Reflection Symmetry of Mainstream Science and Mainstream Media

Dwelling more on symmetry and Arthanaareeswara, a scientific point of view is available with several references https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3705693/ . While this is Lord Siva's tattva, Bhagavata provides many instances of Lord Visnu taking the feminine forms like Mohini that is more of a ploy than a tattva. That means, Lord Siva is not just making appearances to save mankind or making temporary truce between devas and asuras. He is an embodiment of the human condition.

As said many times, "Lord Siva leaves no child behind including those wrestling with bisexuality, hermaphroditism, homosexuality, gender identity disorder, gonadal dysgenesis, chromosomal defects, etc." that are often referred to as LGBTQ factors that are physiological. Freud and Jung agreed that there is neither perfect masculinity nor complete femininity based on psychological studies. That means, every jiva falls into the gray areas between the two gender extremes.

The creation after going through many maha yugas is trying to achieve perfection, like a pure diamond sans inclusions, which is akin to a computer that never fails. Sometimes the manufacturing defects are passed on to the consumer. The Law of Karma may have something to do with this.

In the symmetry debate, mainstream science only accepts certain combinations of matter or energy that lead up to satisfying conservation laws that are thought to be of paramount importance ("all laws of nature originate in symmetries"). Mathematicians are more precise by looking for invariance (changelessness) under transformations such as translation (moving from A to B), reflection (like in a mirror), rotation (like earth around its axis) and scaling (changes in multiple dimensions). And the development of supersymmetry to understand the plethora of subatomic particles MSS discovers, rather conjures up everyday. Whereas, MSS has turned from us vs. dogma to us vs. universe where contrarian views and thought experiments have lesser importance than personalities.

So that leads to my inference that Mainstream Science and Mainstream Media enjoy reflection symmetry. If I said they are a happy couple, I'd be breaking the symmetry. So I leave it upto them to figure out.

However, as hindus built temples such as Arthanareeswarar Temple in Tiruchengode, and made carvings of arthanaareeswara, is it like having a third pole? I think it is like advaita where all we see is oneness or unity. When there is no second, where is the question of the third?

I can imagine some non-savaites thinking that siva-sakti unity is a blight and a blemish. To support my claim the Wiki page (Ardhanarishvara - Wikipedia) draws parallels to Yama-Yami of Rig-Veda which in my view is incorrect. Here is from Rig Veda translated by Dr.Wendy Doniger

10.10 Yama and Yami

Yama, the first son of the sun, is regarded in later mythology as the first mortal man and king of the dead, while Manu, the sun’s other son, is regarded as the ancestor of the human race. In Avestan mythology, the primeval incest of the twins, Yama and Yami, remains an important episode in the procreation of the human race; in India, Yama rejects the erotic solicitations of his sister in the Rig Veda and is never again exposed to them, for later Indian mythology is significantly silent about the affair. The hymn is not, however, a commentary on a social charter (‘Thou shalt not commit incest’), but rather a speculation – ultimately negative – on a possible cosmogony, the male and female twins functioning as a variant of the androgyne.

The hymn begins, as is usual with those of the ‘conversation’ genre, in medias fires. Yami invokes gods of procreation and argues that the human race must be preserved; Yama counters by invoking moral gods and their laws. Unlike the similar conversation between Agastya and Lopamudra (1.179), this hymn ends with the rejection of the woman, who finally loses her temper completely.

1 [Yami :] ‘Would that I might draw my friend into intimate friendship, now that he has gone far across the ocean.{1} A man of foresight should receive a grandson from the father, thinking of what lies ahead on earth.’

2 [Yama:] ‘Your friend does not desire this friendship, in which a woman of his kind would behave like a stranger.{2} The heroes, {3} the sons of the great spirit,{4} supporters of the sky, see far and wide.’

3 [Yami:] ‘The immortals desire this, that off spring should be left by the one mortal. Let your mind unite with my mind;{5} as a husband,{6} enter the body of your wife.’

