History of Currency Demonetization in India

This month the government of india demonetized Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 Currency Notes.  This is not the first demonetization in India.  But the interesting fact is all demonetizations were initiated by non-congress governments.

Some facts of Colonial Rule - spoken by Shashi Tharoor @ Oxford Union

One of the finest speeches that I came across about the British Colonial Rule, that too spoken in UK

India 100 years ago - in pictures

I came across these rare pictures of indian lifestyle and monuments, taken more than 100 years back.  They gives us a glimpse of the good old times back in history...

Indian Number System

This is the number system used in india since vedic times.  They used to count all the way to 10 to the power of 39.  This is no wonder because they predicted the celestial distances also in those times...

Video - Indian Kingdoms mapped on a timescale

It would be interesting to see the indian kingdoms on a timescale.  The video below shows the entire history of India from 29th century BCE to 2016.

The Science behind Homam / Yagnam

I am a hindu by birth.  But I am not attached to the religious aspect of hinduism.  However there are certain cultural practices which makes my life better.  I do follow those practices and I never give them a miss.  Examples are Ganesh Chaturdhi, Deepavali, visit temples to recharge or re-align by own energy, etc.

Recently I have been studying about the Homam that is performed in almost all important hindu rituals.  Found some myths and facts about it and also the scientific analysis of its benefits, which I shall share in this article.

Homam/Homa/Yagnam is a sacred fire ceremony performed by Hindu pundits in temples, homes and working places by involving a sacred fire. Various forms of the Divine gods and Demi-gods are invoked in a sacred fire according to the guidelines in the Vedic scriptures.

A Homa has a purifying effect not only on the performer but also on the environment. Offering environmental-friendly goods to fire and chanting of mantras re-energizes one’s chakras, producing a re-vitalized and invigorating effect for one’s the body as well as mind that leads to further success by swapping negative energies such as anger, rashness & irrational thinking with positive ones like calmness, tranquility and controlled attitudes.

Human Energy

There are two basic energy systems in the physical world: heat and sound. In performing yagna, these two energies, namely, the heat from yagna’s fire and the sound of the chanting of the Gayatri and other Vedic Mantras, are blended together to achieve the desired physical, psychological and spiritual benefits.

Agriculture

Agnihotra farming methods of growing plants in pure and healthy atmosphere and balancing the ecological cycles by performing agnihotra (yagna) in the middle of the farm and using the yagna-ash as a fertilizer. Several experiments have been conducted in the East European countries on the use of yagna ash in soil treatment. These, too, have shown positive effects and potential applications in Agriculture.

Proven Medicinal Benefits

1. Yagna renews the brain cells, revitalizes the skin, purifies the blood and prevents growth of pathogenic bacteria. Agnihotra is basically a healing process.

2. Homa/Yagna destroys harmful bacteria in the environment. Experiments have also shown that a patient suffering from typhoid disease can get rid of this bane by exposing his/her self to the smoke of Homa/Yagna for just half-an-hour.

3. According to Dr. Hafkine, the smoke produced by burning the mixture of ghee and sugar kills the germs of certain diseases; inhaling it from some distance induces secretion from certain glands related to the windpipe that fill our heart and mind with relaxation. 

Does Homa produce oxygen?

There are articles going around in the internet that Homa produces huge quantity of oxygen, which is totally wrong.  As any other fire, Homa also produces carbon dioxide.  Currently carbon dioxide is very much in the focus because of its contribution to the greenhouse effect. But we should be aware that the increase of greenhouse gases is only one aspect of atmospheric pollution. Alas, nowadays not much attention is paid to all the other aspects mentioned above. Also, carbon dioxide itself is not at all poisonous. On the contrary, it is necessary for plant metabolism. Plants breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen; humans breathe out carbon dioxide and breathe in oxygen. So carbon dioxide plays an essential role in the cycle of life on this planet.

When we perform Agnihotra immediately an aura energy field is created around all plants in the vicinity. This speeds up the rate of photosynthesis; thus more carbon dioxide is absorbed by plants and oxygen released. The net result will be that Agnihotra actually reduces carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.

In farming projects around the world, it has been shown that Agnihotra and Homa Therapy rejuvenated the plant life on farms and plantations, thereby increasing oxygen and helping to purify the atmosphere. Some plants have the ability to remove, degrade, or render harmless various hazardous materials present in the soil or groundwater. (This process is known as phytoremediation.) By supporting the plant kingdom, Agnihotra and Homa Therapy can help purify land and water contaminated by heavy metals and other pollutants.

