Scientific Verification of Vedic Knowledge in Hinduism Monday, Apr 30 2007

The british who ruled India wanted Indians to feel that everything west, english and european to be superior, and anything that had to do with Indian culture and history as inferior, unscientific and stupid.

Macauley introduced the english education system in India which enforced these thoughts about western superiority and Indian inferiority in the minds of the Indian children.

Max muller propagated the myth of Aryan invasion theory in an aim to divide north and south India on the lines of Aryan – Dravidian basis saying Aryans invaded India from europe at around 1500 BC and pushed down the local draividians down south. Modern archaeology says nothing is more stupid, racist and biased than this nonsensical theory whose sole aim was a politically motivated intention. Max muller also wrote off vedas as ‘waste stuff’ only to be commented later by world’s reknown indologists as ‘this only shows the nursery school knowledge muller had about sanskrit’

The archelogical excavations of Harappa, Mohen Jo Daro, the discovery of the city of Dwaraka in the seas of Gujarat, the satellite imagery and geological evidences about tectonic plate shifting of the sub continent supporting the existence of Saraswati river mentioned in the vedas, the Kausambi and Hastinapur flooding excavations, all have proved beyond doubt that there has been no invasion from outside in 1500 BC by aryans.

Instead aryans were an indegenious race inherent to India for the very simple fact that all above mentioned evidences date back existence of aryans in India to even before 3500 BC AND not a single evidence of aryan existence or literature has been found outside the Indian subcontinent AND all locations, rivers, cities, kingdoms etc mentioned in the vedic scriptures have been mapped inside India – the India mentioned in vedas include current India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Burma.

So what’s more about the vedas?

Vedas are the greatest scientific text ever written.

Vedic mathematics is the best form of mathematics taught all over the world today to speed up calculations.
Einstein said, if not for Indians who invented ZERO and place value system, the science and technological achievements of the world would have been ZERO!
Infact, the other day when a friend commented on my wearing a tommy hilfiger jacket, saying the jacket’s creator had said that ‘It was meant only for the whites’, my reply was ‘Well, then what if I say that the Zero invented by ancient Indians was meant only to be used by Indians?’ Forget other implications of this, I dont think anybody in the west today can even use computers, which are binary in nature – based on Zero and One.

Sanskrit is the only language spoken by humans which can be easily used as a computer programming language.

Ayurveda is the world’s oldest medicinal system and has absolutely no side effects on the body, unlike western medicines AND unlike the western medicines like sedatives, pain killers and what not, Ayurveda doesn’t hide the pain or symptoms, it doesnt treat the outcome of an illness, but instead hits right at the source of the illness. It prepares your body to be strong enough to counter health issues than to make it dependendant for the rest of its life on external medicines.

Yoga are the exercises which unlike the western gyms, are not aimed at making only your biceps and other external organs strong, but instead concentrate on building a body inside out along with maintaining a mental fitness too. Sweating out is not physical fitness buddies, people in rural India sweat n number of times more than those who work out in the gyms, for gyms you need to have extra time for that, whereas in rural India sweating is a result of people’s normal day today activities !!

Bhagavadgeetha is the greatest ever work on human psychology. World’s greatest scientists, philosophers, writers, politicians, have been daily readers of this great work to keep them mentally fit and to face the world’s challenges.

Oppenheimer, father of modern atomic bomb suspected that Mahabharatha war was a nuclear war based on the accurate descriptions of nuclear weapons and its effects found in Bhagavadgeeta. I think that the other reason Mahabharatha war has to be considered a nuclear war is that, it is said in Mahabharatha that in a time span of less than a month 14 billion people were killed!! For those who are not aware how big a number this is, the current world population is just above 6 billion! I cant think of anything other than nuclear weapons that could kill so many people in so little time.

Below is a list of must-watch documentaries on the ‘Scientific Verification of Vedic Knowledge in Hinduism’

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For a developed world Wednesday, Apr 25 2007

In one of my earlier blogs, I had mentioned that India alone needs one and a half times the energy currently consumed by entire world, if India were to be a nation as developed as USA.

The living standards of a developed nation like USA is completely dependent on the availability of energy for all the necessities and luxuries that a developed society offers.

Now how on earth can we get such a huge amount of energy ? Already we are running out of resources like petroleum, nuclear options are dangerous and also very soon we will run out of nuclear fuels, nuclear materials are controlled by a few countries of the world, if we dont create fast breeder reactors using thorium then we have little nuclear fuel left, what about pollution? nuclear wastes?

For the whole world to live like a developed nation the amount of energy required is about 8 times the energy that the world produces currently. But how?

Only feasible non polluting long term solution seems to be our true energy provider, SUN

To harness energy from Sun, we need to install solar panels, but how on earth? 

