Understanding Nature

Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world or material world. “Nature” refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. It ranges in scale from the subatomic to the cosmic.

Man’s appreciation of nature and the quest to understand her is well known. Beauty in nature has long been a common theme in life and in art, and books emphasizing beauty in nature fill large sections of libraries and bookstores. Some fields of science see nature as matter in motion, obeying certain laws of nature which science seeks to understand.

Imitating Nature

True to the quote of the famous poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow “The counterfeit and counterpart of Nature is reproduced in art” we find several noteworthy accomplishments in the fields of science and technology that in the past have made and in future promises to make a positive impact to the lifestyle of modern man.
To note a few examples,

• The modern aviation industry is a result of multiple attempts of several individuals to mimic the ability to fly as birds;
• One of the combat techniques used in war, the ability to remain unseen by enemies through camouflaging, is a result of studying similar defense mechanism exhibited by certain species of the animal kingdom;
• One of the recent discovery in the domain of nanotechnology is to create adhesive power that aims to recreate the remarkable ability of the Gecko lizard to climb effortlessly across any vertical surface;
• Daniel Nocera, Professor of Energy, MIT predicts water plus light would be the future oil, proposing to mimic photosynthesis to store high-energy bonds of light for later use;

And trying to control it

Besides these positive outcomes of understanding nature one must also admit the negative impact of trying to tame nature. Although humans comprise only a miniscule proportion of the total living biomass on Earth, the human effect on nature is disproportionately large. There exists a highly complex feedback-loop between the use of advanced technology and changes to the environment that are only slowly becoming understood. Man made threats to the Earth’s natural environment include pollution, deforestation, and disasters such as oil spills.

Could the man-made disasters and natural catastrophes that continue to periodically strike the world and wipe out the lives of several thousand be a response of nature to bring man to the understanding of being subordinate?
It could well be so, especially when we consider the age old wisdom of living in harmony with nature being a proven ideology. This should not, however, be misunderstood as being conservative at exploring the possibilities of tapping the resources of nature. Rather it is based on acceptance of reality of man being a tiny part of an orderly creation, meant to utilize the facilities provided by nature to achieve a higher dimension of existence. Vedic texts, especially the Bhagavad-Gita, acknowledge the innate inquisitiveness of a human and advices channeling the same towards questioning higher truths of existence.

Francis Bacon, British painter, says “We cannot command nature except by obeying her”. Instead of

• Trying to control hurricanes, as attempted by the ‘giant- tub proposal’ funded by Bill Gates, which the critics say as akin to placing pennies on a railroad track and hoping to stop a freight train or
• Shoot dust into threatening clouds as planned for the 2008 Olympics, an endeavor that had several meteorologists and weather modifiers of the world chuckle or
• Build dams like the ‘Three Gorges’ on Yangtze river whose disastrous environmental/social impact is well documented,

man would do well to lead a life of humility, gratefully acknowledging the gifts of nature and utilizing it towards enabling one to attain higher dimensions of blissful existence that have so often been alluded to in several ancient texts of the world, especially the Vedas.

Else, nature would have to continue to brutally remind man of his foolhardy attempts to dominate.
Nature… She pardons no mistakes. Her yea is yea, and her nay, nay. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Vedic Observer

Man prides himself on being a creature of reason, above the lowly beasts. Yet it seems that when he applies his reason to unlocking the secrets of nature for his benefit, he sinks deeper and deeper into a quagmire of intractable problems. The internal combustion engine gets us where we’re going faster, but also results in choking air pollution, the greenhouse effect, and a dangerous dependence on oil. Harnessing the atom gives us cheap energy, but also leads to weapons of mass destruction, Chernobyl, and a rising tide of dangerous radioactive waste. Modern agribusiness produces a dizzying variety and abundance of food at the supermarket, but also results in the death of the family farm, the pollution of ground water, the loss of precious topsoil, and many other problems.

It’s clear we’re missing something in our attempts to harness the laws of nature for our own purposes. What is that “something”? We find out in the very first mantra of the Isoupanishad the foremost of ancient India’s books of wisdom known as the Upanisads: “Everything in this creation is owned and controlled by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself, which are set aside as his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong.”

In nature we see this principle at work. Nature’s arrangement, set up by the Lord, maintains the birds and beasts: the elephant eats his fifty kilos per day, the ant his few grains. If man doesn’t interfere, the natural balance sustains all creatures.
Any agriculturalist will tell you the earth can produce enough food to feed ten times the present human population. Yet political intrigues and wars, unfair distribution of land, the production of cash crops like tobacco, tea, and coffee instead of food, and erosion due to misuse ensure that millions go hungry, even in wealthy countries like the United States.
We must understand the laws of nature from the viewpoint of the Supreme Lord, who has created these laws. In His eyes all the earth’s inhabitants—whether creatures of the land, water, or air—are His sons and daughters. Yet we, the human inhabitants, the “most advanced” of His creatures, treat these sons and daughters with great cruelty, from the practice of animal slaughter to destruction of the rain forests. Is it any wonder that we suffer an unending series of natural disasters, wars, epidemics, famines, and the like?

Peace Formula

The source of our problem is the desire for sense gratification beyond the consideration of anyone else’s rights. These rights are the rights of the child in relation to the father. Every child has the right to share the wealth of his father. So creating a brotherhood of all creatures on earth depends on understanding the universal fatherhood of God. This is the peace formula.

Suggested Reading

1. “Laws of Nature” by A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami.

Written by Kaushik Balasubramanian.

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Is Recession Man made?

Introduction

Recession - A word that sends jitters in the hearts of the IT nerds giving them sleepless nights haunted by the fear of possible pay cuts and layoffs. The outward causes of recession may seem to vary each time. The last time it was the bursting of the “dot com bubble” and now it’s blamed on the “subprime crisis”). However, the underlying causes of all these recessions are more or less similar. In this article, we examine the main causes and discuss some of the solutions.

Root Causes of Most Recessions

Greed and Panic

Both of these are negative emotions and they govern the functioning of the economy and capital markets. Out of extreme greed, companies make over ambitious plans for expansion and borrow heavily to fuel their ambitions. They also go on a recruiting spree, which is when we get the feeling that the economy is booming.

When corporates go overboard with such ambitious plans, any brief fall in demand for their products or services leads them into a heavy liquidity crunch and they are suddenly forced to cut down on their plans and costs (including manpower costs) to avoid huge losses. This is when we feel the pinch of recession.

A classic example of going overboard due to greed is the situation in which the Tatas find themselves today. The Tatas went over board with their ambitions and bought over Jaguar Land Rover Company by taking huge loans, and are now struggling to repay the debt. They are now again borrowing from the common man (by way of Corporate FDs) to repay their debts. This means, they are taking more loans to repay off earlier loans!

Greed can also lead to Corporate Frauds, as is the case with Satyam Computers, where the founders of the company fudged the company’s account books that presented a false picture of the company’s financials and inflated the company’s share price, enabling the company founders to make money at the expense of lakhs of share holders and thousands of employees.

Protectionism or Panic is another emotion that plays with people’s minds. An example is when most equity investors suddenly get into a panic mood and sell off their stocks, causing a stock market crash.

Flawed Business Orientation

Most companies are measured on their performance on a Quarter-to-Quarter basis or Year -to- Year basis. This means that generation of profits is not sufficient, the companies always need to show higher profits compared to earlier quarters and years in order to satisfy their shareholders. Hence they take extra risks (such as investing in risky forex instruments, derivatives and subprime lending) for generating more profits. These risk taking strategies backfire badly, when there is sudden liquidity crunch in the market.

High Commodity Prices (Crude Oil, Coal, Copper) & inflation

One major flaw with most economies in the present times is excessive dependence on certain depleting natural resources, especially Crude Oil (Petrol). This remains a major worry for most countries, in spite of oil discoveries being made occasionally. Nobody has a concrete solution for this oil shortage and governments just helplessly watch the Crude Oil Prices shoot up as demand grows, plunging the economy into inflation and recession. Prices of all essentials (including food) shoot up as a result, as the middle class people struggles more, to make ends meet.