4 [Yama :] ‘ Shall we do now what we have not done before? Shall we who spoke truth out loud now whisper false- hood?{7} The divine youth in the waters{8} and the woman of the waters – such is our source, our highest birth.’{9}

5 [Yami:] ‘The god Tvastr,{10} the creator and impeller, shaper of all forms, made us man and wife even when we were still in the womb. No one disobeys his commands; earth and sky are our witnesses for this.’{11}

6 [Yama:] ‘Who was witness of that first day? Who has seen it? Who can proclaim it here? The law of Mitra and Varuna is high. Yet what will you say to men, wanton woman, to seduce them?’

7 [Yami:] ‘Desire for Yama has come upon me, Yami, the desire to lie with him upon the same bed. Let me open my body to him as a wife to her husband. Let us roll about together like the two wheels of a chariot.’

8 [Yama:] ‘These spies of the gods, who wander about here below, do not stand still, nor do they bunk their eyes. Wanton woman, go away fast with another man, not with me. Roll about with him like the two wheels of a chariot.’

9 [Yami:] ‘ She would do what he wished in the nights and in the days; she would deceive the eye of the sun for the instant of the blink of an eye. We twins are related in the same way as sky and earth. Let Yami behave toward Yama as if she were not his sister.’

10 [Yama:] ‘Later ages will come, indeed, when blood relatives will act as if they were not related. Make a pillow of your arm for some bull of a man.{12} Seek another husband, lovely lady, not me.’

11 [Yami:] ‘What good is a brother, when there is no protector?{13} What good is a sister, when destruction breaks out?{14} Overcome with desire, I whisper this again and again:mingle your body with my body.’

12 [Yama:] ‘Never will I mingle my body with your body. They call a man who unites with his sister a sinner. Arrange your lustful pleasures with some other man, not with me, lovely lady. Your brother does not want this.’

13 [Yami:] ‘Dammit, Yama, how feeble you are. I have not been able to find any mind or heart in you. Some other woman will surely embrace you like a girth embracing a harnessed stallion or a creeper embracing a tree.’

14 [Yama:] ‘You too, Yami, will surely embrace another man, and he will embrace you, as a creeper embraces a tree. Seek his mind, and let him seek yours. Join with him in proper harmony.’

Notes

1. The ocean may be the metaphorical ocean separating mortals (like Yama) from immortals (as Yami may be), in which case ‘he’ is Yama. But ‘he’ may be the avenging god whom Yama fears (vv. 2, 6, and 8), or the sun in the water (v. 4), in which case Yami is assuring her brother that he need not fear, as the spy is absent across the ocean.

2. This may mean that Yama does not wish the woman of his kind (his sister) to act like a stranger (like a woman with whom sexual contact is allowed); in caste terms, he avoids marriage within the subgroup (gotra). Less likely, but possible, is the interpretation that Yama fears that a woman not like him (an immortal) will behave like one of his kind (a mortal woman, one who may have sexual contact with him). In caste terms, he avoids marriage outside the group (varna).

3. The gods, or perhaps just the Adityas, the particular servants of Varuna.

4. Varuna, most likely, as guardian of the moral law; or Rudra, punisher of incest (in which case the ‘heroes’ would be the Maruts).

5. The word (manas) can designate mind or heart, the seat of both rational and emotional functions. But since it is later contrasted with a word for ‘heart’ (v. 13), it is here probably limited to the first connotation.

6. Here Yami implies that Yama actually is her husband, a thought which she makes explicit in v. 5; later, however (v. 7), she merely asks him to behave as if he were her husband, as her resolve weakens.

7. The word, anrta, means not merely to speak a lie but to say something that violates the moral order, to say something that may be true but should not be.

8. Probably the sun, born of the waters, but perhaps just any Gandharva.

9. Yama argues both that people born of such lofty parents should not break the moral law, and also that he and Yami, having the same parents, cannot procreate together.

10. The god of procreation, and the artisan of the gods, fashioner of the embryo in the womb. Cf. 10.184.1, 4.18.3.

11. Here and in verse 9, Yami argues that sky and earth are as closely related as she and Yama are, that their procreation was not only permitted but even archetypal.