Problem #1 is Land for solar panels: Dedicated land for solar panels is not feasible. There might be cloudy days. Land will be wasted and not available for other purpose.

Problem #2 is Storage: Suppose we distribute solar panels across the globe. On top of all buildings, vehicles and what not. We cant touch the forests though. Now how do we collect the power generated from all these places and store ? It will become a infrastructure problem. Again not really feasible. Say suppose we want to store power enough for the entire world for next 6 months.

Problem #3 Weather: All days are not sunny days. There are cloudy days, there are rainy days, and there are days which are not either and still not sunny.

Problem #4, Night: Only half of earth will be working at a time. Part of earth on the night side cannot harness solar energy.

More than anything else, when the entire world becomes a developed society, power requirements will be so dynamic and high that most of the stored power will be consumed almost immediately, and we cannot afford more storage space too as world population increases. Also we dont want to risk lives by having massive power storage grids.

Then the solution ? I always love to look at outer space There lies the solution

Millions of solar panels and power storage units floating in outer space. . Solar energy is captured from the sun to generate power and the power is transmitted to local storage units spread all over the earth on demand in the form of direct contact lightning strikes to ground based storage units for immediate consumption. Of course normal clouds on earth which cause lightening are at a quite lower altitude on earth compared to sending electricity from space, so we need to have intermediary receivers at different levels. Probably we may have a local backup of few days for the entire planet in case the space infrastructure fails.

Fault tolerance is required for these space based solar panels. There will be constant wear and tear. Meteorites might break down the panels and grids. Asteroids might hit. Comets might interfere. So we need to have propulsion based computer guided systems in all these free floating power generators in space which move around in a flexible manner in response to projectile threats in the space.

There should be on site robots which constantly repair all those worn and torn panels and grids. All the storage will be in space and energy as required is pumped down to earth. No wastage of space as long as we rely on outer space. In fact in the future we can move out all the manufacturing industries and factories to outer space. Use locally available resources as much as possible in outer space like solar energy, hydrogen, mineral ores from asteroids, etc and have the entire setup run by robots.

Well we might have the contemporary science fiction movies then which would have a plot where aliens try to steal power from our grids ! or say they install their own robots in our space based power generation units to take over the entire system !

Also since power is available in space, our future interplanetary, interstellar or intergalactic missions which take off from earth need not carry the complete power payload from earth itself, instead they can carry the bear minimum energy required for a take off to get out of earth’s gravity and then recharge themselves later with enough power at these space based power grids OR we can have all take offs for space travel from the space stations built somewhere near these power grids!

We can even have these solar panels and power grids at all the planets in our solar system and on prominent asteroids for consumptions by human/robotic missions which arrive to these places.

These were my thoughts that started with a requirement for a reliable energy resource for a developed world and later increased to scope to include space based factories, industries, space travel…….

Always use the word ‘impossible’ with great caution

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Education in IT era Wednesday, Apr 25 2007

This is the age of information. Internet is the sum of all knowledge gained by humans throughout our recorded history, (of course except for those behind the scenes R&D and classified information and technology in NASA, Pentagon, etc).

In this IT age, what should be taught to children as part of their education.

Do we need to focus on piling up their brains with more and more information ?
OR
Do we need to concentrate on increasing their analytical skills ?

In other words, facts or concepts ?

Unanimously we all vote for concepts. Facts are now available at our finger tips. A simple search on the internet can retrieve a fact. And given that there is so much information available which is difficult for one single brain to grasp it all, we need to focus on creating specializations oriented education system.

But then ask me, I simply dont believe in ‘jack of all, master of none’
I have been studying a variety of subjects from IT to Physics to Mathematics to Music to History to Politics to Economics to Vedas to what not, and what I have observed is that as a person learns more and more wider range of concepts, theories, etc, it becomes more easier to learn even more things due to the inter-relation between these different fields and going in depth into a field also becomes easy than it would have been if one had studied that field alone !

In other words, to become a master of a wide range of subjects, all you need is strong fundamentals in all the related fields AND analytical ability to co-relate things between different fields.

Please note that, all these different fields are artificial classifications by humans, to make it easier to study one thing at a time, for instance nature does not distinguish between physics and biology, the reason for an apple to fall from a tree is explained in physics while the growth of the apple itself is described by botany, these are artificial classifications we did and there are overlappings too like biophysics, biochemistry, physiochemistry etc.