Did you know? International prices of Crude Oil shot up from about $100 per barrel to as high as $150 per barrel within a couple of months in 2008, mainly due to traders “speculating” (read gambling) with Oil Future Contracts resulting in artificial pushing up of the prices!

Inflation is another big concern, with food prices shooting up by as high as 50% within a year (Examples are rice, sugar and Dal).

Artificial Stimulation of demand

Most economies run by encouraging the common man (read Consumers) to go on a spending spree for luxury items and consumer goods, most of which are not really necessary. This spending increases profits of the companies that manufacture consumer goods, thus resulting in more money for government in form of tax collections.

To ensure this, liquidity (money) is artificially injected into the economic system, by way of financial stimulus packages and loans at reduced interest rates. This “artificial demand” for consumer goods, presents a false picture of a ‘booming’ economy, but clearly, such artificially stimulated demand cannot be sustained for too long, resulting in the economy plunging into a recession.

Turning a blind eye to the facts

There are usually enough indications of a recession well before it actually occurs, but governments typically either ignore those indications, or push them under the carpet, or provide a temporary patch up solution.

Did you know? The subprime crisis actually surfaced in 2007 itself (though the recession apparently started only in 2008). However, the US Fed just provided a patch up solution by reducing the money lending rates and injecting liquidity into the system. Everyone soon forgot about the looming crisis, and started squandering away the fresh money provided by the US Fed and in 2008, finally the whole crisis resurfaced, this time in full throttle and could not be suppressed anymore. As a result, many financial giants in the US, such as Lehman Brothers and Merill Lynch went bankrupt and were taken over by other companies.

Solutions for building a Recession Proof Economy

Agrarian Economy

It has been proven, especially during recent times, that agriculture provides much more stable employment as compared to other industrial sectors. This has been one major reason why Indian economy (being predominantly agrarian) has been less affected by the recession, compared to the US and UK. Unlike in the US, where so many financial giants collapsed, no such thing happened in India.

Most Industries in the other sectors are unable to provide sustained employment over the long term. We have seen over the past decade that during each economic boom, a different set of sectors hog the limelight, whereas some others stagnate and plunge into recession.

Examples:-

In the 1990s - IT sector was in the limelight

Early 21st Century- Finance, IT and Realty Sectors were in the Limelight, whereas Aviation and Pharmaceutical Industries were going through a rough patch.

Recent Recession (2008-09) - Infrastructure, Pharmaceutical and Healthcare sectors came into the limelight where as IT, Finance and Realty Sectors went through a rough patch. Aviation has recently made a partial recovery.

All this leaves the Student community a confused lot, as they are not sure of what kind of career to pursue. For example, many students who went for degrees in Computer Science and IT with hopes of landing a good job in IT, subsequently found themselves unemployed and then turned towards government jobs.

Did you know? Companies in Agriculture Sector (such as Jain Irrigation, Bayer Cropscience and Rallis India) have performed very well despite recession! Agriculture is clearly a recession proof sector!

Cottage Industries:

Cottage industries enable people to work at home with simple tools (such as handlooms) and produce sellable goods such as clothes, baskets, etc. The knowledge of the trade is easily passed on to subsequent generations. In contrast, the modern factories require huge capital investments in terms of Machinery, power and infrastructure. This in turn requires a person to undergo many years of schooling and expensive professional college education (Read “Engineering”), not to mention the cut-throat competition at all stages, in order to get even a decent job.

The Vedic Observer

Interestingly, the ancient Vedic lifestyle was designed to be peaceful and simple, where people did not have to work too hard or face cut-throat competition or gamble with shares in order to earn a livelihood, nor were they overtaxed, either mentally, energetically, or monetarily as we are in the modern times.

People would engage primarily in agriculture and cow protection. They used to work about 8 hours a day about 4 months a year during the sowing and harvesting seasons, which would provide them enough for the whole year. If anything additional was needed, that would be provided by trade and commerce centered on simple cottage industries.

People had more time for asking the larger questions of life. Just as we aspire to take up higher and higher positions and roles in this corporate world, the people of the Vedic Civilization would invest time in understanding the higher role and purpose of human life, i.e. understanding and reviving our original position as eternal living entities, servants of the Supreme Being.

This effectively means understanding the plans of the Supreme Being as described in the Vedic scriptures and help in implementation of the same. Thus they learnt to live in harmony with nature and all other living beings with a single focus of achieving a common goal. The isopanishad aptly describes this - ishavasyam idam sarvam…. Isopanishad_Text1 - Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself, which are set aside as his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong.

The society was mainly divided into four divisions. There was a learned/intelligent class of people (referred to as “Brahmanas”) who were in full knowledge of the scriptures and subject matters related to self realization and all moral & social codes, who selflessly focused on serving the society by educating the masses in higher subject matters of self-realization without any expectation of remuneration. The Ruling and Administrative class were ably guided by such learned brahmanas and they ruled efficiently and justly. The Mercantile Class would engage in agriculture, Cow Protection, Trade and Commerce. The labour class would assist all the above classes and would receive remuneration for the same. Since the brahmanas guided the entire society, there were no worries related to recession, job insecurity, stock market crashes, scandals, corruption, political instability, crime, pollution, etc.

Compiled by Vivek Devarajan

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Introduction

The hedonistic ideology of “Dont worry just enjoy” coupled with the artificial hype and eulogization of culture based on unrestricted sensuous indulgence has resulted in the widespread promiscuity which is destroying the very fabric of cultured life and is the cause of a number of concomitant social problems such as infidelity, divorce, depression, suicide, degradation of values both at individual level and society as a whole.

In the name of “celebrating life”, now we are living like animals, impulsively pursuing the raw gut feeling for satisfying the senses without any consideration of the disastrous consequences of such irresponsible behavior. Succumbing to various influences ranging from propaganda by media (cinemas, magazines), imitation and hero worship of “celebrities” etc, people are indulging in extra-marital affairs, homosex and all sorts of illicit activities. And the “secular” government’s is over enthusiastic to legalize the practices such as homosex, “live in” relationships that were unheard in India, the abode of culture. Wasn’t that really an icing on the cake?

In actuality the poor people who boast themselves of being the enjoyers of their free-will little do they know that they are as a matter of fact becoming victims of their own uncontrolled mind and senses which are dragging them down to hellish life both in the present life and the next.

Sex Fascination – The disease of the modern age

Sex is the overwhelming obsession of the modern society. Sexual promiscuity is so unrelentingly stressed that anyone who does not appear to be highly interested in it is considered to be a crank. Social pressure induces people to try to maintain juvenile lustiness long after the sensual high of youth has subsided. Thus millions of people remain emotionally immature all their lives. It is a sick world.

Media’s contribution

In the name of entertainment and marketing, media exploits the people’s sexual cravings, making a business out of it. The advertising industry in particular churns out the unending pictures of half or almost undressed women – in magazines, on billboards, on television, on internet – always and everywhere. Not wanting to be left behind, now even the daily newspapers are competing with porn magazines. Despite grossly exploiting the bodies of women and the basest impulses of men, solely for the sake of making some already over-rich people even richer, their activities continues for the most part unquestioned. The general public absorbs their propaganda and remains ever steeped in lust, having no knowledge of the necessity to resist. Thus advertisements oozing with sexual overtones allure the willingly gullible public to mindlessly purchase everything from back-scrubbers to brandy. And the consumer society rolls on, its members forever sexually jacked-up.

The power of the media to mold people’s attitudes and behavior is a pathetic but who cares. Even if an average person’s mind would not have been absorbed in sexual thoughts, the media makes sure he does.

Chastity - The secret of good health

The body’s vital fluid is a precious substance containing the life force of humans. After Dhanvantari the incarnation of Vishnu had taught all the details about Ayurveda to his disciples, they enquired about the keynote of this medical science. The Master replied, “I tell you that brahmacharya is truly a precious jewel. It is the one most effective medicine-nectar indeed which destroys diseases, decay and death. For attaining peace, brightness, memory, knowledge, health and Self-realisation, one should observe brahmacharya which is the highest dharma. Brahmacharya is the highest knowledge. Brahmacharya is the greatest strength. Of the nature of brahmacharya is verily this Atma and in brahmacharya It resides. Saluting brahmacharya first, the cases beyond cure, I cure. Aye, brahmacharya can undo all the inauspicious signs.”