12. ‘Bull’ is Vedic slang for a virile man, like ‘stud’ in American; cf. 1.179.1 and 1.179.4.

13. She argues that a brother should protect his sister, even if this involves incest, to keep her from going unsatisfied and un fertilized. Ironically, it is the brother who should find a husband for his sister and avenge her if she is rejected.

14. Destruction (nirrti) both in the wider sense of the destruction of the human race (as she argues in verse 1) or in the more particular sense of the destruction that comes upon a man who dies son- less.

Regards

Equivalence of Mainstream Science and Mainstream Media

I am a fan of "Telugu Alchemist" who posts videos on youtube about "mainstream science" which give me an opportunity to cogitate over vedic science. In a recent video he talked about the Law of Conservation of Energy where he translated "energy" to "sakti", perhaps a term used in academic curriculum. I will come to the Law a little later, but first I would like to clarify on "sakti" which primarily means female principle in hinduism but has other derived meanings like the connection between mind, god, etc. with matter.

It is believed that yogis possessed yoga sakti using which they could bend solid objects or travel to the place of their choice instantaneously. Whether one believes in such metamagical themes, one has to be generally receptive to the female principle and the interaction between mind and matter to appreciate the wisdom of the rishis.

For instance, what is the sakti that makes firewood useful for cooking? A rishi would say firewood has "agni tattva" whereby prayer or its equivalent such as rubbing flint stones initiates the combustion process that manifests as light and heat. Why is rubbing flint stones the same as prayer? Simply, the "agni" in flint stone was discovered by someone using their mind! If you say, the search engine told you

"The discovery of fire was attributed to Homo erectus, during the Early Stone Age. They likely first discovered fire through natural events such as lightning strikes or volcanic eruptions and learned to control it for warmth and cooking."

Therefore, there was no serendipity and a "discovery" was made, which is ipso facto mind!

To understand the female principle of sakti requires abstract thinking. In Sankhya, mentioned in Bhagavad Gita, Prakruti, which is sakti, comes in contact with Purusha, which is consciousness or spirit, to energize the Jiva. In other words, sakti is necessary for the creation and sustenance of jiva. Though Prakruti is commonly referred to as nature or matter, ultimately it is a manifested female principle.

Did our rishis miss the "energy" concept altogether? The mention of agni in hundreds of veda mantras and the various references such as sapta jihva, aapaye, indhanaya, jaataveda, vanaspataye, etc. attributed to agni, apply to energy as well. When you have a boundless entity manifesting in various forms, including terrestrial and celestial objects, what would one have to say about its conservation? The saanti mantra puts it succinctly "Aum! That is infinite, and this (universe) is infinite.The infinite proceeds from the infinite. (Then) taking the infinitude of the infinite (universe), It remains as the infinite alone."

But what about the law? Alchemist uses time and space symmetries of physics to explain the law. He gives an example of a compressed spring that has the same energy whether it is transported in space or measured at various times. However, tell that to people making perpetual motion machines, liquid water fuel, and replacing silicon chips with biological brains.

One thing overlooked is energy is not a vector and inert. It can't make objects move which can only be done by a vector like force, for instance, but gets consumed in motion. Simply put, unless energy is released by either a vector or a process such as combustion, it remains latent and unmanifested.

In the terrestrial frame of reference, for example, when we consider a coal fired steam engine, the energy released by burning coal, converts water to steam that moves its wheels. Suppose someone tells you to put miniature wind turbines along the railway tracks, and recover some of the energy released by the coal whenever a train passes causing wind turbulence, one would say that is ludicrous! In other words, the law was established for the convenience of fitting mathematical formulations, rather than real life.

