The Pseudo scientific Hinduism

Few friends of mine raised an objection towards my criticism of Islam, and not being equally fair for Christianity or well my own religion- Hinduism. Some even started sharing me the "islam love" photos that how people should treat Muslims "well".  I told them that criticizing a religion and hating a religion are two different things! Also, as some wise men correctly pointed out on twitter and later got shared with Dawkins, "If I hate cancer, it does not  mean I hate people with cancer!" I promised to them that I will do a piece on Hinduism too so here it is!

In the rising wave of secularist world, it is now the trend to market "science" in the religion to make it sell to the gullible.  Although there are also many books and lectures delivered to depict "science" in Christianity and Islam(Yeah its the Zakir Naik who will eat your head!), but in Hinduism it as at a completely different level.

A completely baseless opinion is established and then the all the 'facts' corresponding to the wishful thinking is first presented in a slow manner and suddenly a big leap is taken  just right at the crucial point and the guillible falls prey. It is a matter of strong base that we should stand up to scrutinize these facts when it is thundered down upon us. I find a lot of bad science arguments put in the favor of Hinduism which steals away the spiritual treasure it contains and make it a mechanical practice which seriously needs to be addressed.

Speed of Light is calculated in Vedas more accurately than Einstein did

This is literally the topic of an article. It takes special amount of guts to write, but it seems that the author don't give a damn about the modern science. The claim goes like this-

Ancient Vedic science “Nimisharda” is a phrase used in Indian languages of Sanskrit origin while referring to something that happens/moves instantly, similar to the ‘blink of an eye’. Nimisharda means half of a Nimesa, (Ardha is half).

In Sanskrit ‘Nimisha’ means ‘blink of an eye’ and Nimisharda implies within the blink of an eye. This phrase is commonly used to refer to instantaneous events.

Below is the mathematical calculations of a research done by S S De and P V Vartak on the speed of light calculated using the Rigvedic hymns and commentaries on them.

The fourth verse of the Rigvedic hymn 1:50 (50th hymn in book 1 of rigveda) is as follows:

तरणिर्विश्वदर्शतो जयोतिष्क्र्दसि सूर्य | विश्वमा भासिरोचनम |

taraNir vishvadarshato jyotishkrdasi surya | vishvamaa bhaasirochanam ||

which means:

“Swift and all beautiful art thou, O Surya (Surya=Sun), maker of the light, Illumining all the radiant realm.”

Commenting on this verse in his Rigvedic commentary, Sayana who was a minister in the court of Bukka of the great Vijayanagar Empire of Karnataka in South India (in early 14th century) says:

“ tatha ca smaryate yojananam. sahasre dve dve sate dve ca yojane ekena nimishardhena kramaman.” which means “It is remembered here that Sun (light) traverses 2,202 yojanas in half a nimisha”

NOTE: Nimisharda= half of a nimisha.

In the vedas Yojana is a unit of distance and Nimisha is a unit of time.

Unit of Time: Nimesa.

The Moksha dharma parva of Shanti Parva in Mahabharata describes Nimisha as follows: 15 Nimisha = 1 Kastha.

30 Kashta = 1 Kala,

30.3 Kala = 1 Muhurta,

30 Muhurtas = 1 Diva-Ratri (Day-Night),

We know Day-Night is 24 hours So we get 24 hours = 30 x 30.3 x 30 x 15 nimisha, in other words 409050 nimisha.

We know 1 hour = 60 x 60 = 3600 seconds.

So 24 hours = 24 x 3600 seconds = 409050 nimisha.

409050 nimesa = 86,400 seconds,

1 nimesa = 0.2112 seconds (This is a recursive decimal! Wink of an eye=.2112 seconds!).

½ nimesa = 0.1056 seconds.

