AVATARS.

. Hi, Ramnath I am inundated chain emails on your name. A few of them are good but others mostly thoughts culled from books and sayings. Many I am familiar for too long my years of readings. So most the mails are dumped into bin without even opening. Spare me from sending all these mails about gods and goddesses. They try to perpetuate our superstitions uncritically.

Of your latest on the Dasavatar I am forwarding to you the following write up that I scribbled on my diary. You may go thru it and express your views if any

KNK

AVATARS: 27.11.1995

One of the Hindu legends and belief is the avatars of Vishnu. They also believe that there are several avatars but the ten are more important. However, the 10^th is yet to come some time in future. i e. at the end of Kaliyuga. Hindu periodisation conceives of four yugas comprising:

Yuga	Duration (years)	God	Virtue	Avatars
Krita Yuga	1,728,000	Brahma	Meditation	First five avatars: Matsya to Vamana
Treta Yuga	1,296,000	Vishnu	Knowledge	Parashurama and Ramachandra (Rama)
Dvapara Yuga	864,000	Vishnu	Sacrifice	Krishna's descent and the Mahabharata war (at end)
Kali Yuga	432,000	Vishnu Shiva-Rudra	Charity	Buddha and, still to come at the end of Kali-yuga, Kalki
	4,320,000

All the first five avatars supposed to have taken place in Krita otherwise Named Satya yuga when devas and asuras were in perpetual enmity and fight. The fun is that certain devas have given blessings and booms to some asuras thus empowering them to be menacing to former. Vishnu is said to have taken different avatars to destroy the asuras and protect the devas.

Yadaa Yadaahi Dharmasya Glaanirbhavati Bhaarata

Abhyudhanamadharmasya Tadaadmaanam Srijaamyaham

Paritraanaaya Saadhoonam Vinaasaaya cha Dushkritaam

Dharmasamstaapanardhaaya Sambhavaami Yuge Yuge (Bhagawat Gita)

The first five comprise of 1. Fish; 2. Tortoise; 3. Boar; 4. Narasimha; human lion 5. Vamana; the dwarf.

The legend is that some of the asuras stole the four Vedas from the Brahma and kept them hidden under the ocean. Then Vishnu in the form of a fish plunged deep in the waters and brought back the Vedas and delivered them to the rishies. The question is whether the Vedas were written and bound as books which the asuras could steal and hide. According to tradition Vedas were not kept written but memorised by Brahmins from generation to generation, with their intonation intact. Then how could anybody much less an Asura could steal them and hide them under water? At that point of time if asuras have to steal the Vedas they have to kill all the Brahmins and that also would mean complete elimination of Vedas never to return. The absurdity of that avatar is self evident but blind believers continue to trot out that story fully knowing that it has no factual base.

However, there is another story of a universal flood and Vishnu in the form a fish rescued the lives of all living things in a boat. One cannot be sure whether that story is borrowed from bible or the other way.

The second avatar is supposed to hold the world stable in the turbulent ocean. The creators of this story were unaware of or deliberately hidden the truth that the world is round like a ball floating in space and not fixed in any particular place much less in the ocean. Another story is that of churning of the milky ocean and Vishnu as tortoise was holding the Mandhara mountain firm on his back. Both could not be verified by facts or reasoning.

The third avatar is similar. The Varaha or boar. In this story it was held that the earth was abducted by some asuras and taken down under the ocean. How come that the earth could be hidden under the ocean which is part of the earth itself? Such an absurd notion indeed!!!

28.11.1995.

The fourth avatar is still more absurd story. The Asura Hiranyakasipu after observing austerities for long periods obtained booms from another of the Thrimurthys i.e. Brahma that he will not be killed in the day or night; inside or outside the house; by human or animal. After getting such boom he is said to have fought and enslaved the gods and goddesses in the heaven. The oppressed devas went to Vishnu and sought the god’s help. He promised to kill the Asura and save the devas. Thereafter when the Asura got a son Prahlada he was influenced to become a devotee of Vishnu which his father did not relish. For him he himself was the supreme god and persecuted and punished his son in ways including attempts to kill him. (What a wild imagination? Father intentionally trying to kill his son?) When challenged; Prahlada tells his father that Vishnu is in the pillar. The Asura cuts and breaks the pillar lo. Vishnu jumps out of the broken pillar in the avatar of Narasimha i.e. half human and half lion. It was neither human nor animal and the Asura was killed by the avatar in the evening hours i.e. neither day nor night; at the entrance to the house i.e. neither inside nor outside; on his lap i.e. neither in earth nor in sky; by his long nails i.e. no weapon. It is funny to note that one of five thrimurthys is worshiped by the Asura and another of the thrimurthys uses such tricks to nullify the boom given.

Still fantastic is the story of the next avatar Vamana. At least in this case there was no devas getting defeated or enslaved or otherwise harmed by the Asura Mahabali. He was the grandson of Prahlada and like grandfather a devotee of Vishnu himself. He is depicted as an ideal king to his prajas. The devas became envious of his rule specifically Indra. They went to Vishnu with complaint that the Asura is making the earth so good that nobody conducts sacrifices to attain heaven. So devas felt afraid that the Asura Mahabali will turn out to be the king of devas. They approached Vishnu for protection from the Asura Mahabali. The god readily agreed and took an avatar of a dwarf Brahmin brahmachari i.e. student. Mahabali was famous for his giving i.e Dana. The dwarf approached Mahabali and received by him as an honoured guest. After formalities of hospitality Mahabali asked him to demand anything he would fancy. The brahmachari asked for 3 feet measure of earth which the king promised by Vedic rites. But his Brahmin priest and advisor Shukra found the trick resorted by Vishnu and advised the king to refrain from giving anything to this fake brahmachari. The king maintained that his promise will be kept in spite of any adverse effect. The Vishnu turned Vamana became a giant overtaking the whole world and heaven in two steps and asked for the place for his third step. Mahabali bowed his head and requested the dwarf turned giant to put his step on his head. (in the first step the whole world was measured that should include Mahabali as well) The Vamana did put his foot on Mahabali’s head and then pushed him deep down i.e Patala Loka, where he was asked to stay forever. The king willingly accepted his subjugation and humiliation, only asking permission to visit his people once a year. (This later part is that of Kerala legend signifies ONAM festival there.) Thus Vishnu helped the devas to be themselves.

