives for the sake of their nation.

The real quality of an army is to stand united and fight back even if the opponent is as
mightier as the god of death.

In this competitive world, it applies to all. Valluvar says two things you must do when
you face a mightier opponent are to never lose hope and to fight as a team, which fits
the bill of everyone.

Isn't the term 'Poyyamozhi pulavar', the poet whose words never fail, fits aptly to this
great saint.

Quote for a life time - 3

Kurral:

"Nunnmaann nuzhaipulam illaan ezhilnalam
mannmaann punaipaavai attru"

Meaning:

If you don't have an analytical mind, whatever you learn will be like a doll made of soil.

Description:

We may learn many languages, read all the scriptures and cram all the epics of the world, but if we don't analyse what we have learnt, then it is not useful, it is like a doll made of mud and soil. We should have that analytical ability, that curious mind to analyse and we should be able to apply our learnings to this world.

Nunnmaann nuzhaipulam - analytical ability
illaan - a man without
ezhilnalam - the learnings of a man
manmaan - made of sand
punaipaavai - a crafted doll
attru - like

The week that was

I was not able to post anything the previous week. The reason is one of our colleague's marriage at Trichy. We, a few of our project mates, planned for a trip in the context of marriage. We did some trekking, attended marriage and returned.

The trip started with all of us catching the 'Rockfort express' from Egmore at 10:30 PM IST, on 11-June, Friday. The train reached Trichirappalli at around 5:30 AM IST on 12-June, Saturday. Booked a lodge, did our morning duties and had breakfast.

The first thing on our list was to visit a place called 'Puliancholai' nearby Trichy. We started at around 9 AM from Trichy, hired a tempo traveller and reached another town called 'Thuraiyur', packed lunch and reached 'Puliancholai' at around 11:30.

It was quite a smooth experience. The place 'Puliancholai' provided just enough challenge to our softened muscles (courtesty: sitting all the day in a cushion chair). It did not proved too difficult or too easy, just apt.

It's basically a hill. Flowing stream, rocky ways and gloomy weather accompanied us through. We started trek, from there and made a two hours effort uphill. Then we camped there, had lunch and returned. Since there was a clear sign of a rain in the hills, we had to return at 2:45 PM IST. Some of our chennai friends had to be warned by people from other towns about how it will be when it rains in a hill. They are not in a mood to leave.

Then we returned to our hotel, took rest, refreshed ourselves and went for the landmark of Trichy, 'MalaiKottai' (Rockfort). We were informed by one of our friends that the rock on which the fort was built is infact a sun rock, i.e. the rock was formed when the earth was created from the sun.

We climbed the seemingly innumerable steps and it really had us pant like Calvin at his breakfast. But, the climb was worth it. We offered prayers at the temple of Lord Ganesh. From atop, it was a nice panoramic view of city Trichy. The breeze was amazing.

Then the gang dispersed at about 9:00 PM after dinner. Each group went for their favourite movies. A few of us, needing rest, returned to hotel and slept before you say 'Trichirappalli'.

Next day, we experienced a traiditional hindu marriage. Flowers and relatvies are indispensable. We spent the morning in the marriage. Wished the couples, presented our gift, had lunch and returned to hotel. Then after small rest, we packed up and hurried for the "Guruvayur express" to port us back to Chennai.

The return journey was made fun by playing charades, books etc.

Ineffect, it proved to be a very good team building exercise.

Way to learn religion - Swami Vivekananda

You will find many persons in this world who will say: 'I wanted to become religious, I wanted to realize these things, but I have not been able, so I do not believe anything.' Even among the educated, you will find these. Large numbers of people will tell you, 'I have tried to be religious all my life, but there is nothing in it.' At the same time, you will find this phenomenon: Suppose a man is a chemist, a great scientific man. he comes and tells you this. If you say to him, 'I do not believe in anything about chemistry, because I have all my life tried to be a chemist, and do not find anything in it', he will ask, 'When did you try?' 'When I went to bed, I repeated, "O chemistry, come to me", and it never came.' That is the very same thing. The chemist laughs at you and says: ‘Oh that is not the way. Why did you not go to the laboratory and get all the acids and alkalis and burn your hands from time to time? That alone would have taught you.' Do you take the same trouble with religion? Every science has its own method of learning, and religion is to be learned the same way.    

