This is a translation of Amritabindu Upanishad, as faithful as I can make it, no attempt is made to interpret it in any manner. I have always felt that the study of the Upanishads should be done without relaying on their commentaries to ensure your personal participation in the study. Otherwise you would be following the ideas of others regarding the Upanishad rather than the Upanishad itself. That way lays bondage which the texts are trying so hard to get you out of.
I have omitted the “Santhipatham” of the text beginning with “Bhadram Karnebhi…” from my translation. It is a prayer to various deities or an invocation of peace to help the seekers achieve their objective of learning the ultimate truth without any hindrance.
Enjoy the text and meditate on it. It will give you an insight into what meditation is all about.
1. The mind is chiefly spoken as of two kinds, pure and impure. The impure mind is desire-ridden, and the pure is free of desire.
2. Undoubtedly it is the mind that is the cause of man’s liberation and bondage. The mind that is attached to sense objects leads to bondage, while that which is free from them leads to liberation. So they think.
3. Since liberation is for the mind free from sense-objects, the mind should always be made clean of such desire, by the seeker of truth.
4. Once this is accomplished and the mind is fully controlled within the heart (the heart chakra is one of the favorite centers of meditation-Translator) it realizes its own essence. Then the supreme state is obtained.
5. The mind should be controlled till it gets fully merged in the heart. This is Jnana (realization) and this is Dhyana (meditation) also, all else are mere talk and word play
6. The supreme state is neither to be thought of (as it is beyond thought), nor unworthy to be thought of (as it is the only method of release), nor is It to be thought of in any other manner than the essence of the ever visible, timeless, supreme bliss itself. Truth which is free from all entanglement is reached in this state.
7. First concentrate on OM with its letters( that is on AUM, the meaning would be roughly like this A= creative force, U= sustaining force , M= destructive force or in essence the visible reality in all its aspects contained in the word OM- Translator), then graduate to OM without regard to its letters. When the later form of meditation becomes fruitful, the idea of non-entity is attained as entity.
8. that alone is Reality, without component parts, without doubt, and without taint. Realizing I am that Reality one becomes immutable Reality
9. The Real is endless, beyond reason and analogy, beyond all proofs and causeless; knowing which the wise person becomes free.
10 The highest truth is that pure consciousness which realizes, “ There is neither control of mind nor it is coming into play, neither am I bound, nor am I a worshipper, neither am I a seeker after liberation, nor one who has attained liberation.”
11. Actually the soul should be known from its states of wakefulness, dreaming, and dreamless sleep. For him who has transcended the three states there is no rebirth.
12. Being the only One, the universal soul is present in all beings. Though One, it is seen as many, like the moon in the water.
13. Just as it is the vessel which being moved from one place to another which changes place and not the space enclosed in it, so is the jiva which resembles that space.
14. When the various forms like the vessel are broken repeatedly the Space (Akasha /ether) does not know them to be broken, but He knows perfectly
15. Being covered by Maya which is a mere sound, it does not know Space (The reality), through darkness, When ignorance is shredded, It by virtue of being Itself, only sees unity in everything.
16. The OM as Word is first looked upon as the Supreme reality. After that (the word idea) has vanished, that timeless reality remains. The wise person should meditate on that imperishable reality, if he desires the peace of his soul.
17. These two kinds of learning ought to be understood, the Word (physical) Reality and the Supreme Reality. Having mastered the Word Reality One attains to the highest Reality
18. After studying the Vedas (that is recorded knowledge) the intelligent person who is solely intent on acquiring knowledge and realization should discard the Vedas altogether, like the man who discards husk to obtain rice?
19. The milk is always white even though cows are of diverse colures. The intelligent person regards Jnana (learning) as the milk and the many branched Vedas as the cows.
20. Like butter hidden in milk, pure consciousness resides in every being. That ought to be constantly churned out by the churning rod of the mind.
21. The Supreme reality should be brought out like fire by taking hold of the rope of knowledge. “I am that Reality, indivisible, immutable, and calm”, thus it is thought of.
22. In whom reside all beings, and who resides in all beings by virtue of his being the giver of grace to all- I am that soul of the universe, the Supreme being, I am that Soul of the Universe the Supreme being.
This Upanishad is often linked to Yajurveda (one of the four Vedas) or more precisely to Krishna Yajurveda. Yet the “Santhipatham” (prayer at the beginning) belongs to Upanishads originating from Atbara Veda.