All these five avatars took place in Krita Yuga itself when the world was inhabited by feuding devas and asuras. According to puranic lore the father of the devas and their enemies asuras is one. His wife Aditi gave birth to devas and another Diti to asuras. There is not much mention of any humans except rishies in Krita Yuga. May be they were still to be born to the sage Manu. Thus manava meant human.

The 6^th & 7^th avatars i.e. Parasurama and Srirama happened during Tretayuga. They were contemporaries as per Ramayana story when Sri Rama encountered Parasurama on way back to Ayodhya from Videha after the marriages of the brothers.

In Tretayuga we find no asuras but Rakshasas like Ravana and Kshatriyas like Karthaviryarjuna and others. It is said that Parasurama was the son of rishi Jamadagni. In a fit of temper the rishi asked his son to sever the head of his mother for an alleged infidelity with Karthaviryarjuna a Kshatriya king. Later Parasurama went on a killing spree of all Kshatriyas on the land in twenty one rounds. No Kshatriya whether kings or otherwise were left out. The land was made kshatriyaless. (The question remains as what happened to the king of Ayodhya at that time and his family. There is nothing in Ramayana about Parasurama exterminating Ayodhya kings. Mahabharata also did not recall the story of Parasurama) Kshatriya women were asked by Parasurama to beget children from Brahmins i.e have sex to procreate. But were those children Kshatriyas? According to Manusmriti they should be a lesser breed of mixed castes and not Kshatriyas. The avatar Parasurama is that of Vishnu but he is a devotee of Shiva the third god in the thrimurty group. (There are groups in India today calling themselves Chandravamsa Kshatriyas. The kings of the former Cochin State were termed as Suryavamsam.)

As a side light the modern Brahmins maintain that after Parasurama annihilated all Kshatriya males, there is no Kshatriya caste in India. The later Kshatriyas are of mixed birth and caste.

What the 6^th avatar Parasurama achieved or created, whom did he safeguard or who benefited through his actions, is not clear. Without Kshatriyas how the kingdoms did remain stable and who ruled till the next crop of Kshatriyas of mixed birth came of age is one more question not posed nor answered.

The 7^th avatar is solely to finish of the Rakshasa king Ravana of Lanka. This Lanka is supposed to be an island south of Indian peninsula. This assumption is not supported by strict evidences but of traditional belief. Ravana was an ardent devotee of Shiva and said to have received his boom and weapons from him. Ravana observed severe austerities to propitiate Brahma and got the boom that he will not be killed by any one other than a human. With this boom Ravana ruled the world of devas and Rakshasas. Devas were terrified and enslaved. The humans were used as food by Rakshasas. Since, the two of the thrimurtys favoured Ravana, devas approached the remaining Vishnu. Vishnu in turn as is his norm devised a method to kill the Rakshasa king. He took birth in Kosala/Ayodhya while there was already another avatar Parasurama in human form. There is no answer to the question as to why Parasurama an avatar in human form was not used to finish off Ravana as well, as in the case of whole Kshatriya tribe. Thou they were supposed to be contemporaries there was no meeting between the avatar Parasurama and Ravana. He and his people were supposed to be cruel and harassing the rishies and obstructing their sacrifices but Parasurama did not come across them during his sojourn in earth. Obstacles to Viswamitra’s sacrifices came from Rakshasas but Parasurama was not bothered or even knew about any Rakshasa. The threat was from southern most part of the land still the god did not take his birth somewhere near Lanka in south itself, but in far off and obscure place Ayodhya in the north. The whole story is very over active to impress the credulous and less to the objective of finishing Ravana by a human.

In Ramayana itself no people or their kings in the length and breadth of India complained of any depredations by Rakshasas except Viswamitra conducting his sacrifice yajna. So an excuse has to be found. The story of Ramayana introduced ingredients like aborted coronation of Rama by his step-mother Kaikeyi. The 14 years in forest is something dramatic.

A question comes to mind. Why Dasaradha thought of coronation of Rama at the exact time when his two brothers namely Bharata and Shatrughna were out absent at Bharata’s maternal uncle’s place? There was no thought of calling them back home, to be present at the coronation ceremony. There is also no reason for Laxman to be attached to Rama while his twin brother Shatrughna to Bharata. It is logical for Bharata to go to his maternal uncle but why Shatrughna accompanied him? There was little role for the two in Ramayana main story i.e. killing of Ravana to save the good. Funny are the stories of Gods and their avatars. Thus in Treta Yuga two human avatars of Vishnu at the same or consecutive periods with no relation with each other or any rationale.

The 8^th & 9^th happened in Dwaparayuga i.e the third Yuga almost at its end. They were two brothers Krishna and Balarama. But there is another story; depicting Balarama as the avatar of Sesha the king of Nagas i.e. serpents. The significance is not clear. They don’t act together on any time. Earlier avatars were to subdue asuras, rakshasas and other enemies and ill wishers of devas except in case of Parasurama. That was to subdue the power hungry rulers. In case of Balarama there seemed to be no aim or objective. On the other hand he is supposed to have been sympathetic to Kauravas as against Pandavas whose friend, advisor and support was Srikrishna. The avatar was to finish his tyrannical uncle Kamsa and some more relations including the Kauravas. This avatar took place even though there was no specific complaint from devas about any king mentioned in Mahabharata. There is only one story that is about an Asura named Naraka who is said to have abducted and imprisoned 16,000 virgin princesses. By the way Naraka is depicted as the son of Bhoomi i.e. earth goddess one of the wives of Vishnu himself. The asura was killed by Satyabhama incarnation of goddess Bhoomi accompanied by Krishna. All the 16,000 virgins were rescued by Krishna and then they married him. Thus the legend of 16,008 wives for Srikrishna, 8 already married. At the end of Mahabharata war when the survivors consisted of the five Pandavas alone, the wife of Dhritarashtra i.e. Gandhari accused Krishna of plotting and executing the whole episodes so as to finish of everyone not excluding his own nephew Abhimanyu the young son of his sister Subhadra. Krishna tacitly agrees that Gandhari is true.