What I intend to mean here is that by restricting one self to a particular field we might get a particular depth in that field, but one will never get a complete picture of that field till he understands other fields also. This is the reason why today scientists have come across a road block in terms of enquiring more into a particular field. Say for ex to understand the true nature of life we need the person to be an expert in biology which defines how a body functions, and then chemistry which describes how the molecules in the body function, and even physics to see for ex how the brain functions at a quantum mechanical level. Now if you are doing a research on the very depth of life, one needs to be expert in all these fields to truly appreciate and understand the real definition of life, bcos as I said earlier, NATURE DOES NOT DISTINGUISH BETWEEN DIFFERENT FIELDS AS PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, ETC

An expert in string theory, quantum mechanics, relativity, cosmology can have some hope of finding a Grand Unified Theory

A very good doctor, but with very limited knowledge of biotechnology is not a really good idea.

In other words, allow children to have as wide interests as possible to go to a greater depth in the ocean of knowledge. A broader view leads to a more analtyical, non prejudiced thinking, when you think from the views of experts in different fields.

This is the age of information. The more information one has, the more accurate he/she is, the more easier it is to understand, the more easier to relate, the more easier to investigate and dig out more knowledge.. 

I have seen people who are great experts at a particular software application, but the moment you show them the same computer screen but with some other application window opened, they get completely confused about where to click or which key to press, and they get so relieved when their familiar screen comes up again

Well, thats not how we want to be, dont be afraid of the unknown, for nothing is to be feared, its only to be understood. Take the untravelled paths, uncharted waters, unexplored landscapes, create new paths and be a different person, than to take the same old familiar paths and have no mark of your own…

I think therefore I exist

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Root of all evil Tuesday, Apr 24 2007

Religion as the root of all evil on this planet ?

One cannot disagree more with the above statement after viewing the below mentioned thought provoking documentary videos.

Part I – The God Delusion

Part II – The Virus of Faith

When I say ‘east’ below, I mean ‘India and towards the east of India’
and west means ‘the world towards the west of India’

Interestingly after going through the documentary I find that the aspect of violence is not present in the eastern religions all of which have their origin in India -Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, or say in the related variations like Zen, Taoism, Confucianism etc

Unlike the western religions, in the eastern religions good and bad people are distinguished not based on whether they are believers or non-believers. According to the ancient vedic teachings of hinduism, those who help others in need and do their duties are good (Vedas say ‘Dharmo Rakshathi Rakshithaha’ -which means he who performs his moral duties, helps those in need is in turn protected by his deeds). Those who hurt others are considered evil.

For that matter intentionally hurting ourselves is also evil says hinduism, buddhism and Jainism. So you will never find a suicide bomber in these religions 

Also, unlike christianity which I feel has a negative effect as it says ‘We all are sinners. And son of the god came to pay for our sins’, which I strongly disagree with, for I am no sinner, and I dont need anybody else to pay for it even if I ever commit one.

Does it mean people can continue to commit sins, since their sins have already been paid for? Doesnt it sound absurd? The very thought brings the picture of a crime filled society in front of our eyes. Thank god not all are taking these teachings that seriously  How on earth can a inncocent new born baby or a child be considered a sinner?

Now look at the eastern religions, say hinduism, the thought of each human being here is as a pure soul, a clean spirit, and this has so positive effect on our morals. In hinduism ,we are not considered sinners, instead vedas say ‘Aham Brahmasmi’ which means ‘I am the God’ or ‘God lives within me’. The whole thought is so positive in spirit and encourages a person to do all good deeds like a God. NO negative or inferior feelings about ones ‘self’ are allowed here. In my language Kannada there is a hymn ‘Enna Kaale Kambha, Dehave Degula, Shirave Honna Kalasha’ – which can be summarized as ‘My body is a temple where God lives’. What a pleasant feeling it is..

This is the major difference between western and eastern religious cultures. In the west people celebrate their birthday by putting off the candles ‘which is a symbol of desctruction, the light is put off’

On the contrary, in the east, we celebrate every occassion by lighting lamps – the symbol of spreading light, being constructive. Vedas say – ‘Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamaya’, which means ‘From darkness towards light’
In the eastern religions putting off a lamp or any other source of light is considered bad, negative, as it introduces darkness..

Well I am not against any religion, but this is just a analysis of what I have seen and understood about the cultures. I am definitely proud about my ancient Indian culture. though I am not deeply religious. I dont go to temples and pray to god asking ‘give me that, give me this’, if God really exists, I think he is intelligent enough to know my needs and will definitely give me the best what I really need, there is no need to pamper him with offerings, prayers and what not, I dont think God thinks so cheaply that you have to bribe him to get your things done. Yes, but I do thank God for this wondeful universe, for the food I eat, for the nature I see, for the good health I have, for the great friends I have and for everything else that I have.. 

In fact I love to converse with God on the nature of the universe, as to why do we exist (not in a spiritual sense, but in a scientific sense), about the laws that govern the universe and what not.

