Knowledge from Ancient world
It’s been suggested, at various times, that ancient humans had knowledge and use of unseen powers, forces and energy fields.What evidence exists?
Indian tale:
Once upon a time, there lived a wealthy merchant named Jveernadhana, in a village. He ran a big business. His village was situated near a river. Once, due to heavy rains the river was flooded. One night, the whole village was submerged in neck deep water. The crop, houses and factories in the village were destroyed and hundreds of people and cattle perished in the flood.
The merchant had to suffer heavy losses in his business. He decided to shift to some other town to try his luck. His plan was to earn a lot of money and then come back to his native village to start his business again.
Jveernadhana had a heavy iron balance lying with him. It belonged to his ancestors. It was not possible for him to carry such a heavy thing along with him. So, before starting on his journey, he decided to keep this ancestral item with his friend Janak. He met Janak and requested him, "My friend, as you know, I'm leaving for some distant place to earn money, so that I could start my business once again when I come back. I have an old iron balance with me. Will you please keep it safe with you till I return?"
Janak readily agreed to his friend's request and said, "Don't worry, I'll keep it safe for you. You can take it back after you return home."
Jveernadhana thanked Janak for his helping attitude. He kept the iron balance with Janak and left for some other distant town.
A few years passed by. By this time, Jveernadhana had done good business and had earned a lot of money. He returned to his native village, and went to his friend Janak's house to meet him. Janak showed his happiness in meeting Jveernadhana. Both the friends talked together for hours. When it was time to leave, Jveernadhana asked his friend to return his iron balance. At this, Janak looked sad and said, "Friend, I am sorry to say that I don't have your balance with me anymore. There are a lot of mice in my house. They ate up your balance."
Jveernadhana was surprised to hear Janak's explanation. 'How can mice eat iron,' he thought to himself, but apparently he said something different, "Don't feel sorry, Janak. The mice have always proved a menace to everyone. Let us forget about it."
"Yes," Janak said. "This is the only way out." He was happy that Jveernadhana believed his words. In fact he had expected a lot of heated arguments in this respect.
While taking leave from his friend, Jveernadhana said to Janak,"I'm going to temple to make an offering of laddoos. Could you please send your son with me. I would like to send some laddoos for you also. He would also look after my shoes outside the temple while I offer prayers inside."
Janak asked his son to go along with Jveernadhana. Then, Jveernadhana, instead, of taking Janak's son to temple, took him to a nearby hill and tied him with a big rock and came back home.
When Janak didn't see his son return, he asked Jveernadhana where his son was?
"I'm sorry," said Jveernadhana. "While your son was looking after my shoes outside the temple, a big vulture swooped down upon him and carried him away."
"What nonsense!" shouted Janak. "How can a vulture carry off a young boy?" But Jveernadhana repeatedly claimed that a vulture carried away Janak's son. The argument reached such a point that they began quarrelling with each other, using dirty words.
Ultimately the matter had to be taken to the court. The Judge listened to both the parties and ordered Jveernadhana to bring Janak's son to the court, otherwise, he would be sent to jail.
"My Lord", said Jveernadhana, "How can I, when a vulture has already carried away the boy."
"Shut up!" the judge reprimanded Jveernadhana. "How can a bird carry away a young boy in his talons?"
"It can, my lord," said Jveernadhana. "If mice can eat my iron balance, why can't a bird carry away a grown up boy." Then he narrated the whole story to the judge.
The judge then asked Janak to tell the truth. He warned him that if he didn't tell the truth he would be sent to prison. At last, Janak admitted his guilt. The judge ordered him to return the iron balance to Jveernadhana. He asked Jveernadhana to return the boy to Janak.
31/12/2016
Happy New year 2017:)
31/12/2016
#3 Indian Tale:
Moral: When someone offers you something that is too good to be true, don't be carried away by it - Think and analyse.
There was a learned Brahmin, who lived in the outskirts of a city, with his wife called Shandili. They were a happy couple but they were poor.
