"GURUTVAKARSHAN" - OUR VERSION OF "LAW OF GRAVITATION" -

I wanted to publish a quick post for today and hence I chose this topic "Gravity". In this post, I will briefly summarize the law of gravitation as given in modern science as well as what our ancient scriptures say about it. 

Going forward, I will be adding an ultra short version called as "Quick View" in all my posts. It is for those people who do not have time to read the entire post. This is based on the feed back of few readers. Many thanks to them for suggesting this idea....

QUICK VIEW :

Key concept	Law of Gravitation
Modern scientific version	Sir Isaac Newton
References from ancient scriptures	Rig Veda, Prasnopanishad, Surya Siddantha, Works of Brahmagupta and Varahamihira
Gravity is described as	Gurutvaakarshan, Aakarshana Sakthi, Apana Sakthi, Aakrushti Sakthi, Dharanatmika Sakthi

We all know the famous law of gravitation as given by Sir.Isaac Newton. His law states that "any two bodies in the Universe attract each other with a force that is directly proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the two bodies". There is a popular story which states that Newton was sitting under an apple tree and when he saw an apple falling from the tree, he got a thought about the law of gravitation. In layman's understanding, law of gravity is nothing but the pull force of Earth. The one which goes up, comes down due to this pull. But this is not limited to Earth alone. It is actually gravity which holds the Moon in orbit around the Earth, Earth around the Sun and Sun in its place in the Milky Way Galaxy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitation#Newton.27s_theory_of_gravitation

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/what-is-microgravity-58.html#.VNlBDPnF-So

Since we already know about this scientific version of gravity, let us move on to the theories as per our scriptures now...... The Sanskrit term for gravity/attraction is Gurutvaakarshan, (Guru + tva + aakarshan) which means to be attracted by something big (Guru = Master)

Rig veda (10:149:1)

"savita yanraiah prithiveem aramnaat dyaam andahat attorte baddham ashvam adhukshat"

Meaning - The Sun has tied Earth and other Planets through attraction and moves them around itself as if a trainer moves newly trained horses around holding their reins"

Prasnopanishad (3.8) 

"Adityo ha vai bahyah prana udayatyesa hyenam caksusam pranamanugrhnanah prthivyam ya devata saisa purusasyapanama vastabhyantara yadakasah sa samano, vayur-vyanah"

Adi Sankara's commentary about the above - "Aakarshana Sakthi is the power of drawing or pulling something, The breath called Prana (which we inhale) goes up (in the body) and Apana (which we exhale) pulls it down (out of the body). The force which pulls something down is Apana. Earth has Apana sakthi. The deity of the Earth inspires the human body with Apana."

http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part10/chap7.htm

Surya Siddantha (chapter 12) 

(It is a text about the Sun and it is composed by Mayasura also knows as Mamuni Mayan. The present day version of this is modified by Bhaskaracharya.

"Madhyesamantandasya bhugolo vyomni tisthati bibhranah paramam saktim brahmano dharanatmikam"

Meaning - In the midst of Universe, the spherical Earth stands firm in its space without falling away, because of the Dharanatmika Sakthi"

"Akrsta saktisca mahi taya yat svastham guru svabhimukham svasaktya akrsyate tatpatativa bhati same samantat kva patatviyam khe" 

Meaning - Objects fall on Earth due to a force of attraction by Earth. Earth, Planets, Constelations, Moon and Sun are held in Orbit due to this force.

The energy within the ball of Earth is Aakrushti sakthi (attraction). Because of this, Earth pulls a piece of anything in/on her (svastham) towards herself and this power is her own and natural to her. Because of this pull, every object on this Earth appears to be falling down.

http://veda.wikidot.com/bhaskaracharya

http://www.serveveda.org/documents/vedic_reflections.pdf

Brahmasphutasiddhanta :

This is a text written by Brahmagupta (a mathematician) in 628 C E. He states that "Bodies fall towards the Earth as it is in the nature of the Earth to attract bodies, just as it is in the nature of water to flow".