Both the 8^th and 9^th avatars were completely meaningless stories the main story being about family feuds. Certain sources maintain that Balarama is not an avatar and the 9^th avatar is that of Buddha. Might be they realise the absurdity of two avatars at the same time and place. However there is no universal acceptance of Buddha as an avatar of Vishnu among Hindus. The 10^th avatar is yet to come when the Kaliyuga i.e. the 4^th Yuga is to end. The avatar of Kalki will destroy everything of this world so that a new round of four yugas could start afresh. (In the recent past some group in south India claimed a person as Kalki avatar and went on a spree of worship and bhajans celebrations. This turned out to be a fraud on the credulous and the gentleman retired making good use of his fame as Kalki to make huge amount of money and property.)

There is another thought propagated by some that the stories of avatars signify the scientific finding of the evolution of species. Oh. Stop the efforts to numb our minds and brains!!!

The entire concept of Dasavatars is meaningless and irrational and creation of fantastic imagination of certain deceased minds.

SOCIETY & RELIGION.

SOCIETY & RELIGION by JAYANT GADKARI

This book deals with the relation between society and religion in an ancient Indian context. The author does not pretend to be a scholar but simple and learned person interested to analyse the roots of the ancient Indian religion as given in the Sanskrit literature available including most ancient Rigveda. He did mention about the pre Vedic Harappan face of ancient India, but did not go further in detail. The paucity of reliable evidence to pre-date Veda to Harappa spelled out in a lucid way. He accepts the suggestion that there were no invasion of Aryan Vedic against Harappan but mentions that there should have been a lot of intermingling between the two people both peaceful and violent. The borrowing or absorbing of many Harappan traits in Rigveda may attest that these portions of Vedas are composed only after a complete obliteration of the Harappan memory. But at the same time innumerable Suktas are in praise of Indra, Agni, Varuna, Maruts, Aswin and other Deva warriors battling the dasyus, Asuras, Rakshasas etc who some hymns portray as of the same group but not accepting the supremacy of the vedic gods. The above named as well as the other gods not only opposed the later groups in a violent manner but most of them were slaughtered literally including their wives many of them pregnant and children. Many hymns mention that the Asuras, Rakshasas, Dasyus were leaders of people having vast settlements, wealth and power. There are some hymns that extol the devas for destruction of 99 urban settlements.

It may be that after the slow obliteration of Harappan settlements and civilization for reason not so far firmly ascertained, the vast groups of people inhabiting those area might have migrated to near and far places and scattered themselves but were trying to keep alive their traditions. A large section of these group of people might have completely got joined the new comers and were in the process of establishing the Vedic line up. There might have been other Harappan groups who settled separately and trying to keep their identity separate and later got in antagonist situation in relation to the former. This explanation does not seem to be convincing at all. The Harappans appear to be superior to Vedic and one cannot accept a complete de-literation of its memories. This brings a new element to the study that was taken up by Rajesh Kochar in his book Vedic People. Rajesh Kochar maintains that most of the Rig Veda or its older portions were composed by migrating people while they were still outside of India i.e Iran & Afghanistan.

Coming back to Jayant Gadkari one can appreciate his line of thought only on the basis that all literary works in one way or other do reflect the actual situation then prevailing or its immediate past. It is not exactly of Marxist in approach but of a rational mind accepting all developments from simple to complex. From such an approach one might come to similar conclusions as the author so far as the Vedic literary sources are considered.

Gadkari amassed a wealth of situations from Rig, Yajus, Adharva Vedas and Brahmanas to explain the development of society i.e. the ancient Indian. The Rig Vedic society was pastoral and mobile not exactly settled in one place. This society during the course of years developed into settled societies at convenient places; then went over to settled agriculture. Leaving aside the pastoral habits and concepts they developed societies formed in definite geographical areas evolving themselves into states and conglomerations.

In this writer’s view the author would have looked into the rig Vedic source more critically and brought out the evidences to the fact that the rig Vedic society itself was multifaceted and more heterogeneous to its seeming uniformity of worship.

Jayant Gadkari would have taken note of the motivated interpretations indulged by the Hindutva ideologues who make out the rig Vedic hymns to be profound thought of wisdom, science and technology. The idea of modern day electricity is being imposed on the vidyuti i.e. the natural phenomena of lighting. If those saints had that vision and idea of electricity, why they never put their ideas into practical technologies? And today the discovery of generating electricity and storing it was made by people who never looked into the ancient Indian Vedic literature for it. Even after the practical of use of electricity for deeds it was Hindutva who started to make such fantastic claims about it.

The concept of Agni hiding in water is interpreted by Hindutva walas to the claim that electricity is being generated from water falls or dams i.e. hydro electricity. They simply hide the fact that electricity is generated by technically designed generators fitted to turbines, they in turn are run by the force of water passing thru their blades system. There is no electricity in water at all.

Many mantras are interpreted to convey spiritual thoughts as understood by modern philosophy when the same mantras are capable of different interpretations. Also no one can confidently fix the time of such mantras having introduced in an ancient text.

TO THINK OTHERWISE:

The Hindutva wadies wanted their history to be taken back to about 8,000 years i.e. 6,000 yrs BCE. Accordingly the four or is it only the one Rigveda that was composed for about 3,500 or 3,000 years before the advent of Indus Valley Civilization. But even the rudiments to social and economic developments that culminated in the Indus can be recounted from step by step from discoveries at Swat Valley in Afghanistan. These people left a lot of archeological evidence during their journey from Swat to the current finding about expansive Harappan society. Even after Harappa and Mohanjodaro slid down in the history the tradition continued to span towards South, East & West and then disappeared completely without leaving any memory of its existence.

The Vedic culture and civilization which is claimed to be older than Indus by not less than 3,000-3,500 years did not build any lasting archeological evidence of its existence. The minimum requirements are evidences of horses, chariots, weapons made of iron. Even if one takes the claim that Harappan knew about horses and chariots the evidence is filmy and belonged to a period when Harappan life has declined or even out of history. But according to Hindutva the horses were indigenous and were in abundance in number as testified in Rig Vedic Suktas that were much older than Harappan.

The Hindutva enthusiasts have to explain the chronology of Vedic literature that were composed or created (or found by rishies). When did Rigveda composed, the Yajus, Saman, Adharva, Brahmana, Aranyaka, Upanishads, Srauta Grihya Sutras, Smrities, Itihasas and Puranas? How they will fit all those pre Buddhist and post Buddhist into the vast time frame. If they try to push back all those so called Vedic literature to pre Indus phase, they will be confronted with a lot of literary evidences that cannot be pushed to so ancient a period. They will have to admit that all those portions were interpolations done much later. It also means that the Hindutva ancestors were so unscrupulous that they committed frauds and lies. That will be too much for the Hindutva brigade. What literatures were produced during about 1,500-2,000 years, Indus and Harappan phase?