Finally, I would like to comment on those who stick to time and space symmetries as the golden standard and there is no symmetry in "Artha-naareeswara" for why would a half-male and a half-female together give rise to a symmetric form? I think the rishis are telling us "don't be fooled by the outer appearance" and the form that seems asymmetric and self-contradictory is indeed Brahman who was described by Adi Sankara in various ways in Nirvana Shatakam that begins as:

"Mano-Buddhi-Ahankaara, Chittaani Naaham Na Cha Shrotra-Jihveh, Na Cha Ghraan-na-Netre Na Cha Vyoma Bhoomir, Na Tejo Na Vaayuh Chid-Aananda-Roopah, Shivoham Shivoham"

"I am not the Mind nor Intelligence the Ego, or the faculty of recollections. I am not the faculties of Hearing, nor that of Tasting, the faculties of Smelling or Seeing. I am not the Sky, nor the Earth, Neither the Fire nor the Air"

Regards

Cynosure of our eyes

For millennia the cynosure of our eyes is the Sun whom we worshiped and considered as the light of the universe. However, heliocentrism is relatively new in the world steeped in religious dogma. Only in the 17th century Copernicus convinced everyone that earth is a planet of the Sun. If that is so, what else are we wrong about?

In the ageing, yet crisp, voice of Sir David Attenborough (1926-), we learn that the James Webb telescope orbiting the earth proved that astronomers who based their calculations on big-bang were wrong! Webb found a galaxy that had formed 200-300 million years after big-bang, which was unexpected. It's not that they were completely wrong about big-bang, but only those conclusions based on the observations of the Hubble telescope need revision. In simple terms the space is expanding so fast that the light from some galaxies will never make it to us. So what does it imply?

The Vasishta Gita in Ramayana mentions two concepts in terms of frequency of appearance: consciousness and kaakataaliyam. The latter means as a crow alights a coconut tree, a coconut drops to the ground without a cause-effect relationship. For instance if we make an amateur remark that "as astronomers peer through Webb in a particular angle, the universe is too shy to reveal itself" it will be a kaakataaliyam. Coming to consciousness we can approximate it to the visible universe or "bubble" as David Attenborough says.

The astronomers say we are at the peak of universal consciousness with so many observable parameters made possible by technological advancements. That means, one day in the future our consciousness will shrink so much that even Sage Vyasa will be naught. People in the 22nd century will have to launch a search to find out just what the group of letters v-y-a-s-a, spelled in whatever ways, mean because their consciousness would be shrunk a little bit.

Linguists for centuries had a solution for that. They made a dictionary entry expecting people to refer to it or create a stotra for daily recitation as in the case of hindus. The Oxford English Dictionary has just 21,730 pages in 20 volumes! While it is commendable that they keep adding new words, that won't do. Because in 2025, the Oxford English Dictionary has added nearly 600 new words, including terms like "alamak," "bachata," and "bed-hopper," reflecting cultural and linguistic trends. Even search engines couldn't catch up because like light from the stars is always from the past, there is a lag between updates to a dictionary and the updates by the search engine.

If astronomers were correct, from now on our consciousness will keep shrinking which is in agreement with vedas. As many know vedas had 1132 branches barely 1000 years ago based on Adi Sankara's writings and now there are only 7. So what happened to the wisdom in the 1125 branches? In simple terms it went past our visible universe, even the most powerful telescopes would be of no help.

Coming back to heliocentric theory, is there a single source of light, let's call him Aditya, who lights all of the visible universe including our Sun? Are the non-visible universes stacked like a deck of cards or the layers of earth which can be accessed by simply "digging" or "tunnelling"? Are there several Adityas among the invisible universes? Given that our Sun is 4.6 billion years old with a 10 billion year life-span, what will be the life-span of an Aditya?

A more pertinent question is who lights up all the Adityas? The vedas say it is Brahman. Because we are still conscious of vedas, we are able to answer. How about the future generations? Already those of us who didn't have the fortune to visit the Sun Temple at Konark or Arasavilli in Andhra Pradesh, think there is no such thing as a precise sundial. A century from now, the pilgrimage sites will quietly slip out of consciousness just as the galaxies are drifting away from our visible universe.

David Attenborough draws a nihilistic conclusion that as the visible universe shrinks there will be a denouement, because he, like many of us, thinks the big-bang is the beginning of reckoning of time. The skeptics can subscribe to it. But those merging their consciousness with that of our rishis who said the creation is "anaadi" wouldn't have any trouble.