One morning, the Brahmin said to his wife, "Tomorrow is an auspicious day, there is a special festival. It will be a favourable time for alms. I shall visit the city, and I am sure to collect a lot of alms tomorrow to last us long." He continued, "At the same time, you must also invite a Brahmin, and provide him food and clothes. It is an auspicious day, and it will be a good deed." When the wife heard this, she said, "How come you say this? I cannot invite any Brahmin as we are already very poor. We have neither good food, nor good clothes. I cannot afford to invite any Brahmin!"
But the Brahmin explained, "Dear wife, even when we have a mouthful to eat, we must share half of it with someone in need."
After much convincing, the Brahmani agreed, "I have some sesame seeds. I will clean and remove their husks, and cook a tasty dish for a Brahmin."
The next morning, the Brahmin left for the city as planned. After he was gone, his wife cleaned the sesame seeds in warm water, and carefully removed their husks. She then put the sesame seeds outside in the sun to dry. Meanwhile, she started doing her household chores.
During this time, a dog came and dirtied the sesame seeds. The Brahmani saw it, and immediately shooed the dog away.
She thought, "Fate has undone my efforts. But these sesame seeds are all that I have. So, I will play a trick with the neighbour. I will offer to exchange these cleaned, un-husked sesame seeds with some husked sesame seeds. They will not suspect, and fall for the offer." She went to her neighbour and proposed an exchange. The lady of the house was overwhelmed. It takes a lot if time to clean and remove the husks of the sesame seed. She found the offer very attractive, and offered some more sesame seeds in return. As they were in the middle of the exchange, the neighbour's son came out. He said, "Mother! Who would exchange cleaned sesame seeds with unclean ones? There must be some reason that she offers such lucrative offer. Please do not accept the exchange."
When the lady heard her son's advice, she turned the offer down politely.
When Shandili realized that she had failed to play the trick on her neighbour, she returned home.
The wise indeed say:
When someone offers you something that is too good to be true, don't be carried away by it - Think and analyse.
Wisdom From Bible #2
Moral: Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future.
The Wise and Foolish Builder
“’Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.’” Matthew 7:24-27 ESV
Wisdom is listening to what Jesus says and then doing it. In this teaching, Jesus tells his followers that a wise man builds his house on the rock or a strong foundation. There are many places in the Bible where Jesus is called this rock, the foundation of our faith. When we walk in relationship with Jesus he will guide us in knowledge and understanding to build our lives on the strong foundation of his wisdom. Use this story to encourage your child to be always listening to Jesus and those he has put as trusted leaders in their lives. When we follow Jesus and his ways, we walk in wisdom and point others to his truth.
Related verse: Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future. Proverbs 19:20
Indian Tale #1
Moral: One, who interferes in other's work, surely comes to grief.
There was once a merchant who employed many carpenters and masons to build a temple in his garden. Regularly, they would start work in the morning
One day, a group of monkey arrived at the site of the building and watched the workers leaving for their mid-day meals.
One of the carpenters was sawing a huge log of wood. Since, it was only half-done; he placed a wedge in between to prevent the log from closing up. He then went off along with the other workers for his meal. When all the workers were gone, the monkeys came down from the trees and started jumping around the site, and playing with the instruments
There was one monkey, who got curious about the wedge placed between the log. He sat down on the log, and having placed himself in between the half-split log, caught hold of the wedge and started pulling at it. All of a sudden, the wedge came out. As a result, the half-split log closed in and the monkey got caught in the gap of the log. As was his destiny, he was severely wounded.
[One, who interferes in other's work, surely comes to grief]
28/05/2016
Spiritual side of fierce Goddess Bhairavi, the Goddess of wisdom - Sanskriti - Indian Culture All spiritual phenomena in the universe tread the twin paths of beauty and danger. Goddess Bhairavi is the terrifying aspect of the Dasha Maha Vidya representing divine wrath and anger. With her piercing shrieks and petrifying rage she dispels negative forces that try to curb spiritual growth. Her n...
