The science behind pranayama

Instincts and Dreams!!!!!!

So....... Its been some time since my last post. This post too is not too elaborate or something that requires detailed analysis or deep thinking.

Some thoughts come in life just like that and go. May be in real life or may be in your dream. Just wondering whether it is natural or some interconnection is there in these things. I bet almost all of you would have come across this at least couple of times in your life.

1. Well, at times, when I am conversing with someone, I had felt that I said the same dialogue sometime somewhere to some person (persons change or no clarity in them but the dialogues are 100% the same).

2. Some thoughts in life come as an instinct. We cant say it as a future predictor as it does not happen every time. But sometimes, we feel 100% sure that something is going to happen particularly and that happens. One example is when I was about to write my M.com Examination and I was travelling in bus to the Exam Hall, I had a thought in my mind that my handbag is going to be pick-pocketed. I was thinking what will I do if that happens or some thoughts like that. Exactly the same day it happened and I realized this once I got down from the bus. Everything including my hall ticket is gone. Is it just a coincidence? or our mind really alerts us? If yes, why it does not happen everytime?

3. Another thing to mention here is dreams. Dreams are part and parcel of our sleep. But sometimes we feel that a particular dream is coming again and again. Some examples are missing a bus/train, falling from a high building or tower, writing your exams even after you settle in your life, tooth falling, seeing people die, or seeing dead people alive. These are the most common dreams for everyone. Why these dreams come? Do they have any specific reason or do they show any signal of what is going to happen in the future?

These are the thoughs I wanted to share with you guys today. Have you also felt the same things some time in your life?  Please do share them.....

Thanks for reading!!!!!

Our Manthras and Slokas

I remember a teacher in my school days who asked,"You are telling many slokas but they have no meaning. Is it not something funny? Of course, her religion is Christianity and their Holy Script, The Bible can easily be understood when you read it. It is also translated in many languages. Even if you do not get in-depth knowledge in it, you can really understand the basics. In Hinduism, we basically cannot identify only one script as our Holy Script. We have many scriptures like Vedas, Puranas, Upanishads and Bagavath Gita. And all of them are in Devanagari (writing Sanskrit). Almost all of the mantras and slokas that we tell now are in Sanskrit and thats why we do not know their meanings now. When you refer to my previous post "A very basic question" I would have talked about Gurukula education where we studied these vedas and puranas only. So obviously people knew its meaning when they recited the mantras. But gradually, with our adaption of western education system, we stopped learning our scriptures and texts and hence we do not know anything now. Coming back to my teacher's question. At that age, I did not have the mind maturity to answer her back saying "Our Slokas and Mantras all have meaning. Only thing is they are in Sanskrit, which is not a popular language now and hence we do not understand their meaning.  Just because we do not understand them, we cannot say that they have no meaning."

Now, everyone of you might have also encountered same question atleast once in your life. Or you could have thought atleast in your mind, We are telling these slokas as a part of our everyday life. But what is the meaning for it? How many of us really know the meaning of "Bhajagovindam" or "Vishnu Sahasranamam" or "Shiva Sthuthi"? 

When we talk about Hindu Spritualism and Science, This is one of the major hurdles which is preventing us from knowing many things from our scriptures. If only we know sanskrit, we can understand the meaning. And if only we know the meaning, we can see its application in everyday life and wonder about the knowledge and wisdom of our ancient people. But that is almost impossible.

Luckily, with the improvement of technology, we can find many details in google with one click now. But is it enough? Can we say that all of our scriptures have been translated and even if they are translated, are they in an understandable mode? The answer is probably no. So, what can we do? All that we can do for the time being is we should attempt to learn the meaning of the basic slokas and mantras that we recite in everyday life (Not talking about the bigger or
complicated lenghthy mantras but atleast the basics).

When we attempt to try this and keep continuing this as an ongoing process, we ourselves will know many things one by one. Yes, our mantras are carefully framed and each one has tons of positive energy and vibration, which is once again a science (Secret key to happiness).

Let us learn the meaning of one basic sloka today :

Gajaananam Bootha Ganaathi Sayvitham 
Kapitha Jambu Phala saara Bakshitham 
Umaa Sutham Shoka Vinaasha Kaaranam 
Namaami Vigneshwara Paadha Pankajam 

Meaning

Gajaananam - I namashkar Gajananam (who has the face of an elephat)
Bootha Ganaathi Sayvitham - Who is served by the Bhoothas (Bhutha Ganangal)
Kapitha Jambu Phala saara Bakshitham - Who eats the core of fruits (kapitha and jambu are kinds of fruits)
Umaa sutham - who is the Son of Uma (Parvathi)
Shoka vinaasha kaaranam - who is the reason for our sorrows to get destroyed
Namaami vigneshwara paadha pankajam - I bow my head to lord Vigneshwara's lotus feet.

