Friday 29 July 2011

4. THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS....

1. The beauty of the Indian National Anthem – in terms of the words and music.

2. And that of 'Vande Matram'.

3. The fact that India is the world's largest democracy. (The western world was skeptical about the chances of the success of this experiment at the time of India's Independence).

4. The World's only True Melting Pot: Where innumerable communities and philosophies have assimilated through the centuries and lived peacefully.

5. Its Secularism - acceptance of all religions in particular.

6.. Its Tolerance towards all philosophies.

7. Peaceful in approach (Exceptionally tolerant towards its geographical neighbors).

8. That it is the land that gave birth to Sanskrit . This ancient language best known for its brevity and the ease with which its texts can be memorized, is recognized by scientists as the language most suited for computers. It is also the mother of many languages and has the most scientific grammar.

9. The fact that India's ancient scriptures continue to exist today, and the knowledge there-in respected.

10. The range and variety of the scriptures: The Vedas, the Puranas, Upnashids, the many Shastra and the Sutras, the Mahabharata and the Ramayan.

11. Indian Classical Music (both Hindustani and Carnatic) recognized as the most refined by musicians all over the world.

12. The vastness of Indian folk arts (Music, dances).

13. The magic and romance created by old Hindi movies.

14. That it is a land where 18 official languages and 1600 dialects are spoken. The 18 languages are written in 12 different scripts.

15. The ability to absorb all things foreign and then produce a more versatile and vibrant Indian version.

16. That India produced ‘Brihat Hora Shastra’ considered to be the world’ most precise text on astrology.

17. The variety of its topography: The highest mountain range and one of the longest coastlines in the world.

18. The reverence for all rivers – especially the Ganges.

19. Only culture where there are festivals dedicated to ‘Light’,'Color', Seasons.

20. That according to the Panchang, each day is a festival.

21. The richness, colours and the variety of Indian textiles. (Khadi, Silks).

22. The variety of attires to choose from (saris/ghagara/ salawar suits for women, Sherwanis, dhotis, kurtas for men).

23. The art of Henna.


24. The art of Rangoli.

25. The simplicity of life.

26. The sound of flute in the Indian hills.

27. The affection for the armed forces one has in this country.

28. Seeped in tradition, yet this country produces world known mathematicians and computer scientists.

29. That rural India controls the results of the general elections.

30. The elaborate Indian Weddings.

31. And the simple 'Shiva Temple' Indian Wedding - with no witnesses!

32. Variety of Indian cuisine available to choose from.

33. That it is the land of Yoga.

34. That it is the land that gave birth to all martial arts.

35. That Indian outdoor games require no props- example Kabbadi.

36. The variety of foods to choose from when 'fasting'!

37. Indian Masala Tea (Evolved from the simple Chinese Tea decoction)!

38. Shikanji (The Indian Version of the simple Lemonade)!

39. India's craze about cricket.

40. India's craze for Bollywood.

41 Train ride through Indian countryside.

42. Indian rural Puppet Shows.

43. The tales of Vikramaditya and Amar Chitra Katha.

44. Indian fashion adornment the Bindi- its placement on the forehead is supposed to invoke the pineal gland in the brain for enlightenment. Related to the concept of the 'Third Eye of Shiva'!

45. The Caves of Amarnath and Vaishno Devi.

46. The back waters of Kerala and Kovalam Beach.

47. The beauty of Kashmir.

48. Kashmiri embroidery.

49. The sound of Santoor.

50. The writings of Premchand.

51. Indian Snacks - especially the Samosa.

52. Konarak Temple- once washed naturally by the sea at high-tide.

53. Colourful Bandhini Dupattas.

54. That India is one big extended family!.

55. The Indian Monsoon.

56. Hinglish.

57. Kite-fights on Independence Day.

58. The roadside vendor's ability for quick mathematical calculations.

59. Indian comic book - 'Lote Pote'.

60. The fact that the so called 'common man' in India is knowledgably, intelligent and informed.

61. India's Obsession with India.

62. And India's Obsession with all things foreign.

Thursday 28 July 2011

ETYMOLOGY OF WORDS AND SANSKRIT

'Read' is derived from the Middle English word “reden” which means to advise. “Reden” is originally derived from Sanskrit 'ridhnoti' (ऋध्नोति) - root word 'rdh' (ऋध्) which means ‘succeed', 'accomplish' or 'to figure out' - hence 'read'.

'Write' is derived from the Sanskrit 'rekha' (रेखा) & 'lekha' (लेखा) - both meaning 'scratch' or 'imprint'.

