Who am I?

A wise man once asked a king “Who are you?” The king started replying “I am King ABC of Kingdom XYZ”. The wise man said “I am not asking you your name or that of your kingdom. Who are YOU?” The king started to answer again “I am ABC, son of XYZ…” The wise man said “I am not asking you your lineage. Who are YOU?” The king made another attempt “I am someone who protects my kingdom and likes to….” The wise man interrupted again “I am not asking you what you do or like. Who are YOU?” Now, the king went into deep thought.

When we are in a dream, we are completely living the episode that we are in, can see and feel it as if real. In that state, we experience the dream world. Only when we move into the waking state, we experience the waking world and call the earlier state a dream. Then we say that this current state is the reality. There is a third state that we experience – that of deep sleep, the non-REM phase of sleep in which we are completely blank. In that state, we are neither awake nor dreaming but in a state of blankness of sleep. That’s the state which we refer to when we say that we slept like a log. This often happens when we are completely exhausted. There is a fourth state called the ‘turiya’, ‘turiyam’ or ‘chaturtham’ as referred to in the seventh mantra of the Mandukya Upanishad of Atharva Veda.

Say we have a table, chair and bench all made of wood. We may call it by different names, but essentially it is wood. We can change the form or state of that wood to make it a table or chair or bench. Despite that, the essential element “wood” stays unchanged. “Wood” is not the same as table or chair or bench but still within each of those. Even though it is within these three forms or states, it is apart from these forms or states. Similarly, our bodies change in our lifetime from that of an infant to teenager to adult to elderly. Our minds and thoughts change constantly over our lifetime. However, our “consciousness” does not change. Our three states of dreamer, waker and blankless in sleep come and go but the “consciousness” stays in all the three. When a Mom hears her baby cry, even when she is fast asleep, there is something that makes her get up and attend to her child. So that state of “consciousness” remains irrespective of her sleep or waking state.

Let us imagine a Station Master standing at a train station and watching the trains come and go. A passenger train arrives. People get down from the train and others get into the train. Then the train moves on. He continues to stand and watch. Then a goods train arrives. Not much activity happens on the station. Just a few people get off. He continues to stand and watch. Then there is no train that comes and stops on the station for a long time. He still continues to stand and watch. This Station Master is the “Consciousness”. The trains come and go, the activities happen or not happen but he continues to watch unaffected.

This “consciousness” is the real “I”. It cannot be accessed by the five senses. It cannot be used. It cannot be grasped. It cannot be inferred. It cannot be thought about. It cannot be named.  It just has to be realised. Reality is “consciousness”. I am in search of the real “I”. Are you too?

Looking back to move forward - ancient knowledge rediscovered

We think that today, as a human race, we are rapidly advancing. We believe that the Science and technology of today is very hi tech and taking us forward in leaps and bounds. That is true, if we look at it in comparison to some hundreds of years ago. The moment we increase our time horizon to thousands of years ago, we will realize that we are on the path to relearning what we already knew in the past. The pinnacle of knowledge is not now - we are slowly inching towards it. Join me on a short trip through some ancient Indian scripts that will uncover some practical examples of ancient knowledge rediscovered. 

Hanuman Chalisa, written in the 15^th century mentions the distance between Earth and Sun more accurately than what was calculated by scientists 2 centuries later. In the Hanuman Chalisa, it is said : "Yug sahastra yojan per Bhanu! Leelyo taahi madhur phal janu!! 1 Yug = 12000 years 1 Sahastra = 1000 1 Yojan = 8 Miles Yug x Sahastra x Yojan = par Bhanu 12000 x 1000 x 8 miles = 96000000 miles 1 mile = 1.6kms 96000000 miles = 96000000 x 1.6kms = 1536000000 kms to Sun. NASA has said that, it is the exact distance between Earth and Sun (Bhanu). Which proves Hanuman ji did jump to Planet Sun, thinking it as a sweet fruit (Madhu phal)

Pushpak Vimaana, from Mahabharat, written in the 4^th – 5^th century BCE, was a flying object, presumably more advanced than the airplanes of today since it had the capacity to increase and reduce size based on number of passengers. Although the Wright brothers get credit for building an airplane in the 1900s, we are still to get to a stage of making an airplane that can change capacity on the fly.

The focus of the picture is not the Qutub Minar in Delhi, India, but the rust proof pillars in front of it which are dated 1000 years old and stand as it is. It has withstood many invasions and severe weather conditions with no rust. There is also another rust-free iron pillar in Kollur, in the South of India, near Bangalore. That is 2400 years old and withstands 750 cm of rain 6-8 months a year. Till date, no metallurgists have been able to find out what combination of metal these pillars are made of.

In the scriptures we come across a verse/sloka in praise of Lord Krishna

gopi bhagya madhuvrata

sringiso dadhi sandhiga

khala jivita khatava

gala hala rasandara

On close examination, when using the Katapayati sankhya, a table in which vowels representing numbers, we see that the sloka actually represents the value of Pi up to 31 places of decimals. Not only the value of Pi was knows thousands of years ago, but also encryption was applied to it!

Many of us are familiar with what we call the Pythagoras theorem that states the square of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle equals to the sum of the square of the other two sides. Actually Baudhayana in his 6th century BC treatise called Baudhayana’s Sulba Sutra has explained this long before Pythogoras was born!

The Panchang, Hindu calendar of astronomy predicts accurately solar and lunar eclipse, moon rise, sunrise, sunset for centuries. The position and movement of the stars have been known for centuries and though we may laugh at matching the horoscopes for an Indian marriage, it is all based on the knowledge of Astronomy and Astrology.

We have read about the scientific experiments to show the power of sound that causes a glass to break when sound reaches a particular decibel. The ancient mantras are sounds that are chanted by the rishis/sages across centuries use that very power of sound to bring specific benefits. Very recently a UK school has started getting the children to chant the Gayatri Mantra every morning due to the knowledge gaining and health benefits it provides.

The 16 sutras or Maths rules that are written and taught in Vedic Maths make long calculations simple to do in one step. Whether is squaring a 2 digit number, multiplying large numbers, multiplying by 11 or whatever else, there are simple rules that can be learned and applied. The way we are taught Mathematics operations in school today is way more complicated than it needs to be.

There are several more examples that will be able to convince anyone of the knowledge ancient texts hold. I am sure you have many more to share. Please feel free to post your example as a comment. Let us all learn from the ancient texts, educate one another and help mankind increase the speed of learning to take us forward faster.