Varahamihira - an astronomer of 6th Century A D "

The ball of the Earth which is made up of five fundamental elements, is placed in the center of a cage

which is made up of the Stars of the Galaxy and hence it is hanging in the sky, like an iron ball in the center of a cage of magnetic balls.

It is no wonder that Dick Teresi, an American writer, wrote in his book "Lost Discoveries - The Ancient Roots of Modern Science" as follows :

• The Indians came closest to the modern ideas of atomism, quantum physics and other current theories.
• Two thousand years before Pythagoras, philosophers in India had understood that gravitation held the Solar System together, and that therefore the Sun, the most massive object had to be at its center. Twenty-four centuries before Isaac Newton, The Hindu Rig-Veda asserted that gravitation held the Universe together. The Sanskrit speaking Aryans subscribed to the idea of a Spherical Earth in an era when the Greeks believed in a flat one. The Indians of the fifth century A.D. calculated the age of Earth as 4.3 billion years where Scientists in 19th Century England were convinced it was 100 million years.

MAHABARATHA WAR - WERE NUCLEAR WEAPONS USED?

This is one of my favorite topics. I have been searching for resources all the way to add validity to the subject matter, "Is Kurukshethra war a nuclear one?" and finally have some details to share with you. The posts I write in this blog are primarily to establish a connection between mythology and science. In that perspective, this particular post will really make you think about our mythology in a very different way. 

Basically, there are few different ways to look into mythological stories. To believe everything told in them is one way. This is what our ancestors did till couple of generations ago. This view made them morally good but they were not able to provide logical reasoning . Hearing the stories but treating them just as fiction is the second way. This view deteriorates the moral perspective also. Why because, mind believes that they are not real and just a fiction. We generally do not follow what we do not believe, Isn't it? The third view is trying to analyse the stories with questions.... why are they told in this way? Are there any reason behind them? This is the perception needed to interpret them correctly. This kind of approach will clearly make you understand the many good reasons viz... ethical, moral, scientific, health, environmental, political etc etc... behind such stories. My approach is always the third one and I like to basically raise questions till I am completely convinced. One such question is about the Mahabaratha war. 

I always had a passion for this particular epic, compared to Ramayana. When we measure in terms of aggressiveness, Mahabaratha weighs more than that of Ramayana. It has almost touched all dimensions of life, possession, greed, sacrifice, cheating, bravery, cowardness, trust, suspicion, anger, jealousy, vengeance, patience, dedication, friendship, relationship.... and the list goes on. No wonder it still creates an impression even today. But approaching this epic with technology point of view is somewhat rare but it has many such aspects in the technology perspective too. I have mentioned a few in my introduction (first) post but will quickly summarize them here for a better understanding.

The birth of Dhuryothana and his brothers - In-vitro fertilization/test tube baby 

Sanjaya narrating the story of warfield to Drithirashtra - Live telecasting

The asthras used in the war - missiles or nuclear weapons (not everything -will explain)

For this post, let us take the Kurukshethra war and analyze the feasibility of it being a nuclear war. As told before, not all the weapons (asthras) were nuclear in nature. When you recollect the Epic, you can note that only few people were allowed or eligible to get such weapons. The Guru (teacher) also did not grant the techniques (using the weapons) to all the students. The secrets were passed on only to those who had the mind maturity to use them judiciously. This is the reason why Drona selected only Arjuna among all his disciples to grant the knowledge of  such great weapons. Karna, on the other hand, learnt the same from Parasurama, but due to his association with ill-natured Duryothana, was not allowed to launch those weapons. The story states that he got a curse from Parasurama that Karna will forget the launching of weapons at the most needed/right time. (selective amnesia, may be). We can take it in this way. Parasurama might have had a foresight that Karna will associate with Duryodhana in future and hence cursed him like that. Aswathama, the son of Drona, also had knowledge about such techniques. But he served as a good example of why such techniques should not be taught to everyone as he used it for destruction even when advised not to do so.... Aswathama, on the death of his father, got so very angry and launched this weapon against the Pandavas. For the sake of stopping the weapon, Arjuna also launched the same weapon. But due to the catastrophic effects, they both were advised to pull back the weapons. Arjuna knew the technique to do so and hence did the same. But Aswathama did not know the secret of getting it back. The nature of this weapon is that if there is no target, it will demolish the person who launched it. Aswathama, forced by the situation, quickly pointed another target for the weapon by asking it to destroy all the babies in womb in the Pandavas' and their sons' wive. Krishna requested not to destroy Uthara's baby but he did not listen and hence got a curse from him. That baby who was protected in the womb by Krishna was named as Parikshit and became the next king after the Pandavas. 

Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967) was a supervising scientist of the Manhattan Project and a developer of the atomic bomb. He quoted Mahabaratha and Bagavat Gita in his lecture seven years later the first atom bomb explosion. I encourage you to watch this history channel video fully before analyzing further : 

Now back to the topic, there were many kinds of asthras in the Mahabaratha war. But the one we consider for discussion here is the Brahmasthra. It is mentioned many times in the Mahabaratha war. Please take a look into the description of this weapon as given in wikipedia.

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

Usage, consequences and effects of Brahmastra :

1. There was no counter attack possible for this weapon. It could only be stopped by another Brahmasthra.

2. The colliding effects were very catastrophic and the target was annihilated completely.

3. The environmental damage was very severe. The land where the weapon was used became barren and all life in and around that area ceased to exist.

4. This weapon was not allowed to be used frequently and it was used only as a weapon of last resort, where there was no other way than to use it.

http://tamilandvedas.com/2011/06/05/is-brahmastra-a-nuclear-weapon/

http://krishna.org/modern-atomic-weapons-and-ancient-mantra-weapons/

Could Brahmastra be a Nuclear Weapon? or something even more than that?

This question is debatable. As usual, there are many controversies going around. Some agree to the concept and some others dis agree. I have briefly summarized the arguments from both sides and here they are....

The arguments of those who agree are the following :

1. The description of Brahmasthra and the way it was not allowed to be used by everybody, proves that it was of some deadly destructive weapon.

2. Once Mahabaratha itself was believed to be a fiction. But later many evidences came to prove that it actually happened in the past like archaeologists finding the submerged city Dwaraka, identification of Saraswathi river etc.

3. Many other mythological concepts related to other fields like astronomy, medicine etc are proved correct now. They were also once pin pointed as fiction and imagination only.

The arguments of those who do not agree are mainly the following :

1. The war used bow and arrow as the main weapon. Nuclear weapons need some sort of shooting technique and that was not possible with bow....

2. It is purely pseudoscience and hence not true.

3. Fiction stories like star wars also anticipate the future and advanced technologies. But can we take them as present happenings? 

My perspective is quite simple here. Since we know something about modern day nuclear weapon, we are trying to equate Brahmasthra with that. But what if  nuclear weapons were not invented at all? What would be our judgement about Brahmasthra in that case? We would have totally neglected the concept stating that it is highly mythical. But with the invention of nuclear weapons, we are able to find some similarities now. Like wise, in future, when science gets more and more advanced, we might get more clarity in such concepts. More over the technology prevailing now might not prevail after 5000 or 6000 years later because world is always changing. But if the future generation claim that the technology we are using now as pseudo science, will that be correct? When we foresee the present world so many years ahead in the future who knows what will be waiting for us there? Same applies to the past also. We are getting traces of history here and there with which we are trying to establish the past happenings. That is the limitation of science. It can only go to a certain extent before and after in time. But what is mentioned in mythology does not change at all. It is very clear in its calculations, time lines, events and happenings. There is no confusion behind it. Of course, there could be many manupulations due to the people trying to interpret them, but the very essence does not change at all. Hence, there is every reason to believe that Brahmasthra was an advanced destructive weapon which was once used.

Ancient Aeronautics ("Vymanika") - Fiction or Fact????

For today, let us consider a topic which has many controversies going on around it these days. You could have heard about many "Vimanas" or "flying machines" in many of our Puranic stories and Epics. But I do not know how many of you know that there is a Text/Scripture exists on this particular context which explains about air-crafts of the ancient time period? And an experiment has been done on flying in 1895? This text and experiment (both are separate) are creating series of arguments and debates around them.  "Vymanika Shastra"  is the text and Shivkar Bapuji Talpade was the one who did the experiment.