Please refer to this website to know the meaning of some other basic slokas. And let us pass on our hidden gems and secrets to our next generation too... of course, with its proper meaning.

http://www.slokakids.com/index.php?renderpage=slokasflash.html&catgid=8&catgname=Ganesh%20&selecteditempath=http://www.slokakids.com/Slokas_swf_files/Gajaananam%20Slokagajaananam.swf

The technique of flying used by our Siddhas and Yogis - Is it myth or science?

How does the title sound? strange..... crazy.... humbug.... Well. Lets have some interesting discussion on this today. Lets discuss this concept assuming that it is a myth and assuming that it is a science.

Why should it be a myth? Because there is no evidence or proof for it. People have added this concept in stories about lives of siddhas and yogis to only create an interest among us to read such stories. There is no written documentation about this technique to serve as a proof. In the current world, amid all technological improvement, we never saw even a single person who can do it.... These are the basic thoughts which come to our mind when we say these things are myth.

Why it could be science? Now it is not easy to discuss this point in this context as there is no evident proof to support our argument. We can only discuss if it could be a possibility or not. Again it is my thought only. Don't know how many of you would have thought about this in this way. Now lets proceed. I request you all to please take some time to think deeply about the following points....

Aircraft - An aircraft can fly with numerous passengers and lots of cargo in it. It only needs the energy and thrust to take off in the air initially and after that it floats just like that without much effort.

Space Travel - People easily go now to space in space crafts. When you read about the spacecrafts in detail, you will know that people only float in space.  Please refer this wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_spaceflight#Life_support. It is because of microgravity, where everything becomes weightless, people, objects and everything else..... So people float effortlessly in space.

This cannot happen in earth as earth has gravity. It pulls everything back. Heavy objects come back to earth fast and light objects a little longer. Like a stone comes fast but a piece of paper takes some time.

Balloons can float - Why does balloons float in air? Here I am talking about helium balloons.  Helium gas is lighter than the air and hence they float.

Now can we put everything together and discuss this point?

1. Our Siddhas and Yogis knew the technique to reduce their body mass/weight (like a helium balloon) to get their body ready to float.

2. They knew how to create the thrust/energy to go beyond the earth's gravitational pull (like how an aircraft or a rocket takes off) to start off.

3. Once the basic steps are done and once they are beyond earth's atmosphere they could have floated/flied in space effortlessly (Like how people in spacecrafts float now).

Why cant this be the scientific reason behind their flying? They kept the techniques and science secret though.... Why they could not have attained this through their yogic knowledge and wisom and vigorous practices?

Once again, It is only my thought. Expecting your views and comments as usual. Thanks for reading.

A very basic question....

Today's topic is just for our better understanding. Going forward, in this blog we will be discussing many interesting topics which will raise one basic doubt in us. This post is just to make us realize the answer for that particular doubt.  Sounds good????

That basic doubt is this..... "If our spiritualism and tradition has lots and lots of principals, techniques and in depth knowledge about almost all fields, then why it did not pass out to generations after generations? Why we do not know anything about them now? Even if we know, we do not believe in them and we just say that they are myths and walk away... Why is this happening?"

There is one convincing answer for this which can be accepted if we think deeply. Before going into that answer, let us discuss one more important point related to our question.

Initially, our education system was different. They had the Gurukulam set up where they learnt many things orally. Mostly no documentation or writing involved. Even our Vedas were learnt orally. There were various methods in teaching and memorizing the Vedas.

Please go through this wikipedia article about vedas and its recitation methods , particularly, vedic schools :

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

Now we can understand that when the Gurukulam system started diminishing, this passing of knowledge also stopped. Even till few hundred years before, it was not this bad. Our great grand parents and their parents really knew many things than us. Then slowly with the western education system, we completely stopped reading our lessons and adapted to their way of education. Even now there are Vedic schools but only a handful of people go there. (This point is only to clarify why our tradition is now not passing to generations).

Coming back to our topic..... Everyone knows that science is a double edged sword. For every invention there is a positive and negative factor for it. Take for instance internet. When we gather lots of knowledge from it, there is still another side of cyber crime and privacy issues and such things in it. Now imagine this... Our Rishis and Saints knew many things. They even foresighted the future. They taught us yoga and meditation. But why they did not reveal the secret of life apparently to us. Instead they told us to practice the techniques taught by them and find the answers on our own.. Why?? Its because if only we practice hard we will get mind maturity. Without having mind maturity whatever we learn is dangerous. Like now we know science and we use it for both construction and destruction. If they had passed out the knowledge of  foreseeing the future (just for example) just like that what would have happened?  We would have learnt them as theories and would have applied them in our everyday life (and even trying to change it) and would have caused lots and lots of mishaps. Its all because we did not have the mind maturity, purity, selflessness and devotion.