The English word 'death' is derived from Old Norse 'dauthi', originally from Sanskrit dehant (देहान्त), 'deh' (देह) meaning 'body'+ 'anta' (अन्त) meaning 'end', hence 'end of the body'.

The English word 'swear' meaning oath, is derived from Old English 'swerian' which means ‘oath’, originally from Sanskrit 'svara' (स्वर) & 'svaran' (स्वरण) meaning 'clear voiced'.

"Clash" originates from Sanskrit ‘kleish’ (क्लेश). Other Sanskrit  wordsthat are related are 'kleshaka' (क्लेशक) - 'giving pain' or 'kleshala' (क्लेशल) which means 'pain'.

'Tune' and 'tone' are derived from Sanskrit 'dhva' (ध्वन्) which means 'sound'.The Hindi 'dhun' is also derived from 'dhvan'.

The word 'bend' was used in Old English as 'bend a bow to string it'. Bend is derived from Sanskrit 'badhnati' (बध्नाति) root word (बन्ध्) meaning ‘to tie’.

The word 'string' is derived from the Sanskrit 'SutraTantu' (सूत्रतन्तु) meaning String. Another word for String in Sanskrit is 'tantri' (तन्त्री).


White is derived from Sanskrit 'shweta' (श्वेत) meaning 'white' or 'bright'.

The word 'instrument' is derived from French 'instruere' meaning 'arrange'. 'Arrange' itself is from Sanskrit 'arachayati' (आरचयति). 


'Mana' (मन) means 'mind' and 'tra' (त्र) means protection. Hence the word 'mantra' (मन्त्र) - that doctrine or instrument which protects the mind. 

'Tantra' (तन्त्र) means 'that which protects the body' where 'tana' (तन्) means 'body'. These two words have been assimilated into English with no changes.

The English word 'core' comes from Sanskrit word
'kroda' (क्रोडः) which means 'heart or center of something'.

The word 'tenet' meaning 'principle' 'or that which holds true' is derived from the Sanskrit 'tantra' (तन्त्र) meaning 'doctrine'.

The word 'me' is derived from Sanskrit 'mam' (मम) meaning 'I'. Like the Bengali 'aami'.

'Your' is derived from Sanskrit 'yushmak' (युष्माक) and 'they' from Sanskrit 'tey' (ते) with the same meaning .

'River' is derived from Latin 'riparia', which means 'bank' or 'shore', originally from Sanskrit 'paravar' (पारावार) meaning 'both banks'. The other variation is 'par-apar' (पार–अपार) meaning, ‘this side and the other side’.

'Stream' is derived from Old German 'stroum', originally from Sanskrit 'sravati' (स्रवति) which means 'flows’. Other related Sanskrit words are 'srotyaah' (स्रोत्या) & 'struti' (स्रुति). Both the words have the same meaning which is 'stream'.

The English word 'sign' has its origins in Sanskrit 'chinha' (चिह्न) meaning 'mark'.

And the English word 'mark' originates from the Sanskrit 'marya' (मर्या) which again means 'mark'.

ASTRONAUT SPEAK

It is more or less a forgone conclusion now that extra-terrestrials exist and have been visiting the earth. Various astronauts of the United States space missions, in-spite of having been sworn into secrecy, have over the years revealed what they saw during their numerous space missions. The statements made by them are a shocker to those who are not updated on this subject. The truth has been out there for some time now. The astronauts have spoken up. Many books have been written to reveal the truth. The only reason why this information is not common knowledge is due to the reluctance of the society to accept the truth. NASA is not really to blame.

The following information is collated from various sources:

Major Gordon Cooper (one of the Mercury Missions Astronauts and the last American to fly in space alone) testified before United Nations regarding his sighting on May 15, 1963, “For many years I have lived with a secret, in a secrecy imposed on all specialists in astronautics. I can now reveal that every day, in the USA, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition unknown to us. And there are thousands of witness reports and a quantity of documents to prove this, but nobody wants to make them public. I believe that these extra-terrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets... I did have occasion in 1951 to have two days of observation of many flights of them, of different sizes, flying in fighter formation, generally from east to west over Europe." 

Neil Armstrong, the Commander of Apollo 11 Mission and the first man on moon, and Edwin Aldrin Jr., Lunar Module Pilot, saw two UFOs shortly after their historic landing on the Moon on July 21, 1969. The astronauts referred to a "light" in a crater during the television transmission of the moon landing. Followed by a request from Mission Control for details of the sighting, the astronauts gave a further report. Radio hams, with their own VHF receiving facilities that bypassed NASA's broadcasting outlets, picked up the following exchange:

NASA: What’s there? Mission Control calling Apollo 11...
Armstrong: These "Babies" are huge, Sir! Enormous! Oh My God! You wouldn't believe it! I'm telling you there are other spacecraft out there. Lined up on the far side of the crater edge! They're on the Moon watching us!