I do feel that there is a great need in the west to become more spiritual (which preaches love NOT hatred, enquiry and thought NOT faith) than blind religious. I suggest people to try out the Art of Living, though I am not associated with it in anyway.

Faith is dangerous because it doesnt allow you to question it. The church does not want scientists to enquire into Big Bang bcos it feels that since God created universe we should not enquire into that creation!! Nothing sounds more absurd to me. Did God tell them that ‘Dont enquire into my creation, I fear that you will then understand everything about the universe, and then what will my value be?’ Well, if God did not wanted us to enquire into the creation of the universe, he would have simply not given us that intelligence at all, right ?

In fact I was so surprised when I saw the video, that in the western world (which many people in the east think as a well developed and more civilized and well educated society) they teach children that the universe is only a few thousand years old and all of us were created in 7 or 10 days or whatever ! I couldnt control laughing and really felt sorry for those kids who study in these educational(?) institutions.

As an observation, divorce rates have increased in India in those urban places where western culture has creeped in. Otherwise, you will rarely hear about a divorce in India.

Faith is dangerous because it does not allow you to question things, and when you cannot question things you dont enquire into it, and when you dont enquire into it you wont understand it, and when you wont understand it you wont invent anything new. If all humans had been strictly religious, we would have been still living in old stone age. Thank God (:0) there are thinkers too on this planet who would love to enquire into hows and whys.

More than a thousand years before Galileo was humiliated and giordano was burnt alive in the west by the church for having declared Sun as the center of the Solar system and earth to be moving, in India Aryabhatta wrote a book on the same subject saying ‘Sun is the Center of the Solar System and earth revolves around it’ and lived the life of a great scholar. I really feel proud to be an Indian.

The church said Earth doesnt move. Science proved otherwise! Yet they humiliated Galileo, burnt Giordano alive!

Then they said Earth is the center of the Universe! But then science proved otherwise, earth is nowhere in the scene and even for our local solar system Sun is the center!

Then the church said God created universe in some 7 or 10 days. Science proved otherwise. Universe has been there for billions of years and life on earth also evolved over millions of years, not like an instant coffee in 7 or 10 days!

Just imagine where we would have been if some of the humans had not taken those steps of thinking instead of blindly believing what religions say! I am glad that I was brought up as a thinker and not a blind believer of some faith.

Also its interesting to note that none of the western religions talk about things which would have been a product only of a scientific enquiry. Why doesnt the holy books say anything about quasars, quantum mechanics, black holes, planets invisible to naked eye, doesnt these data makes it clear enough that religions are creation of narrow minded humans and not GOD? Well for those who object for my specifying ‘western religions’ in this paragraph, let me tell you that eastern religions are more scientific and have a spirit of enquiry in them. If you disagree with me, please read ‘The dancing Wu Li Masters, ‘The Tao of Physics’, ‘The arctic home in the vedas’, or look into what great scientists like Neils Bohr, Oppenheimer, Schrodinger, etc had to say about the vedic texts, Bhagavadgita etc…

Now my question is when the religion is so wrong, why on earth do we need it ? Cant we be good to fellow humans beings and other life forms on this planet, do good, progress, be thinkers, make earth a better place to live, and NOT be religious at the same time? Or atleast let us not follow those preachings which encourage us to commit crime, hate or hurt others, consider ourselves sinners, teach scientifically wrong things, suppress the spirit of enquiry and reasoning

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Going up? Monday, Apr 23 2007

A friend of mine wanted to smoke a Wills cigaratte and I just created a funny two liner on the fly and warned him about the dangers of smoking saying,

‘Where there is a will there is a way,
Where there is a Wills cigaratte, there is only one way’ and pointed upwards towards the sky’

As we all know ‘going up’ means death. That is what I meant – ‘Cigaratte smoking is injurious to health and may cause death’

Then suddenly I had a thought. Why in most cultures ‘going up’ – pointing towards the sky, is related to death?

Does it mean that our ancients came from some of those planets out there in the deep space? Earth is a matrix environment for their experiments. Death is not the end of life. Souls do exist. Which is why eastern cultures talk about the concept of rebirth. There is nothing called true death of a person. A person ceasing to exist (which actually means his body ceased to exist) is NOT THE SAME AS the person actually dying ??

After death do we all return back to our creator’s planet/s where the definition of life is completely different, say in the form of souls, not in the form of the bodies we have here on earth? That is why ancient vedic texts say that soul is undestroyable and we are just actors in the play of our life. Do we come to earth like how actors sign up to act in a movie? We play our act and then wind up (which other actors here call death?)