Unit of Distance:

Yojana Yojana is defined in Chapter 6 of Book 1 of the ancient vedic text “Vishnu Purana” as follows:-

10 ParamAnus = 1 Parasúkshma,

10 Parasúkshmas = 1 Trasarenu,

10 Trasarenus = 1 Mahírajas (particle of dust),

10 Mahírajas= 1 Bálágra (hair’s point),

10 Bálágra = 1 Likhsha,

10 Likhsha= 1 Yuka,

10 Yukas = 1 Yavodara (heart of barley),

10 Yavodaras = 1 Yava (barley grain of middle size),

10 Yava = 1 Angula (1.89 cm or approx ¾ inch),

6 fingers = 1 Pada (the breadth of it),

2 Padas = 1 Vitasti (span),

2 Vitasti = 1 Hasta (cubit),

4 Hastas = a Dhanu,

1 Danda, or paurusa (a man’s height),

or 2 Nárikás = 6 feet,

2000 Dhanus = 1 Gavyuti (distance to which a cow’s call or lowing can be heard) = 12000 feet 4 Gavyutis = 1 Yojana = 9.09 miles

Calculation: So now we can calculate what is the value of the speed of light in modern units based on the value given as 2202 Yojanas in ½ Nimesa = 2202 x 9.09 miles per 0.1056 seconds = 20016.18 miles per 0.1056 seconds = 189547 miles per second !! 

First of all, they contradicted their own title. The speed of light is NOT mentioned in the Vedas but the attempt of indicating it is done by Sayana who was a courtier in 14th century while commenting on the RigVeda.. Then, the source of "nimisharda" is questionable. One myth takes value from ArthaShastra and another like this takes from Mahabharata. BOTH are NOT mathematical textbooks. Plus, the value of the unit "Nimesha" is questionable. I literally spent 3 hours straight trying to figure out the mathematical values they derived from the scratch and found out that it gives out contradicting values. Also the blink of an eye is not 0.2112 s, it is around 300 milliseconds but ofcourse this value which is calculated by "modern science" will not be used because the desired result will not be obtained. They just knew the final value and then inserted back the units to as to come to "close enough" answer. Also, the value of "Nimesha" arrived through the system of Vedic units, the value is 0.43 s. Funny, because they are not using the value which is mentioned in Vedas(and Wikipedia) to derive at the conclusion of what Vedas say!

Then again, why on earth would Sayana state a fact of such high importance in a so casual manner? The whole context of the phrase also is not presented. Plus, the verse is about Sun, and not light. And Science have to declare what are the methods which were used to come at the value, rather than just dabbling with figures.


                                        

Distance between Sun and Earth is Mentioned in “Hanuman Chalisa”- An Ancient Prayer

This is just a crazy one. Even Amitabh Bachchan tweeted about it once.

Two lines of Hindu Prayer ” Hanuman Chalisa” computes this distance with great simplicity.

“! जुग सहस्त्र योजन पर भानु, लील्यो ताहिमधुर फल जानू !”

This means that Sun (भानु) is at a distance of  Juug Sahastra Yojans (जुग सहस्त्र योजन- Distance Unit in Hindi)

According to following conversion practices that are in use as per Hindu Vedic Literature-

1 Juug = 12000

1 Sahastra= 1000

1 Yojan = 8 Miles

Thus

12000 X 1000 X 8 =  96,000,000  miles

1 mile = 1.6 kms

This further implies that distance is  96,000,000 * 1.6 kms = 153,600,000 Kms

 Before, my readers go further, I would like to go back and read the statement again. If you cannot point out the mitake, then either you are blind or didn't study Physics well. They multiplied time with distance to get distance! Jug is a unit of time(Also, the value 12000 is questionable because we don't know if it's Deva's years or human years) and Yojan is a unit of distance. They just multiplied them together because OH Why Not?

Also, funny that Yojana now became 8 miles. When they had to prove about the speed of light, Yojana was 9 miles.

Throwing coins in rivers

There is a tradition to throw coins in order to get your wish fullfilled. But may be these proponents have a rather brilliant wish- May people believe my nonsense.

The general reasoning given for this act is that it brings Good Luck. However, scientifically speaking, in the ancient times, most of the currency used was made of copper unlike the stainless steel coins of today. Copper is a vital metal very useful to the human body. Throwing coins in the river was one way our fore-fathers ensured we intake sufficient copper as part of the water as rivers were the only source of drinking water. Making it a custom ensured that all of us follow the practice.

Simple chemistry will tell you that Copper, like most metals undergo oxidation and it will form a protective layer over it so the coin won't let release copper for long time and it is a waste of- MONEY!. Also, I think drinking water in a copper vessel would be a lot useful method rather than making this stupid custom and wait for the lineages to realize the 'actual importance' of this years later!