During a NASA Symposium regarding NASA’s Moon Space Station Project, a Professor was engaged in a discussion with
Neil Armstrong. Here are the details:

Professor: What really happened out there with Apollo 11?
Armstrong: It was incredible, of course we had always known there was a possibility, the fact is, we were warned off! (By the Aliens). There was never any question then of a (NASA) space station or a moon city (Project).
Professor: How do you mean "warned off"?
Armstrong: I can't go into details, except to say that their ships were far superior to ours both in size and technology. Boy, were they big! And menacing! No, there is no question of a space station.
Professor: But NASA had other missions after Apollo 11?
Armstrong: Naturally NASA was committed at that time,  and couldn't risk panic on Earth. But it really was a quick scoop and back again.


The former chief of NASA Communications Systems, Maurice Chatelain, would confirm that Armstrong indeed had made the aforementioned communication. Chatelain stated: "The encounter was common knowledge in NASA, but nobody has talked about it until now."



Donald Slayton, a Mercury Astronaut has also revealed in an interview that he had seen UFOs in 1951: "I was testing a P-51 fighter in Minneapolis when I spotted this object. I was at about 10,000 feet on a nice, bright, sunny afternoon. I thought the object was a kite, then I realized that no kite is gonna fly that high. As I got closer it looked like a weather balloon, gray and about three feet in diameter. But as soon as I got behind the darn thing it didn't look like a balloon anymore. It looked like a saucer, a disk. About the same time, I realized that it was suddenly going away from me and there I was, running at about 300 miles per hour. I tracked it for a little way, and then all of a sudden, the damn thing just took off. It pulled a 45-degree climbing turn, and accelerated, and just flat disappeared.”

On July 17, 1962, Major Robert White reported a UFO during his fifty-eight-mile-high flight of an X-15. Major White reported: “I have no idea what it could be. It is grayish in color and about thirty to forty feet away.” Then according to a Time Magazine article, Major White exclaimed over the radio: "There ARE things out there! There absolutely is!"

On May 11, 1962 NASA Pilot Joseph Walker said that one of his tasks was to detect UFOs during his X-15 flights. He had filmed five or six UFOs during his record breaking fifty-mile-high flight in April, 1962. It was the second time he had filmed UFOs in flight. During a lecture at the Second National Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Space Research in Seattle, Washington he said: “I don't feel like speculating about them. All I know is what appeared on the film which was developed after the flight.” To date none of those films have been released to the public for viewing.


Eugene Cernan was commander of Apollo 17. In a Los Angeles Times article in 1973 he said: “I've been asked (about UFOs) and I've said publicly I thought they (UFOs) were somebody else, some other civilization”.






James Lovell on board the Apollo 8 Command Module, during his lunar orbit, came out from behind the dark side of the moon on December 25, 1968 and said for everybody to hear: “Please be informed that there is a Santa Claus.” It would later become common knowledge that the term 'Santa Claus' was a NASA code word for a UFO. James Lovell was also the Commander of Apollo 17.

THE UNEXPLAINED MYSTERY OF THE OREGON SRI YANTRA

On August 10, 1990, Bill Miller, a pilot in the Idaho Air National Guard, noticed a huge etching on a dried-up lake-bed while flying over it, in Oregon in the United States. The massive formation was a quarter of a mile in width and was etched 3 inches deep into the surface.

In his earlier round, about 30 minutes before Bill Miller first noticed the glyph, there had been no trace of this formation. Neither had any of the other pilots of the Idaho National Guard who regularly train over this corridor, observed any unusual activity. The etching simply appeared one morning.


This etching appeared on a dry
lake bed in Oregon in 1990

Photo Courtesy: ICCRA

Miller immediately reported the details to the authorities at the National Guard. It was a 13.3 mile glyph of lines, about a quarter of a mile in width and length, on the hard, sun-baked dry bed of a lake in Mickey Basin located southeast of Steens Mountains in the Alvord Desert in Oregon.

The formation detected on the morning of August 10, 1990 was oriented precisely in the North-South direction. The glyph had a machine like precision in its shape and clarity of lines. After Bill Miller reported the observation, the news was concealed from the public by the authorities for thirty days.