28/06/2015
Kashiraj Divodas Dhanvantari: Father of Surgery in Ayurveda - Sanskriti - Indian Culture Born in 1000 BCE, Kashiraj Divodas Dhanvantari is hailed as the Father of Surgery in Ayurveda, the oldest and the most holistic medical science in the world. It forms a part of the Atharva Veda, one of the four Vedas. Ayurveda means 'science of longevity', derived from the Sanskrit root ayus, meanin…
19/06/2015
25 Mind Boggling Facts That Will Change Your Perspective On History The history you learned was probably too boring to properly shape your paradigm. These are 25 mind boggling facts that will change your perspective on history. Here’s a preview: The Pyramids are so old, that even King Tut would most likely have referred to them as “ancient” …..Some Giant Redwoods ar…
RELIGION CAN GO NO FURTHER
Science has proved to me that physical individuality is a delusion, that really my body is one little continuously changing body in an unbroken ocean of matter; and Advaita (unity) is the necessary conclusion with my other counterpart, soul.
Science is nothing but the finding of unity. As soon as science would reach perfect unity, it would stop from further progress, because it would reach the goal. Thus Chemistry could not progress farther when it would discover one element out of which all others could be made. Physics would stop when it would be able to fulfil its services in discovering one energy of which all the others are but manifestations, and the science or religion become perfect when it would discover Him who is the one life in a universe of death, Him who is the constant basis of an ever-changing world. One who is the only Soul of which all souls are but delusive manifestations. Thus is it, through multiplicity and duality, that the ultimate unity is reached. Religion can go no further. This is the goal of all science.
All science is bound to come to this conclusion in the long run. Manifestation, and not creation, is the word of science today, and the Hindu is only glad that what he has been cherishing in his bosom for ages is going to be taught in more forcible language, and with further light from the latest conclusions of science. (Source: The Complete Works of Swami V., Vol. I, P. 14-15) 24.05.15
03/05/2015
Indian researcher’s reports for the first time a megalithic construction most probably used for astronomical observations at a site in South India. 26 megalithic constructions at Byse were reported to be found dating prior to 1000BC, and are the first strong evidence of a monument with intentional solar and possible stellar alignments among Indian megaliths. Megaliths in southern India are believed to have been erected during the Iron Age (1200–500 BC), though the practice may have originated in the Neolithic period (3000–1200 BC) and continued into the Early Historic Period (500 BC – AD 500).
The researchers found that there was striking similarities in their layout and design at menhir of Nilaskal, Byse, Hergal and Mumbaru. The menhirs of Gudde Maradi had disappeared due to quarrying operations and yet another site of this topology was discovered at Aaraga gate. The sites of Byse were studied in detail. Nilaskal Byana which means “field of standing stones” is a small, flat clearing in Byse village near the town of Hosanagara in Karnataka. The megalithic consists of 26 menhir remnants, of which the largest is 3.6m tall 1.6 m wide and 25m thick.
Though no structure is evident in the ground plan of the layout of the menhirs but when the shadow pattern of the structures were simulated for the extreme point of sunrise for latitude of Byse, an interesting pattern emerged. The researchers also tested the clusters for alignments to the extreme points of moonrise and moonset. The arrangement of these menhirs seems to be such that pairs of these stones frame the rising/setting sun/moon on significant dates. Using computer simulations, the team found that the standing stones are aligned to the north, east, south and west directions and also match the two solstices and equinoxes. While the two solstices mark the longest and shortest days of the year, an equinox occurs when the sun is in the same plane as the earth’s equator. “The study establishes that India had a strong intellectual tradition of precise astronomical observation not copied from any other civilization.
This is the first instance of a monument with intentional solar and lunar alignments among Indian megaliths. Astronomical purpose has been suggested in the design of alignments at a couple of sites in north Karnataka, but the large number of boulders involved has made inferences inconclusive. Four other menhir sites near Byse, which are currently under investigation, also show similar patterns.
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Source: Menon, S. M., Vahia, M. N. and Rao, K., Stone Alignment with Solar and Other Sightlines in South India, Current Science, Vol. 102, No. 5 (10 March 2012) Pp. 683-684
12/04/2015
Science Now Says That Your Subconscious Thoughts and Beliefs Can Actually Cause Molecular... Love this article. It talks about just how powerful our subconscious blocks can be in terms of governing our life.
http://www.spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com/harvard-neurosurgeon-confirms-the-afterlife-exists/
01/02/2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsiDjZKhFSE
Ancient Hindu technology - from INDIA to Germany then to USA - 6 (history channel)
01/02/2015
http://www.curejoy.com/content/many-ways-meditation/
The Many Ways Of Doing Meditation Here are 8 methods of practicing meditation. You can select the one that fits your physical health, profession, nature, spiritual need & time availability.