Wait a second! They said river! River! River! River! How on Earth will throwing coins in the river which flows will make you intake the metal? Bad science as well as Bad logic Booooo........!

And this is just not it. They have all kinds of woo laden "Science" behind the namaskaram(acupressure for removing germs and also you can stay away from the germs of others ) , and by touching feet, how you can "transfer" the "energy" from one man to another(shaking hands gives germs but touching feet doesn't. Because "circuits" and "cosmic waves"), or whether kumkum is a sniper target for all the "peaceful energies" of the cosmos, and how we it turns out the plants and trees we worship like Tulsi and Peepal(Sorry, Neem bruh I feel for you!) are extremely important for their medicinal purposes(I thought ancient Hindus did it the other way around) and so on. Ayurveda propounders have practically convinced the public that everything which is natural is good for health and everything which is made through "western"(yeah in India we divide Science too!) science is bad and is a conspiracy to rob off the India from its wealth. In a lot of research conducted Ayurveda does not seems to be so effective anything more than a placebo. Yes, the herbs are of certain value and the credit seriously goes to the one who discovered them but Science actually works on them to tune up their qualities so that they are more beneficial. Although I don't see much harm in Ayurveda(and it is not as silly as Homeopathy) but blindly believing it will not take you anywhere. As I always point out, Hinduism is great, only if you care enough to understand it. It is vast and deep and magical. But I like to separate spiritual treasures like Upanishads and Geeta as Dharmic and  Vedanta literature to not club them up with some nonsense like this.

Since the New Age people are more popular with their crap like The Secret and quantum woo, you probably won't find these myths in the Internet you use. But, due to some past life "Karma" if you happen to come across things like Vyamanika Shastra(inspite of being proven wrong again and again) you are aware. 

No, I am not ridiculing any tradition nor undermining it. I consider that the tradition should be preserved through honest means and for it is, rather than being guided by magical thinking. One more thing, my dear friend has started a technical blog where he is writing about his projects and he will be sharing the Arduino cookbook by Jeremy Blum if you subscribe him here-  The Free Electron

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Essay - “A man with no inner life is a slave to his surroundings”

The basic most vital difference between human and machines is that humans have feelings. Although the advancements in the robotics and the world of intelligent machines haven’t reached its full potential for commercial purposes, still it is safe to even discuss the differences between the two.  

It’s no wrong to take pride in what we have been gifted with. We should be proud that we can feel, we can think, we can aspire and we can be happy. This elixir of life with which we are blessed with is undeniably the most precious possession. But the meaning of it remains so entangled in our brains that it seems like an endless loop. In the fierce competition of running ahead of everyone else, have we really understood the meaning of life?

            "A man with no inner life is  a slave to his surroundings"

This famous quote by Henri Frederic Amiel introspects about the inner life, its power and possibilities. The “inner” life he mentioned might be pertaining to the alternative of your brain with which everyone else is aware of, or maybe your conscience, or maybe even your spiritual being. But before we consider ourselves eligible for this discussion, we should be able to clearly demarcate between the two form of lives, shall we?

It’s a kid’s play to tell that the “outer” life of yours is exactly what people outside you, see of you or rather what you want to show them. With this what immediately follows is that everything inside you, cannot be shown to everybody, and that is why the segregation.

“Choice of attention - to pay attention to this and ignore that - is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases, a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences, whatever they may be.”                                                 

-          W.H. Auden

Youngsters destroy their lives in doing all what includes they think which comes under “party” and “enjoyment”. It is not that those things are really harmful, but it is the overexposure to it which is without having a solid base built. Once you have a strong base, you can build anything on it otherwise you will be demolished. The inner life provides this base.  A strong person has a strong inner life which helps him to build a strong base on which he builds his own glory. Without the base, everything is self-destructive.

Inner life may include your sub-conscious, your relevance or to simply frame it, your spirit (spiritual energy). It is actually built over as your knowledge grows; your intellect grows and as your opinions grows. But knowledge shouldn’t be confused with knowing/learning of something which was already there. You have only realized it, not know it. Your realization about it is irrelevant to its own existence. And that is why knowledge which is gained through merely realizing isn’t sufficient. It always remains incomplete.