As the year is coming to an end, given that the cynosure of 2025 is Maha Kumbh Mela, what will be the cynosure in 2026? Let's hope Isro will launch a telescope that will find the krishnabhila that leads us to the invisible universes, just as Bhagavata Skandha 10 says:

"Sri Krishna's chariot crossed seven mountains, seven oceans, seven islands and entered a pitch black region. The horses were unable to see anything. Then Sri Krishna released his Sudarshana disc to light the path. They reached a city studded with diamonds called Mahakala. There they saw Adisesha with thousand gem studded hoods. On the hoods was seated the paramatma. Sri Krishna and Arjuna saluted the paramatma."

Regards

Swecha Bharat

For many hindus Panchatantra is no stranger. But how many know many of the surviving historical manuscripts of Panchatantra are found in Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Iran; Oxford library, Indian Office Library, London (UK); Tibet and Japan, etc.? Its author Vishnu Sarma (200 BCE-300 CE) was blessed with most translations of any Bharatiya vignaan among the Indo-European and Indo-Persian language families.

As many know, "pancha" in Sanskrit means five and "tantra" is an "upaya" or a stratagem. The five being Mitra-bheda (The Loss of Friends), Mitra-lābha (The Acquisition of Friends), Kākolūkīyam (The Crows and the Owls), Labdhapraṇāśam (The Loss of Gains), Aparīkṣitakārakaṃ (The Rash Deeds).

Preceding Panchatantra was Chanakya's (350 BCE) 5 upayas: sama (persuasion), dana (offering), danda (punishment), bheda (isolation) in the art of governance that were largely superseded by the later Panchatantra because of the harshness involved in them. But you still find them among the fraternity of nations. For instance Bharat is in the last two legs vis-a-vis neighbors.

Also, there is a difference between Vishnu Sarma's mitra-bheda that means doing the opposite of Dale Carnegie's advice in his book "How to Win Friends And Influence People", and Chanakya's bheda which means isolation such as the "sanctions regime".

After independence, Bharat used Panchsheel: respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, non-aggression, non-interference, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful co-existence that were called "non-alignment", later "non-aligned movement" by including more nations. In reality, Bharat favored the former USSR over the USA, the two nations engaged in cold-war.

The "Global South", "BRICS", etc. are later refinements to primarily counter the US Dollar's supremacy. So when the talk of Tariffs was going on, Bharat fell back to Mitra-Labha and the EAM went around scouting for new markets and trading partners. The foreign jaunts of nouveau riche on Bharat's Air Force 1 are reminiscent of American tycoon Carnegie's diplomacy on his yacht to engage primarily China and Bharat. While China acceded to open up trade relations and prospered, Bharat lagged behind.

If there is a stark difference between these two neighbors, it is the lingua franca induced lack of orderliness. Bharat, while proud of its English, had subscribed to sloganeering under the guise of 5-year plans such as "Garibi Hathao" (remove poverty), "Beti Bachao" (save the girl child), etc. neglecting infrastructure and overall hygiene. While the former made leaps and bounds in the recent past despite fiascos like Indigo grounding its planes, the latter never sunk deep into the citizens as they were offered more slogans like "Swacha Bharat", "Vikshit Bharat", "Atma Nirbhar Bharat", etc. instead of investment in practical tools to raise the standards of living.

For instance, whenever the world leaders visited the capital, the likes of Madanpur Khadar and Kathputli Colony, that are collectively called slums, were kept out of sight with make-shift pardahs along the surface routes. At the same time humanitarians like Mother Teresa and Mira Nair were heckled for not providing bathroom tissue to the slum dwellers instead of seeking fame and prizes.

So how to fix? While trickle-down economics by handing over public institutions to the oligarchs might work in the short-term, like Russia the GoI will bog down in unending border skirmishes throwing more "Agni Veers" in harm's way, for which the largely unemployed youth, who are enamored with government jobs that are synonymous with corruption, are to be blamed . The self-employed shouldn't be subsisting on "Pakora Stalls" without knowing nutritional value and basic hygiene, both of which can be fixed, like in China or Singapore, with incentives and repercussions rather than saddling with a GST. In other words, use Chanakya's precepts for internal affairs rather than making speeches in the General Assembly or informal press conferences by the select coterie to show "Swecha Bharat" or an utopian land of freebies from the leaders.