Considered from the point of view of the subject matter this is an Upanishad on Yoga, it is also a comparatively new Upanishad. Other Upanishads belonging to the same category are Varaha, Yogasikha, Yogathathva, Kshurika, Sandilya, and Hamsa.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Behind Mango Magic
It needed a book by Ormond Magill to show me how the famous Indian Mango Tree Trick is performed. I had always wondered how it is done especially having had the occasion to watch it performed by a street magician several times.
Like every one else I too am curious about magic tricks and magicians though I always have had a suspicion that there were some hidden techniques behind every magic trick. As long as we are not aware of them we would wonder at the magician and his trick. I remember once watching a street magician throwing up a few metal rings in the air in my childhood. The rings disappeared in to the canopy of the tree above, they never came back. I stood there till the end of the show to see if the rings would come back, they never did and I was the last one to leave the place. This made me confused for long time till I learned how it is done. Let me tell you this is no mean trick. It requires a definite amount will power and imagination on the part of the magician to project the rings like that in broad day light and make people believe in what he wanted them to believe. It requires hard training and belief in oneself. It was no mean feat.
A level of hypnosis is used to do such things. This is what is known as the “eye deception” techniques or binding of eyes. A person with a strong imagination can make it happen. Even will power is not highly required once you master the trick. It consists of a strong suggestion aimed at the minds of the viewers to see what the performer wishes them to see. To do this one need to visualize the entire process of the rings going up in the sky and disappearing. By strenuous practice one can do it.
But ordinary magic tricks are not done in the same manner. Take card tricks for example. They are merely tricks by manipulation of the cards in hand. In Mondo magic, a recent hit show on AXN, both the performers show a pack of cards to the TV viewers and bending them back and flipping the cards backwards they ask us to pick one card from the pack in your sight. They would later correctly tell us the card we selected. It would appear strange how they manage to come up with the card every single time. As you would have probably guessed, they manipulate the pack before showing it to you so that one card would remain a few second longer in your memory than the others. You will have to pick on it whether you like it or not, since the other cards are flipped back faster than you can pick on.
I started to describe to you the secret of the Mango Tree trick of India. It really is a fascinating trick, mostly performed by street magicians. The performance is like this. The magician takes out a mango seed from his pocket and circulates it among the viewers. It is a genuine seed; hard and fresh there is no trick in it. Then the magician goes on to collect a bit of mud from the surrounding area and prepares to plant the mango seed in it, sometimes he would also allow one of the spectators to plant it, further enhancing the mystery of the performance. Then he waters it and covers it with a cloth. Nothing suspicious up to now. He will then proceed to insert his hands inside the cloth after showing that both hands are empty and begins some magical rites to make the mango tree grow. After a little while he removes the cloth and shows the spectators how much it has grown. The spectators are dumbfounded as they witness that the mango has budded and a few leaves are coming out of the ground. The magician covers it again and begins his magical rites again. Every time he removes the cloth the tree has grown more and finally the tree becomes at least one foot tall and it has a few mangoes as well!
When you see it first you are dumbfounded. There is a street magician in our land who does it. He does not know how to read or write. (He says he has never entered a school in his life other than to take shelter from rain!) But his street performance is masterly. Perhaps he is the only practicing magician doing the trick now. You would find it hard to believe if you had witnessed the performance without knowing how it is done. I was as mystified as the rest how it is done till I chanced across a book by Ormond Magill which describes several such tricks in detail, including the great Indian rope trick, which of course is not a trick at all and is done with magical force of suggestion.
The mango trick consists of taking a mango seed and carving the inner parts out and inserting a mango sapling in it. The seeds of some mango trees are big and the mango leaves and saplings do not show any signs of wear and tear when inserted into small spaces and then unfolded. This is the reason why mango trees and seeds alone are always used in this trick. The sapling with the leaves are carefully folded into the seed and extracted by the magician as he works the magical rites under the cloth covering it. The seed would look split when you see it next with the sapling coming out of it. Of course this is not the seed shown and examined by the spectators. The seed inserted by the spectator would be still inside the mud if examined. The magician cunningly inserts the prepared seed into the lump of mud and slowly extracts the sapling talking and performing histrionics all the while. To a good performer introducing several variations to the technique is not impossible.
I have seen it performed before and after I learned about the technique and I must say that I was impressed both times, Earlier with the wonder of it and then later with the finesse of the performance.
Like every one else I too am curious about magic tricks and magicians though I always have had a suspicion that there were some hidden techniques behind every magic trick. As long as we are not aware of them we would wonder at the magician and his trick. I remember once watching a street magician throwing up a few metal rings in the air in my childhood. The rings disappeared in to the canopy of the tree above, they never came back. I stood there till the end of the show to see if the rings would come back, they never did and I was the last one to leave the place. This made me confused for long time till I learned how it is done. Let me tell you this is no mean trick. It requires a definite amount will power and imagination on the part of the magician to project the rings like that in broad day light and make people believe in what he wanted them to believe. It requires hard training and belief in oneself. It was no mean feat.