Practice of brahmacharya gives good health, inner strength, peace of mind and long life. It invigorates the mind and the nerves. It helps to conserve physical and mental energy. It augments memory, will force and brainpower. It bestows tremendous strength, vigour and vitality. Strength and fortitude are obtained.

According to Ayurveda the vital fluid retained in the body goes upwards to nourish the brain, rendering the body robust and the memory and intellect sharp. Determination, optimism, confidence, will power, fixed intelligence, noble character, photographic memory, and shining good health are all the fruits of conserved semen. According to Ayurveda, the retained vital fluiddevelops ojas, a vital fluid that gives strength, luster, enhanced mental abilities and immunity to diseases and slows the aging process.

Scientists have analyzed semen the vital fluid to be amazingly rich in hormones, proteins, vitamins, minerals, ions, enzymes, trace elements and other vital substances. If retained within the body, it nourishes the body and brain in a way impossible for any tonic or dietary aid to emulate. The current craze for vitamin and mineral supplements is an attempt to make up for the self-imposed deficiencies. More on Scientific reasearch on value of Continence. This is equally true to both the genders.

The Ill effects of promiscuity

Retention of vital fluid is so essential in progressive human life that it is simply astounding how the whole endeavor of modern civilization is based on discharging it as much as possible.

1. Degradation of moral values in society. Leads to adultery, debauchery etc.
2. Increase in divorce rate due to infidelity and domestic unrest.
3. Excessive loss of vital fluid leads to all sorts of diseases as the vital fluid nourishing the body and mind is drained out.
4. Such irresponsible behavior sets a bad example for the next generation and the trend follows. Imagine the disastrous impact an obscene billboard make on the minds of children.

How a cultured civilization addresses the conjugal needs of humans

Human life is a rare opportunity given to the living entity which one attains after transmigrating through 8,400,000 species of life. The holy scriptures, therefore advises the humans to make optimum use of this rare opportunity to reach the destination of life – salvation or liberation from material existence. Just as a vehicle is used to reach a destination, we must use the vehicle of human body to achieve the ultimate goal of life mentioned above (salvation).

Nevertheless, the scriptures prescribes regulated sex life for the purpose of pro-creation. A cultured human civilization facilitates the physical needs of humans through the institution of marriage. In vedic terminology such a person who is regulted is called Grhasta or one who lives in family life with a wife for the purpose of advancing in spiritual life. Such a Grhasta may unite with his wife for the purpose of procreation. And bringing up responsible children in dharma. Such a regulated life is dharma according to Bhagavad Gita.

The person who doesn’t subscribe to this view is called Grhamedhi. The grihastha makes gradually advances towards the goal of life while the grihamedhi remains perpetually in the cycle of birth and death due to his attachment to body and sense satisfaction.

Conclusion - Think higher and feel the real bliss of life

The greatest happiness for the self starts with complete freedom: freedom from misery, unhappiness and all sorts of suffering.
How can we become happy when we are slaves of the dictates of the demands of the mind and senses? Human life is not meant to be led like the animals whose intelligence cannot go beyond eating, sleeping, defending and mating but to search out and attain the Absolute truth. In actuality we are spirit souls and so neither male or female, which are our temporal bodily situations.

The real way to real happiness is to see and think beyond the momentary and short lived pleasure of the body and mind. Let us look inwards, introspect and discover the bliss of the eternal spirit in its pure association with the supreme.

Suggested References

1. Brahmacharya by H.H.Bhakti Vikasa Swami

Written by Chandrasekar Gani.

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Right to the Right Education ?

Introduction

Recently our parliament has passed The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, 2008 which seeks to provide education to children aged between 6 to 14 years. The Bill also earmarks 25 per cent seats to weaker sections in private schools. Our HRD minister commented that the bill is a “historic opportunity” for providing better future to children of the country as there was never such a landmark legislation in the last 62 years since independence. “We as a nation cannot afford our children not going to schools,” he asserted, noting that the measure details the obligations of the Centre and the states for providing free and compulsory education to children. But the more important question here is What sort of education are we going to impart to them when they once come to the school ??

What’s wrong with the modern educational system

The western world has already undergone all these educational, industrial and civil reforms long back. What kind of educated class are they producing today? A class totally confused about goal of life, a society full of divorces, dissatisfaction, depression and people with destructive mentality. Therefore the question begs itself: where has modern society gone wrong? Despite extensive attempts at mass education, why has the advancement of knowledge not made people peaceful? Illiteracy can no longer be considered a reason since the best schools in the world have witnessed the worst violence in the last decade. The foundation of American society has been rocked by the repeated massacres by school children of their own peers and teachers for no good reason whatsoever. In many schools, metal detectors now screen every child before he enters the modern temple of learning.

The Vedic texts, a vast body of profound knowledge coming down from ancient India, provide thought-provoking insights into this sorry state of affairs. The Vedic texts exalt knowledge for its transformational power. “What you know” is not considered as important as ‘”What is the effect on you of what you know”. In marked contrast, modern education swamps students with information, but the educational products are sadly lacking in character; many of the students are often victims of self-destructive habits like smoking, alcoholism and substance abuse; and even the best of them cherish no values higher than personal economic aggrandizement. Information, information, information, but no transformation is the plight of the modern educational system.

Of course many curricula worldwide do have some sort of value education, but they mostly serve a cosmetic purpose; they are ineffectual in actually building the character of the students. The Vedic texts assert unequivocally that morality has to be founded on spirituality; otherwise it soon becomes a mere lip-service. Unless one has an understanding of God as the Supreme Controller, the call to ethics has no weight. After all, what is there in an atheist’s world view to impel him to stick to morality in his pursuit of pleasure? If a person does not understand his identity as an eternal soul, if he thinks that he can get away with whatever he does, provided he just does it cleverly enough, why will he not try to maximize the pleasure that this life can offer him? “Beg, borrow, steal, kill, but enjoy” becomes the motto of such a spiritually illiterate person.

The effects

Modern scientific education has been largely responsible for this spiritual and social decay. Honest scientists readily admit that spiritual subjects such as the existence of the soul and God are simply beyond their scope. But unfortunately practically all the science textbooks worldwide portray dubious theories such as the big bang theory and evolution theory as proven facts, thus forcing the naive and innocent students to embrace atheism as the only “scientific” way of looking at the world. Many eminent scientists have openly rejected these theories as unscientific, while others continue to debate about them. But they are certainly not verified truths and putting them in the school textbooks is a travesty of justice. If we let our children be taught that they have come from monkeys, how can we expect them to not behave like monkeys? The notion that life is a result of chemical combination breeds a murderous mentality: “If life is just a product of chemicals, then why can I not cut a bag of chemicals and eat it, if it tastes good? Or worse still: “If there is nothing more to life than chemical activity, then why can I not destroy the lump of chemicals if it obstructs my path to success?” When entire generations grow up with such perverted conceptions, is it strange that peace eludes humanity?

The Remedy

If we want our children to inherit a peaceful world, we have to teach them the spiritual truths that will engender that peace - within and without. To this end, the following non-sectarian universal divine principles must be incorporated into the syllabus worldwide:
1. God is the Supreme Father of all living beings and He is the Supreme Owner and Controller of everything, as confirmed in one of the foremost Upanishads, the Ishopanishad (ishavasyam idam sarvam)
2. We are accountable for all our actions to God (As you sow so shall you reap)
3. We are spirit souls, eternal children of God and our real happiness is not in material acquisition, but in spiritual realization, in lovingly harmonizing ourselves with nature and God.