Regards

Are you being served?

Skill can be defined as the ability to create and use tools to gain advantage over natural resources even though it was reduced to "ability to do something well" by the linguists ignoring that language itself is a tool granted by Vakdevi, with Agni as the adhisthana devata. While humans are blessed by the Goddesses like Gayatri Devi, Saraswati Devi for learning and communication, the animal kingdom is not far behind. A crow dropping pebbles into a jar of water, a fable taught in my kindergarten, causes the water level to rise for its use. In the modern times, Jane Goodall raised the awareness about Chimpanzees that have the ability to use sticks to ferret out ants and such from the ground. A South American Parakeet was shown to remember 1700 words through training and interaction. A Golden Retriever has the skill to retrieve something like a frisbee and a Beaver can build dams across waterways.

Our Puranas mention several weapons which are tools to defend oneself made from other tools by the smithies. A skilful archer, such as Arjuna or Ekalavya, was pivotal for winning in a war. Balarama had a plough as the weapon of choice which has been repurposed from an agricultural tool. Parasurama wielded an axe or parasu in front of Lord Rama after he dismantled the Shiv Dhanus in Sita Devi svayamvara.

Even going back, the Indus Civilization was shown to be very advanced in making and using tools. The tool makers or craftsmen made ploughs, sickles, chakras, maces, spears, bows, arrows and what not. And there were early metallurgists who knew how to make iron in blast furnaces and annealing them for strength and longevity. It is believed that the iron pillars built during Chandra Gupta Maurya era didn't rust to this day!

In recent times, the jewelers of Bharat were recognized for their skill in cutting, polishing and setting stones in gold and silver ornaments around the world elevating them to artisans. Lest we forget the weavers of silk saris, such as Kanchipuram, who are considered the ultimate artists.

Where am I going with this? In the USA, there are broadly two types of schools: colleges that impart skills and universities that train scholars for speciality occupations. Of much interest are the former that apply to plumbers, electricians, mechanics, etc. The so called Polytechnics and ITIs in Bharat pretty much do the same but with different degrees of sophistication. The foremost skilful tool makers and operators are the Chinese making China an industrial powerhouse and a vendor or supplier to the world. I think there is not much to say about Bharat other than upskilling, something I lamented earlier as lacking in the present environment that wants technology transfers and a production line ready for turning out widgets. For a country trying to right the wrongs committed by earlier generations there is no loss of pride.

For an American skilled worker to give up his place for an immigrant is a hard bargain. So companies want to shift entire manufacturing overseas when the goal is to make more profit. Once the automobile assembly lines were transplanted in Japan out of guilt. Later entire clean rooms used for making electronics were shipped from America's heartland to countries like China for profit. The locals quickly acquired the skills to operate the machinery and now they are at the cusp of making advanced machinery using tools they made while the Americans watch them in dismay. For instance, the electronic lithography machines that can make nano circuits were the forte of the Netherlands. Not necessarily in the coming years, if Chinese had their way.

Strangely enough a skilled scholar is a rare combination in the American landscape making the local scholars vulnerable for replacement by an immigrant for various reasons. This is where Bharat's reputation as a supplier of IT degree holders increased. There is a twist. When Cloud service providers replaced on-premise servers and their administrators, the "admins" moved on to other "jobs" like programming numerically controlled machines and operating server farms for making bitcoins and such. By the way, the influencers like Anton Kobyakov claiming the US wants to reset its debt by converting to crypto is not as simple as it sounds for the block-chain behind crypto envisaged by an anonymous Japanese tech worker was based on prime numbers that are critical for encrypted communication.

Anyhow, it is important that Bharatiya leaders shamelessly clamouring, nay begging, over American work-visas understand that a wholesome tech visa must include a fallback skill such as the aforementioned admins, something the present American system doesn't insist for whatever reasons. Back in the days when I studied on a scholarship, some students worked in cafeterias, libraries and computer labs on campus, none of which required a skill other than hand-eye coordination. Nor imparted new skills. These days the so-called OPT mills allow students to go off campus and pump gas or bag groceries, for instance, which are nothing but mind numbing tasks for a student aspiring for a tech visa. This is where they rub with the locals, such as teens and seniors, looking for "jobs" running into so-called students.