A level of hypnosis is used to do such things. This is what is known as the “eye deception” techniques or binding of eyes. A person with a strong imagination can make it happen. Even will power is not highly required once you master the trick. It consists of a strong suggestion aimed at the minds of the viewers to see what the performer wishes them to see. To do this one need to visualize the entire process of the rings going up in the sky and disappearing. By strenuous practice one can do it.
But ordinary magic tricks are not done in the same manner. Take card tricks for example. They are merely tricks by manipulation of the cards in hand. In Mondo magic, a recent hit show on AXN, both the performers show a pack of cards to the TV viewers and bending them back and flipping the cards backwards they ask us to pick one card from the pack in your sight. They would later correctly tell us the card we selected. It would appear strange how they manage to come up with the card every single time. As you would have probably guessed, they manipulate the pack before showing it to you so that one card would remain a few second longer in your memory than the others. You will have to pick on it whether you like it or not, since the other cards are flipped back faster than you can pick on.
I started to describe to you the secret of the Mango Tree trick of India. It really is a fascinating trick, mostly performed by street magicians. The performance is like this. The magician takes out a mango seed from his pocket and circulates it among the viewers. It is a genuine seed; hard and fresh there is no trick in it. Then the magician goes on to collect a bit of mud from the surrounding area and prepares to plant the mango seed in it, sometimes he would also allow one of the spectators to plant it, further enhancing the mystery of the performance. Then he waters it and covers it with a cloth. Nothing suspicious up to now. He will then proceed to insert his hands inside the cloth after showing that both hands are empty and begins some magical rites to make the mango tree grow. After a little while he removes the cloth and shows the spectators how much it has grown. The spectators are dumbfounded as they witness that the mango has budded and a few leaves are coming out of the ground. The magician covers it again and begins his magical rites again. Every time he removes the cloth the tree has grown more and finally the tree becomes at least one foot tall and it has a few mangoes as well!
When you see it first you are dumbfounded. There is a street magician in our land who does it. He does not know how to read or write. (He says he has never entered a school in his life other than to take shelter from rain!) But his street performance is masterly. Perhaps he is the only practicing magician doing the trick now. You would find it hard to believe if you had witnessed the performance without knowing how it is done. I was as mystified as the rest how it is done till I chanced across a book by Ormond Magill which describes several such tricks in detail, including the great Indian rope trick, which of course is not a trick at all and is done with magical force of suggestion.
The mango trick consists of taking a mango seed and carving the inner parts out and inserting a mango sapling in it. The seeds of some mango trees are big and the mango leaves and saplings do not show any signs of wear and tear when inserted into small spaces and then unfolded. This is the reason why mango trees and seeds alone are always used in this trick. The sapling with the leaves are carefully folded into the seed and extracted by the magician as he works the magical rites under the cloth covering it. The seed would look split when you see it next with the sapling coming out of it. Of course this is not the seed shown and examined by the spectators. The seed inserted by the spectator would be still inside the mud if examined. The magician cunningly inserts the prepared seed into the lump of mud and slowly extracts the sapling talking and performing histrionics all the while. To a good performer introducing several variations to the technique is not impossible.
I have seen it performed before and after I learned about the technique and I must say that I was impressed both times, Earlier with the wonder of it and then later with the finesse of the performance.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Tao Te Ching and the Upanishads
The Tao Te Ching and the Upanishads are so similar that they seem the same to me often. I do not know whether there have been any such comparisons before in these lines, but it seems more than likely, for the likeness are so pronounced. These are the thoughts which came to mind when I recently looked into them again. To me it appears that the two systems have lot in common though they evolved at slightly different geographical regions and cultural backgrounds of the Asian mainland.
From the very first declaration of Ching the striking resemblances jumps to our eye.
“The Tao that can be told
Is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.”
It is not much different from “na vagachathi, no mano” (1.3) of Kena Upanishad. What the Upanishad says is this “the final truth is not reached by the words and it can not be reached by the mind.” The opening lines of Tao Te Ching almost replicate it.
There are other similar references in the Upanishads of this quality of the unqualified too. “Yato vacha nivarthanthe aprapya manasa saha.” (Taitiriyam. Anuvaka 4.1) is one such. It translates this way. “Where the words turn back, that which can not be approached by even the mind.” You can easily replace Tao with Brahma in any of the Ching verses. Such are the similarities that I often mistake some verses of Tao Te Ching to be that of the Upanishads when I see them out of context somewhere.
