.GOD DOES NOT PLAY DICE

 These are the famous words of Albert Einstein. It meant that there was no gambling in the setting up of the cosmos and that all the happenings followed a design and that there was no disorder.

 Thus all the happenings in the sky including the suns shine and the moons  glow or the stars twinkle and more elaborately the life on earth or the dead planets or the gay comets are a plan of the grand design. It thus provides no flexibility and coming to us human beings- the way we think or behave or act has nothing to do with our degree of intelligence or stupidity.

 This also means that all the randomness you see and perceive are not random but originate in a design. It further would mean that you do not have any control over your destiny and that everything is predetermined. You have come to this world with a preconceived fabric and there is no free will. Further you have entered this set up and even God may not have much time to change anything in the scheme of things.

 The greatest ever short story comes to my mind of a servant asking his landlord for a horse so that he could gallop away to another city and escape the wrath of ‘The Lord of Death’ who had seen him in the bazaar that afternoon. Thereupon he flees to the next city only to find the demon funnily asking him ‘I had seen you couple of hours in the other city and I was wondering how you would be here in time!’

 The existence of God has been debated by scientists a lot. Whose business it may have been to trigger the beginning of this cosmos, probably the closest argument is through a Big Bang, according to the theory of astrophysicists. Surprisingly scientists even consider Albert Einstein to have believed in the existence of a divine power as some of his statements point out.

ABOUT OUR FORM

 Why do we look the way we are?

 I am speaking to you about the human form. Evolution as you know tells us a lot about why and how we gained this present form. The most intelligent creature on Earth needs to acquire the compatibility with a head having all perception organs fitted above a strong shoulder line with arms that can momentum and make you walk comfortably on your legs. In between you have a frame that encloses a complex body system that encompasses all the gadgetry required to run and support the form.

 Aquatic life in the sea has innumerable forms not always conceived to adapt to the liquid that surrounds. The several forms of the fish cannot be compared to the form of a seahorse or an octopus. On the surface of the earth we have monkeys that can move faster, dogs who can sniff better. Carnivorous animals have stronger teeth and some others can focus in the night better. This is all a matter of adaptability.

 One day we could mutate ourselves and achieve all those powerful senses. May be the evolvement would take 10000 yrs. This could be better thought by analysing a more intelligent life in space , more older and intelligent than us, in the form of aliens.

 Aliens have been imagined to have a bigger head size, longer stretchable arms and thinner lower limbs with extraordinary perception organs by fantasy and fiction writers as well as by scientists.

 I have always defied this logic that aliens would have similar but more evolved features. We may simply not recognise them because of this notion. They could be more abstract and our normal thinking process as they may have evolved over entirely different parameters. Imagine the form of a spongy boulder with entire body being able to see, listen, sniff, taste and smell. How does this form move? It has to have a very flexible muscle building inherent characteristic that can stretch out and take the form of two legs while running, four legs while walking or assume the form of a caterpillar while treading. This form could fly to a certain extent. It needs to be delved into as to how its metabolic, nervous and blood systems needed and worked. We don’t need the tonsils, we shed away our tail. We could evolve better system may be in a different body form.

ABSURD  SUNSETS AND MOONRISES

 In Isaac Asimov’s landmark book ‘Nightfall’ there is a night coming up on a planet perennially lit bright by the sky by six suns for two millenniums. There could have been any number of moonrises and moonsets on the first night on that planet. What a sight they may have missed all the nights. Contrarily it has never occurred to the inhabitants of the planet how they would spend that horrifying night.

 However that is not the topic. In the cosmic set up of things the above sight is not rare. In fact we could see why such many more permutations and combinations are not possible. For us living on the Earth with one sun and one moon and a background of the Orion Arm of the Milky Way and stars around in the night sky this imagination is not the end. In reality it brings many more possibilities we had never thought off. We have in fact very closely lost on having another sun in the form of Jupiter which could have become another star had it gained some more matter when the solar system was being formed. It would have started glowing into another dim star with interesting combinations of sunrises and sunsets to our very own earth. In what way life could have evolved is another matter to meditate and ponder?

 Now, thinking of such a phenomena and their effect on our day to day life. Darkness purges lots of metabolic activity in our physical being according to biologists. It could be very emotional like Asimov and Silverberg describe the night that befalls after a long period of two millennium of light. How to litup has never occurred to the inhabitants of ‘Kalgash’ and they face tremendous mind upheaval on account of the dark. Even the stars glittering in the night sky stimulates the deepest of horrors. The importance of flames that bring heat and light never bothers them once there is daybreak after the tumultuous night. All this may sound amusing but it could nevertheless be a reality on some other planet if there could be one with life. 