 

 

Quote for the lifetime - 2

This time one of the best known and often quoted Kurral (ref. my previous posting regarding Kurral).

Kurral:

"Thottanai thoorrum manarkkaeni maandharkku
katranai thoorrum arrivu"

Meaning:

Water springs from the sandy well as much as you dig likewise knowledge comes to people as much as they learn

Description:

In a muddy well, water comes on it only as good as you dig or delve deeper, the similarly knowledge springs from the mind only as much as you learn.

1) Thottanai thoorrum = Thottanaithu + Oorum
Thottanaithu - as much you dig
Oorrum - springs

2) Manarkkaeni - Sandy well

3) Maandharkku - for people

4) Katranai thoorrum - Katranithu + Oorrum
Katranaithu - as much you learn
Oorum - springs

5) Arrivu - Knowledge

Dasavathara and the evolution of creatures

Avatars of the lord:

According to Sanathana Dharma, god took birth ten times in this world (referred as avatars) in our world to protect the good from evil. As the lord himself has said in Bhagavad Gita,

"Forever, whenever the evil arises, whenever the Saadhus (saints in the mode of goodness) are attacked, whenever the dharma is in danger, I will appear, to crush the evil and to re-establish faith."

The lord has taken 10 avatars (incarnations), those are in order. Also, my views about the avatar are also noted. a) and b) represent two different views.

1. Machhavatar (Fish)

a) The fish is one of the primitive form of evolution.
b) Child in mother's womb as fish is in water

2. Koormavatar (Turtle)

a) Turtle is next level of creature in water. It's an amphibian, which can live in Land and water. The creatures ventured into the land.

b) Child takes birth as water creatures became amphibians

3. Varahavatar (Wild boar)

a) Fully land animal but primitive.

b) Child is growing. He does not care about others and self-centered.

4. Narasimhavatar (man-lion)

a) Half man and half lion. Depicts the state of early man with the qualities of a man as well as an animal.

b) Humane qualities are getting in but still some rude qualiites exist in the child.

5. Vamanavatar (Dwarf priest)

a) Humane qualities have developed well but the body structure remains as dwarf. The body has not reached the full form. Might also represent those primitive species before homo erectus.

b) Learned but not grown into adult.Young adolescent.

6. Parasuramavatar (Priest with an axe)

a) A full grown man with a bend towards righteousness. He can't stand a crime. The fighting quality and the spirit for good.

b) The youth and its rage for right.

7. Ramavatar (The ideal king)

a) An ideal man. Able ruler. A shining example of how a man should live. Never in the history of the world that a man/ruler more complete than Rama has lived.

b) Man sets to live an ideal life with his family.

8. Krishnavatar

a) Man adaptable to the surroundings. Krishna was a winner is all the circumstances he faced in his life.

b) The later stage of life. He understands that he has to learn to adapt to the surroundings.

9. Buddhavatar

a) A man getting enlightenment and relinquishing from material comforts and pursuits. Preaches and practices meditation.

b) The older stage of life.

Quote for a life time

Thirukurral:
The following quote was given by Thiruvalluvar, a poet-saint who lived 2000 years ago in Tamilnadu, south of India. A great scholar, he wrote a book called 'Thirukurral' containing more than 3000 short verses called 'Kurrals' but only 1330 had been recovered. He is referred as "Poyyamozhi Pulavar", meaning the poet whose words do not fail.

A kurral is a 2 line verse, with 4 words in first line and 3 words in second line, giving complete meaning of a poem.

Now, the quote rather Kurral.