And again in the later verses it is said:
“Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.”
In the same manner the Upanishads presents a picture:
“Here is a picture at the base of a pepul tree.
The master looks young while all the students seem wizened.
The silence of the master is the interpretation
The students sit with their doubts removed”
Then again the Ching echoes the Nasadeeya Suktha of the Veda’s. First here is what the Ching says:
“Reach, and it can’t be grasped.
Above, it isn’t bright.
Below, it isn’t dark.
Seamless, unnamable,
it returns to the realm of nothing.
Form that includes all forms,
image without an image,
subtle, beyond all conception.”
And here comes a loose translation of the Suktha:
“There was neither reality, nor unreality
There was neither energy nor breath
Who has covered the immense space?
Who has shrouded the sky …?”
And so on. I have always felt goose pimples rise all over my body whenever I go through the Suktha. Try to get a translated version of it and if you are a sensitive human being as I take you to be, I vouch that you would also feel it. The imagery is stunning; it would propel even the most unimaginative and practical of souls towards worlds unknown to them. You would not fail to guess something is happening within the words and within yourselves.
This is the real magic of mysticism
From the very first declaration of Ching the striking resemblances jumps to our eye.
“The Tao that can be told
Is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.”
It is not much different from “na vagachathi, no mano” (1.3) of Kena Upanishad. What the Upanishad says is this “the final truth is not reached by the words and it can not be reached by the mind.” The opening lines of Tao Te Ching almost replicate it.
There are other similar references in the Upanishads of this quality of the unqualified too. “Yato vacha nivarthanthe aprapya manasa saha.” (Taitiriyam. Anuvaka 4.1) is one such. It translates this way. “Where the words turn back, that which can not be approached by even the mind.” You can easily replace Tao with Brahma in any of the Ching verses. Such are the similarities that I often mistake some verses of Tao Te Ching to be that of the Upanishads when I see them out of context somewhere.
And again in the later verses it is said:
“Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.”
In the same manner the Upanishads presents a picture:
“Here is a picture at the base of a pepul tree.
The master looks young while all the students seem wizened.
The silence of the master is the interpretation
The students sit with their doubts removed”
Then again the Ching echoes the Nasadeeya Suktha of the Veda’s. First here is what the Ching says:
“Reach, and it can’t be grasped.
Above, it isn’t bright.
Below, it isn’t dark.
Seamless, unnamable,
it returns to the realm of nothing.
Form that includes all forms,
image without an image,
subtle, beyond all conception.”
And here comes a loose translation of the Suktha:
“There was neither reality, nor unreality
There was neither energy nor breath
Who has covered the immense space?
Who has shrouded the sky …?”
And so on. I have always felt goose pimples rise all over my body whenever I go through the Suktha. Try to get a translated version of it and if you are a sensitive human being as I take you to be, I vouch that you would also feel it. The imagery is stunning; it would propel even the most unimaginative and practical of souls towards worlds unknown to them. You would not fail to guess something is happening within the words and within yourselves.
This is the real magic of mysticism
Monday, August 11, 2008
Did Time Begin at the Big Bang?
St. Augustine believed that the world was created sometime in the 5000 BC. The reason for the assumption being that our civilization is in progress and that the builders of our civilization remain in our memory. Thus the world could not be that old. The real basis for his theory seems to be the book of Genesis.
He was credited with many amusing stories by people. But his reply to some of the sensitive questions seems quite serious. For, instance he wrote about “time” that “ up to the moment some one asked me what time is, I was pretty sure what it was. But when I tried to answer the question I was not at all sure”
He can’t be blamed the humorous side of the tale not -with -standing, for that’s what we all believe. Can any one explain what time is? None has done so satisfactorily till now. How did time begin, is it linear as the westerners believe or cyclical as the Orientals believe? What is its relation to matter, are they the same or one an extension of the other? How could we say the world began if time did not exist then? Did the time begin with the beginning of the world? What is the nature of time, why does the clock sow down inside fast bodies? Why does it get affected by Gravity? Why does every system have a time of its own?
In short what in the god’s name is time?
St. Augustine is credited with yet another story on the subject of time and God, soon after he propounded the theory that the God created the world in 5000 BC some one asked him:
What was god doing before that?
The rumor says that he replied “He was preparing hell for people who asked such questions”
Joking aside he seems to have considered the question quite seriously for he actually replied that the time was a property of the world the God created and it did not exist before. This is roughly the modern idea of time too. We believe now that the time was created at the moment the big bang occurred. We just can’t say if there was time before that, even if there did exist any sort of time before that we would not know about it, for we are limited by our perceptual capacities to understand any such thing. We are the children of this world, this universe, and it is beyond us to know anything that is not contained in it.