All scientific thoughts and discoveries were made by rig Vedic & other vedic but no more such discoveries, or developments based on those earlier discoveries, even any follow up actions were initiated up to the period of Mauryan to Guptas. These two land marks in history cannot be hidden or stretched too far in past. Still the barren years will be found for greater stretch of the historic times. It was all stagnation both in thoughts and action when the warring kingdoms were subdued by one or other of the invading armies from the west.

The author of the novel “Return of the Aryan” Bhagwan S. Gidwani in his magnum opus; claimed that Aryan were the original people of Indus/Punjab region. They spread themselves to the west to Africa, Europe and as far as England in the pre Harappan years and supposed to have helped in developing culture & civilization in those lands. But Europeans have no memory of any such visitation of massive Aryan hordes to their lands.

The African (North) and Mediterranean lands sprouted grand civilizations and monuments for posterity. The Aryans who are said to have helped in creating those civilizations left their own lands completely barren. While those civilizations constructed monumental temples and mausoleums; the Harappans did not construct any such edifices but towns and dwellings etc. Even if Harappan is attributed to Vedic Aryans the absence of any parallel in North Africa & Mediterranean is telling testimony against such assumptions. Even after their coming back to the lands of their origin no comparable structure were built for another 1,000 to 1,500 years. The architecture that came into existence just prior to Mauryan era and also during that era are no match to Harappan much less to comment on Egyptian & Mediterranean ones. Hindutva groups claim to themselves an unbroken tradition since about 6.000 BCE onwards. How they are going to sustain that claim? The puranic narrations of the history cannot reach to 6,000 BCE unless they make it out that puranic kings ruled for not tens but hundreds of years and there are no traces of original Aryans going abroad in such hordes to influence the life and people of those lands and or their establishing the Harappan phase between 3,000 to 1,700 BCE i.e. the period accepted by all including Hindutva claimants for Harappan phase.

By,K.N.Krishnan.

Review from the speaking tree.

In a recent feature article speaking tree in TOI the writer makes out that the Mantras have no apparent or rational meaning. He in fact maintained that the Mantras have no meaning at all. They are to be chanted in a proper & sound manner. Such chanting will bring desired results to the chanter. There is no need to try and find the meanings of words composing the Mantras. HOW TRUE? Consider the way in which the Vedic literature is used and misused by even people who consciously does not encourage later Hindutva rightist ideas. When they say that Vedas contain wisdom they quote from Upanishads and not from the 4 Vedas. And many only quote from Smrities and puranas. When they talk about philosophy they never mean of Sankhya, Mimamsa, Nyaya, Vaisheshika or Buddhist & Jain but only of Advaita of Sankara and or Visishtadvaita of Ramanuja. It can be proved to the hilt that Advaita is a mask and an apology for not having any critical altitude to life and society.
Another speaking tree track was about Karma that is the deciding factor & force in life. It is not god or Eswara that rewards and or punishes beings in this life but one's Karma. The writer conveniently hides or forgets to explain the need for a concept of God or the truth and meaning of Advaita philosophy. May be a deliberate omission. Karma & Eswara are contradictory. So also are Karma & Advaita, Advaita & Eswara. All these contradictions obscured by pompous quotations from Gîtâ and later day writings of self proclaimed Hindu gurus.

By,K.N.Krishnan

VEDAS.

VEDAS.

By Chandrasekharendra Saraswati (known as Kanchi Periaval to devotees.) - (Notes prepared in July 2001)

This book is a collection of his regular talks where in he is said to have propounded his basic ideas of Hinduism i.e. Vedas,Vedangas, Upanishnads and Upangas (may be called Darsanas), Dharma Sastras and Puranas etc. This is not a written treatise but collection of talks in Tamil subsequently translated into English. The thoughts and ideas reflected in these lecture series fully and completely follow an orthodox pattern, without any sense of proportion and or credibility. One may accept it on faith or leaved it out. There is no critical approach but implicit faith. Whether the Acharya wanted such implicit faith from his readers is a little problematic. However, it is clear from his tenor of the expositions that the audience he is addressing is not general Hindu community but a limited group in it. Without being explicit the Acharya addresses to the practicing and devoted Brahmins only, say people like my own elder brother a credulous lot. They would like to be assured that what they are practicing and doing in life in the name

of Brahmana vrithi, have sanction and sanctity rather than any rational and or practical necessity. Their doubts have to be smothered rather than answered. In this; this book succeeds to a great extend.

The Acharya starts with Vedas being just the sounds of breathings of the Paramatma or Eswara as he alternatively calls it. He almost deprecates the meanings of Vedic texts and at a certain point asserts that the Vedas have no meanings at all. A little later he said that the Vedas to be chanted knowing its meaning.

He has no explanation as to how and why our Rishis perceived the sounds of breathing only in one language and not in any other world languages. Still he implies an answer however unconvincing it is. He says that at time of creation (including Vedas) the language was Sanskrit only. He also gives a convoluted argument about similar to or approximating to Sanskrit in European languages. He simply did not think that his arguments could be turned to mean opposite. But this argument does not answer as to why no other community of people other than just Hindu Brahmin kept them in memory and no one else in Bharat Varsha.

The Acharya almost claimed that all the Vedas up to Upanishads came out of Brahma’s mouth and revealed to the rishis simultaneously and at one go without any gaps in between Suktams (Hymns) and texts. He not only deprecated but opposed the attempt by scholars to periodise the Vedic texts thru internal evidences like use of language etc.

The Acharya says that some of the researchers in Vedas, though impartial could not tolerate the excellence of our sacred texts (P 16). He wanted all to accept that the Vedas are truth in themselves, (what this signifies is not clarified) But if taken at the context of this collection, the word Veda for the Acharya everything from Rig Veda to Puranas. Even his ardent followers may not agree with this description (as Anadi, Ananta, Apourusheya etc.etc.)