03/12/2014
In Interstellar, there is a concept- 1 Hour on Miller planet is equal to 7 Years on Earth.
Due to a technical snag, the team is forced to spend 3 hours on that planet resulting in loss of 23 years on Earth. Which means 10 years old daughter of Hero becomes 33 years old and the hero remains of the same age.
In Hindu Mythology, once in the war between Gods & Demons, Indra took help of (Human) king Muchukunda.
King Muchukunda helped gods in the war but the war lasted for 1 year and that was in heaven.
After the war was over, when Muchukunda expresses desire to go back to earth to meet his family, Indra tells him that 1 year in Heaven is equal to 360 years on Earth hence his family & kingdom must have been destroyed by now with the passage of time.
Shrimad Bhagawata (9-3-27 to 36) gives a story that king Kakudmi went with his daughter Revati to the Brahmaloka (Another planet) to find her a husband.
They spent some seconds there, but during that seconds, about 216 years passed on the Earth.
They returned after 216 years but still Rewati was in puberty and her father was alive. Aging factor had stopped working on them. After their return, they could not see their descendents, so at least 216 years had passed.
03/12/2014
Science of Yoga & its Origin
Yoga is one of the oldest sciences of the world originated from India, which is very useful for both getting and maintaining the physical, mental and moral health. This yoga was started with the development of civilization.
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THE BIG QUESTIONS
Traditional Yoga seeks to provide plausible answers to such profound questions as, “Who am I?”, “Whence do I come?”, “Whither do I go?,” and “What must I do?” These are the sorts of questions that, sooner or later, we all end up asking ourselves. Or at least, we have our own implicit answers to them, though may not get round to consciously formulating them. Deep down, we all are philosophers, because we all need to make sense of our life. Some of us postpone thinking about these questions, but they don’t ever go away. We quickly learn this when we lose a loved one or face a serious health crisis.
So, we might as well ponder these questions while we are in good shape. And don’t think you have to feel morose to do so. Yoga doesn’t champion dark moods, but it is definitely in favor of awareness in all its forms, including self-awareness. If we know the stuff we are made of, we can function a lot better in the world. At the very least, our self-knowledge will give us the opportunity to make conscious and better choices.
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Despite more than a century of research, we still don’t know much about the earliest beginnings of Yoga. We do know, though, that it originated in India 5,000 or more years ago. Until recently, many Western scholars thought that Yoga originated much later, maybe around 500 B.C., which is the time of Gautama the Buddha, the illustrious founder of Buddhism. But then, in the early 1920s, archeologists surprised the world with the discovery of the so-called Indus civilization—a culture that we now know extended over an area of roughly 300,000 square miles (the size of Texas and Ohio combined). This was in fact the largest civilization in early antiquity. In the ruins of the big cities of Mohenjo Daro and Harappa, excavators found depictions engraved on soapstone seals that strongly resemble yogi-like figures. Many other finds show the amazing continuity between that civilization and later Hindu society and culture.
There was nothing primitive about what is now called the Indus-Sarasvati civilization, which is named after two great rivers that once flowed in Northern India; today only the Indus River flows through Pakistan. That civilization’s urbane population enjoyed multistory buildings, a sewage system unparalleled in the ancient world until the Roman empire, a huge public bath whose walls were water-proofed with bitumen, geometrically laid out brick roads, and standardized baked bricks for convenient construction. (We are so used to these technological achievements that we sometimes forget they had to be invented.) The Indus-Sarasvati people were a great maritime nation that exported a large variety of goods to Mesopotamia and other parts of the Middle East and Africa. Although only a few pieces of art have survived, some of them show exquisite craftsmanship.