 People get disheartened through some disrespectful words spoken to them. They want to reject those words, they cannot. They even sometimes want to accept them, but they cannot. Then their heart seeks peace, it struggles to comply with them and after sometimes it starts to despise them. The shift of emotions is most of the times negligible but it is still there, and there are equal amount of chances for that emotion to turn into rage. We humans are adroit at shifting emotions.

But people never understand that it is the highest form of derogatory in itself that some external words coming from some external person with very less knowledge about you were actually able to twist your emotions which should have been completely under your control. This is the highest form of slavery you can experience. A person with no inner life experiences this form of slavery. He is vulnerable to almost all kinds of irregularities and disturbances happening outside him. That is a never ending prison.

A person with no original feelings, no opinion of his own is literally termed as a slave right?

The life which we are leading is a twisted path with no guide around. Yes, our parents do that for a bit but in the long run it is our decisions that matter. The only way to keep moving forward is to have a fixed direction. Inner life helps you to find that. Outer life cannot guide us; it is just a reflection of you which is visible to the surroundings. But your inner life is actually the reflection of your surroundings to your heart. Once you turn your eyes towards this mirror, everything which your mortal eyes perceive automatically becomes crystal clear.

A delirious mind without a sturdy base, without a strong inner life never stays in present. It either roams in the gloomy clutches of past or struggles to finding the right path in a paradoxical web of roads to a safe future. But life is nowhere in past and doesn’t exists in the future. It is right NOW, this very moment. We should learn to accept that neither we can predict future, nor we can secure our future. We can only welcome it, embrace it with our prepared hands. Your inner life helps you to attain this peace.

The power of revolt comes from within you, not from your projection. It’s the zeal which comes from beneath you. Desire, hunger, generosity, etc are the characteristics of your inner life and indirectly of yourself. The moment you give a discrete and respectful attitude to your inner life, your entire identity in itself glorifies. So, let this demarcation flourish and you will experience astounding moments of happiness. Otherwise, it is highly unlikely that you will want to be remained a slave as well, forever.

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Why I am against religion but why I don't think it should be removed completely.

We are living in a world of illusion, a dream. Whatever we do, see is through the goggles of our own self, our own perception and the worst part is that we cannot escape it. We do not know what it is like to see without any bias. Except you are a child, you will see everything with a bias of whether right or wrong, pleasant or unpleasant. This is how we have evolved and this is the thing by which we could come so far and survive ourselves. But this is also a cage. A closed room, however comfortable with air conditioners, video games, entertainment facilities and all that, is still a prison. You can enjoy it for sometime but at some point you will start getting lonely. You will slowly realize that in the illusion of this temporary happiness you have done nothing but captured yourself. This is what we have done. We are now a prisoner of our own thoughts, our own perception and it has become so close, and we have adjusted ourselves so much that we even cannot think of life being any other way than this. Our "mental self".If somebody forcefully lock you down, that's a different thing but here you have allowed your mind to takeover wilfully. You have locked yourself and swallowed down the key. Now your mind has conquered you too deep that you feel nothing wrong about it. You consider your mind as your own self. This is the biggest illusion and this is maya what ancient Indians talked about.

We as a mankind have built our life around this mental self. We do whatever it takes to make it happy thinking that "we" are getting happy. And we went to deeper and deeper mess. One more thing we invented to make this mental self more secure and happy was religion. It should be noted that the oldest religion- Hinduism was never a religion. It was a culture and philosophy. The ancient Indians just observed the life around them with great insight and sought to expand their views. India was a Godless country. Even the Vedas take an Agnostic position. They claimed they did not know who created this Universe or even whether a creator is required. Vedas only talk about the gods of nature. Their mythology included "forces" of nature. That's it. Ancient Egyptians also worshiped Ra who was nothing other than Sun. Then came the philosophies which were clearly atheistic(but not materialistic, you can call it pantheistic) which were filled with wisdom and tremendous insight. Even now people read them with great wonder. Upanishads were again great literature. Mystics who renounced their materialistic life and meditated heavily would sometimes come to consciousness and speak. Their disciples wrote it down and it became Upanishads. They are one of the most beautiful literature man ever wrote. Then ancient Indians started theology with a point to induce morality in the growing population. Then we had invasions and the invaders called the strange people living in India as "Hindus". There was no such thing as religion. It was a varied amount of culture with ethical values and great insight. The society was developed well ahead of their time. Invaders brought their own religion. And all the horseshit began.