Kurral:

"Katradhanaal aaya payanyenkol vaalarrivan
nattrall thozhar yenin"

Meaning:

If you don't worship the lord's feet, who is dwelling as pure knowledge, whatever you learned is useless.

Description:

You may learn a thousand subjects and may be a great guru or pundit in all the fields, you may be a great linguist well versed in all the languages, you may proclaim yourself a great rationalist, but if you fail to understand and worship god, who is residing as pure knowledge, then whatever you learned is useless. That is not real learning.

Bhagavad Gita and Big Bang

Bhagavad Gita is one of the holy books of the Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism). Bhagavad Gita means songs of the lord. The lord took birth in the world and gave these verses for the enlightenment of the mankind.

What does Bhagavad Gita has in connection with the origin of universe?

The big bang theory states that at some time in the distant past there was nothing. A process known as vacuum fluctuation created what astrophysicists call a singularity. From that singularity, which was about the size of a dime, our Universe was born.

According to the standard big bang theories, the initial condition of the universe was a point of infinitesimal circumference and infinite density and temperature. An initial condition such as this is beyond mathematical description. Nothing can be said about it. All calculations go haywire. It's like trying to divide a number by 0--what do you get? 1? ... 5? ... 5 trillion? ... ??? It's impossible to say. Technically, such a phenomenon is called a "singularity."


Now, the lord has said,

"..At the beginning of Brahmā's day, all living entities become manifest from the unmanifest state..."

The singularity defined in the big bang is the ummanifested state. The state of singularity is beyond mathematical description. That is why, some scientists oppose Big Bang theory, stating how can infinite amount of matter and energy could have exploded from a point that is indescribable.

But, they need to know that, there are many things that are beyond human rationalism. Human mind is not the limit and the product of human mind without an inner look could not be used understand this nature and its laws. Limiting the theories based on the such tools will lead the western science to nowhere.

Vedic conception of time

According to the vedas (the collection or systemized knowledge structures of the Sanatana Dharma), the universe bustles with activity during the day of Brahma and will remian still during his night. For the uninitiated, Brahma is the god of creation.

This activity and inactivity period will continue forever. Seems like Pulsating theory of western astronomy huh?

The basic unit of time at cosmic level is one yuga. There are four yugas which comprise a yuga cycle and each one have certain characteristic that people of the yuga will inherit.

One yuga has many human years. It varies accordingly.

1. Kritha Yuga - 1.7 million years - Age of truth
2. Tretha yuga - 1.2 million years - Many good and few lies
3. Dwavpara Yuga - 0.8 million years - Evil spreading up
4. Kali Yuga - 0.4 million years - Age of degradation

The day of Brahma is divided into 'Manvandhras' and 'Sandhyas'. Manvandhra constitues 71 Yuga cycles. Sandhya period is equal to the period of Krita yuga.

A day of Brahma = 14 Manvandhras + 15 Sandhyas

We are at present in the 5,000th year of the Kali yuga of the 28th Yuga cycle of the 7th Mandvandhra of the present day of Brahma.

This would give the inhabited earth an age of about 2 billion years. Interestingly enough, the oldest undisputed organisms recognized by paleontologists - algae fossils like those from the Gunflint formation in Canada - are just about that old.

Altogether, 453 yuga cycles have elapsed since this day of Brahma began. Each yuga cycle involves a progression from a golden age of peace and spiritual progress to a final age of violence and spiritual degradation

Oangi ulagalantha utthaman perpaadi...

Here comes a blog from a soul of a creature (jeevathma).

I would like to start by offering prayers to the all merciful lord.

I would put myself as a continuer of the oldest and by far the best civilization in the world. I feel blessed, when I think, I am a follower of Sanatana Dharma and I thank god for putting me here and blessing me with the knowledge of following the holy dharma. I pray to him to keep me in bliss and to keep his lotus feet in my memory all the way through to his feet.

The title you just saw is in the language Tamil (Spoken in Southmost India), which is more than 3000 years old.