Vedas according to Acharya are supposed to have emanated from the mouth of Brahma when he awakened after his night lasting a Kalpa i.e. a night of 4,320 million years. His day equals to the same number of years. According to legends the world if not the universe was created at the dawn of Brahma’s day. (So, Brahma needed a period of rest just like we mortals!!) His day ends with the Pralaya i.e drowning of the world in waters. The Acharya did not say the name of the present Kalpa and number of Kalpas past. From the Maha Sankalpa it could be made “Adya Brahmana: Dvitiya Parardhe Sweta Varaha Kalpe.” So the present Brahma has already completed half his time and today it is the second half. 360 Brahma days make an year to him. He remains for such 100 years.

Taking just the present Kalpa it is the 7^th Manvantara i.e. of Vaivaswata in which 27 chaturyugas past and we are in the 28^th Kaliyuga. It means that as of present 2001 CE. Brahma completed 1,960 million 853 thousand 101 years of his day. Before that it was Pralaya.

According to present day knowledge imparted by science the earth itself is more than 4,600 million years old. How can this to be reconciled with the creation of the world at the dawn of Brahma’s day only 1,960,853,101 years back? The Acharya’s argument on the age of Vedas and all other things also does not stand scrutiny at all. Humans happened to appear on earth not earlier than 200,000 years. The Indian sub-continent evolved sometime 150 million years ago. Himalayas rose much later 65 million years ago. All these scientific findings show that at the beginning of Brahmas current day there existed no Indian sub-continent less for humans and absolutely no Brahmins at all to listen to the sound of breathing of Eswara or hear words from the mouth of Brahma.

Chaturyuga Yea = 4,320,000

71 chaturyugas (Manvantara) = 306,720,000

14 Manvantaras (Kalpa) = 4,294,080,000

Brahma’s Day/Night

100 chaturyugas = 4,320,000,000

Brahma’s Day/Night

(The difference between Kalpa calculation as 14 Manvantaras and that of 100 chaturyugas are 25,920,000 = 6 chaturyugas.)

CURRENT ERA: VAIVASVATA THE 7^TH MANU.

Time past 6 Manvantaras = 306,720,000 x 6

= 1,840,320,000

plus

27 chaturyugas 4,320,000 x 27 = 116,640,000

plus

3 yugas past = 3,888,000

plus

Kali as on 2001 = 5,102

Swetavaraha Kalpa past = 1,960,853,102

Balance in Kalpa = 2,333,226,898

Total = 4,294,080,000

Years past Manvantara = 120,533,102

Balance = 186,186,898

Total = 306,720,000

Years past in current chaturyuga = 3,893,102

Balance = 426,898

Total = 4,320,000

Past present Kali = 5,102

Balance = 426,898

Total = 432,000

At one place the Acharya mentions the years of Manvantara and claims that the Sastric calculations approximate the time as homosapians appeared on earth (P 166) The so claimed Sastric calculations show that some 1,960 million 853 thousand and 102 years past from the first Manu Swayambhuva but no homosapiens at that time at all. Humans came between 200 and 150 thousand years back. Either the Acharya misunderstood or misleads his followers. They may not look into those scientific sources to ascertain the truth of the Acharya’s sayings. They are expected to believe only. The Acharya is firm that the duration of this world is Brahma’s life time which is 8,640 million years x 365 x 100 =

3,153,600 million x 100 = ,315,360,000,000,000 years = 315 trillion 360 billion years.

The legend is that at the end of a Kalpa i.e. Brahma’s day the world or is it the universe will get enveloped with Pralaya i.e. drowned in water. During Brahma’s night of the same length i.e. the number of years equivalent to a Kalpa 8,640 million years. Since the present is that of Sveta Varaha there must be other Kalpas earlier. Pralaya might have occurred as many times as the number of Kalpas past. The Acharya did not mention even such possibilities in his discussions but makes out that at the end of Brahma’s life time this universe will disappear in Maha Pralaya for a similar period and thereafter a new Brahma will appear and start creation again, a wheel going round and round. There is no clarity about what happens or happened when chaturyugas repeated 28 times during the present Vaivaswata Manu and earlier 6 Manus i.e. 6 x 71 = 426 chaturyuga cycles in the current Sveta Varaha Kalpa.

When the Acharya explains the Vedas as the sound of breathing of the Eswara or Paramatma did he assume that the Eswara or Paramatma has to be breathing to keep himself alive just like any other living being? At the same time he simply ignored that by ascribing breathing to his Eswara he accepts a separate and independent existence to air as a second to Eswara. Again attribute of sound also should have a separate existence. So Eswara or Paramatma could not be advaita but one of the three.

At one point Acharya says that Vyasa classified Vedas into four books some 5000 years back. i.e. 3000 BCE. He also ascribes the authorship of Mahabharata and Puranas to Vyasa, (P 111 & P 232) meaning that the later are 5000 years old. If that is true the Adi Sankara the original claimed guru of Kanchi Seer should have knowledge of the 18 Puranas and 18 Upa Puranas as well. On his own the Acharya said that Sankara cited from Vishnu Purana. According to a compilation by V.Panoli’s treatise on Adi sankara , the sage did not quote from any other Purana than Vishnu Purana in his Prastana Traya writings. If other Puranas were available in his time the sage would have quoted from them also since they are from the mouth of Brahma. Thus there can be two conclusions namely, that no Purana other than Vishnu Puranna was in circulation and known at the time when Sankara wrote those commentaries or that there is nothing worth quoting from them and hence Sankara did not quote from any other. In both ways the Puranas were insignificant by themselves.

Incidentally, one might mention that a compilation titled “Words of Wisdom” published by Arabindo Ashram at Pondicheri; which is claimed to have been selected by the Maharshi himself in his Ashram publication has very few quotations from Rig Veda while a large number of them were from Bible, Greek sources, Upanishads, western thinkers, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa , Vivekananda etc.

There is the legend of Pralaya at the end of Kalpa. Thus during a Brahma’s life he will experience 36,500 days and that many nights of Pralaya also. At the end of his life a Maha Pralaya for a period equal to the life time of Brahma. The Acharya cleverly concealed all these legends and their significances from his discourses.

Without being explicit the Acharya asserts the Brahmanic arrogance that Brahmins are some superior beings entrusted by Eswara to preserve and protect the Eswara’s breathings i.e. the entire Vedic hymns, their chanting and rituals. The Acharya is in the verge of claiming that without Brahmin the Eswara himself has no existence. The superiority is proclaimed when the Acharya interprets Dharma as duty entrusted to each Varna or caste by birth. At one place Acharya asks Brahmins to learn the vidyas practiced by others in order to guide them in their vocations. But how can a Brahmin learn others vidya without practicing them physically?