Is that why ancient hinduism calls upon us to concentrate on knowing who we really are?? Are we some kind of test cases in the development of a huge software product? Are we some experimental setup in doing research for some kind of feasible evolutionary system?
Or is MATRIX true? Probably this is a good matrix, not an evil one. Thank GOD

There is a wonderful poem in Kannada which says ‘Allide Nammane, illi bande summane’ which means ‘My true house is out there, I came here just like that for a visit’

Now please dont tell me that I am talking about GOD. GOD as we know created the universe. (Well, its different that in hinduism GOD is the universe itself and all its forms!)

But here I am talking about those who were created well after the creation of the universe following the big bang and then that probably they created us. Some kind of Sub GOD or a sub level of GOD

So we report to these people, who in turn hopefully direcly report to GOD

My friend who wanted to smoke only one cigaratte, ended up smoking two more after listening to my thoughts :=))

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Intelligent? Yes. Wise? No Monday, Apr 23 2007

We cannot deny the fact that humans are intelligent. If not for the human intelligence you would not have been reading possibly even within seconds of my writing this blog, given the fact that we both may be on opposite parts of this globe!

Thanks to technology, we can communicate with each other at lightning speed, we have mapped the universe, we have dived into the pacific depths, climbed everests, automated every possible activity including having a piece of software play chess with us, created clones, mapped the DNA, cured numerous diseases or have alternates to them, walked on moon, sent messengers deep into the space, enquired into the beginning and end of the universe and what not….

But lo behold, we have caused holes in the ozone, caused the ice in antarctica to melt, wiped out entire species of life types on this planet, spilled petroleum oil into the oceans, have butchered and mass murdered our own species, increased the planet’s temperature, have invented WMD which can destroy this planet more than a thousand times, made air unbreathable, water undrinkable, food uneatable, planet uninhabitable.

This proves the fact that while we are definitely intelligent to understand nature, to discover scientific details, to invent new things, we humans as a species are definitely not wise in terms of using this intelligence to achieve sustainable goals which do not have negative effects on the life of this planet or on the planet itself.

Reason? GREED GREED GREED
Want to make quick bucks, no care or concern for others, (this others might belong to our own species or to other species), want quicker not cleaner options, the term I is given importance over WE, where I stands to humans and WE refers all life form on this planet.

There is a saying in Kannada, where a cow asks a man ‘Neenaarigaadeyo ele maanava?’ which translates to ‘Oh Human, What is your worth to others, alive or dead?’ The cow says, ‘When I am alive people milk me and this milk is used by you humans to satisfy your hunger. People make living by selling my milk. They dont give me money. They just look after me, which I am anytime capable of doing by going out in the woods and grazing on my own. The food you provide to me is given to you freely by nature. When a mother who just gave birth to a baby is not able to feed her child due to lack of milk in her mammary glands, cow’s milk is used as an alternative. Then when a cow is dead, the skin is used to manufacture all your clothing.’ What about a human being? Dead or alive, is he ever worth as much as a cow?

We say we are intelligent, we invented vechiles that run on petroleum. Today the whole earth is polluted because of this and we are searching for less polluting alternate energy resources. If humans were wise enough to know that petroleum causes pollution, wouldn’t they have invented non polluting technology in the beginning itself, instead of waiting till the whole planet is polluted and their own existence is threatened now due to global warming??? Well, earlier the humans did not bother because it was not a threat to them, they didnt bother as long as the technology didn’t affect them negatively even if it meant wiping out other species. Only when it comes to our own existence, we are having global conferences, statistics collection, alternate technology research and what not ??

Only if there were a court of law where law was same for all species, all humans would have been hanged till death over a thousand times for mass murdering of millions of lives of other species.

Consider a situation where we bring in a new refrigerator to our house, which uses less power but gives out some kind of polluting gas which causes suffocation while breathing. Would we keep that refrigerator in our house?? NO. Because we dont want us or our family members to suffocate. Why dont we think so when we build a factory which pollutes the entire planet ?? Narrow mindedness?? A limited definition of WE?

Arent we aware of the fact that we all will die of starvation if say for ex: ants are wiped out of this planet?

I like the vedic education system of ancient India for this very reason. It creates a ‘Vishwa Manava’ (which means citizen of the world, not of any particular country, species or religion). The concept of ‘Vasudaiva Kutumbakam’ (whole world is a family) is embedded in this educational system. It aims at creating a human who has social and moral responsibility towards his fellow humans, nature, other species, air, water and what not.

In sharp contrast, the westernised education system of the day embeds a concept of ‘I’ in the child, teaching the child that ‘I’ comes first and everything else is after that. The child should get a first rank, mug up more things whether it understands the subject or not, is made egoistic and self centric concentrating only on an individual’s achievements.

As opposed to this kind of education, travel to some remote village in India, (where ancient Indian morals and social responsibility prevails, say for ex: to villages in the western ghats of south India), and you will find people there are more well educated than any of the urban class in any part of the world. They may not have a graduate degree certificate or a gold medal or a first class. Yet they treat you and the nature around them on equal scales.