The theory of the beginning of the world gained considerable momentum with Edwin Hubble’s discovery of the expanding universe. He observed that the galaxies at the fringe of observable space are receding from us at unimaginable speeds. This was a uniform phenomenon at all points at the fringe. Reckoning by the speed at which they are moving away there must have been a time when these were closer, much closer in fact. This is largely based on the big bang model of the beginning of the world. This theory states that at one point the world was condensed into an object of infinite mass it exploded and created the world as we know it.
It was also the beginning of time, for time is inseparably linked to space; it would be meaningless to consider time in the absence of space.
The expanding universe sort of curtails God’s freedom to create world any moment other than at the time of big bang or after it. If the world is expanding there could be a reason for it and this reason can be found. It denies the god the freedom to create the world as he likes.
Poor God!
He was credited with many amusing stories by people. But his reply to some of the sensitive questions seems quite serious. For, instance he wrote about “time” that “ up to the moment some one asked me what time is, I was pretty sure what it was. But when I tried to answer the question I was not at all sure”
He can’t be blamed the humorous side of the tale not -with -standing, for that’s what we all believe. Can any one explain what time is? None has done so satisfactorily till now. How did time begin, is it linear as the westerners believe or cyclical as the Orientals believe? What is its relation to matter, are they the same or one an extension of the other? How could we say the world began if time did not exist then? Did the time begin with the beginning of the world? What is the nature of time, why does the clock sow down inside fast bodies? Why does it get affected by Gravity? Why does every system have a time of its own?
In short what in the god’s name is time?
St. Augustine is credited with yet another story on the subject of time and God, soon after he propounded the theory that the God created the world in 5000 BC some one asked him:
What was god doing before that?
The rumor says that he replied “He was preparing hell for people who asked such questions”
Joking aside he seems to have considered the question quite seriously for he actually replied that the time was a property of the world the God created and it did not exist before. This is roughly the modern idea of time too. We believe now that the time was created at the moment the big bang occurred. We just can’t say if there was time before that, even if there did exist any sort of time before that we would not know about it, for we are limited by our perceptual capacities to understand any such thing. We are the children of this world, this universe, and it is beyond us to know anything that is not contained in it.
The theory of the beginning of the world gained considerable momentum with Edwin Hubble’s discovery of the expanding universe. He observed that the galaxies at the fringe of observable space are receding from us at unimaginable speeds. This was a uniform phenomenon at all points at the fringe. Reckoning by the speed at which they are moving away there must have been a time when these were closer, much closer in fact. This is largely based on the big bang model of the beginning of the world. This theory states that at one point the world was condensed into an object of infinite mass it exploded and created the world as we know it.
It was also the beginning of time, for time is inseparably linked to space; it would be meaningless to consider time in the absence of space.
The expanding universe sort of curtails God’s freedom to create world any moment other than at the time of big bang or after it. If the world is expanding there could be a reason for it and this reason can be found. It denies the god the freedom to create the world as he likes.
Poor God!
Sunday, August 10, 2008
The way of the wise
Here is a story on Hippocrates and Democritus.
Once the people of Abdora ran to the famous physician of those days wailing like women and seeking his help. Hearing the terrible din Hippocrates became concerned. He put aside what ever he was doing and came out.
“Why what is the matter?”
The people lamented:
“O Hippocrates our Democritus has gone mad. He is doing nothing but cutting dogs open and scrawling something on a writing sheet.”
Hippocrates became intrigued and went with the people of Abdora. Like the people said he found Democritus engaged in the interesting activity of dissecting dogs.
Hippocrates began cautiously
“Well you gave these people a scare my man, what is with this cutting open of dogs.”
“Oh I was looking into the causes of madness in animals. Democritus said candidly. He continued. Well what took you so long to come and visit me?”
“Well Democritus you know how it is. Family problems, financial strains, you can name it. I could not come earlier.”
Democritus burst out laughing.
“The problems besting men, can you believe them? I am sorry to see the wise wasting their lives so pitifully …….
To marry women only to fight with them, to make more money than they can ever use, to create wars with no other purpose than to fight in them. What strange notions come into human heads?”
Hippocrates said to the people of Abdora.
“There is nothing to worry about. You can all return to your homes. Democritus is not mad. To tell you the truth he is the only person amongst us with a healthy mind that is not affected by any afflictions.”