The more and more we went away from nature, the more and more hallucinated we became. We started associating ourselves with thoughts. Religion was developed all around it. We did not do it because it was a correct path or anything, it was just that the founders of the religion tried to implement their own ideologies and nonsense to a larger number of people. Parents do that every time but only to their children. Some so called "prophets" tried to implement it on everybody they knew. They were just blind rules laid down in order to sustain the culture and people. One more purpose was to unite the people under one name. They were trying hard to protect people but they had no insight whatsoever. I like Christ. He was a true saint but I don't think he laid down Christianity as we know it. He just taught people to have faith in the God of Bible but laid down new and fresh teachings. His disciples wrote his account and formed Christianity. Then they inserted all his teachings back to Bible and thought that he was son of God. Surprisingly, there is even not a concrete amount of evidence apart from Bible that Jesus even existed at all and even the Shroud of Turin was a fake. Some Hindu fanatics believe that Jesus survived Crucifixion and lived the rest of his entire life in India. The modern Hindu fanatics have a habit, they point out every other religions or spiritual thought as having an origin in India itself. This story was made famous by Ashwin Sanghi. Some people believe him. If he is not viewed as a fiction writer, he is just one of the biggest woo-seller India ever produced after Deepak Chopra. He talks nothing but woo and his book "Krishna Key" is a guide to pseudoscience. It was a great book, though lol. Atleast Ashwin maintains his position as a fiction writer and he is amazing at that but Deepak is just outright charlatan. There is even a story that the story of Jesus is actually derived from the story of Krishna. Indians always dream about themselves being source of spirituality in the entire world never bothering to even try to know what that spirituality actually was. But, there are stories everywhere. The Zeitgist crap tells us that Jesus character is derived from the ancient Egyptian mythology. Ahh, lets not discuss theology anyway. There is nothing in it to be expert about. I am not making any claim but all these things are seriously beyond the grasp of my rational mind.

Then there is Islam. Let me say it very clearly, Islam is the worst thing mankind ever produced. And its the stupidest of all religions. I say that in your face, now do whatever you want. Contrary to what I may look, I am not Islamophobic or a Muslim hater. Criticizing Islam and hating Islam are two different things. But I am not even criticizing, I am just saying the truth. Quran has no morality in it whatsoever and contains terribly horrendous things. It practically teaches Muslims to follow bigotry and firmly believe that Islam is the truest religion and "fight the unbelievers". Few Islamic pseudo-scholars cherry pick some "goooood" verses from Quran and say "Hey look that's Islam". The only "good" things which Quran talks about is in fact so basic that even a 5 year old can tell you. Its morality is nothing more than what a 5 year old would have to say. And then there are so horrible things mentioned that it is not practical to describe in a single post. And Hadith is even more worse. Jesus Christ was a saint and in spite of Bible containing already many terrible things like slavery and killing(the level of which was raised by Quran) Jesus did a good job in raising the consciousness of the people. I loved his teachings. But he was heavily misinterpreted by his followers and the ignorants but Christianity really evolved to suit practical purposes. But when it comes to Mohammed, I don't think he was enlightened, I don't think he was even anywhere near being "spiritual". He was just a confused man and he had a hallucination while meditating in a cave that he met with an angel. He realised some spiritual truths which he never stressed upon. He was more interested in politics and he created the religion to expand the empire under one name. Quran clearly says that a Muslim is not allowed to marry a married woman but is free to do so to his women slave. Wait a minute, Islam teaches that you can have a slave, a women slave and you cannot marry a married women but you are free to have sex with your slaves even if they are married already and the sex has no limitation. And there are more than 1.6 billion people who consider Quran as the "perfect word of God". It is not that I am anti-Muslim. I like Muslim people just as much as anybody but I don't think their religion makes any sense or is relevant today. Its just that I hate cancer but I don't hate people with cancer. Islam and other religions were important for a certain period of time. Now, it isn't(clearly).