I don't think NASSCOM, the self-appointed guardian of Bharatiya IT, will ever understand the distinction between a tech worker and a skilled worker. They obfuscate and warn the Americans of ominous consequences if Bharatiya IT workers are not "sponsored" which the big tech companies buy into. Perhaps they all read Fridman's "World Is Flat" (2005; see wiki). They are purveyors of misinformation and experts at disinformation, thus maligning the credibility of all NRIs. The tech company captains, what with many of them having availed themselves of work visas early in their careers, are abettors with some foot dragging. Time to wake up and smell the coffee that just came off tariffs.

Regards

Midwife's Children

The saga of Bharat's partition in 1947 has been dealt ad infinitum by various historians and novelists. Our history books mention a Lord Mountbatten as the Viceroy and Governor-General of India who oversaw the dismemberment of the vision of Akhand Bharat with intricate borders that stupefy high schoolers and adults alike. When the dust settled, the late Queen, in 1960, made a long declaration that ends as:

"I declare My Will and Pleasure that, while I and My Children shall continue to be styled and known as the House and Family of Windsor, My descendants other than descendants enjoying the style, title or attribute of Royal Highness and the titular dignity of Prince or Princess and female descendants who marry and their descendants shall bear the name of Mountbatten-Windsor"

It could be noble or inbreeding depending on which side of the pond you are dwelling on. No matter whose side you are on, you have to agree that the royal descendants were delivered in a hush-hush manner and some of the descendants bearing the aforementioned surname grew up to do hush-hush things. If one is a fusion artist like the Bengali author Nirad Chowdhuri, one sheds crocodile tears for the way the midwife's children are popping in the daily news grinder.

We all feel a thing or two for the noble Queen, but considering how she treated the betrothals as persona non grata before and after the nuptials, makes me wonder if there had been a grand plan behind all of this. Something Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes alone could figure out.

Coming back to Akhand Bharat, we are enlightened by the powers that be that LAC and LOC are not royal seals or padlocks, but something the global border police, such as the UN, take seriously. That is until they were evicted during the latest border skirmish. So what now? May be Jesus will make his second appearance in Kashmir this Christmas to enlighten us.

Meanwhile the influencers in the social media are relishing the military build up at the "Chicken's Neck" which is an euphemism for "we don't know why Bengali's die for imported Hilsa fish curry". One can put two and two together and arrive at the awareness that Bharat's border issues are actually due to the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) that has not inducted the Chicken Tikka Masala into the Culinary Hall of Fame over the objections of Boston Brahmins.

Before breaking into a personal appeal about the benefits of vegetarian diet, and cruelty towards animals that deserve time and space to evolve, I would like to share the highlights of today's "History Detectives" show on public television. Apparently during WWII American military experimented with canines that could sniff out non-caucasians at the enemy lines and attack them rather ferociously. Guess what, they used the enlisted non-caucasians in the military as bait to train the canines on not-so-funny Cat Island near Mississippi!

Baghavata tells us that there are 8400000 species on earth. But they all fall into 4 broad categories: ‘Udbhija’ (sprouted from Earth like grass, vegetables etc.), ‘Swedaja’ (Krimi, Keeta and Flies that seem to appear from sweat), ‘Andaja’ (Birds, Fish etc. born out of eggs) and ‘Jarayuja’ (Animals, human beings etc. born out of physical bodies). Each of them has a soul, no matter how small or big, that deserves to evolve and achieve moksha. So we, as the most evolved, need to be aware of this.

All this tells me that one needs to travel far and wide to appreciate God's creation. I am waiting for the Akhand Bharat Passport before boarding a flight to nowhere.