Qualitatively this has been shown by increased growth of plants. Please see the many reports on the effects of Homa Therapy in agriculture (where in addition to Agnihotra the resonance technique is used and also Om Tryambakam fires are performed every day).

Quantitatively it would be interesting to measure exactly how much the plant metabolism and especially the photosynthesis are sped up in Agnihotra atmosphere so that we could exactly tell how much more carbon dioxide we remove from the atmosphere than the fires actually produce. But this quantitative analysis has not been done yet.

Does Homa cause rain?

The answer to this question always involves debate in it. The artificial rain caused by the modern science is done by pouring the silver iodide or dry ice through the aeroplane. As a result of this only the rain fall occurs.

The scientific research of homa effect on rain is still in progress. However, I believe the rain due to the homam is because of the similar effect of the modern day artificial rain.

Ancient Indian (Vedic) Time System

I am amused when I get to read the very micro and macro metrics of time in Vedic System, all in use thousands of years ago.  It has the whole spectrum of measurement units to measure from atoms to space.

Further amazing fact is that the Vedic Time System relates Time & Space.  How wonderful is it.

Lets dive into these interesting Time & Space metrics...

Smallest Unit of Time

Vedic astronomy give a very detailed division of the Time upto the lowest sub division level of prana (respiration), a time lapse of four seconds. The lowest sub divisionsprāņa is the same part of the day as the minute is of the circle, so that a respiration of time is equivalent to a minute of apparent revolution of the heavenly bodies above the earth.

1 paramanu		60,750th of a second
1 truţi	=		29.6296 microseconds
1 tatpara	=		2.96296 milliseconds
1 nimesha	=		88.889 milliseconds
45 nimesha	=	1 prāņa	4 seconds
6 prāņa	=	1 vinādī	24 seconds
60 vinādīs	=	1 nadī	24 minutes
60 nādīs	=	1 ahorātra

Vedic Division of Day

The Vedic division of the day is somewhat different. According to this, Kala (Time) is born out of Sun. The counting starts from nimesha (twinkling of an eye). 

100 truti (atoms)	= 1 tatpara (speck)
30 tatpara (specks)	= 1 nimesha (twinkling)
18 nimesha (twinklings)	= 1 kashtha (bit)
30 kashtha (bits)	= 1 kala (~minute)
30 kala (minutes)	= 1 ghatika (~half-hour)
2 ghatika (half hour)	= 1 kshana/muhūrta (~hour)
30 kshana/muhūrta (hour)	= 1 ahorātra (~day).

Truti is referred to as a quarter of the time of falling of an eye lid.

Seven Days of Week

Deleting the leading letter ‘a’ and the trailing ‘tra’ from ‘ahorātra’, one is left with the word horā, and from this horā, another system of measuring time, the ‘Horā System’, introduced in this country by the celebrated Hindu astronomer Varāha Mihira, by dividing a day and night into 24 horās. Many believe that from this Horā System the entire world has adopted the present practice of dividing a day and night into 24 hours and moreover, from Sanskrit horā, English hour, Latin hora and Greek ora (ωρα) have been derived. It is interesting to note here that, one can derive the names of the seven days of a week from this Horā System as well. One has to assume a lord for each horā of the day and Ravivāra is to be accepted as the first day of the week, but counting is to be made in the reverse or descending order and the fourth place gives the name of the following day.

surya	sunday
soma	monday
mangala	tuesday
budha	wednesday
guru	thursday
shukra	friday
shani	saturday
rahu & ketu	eclipse

Samvatsara - The Year Cycles

Samvatsara is a Sanskrit term for "year". In Hindu tradition, there are 60 Samvatsaras, each of which has a name. Once all 60 samvatsaras are over, the cycle starts over again. The sixty Samvatsaras are divided into 3 groups of 20 Samvatsaras each. The first 20 from Prabhava to Vyaya are attributed to Brahma. The next 20 from Sarvajit to Parabhava to Vishnu & the last 20 to Shiva.