BHAGWADGITA AND ASTRONOMY

The Bhagwatgita (estimated to be over 5000yrs old) has shlokas (verses) on Brahma(the creator) creating the cosmos and with every opening and closing of his eyelids a yuga (an era) consisting of Satyayuga, Tretayuga, Dwaparyuga and Kaliyuga all together with a cycle of more than 17000 yrs begins and ends. Brahma would do this for 100 yrs equivalent to some 8 billion years. This is how significantly calculations were then denoted. More importantly the age of the cosmos as derived by modern day mathematicians and astronomers to have which kick-started with a Big Bang some 13.4 billion yrs earlier is quite close to available mathematics in those days.

 The Ramayana describes Hanuman as taking millions of flights to the north in reference to flying to mount Meru to fetch a herb for the ailing Laxmana, Ram’s (the epics hero) brother. Further description has Hanuman having leapt into the sky and vanished into a spec and left the speed of mind behind. This is how you can travel in space today.

 These and such references in the Bhagwatgita and Ramayana are born in astronomy. Some of recent day saints refer to the characters of the Gita and Ramayana to have been aliens with weird faces like Ravana having 9 heads, the three pronged face of the Brihma , Vishnu and Mahesh or the  monkey  like face of Hanuman seem not belonging to humans. But to imagine them to be aliens and create analogies of them having invaded the earth and created all these epics is amazing. This is like the Devas (gods) having descended from the planet Swarg (or heaven) and Asuras (demons) having lofted themselves from a planet called Nark (hell) to Earth and fought wars here is a fantasy that could stir one’s mind into deep azure thoughts.

THE FOURTH DIMENSION

 You get on a high when you have achieved something out of the ordinary. That feeling of being blessed is attained when what you have always wanted to achieve like winning an Olympic medal or a prize like the Noble.

 When you go beyond the ordinary state of conventional wisdom and achieve spiritually high values like sainthood you enter a new dimension.

 It is not likely that you could achieve above in the fourth dimension. The fourth dimension is a technical dimension that crosses the path of the three dimensional cube having length, breadth and depth. This could have very serious repercussions on the sensory organs and you could see, hear, taste, touch and smell differently eg you could see in the ultraviolet and infrared ranges of the spectrum as the life on another planets requirement could be. Similarly you could hear at more decibel level . Also the letters you read, the kind of form you have (it could be a vague mass like a sack with tentacles). You could perform an operation by simply pocking your fingers through your abdomen and making subtle adjustments in your intestines. Emotionally  minds of two people would  never meet. There are umpteen possibilities.

 Mathematicians believe we are not able to perceive as many as 13 dimensions since we are not designed to receive. It is also true that we need to think differently like the zens (part of Buddhism) to elevate our minds to see more and beyond.

THE HISTORY OF GOD, CIVILIZATION AND ASTRONOMY

 Whenever we refer to God we refer to the religious God of the Hindus, Muslims, Christians or Buddhists or many other religions and various other forms of God.

 That is not the topic here. Here we are speaking of the history of the Gods, Our Civilization and the history of Astronomy.

 Hinduism was probably started over 3000yrs ago. Islamic activities merged with other followings more than 1700 yrs before. The Christian calendar started 2014 yrs before and more is evident BC. We can say something about the Mayan calendar and more about Chinese Confucianism and its history and relate them to about a few thousand years. Overall it can be concluded that God in his form may have existed for about 5000 years whatever the faith.

 Now let us talk about civilization. We could go back to the Stone age, the Bronze age and the Iron age and go back in time by about 50000 yrs. Colonization began about 40000yrs ago. Cultures started thriving about 32000 yrs before. Domestication of cattle including dogs, pigs began about 20000 yrs ago. Cultivation began about 10000 yrs ago. Writing was invented about 5000 yrs before. Dynasties grew, kingdoms began and then religions spread. Civilization thus has a history of 50000 yrs.

  According to the Big Bang theory the cosmos was born 13.4 billion yrs ago. Humans created all about God and mythology hardly dating back to few thousand yrs. That the sun spreads light and keeps the earth going is a fact. That the tilt to the earth’s axis creates the seasons is a fact that fosters harvest is a reality. So the nature knows the happenings taking place for billions of years more than any of God or civilization and the energy it spreads kindles every iota. Let us celebrate the truth.

