Guest guest Posted July 7, 2003 Report Share Posted July 7, 2003 Yoga at the speed of Light, - By Linda Johnsen, Courtesy & copyright Yoga InternationalIt is amazing how much Western science has taught us. Today, for example, kids in grammar school learn that the sun is 93 million miles from the earth and that the speed of light is 186,000 miles per hours. Yoga may teach us about our Higher Self, but it can't supply this kind of information about physics or astronomy.Or can it?Professor Subhash Kak of Louisiana State University recently called my attention to a remarkable statement by Sayana, a fourteenth century Indian scholar. In his commentary on a hymn in the Rig Veda, the oldest and perhaps most mystical text ever composed in India, Sayana has this to say: "With deep respect, I bow to the sun, who travels 2,202 yojanas in half a nimesha."A yojana is about nine American miles; a nimesha is 16/75 of a second. Mathematically challenged readers, get out your calculators!2,202 yojanas x 9 miles x 75 - 8 nimeshas = 185,794 m.p.s.Basically, Sayana is saying that sunlight travels at 186,000 miles per second! How could a Vedic scholar who died in 1387 A.D. have known the correct figure for the speed of light? If this was just a wild guess it's the most amazing coincidence in the history of science!The yoga tradition is full of such coincidences. Take for instance the mala many yoga students wear around their neck. Since these rosaries are used to keep track of the number of mantras a person is repeating, studentsoften ask why they have 108 beads instead of 100. Part of the reason is that the mala represent the ecliptic, the path of the sun and moon across the sky. Yogis divide the ecliptic into 27 equal sections called nakshatras, and each of these into four equal sectors called padas, or "steps," marking the108 steps that the sun and moon take through heaven.Each is associated with a particular blessing force, with which you align yourself as you turn the beads.Traditionally, yoga students stop at the 109th "guru bead," flip the mala around in their hand, and continue reciting their mantra as they move backward through the beads. The guru bead represents the summer and winter solstices, when the sun appears to stop in its course and reverse directions. In the yoga tradition we learn that we're deeply interconnected with all of nature. Using a mala is a symbolic way of connecting ourselves with the cosmic cycles governing our universe.But Professor Kak points out yet another coincidence: The distance between the earth and the sun is approximately 108 times the sun's diameter.The diameter of the sun is about 108 times the earth's diameter. And the distance between the earth and the moon is 108 times the moon's diameter. Could this be the reason the ancient sages considered 108 such asacred number? If the microcosm (us) mirrors the macrocosm (the solarsystem), then maybe you could say there are 108 steps between our ordinaryhuman awareness and the divine light at the center of our being. Each timewe chant another mantra as our mala beads slip through our fingers, we aretaking another step toward our own inner sun. As we read through ancient Indian texts, we find so much the sages ofantiquity could not possibly have known-but did. While our European andMiddle Eastern ancestors claimed that the universe was created about 6,000years ago, the yogis have always maintained that our present cosmos isbillions of years old, and that it's just one of many such universes whichhave arisen and dissolved in the vastness of eternity. In fact the Puranas, encyclopedias of yogic lore thousands of yearsold, describe the birth of our solar system out of a "milk ocean," the MilkyWay. Through the will of the Creator, they tell us, a vortex shaped like alotus arose from the navel of eternity. It was called Hiranya Garbha, theshining womb. It gradually coalesced into our world, but will perish someday billions of years hence when the sun expands to many times it presentsize, swallowing all life on earth. In the end, the Puranas say, the ashesof the earth will be blown into space by the cosmic wind. Today we knownthis is a scientifically accurate, if poetic, description of the fate of ourplanet. The Surya Siddhanta is the oldest surviving astronomical text in theIndian tradition. Some Western scholars date it to perhaps the fifth orsixth centuries A.D., though the next itself claims to represent a traditionmuch, much older. It explains that the earth is shaped like a ball, andstates that at the very opposite side of the planet from India is a greatcity where the sun is rising at the same time it sets in India. In thiscity, the Surya Siddhanta claims, lives a race of siddhas, or advancedspiritual adepts. If you trace the globe of the earth around to the exactopposite side of India, you'll find Mexico. Is it possible that the ancientIndians were well aware of the great sages/astronomers of Central Americamany centuries before Columbus discovered America? Knowing the unknowable To us today it seems impossible that the speed of light or the fate ofour solar system could be determined without advanced astronomicalinstruments. How could the writers of old Sanskrit texts have known theunknowable? In searching for an explanation we first need to understand thatthese ancient scientists were not just intellectuals, they were practicingyogis. The very first lines of the Surya Siddhanta, for of the Golden Age agreat astronomer named Maya desired to learn the secrets of the heavens, sohe first performed rigorous yogic practices. Then the answers to hisquestions appeared in his mind in an intuitive flash. Does this sound unlikely? Yoga Sutra 3:26-28 states that through,samyama (concentration, meditation, and unbroken mental absorption) on thesun, moon, and pole star, we can gain knowledge of the planets and stars.Sutra 3:33 clarifies, saying: "Through keenly developed intuition,everything can be known." Highly developed intuition is called pratibha inyoga. It is accessible only to those who have completely stilled their mind,focusing their attention on one object with laser-like intensity. Those whohave limited their mind are no longer limited to the fragments of knowledgesupplied by the five senses. All knowledge becomes accessible to them. "There are [those] who would say that consciousness, acting on itself,can find universal knowledge," Professor Kak admits. "In fact this is thetraditional Indian view." Perhaps the ancient sages didn't need advanced astronomicalinstruments. After all, they had yoga. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 8, 2003 Report Share Posted July 8, 2003 Thank you, Anna. It was a very interesting read. The ANCIENTS in INDIA were great. Regards. Babulal. - N.Anna varahamihira ; ; gjlist Tuesday, July 08, 2003 3:07 AM [GJ] FW: ON JYOTISH Yoga at the speed of Light, - By Linda Johnsen, Courtesy & copyright Yoga InternationalIt is amazing how much Western science has taught us. Today, for example, kids in grammar school learn that the sun is 93 million miles from the earth and that the speed of light is 186,000 miles per hours. Yoga may teach us about our Higher Self, but it can't supply this kind of information about physics or astronomy.Or can it?Professor Subhash Kak of Louisiana State University recently called my attention to a remarkable statement by Sayana, a fourteenth century Indian scholar. In his commentary on a hymn in the Rig Veda, the oldest and perhaps most mystical text ever composed in India, Sayana has this to say: "With deep respect, I bow to the sun, who travels 2,202 yojanas in half a nimesha."A yojana is about nine American miles; a nimesha is 16/75 of a second. Mathematically challenged readers, get out your calculators!2,202 yojanas x 9 miles x 75 - 8 nimeshas = 185,794 m.p.s.Basically, Sayana is saying that sunlight travels at 186,000 miles per second! How could a Vedic scholar who died in 1387 A.D. have known the correct figure for the speed of light? If this was just a wild guess it's the most amazing coincidence in the history of science!The yoga tradition is full of such coincidences. Take for instance the mala many yoga students wear around their neck. Since these rosaries are used to keep track of the number of mantras a person is repeating, studentsoften ask why they have 108 beads instead of 100. Part of the reason is that the mala represent the ecliptic, the path of the sun and moon across the sky. Yogis divide the ecliptic into 27 equal sections called nakshatras, and each of these into four equal sectors called padas, or "steps," marking the108 steps that the sun and moon take through heaven.Each is associated with a particular blessing force, with which you align yourself as you turn the beads.Traditionally, yoga students stop at the 109th "guru bead," flip the mala around in their hand, and continue reciting their mantra as they move backward through the beads. The guru bead represents the summer and winter solstices, when the sun appears to stop in its course and reverse directions. In the yoga tradition we learn that we're deeply interconnected with all of nature. Using a mala is a symbolic way of connecting ourselves with the cosmic cycles governing our universe.But Professor Kak points out yet another coincidence: The distance between the earth and the sun is approximately 108 times the sun's diameter.The diameter of the sun is about 108 times the earth's diameter. And the distance between the earth and the moon is 108 times the moon's diameter. Could this be the reason the ancient sages considered 108 such asacred number? If the microcosm (us) mirrors the macrocosm (the solarsystem), then maybe you could say there are 108 steps between our ordinaryhuman awareness and the divine light at the center of our being. Each timewe chant another mantra as our mala beads slip through our fingers, we aretaking another step toward our own inner sun. As we read through ancient Indian texts, we find so much the sages ofantiquity could not possibly have known-but did. While our European andMiddle Eastern ancestors claimed that the universe was created about 6,000years ago, the yogis have always maintained that our present cosmos isbillions of years old, and that it's just one of many such universes whichhave arisen and dissolved in the vastness of eternity. In fact the Puranas, encyclopedias of yogic lore thousands of yearsold, describe the birth of our solar system out of a "milk ocean," the MilkyWay. Through the will of the Creator, they tell us, a vortex shaped like alotus arose from the navel of eternity. It was called Hiranya Garbha, theshining womb. It gradually coalesced into our world, but will perish someday billions of years hence when the sun expands to many times it presentsize, swallowing all life on earth. In the end, the Puranas say, the ashesof the earth will be blown into space by the cosmic wind. Today we knownthis is a scientifically accurate, if poetic, description of the fate of ourplanet. The Surya Siddhanta is the oldest surviving astronomical text in theIndian tradition. Some Western scholars date it to perhaps the fifth orsixth centuries A.D., though the next itself claims to represent a traditionmuch, much older. It explains that the earth is shaped like a ball, andstates that at the very opposite side of the planet from India is a greatcity where the sun is rising at the same time it sets in India. In thiscity, the Surya Siddhanta claims, lives a race of siddhas, or advancedspiritual adepts. If you trace the globe of the earth around to the exactopposite side of India, you'll find Mexico. Is it possible that the ancientIndians were well aware of the great sages/astronomers of Central Americamany centuries before Columbus discovered America? Knowing the unknowable To us today it seems impossible that the speed of light or the fate ofour solar system could be determined without advanced astronomicalinstruments. How could the writers of old Sanskrit texts have known theunknowable? In searching for an explanation we first need to understand thatthese ancient scientists were not just intellectuals, they were practicingyogis. The very first lines of the Surya Siddhanta, for of the Golden Age agreat astronomer named Maya desired to learn the secrets of the heavens, sohe first performed rigorous yogic practices. Then the answers to hisquestions appeared in his mind in an intuitive flash. Does this sound unlikely? Yoga Sutra 3:26-28 states that through,samyama (concentration, meditation, and unbroken mental absorption) on thesun, moon, and pole star, we can gain knowledge of the planets and stars.Sutra 3:33 clarifies, saying: "Through keenly developed intuition,everything can be known." Highly developed intuition is called pratibha inyoga. It is accessible only to those who have completely stilled their mind,focusing their attention on one object with laser-like intensity. Those whohave limited their mind are no longer limited to the fragments of knowledgesupplied by the five senses. All knowledge becomes accessible to them. "There are [those] who would say that consciousness, acting on itself,can find universal knowledge," Professor Kak admits. "In fact this is thetraditional Indian view." Perhaps the ancient sages didn't need advanced astronomicalinstruments. After all, they had yoga.Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya; Hare Krishna; Om Tat Sat: gjlist-http://www.goravani.comYour use of is subject to the Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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