Hinduism although is very tolerant is not that great. The evil practices although not mentioned in the ancient texts were invented according to the situations. The invaders used to carry along the women of the warriors hence they invented Sati. And who don't know atrocious criminal activities like dowry and infanticide? Also the Bhakti Movement turned every philosophy and mythical figure to worship able objects without understanding the true nature behind it.

But religion has many advantages considering we KNOW that it is man made. We can go to mosque, bow down there and just feel the atmosphere. At least Muslims are rational enough to believe till now that their God is shapeless and heavily criticize idol worship. But idol worship has its own advantages and they are actually practical. For me, it does not matter whether you are worshiping a stone or idols made in somebody's image. They all are bullshit. But you cannot live your life satisfied with only materialistic gains, a time comes when a person says "enough" and he runs for these places. These places of worship have tremendous adavantages. Just go there and feel the calm atmosphere, that's it. Atheists don't like to go there. They believe they have figured it all out and does not feel like going around these places. Theists have their own "look around you, its so beautiful" logic and atheists have their science and rationality. For me, both are useless. One say there is a God, other say there is no God. Both do not know what is God. God or the True Self the one consciousness is beyond the plane of intellect and cannot be known through logical arguments. This "consciousness" was heavily misused by the New Agers to produce stupid theories like Law of Attraction and pseudo scientific explanations "vibrations", "universal consciousness", "ocean of consciousness" and all that. The core meaning behind it is actually something else but due to the constraint of the English language, they have to do it, its not their fault. But the fact is that most of the new age spiritual talkers don't know what they are talking about. And whenever you listen any spiritual talker talking about "quantum physics", its a high woo alert. Skeptics happily debunk it and spiritual talkers have nothing in defense to say. This is what happens when you mix spirituality with science. Science is a thought process and no process constrained by thought can discover what is beyond thoughts. Its not that they both are different things but they are different dimensions of life. There is no comparison between them, both are for experience, feeling and knowledge. That's all it's about. Religion tries to answer the questions which science had to. It talks about origin of Universe and life which are wrong. Spirituality has nothing to do with them, they are in zone of science. Spirituality teaches you to be in one with what there is. Without being biased and lays out ways to come out of the illusion of the mind matrix. Contrary to this, religion is actually build around this matrix thinking that that is is "soul". There is no such thing as soul. The brain produces the mind. Your "self" is nothing but a bag of chemicals. After death it will vanish and only the consciousness will remain which is eternal. Which is "neither born, nor dies". At low level of consciousness person thinks that he is body. But body always changes, something which changes cannot be "me". Then at somewhat higher level he thinks that self is mind. But on a close observation you will find that mind is not stationary, it changes according to circumstances. Then at even higher level, one starts detaching oneself from mind and this is where he reaches the awakened state where he realises everything is just One whole separated through illusion of space and time.

Atheists discard religion. This is also wrong. Everything is for a certain experience and everything is necessary. It brings hope between people, it's just that religion needs to be more flexible and open to evolution according to needs. Bible, Vedas, Upanishads will come and go. You will remain, you have to go through the infinite journey of life in different different forms and body. Its futile to stick to them. They are not any scientific books nor do they accurately answer about the origins of the worlds.I think anyone is entitles to believe whatever they like to in their own personal walls but what literally concerns me is that they put their blind faith in some age old religious books which they call "scriptures" which have been proven wrong again and again, written by stone age people out of their ignorance and being repeatedly proven as pack of lies. But instead of throwing away these books for the trash they are, they continue to accept it. Then they turn paranoid and disregard anything against it to be "conspiracies" to turn down their culture and think it is a "test", And they explain the obvious contradictions with some pseudo-logic and nonsense and easily get away with it and attempt to explain ambiguous verses as scientific facts. "Science in Vedas", "Science in Quran", "Science in Bible" when deeply investigated have been proven wrong again and again yet people blindly follow them as the highest authority and build their lifestyle around them.Vedas are pointing towards the sky but you are just holding the fingers. You have hold the finger too tight and you are not looking to what that finger actually points to.

Completely removing religion is like throwing away something just because it was not properly practiced. Religion only tells wrong stories about the real concepts. Just the explanations are wrong, but the concepts are right. Completely removing religion will be of no use. Its the religion which motivates man to search beyond without the power of science. It just that people need to know that they themselves invent it. I am against religion but I am not against religiousness. 

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