These spiritual precepts do not contradict the principle of secularism because secularism should not be misunderstood or misinterpreted as atheism. Secularism basically implies impartiality towards different religions and the above precepts are the common underlying teachings of all the major religions of the world. It will be most unfortunate if, in the name of secularism, we let people stay in spiritual ignorance and thus court global disaster. We can cite here the historical transformation of Hippies in late sixties in America by embracing the genuine spirituality. Empowered by this divine knowledge, thousands of youths were able to break free of the shackles of all self-destructive habits and become selfless spiritual activists, dedicated to the holistic service of God and all living beings. Even today it is a globally repeated phenomenon that adoption of genuine spirituality by an individual concomitantly leads to character and compassion, the pre-requisites for sustained world peace.

Conclusion

Following slogan succinctly summarizes the need of the hour, “Without the awakening of divine consciousness within the individual, there is no use of crying for world peace.”. No other kind of education is going to help much in changing the world.

Compiled by Rahul Mishra

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Did man go to the moon?

Introduction

As students, we have grown up falling in love with science as an excellent means to understand the world around us. Specially we, Indians, feel so fascinated when modern science presents evidence and reasoning establishing the existence of the soul For example[1] . We feel so proud of our heritage. But when we come to know that, according to the Vedic scriptures, man could not have gone to the moon, we become immensely disturbed. Landing on the moon is globally considered the crowning jewel of all the accomplishments of modern science. To have that conquest declared as a fake is not easy to take. We hate the unpleasant choice that confronts us: choose either science or scripture. “Can’t there be a reconciliation of both?” we wonder. Perhaps only when our most cherished assumptions are challenged do we strive for a higher understanding.

Different scales of observation

According to Vedas, we could not have gone to the moon because it is a higher planet. Without doing good karma, one cannot go there, just as without proper immigration clearance, one cannot go to America. This logic itself reveals a fundamental difference in the Vedic and modern world views and that difference holds the key to a reconciliation of the two.

Modern science sees the moon as a lifeless satellite, whereas Vedic science sees it as Chandraloka, a higher-dimensional planet inhabited by higher beings. Imagine two transparent glass beakers, one containing white chalk powder and the other, black charcoal powder. If we mix the two powders, we will get a grey mixture. But if we see the same mixture under a microscope, the grey particles will disappear; we will see only white and black particles. Which is the reality? Not sure ?  May be both !!!  

What we see varies with our scale of observation. What is a grey powder to the naked eye is a mixture of black and white particles to the microscopic eye. Similarly, what is a lifeless planet at the human scale of observation is a higher-dimensional planet filled with higher beings at a divine scale of observation. Hence the seeming contradiction.

The Vedic texts themselves contain descriptions of cosmology based on both scales of observation. There are two main sources of cosmological information in the Vedic literatures – the Puranas and the Jyotisha-shastras. The Puranas describe cosmology from a divine perspective and they mention many features of the cosmos that are inaccessible to human observation. On the other hand, the Jyotisha-shastras describe cosmology largely from a human perspective. Among the Jyotisha-shastras are works on mathematical astronomy known as astronomical siddhantas. The siddhantic cosmology contains information similar to the information obtained from modern cosmology. For example, the Surya Siddhanta, one of the most important siddhanta-shastras, states:

1. The distance between the earth and the moon as 253,000 miles, compared to modern measurements of 252,710 miles.
2. The Earth’s diameter is 7,840 miles, compared to the modern measurements of 7,926.7 miles.

The very fact that cosmic distances were measured with such precision in Vedic culture long before the dawn of modern cosmology is itself remarkable. It suggests that Vedic cosmology deserves to be studied with due respect, not dismissed summarily as unscientific due to some of its features being currently incomprehensible to us.

Three possibilities

We can’t say for sure what actually happened with the moon flights. Authoritative mathematics textbooks state that three plus three is six. If somebody says, according to his calculations, it’s not six, we know for sure he’s wrong. But we can’t know for sure what answer he got. Similarly, the Vedic scriptures authoritatively state that Chandraloka is a higher-dimensional planet with higher living beings. So if astronauts claiming to have gone there did not encounter any life there, we can know for sure that they have not accessed Chandraloka. But we can’t know for sure where they went.

Still, based on Srila Prabhupada’s[2] statements, we can envision at least three possibilities,” Firstly, let’s understand the concept of a higher dimensional object being projected to a lower dimension. A three-dimensional office address in Mumbai (given by avenue, street and floor) can have a two-dimensional projection (given by avenue and street). Similarly, the higher-dimensional Chandraloka can have a three-dimensional projection, the moon visible to us with the naked eye. No matter how hi-tech our spacecrafts, they cannot take us beyond the three-dimensional reality that our sensory apparatus limits us to. On a map of India, which is a two-dimensional projection of the multi-dimensional reality, India, if I move my finger from Pune to Mumbai, I cannot experience Mumbai – its people, its skyscrapers. Similarly, the astronauts may travel in three-dimensional space to the three-dimensional projection of Chandraloka, but not experience its higher-dimensional reality – Somadeva and the other residents, the heavenly opulences.

Srila Prabhupada said that the astronauts may have been subjected to a hi-tech diversion by the demigods. Consequently, they imagined they had landed on the moon, but had been grounded on some other relatively (relative to Chandraloka) lower planet like Rahu, which is ordinarily invisible to us due to its existing in a dimension higher than ours.

Or the third possibility is that the moon flights may have been hoaxed; the astronauts may never have gone out of the atmosphere of the earth. For example, regarding the first American Apollo flights, there are dozens of books and scores of websites devoted to the moon conspiracy theory with its proponents and opponents both vigorously presenting arguments and counter-arguments. Given the money, prestige, security and technology involved, ascertaining the truth in such projects will be difficult and possibly dangerous.

Where modern cosmology falls short

But if everything depends on the scale of observation, then doesn’t that make everything relative and subjective? Isn’t there a reality? Aren’t scientific theories real? After all, scientific technology works – If we look at the cellphones, the internet, the airplanes. Yes, That’s true. But, doesn’t spiritual technology also work? There are so many researches establishing Mantra meditation helps one to control anger, decrease stress level; spiritually fulfilled people live longer and less prone to diseases and so  many similar facts. So, if what works is the standard to decide what’s real, then even spiritual principles should be considered real.

Different things work at different levels. If our goal is to improve our external comforts and control, to increase our ability to manipulate the world around us, scientific technology works. If our goal is to improve our internal life, to increase our self-mastery, spiritual technology works. Modern science is fabulously successful in controlling a tiny slice of reality, but does it give a satisfactory explanation of the totality of reality?

A quote from Noble Laureate physicist Erwin Schrodinger unequivocally admits the incompleteness of the scientific worldview: ‘I am very astonished that the scientific picture of the real world around me is very deficient. It gives a lot of factual information, puts all our experience in a magnificently consistent order, but it is ghastly silent about all and sundry that is really near to our heart, that really matters to us. It cannot tell us a word about red and blue, bitter and sweet, physical pain and physical delight; it knows nothing of beautiful and ugly, good or bad, God and eternity. Science sometimes pretends to answer questions in these domains, but the answers are very often so silly that we are not inclined to take them seriously.’

What to speak of explaining the existence of life on other planets, modern science cannot explain the existence of life on our own planet. We obviously know that life exists here because we exist here. But modern, reductionist science claims that life is a result of chemical combination, but it cannot demonstrate or explain how life arises from chemicals.

Not only can reductionistic science not explain how life arises, it also cannot explain why life arises. It offers no explanation about what the purpose of our existence is or what the values guiding our existence should be. That’s why eminent Indian scientist Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in his book Ignited Minds, quotes Albert Einstein recalling Werner Heisenberg’s words to him: ‘You know in the West we have built a large, beautiful ship. It has all the comforts in it, but one thing is missing: it has no compass and does not know where to go.’

Toward a more complete cosmology

To gain a more holistic understanding of the cosmos, we have to free ourselves from the rigid constructs of Euclidean and Cartesian three-dimensional geometry, which forms the basis of the modern scientific worldview. An important quote in this regard from a remarkable book Vedic Cosmography and Astronomy by the late Dr Richard L Thompson who pioneered the postulation of a new cosmology that integrated scientific and Vedic insights: ‘Radical extensions of our theoretical perspective have taken place repeatedly in the history of science. A striking example of this is provided by the revolution in the science of physics that occurred in the twenties and thirties of this century. At the end of the nineteenth century, physicists were almost universally convinced that classical physics provided a final and complete theory of nature. However, a few years later, classical physics was replaced by a new theory, called quantum mechanics, which is based on fundamentally different principles. The most interesting feature of this development is that classical physics turns out to be compatible with quantum mechanics in the domain of observation in which it was originally applied. The differences between the two theories become significant only in the new atomic domain opened up by the quantum theory. Likewise, our proposed new cosmology would agree with existing theories in its predictions of gross sensory observations, but it would open an entirely new world of higher-dimensional travel.