Before going into the details about these, let us first take a look into the Flying air-crafts and machines as described in Epics and stories.

FLYING CITIES IN THIRIPURA SAMHARA :

Thripuranthaka, a manifestation of Lord Shiva, is known for this Thiripura Samhara. Once, three demons named Taarakaksha, Kamalaaksha and Vidunmaali got a boon from Lord Brahma and got three flying cities. Those cities were made of Gold, Silver and Iron respectively and were capable of revolving independently in the sky. Additionally the demons also requested Brahma that they should die only with a single arrow, shot when the three flying cities converge together and such convergence should happen only in every 1000 years. After getting such boon, they disturbed Devas and Sages by landing their flying cities in their terrain (worlds) and by attacking and destroying them. Finally Lord Shiva, as Thiripuranthaka, killed them in the way exactly requested by the demons.

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

Interestingly, the essence of this mythological story (the flying cities) is coming true in modern days. People today are foreseeing such flying cities could be possible in the future. Please go to google and type "flying cities of the future" to know it yourself. Also take a look into this news, which talks about "NASA wants to build  a floating city above the clouds of Venus"

http://www.cnet.com/news/nasa-wants-to-build-a-floating-city-above-the-clouds-of-venus/

PUSHPAKA VIMANA IN RAMAYANA :

Most of you would have heard about this Vimana. It was originally designed for "Brahma" by "Vishvakarma" (The principal Architect). Later, Brahma gave it to Kubera,  But the same was stolen later by Ravana. Ramayana describes this Vimana as "That aerial and excellent Vimana goes everywhere at will......and the king(Rama) got in and the excellent chariot at the command of the Raghira, rose up into the higher atmosphere"

AIR-CRAFTS IN MAHABARATHA :

The Epic Mahabaratha talks about air-crafts in various instances. Krishna was not present during the time of the gamble game between Pandavas and Kauravas. The reason being he had to fight with a king called "Salva" who attacked Krishna's Dwaraka city, staying one krosa (4000 ft) above ground level in his powerful flying machine. 

In another instance, where a sage called "Muthkala" performed many noble things and because of his deeds, he got the blessing to stay in heaven. "Devaloka Vimana" came to pick him up but he refused stating that "stay in heaven is not permanent. When the rewards for my good deeds are over, I would be again in the cycle of Birth and Death. I want and aim only for salvation and not stay in heaven."

Another incident as described as below :

OTHER ACCOUNTS :

Vedic texts have also mentioned about air-crafts.

"O royal skilled engineer, construct sea-boats, propelled on water by our experts, and airplanes, moving and flying upward, after the clouds that reside in the mid-region, that fly as the boats move on the sea, that fly high over and below the watery clouds. Be thou, thereby, prosperous in this world created by the Omnipresent God, and flier in both air and lightening.(Yajur Veda, 10.19)

The Rig Veda, talks about the following modes of transportation:

• Jalayan - a vehicle designed to operate in air and water. (Rig Veda 6.58.3)
• Tritala - a vehicle consisting of three stories. (Rig Veda 3.14.1)
• Trichakra Ratha - a three-wheeled vehicle designed to operate in the air. (Rig Veda 4.36.1)
• Vaayu Ratha - a gas or wind-powered chariot. (Rig Veda 5.41.6)
• Vidyut Ratha - a vehicle that operates on power. (Rig Veda 3.14.1).

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vimanas/esp_vimanas_2a.htm

VYMANIKA SHASTRA :

Let us come back to our topic now. First, the "Vymanika Shastra". It was written by Pandit Subbaraya Shastry during 1918-1923 and it contains 3000 slokas in 8 chapters. It was only written by him but the origin of this is attributed to Sage Bharadvaja and his scripture "Yanthra Sarvasva" (which consists 40 sections and Vymanika is one among them). This text written by Shastry was later revealed by G.R.Josyer in 1952 who then translated it in english. In 1991, the english portion along with the illustrations were reprinted by David Hatcher Childress. According to him, this text contains details about secrets of construction of airplanes which cannot be destroyed, secret of making planes motionless and invisible, secrets of hearing conversations and sounds in enemy planes, secrets of retrieving photographs of interiors in the enemy planes, secrets of ascertaining the direction of approach of enemy planes, secrets of destroying enemy planes and making people in enemy planes unconscious. 