For them cutting down a tree is a sin equivalent to violating all the ten commandments. When a family is in trouble or an indivual is in trouble, the entire village comes to their rescue. When a baby elephant falls in a well, the entire village carries out a rescue operation to save the baby with least harm, and then will try to unite it with its mother. They dont worry that they wont get the day’s pay or that their earnings will be hit if they dont go on their job.

In urban society we dont even know our neighbours properly, where as in these villages the entire village knows each other. I have heard stories from my mother about how they used to leave their doors unlocked while going out to the market. Trust was the factor there. Crime rate is high in the so called educated cities, not in the so called uneducated villages.

To summarize, literacy is not education, nor is westernised education system. I feel these villagers are more educated than a harvard or stanford MBA graduate. Education is not knowing more information and bringing down your values. True education improves on your values, makes you equally responsible to your society, to the naturem as you are to your family.

If the urban education was really better or atleast equal to the mindsets of these rural people, then people in cities should have been more friendly with their neighbours, should be ready to give a break to their fast life and help those in need when the need arises, have respect to vehicles travelling in the opposite direction by not using high beams all the time, not to treat social service as a fashion or a hobby but as their whole hearted duty. Not to waste water, electricity. Not to throw plastics and other non biodegradables in natural places, not to let sewage lines or toxic waste into the rivers. Which is definitely not the case.

Another proof that urban education spoils a kid. Let therebe two kids in a village. Bring one of the kids from the village and give him/her a urban education till graduation and then take the kid back to his/her village. See the difference. Superiority complex/Ego/lack of humbleness/lack of politeness/disrespect to elders – all these qualities would have developed in that educated graduate, in stark contrast to that rural counterpart.

Probably earth would have been a better place to live in if instead of humans some other species, say for ex dolphins had been gifted with our intelligence.

Now that we cant undo history, let us concentrate on educating the younger generation towards a social centric broad minded human instead of a self centric narrow minded genius.

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The Rise of India Wednesday, Apr 18 2007

This is what well known american writer Thomas Friedmann said about India recently

“When we were young kids growing up in America , we were told to eat our Vegetables at dinner and not to leave them, Mothers said, ‘think of the Starving children in India and finish the dinner.’

And now I tell my children: ‘ Finish your math’s homework. Think of the children in India who would make you starve, if you don’t'… ‘

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Alien twist to God-Part 3 Sunday, Apr 15 2007

<< Back to Part II

I suggest that you read the following earlier blogs of mine (if you havent read them already!) before we untie the next knot of the alien twist. This will give you a clear picture about the basics before we move forward…

Modern Science and Ancient India

Ancient Nuclear War

Iron Pillar

What the ancient Indians did to us?

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Modern Science and Ancient India Sunday, Apr 15 2007

“We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.” – Albert Einstein

“The ingenious method of expressing every possible number using a set of ten symbols (each symbol having a place value and an absolute value) emerged in India. The idea seems so simple nowadays that its significance and profound importance is no longer appreciated. Its simplicity lies in the way it facilitated calculation and placed arithmetic foremost amongst useful inventions. The importance of this invention is more readily appreciated when one considers that it was beyond the two greatest men of antiquity, Archimedes and Apollonius.” – Laplace

Every person aware of modern science if also well aware that mathematics is the soul of modern science. Computers, Medical equipments, missiles, reactors, automobiles, electronic equipments, economics, finance, banks every where we need mathematics.

Romans used to represent every number using its own unique symbol or a unscientific combination of symbols. This was where west started its mathematics only to be discarded later due to its impractical nature to do bigger calculations.

I,V,X were used to represent numbers till 49 and when they run out of symbols then L was used to represent 50, similarly C for hundred, D for 500, M for thousand.. etc and etc

Any person who has worked using this roman number system knows very well that doing even a simple multiplication is a monumental task in this system. Higher mathematics like calculus, algebra, trigonometry are simply impossible here. I dont think a person has ever seen a simple linear equation in roman system!!!!

If the world had depended on western roman roots for modern science we would have been still in stone ages of science where the greatest achievement would have been counting the number of visible stars in the night sky !!!!!

Ancient Indians took a different approach and this was more than 3000-4000 years before romans invented roman numbers!!! While ancient Indians were working advanced mathematics (which finds its first reference in the ancient Vedas and is called as Vedic mathematics, this is part of the Atharva Veda which is all about engineering) the western world was still in stone age!! 