For a long time, scholars thought that this magnificent civilization was abruptly destroyed by invaders from the northwest who called themselves A***ns (ârya meaning “noble” in the Sanskrit language). Some proposed that these warlike nomads invented Yoga, others credited the Indus people with its creation. Yet others took Yoga to be the joint creation of both races.
Nowadays researchers increasingly favor a completely different picture of ancient Indian history. They are coming to the conclusion that there never was an A***n invasion and that the decline of the Indus-Sarasvati cities was due to dramatic changes in climate. These in turn appear to have been caused by a major tectonic catastrophe changing the course of rivers. In particular, it led to the drying up of what was once India’s largest river, the Sarasvati, along whose banks flourished numerous towns and villages (some 2500 sites have been identified thus far). Today the dry river bed runs through the vast Thar Desert. If it were not for satellite photography, we would not have learned about those many settlements buried under the sand.
The drying up of the Sarasvati River, which was complete by around 1900 B.C., had far-reaching consequences. Just imagine the waters of the Mississippi running dry instead of flooding constantly. What havoc this would cause! The death of the Sarasvati River forced the population to migrate to more fertile parts of the country, especially east toward the Ganges (Ganga) River and south into Central India and Tamilnadu.
Why is this important for the history of Yoga, you might ask? The Sarasvati River happens to be the most celebrated river in the Rig-Veda, which is the oldest known text in any Indo-European language. It is composed in an archaic (and difficult) form of Sanskrit and was transmitted by word of mouth for numerous generations. Sanskrit is the language in which most Yoga scriptures are written. It is related to languages like Greek, Latin, French, German, Spanish, and not least English. You can see this family relationship on the example of the word yoga itself, which corresponds to zugos, iugum, joug, Joch, yugo, and yoke in these languages. Sanskrit is like an older brother to the other Indo-European languages.
Now, if the Sarasvati River dried up around or before 1900 B.C., the Rig-Veda must be earlier than that benchmark date. If that is so, then the composers of this collection of hymns must have been contemporaneous with the people of the Indus civilization, which flourished between circa 3000-1900 B.C. Indeed, astronomical references in the Rig-Veda suggest that at least some of its 1,028 hymns were composed in the third or even fourth millennium B.C.
Thus, the Sanskrit-speaking A***ns, who created the Rig-Veda, did not come from outside India to destroy the Indus-Sarasvati civilization. They had been there all along. What, then, was their relationship with the Indus-Sarasvati people? Here opinions still differ, but there is a growing understanding that the A***ns and the Indus-Sarasvati people were one and the same. There is nothing in the Rig-Veda to suggest otherwise.
In fact, the Rig-Veda and the other archaic Sanskrit texts appear to be the “missing” literature of the Indus civilization. Conversely, the archeological artifacts of the Indus valley and adjoining areas give us the “missing” material base of the early Sanskrit literature—an elegant solution to a problem that has long vexed researchers.
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YOGA AND THE INDUS-SARASVATI CIVILIZATION
This means that Yoga is the product of a mature civilization that was unparalleled in the ancient world. Think of it! As a Yoga practitioner you are part of an ancient and honorable stream of tradition, which makes you a descendant of that civilization at least at the level of the heart. Many of the inventions credited to Sumer rightfully belong to what is now known as the indus_Sarasvati_civilization, which evolved out of a cultural tradition that has reliably been dated back to the seventh millennium B.C. In turn it gave rise to the great religious and cultural tradition of Hinduism, but indirectly also to Buddhism and Jainism.
India’s civilization can claim to be the oldest enduring civilization in the world. Its present-day problems should not blind us to its glorious past and the lessons we can learn from it. Yoga practitioners in particular can benefit from India’s protracted experimentation with life, especially its explorations of the mysteries of the mind. The Indian civilization has produced great philosophical and spiritual geniuses who between them have covered every conceivable answer to the big questions, which are as relevant today as they were thousands of years ago.
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VEDIC YOGA
Now we are entering somewhat more technical territory, and I will have to use and explain a number of Sanskrit terms.