Well to be like Democritus is bliss. But none of us can do that can we. We prefer to be like this, worrying about the silly, fidgeting about mere nothings, crying our hearts out for the most meaningless of happenings in life. Yes that is the word, we prefer it this way. We like being hunted by life in this manner. It gives a purpose to our lives. Every new and painful incident in our lives secretly makes us happy, for they give us the opportunity to complain.
Self pity is the most hated of all feelings in the world, why, no, not because of any pride as you may have thought, but from a sense of great pleasure in suffering. The more silently you suffer, the more pleasure you derive out of it. It is “My” pain, you know, it is my own.
What a sorry spectacle we are!
Once the people of Abdora ran to the famous physician of those days wailing like women and seeking his help. Hearing the terrible din Hippocrates became concerned. He put aside what ever he was doing and came out.
“Why what is the matter?”
The people lamented:
“O Hippocrates our Democritus has gone mad. He is doing nothing but cutting dogs open and scrawling something on a writing sheet.”
Hippocrates became intrigued and went with the people of Abdora. Like the people said he found Democritus engaged in the interesting activity of dissecting dogs.
Hippocrates began cautiously
“Well you gave these people a scare my man, what is with this cutting open of dogs.”
“Oh I was looking into the causes of madness in animals. Democritus said candidly. He continued. Well what took you so long to come and visit me?”
“Well Democritus you know how it is. Family problems, financial strains, you can name it. I could not come earlier.”
Democritus burst out laughing.
“The problems besting men, can you believe them? I am sorry to see the wise wasting their lives so pitifully …….
To marry women only to fight with them, to make more money than they can ever use, to create wars with no other purpose than to fight in them. What strange notions come into human heads?”
Hippocrates said to the people of Abdora.
“There is nothing to worry about. You can all return to your homes. Democritus is not mad. To tell you the truth he is the only person amongst us with a healthy mind that is not affected by any afflictions.”
Well to be like Democritus is bliss. But none of us can do that can we. We prefer to be like this, worrying about the silly, fidgeting about mere nothings, crying our hearts out for the most meaningless of happenings in life. Yes that is the word, we prefer it this way. We like being hunted by life in this manner. It gives a purpose to our lives. Every new and painful incident in our lives secretly makes us happy, for they give us the opportunity to complain.
Self pity is the most hated of all feelings in the world, why, no, not because of any pride as you may have thought, but from a sense of great pleasure in suffering. The more silently you suffer, the more pleasure you derive out of it. It is “My” pain, you know, it is my own.
What a sorry spectacle we are!
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Words that capture you
There is word in my language which is spelt “ masmarika” it is a derivative of “mesmeric” in English. I used to hear it from all when they were discussing about some one with some degree of influence over others. This word caught hold of me and it was my “Mesopotamia” in my younger days. I was enchanted with the word and though did not use it on any occasions because of being self conscious , it was my favorite word through out my teens. I was curious to know more about the word and the phenomena it denoted.
Well when I finally started to learn more about it I soon realized that the theory of Anton Mesmer was not based on any verifiable evidence. He cured people with the use of what he described as Animal Magnetism. This is not the same as the sex energy that is spoken of under the term now. He believed that there is a subtle force in man which could cure him and cure others by sending it to them. His claims of cures were not challenged by the scientific teams who investigated these claims. But they thought that it was a result of suggestion rather than any force acting on the patients in the form of animal magnetism.
Yet I can see certain similarities between this system and the Pranayama. Pranayama contains the possibility to make use of the life force that is within you to cure illnesses. Well in a strict sense, though the Russian were very enthusiastic about Bio Energy, there are still no valid empirical evidence that such cures could be done with such subtle energies. It is possible that what actually works is the belief in the healer and the patient that such a transformation is taking place within the individual. I know from personal experience that this is possible and others involved with these phenomena would also admit that this is possible. But there can not be any scientific proof about it. Even if you can monitor the states of body before and after this type of healing and find that the body is cured the modern science could possible come up with any number of explanations for this change.
Mesmer was not a great genius. In fact he is supposed to have appropriated certain works of others and made it his own. He was a great presenter and introduced all the eliment of drama in his treatment. He used lighting and music for mood creation. His belief in magnetic healing was the result of his meeting with Maximillian Hell. A strange name in English but not in Italy it seems!. This hell was a Jesuit and used to heal people with magnetic plates. But Mesmer always believed that the healing was done by the transfer of animal magnetism rather than the influence of the plates used.