Higher Dimensional cosmology

At one level, Vedic cosmology is compatible with modern cosmology, as seen from the above agreement in astronomical measurements. At another level, Vedic cosmology is more complete than modern cosmology, because of its ability to account for higher-dimensional cosmic realms, higher living beings and ultimately the higher purpose of life.

Vedic cosmology is innately theistic and spiritual. It is based on the understanding that that we are souls, spiritual beings, temporarily residing in our material bodies. We are all astronauts on a long multi-life cosmic journey through many, many bodies in many different parts of the cosmos. We are the beloved children of the Supreme Being, originally residing in loving harmony with Him in His abode. When we desired to enjoy separate from Him, we were sent to this material cosmos for experimentation and rectification.

The cosmos, the Vedas explain, is created and controlled by God, with the help of numerous assistants called demigods. The demigods are beings much more powerful than us, who reside in the higher regions of the cosmos. Soma, the presiding deity of the moon, is one of the demigods.

The principle of humility is vital in approaching the magnificent works of God like the cosmos. We cannot expect to conquer the cosmos with our intellect and dominate it for our ends. Such an attitude implies that we are trying to become all-knowing and usurp God. This vain attitude will lead only to bafflement, as has happened to many scholars who had a non-devotional approach in their study of Vedic cosmology. A good example of a devotional attitude to cosmic research is the following quote of Johannes Kepler: I have endeavored to gain for human reason, aided by geometrical calculation, an insight into His way of creation; may the Creator of the heavens themselves, the father of all reason, to whom our mortal senses owe their existence, may He who is Himself immortal… keep me in His grace and guard me from reporting anything about His work which cannot be justified before His magnificence or which may misguide our powers of reason, and may He cause us to aspire to the perfection of His works of creation by the dedication of our lives.

The Ultimate cosmic flight

Vedic culture is not against cosmic travel, in fact, the perfection of life, according to the Vedic scriptures, is the ultimate cosmic flight; Vedic culture trains us to become transcendental cosmonauts and fly beyond the moon, beyond the sun, beyond the entire material universe, to the spiritual world, which is our eternal home.

References

1. Near Death Experience, Out of Body Experience, Reincarnation etc
2. A noted vedic scholar and authority in 20th century.

Compiled by Rahul Mishra from the original article by Chaitanya Charan Das.

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Bharat versus India

You might know that India is sometimes referred by a lesser known name Bharat.Is there any difference in how we call the country. How does it make a difference anyway? Lets examine the etymology of these words.

According to Bhagavatha Purana, this country became to be known as Bharat because it was ruled by an illustrious king Bharata the son of Maharaj Rishabha. King Bharata ruled the entire Bharata varsha which in vedic connotation refers to the entire world inhabited by humans. And the word India is an anglicised corruption of the word Hindustan meaning The place of Hindus.

Its intriguing when you compare these two names because one signifies the entire world and other a contemporary place inhabited by Hindus but shrunk in size by the history. The word Bharat signifies a rich culture and heritage patronised by a lineage of great kings like Bharata. Its also interesting to note that the word Hindu is not a native word either, it’s a persian corruption of the word Indu better known as Indus the river. The persians and arabs referred the people on the other side of the river Indus as Hindus. So as you see it makes a lot of difference. When we refer the country as Bharat we refer to a great civilization with a great culture and heritage and when we refer it as India it implicitly signifies a country enslaved, colonized and bruised by invasions on cultural and intellectual spheres. Lets analyse more of the contrasting qualities of the India then and now.

India: Then and Now.

Murder in school, Suicides due to depression, increasing divorce rates!!!!! these are the common readings in the daily newspapers these days. How did these social ailments seep into Indian society which was for ages known as an emblem of peace, wisdom, prosperity and all such auspicious attributes?

It is high time for Indians to look back into their rich culture of yesteryears and investigate into the cause of today’s self destructive proclivities and put an end to this mad march towards self-destruction before these evil forces consume our great nation.

Living conditions and health

In traditional India people lived in a very healthy environment. Clean breathing air, pure and clean water, nourishing fresh foods brimming with life. Life was never stressed out due to excessive work and deadlines. Trust on each other both in personal and financial dealings were common. Regularly reading sacred Vedic Scriptures and a lifestyle based on simple living and high thinking. A highly evolved and scientific branches of learning in the vedic gurukula system being the hallmark.

Today with the advance in science and technology, Indians breathe polluted air, drink contaminated water and eat toxic junk food. Physically and physiologically we are emaciated. Exploit or be exploited seems to be the thumb rule of business. Dealings based on faith have been replaced by complex laws with loop holes favouring the rich and strong. Indians rarely have time to spend on their spiritual and intellectual well being.But they happily gulp down their throat the pseudo scientific knowledge and manipulated history left down by the then imperialist west in their schools and universities.

And what that education has produced is a confused and myopic population who can’t see what is in real good for them. They copy lavish western traits and try to retrofit in their impoverished Indian surroundings. This has led to large scale complexities widening the divide of have and havenots. And most of the times such influence are self destructive when applied beyond limits. A very good example of this is the pop icon Micheal Jackson who in spite of being blessed with immense talents and fortune had to undergo enormous stress and eventually succumbed to host of illness at an early age all because he had to maintain his status as the pop icon. And the result being he had to die a horrible death. All these problems were virtually non - existent in India even fifty years ago. The present day social menaces such as divorce, suicides in huge numbers, cultural degradation, adultery, drug addiction and murders etc amongst youngsters were unheard of.

Sustainable life style in Bharat

Previously the necessities of life such as food, shelter, clothing, utilities were taken from nature. Cow Protection, Cultivation of land and commerce mostly by barter system were the main functions of the vaishyas (productive class of the society). Since the people lived as per the Holy Scriptures, there were abundant rains. There was enough nutritious food for the whole society. Previously a person was considered wealthy if he had grains and gold. dhaanyavan dhanavan as compared to the paper currency which as such has no value on its own.

People travelled in a simple way by bullock carts or horse carriages as they didn’t have a need to travel at monstrous speeds although they had the technology for it. There was no question of air, water and land pollution leading to so many diseases and ailments. And an economy based on non-renewable energy resources and un-sustainable infrastructure.

Now with the introduction of paper currency and manipulated economy, a small section of society is amassing wealth at the cost of starving millions. Previously there was no such thing as economic recession, large scale layoffs etc. People worked hard, ate sumptuously and lived happily with whatever they had.

Bharat a center of learning and innovation

Our ancestors have left behind a great treasure of knowledge in the fields of mathematics, architecture, astronomy, medical sciences etc. If we explore into this treasure, we can benefit immensely from all that knowledge. Below are a few drops from the vast ocean of the wisdom of India. Here is a list of contributions.

Now with the inclusion of modern education, Indians are gradually becoming aliens in their own culture, they have accepted the anthropological hoax stories such as Darwin’s theory of evolution of human beings from apes.

Root cause analysis.

Although in one sense this degradation of culture is pre-destined and predicted in the scriptures. The factors that influenced the degradation are two. The first being the cultural invasion from the west, a seed successfully sown by the the British that the west is always the best through its education system. In fact just after the independence there was an opportunity to set things right which was squandered by pro-western administrators like Nehru who have ruled India for most of the time. The second being the lack of any curriculum in the education system on their own culture and heritage due to the undue stress on neeed to be secular in Indian democracy. There was a void created in the intellectual space which was duly filled in by the western intelligentsia. And as the interaction of Indians with the outside world has increased, Indians are becoming more and more fascinated and enamored by the western culture which is based on the principle of optimal sense indulgence such as intoxication, free mixing of men and women, merciless killing of mother cow, abortion of human fetus etc. without any consideration of what is permitted and what is prohibited for cultured human society.