The text also talks in detail about various fuel sources used for flying, the composition of metals used in construction of air crafts, the various types of air crafts, the importance of mirros in air crafts and its composition. It mentions about the qualities and skills needed for a pilot to take off the plane, increase and decrease the speed of the plane, stop the plane in the sky, protect the plane when attacked by enemies, the dress code of pilots, food restrictions for them, weather conditions that should be tackled by them when flying etc.

Please go through the following sources to get a clear idea about the fuel sources, the composition and metals used in construction of air crafts, types of air crafts etc.

http://vaimanika.com/new-light-on-vimana-shastra-2012/

http://www.world-mysteries.com/sar_7.htm

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vimanas/vimanas15.htm

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vimanas/vimanas20.htm

Few types of Vimanas mentioned in this text are as follows :

OTHER TEXTS WHICH TALK ABOUT VIMANAS :

Samaranga Sutradhara, a classic architectural text written by King Bhoja also talks about Vimanas, specifically "mercury based" (mercury vortex engine). 

Arthashastra by Koudilya (Chanakya), which talks mainly about politics and qualities of a king, also mentions about "Sowpikas" (pilots). It outlines how pilots should be given importance and recognition by the king.

THE EXPERIMENT :

Now we have come to the second point of our topic, the experiment done by Shivkar Bapuji Talpade. He was born in 1864 in Mumbai. In the year 1895, he flew the first unmanned air craft in Chowpathi Beach - Mumbai. (eight years before the Wright brothers' Wright Flyer) He named his aircraft as Marutsakha (wind-friend). He demonstrated that it could reach nearly to an height of 1500 feet, in the presence of "Sayaji Rao Gaikwad" (The Ruler of Baroda) and Justice Mahadeva Govinda Ranade. The news about this experiment also appeared in the Marathi newspaper "Kesari" which was founded by Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

A Bollywood movie "Hawaizaada" which depicts the life of Shivkar Bapuji Talpade's life is also recently released (Jan 30th 2015).

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

CONTROVERSIES :

In the 102nd Indian Science Congress held recently at the Mumbai University (January 2015) organised a session on "ancient sciences through sanskrit" which included a presentation on Vaimanika Shastra. It was presented by Anand J.Bodas, a pilot and Ameya Jadhav, who is an M.A. in sanskrit and also holds an M.Tech degree. Bodas has told the news media that the ancient air crafts not only flew from country to country but also from planet to planet. This has raised several controversies. (see my post "This is what we think about our ancient wisdom").

http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/ancient-india-had-planes-controversial-claim-at-science-congress-722487

There are also controversies going on against the "Vymanika Shastra" text as well as Shivkar Bapuji Talpade's experiment. 

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

FACT OR FICTION?

This question does not have a direct answer. It can be simply said that it is fact for those who believe it and fiction for those who do not believe it. But I would like to emphasize few points here :

1. Science relies on evidence for everything to consider that as a fact. But the absence of evidence does not mean that the evidence itself is absent (not present or not a fact).

2. As previously said in one of my posts "A very basic question" our ancestors have hidden many scientific facts behind mythology. The reason is not because they do not want to share the knowledge, but science without wisdom will aid in destruction rather than construction. That is the main reason why they handed it over orally that too to qualified disciples (Sishya) who have attained the mind maturity to use it only for constructional purposes.

3. The various metals and fuel resources mentioned in the construction of the air craft is also a reason for controversies. We can take it this way. We once used brass and copper vessels mostly in our households. But are we using them now? How many of the modern day kids even know that vessels made of brass can be used in everyday life? Likewise, the metals described here could have also been used in ancient times.

4. If these are considered mythology, then repeated evidences for such things could not have found their place in stories and scriptures again and again. But they are mentioned with proper description and not just as a fairy tale concept.

Thank you all for reading. Please share your thoughts.....