The yogic teachings found in the above-mentioned Rig-Veda and the other three ancient hymnodies are known as Vedic Yoga. The Sanskrit word veda means “knowledge,” while the Sanskrit term rig (from ric) means “praise.” Thus the sacred Rig-Veda is the collection of hymns that are in praise of a higher power. This collection is in fact the fountainhead of Hinduism, which has around one billion adherents today. You could say that the Rig-Veda is to Hinduism what the Book of Genesis is to Christianity.
The other three Vedic hymnodies are the Yajur-Veda (“Knowledge of Sacrifice”), Sama-Veda (“Knowledge of Chants”), and Atharva-Veda (“Knowledge of Atharvan”). The first collection contains the sacrificial formulas used by the Vedic priests. The second text contains the chants accompanying the sacrifices. The third hymnody is filled with magical incantations for all occasions but also includes a number of very powerful philosophical hymns. It is connected with Atharvan, a famous fire priest who is remembered as having been a master of magical rituals. These hymnodies can be compared to the various books of the Old Testament.
It is clear from what has been said thus far that Vedic Yoga—which could also be called Archaic Yoga—was intimately connected with the ritual life of the ancient Indians. It revolved around the idea of sacrifice as a means of joining the material world with the invisible world of the spirit. In order to perform the exacting rituals successfully, the sacrificers had to be able to focus their mind for a prolonged period of time. Such inner focusing for the sake of transcending the limitations of the ordinary mind is the root of Yoga.
When successful, the Vedic yogi was graced with a “vision” or experience of the transcendental reality. A great master of Vedic Yoga was called a “seer”—in Sanskrit rishi. The Vedic seers were able to see the very fabric of existence, and their hymns speak of their marvelous intuitions, which can still inspire us today.
Source: A Short History of Yoga by Georg Feuerstein
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Yog originated from Lord Shiva
In ancient times, India did not exist as one country, but still it was considered as one entity which they called 'Bharat Varsha'.
By race, by language they were not same; by religion, they did not worship the same Gods; politically, they were never one, but still the land south of the Himalayas was referred to as Bharat Varsha . So somewhere, there was some sense of unity because of the common spiritual ethos they carried in them.
Spiritual ethos means, no matter what you are doing, whether you are a king or a peasant, whatever is the nature of your activity, there is only one ultimate goal for everybody - liberation. Even today, even the simplest farmer in this country will talk about mukti. This is a result of the phenomenal amount of spiritual work done in this country. One person who is largely responsible for this, who is of paramount significance in shaping the human consciousness is Shiva.
In the yogic culture, Shiva is not known as a God, but as the first Guru or the Adi Guru. He is the Adi Yogi or the first Yogi. Out of his realisation, he became ecstatic and danced all over the mountains or sat absolutely still. He was constantly into bouts of stillness and bouts of mad dancing. All the gods who saw him, saw something was happening to him that they themselves did not know. Suddenly heaven felt like a bad place, because this guy is having such a good time! They felt, "We are missing out on something." When they finally got him to teach the method, Shiva expounded various types of yogas depending upon the level of preparedness of the person who was sitting in front of him.
The first part of Shiva's teaching was to Parvati, his wife. The yoga sutras of Shiva are such that almost in every sutra, he refers to her as the resplendent one, the gracious one, the beautiful one.
The second set of yogic teaching was expounded to the Sapta Rishis/Sages, or the first seven sages. When we use the word yoga, you should not think of twisting your body or holding your breath or anything like that we are not talking about a particular exercise or a technique. We are talking about the very science of creation and how to take this piece of creation (you) to its ultimate possibility. We are looking at gaining mastery over the fundamental processes of life; the very process of creation and dissolution. It doesn't matter at what level of evolution a person is right now, for him also, there is a way. For every being on the planet, there is a certain way that is the advantage of yoga. This teaching happened on the banks of Kanti Sarovar, near Kedarnath (Himalayas). This is when the world's first yoga programme happened.
Today, yoga is said to be the world's fastest growing wellness regimen because it presents spirituality as technology. Mahashivratri is a festival that was chosen to honour Shiva, the Adi Guru, from whom yoga originated. On this night the planetary positions in the northern hemisphere are such that there is a natural upsurge of energies. If one just stays awake and keeps one's spine erect throughout the night, it naturally pushes a person towards his spiritual peak.