The Acharya claims that the Brahmin being responsible to the clean and pure upkeep of world/universal order ordained in Vedas; he shall not engage in any other avocation than disciplined chanting of Vedic hymns and the correct performance of Vedic rituals.

The Acharya tried to make out that the word Bhoogol is Vedic and it meant that our rishis knew that the earth is round. (I did not come across the word Bhoogol in Rig Veda Samhita during my two readings.) In another place he uses Brahmanda to mean that the entire universe is shaped like an egg and this word exactly tallies with current scientific concept of the universe. (How cheap an argument?) We can surely say the science has given a final form to the shape our earth but then there is no final form or such final finding to the shape of universe. Even though the foremost Indian astronomers pronounced the earth to be round like a ball moving around the sun; (Aryabhata, Varahamihira, Bhaskara et.al.) Varahamihira himself downgraded the finding and gave importance to Nava Graha Jyotisham (astrology). This idea came back to us along with English education. Even today the devotees of Jyotisham are large even amongst those who should know better.

The Acharya and people like him have no explanation for the Indians forgetting and or concealing our scientific past; instead propagating religious rituals and superstitions. When scientific findings came back to us, we fail to accept then but prevaricate. The Acharya did not advocate any scientific approach to life in universe past and present but implicit belief from all. Such demand for implicit faith is not conducive to inquiry at all. The Acharya is saying that our ancient rishis have found the truth and there is no need for us or anyone else to review those findings today. This is the one most orthodox idea of Hinduism and this was this idea and attitude resulting from it that crippled the scientific thoughts and follow up practices in ancient India.

An example is the stunted nature of Ayurveda. The scientific nature of Ayurveda was not allowed to develop and attain a higher level. No experiments to find the actual ingredients of the medicinal plants and substances and also of the initial surgical concepts of Susruta were abandoned in the process.

At one point the Acharya wanted us to accept what the modern science conceives that everything ultimately found to be energy is the same that our i.e. Brahmin rishis found so far in the past and called it Eswara and Brahma. But the Acharya omitted to say the finding of Brahma did not bring any progress unlike modern science. Modern science found energy and used them in sun rays, ocean waves, in the wind, in water falls, rivers and fossil remains etc.

Reading Acharya’s discourse along with the Dr. Ambedkar’s “Riddles of Hinduism” is an experience. Dr. Ambedkar’s writings show how far removed the thoughts of orthodox Brahmins from not only from the current realities and also from all historical facts. The Acharya assumes that Brahmins and following the other Hindus and non-Hindus developed mental and intellectual faculties so as not to question his discourse on Hinduism. But Dr. Ambedkar questioned the why and where fore the real motives behind the Brahminic contentions from Vedas to Puranas. He did not give any answers to those questions or Riddles as he called them. It is for people like Acharya to answer and explain those Riddles in a rational and scientific manner. Dr. Ambedkar’s Riddles are simple common sense questions arising out of the Brahmin’s claim on Vedas and Puranas.

There are innumerable scholars of Brahmin origin who raised these same questions and tried to answer and explain them. However most of them were modest in their criticism of the tenets of Hinduism as still being expounded by the Acharya.

K.N.Krishnan

Memories

Memory of Brahmin-non Brahmin Kitchen.

"Outlook" dated 17-12-01 had one letter to editor by one R. Sidhartha in Chennai. It was in response to the feature article (26.11.01) by columnist Anita Pratap on the roles of the current Kanchi Swami on "Rebuilding Morals". It was a laudatory article on the activities of Kanchi Swami. The letter recalled the swami’s attitude towards women specifically those who are working and also about widows. The latter also mentioned about a controversy over separate hostels for Brahmins and non-brahmins. Self was utterly surprised to hear about this controversy after about 60 years. I recollect in the year 1941 when the then Madras Govt abolished separate kitchens in the Govt run Maharaja's College of Sanskrit and Tamil studies at Thiruvayaru, Tanjavoor. The Kanchi Swami (or is it Kunbhakonam Swami?) established a separate kitchen for Brahmin students and insisted upon the Brahmin students to boycott the Govt run facility. Not only separate kitchen was insisted upon but living outside the common hostel. Swami also insisted upon Brahmin students using Brahmin dress i.e. no shirts and also Brahmin hair style i.e. shaving the head on front and keeping knotted long hair at the back. The college was catering to very poor Brahmin and non-brahmin students to impart higher studies (degree courses) in these two languages. All the Brahmin students were in Sanskrit section and only non-brahmins entered Tamil courses. However a few non-brahmins from Kerala were in Sanskrit section. I remember a Kerala Christian as one of my class mates.

In 1942 Kanchi Swami (or is it Kunbhakonam swami?) stopped providing meals & accomodation to students who joined the college in 1941-42 season. I was one of the affected but continued to be in the college up to August 9, 1942. The Quit India movement disrupted all civil life specifically the schools and colleges. After leaving the college for good I have no idea as to the further developments in the college. Even today I have no idea whether the college exists today with same & or other facility. It is strange to hear about the same controversy stocked by the current Kanchi Swami who is said to be much modern.

K.N. Krishnan.

Legend and Myth of Devi in Hindu Mythology 12-11-2001

The Sunday Asian Age 11.11.01 featured several articles on the legend and myth of Devi in Hindu mythology. One characterised the Devi as a blood thirsty one mainly in Bengali up to 19th century. This Devi is portrayed a divine for the dacoits. The article recollected several stories of dacoits committing human sacrifice to this bloody Devi before and after committing dacoity. There seem to be several heroic legends about dacoits in Bengal.

Another story is about the installations and perpetuation of Smashan Durga Cremation ground goddess in Delhi on the banks of Yamuna named Nigambodh Ghat. The legend is post independence installed by a RSS man in conjunction with a Namboodiri from Kerala who was made a priest to the Devi. The legend survives even though the priest is dead and no replacement is there for the present.

Another article is about the durga Devi of Calcutta in the past and present day. There are durga temples in the city vicinity where animals are sacrificed on a daily basis and on certain days the number of animals sacrificed go up to 1000 or above.

