> > > > > > >Fascinating information for those of you who may be interested: and for those >of >you who are not attracted by Indian lore, do read the first three paras, at >least! >________________ > >It is amazing how much Western science has taught us. Today, for example, kids >in grammar school learn that the sun is 93 million miles from the earth and >that >the speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. Yoga may teach us about our >Higher Self, but it can't supply this kind of information about physics or >astronomy. > >Or can it? Professor Subhash Kak of Louisiana State University recently called >my attention to a remarkable statement by Sayana, a fourteenth century Indian >scholar. In his commentary on a hymn in the Rig Veda, the oldest and perhaps >most mystical text ever composed in India, Sayana has this to say: "With deep >respect, I bow to the sun, who travels 2,202 yojanas in half a nimesha." > >A yojana is about nine American miles; a nimesha is 16/75 of a second. >Mathematically challenged readers, get out your calculators! > >2,202 yojanas x 9 miles x 75/8 nimeshas = 185,794 m. p. s. > >Basically, Sayana is saying that sunlight travels at 186,000 miles per second! >How could a Vedic scholar who died in 1387 A. D. have known the correct figure >for the speed of light? If this was just a wild guess it's the most amazing >coincidence in the history of science! > >The yoga tradition is full of such coincidences. Take for instance the mala >many >yoga students wear around their neck. Since these rosaries are used to keep >track of the number of mantras a person is repeating, students often ask why >they have 108 beads instead of 100. Part of the reason is that the mala >represent the ecliptic, the path of the sun and moon across the sky. Yogis >divide the ecliptic into 27 equal sections called nakshatras, and each of >these >into four equal sectors called paadas, or "steps," marking the 108 steps that >the sun and moon take through heaven. > >Each is associated with a particular blessing force, with which you align >yourself as you turn the beads. > >Traditionally, yoga students stop at the 109th "guru bead," flip the mala >around >in their hand, and continue reciting their mantra as they move backward >through >the beads. The guru bead represents the summer and winter solstices, when the >sun appears to stop in its course and reverse directions. In the yoga >tradition >we learn that we're deeply interconnected with all of nature. Using a mala is >a >symbolic way of connecting ourselves with the cosmic cycles governing our >universe. > >But Professor Kak points out yet another coincidence: The distance between the >earth and the sun is approximately 108 times the sun's diameter. The diameter >of >the sun is about 108 times the earth's diameter. And the distance between the >earth and the moon is 108 times the moon's diameter. > >Could this be the reason the ancient sages considered 108 such a sacred >number? >If the microcosm (us) mirrors the macrocosm (the solar system), then maybe you >could say there are 108 steps between our ordinary human awareness and the >divine light at the center of our being. Each time we chant another mantra as >our mala beads slip through our fingers, we are taking another step toward our >own inner sun. > >As we read through ancient Indian texts, we find so much the sages of >antiquity >could not possibly have known-but did. While our European and Middle Eastern >ancestors claimed that the universe was created about 6,000 years ago, the >yogis >have always maintained that our present cosmos is billions of years old, and >that it's just one of many such universes which have arisen and dissolved in >the >vastness of eternity. > >In fact the Puranas, encyclopedias of yogic lore thousands of years old, >describe the birth of our solar system out of a "milk ocean," the Milky Way. >Through the will of the Creator, they tell us, a vortex shaped like a lotus >arose from the navel of eternity. It was called Hiranya Garbha, the shining >womb. It gradually coalesced into our world, but will perish some day billions >of years hence when the sun expands to many times it present size, swallowing >all life on earth. In the end, the Puranas say, the ashes of the earth will be >blown into space by the cosmic wind. Today we known this is a scientifically >accurate, if poetic, description of the fate of our planet. > >The Surya Siddhanta is the oldest surviving astronomical text in the Indian >tradition. Some Western scholars date it to perhaps the fifth or sixth >centuries >A. D., though the next itself claims to represent a tradition much, much >older. >It explains that the earth is shaped like a ball, and states that at the very >opposite side of the planet from India is a great city where the sun is rising >at the same time it sets in India. In this city, the Surya Siddhanta claims, >lives a race of siddhas, or advanced spiritual adepts. If you trace the globe >of >the earth around to the exact opposite side of India, you'll find Mexico. Is >it >possible that the ancient Indians were well aware of the great >sages/astronomers >of Central America many centuries before Columbus discovered America?- the M! >ayans or Inca-s!!! > >Knowing the unknowable: To us today it seems impossible that the speed of >light >or the fate of our solar system could be determined without advanced >astronomical instruments. -as Sanjee argues!! > >How could the writers of old Sanskrit texts have known the unknowable? In >searching for an explanation we first need to understand that these ancient >scientists were not just intellectuals, they were practicing yogis. The very >first lines of the Surya Siddhanta, for of the Golden Age a great astronomer >named Maya desired to learn the secrets of the heavens, so he first performed >rigorous yogic practices. Then the answers to his questions appeared in his >mind >in an intuitive flash. > >Does this sound unlikely? Yoga Sutra 3:26-28 states that through, samyama >(concentration, meditation, and unbroken mental absorption) on the sun, moon, >and pole star, we can gain knowledge of the planets and stars. Sutra 3:33 >clarifies, saying: "Through keenly developed intuition, everything can be >known." Highly developed intuition is called pratibha in yoga. It is >accessible >only to those who have completely stilled their mind, focusing their attention >on one object with laser-like intensity. Those who have limited their mind are >no longer limited to the fragments of knowledge supplied by the five senses. >All >knowledge becomes accessible to them. > >"There are [those] who would say that consciousness, acting on itself, can >find >universal knowledge," Professor Kak admits. "In fact this is the traditional >Indian view." > >Perhaps the ancient sages didn't need advanced astronomical instruments. After >all, they had yoga >__________________ > > > ________________________________ Remember the wheel of cause and consequence, deed and destiny and the wheel of Dharma that sets them right