The Vedic Culture in the heart of Bharat

The vedic culture was centered around leading a happy and meaningful life. The Vedic literatures gives a comprehensive sustainable forumula for dharma (regulated life), artha (economic development), kama (fulfillment of desires) and ultimately moksha (fulfilling the purpose of life). We would be happier, healthier, wiser and ultimately make progressive advancement towards achieving the ultimate goal of live (salvation) if we value and live by the principles of Sanatana dharma which is ”Simple living and High thinking’ centered on cultivation of spiritual knowledge of sacred scriptures such as Srimad Bhagavad-Gita and living by the principles taught therein.

In fact the argument that all these principles donot hold good in this social situation is incorrect because even to this day the Amish community have been maintaining their traditional orthodox social setup.

Conclusion.

Hoping that the grass is green on the other side, Indians are giving up their own rich heritage and adopting the western ways of living. But this has only led to so much of misery and chaos both individually and collectively.

Human being is blessed with higher intelligence which should be employed to inquire into higher truths of life. The humans must inquire about the source of creation, maintenance and annihilation of this cosmic manifestation and put forward question such as who am I? Who is God? What is the purpose of my life? How to end the miseries of life such as repeated birth, death, old age and disease (janma, mrityu, jara and vyadhi) etc?

The Santana dharma or what is called the traditional Vedic Indian life was designed in such a way that people could lead a peaceful, happy life with God in the center while they are living and simultaneously prepare themselves for the journey of the soul (who is the actual person) after the death of the temporary and mortal body.

What India should do is to strike a balance between the traditional values and modern techniques and chalk its own path in its quest for advancement.
Chandrasekar Gani
L Narasimha Rao

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There was a time when red meat was a luxury for ordinary Americans, or was at least something special: cooking a roast for Sunday dinner, ordering a steak at a restaurant. Not anymore. Meat consumption has more than doubled in the United States in the last 50 years.

Now a new study of more than 500,000 Americans has provided the best evidence yet that our affinity for red meat has exacted a hefty price on our health and limited our longevity.

The study found that, other things being equal, the men and women who consumed the most red and processed meat were likely to die sooner, especially from one of our two leading killers, heart disease and cancer, than people who consumed much smaller amounts of these foods.

Results of the decade-long study were published in the March 23 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine. The study, directed by Rashmi Sinha, a nutritional epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute, involved 322,263 men and 223,390 women ages 50 to 71 who participated in the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study. Each participant completed detailed questionnaires about diet and other habits and characteristics, including smoking, exercise, alcohol consumption, education, use of supplements, weight and family history of cancer.

Determining Risk

During the decade, 47,976 men and 23,276 women died, and the researchers kept track of the timing and reasons for each death. Red meat consumption ranged from a low of less than an ounce a day, on average, to a high of four ounces a day, and processed meat consumption ranged from at most once a week to an average of one and a half ounces a day.

The increase in mortality risk tied to the higher levels of meat consumption was described as “modest,” ranging from about 20 percent to nearly 40 percent. But the number of excess deaths that could be attributed to high meat consumption is quite large given the size of the American population.

Extrapolated to all Americans in the age group studied, the new findings suggest that over the course of a decade, the deaths of one million men and perhaps half a million women could be prevented just by eating less red and processed meats, according to estimates prepared by Dr. Barry Popkin, who wrote an editorial accompanying the report.

To prevent premature deaths related to red and processed meats, Dr. Popkin suggested in an interview that people should eat a hamburger only once or twice a week instead of every day, a small steak once a week instead of every other day, and a hot dog every month and a half instead of once a week.

In place of red meat, nonvegetarians might consider poultry and fish. In the study, the largest consumers of “white” meat from poultry and fish had a slight survival advantage. Likewise, those who ate the most fruits and vegetables also tended to live longer.

Anyone who worries about global well-being has yet another reason to consume less red meat. Dr. Popkin, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina, said that a reduced dependence on livestock for food could help to save the planet from the ravaging effects of environmental pollution, global warming and the depletion of potable water.

“In the United States,” Dr. Popkin wrote, “livestock production accounts for 55 percent of the erosion process, 37 percent of pesticides applied, 50 percent of antibiotics consumed, and a third of total discharge of nitrogen and phosphorus to surface water.”

Finding a Culprit

A question that arises from observational studies like this one is whether meat is in fact a hazard or whether other factors associated with meat-eating are the real culprits in raising death rates. The subjects in the study who ate the most red meat had other less-than-healthful habits. They were more likely to smoke, weigh more for their height, and consume more calories and more total fat and saturated fat. They also ate less fruits, vegetables and fiber; took fewer vitamin supplements; and were less physically active.

But in analyzing mortality data in relation to meat consumption, the cancer institute researchers carefully controlled for all these and many other factors that could influence death rates. The study data have not yet been analyzed to determine what, if any, life-saving benefits might come from eating more protein from vegetable sources like beans or a completely vegetarian diet.

The results mirror those of several other studies in recent years that have linked a high-meat diet to life-threatening health problems. The earliest studies highlighted the connection between the saturated fats in red meats to higher blood levels of artery-damaging cholesterol and subsequent heart disease, which prompted many people to eat leaner meats and more skinless poultry and fish. Along with other dietary changes, like consuming less dairy fat, this resulted in a nationwide drop in average serum cholesterol levels and contributed to a reduction in coronary death rates.

Elevated blood pressure, another coronary risk factor, has also been shown to be associated with eating more red and processed meat, Dr. Sinha and colleagues reported.

Poultry and fish contain less saturated fat than red meat, and fish contains omega-3 fatty acids that have been linked in several large studies to heart benefits. For example, men who consume two servings of fatty fish a week were found to have a 50 percent lower risk of cardiac deaths, and in the Nurses’ Health Study of 84,688 women, those who ate fish and foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids at least once a week cut their coronary risk by more than 20 percent.

Ties to Cancer

Choosing protein from sources other than meat has also been linked to lower rates of cancer. When meat is cooked, especially grilled or broiled at high temperatures, carcinogens can form on the surface of the meat. And processed meats like sausages, salami and bologna usually contain nitrosamines, although there are products now available that are free of these carcinogens.

Data from one million participants in the European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition trial found that those who ate the least fish had a 40 percent greater risk of developing colon cancer than those who ate more than 1.75 ounces of fish a day. Likewise, while a diet high in red meat was linked to an increased risk of prostate cancer in the large Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial, among the 35,534 men in the study, those who consumed at least three servings of fish a week had half the risk of advanced prostate cancer compared with men who rarely ate fish.

Another study, which randomly assigned more than 19,500 women to a low-fat diet, found after eight years a 40 percent reduced risk of ovarian cancer among them, when compared with 29,000 women who ate their regular diets.

By JANE E. BRODY
NYTIMES 28 Apr 09

Vedic Observer

Meat has always been inseperable from host of other social and economic problems like pollution, diseases, energy and wastage of resources. Unfortunately the modern “Big M” culture has made it more accessible and affordable masking the reality behind it.

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Vegetarianism and Cow Protection

People are generally unaware of the importance of Cow Protection. Cows produce, in large quantities, the miracle food, milk. Milk is produced from the blood of the cow, however she is happy to give her blood transformed in a peaceful, non-violent way in the form of milk.

The cow is so merciful she is freely giving us her milk which contains all the vitamins, proteins and other nutrients found in flesh. If people drink milk there is absolutely no need for animal killing and no possibility of their diets being deficient in any way. One can survive simply by drinking milk. Milk is a complete food.

Protect Cows

Many of the problems we are now facing, including violence and wars, are a direct result of the massive cow killing now going on everywhere. We don’t connect it. It is karma. When we do something violent to another living entity that violence will come back on us in the future. It’s just like bouncing a ball on the ground… it will bounce back up again. Scientists can relate to the forces and natural principles at work in the bouncing ball but they cannot yet see the same forces acting on a more subtle level. But karma is the same law that causes the ball to bounce back up… it works with our actions as well as with balls!