He seems to have adopted the technique of Hell in toto at first but later seems to have discarded the use of magnetic plates in influencing people and inducing the desired responses in them. Though the technique is known in the name of Mesmer in the world the original contribution of Mesmer is minimal in it. He organized it into a system, and others followed. His system do not have much credibility with the scientifically minded people of present day. Hypnotism is accepted by the general public and even the physicians to some extent, but not mesmerism. There is also a thought that a system of science( if it is claimed as a science) should not be known by the name of the person who practiced it first. It is not clear how this came about. Mesmer does not seems to have used the term in his works or practice.
All in all Mesmerism does not seem to be a favorite among the masses and the scientific world now.
Well when I finally started to learn more about it I soon realized that the theory of Anton Mesmer was not based on any verifiable evidence. He cured people with the use of what he described as Animal Magnetism. This is not the same as the sex energy that is spoken of under the term now. He believed that there is a subtle force in man which could cure him and cure others by sending it to them. His claims of cures were not challenged by the scientific teams who investigated these claims. But they thought that it was a result of suggestion rather than any force acting on the patients in the form of animal magnetism.
Yet I can see certain similarities between this system and the Pranayama. Pranayama contains the possibility to make use of the life force that is within you to cure illnesses. Well in a strict sense, though the Russian were very enthusiastic about Bio Energy, there are still no valid empirical evidence that such cures could be done with such subtle energies. It is possible that what actually works is the belief in the healer and the patient that such a transformation is taking place within the individual. I know from personal experience that this is possible and others involved with these phenomena would also admit that this is possible. But there can not be any scientific proof about it. Even if you can monitor the states of body before and after this type of healing and find that the body is cured the modern science could possible come up with any number of explanations for this change.
Mesmer was not a great genius. In fact he is supposed to have appropriated certain works of others and made it his own. He was a great presenter and introduced all the eliment of drama in his treatment. He used lighting and music for mood creation. His belief in magnetic healing was the result of his meeting with Maximillian Hell. A strange name in English but not in Italy it seems!. This hell was a Jesuit and used to heal people with magnetic plates. But Mesmer always believed that the healing was done by the transfer of animal magnetism rather than the influence of the plates used.
He seems to have adopted the technique of Hell in toto at first but later seems to have discarded the use of magnetic plates in influencing people and inducing the desired responses in them. Though the technique is known in the name of Mesmer in the world the original contribution of Mesmer is minimal in it. He organized it into a system, and others followed. His system do not have much credibility with the scientifically minded people of present day. Hypnotism is accepted by the general public and even the physicians to some extent, but not mesmerism. There is also a thought that a system of science( if it is claimed as a science) should not be known by the name of the person who practiced it first. It is not clear how this came about. Mesmer does not seems to have used the term in his works or practice.
All in all Mesmerism does not seem to be a favorite among the masses and the scientific world now.
Friday, August 8, 2008
USHER AND THE WORLD
We often laugh at the theory of Arch Bishop Usher that the world was created by God on 6004 BC in seven days. But really it is not much worse than our present belief that our civilization matured in just 10000 years of development. This can not happen. For the development that we are witnessing is the culmination of millions of years of progress. But where are our ancestors. Where are their remains, where are those records? The Cro-Magnon and the Neanderthals and the Peking man are not our direct ancestors. There have been many such mutations between us and them, or so is believed by biologists. But where are the records. I am not trying to prove that this did not happen and we were deposited by some alien race on the face of the earth to experiment on. But yet that might be the case. Macro evolution do not seem to be all that provable would like to see verifiable proof of the theory, that is what science is all about is it not? Collecting empirical evidence on the world and its phenomena and their transformation and transitions.
There are missing links in the theory of Evolution and this can not be denied. We can not claim to be the descendants of primates without producing supporting evidence for the same. The argument about alleles notwithstanding. But though the primates and man are somewhat similar they are not close kin’s. From our observations we have not been able to decide whether they have any decided intellectual growth as such. Certain apes show a definite bit of enthusiasm to investigate the world that they live in, but that is all they can do. Other species also have a fair bit of intelligence in this way. But to make the theory of mutation possible there must occur a drastic change in a biological system to enter a new phase of development and that mutation has to occur enmasse rather than to a single individual. There has to be the capability to adapt to the new type of genes and to reproduce those genes successfully to maintain the process. Most of the hybrids that we have produced up to now are unable to reproduce.
So how does this happen. The emergentist theories always argue that the world goes through transformations by a combination of forces of nature and this evolution is accidental rather than purposeful. Okay the biologists say that there is Chance and selection involved in the process. But it always rankles the mind. Let us even imagine that it is possible that such transformation occurs in matter over long periods of inter -action. But if that is true we cant claim that this is the only spot in the wide universe that has such a phenomenon in operation, or that it only happened in this globe alone. The difference between us and our nearest possible kin in this world is so vast that it can not be bridged in any way. The capacity oh human brain alone would defeated any such inquiries. There is no comparison between ours and the primate brain. Even the blood structure is different. We can’t copulate with the primates and produce children.