Photo Courtesy: ICCRA

The news hit the media in the United States on 12th September, 1990 when Boise TV station first aired the story. As soon as the story was aired, the glyph was quickly identified as the ancient Hindu meditation device- the Sri Yantra - identical in shape and proportion, and in its geometrical properties. No one had a theory why a pictograph of a complex Hindu meditation yantra should appear in the wilderness of Oregon.

The etching of the Sri Yantra that appeared
on a river bed in Oregon in August, 1990.

Photo: Bill Witherspoon

By September 14th, the story was picked up by the Associated Press, Bend Bulletin and the Oregonian. The Oregonian reported that some architects that had been contacted by the newspaper, had said that the cost of conducting a land survey alone, before such a project could be initiated, would range from $75,000 to $100,000. 


The Sri Yantra design has a degree of complexity and a level of symmetry that makes it difficult to recreate its design even on paper. Furrowing an enormous replication of it on a dry lake-bed is next to impossible. There was therefore a good deal of speculation that the glyph was not man-made. 

For one, the shape produced by the lines in this massive Sri Yantra could not be deciphered while standing on the ground. The shape only made sense when viewed from a height of a few thousand feet above.

In Vedic texts, the Sri Yantra is defined as a device formed by nine interlocking triangles. Four triangles point upward (representing Shiva) overlapping with five downward-pointing triangles (representing Shakti). The triangles are placed in a circle surrounded by the two levels of lotus-petals, which in turn are surrounded by an outer circle and enclosed in a tantra design, serving as a protective cover. As the devotee enters into the Mandala, represented by the Sri Yantra, he leaves behind the worldly distractions and conflicts; and is transported into a world of symbols and visualizations.

The triangles surround and radiate out from a bindu point. The bindu represents the junction point between the physical universe and its un-manifest source. The nine triangles are interlaced in such a way so as to create forty three smaller triangles symbolic of the entire cosmos.

The Sri Yantra is variedly described as a visual representation of the sound ‘Om’ and an expression of the philosophy of ‘Advaita (one-ness or non-duality). The Sri Yantra is popularly used today in India as a meditation device.

Two UFO Researchers, Don Newman and Alan Decker, visited the site on 15th September and reported that no trace of tire track markings or foot prints were visible anywhere close to the site even though their own station wagon had now left quarter inch deep marks into the hard crust of the surface. 



UFO researcher Don Newman with his
wife. 
Newman was a B-17 pilot
and instructor in the U.S. Army Air Corps 

Dr. James Deardorff, a Research Professor Emeritus at the Atmospheric Science Department of Oregon State University and a colleague of Don Newman and Alan Decker, compiled the details of their investigations and forwarded the story to UFO magazine, a British magazine devoted to the subject of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and extraterrestrial life. The magazine agreed to publish the story which appeared in Volume 6, # 3 in 1991 under the heading, ‘A Symbol on the Oregon Desert’.



Dr. James Deardorff, a Research Professor Emeritus
at the Atmospheric Science Department
of Oregon State University.

Dr. Deardorff wrote in his investigative story that the government had not been able to give a reasonable explanation to the undetected appearance of  a massive glyph at a site which was constantly patrolled by the National Air Guard. 

Not surprisingly, about 40 days later a group of four people, headed by a Bill Witherspoon, claimed that they had etched out the pictograph, over a period of 10 days, by pulling a garden cultivator like a plow over the lake-bed. They said they had used ropes to ensure the lines were straight and the angles perfect. 

Dr. Deardorff countered by saying that the story was concocted, and that it was sponsored by the government which not want to fuel the belief that the glyph had an unexplained origin.

Bill Witherspoon was interviewed by newspapers to judge the authenticity of his story. Very quickly it became evident that his explanations lacked credibility. The most unconvincing part of his story was his claim that a garden plow, a rope and a blueprint of the formation were enough equipment to furrow out the glyph. His interview revealed other incongruities. For one, he had stated in the newspapers that he and his team had carried their tools for three quarters of a mile to the formation site everyday for 10 days, however in his video interview he said that he and his team had camped out two miles away from the site.

Bill Witherspoon’s team only managed to gouge out an untidy half-inch deep line with great exertion when they were asked to demonstrate how they had gouged out 13.3 miles of lines, 3 inches deep and 10 inches wide. No one believed anymore that the original glyph could have been created by using crude tools. 

Coutesy:: ICCRA

Dr. Deardorff also questioned how the National Air Guard could have missed detecting the work-in-process of the glyph in the 10 days that Witherspoon claimed they had worked upon the etching.

No answers could ever be arrived at, either by the government or by scientists. Only the UFO Researchers have since then ventured to explain the mystery! 

Update: In September 2016 another Vedic symbol, the svastika. appeared in a crop field in Wiltshire, England.



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