Regards

The Lotus Effect

In the vast Sanskrit literature one finds this maxim " utpala-shata-patra-vyatibhéda-vat" which translates to " "Like the simultaneous piercing of a bundle of hundred lotus-leaves." Lotus leaves are very soft. Hence a stack of hundred such leaves can be pierced with a sharp needle in no time, almost instantaneously, and yet the actual process is linear or one leaf at a time.

A complete description as to why or how the maxim came into existence requires an inordinate amount of time, so much so that Kaala Bhairava, the embodiment of time, alone can determine and grant. For all practical purposes it means less than a "truti" which could be anywhere from a millionth to a billionth of a second.

Shlokavārtika says, "You say the example of lamp and light as an instance of simultaneity of cause and effect, but still there is a finite little time, just like piercing hundred lotus leaves." So we can surmise there was knowledge that light has a finite speed, just as it was known that sunlight takes about 8 minutes to reach the Earth.

For comparison sake in modern computers, including smart phones, the smallest time unit is called the "clock speed" which measures the number of cycles the Central Processing Unit (CPU) executes per second, measured in GHz (gigahertz) which translates to a billionth of a second.

If you thought science beat the rishis, what if the rishi tells us the stack of leaves can be of any size? Then the smallest time to pierce is based on the method used, which ranges from a needle to a laser beam. Applying quantum tunneling, this simple thought experiment becomes intractable or mind boggling.

On the macro scale, buddhists thought completely swapping two stacks of rings around two poles, using a third pole, by transferring one ring per day means the end of time. Our rishis went beyond with larger scales of time comprising yuga, mahayuga, kalpa, brahma kaala, etc.

What about the physics lesson time is relative? The physicists subscribing to the relativity theory inspired a hollywood movie called Interstellar where they used the axiom that clocks slow down near massive objects such as black holes due to gravity. Some physicists took atomic clocks atop the tallest building then, Burg Khalifa, and concluded that clocks slowed down. Did our rishis miss this fundamental aspect? Not really. Because they were talking about time whereas the physicists are talking about clocks, both biological and physics, that are subject to quantum effects.

Of much interest to everyone: "How long will I live?" or "When will XYZ pass away?". The rishis wrestled with these never-wracking questions and incorporated them in treatises that comprised siddhanta, jyotish and samhita. Most people think the aayush calculated by vedic astrologers, say using Parasara Sutras, variously called Pinda, Amsa, Nisarga, etc. is the answer to the perplexing questions where sampurna aayush means a 120 year long life span. For illustration, the oldest human, a French woman called Jeanne Louise Calment, lived to be 122 years. So Sage Parasara who made his Sutras 5000 years ago remains credible.

A more common time related question in democracies is "How long before the ruling party collapses prematurely?" For this there are Tarot Readers, Oracles, Palmists, etc. as jyotish pertained to Kingdoms where the ruling party was an individual that could be the king, queen, prince, etc. So bobbing heads on TVs during elections claiming to be jyotish are, in a sense, doing a disservice to their audience.

Therefore, the rishis like Parasara, Jaimini and Aryabhatta based their predictions on calculations made out of observation. Did they use telescopes? One vedic scholar found evidence in a Hampi temple built before Kepler (circa 1500 AD) in the form of stone carvings showing rishis peering through "tubular" objects. Many a time our rishis predicting that there are other Suns associated with various lokas and earth has a third degree of motion, besides rotation and revolution, in the form of axis tilt, had a darshan of the terrestrial and celestial worlds in tapas. Hence they are collectively called "drashtas" in vedas.

I find no need to mock the frailty of astronomy in predicting anything credibly, even with the help of the powerful Jame Webb Telescope orbiting the earth because they dish out excellent photographs of what's happening in the universe via NASA website. There are also the "influencers" in various social media platforms who monetize such fodder, not to mention the main-stream-media tooting their horns.

In all humility, as I see scientists are trying very hard to disprove vedas which have only 7-12 extant branches left on the last count, down from 1132 during Sage Vyasa's time, possibly because of invasions on Bharat,, and many more branches that missed the Sage's edits. In sum, during Bharat's indentured period the invaders usurped the vedic knowledge and claimed it as their own by touting the observe-theorize-predict-experiment paradigm without due credit to vedas that did all the work.

Regards