M S Veenu Sandal a Tarot Card reader has penned a very long tract extolling the mystic of Devi appearing in trance in many female devotees. She makes that a number of instances where devotees act possessed by various devies, mostly based upon locally popular deities. One might recall Kerala experience of trance or velipad of velichappad. In the temples velichappad is a hereditary one, son following father or nephews following uncle. At first the velipad is faked or induced then during the course of time the trance come naturally without much effort psychological ones. According to Mr. Veenu Sandal the common trance is that of Santoshi Maa a Devi produced by the Bollywood film of Jai Santoshi Maa a couple of decades back. This fact goddess building is not mentioned at all; making it out as if the goddess of some ancient one of Hinduism.

Another article unsigned makes out a devout tale out of Devi Bhagawata story of Laxmi. The article says that Laxmi was banished by her husband god Vishnu from Vaikuntam for unspecified fault on her part. The goddess was transformed to be a mare and sent to earth to atone the unspecified sin for unspecified time. The goddess in the form of mare goes on to penance to Shiva. After unspecified period of penance the god Shiva appears before the mare and the dialogue centers on the remedy. According to Laxmi she will be restored to Vishnu after she gives birth to a son but how. Since the husband god is not available Laxmi tells Shiva that he and Vishnu are one and the same and therefore Shiva should bless her with a son. The reasoning is based on other legends. But Shiva did not comply but advises her to wait for Vishnu himself to appear before her as a horse in heat and relieves her from the present condition. The things change and horse Vishnu comes as a horse to redeem his wife. The husband god is not worried that his goddess wife was praying to Shiva.

One more feature was a long excerpt from a book titled Devi by one Bulbul Sharma. Just like every other devotee the author unethically narrates different legends from different puranas as if all of them homogenous by themselves. He narrates the story of churning of the ocean milk by Devas, Asuras and how Devi Laxmi rose out of this churning. Indra's elephant and the divine Kalpavriksha also came out of the churning process. That will mean that both these were not known and therefore not available before churning of the milky ocean. But the legend also says that Durvasa the fiery maharshi was presented with a garland of flowers from Kalpavriksha that in turn the rishi presented to Indra when he was leading a procession on his elephant i.e. Iravatha since a lot of bees were attracted to the flowers in the garland which was placed by Indra on the head of Iravatha. The elephant got irritated and annoyed by the bees and then took the garland and threw on the ground and kicked by his legs. Durvasa got angry at this show of disrespect for his presentation and cursed not only Indra but also all entire group devas. The contradiction so palpable on this episode is completely overlooked by the devout. If Kalpa vriksha and Iravatha were already existed in heaven how did they arose from the milky ocean later? When did they disappear in the ocean after Durvasa curse! Only one or the other can be true. Not both even if the story is puranic. Either the puranic loves are irrational or they are lies.

Similar a case of Vamana & Parasurama avatars. The legend is Vamana subdued Bali the king of kings of Kerala but another legend claims that Kerala was claimed from the ocean god by Parasurama. If the first legend is to be believed, Kerala was there much before the Parasurama so one of these legends is absurd and therefore a lie. It only shows that our legend makers were not concerned about rational of any story. The irony is that both legends are firmly accepted and believed by literate Malayalee. They don't raise any questions about these two legends; instead they proudly proclaim these as their heritage. If some one or other for example foreign religious mission people raise these issues and describe Hinduism as an antiquated and pagan religion, the Hindus of all hues line up behind Hindutva brigades such as VHP in protest. The example is from last year when the American Southern Baptist in which President Clinton was a member. This group published a propaganda tract castigating Hinduism a pagan and backward. The NRI wing of VHP and other parivar in America started protesting and the same was echoed by the Parivar in India as well. Even if the mission finally withdrew its propaganda the fact remain for all to see the hypocrisy and humbug that is being propagated as religious truths by the Sangh parivar as well as their unwilling supporters like the Bulbul Sharma, Veenu Sandal and others. The articles in the Sunday magazine of Asian Age of 11.11.01 is proof that Hindu as a religion is backward

ATHMA

ATHMA.

So let us have a look at this soul that is called athma here. What is it? What is it composed of? What way one could distinguish between a soul and non-soul? There are too many that need answer when talking about soul. The dictionary meaning is ‘Spiritual or Immaterial part of man, moral or emotional or intellectual nature of person’ …. And spirit meaning: ‘concerned with spirit, religion, divine, inspired’…. In short, the soul is not material, that could be perceived by your five senses. You cannot see it, cannot smell it, cannot taste it, cannot hear it and you cannot touch it. Since all these material could be known thru sense organs. Since, soul is not material, it could be perceived in minds which again are not material. Mind is an imaginary construct of the brain. All sensations and perceptions are sent to the brain, are real material object, which in turn co-ordinates the sensations and recognise each and all and send back signals or messages to react or respond appropriately. This is enough and sufficient to know and acknowledge yourself for everything connected with the affairs of life and living. The knowledge of a soul does not in any way alter the fact of life.

A soul is postulated by all religions from primitive days along with a supernatural god. In ancient times man did not understand so many of the natural phenomena whether good or bad weather, the monsoon, the cycle of seasons, thousands or millions of the blinking spots in the sky even behaviour of animals and humans. God and souls tried to answer the unknown. All unknown phenomena was attributed to the two unknown i.e. god and soul. Arousing out of these are heaven and hell and all the paraphernalia constructed by religion. However, religion could be seen as an effort to understand the worldly or natural phenomena at that early days of mankind. But it imparted knowledge, much that was not true because it did not device the methods and tools for testing. All these developed slowly and science took its shape. As the times past religion and science got separated one as false and other as true. There are a good lot of literatures from ancient times that argues and explain both. Among the Semitic religions i.e. Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Soul is postulated only to humans and not to animals and also inanimates. It is science that tells, man also is an animal. Killing animals for food was justified on the basis that animals has no souls to suffer. Both the movements for vegetarianism and animal are of too recent origins that almost recognise a soul for animals.