1. Prabhava	13. Pramāthin	25. Khara	37. Shobhana	49. Rākshasa
2. Vibhava	14. Vikrama	26. Nandana	38. Krodhin	50. Anala
3. Shukla	15. Vrisha	27. Vijaya	39. Vishvāvasu	51. Pingala
4. Pramoda	16. Chitrabhānu	28. Jaya	40. Parābhava	52. Kālayukti
5. Prajāpati	17. Svabhānu	29. Manmatha	41. Plavanga	53. Siddhārthin
6. Āngirasa	18. Tārana	30. Durmukha	42. Kīlaka	54. Raudra
7. Shrīmukha	19. Pārthiva	31. Hemalambin	43. Saumya	55. Durmati
8. Bhāva	20. Vyaya	32. Vilambin	44. Sādhārana	56. Dundubhi
9. Yuvan	21. Sarvajit	33. Vikārin	45. Virodhikrit	57. Rudhirodgārin
10. Dhātri	22. Sarvadhārin	34. Shārvari	46. Paritāpin	58. Raktāksha
11. Īshvara	23. Virodhin	35. Plava	47. Pramādin	59. Krodhana
12. Bahudhānya	24. Vikrita	36. Shubhakrit	48. Ānanda	60. Kshaya

Yuga

The units of time larger than a year are called yugas. The word yuga has been derived from yoga and yoga from samyoga, or conjunction of heavenly bodies. So one finds the origin of every unit of yuga to a specific conjunction of the heavenly bodies in the sky. In Indian astronomy, starting from a mere 5 year yuga to a vast Mahāyuga of 4,320,000 years are in vogue. Every 5 year, a conjunction of the sun and the moon occurs at the asterism Dhanişthā in the zodiacal sign Makara (Capricorn). The sun enters Makara, in the month of Māgha. Hence the conjunction recurs every 5 year on the new-moon day in the month of Māgha and that is the basis of counting a 5 year yuga.

Mahayuga (Chaturyuga) - The Yuga Cycles

Beyond this level there are 4 epochs or yugas, namely, Krita Yuga, Treta Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga and Kali Yuga. All these four yugas together is called a chatur yuga, which means "four epochs"or also termed maha yuga that means "great epochs". Together a chatur yuga constitutes 4,320,000 human years and the lengths of each chatur yuga follow a ratio of (4:3:2:1:).

yuga	human years	ratio
krita(satya)-yuga	1,728,000 years	4
treta-yuga	1,296,000 years	3
dvapara-yuga	864,000 years	2
kali-yuga	432,000 years	1

1 chatur yuga (mahayuga)	4,320,000 human years

The ages see a gradual decline of dharma, wisdom, knowledge, intellectual capability, life span and emotional and physical strength.

Krita Yuga		Treta Yuga	Dvapara Yuga	Kali Yuga
other name	Golden Age or Satya Yuga (age of Truth)	Silver Age	Bronze Age	Iron Age
human years	1,728,000	1,296,000	864,000	432,000
climate	virtue reigns supreme	three quarters virtue and one quarter sin	one half virtue and one half sin	one quarter virtue and three quarters sin
human stature	21 cubits	14 cubits		3.5 cubits
human lifespan	lakh of years and death occurs only when willed.	lifespan is 10,000 years.	lifespan is 1,000 years.	lifespan is 100 or 120 years.

Time of Devas - The Cosmic Years

1 day of the Devas	1 human year
1 month of the Devas	30 days of the Devas
1 year of the Devas (1 divine year)	12 months of the Devas

The lifespan of the Devas is 100 years of the Devas (= 36,000 human years).

Kalpa - A Cosmic Day of Brahma

In this cyclic process of time, 1000 chaturyuga or mahayuga period is called a Kalpa, and period of time is equal to a daytime for the Brahma, the creator of the universe. A thousand and a thousand (i.e. two thousand) chaturyuga-s are said to be one day and night of Brahmā (the creator).

1 kalpa	1000 chatur yuga (mahayuga)
1 day and 1 night of Brahmā	2 kalpas

At the beginning of creation begins the day of creation. At the end of that goes back all of the creation of the Absolute. This is a Kalpa a cosmic cycle of becoming and either of creation and destruction.