The roots of modern mathematics is based on the concept of place value system, which we take for granted, but accoding to me is the most ingenious invention in mathematics. This is what Indians invented to have a complete scientific system of working with numbers. (In my series Alien Twist to God I have argued that this mathematics which has its roots in the vedas and the sanskrit language in which vedas are written in, both are of an alien origin, which is why sanskrit is the only human language capable of becoming a computer programming language)

In the place value system a limited set of symbols is taken and used to represent any and every possible number upto infinity down to minus infinity!!!

The number of symbols we select indicates the base of the system. We normally use base 10 which has 9 symbols aka 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9

Once we have the set of symbols the value of a symbol depends on the position of the symbol in the number. First position has a unit value, second position has a base value, third position has a base X base value, then base X base X base value and so on,..

So in base 10, first position has a value of 1 times the value of symbol, second position has a value of 10 times the value of symbol, third position has a value of 100 times the value of the symbol.. and so on….

So when we say 42 it represents a number whose value is 4 times 10 + 2 times 1 !!
We who are used to this system find it so simple!! The simplicity of this invention is what makes it so great bcos remember this is the root of whole modern mathematics and if this itself is complicated then we would be back to square one as romans!!!

Once the place value system was invented Indian mathematicians had another difficulty. Suppose there was a place in the number which had no value at all!!!!

Consider the case of 100… here 1 should be used in third place which is base X base .. but then the two places down have no value!!!! This is why Indians invented ZERO!!!! In sanskrit Zero is called Shoonya, which means nothing.. presence of zero at a place means that place has no value in the number and should be ignored!!!

This in itself explains the great power of zero and its role in place value systems which makes it a key element of modern mathematics. Thats why once somebody said, I think it was Bernard Shaw, ‘The greatest contribution of Indians to the world is Nothing’

Ancient Indians bcos of their strong mathematical basis becames champions in astronomy and related calculations. More than a thousand years before Giordano was burnt alive in the west by the church for claiming Sun is the center of the solar system, More than a thousand years before Galileo had to apologize for proposing the motion of the earth, Aryabhata in India had written great works on helio centric systems, and more than 3000-4000 years before aryabhata vedas had all this in their roots..

Then in modern times Buddhist missionaries from India spread this knowledge of mathematics and easy counting to the eastern world of China, Thailand, Japan etc …

Arab merchants who came to India to trade spices to the west, saw this simple way of doing counting more easier than roman system and adopted the same and also spread it to the west, this is the reason them modern base 10 system symbols are called ‘Hindu Arabic Numerals’ meaning borrowed from the land of hindus and spread to the rest of the west by Arabs. After learning this  system of mathematics, arab mathematician wrote the book ‘Al Jabr’ which gave way to modern algebra.

Still there are gaps in this whole system. Arab merchants learnt only the basic counting required to do business and spread it to the western world. And from there west developed its own mathematics based on these Indian roots where Newton’s Calculus etc came into picture…

Unfortunately, west again had started looking at maths with a roman mindset for higher level of generalization and students today are taught partial differential equations which require pages together to solve. Indian approach of Vedic mathematics is purely mental mathematics and generally doesnt require pen and paper to solve problems. The approach is also completely different in Indian mathematics, there are more specific formulae than generic, while this means more to learn, but once a child is used to it, problems will be more easy to solve. For instance in multiplication using vedic mathematics, the formula to multiply a two numbers which end with 5 is different from an approach to solve two numbers which have even numbers in their units place!! MANY WESTERN SCHOOLS TODAY TEACH VEDIC MATHEMATICS IN THE NAME OF MENTAL MATHEMATICS WITHOUT GIVING THE ANCIENT INDIANS AND THE VEDAS THE DUE CREDIT THEY DESERVE, which I feel is a total hypocrisy on the teachers part.

However, every thing including modern calculus, pythagoras theorems etc were already developed and documented in ancient Indians mathematics with its roots in vedic mathematics and the Indian approach to calculus etc is quite different from that of western approach. Bhaskaracharya wrote Leelavati (a book named after his daughter) more than 1000 years before newton and has detailed explanations for problems of differential calculus and the theory of calculus itself !!!

The historian Florian Cajori, one of the most celebrated historians of mathematics in the early 20th century, said “Diophantus, the father of Greek algebra, got the first algebraic knowledge from India.”

Even Pythagoras was familiar with the ancient Indian text of Upanishads. It is also said that he had visited India from where he picked up the hypotenuse theorem and spread it in the west, which today is given his name inspite of the fact that he never gave a proof of this theorem!!! Pythagorean theorem finds its first reference in the sulva sutras of Vedic mathematics which is more than 4000 years before pythagoras! And if pythagoras was familiar with Upanishads, there is no doubt that he would have also studied the related Vedas and Sulva Sutras..

Herodotus (father of Greek history) wrote that the Indians were the greatest nation of the age. Megasthenes – who travelled extensively through India in the 4th C. B.C also left extensive accounts that paint India in highly favorable light (for that period).  