Well did we eliminate all our ancestors? Or did we evolve into a new species by some chance of nature? Even so it is a bit difficult to see all the different streams evolving at the same time- or do all the races have a common ancestry? May be that is the argument, that the Negrito, austrloid, Dravidian, Aryan, mangol races evolved out of the same ancestral stock which underwent evolutionary mutation. Yet there could be intermediary life forms. There has to be. They may have become extinct. But where are the remains?
Or let us say that we killed all our direct ancestors with the fear that if we allowed them to exist they would take us over and destroy us. But I do not see the possibility of that happening, for one thing we have many racial strains amongst us now and they co exist without much animosity. Yes there are wars and people who believe in racial superiority. But even in the back ground of this the different races existed and there has been no effort to extinguish the opponents on the whole sale. Are these different races a threat to each other? There has been cruel despots in the world who brutally assonated many in the world. But even they could not totally eliminate their enemies altogether. So if there were intermediary species they would probably have been allowed to exist with us. This does not seem to have happened.
The point is not that there was no evolution in the sense of neo Darwinian conception of the evolutionary theory, but is that we might be visitors on this globe rather than its own children. Could this be possible, that we evolved at some other world and was placed here by some intelligent beings? This might be the reason that we are so far removed from other species in this globe. There has to be some explanation some where.
The fact is, though we landed on the moon and have mapped the gene we still do not know much about any thing in our own little globe! Let us hope that it would not remain so.
There are missing links in the theory of Evolution and this can not be denied. We can not claim to be the descendants of primates without producing supporting evidence for the same. The argument about alleles notwithstanding. But though the primates and man are somewhat similar they are not close kin’s. From our observations we have not been able to decide whether they have any decided intellectual growth as such. Certain apes show a definite bit of enthusiasm to investigate the world that they live in, but that is all they can do. Other species also have a fair bit of intelligence in this way. But to make the theory of mutation possible there must occur a drastic change in a biological system to enter a new phase of development and that mutation has to occur enmasse rather than to a single individual. There has to be the capability to adapt to the new type of genes and to reproduce those genes successfully to maintain the process. Most of the hybrids that we have produced up to now are unable to reproduce.
So how does this happen. The emergentist theories always argue that the world goes through transformations by a combination of forces of nature and this evolution is accidental rather than purposeful. Okay the biologists say that there is Chance and selection involved in the process. But it always rankles the mind. Let us even imagine that it is possible that such transformation occurs in matter over long periods of inter -action. But if that is true we cant claim that this is the only spot in the wide universe that has such a phenomenon in operation, or that it only happened in this globe alone. The difference between us and our nearest possible kin in this world is so vast that it can not be bridged in any way. The capacity oh human brain alone would defeated any such inquiries. There is no comparison between ours and the primate brain. Even the blood structure is different. We can’t copulate with the primates and produce children.
Well did we eliminate all our ancestors? Or did we evolve into a new species by some chance of nature? Even so it is a bit difficult to see all the different streams evolving at the same time- or do all the races have a common ancestry? May be that is the argument, that the Negrito, austrloid, Dravidian, Aryan, mangol races evolved out of the same ancestral stock which underwent evolutionary mutation. Yet there could be intermediary life forms. There has to be. They may have become extinct. But where are the remains?
Or let us say that we killed all our direct ancestors with the fear that if we allowed them to exist they would take us over and destroy us. But I do not see the possibility of that happening, for one thing we have many racial strains amongst us now and they co exist without much animosity. Yes there are wars and people who believe in racial superiority. But even in the back ground of this the different races existed and there has been no effort to extinguish the opponents on the whole sale. Are these different races a threat to each other? There has been cruel despots in the world who brutally assonated many in the world. But even they could not totally eliminate their enemies altogether. So if there were intermediary species they would probably have been allowed to exist with us. This does not seem to have happened.
The point is not that there was no evolution in the sense of neo Darwinian conception of the evolutionary theory, but is that we might be visitors on this globe rather than its own children. Could this be possible, that we evolved at some other world and was placed here by some intelligent beings? This might be the reason that we are so far removed from other species in this globe. There has to be some explanation some where.
The fact is, though we landed on the moon and have mapped the gene we still do not know much about any thing in our own little globe! Let us hope that it would not remain so.
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