AS MANY FACES

 

 No two human beings match in any way including their features and their minds (this is including identical twins). There are as many faces on earth as as many nationalities, colour, caste, creed, hemispheres, males and females and more than genders, height, the size of their noses to the colour of their eyes or the spread of their ears notwithstanding the stretch of their limbs. How difficult it would have been if we had all looked the same. Nature has made things adapt in such a way that things are made simpler. Look at the minds. Whatever similar the design of the brain holds there are no two likeminded people. The small changes, you could say aberrations, are reflected in their behavioural pattern and the views they carry with them and describe themselves as the self. In spite of all there is still an order. There is a language that unites; there is a thinking that keeps people together. There is a society that is comprehensible. There is a set of laws that keeps the world going.

 Similarly if we look in the skies no two objects are alike. They have widely different features and their situational/positional or the ways they move in patterns do not match in any way. The Venus and Earth may have similar dimensions to the extent that they may be called sisters but then the similarity ends there. They have vastly different features and widely different characteristics. Whereas one bears humanity the other is hell where there are no chances that life could thrive. There are billions of stars in the galaxy alone(2.5 in the Milky Way) but no two stars match in their size, luminosity and have colours according to their age. There are characters like quasars and white dwarfs and pulsars so different from other heavenly bodies.

  In spite of all the differences the galactic patterns and the cosmic objects have an order in the way the planets move around the stars in the way the stars move in their galaxies. It is not that they are made to clash together and end themselves up. The order is set in motion so that all survive in spite of the fact that we have an expanding cosmos.

THE WORLD OF DARK

 

 We have always believed to belong to the lit world although we have nights. It is the Sun who is spreading all the energy and making life possible. The planets are all spheres revolving around the Sun in fixed orbits. Only half of all these planets surfaces or their moons are bathed in light and their other halves remain in dark.

 We have always lived in a world of light. The light gets us out of the dark (to this is attached all the positivity negligence ignorance and intelligence). The light fawns and fosters all the worldly things

 We have seen planets with many Suns and how there could only be survival because of the light. But is it possible that there are darker worlds. It could mean that there are no Suns illuminating the planet and hence even no moons, an all pervading dark. The demons are believed to have lived in a dark in ancient mythology and have fought with the Gods perennially.

 How would people live in the dark look? What would they eat? How would they move about in the dark. All these questions are a matter of thought. Some of the answers to the question look quite pertinent eg what do they eat probably moss, fungus and what grows in the dark. Next what sort of world could be possible? Do they live in habitats or in the open? What sort of temperatures possible. Probably extremely lower sides so their bodies may have fur etc

 There are blind parlours which take you into the world of blind people. Here you are escorted by a member who has his arm on your shoulder and takes you on this blind tour. You are taken into the darkest of the places and the next thing that could happen is you would fall into the dark abyss. It is hard to imagine a blind man’s world. But gradually you are subjected to a horde of things. You here different conversations among people and you realise you are on a street, next on a railway station, then in a market etc .After this somebody crosses your path and this you realise when his body brushes yours and you utter ‘hello’ and suddenly start realising your sense of touch and speech.  Then the guide will make you eat something he has packed with him. The experience of eating blind is exhilarating and can take you to more dimensions and you realise that in a world with sight you may have more distractions. Gradually you are in a wider world of the senses and you start adjusting to be a blind when the guide escorts you to a ray of light gradually bringing you back to your world of sight.

THE REALIZATIONS OF TRUTH FROM THE UPANISHADS- CALLED ANUBHUTIS

 The Upanishads are a source of vast knowledge. There are very few known authors but then not much is known about them too and their lives and times have not been detailed except for their propagated knowledge about the purpose of our life and the absolute truth.The main (Mukhya) Upanishads were written dating back about 3000 yrs (600-1000 BCE).The Upanishads were continued to be written until the early 20^th century and now number about 200. They have been classified into four Vedas The Rigveda, Yajurveda, Atharaveda and Samveda. Muni Vyas in the Bhagwatgita has summarised all the Vedic knowledge. He has further simplified and brought about the essence in the second chapter of the Bhagvatgita in Sankhyayog. However as you learn the Sankhyayog and then the Bhagvatgita and the Vedas and then the Upanishads we gradually come to realize the knowledge of the Brahman.

 In the Mundaka Upanishad there is a question asked by a pupil (Saunaka) to a teacher(Angiras)

What is that, which being known, everything else is known?

The answer to this question is ‘Brahman’ which in short is knowing the ‘Self’.

 The Upanishads prescribe the mode of attaining the knowledge practising and reaching the realized stage through renunciation.

The Upanishads give several examples called Anubhutis to simplify a Verse or a Mantra. By reading these we will get to know the kind of abundant knowledge these Upanishads store.