Of course animals are less intelligent than people. They can’t defend themselves against us. But that doesn’t mean they have no rights. They are born into this world just like you and me and they have a right to live here also.

People Apathy

People just don’t think about it. Even when we are young, our mother always lovingly served us steak and potatoes and encouraged us to dine heartily on the carcass so we could “grow up big and strong.” And the TV adds and the billboards daily reinforce the conditioning that it’s “perfectly normal” to kill animals for food. So most never question it; they don’t make the connection between the seemingly innocent hamburger on their plate and the horror of the slaughterhouse. “Out of sight, out of mind.”

But the fact is, to satisfy our corrupted appetites, billions of animals are unnecessarily and brutally butchered every year. And year after year the inhumanity continues to be overlooked, and because of this our society is becoming more and more callous…and cruel.

Is it right that animals, fully sentient beings, are made to suffer simply because we “like the taste?” Has selfishness overcome our reason? We’ve got blood on our hands. It’s no wonder there is so much violence amongst the people of our society when they exhibit so much violence towards animals. “What goes around comes around.”

The Nectar of Immortality

Milk is compared to nectar, which one can drink to become immortal. Of course, simply drinking milk will not make one immortal, but it can increase the duration of one’s life. In modern civilisation milk is not thought of as being important, therefore people are not living very long.

Although in this age anyone can live up to one hundred years, the duration of life is reduced because people do not drink large quantities of milk. Instead of drinking milk, they prefer to slaughter an animal and eat it’s flesh.

The cow should be protected, milk should be drawn from the cows, and this milk should be prepared in various ways. One should take ample milk, and thus one can prolong one’s life and develop the finer tissues of the brain.

The Cow is Our Mother

The Vedic Scriptures refer to the cow as our mother When we stop taking milk from our mother the cow gladly takes over the role of supplying milk. For this reason the cow is our mother.

It is natures special arrangement that the cow provides milk to give nourishment to civilised people. The barbarians take blood by cutting the throat of a poor innocent animal, while civilised people drink milk which contains all of the nutritious qualities of meat without the necessity of violence.

We are now killing millions of our mothers every year in such a brutal way in enormous slaughterhouses. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation estimated that in 1984 229,249,000 cattle and calves were killed for meat production. This cow-killing is the most sinful activity and we are suffering in many ways as a result of the enormous burden of bad karma it generates.

The Misery of Cow-Killing

Ample food grains can be produced through agricultural enterprises, profuse milk, yogurt and ghee can be arranged through cow protection and abundant honey can be obtained if the forests are protected. Instead of a simple lifestyle modern civilisation is busy killing the cows that are the source of yogurt, milk and ghee; they are cutting down all the trees that supply honey and they are opening factories to manufacture nuts, bolts, automobiles and wine instead of engaging in agriculture. This is creating so many problems in the world

How can the people be happy? They must suffer from all the misery of materialism. Their bodies become wrinkled and gradually deteriorate until they become almost like dwarfs, and a bad odour emanates from them because of unclean perspiration resulting from eating all kinds of nasty things. This is not human civilisation.

Living Cows are an Economic Asset

It is quite clear that a living cow yields society more food than a dead one - in the form of a continuing supply of milk, cheese, butter, yogurt and other high-protein foods.

In 1971 Stewart Odend’hal of the University of Missouri conducted a detailed study of cows in Bengal and found that far from depriving humans of food. they ate only inedible remains of harvested crops (rice hulls, tops of sugarcane, etc.) and grass. “Basically”, he said, “the cattle convert items of little direct human value into products of immediate utility.” This should put to rest the myth that people are starving in India because they will not kill their cows. Interestingly enough, India seems to have surmounted her food problems, which have always had more to do with occasional severe drought or political upheaval than with sacred cows. A panel of experts at the Agency for International Development, in a statement cited in the United States Congressional Record for December 2nd. l980. concluded “India produces enough to feed all its people.”

If allowed to live, cows produce High quality, protein rich foods in amounts that stagger the imagination. It is abundantly clear that cows (living ones) are one of mankind’s, most valuable food resources.

Movements to save seals, dolphins and whales from slaughter are flourishing — so why shouldn’t there be a movement to save the cows?

Environmental Damage

Another price we pay for meat eating is degradation of the environment. The heavily contaminated run-off from thousands of slaughterhouses and feedlots is a major source of water pollution. In their book “Population, Resources and Environment”, Paul and Anne Ehrlich found that to grow one pound of wheat requires only 60 pounds of water, whereas production of a pound of meat requires anywhere from 2,500 to 6,000 pounds of water.

In 1973 the New York Post revealed that one large chicken slaughtering plant in America was found to be using 100 million gallons of water daily. The same volume would supply a city of 25,000 people!

Land Usage, Meat and War

A study published in “Plant Foods for Human Nutrition” reveals that an acre of beans or peas produces ten times more protein than an acre of pasture set aside for meat production.

Economic facts like this were known to the ancient Greeks In Plato’s Republic the great Greek philosopher Socrates recommended a vegetarian diet because it would allow a country to make the most intelligent use of its agricultural resources. He warned that if people began eating animals, there would be need for more pasturing land. “And the country which was enough to support the original inhabitants will be too small now, and not enough?”, he asked of Glaucon, who replied that this was indeed true “And so we shall go to war, Glaucon, shall we not?” To which Glaucon replied, “Most certainly.”

Nutrition Without Meat

Many times the mention of vegetarianism elicits the predictable reaction, “What about protein?” The ideas that meat has a monopoly on protein and that large amounts of protein are required for energy and strength are both myths.

Of the twenty-two amino acids, all but eight can be synthesised by the body itself, and these eight “essential amino acids” exist in abundance in nonflesh foods. Dairy products, grains, beans and nuts are all concentrated sources of protein. Cheese, peanuts and lentils, for instance, contain more protein per gram than hamburger, pork or porterhouse steak.

The primary energy source for the body is carbohydrates. Only as a last resort is the body’s protein utilised for energy production. Too much protein intake actually reduces the body’s energy capacity. In a series of comparative endurance tests conducted by Dr. Irving Flsher of Yale, vegetarians performed twice as well as meat-eaters. Numerous other studies have shown that a proper vegetarian diet provides more nutritional energy than meat. A study by Dr I. Iotekyo and V. Kilpani at Brussles University showed that vegetarians were able to perform physical tasks two to three times longer than meat-eaters before exhaustion and were recovered from fatigue in one fifth the time needed by the meat-eaters.

Health and Meat Eating

The human body cannot deal with excessive animal fats in the diet. As early as 1961, the Journal of the American Medical Association stated that ninety to ninety-seven percent of heart disease, the cause of more than half of the deaths in the United States, could be prevented by a vegetarian diet.

Many studies have established the relationship between colon cancer and meat eating. One reason for the incidence of cancer Is the high-fat, low-fiber content of the meat-centred diet. The result is a slow transit time through the colon, allowing toxic wastes to do their damage. Meat, while being digested, is known to generate steroid metabolites possessing carcinogenic properties.

Chemicals and Diseases in Meat

Numerous potentially hazardous chemicals, of which consumers are generally unaware, are present m meat and meat products. In their book, “Poisons In Your Body”, Garry and Steven Null give an inside look at the production techniques used by corporately owned animal producers , “The animals are kept alive and fattened by continuous administration of tranquillisers, horrnones, antibiotics and 2,700 other drugs,” they write, “the process starts even before birth and continues long after death. Although these drugs will still be present in the meat when you eat it, the law does not require that they be listed on the package.”

Because of the filthy, overcrowded conditions forced upon animals by the livestock industry, vast amounts of antibiotics must be used, but such rampant use of antibiotics naturally creates antibiotic-resistant bacteria that are passed on to those who eat the meat. The US FDA estimate that penicillin and tetracycline save the meat industry $1.9 billion a year giving them sufficient reason to overlook the potential health hazards. In addition to dangerous chemicals, meat often carries diseases from the animals themselves.