It applies to all techniques and sciences of our ancient Rishis. That's why they did not document anything. They only passed the knowledge and secrets to someone who is really fit for that and who can use them only for constructive purposes. Not everyone will get this mind maturity. Fit means really fit. That comes only by lots of patience and continuous practice of the techniques. In short we can say one in a million will attain this mind maturity.

Please think and let me know your views.

CAN OUR "DEVAS AND GODS BE ALIENS??

Title is crazy. Isn't it?

Before proceeding, please refer to this wikipedia article : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_units_of_time

It says about various time measurements and difference in time between humans, pithrus and devas. Now coming back to the topic.....

All our devas and gods in our puranas have super powers. When you look at our gods, most of them have many heads, eyes and hands. According to us, they live in the sky. They have their own unique vahanas or they just travel in space just like that. They don't blink their eyes nor their feet touch the land. Their body do not contain any waste like human body. All have their own Lokas (Worlds).

More over, their time is very much different from human time. When you read the article, it says 1 human year (365 days) is 1 day of the devas. 1000 maha yugas are 1 day of Brahma. (Let us discuss this maha yuga concept later as it will be little confusing).

Now, according to us, we have discovered nine planets so far revolving around the sun (Pluto is not considered as planet anymore though.). Please go through this statistical data (rough estimates according to nasa site)

Earth year - 365 days
Mercury    - quarter of earth year (about 87.6 days)
Venus        - 224.7 earth days
Mars          - 687 earth days
Jupiter       - 11.9 earth years (about   4343.5 earth days)
Saturn        - 29.7 earth years (about 10840.5 earth days)
Uranus       - 84.3 earth years (about 30769.5 earth days)
Neptune      - 164.8 earth years ( about 60152 earth days)

But these are only the planets we know. According to our puranas we have millions of suns and millions of planets orbiting around those suns.  Science also agrees that Universe is so vast and only a little of it is known to us. Many people still believe that we are not alone in this Universe.

Now taking into consideration the above time span, does it somehow relate to our Deva time and Brahma time and even our yugas? All planets (known) have different time span and they are not the same as that of Earth. Scientists still believe that life should have existed once upon a time in Mars.

Now why cant our Gods' different Lokas (Worlds) be different planets? Each Planet's composition is different (I mean the mass, gases and substance in them). Why can't this have given them super powers like flying in space, not blinking, feet not touching the land, no waste in the body etc? Here I am not referring to the planets that we know. It could be one among the million other planets which has not been discovered yet too.......

It is again my thought..... but expecting feedback from you guys. Your inputs are important to me.

Introduction

Hello Friends,

Many times in life, I have wondered about the connectivity between spiritualism/divinity (Hinduism - Sanathan Dharma) and science. You would have also noticed, both science and spiritualism explains the same concept in different ways. The intention of this blog is to bridge the gap between science and spiritualism. Anything can be discussed here as long as it is relevant to the subject.

Have you ever thought about our ancient divine sciences like yoga, pranayama, vimana shasthra, sidha, ayurveda, sirpa shasthra etc and their relativity to modern sciences?

We are thinking that aircrafts are modern days' creation whereas in our epics and puranas, they have mentioned vimanas as transport carriers of gods and devas.

When you look at Mahabaratha, especially the Kurukshethra war, you will be amazed by the weapons they have used. Varunashtra, Brahmasthra, Nagasthra, Agniasthra etc.  Do you find the relativity between these and modern day's nuclear weapons?

Look at the birth of Gauravas, For those who do not know, This is how it goes. Gandhari (wife of Dridhurashtra) got jealous when Kunti (wife of Pandu) gave birth to Yudhishtra first. Out of her jealousy she destroys her baby in the womb. Rishi Vyasa comes to rescue and collects that, divides it into 100 + 1 and puts it in pots and covers with some herbs etc. After few days, each baby is born one by one from the pot. This is the birth of 100 Gauravas + 1 girl baby. Is it not the world's first test tube baby concept?

Like the above, if you look at our ancient Puranas and Vedas, you will be amazed by hundreds of thousands of discoveries like this. It will be interesting to discuss these and will also help each one of us to share some good information.

Please let me know your views......