The Semitic religion also believes on a judgement day in some future. The souls of all the dead are to wait for the day when god will appear and pronounce his judgements, conviction in hell or happy day in heaven. I don’t know whether the judgement is permanent or temporary whether there will be release and if so when and what happens afterward. The subject might have been discussed and answered in their literature but my knowledge is limited. The athmas of the Hindus and soul of the others are not synonymous. For them both animates and in-animates poses souls. This necessitated an assumption of innumerable number of divine souls i.e. gods in many varied form and worship. The Upanishads and philosophy of Vedanta negatived. The concept of many souls or athmas and postulated an all pervasive and composite athma a great one Paramatma. All animate and in-animate beings hold a tiny portion of this Paramathma in the form of an individual athma or self or I. This athma is different from body and mind. The individual athma goes the cycle of birth, life and death and then re-birth in another form or body. This is little complicated to understand. But the belief is strong. It is assumed that the acts- good, bad, indifferent performed in life i.e. Karma govern present, future and in re-birth. One carries the Karma from past births into present life. Accordingly it is an immutable law of life that one has to live thru the effects of past actions or Karma. Relief will come thru the realisation or knowledge of the Paramathma. He becomes one with Paramathma and there is an end to the cycle of birth, death and re-birth. People believe seriously as fact the concept of actions, in past life ‘JANMANTARAM’, written in HEAD-SIROLIKHITAM, punya and paapa i.e. good and evil so on and so forth, and last destiny. Religion has ordered all kinds of rituals at home, in temples, pilgrimages etc. in order to invade and please gods so that the effects of Karma softened and nullified.

The athma Paramathma concept does not recognise or accept a god governing your destiny. Then how does the Hindu accept an innumerable number of gods? The answer is: The ADVAITA concept of an immutable undifferentiated and non-dual Paramathma signifies a higher level of knowledge. There are several at lower levels where appropriate gods are recognised and revered. The BHAGWAT GITA incorporates all these ideas in sufficient manner.

My view in all that is said above is a complete disbelief. All the concepts are permeated with contradictions and confusions. No credible evidence except one’s own blind beliefs and fear of future and uncertainties in present. The proponents themselves claim that minds trained in a particular way like yoga and meditation only are eligible to realise god or Paramathma. That means no ordinary mortal is fated to reach.

To me there is no soul or any athma or any other manifestation that resides in our body and escapes out on death. Matter organised in particular ways thru evolution become both inanimate and animate beings.

There are problems here but they are completely different. The theory of evolution has not yet established all connections. There are recognised gap in knowledge. But whatever is known today show evidence of evolution. Possibly science may discover facts that might fill the gaps or they may not. Such knowledge gap could not be taken for the existence of a god, Atma or Paramatma.

Let us look once again at the phenomena. If there was or is an all pervasive one, how did the material universe manifest? The answer is that ‘One’, willed. If the ‘One’. Willed, it should have a body, mind and brain. When the ‘One’, willed there could not be an ADVAITA or NON-DUAL. After the willing there are more than one being. When beings manifested there was no past life or karma. The past was the undivided ‘one’, were the beings were endowed with minds of their own to act good or bad. How did each being ventured to act since there was no past for any analogy? The life that came out of the ‘ONE’, are so opposed to each other are contradictory in themselves, whoever has willed it must be a mindless moron, a mad and cruel one. Obviously, by manifesting in this he acted. Then what happens to his own Karma i.e. the ‘One’s’? We could go on with more and more questions with no answers forthcoming. Yes, there is an answer says the Advaita Vedanta philosopher. It is all ‘MAYA’ ‘HALLUCINATION’ in our mind. It is a contradiction by itself. Only because we have a mind all things are hallucinations. If mind itself is ‘maya’ how did it create another ‘maya’? There is an apt story in SANSKRIT illustrating this ‘Maya’.

The teacher was teaching students the essence of Vedanta that everything perceived is ‘maya’ that has no reality, existence. Where one day a mad elephant was running thru the street. The teacher and disciples were walking. On seeing the mad elephant all ran for safety. Later the students confronted the teacher about his running away since the elephant was only hallucination not reality. The teacher answered ‘GAJOPI MAYA, PALAYANA MAPI MAYA’, meaning that the elephant was a hallucination, the running (away from) it also hallucination. So life goes on to the HINDUS inspite of all higher philosophy.

There is one aspect about the soul that needs mention. The SEMITIC tradition is that god created the world and all the objects in it in 6 days and took rest on the 7^th day. Did he start again on the 8^th day? We have no idea. But the power of creation is in him. Or did he transfer this power to the man ADAM and the woman EVE? There were only two souls at the beginning. These two beget more as their offsprings and they in turn beget more. From two souls to millions and billions. It seems that the first couples were punished for sex. They sinned and so they were cursed to procreate more sinners. Generations of sinners. Why not stop from giving birth to more sinners? But the same religions that consider birth itself as sin say children are gifts of god. Why not refrain from procreation and stop more and more sinning soul to be born and also reduce the burden of God in making judgements on the day of judgement to come? These dilemmas could not be resolved thru religion.

In case of Hindus it is different. Souls are not born and neither are they to die. Only the body dies while soul remain the same but carrying a luggage of Karma. It may sound that the Hindu has only a finite number of souls and they should decrease since at least some will attain Brahma or Paramatma in one’s life and they will not return according to Bhagawat Gita. Generally after one life the souls take a new birth or form of existence. The logic is that if certain species decline in number that will be because the souls living in those bodies migrated to other higher bodies after death based on their Karma. Similarly, it might also be true that souls living in lower bodies did not do any Karma that makes them to take birth into the decreasing species. It will be purely logical and accords with the Karma of souls if some species get extinct in the process of ‘SAMSARA’. Apply this thought to the recently found decline in the tiger population in India. Why not accept the fact that souls inhabiting tiger bodies escaped to a higher or lower bodies and no soul has enough Karma to be reborn as a tiger. But, you might say that the tigers are killed. But according to BHAGWAT GITA (2: 19-30) no soul or Atma kills or killed. What hypocrisy is exhibited by people who swears by Hindu philosophy but thinks and acts to the contrary? They should have realised that the souls of tigers killed have escaped from the burdens of being tigers. The Hindu should welcome it.

Also my view is that the Karma theory combined with the ADVAITA’S ‘MAYA’ S blocked progress towards scientific thinking in the history of India. In fact there are evidences to establish the beginnings of scientific thinking in ancient times comparable to happening in ancient GREECE. Today we in India are under the spell of KARMA and MAYA peddled by god men and women. Let a time come when we will be free from it all for the good of this country and the generations to come. This much for the time being.