Crammed together in unclean conditions, force-fed and inhumanely treated, animals destined for slaughter contract many more diseases than they ordinarily would. Meat inspectors attempt to filter out unacceptable meats, but because of pressures from industry and lack of sufficient time for examination, much of what passes is far less wholesome than the meat purchaser realizes.

The Hidden Cost of Meat

According to information compiled by the United States Department of Agriculture, over ninety percent of all the grain produced in America is used for feeding livestock — cows. pigs, lambs and chickens — that wind up on dinner tables

The process of using grain to produce meat is incredibly wasteful. Information from the USDA’s Economic Research Service shows that only one pound of beef is produced for every sixteen pounds of grain consumed.

In his book “Proteins: Their Chemistry and Politics,” Dr. Aaron Altshul notes that, “In terms of calorie units per acre, a diet of grains, vegetables and beans will support twenty times more people than a diet of meat.

If the earth’s arable land were used primarily for the production of vegetarian foods, the planet could easily support a population of twenty billion and more.

In a report submitted to the United Nations World Food Conference (Rome, 1974), Rene Durmont, an agricultural economist at France’s National Agricultural Institute, made this judgement , “The over consumption of meat by the rich means hunger for the poor.”

Category:Contemporary Issues

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The Americanisation of India is creating havoc in the social and cultural fabric of the country. Slumdog is a recent attempt Hinduism has given refuge throughout the ages to those who were persecuted at home: the Christians of Syria, the Parsees, Armenians, the Jews of Jerusalem, and today the Tibetans, allowing them all to practice their religion freely

WHY did a film like Slumdog Millionaire, which conveys an utterly negative image of India — slums, exploitation, poverty, corruption, anti Muslim pogroms — create so many waves in the West, pre and post Oscars? And why does not the Indian government protest, as the Chinese would indeed have, for a twisted and perverted portrayal of its own reality?

There are several answers: When the missionaries began to evangelise India, they quickly realised that Hinduism was not only practised by a huge majority, but that it was so deeply rooted that it stood as the only barrier to their subjugating the entire subcontinent. They therefore decided to demonise the religion, by multiplying what they perceived as its faults, by one hundred: caste, poverty, child marriage, superstition, widows, sati … Today, these exaggerations, which at best are based on quarter-truths, have come down to us and have been embedded not only in the minds of many Westerners, but also unfortunately, of much of India’s intelligentsia.

We Westerners continue to suffer from a superiority complex over the so called Third World in general and India in particular. Sitting in front of our television sets during prime time news, with a hefty steak on our table, we love to feel sorry for the misery of others, it secretly flatters our ego and makes us proud of our so-called ‘achievements’. That is why books such as The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre, which gives the impression that India is a vast slum, or a film like Slumdog Millionaire, have such an impact.

In this film, India’s foes have joined hands. Today, billions of dollars that innocent Westerners give to charity are used to convert the poorest of India with the help of enticements such as free medical aid, schooling and loans. If you see the Tamil Nadu coast posttsunami, there is a church every 500 metres. Once converted, these new Christians are taught that it is a sin to enter a temple, do puja, or even put tilak on one’s head, thus creating an imbalance in the Indian psyche (In an interview to a British newspaper, Danny Boyle confessed he wanted to be a Christian missionary when he was young and that he is still very much guided by these ideals — so much for his impartiality).

Islamic fundamentalism also ruth lessly hounds India, as demonstrated by the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai, which are reminiscent of the brutality and savagery of a Timur, who killed 1,00,000 Hindus in a single act of savagery. Indian communists, in power in three states, are also hard at work to dismantle India’s cultural and spiritual inheritance. And finally, the Americanisation of India is creating havoc in the social and cultural fabric with its superficial glitter, even though it has proved a failure in the West. Slumdog plays cleverly with all these elements.

Many of the West’s India-specialists are staunchly anti-Hindu, both because of their Christian upbringing and also as they perpetuate the tradition of Max Mueller, the first ‘Sankritist’ who said: “The Vedas is full of childish, silly, even monstrous conceptions. It is tedious, low, commonplace, it represents human nature on a low level of selfishness and worldliness and only here and there are a few rare sentiments that come from the depths of the soul”.

This tradition is carried over by Indologists such as Witzel or Wendy Doniger in the US, and in France where scholars of the state-sponsored CNRS, and its affiliates such as EHESS, are always putting across in their books and articles detrimental images of India: caste, poverty, slums — and more than anything — their pet theories about ‘Hindu fundamentalism’. Can there be a more blatant lie? Hinduism has given refuge throughout the ages to those who were persecuted at home: the Christians of Syria, the Parsees, Armenians, the Jews of Jerusalem, and today the Tibetans, allowing them all to practise their religion freely.

And finally, it is true that Indians, because they have been colonised for so long (unlike the Chinese) lack nationalism. Today much of the intellectual elite of India has lost touch with its cultural roots and looks to the West to solve its problems, ignoring its own tools, such as pranayama, hata-yoga or meditation, which are very old and possess infinite wisdom.

Slumdog literally defecates on India from the first frame. Some scenes exist only in the perverted imagery of director Danny Boyle, because they are not in the book of Vikas Swarup, an Indian diplomat, on which the film is based. In the book, the hero of the film (who is not Muslim, but belongs to many religions: Ram Mohammad Thomas) does not spend his childhood in Bombay, but in a Catholic orphanage in Delhi. Jamal’s mother is not killed by “Hindu fanatics’, but she abandons her baby, of unknown religion, in a church. Jamal’s torture is not an idea of the television presenter, but of an American who is after the Russian who bought the television rights of the game. The tearful scene of the three children abandoned in the rain is also not in the book: Jamal and his heroine
only meet when they are teenagers and they live in an apartment and not in a slum.

And finally, yes, there still exists in India a lot of poverty and glaring gaps between the very rich and the extremely poor, but there is also immense wealth, both physical, spiritual and cultural — much more than in the West as a matter of fact.

When will the West learn to look with less prejudice at India, a country that will supplant China in this century as the main Asian power? But this will require a new generation of Indologists, more sincere, less attached to their outdated Christian values, and Indians more proud of their own culture and less subservient to the West.

- Francois Gautier

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Crimes Against India  And The Need to Protect its Ancient Vedic Tradition
by Stephen Knapp

This is an extremely revealing and important book for protecting, preserving, and promoting the profound and ancient Vedic tradition of India. India is a most resilient country, and is presently becoming a great economic power in the world. It also has one of the oldest and dynamic cultures the world has ever known, but few people seem to understand the many trials and difficulties that the country has faced, or the present problems India is still forced to deal with in preserving the culture of the majority Hindus who live in the country. This is described in the real history of the country, which a decreasing number of people seem to recall.

Therefore, this book is to honor the efforts that have been shown by those in the past who fought and worked to protect India and its culture, and to help preserve India as the homeland of a living and dynamic Vedic tradition of Sanatana-dharma (the eternal path of duty, wisdom, and spiritual development).

There are also many people who do not know of the many angles and ways in which this profound heritage is being attacked and threatened today, and what we can do about it. There is much to do to protect this culture, and until we are aware of how it has been assaulted in the past, and how it is threatened in the present, we will not have the motivation to take a stand and defend it for its future.

Therefore, we should carefully understand:

·        How there is presently a war against Hinduism and its yoga culture.

·        The weaknesses of India that allowed invaders to conquer her.

·        Lessons from India’s real history that should not be forgotten.

·        The atrocities committed by the Muslim invaders, and how they tried to destroy Vedic culture and its many temples, and slaughtered thousands of Indian Hindus.

·        How the British viciously exploited India and its people for its resources.

·        How the cruelest of all Christian Inquisitions in Goa tortured and killed thousands of Hindus.

·        Action plans for preserving and strengthening Vedic India today.

·        How all Hindus and concerned people must stand up and be strong for protecting the universal spiritual traditions of Vedic culture.

In the darkest of eras that this world has seen and will see in the future, the Vedic tradition, the culture of yoga, will remain India’s gift to the people who inhabit this planet. It is this spiritual culture of Sanatana-dharma that remains the spiritual guide of humanity. This is the reason why India is here, and for the contribution that she makes, and the reason why we must work to protect it.

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