 These columns intend to convey some of these Anubhutis:

From Swami Vivekananda discourses from the Mundaka Upanishad:

KARMA CHAKRA-SPHERE

 People who seek celestial enjoyment reach these blessings- they die they go through Sun’s rays to heavens-very beautiful places-there acquire fine godly bodies-enjoy blessings of heaven for a long time-the old Karma strikes back-and here they come back to earth-through spheres of air and clouds and others-reach through raindrops-attach themselves to cereal-fit man eats-to make a new body-another chance to perfect them.

 

THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND

 Have you seen god?

Have you seen Atman?

If you have not seen why are you preaching his name?

You walking in darkness trying to lead me in darkness

Realization is the only truth-the only religion

We would then only stop groping in darkness

Words of love will then come out of the heart

 

TO EXPLAIN CAUSE AND EFFECT AS THE SAME

 Cause is never different; the effect is but the cause in another form

Glass is produced out of certain materials and certain forces

The forces used have become the forces of adhesion and if these go the glass will fall to pieces

The materials are there in the glass, only their form has changed

 

MEN, WOMEN, ANIMALS ARE BUT REFLECTIONS UPON NATURE

How can there be so many souls?

The Sun reflected from millions of globules of water appear to be millions of Sun’s and in each globule is a miniature picture of the Sun form.

In the same way all the souls are reflections and not real.

They are not the real I which is the god of the universe the undivided being.

The rest is illusory reflection.

 

THE ENTIRE VEDANTA IS EMBODIED IN THIS STORY

 There is a tree. A bird is sitting on the top and the other is below. The bird on top is calm, silent, majestic, immersed in his own glory. The bird on the lower branches is eating sweet and bitter fruits is happy and miserable by turns.

 After some time the lower bird gets an exceptionally bitter fruit and gets disgusted and looks up and sees the bird on top the wondrous one of golden plumage who eats no fruit. The lower bird thinks ‘Oh! How i wish i would be like him’ and hops towards him.

 Soon he forgets and his desires take over him and he again begins to eat the fruits.

 After a while he again eats an exceptionally bitter fruit which makes him feel miserable and he again looks up and tries to get nearer to the upper bird. And so on until he comes very near to the beautiful bird. He sees the reflection of light from the upper bird’s plumage around his own body. Still nearer he comes and everything around melts away and at last understands the wonderful change.

The lower bird as it were only the shadow the reflection of the higher. He himself was in essence the upper bird all the time.

 The upper bird is God the Lord of the Universe and the lower bird is the human source.  

 

MAYA

WE LIVE A LIFE OF ONE HYPNOTIC STATE TO ANOTHER IN A TRANCE THROWING A NET OVER THE AUDIENCE LIKE IN THE GREAT INDIAN ROPE TRICK

 They take a rope or a chain and throw it in the sky-and it becomes firm-as if it were stuck to something-then they let a cat climb up a rope-then a dog, a wolf, tiger and then a lion. All walk up the chain and vanish. Two men will go up and begin a fight-then a head a hand and a foot fall.

 In this hypnotic trance if you go beyond the limit and come too close to the hypnotist you do not see this magic. The man who is playing does not see anything.

 Crawl nearer and nearer to the hypnotist and you will be free.

 

MIRAGE

 It took me about a month to travel through that arid country as i was walking. Everyday i saw such beautiful lakes and the shadows of trees on the shores of those lakes and the whole thing was quivering on the breeze. I saw birds and animals. Everyday i saw this and thought what a beautiful country it was!

 One day i was very thirsty and i thought i would drink a little water at the lake. When i went near the place the lake disappeared.

In a flash it dawned on me that this is the Mirage about which i had read. From then on i was never deceived.

FROM ISA UPANISHAD

From Shukla Yajurveda-believed to be ritualistic but really not-

 

ON CHANGE IN THIS UNCHANGING WORLD

It is like a movie projected on a screen. The movie changes but the screen is constant. Similarly the phenomenal world is projected on the lord.

 

TO SHOW IT IS A SUPERIMPOSITION-About change

It is like seeing a snake superimposed on a rope in a dark night. The snake has no independent existence. It exists because of the rope and it ceases to exist as soon as a light is brought. The snake then dissolves into the rope. In the same way, when you know Brahman, the world merges into it and you realise that you and Brahman are one and the same.

 

THINGS ARE TEMPORARY NOT PERMANENT

Take for example a piece of sandalwood which has long been under water and thereby has come to acquire bad odour. For a while the fragrance of the sandalwood is suppressed and the bad odour prevails. But when the sandalwood is rubbed a little the bad odour disappears and the natural fragrance becomes predominant/comes to the fore. Similarly your attachment to the world is temporary.