Panini who lived around 500 BC has mentioned in his works about boolean logic and the use of the operator null. Panini was an expert in language theory and has written extensively on describing Meta Syntax used to describe context free grammars which is used while defining modern computer programming languages. Hence the modern Backus Naur form BNF is also referred to as Panini Backus Form !

The ancient Chinese mathematics also has its roots in the Indian mathematics which was spread to China by Indians along side spreading Buddhism. There is an article in my site on the ancient Chinese proof of Pythagoras theorem

In an essence ancient India is both the spiritual and scientific mentor of modern world. Note that even the christian teachings by Jesus have its roots in Buddhism (Buddha lived in ancient India 400 years before Christ and any person who has studied the preachings of both Buddha and Christ will find obvious resemblance in both). It is also said that Jesus studied one of the ancient Indian univeristies Takshashila I think where he learnt the buddhist teachings. I had read some works which had done extensive research on this subject indicating Christ name in the list of students at one of the buddhist monestaries in Ladakh region of India.

Kerala in India is the root of modern martial arts. The Keralean Kalaripayat is the world’s oldest form of martial arts and is practiced in Kerala state of India. It was transmitted to China by a sage named Boddhidharma in the 5th century. The Chinese called him Po-ti-tama. He taught this art in a temple. This temple is today known as the Shaolin temple. Thus Judo, Karate, Kung Fu and other similar marshal arts which are today identified with the far-east actually originated from India !

It is known history that when Ottoman turks captured constantinople there by blocking the land based route to India from Europe, this disturbed the entire Europe which depended on India extensively for trade for all items ranging from spices to diamonds to garments to what not. Till 1896 India was the only source of diamonds to the entire world! Unable to trade with India due to locking of the land route by turks, european nations started a race to discover a sea route to India and great sailors like columbus, vasco da gama, amerigo vespucci all set out from spain, portuguese etc to discover a sea route to India and this is how Columbus ended up discovering modern american continent (named after Amerigo who landed up in main land of the continent). In other words the modern super power america was introduced to the rest of the world, courtesty India!!! Columbus thought he had landed in the east coast of India when he discovered America and thats why the native americans are called Red Indians !!!!

Severus Sebokt of Syria in 662 BC said “I shall not speak here of the science of the Hindus, who are not even Syrians, and not of their subtle discoveries in astronomy that are more inventive than those of the Greeks and of the Babylonians; not of their eloquent ways of counting nor of their art of calculation, which cannot be described in words – I only want to mention those calculations that are done with nine numerals. If those who believe, because they speak Greek, that they have arrived at the limits of science, would read the Indian texts, they would be convinced, even if a little late in the day, that there are others who know something of value“

“The Constructions and these tables imply a great knowledge of geometry, arithmetic and even of the theoretical part of astronomy. But what, without doubt is to be accounted, the greatest refinement in this system, is the hypothesis employed in calculating the equation of the centre for the Sun, Moon and the planets that of a circular orbit having a double eccentricity or having its centre in the middle between the earth and the point about which the angular motion is uniform. If to this we add the great extent of the geometrical knowledge required to combine this and the other principles of their astronomy together and to deduce from them the just conclusion;the possession of a calculus equivalent to trigonometry and lastly their approximation to the quadrature of the circle, we shall be astonished at the magnitude of that body of science which must have enlightened the inhabitants of India in some remote age and which whatever it may have communicated to the Western nations appears to have receied another from them….” – John Playfair

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_mathematics

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Reverse Assignment Option Tuesday, Apr 10 2007

While writing a piece of software I got this thought about a feature that could be provided in programming languages (at least I am not aware of any language which has this feature)

Usually when we want to assign a value of a variable ‘a’ to another variable say ‘b’ all we do is write

b=a;

Now consider this case. Suppose we want to assign the value of variable ‘a ‘ to ‘b’ if ‘c’ equals 1 OR else we want to assign ‘d’ to ‘b’, then we write

if(c==1)
    b=a;
else
   b=d;

an easier way to write the above code would be to use a ternary operator as

b=(c==1?a:d)

Now consider another scenario, where we want to assign  ‘a ‘ to ‘b’ if ‘c’ equals 1 OR we want to assign ‘a’ to ‘e’

Oops then we cant use the ternary operator, instead we have to fallback to our old friend ’if.. else’ as

if(c==1)
    b=a;
else 
   e=a;

Now wouldnt it be nice if this could be achieved using something like

a#(c==1?b:e) where # is the reverse assignment operator which assigns LHS to RHS !

so here if c==1 then # would assign ‘a’ to ‘b’ else it would assign ‘a’ to ‘e’ !!!

Just some crazy thoughts

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