Manvantara

A cosmic days includes 14 Period or Manvantaras to 306 720 000 solar years. The next day, a cosmic unity is a Manvantara, there are fourteen pieces. A Manu mastered such a period. We live in the 7th Manvantara. Manvantara the first 6 have gone, 7 more will come. In particular, their names are:

01. Svaayambhuva — son of the self-born (here began the creation)
02. Svaarochisha — son of the Self Shining
03. Uttama — Son of the Most High
04. Taamasa — Son of Darkness
05. Raivata — son of wealth
06. Chaakshusha — son of the vision (this was the Quirlung instead of the milk ocean)
07. Vaivasvata — Vaivasvata is the son of the Sun God. <—- We currently live here.

08. Arka Saavarni (or Savarnika) — stands with the Sun God in relationship
09. Daksha-Saavarni — son of the rituals
10. Brahma-Saavarni — son of Brahma
11. Dharma-Saavarni — Son of the Eternal Law
12. Rudra-Saavarni — son of the Destroyer
13. Deva-Saavarni — Son of the Shining
14. Indra-Saavarni — son of the mighty Indra

71 cycles of chatur yuga is called a manvantara. At the end of each manvantara period, there comes a partial devastation period, which is equivalant to the duration of krita yuga. This means after every manvantara period, the world is partially destroyed and recreated.

1 manvantara	71 cycles of chatur yuga

Mahakalpa - Brahma's Lifespan

Brahma (the creator) lives for 100 years of 360 such days and at the end, he is said to dissolve, along with his entire Creation, into the Paramatman (Eternal Soul). The scriptures put Brahma's age at 100 years in his unique time scale.

Brahma's life span is equal to 311,040,000,000,000 human years. This period in named as maha kalpa. A universe lasts only for one maha kalpa period. At the end of it the universe is completely destroyed together with the creator Brahma and a new universe would be created with a new Brahma. This cycle goes on endlessly. The Vedic universe passes through repetitive cycles of creation and destruction. During the annihilation of the universe, energy is conserved, to manifest again in the next creation.

1 maha kalpa	100 years of Brahma (311,040,000,000,000 human years)

Present date in Time

How old is the universe on this day of Brahma?

The current Kali Yuga began after the Surya Siddhanta at midnight on a change of 17 at 18 February in the year 3102 BC in the proleptic Julian calendar. Since the beginning of the Kalpa until the year 2005 AD passed:

• 6 complete Manvantaras: 6 x 710
• 7-Manvantara twilight before a Manvantara each: 7 x 4
• 27 complete Mahayugas of the current 7th Manvantara: 27 x 10
• 3 Elapsed Yugas the current 28th Mahayuga: (4 + 3 + 2) x l
• 5107 solar years in the current Kali Yuga

Celestial Knowledge of Ancient Indians #1

Recently I have been studying a lot about Ancient India and I am stunned about the abundant knowledge of those times.  I am much more stunned that the education I received in India never gave me an idea any such Great Ancestral Knowledge.  In fact, my friends from other countries knew much more than what I knew about India and its Ancient Heritage.

So, I decided to do my part to retrieve our ancient knowledge and share it through this blog.

Here I am going to present you some of our ancestors knowledge, but with a different "Point of View".  If you are indian, you would have known this information through our culture and practices.  But I believe the point of view from which I am presenting them would make you realize the hidden facts.

The Quest begins...

The Earth

According to our puranas that were more than 10,000 years old, Lord Vishnu takes the shape of a bore and saves the earth from downing in water.  What is interesting is the shape of earth shown in these puranas is a circular shape.  Meaning we knew 10,000 years back that the earth is round.

Also we call it as "Jagath". The meaning of Jagath is "the one that moves".  So, we even knew that the earth is moving and is not stationary.

Star Antares

It is the 15th brightest object in the sky.  But about 7,000 years ago, our ancestors called it "Jesta" - meaning oldest / eldest / bigges.  It sounded strange that they called the 15th brightest object as Jesta until the modern science found that it is 40,000times bigger than our sun and is one of the very few biggest celestial objects found by modern scientists of today.

Twin Stars - Mizar & Alcor

They were referred to as Arundhathi & Vasista in our Puranas.  They look like one single star.  It is a big deal to find that this small light in sky is a twin-star and not a single star.  But beyond that, they even knew that these two stars rotate in synchrony.  Out of the thousands of twin-stars in space, only very few twin-stars rotate in synchrony.  In all other twin-stars, one stays stationary and the other one rotates around it.

quest to be continued...

A Quest for the True Indian History

In search of the true indian history, I created this blog.
Trying to see through the manipulated history during Colonial, Pre-Colonial & Post-Colonial India.....