 

TO DESCRIBE THE ATTRIBUTES OF BRAHMAN

In one aspect it is without attributes (Nirguna). In another it is without attributes (Saguna). This is like a child wearing a mask. The attributes are mere superimposition. They cannot affect Brahman.

 

BRAHMAN NEVER MOVES NEVER CHANGES

Sometimes we see the moon move behind some clouds, but actually the moon does not move. It is the clouds that are moving. In the same way, Brahman, is always the same. It is never born, it never dies. We wear a new coat and when it gets old and torn we throw it away. This is the relationship the coat has with the body. The same relationship the body has with the self.

TO EXPLAIN SAMADARSHITA- SAME SIGHTEDNESS

Essentially we all are one. We differ only in names and forms. A boy may try to fool his friends by wearing different masks. First he wears the mask of a tiger and behaves like a tiger. Most of the friends are frightened. The next moment he wears the mask of a monkey and jumps about like a real monkey. This time his friends are amused. This goes on for a while, but finally the boy puts aside the mask and appears as he is. We are all one and the same: Brahman.

 

SELF IN THE PHENOMENOL WORLD

It is like a lamp. A lamp gives light without which nothing, good or bad, can be seen. But the lamp is not affected by whatever way the light is used. The position of the self vis-a-vis the phenomenal world is like that.

 

ON DUALISM

The ideal is to have a mind that accepts the whole world as its own- a mind that is as broad as the sky. It should be pure bright, free and all embracing

 

ON THE SELF

Self is purely a witness, not involved in any part of the phenomenal world, yet the phenomenal world goes on only because of the self. It is like a lamp. A lamp gives light without which nothing, good or bad, can be seen. But the lamp is not affected by whatever way the light is used

 

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MANIFESTED AND UNMANIFESTED

The seed of the banyan tree. The seed was always there.

THE FOLLOWING ARE PASSAGES FROM THE GRAND DESIGN BY STEPHEN HAWKING

Prescribed to put light of how the west thinks about MAYA-illusion

Alternative reality in the film ‘Matrix’ in which the human race is living in a virtual reality created by intelligent computers to keep them pacified and content while the computers suck their bioelectrical energy.

 Many prefer to spend their time in the simulated reality of websites such as second life. How do we not know we are just characters in a computer generated soap opera?

 Or in an overlap over our lives is there an alien controlling our lives. Meaning we are figments of someone else’s dream.

Examples of how baffling relativity is leading us to believe we live in a imaginary world:

Example: A ball bouncing on a jet plane:

To an observer in the jet plane there will be zero distance. But to one observing from the ground the plane would have shifted to a large distance. Thus the two observers would not agree to the two events. This is a relative movement.

Example: Two observers moving at a clock

To an observer at rest the clock moves faster while to an observer moving the clock moves slower.

Similarly pulses of tail light to observer in the plane and at ground.

 

In Italy pets were barred from owners from keeping Gold Fish in curved Gold Fish bowls. Argument, gazing out the fish would have a distorted view of reality.

Might not we be made inside some big Gold Fish bowl and hence our vision distorted by an enormous lens.

AN OVERVIEW OF THE GRAND DESIGN

In his the Grand Design Stephen Hawking has reviewed the (entire) history of Physics and its development from Ptolemi to Einstein and from Richard Feynman’s diagrams to John Lonway’s world of Game of Life. There has been revolutionary progress over time and observations have been converted to laws and then expanded over 100’s of years. From Newton’s laws to the Theory of Quantum Mechanics and to the String Theory new ideas have evolved and new inputs have been incorporated, but the quest of physicists to evolve ‘a grand theory of everything’ has eluded like a mirage. The more they come nearer the farther it gets.

Finally the book concludes that the new hope would be the MTheory (where M could stand for Miracle, Mystery or Master) with 10raised to 500 universes each with different laws and 10 dimensions in space.

LUCK AND COINCIDENCE

The parameters of formation of the universe are very rare. The size of the earth, the temperature, the tilt of the earth’s axis making seasons possible, the intensity of our sun, the goldilocks zone(the location of the earth in the Milky Way

The process of condensation of carbon, hydrogen and helium has happened over billions of years. All these are very fine tuned. It will make you ask “Was the earth created by a benevolent creator?”

The earth’s surface being almost circular and revolves almost perfectly around the sun (no eccentricity).

Newton said the habitation did not arise out of chaos by the mere laws of nature in fact created and conserved by God to this day in the same state and condition.