Do you believe in afterlife? Is there a life after death? Perhaps you have faith in reincarnation. Or may be you won't even accept that there is any life after death – a permanent and blissful realm of pure nothingness!
Unfortunately, no religion will give a clear and credible answer to this important question. Even science is a bit vague on the subject. There is even a “scientific” study that says the soul weighs exactly 21 grams!
In general, most religions suggest that some sort of afterlife awaits people when they die. Hindus and Buddhists tend to believe in reincarnation. Other religious traditions including the Abrahamic religions hold the view that the afterlife will resolve justice by assigning rewards and punishments to people according to how they lived their lives. Agnostics hold the position that like the existence of God, life after death is unverifiable and therefore unknowable. Atheists, humanists, and post-humanists generally do not believe in the existence of soul or that there is any life after death.
Of all the people ever inhabited this planet, the Ancient Egyptians had the strongest and vividly colourful beliefs in after life. They made the most elaborate arrangements and preparations for a comfortable and unpertubed life after death. They firmly believed that people have more than a body and a soul to be taken care of after death – there are six constituent parts to human life: the Ha (living human body), the Sheut (shadow), the Ren (name), the Ib (heart), the Ba (soul or personality), and the Ka (life force). It would have been considered rude if you had said “May his Ba rest in peace” to the kin of a dead Ancient Egyptian!
Death occurs when Ka leaves the body. Elaborate ceremonies were conducted by priests to preserve the body and to restore a person's physical abilities in death. The idea was to prepare for the unification of the Ba with the Ka in the afterlife. The rewards in afterlife were not easy to come by. First and foremost, it requires a heart free of sins. Also, you should be able to recite the chants, passwords, and formulae of the Book of the Dead. In the Hall of Two Truths, the deceased's heart was weighed against the feather of truth and justice taken from the headdress of the goddess Ma'at. If the heart was lighter than the feather then they could pass on, but if it were heavier they would be devoured by the demon Ammit.
Egyptians also believed that being mummified was the only way to have an afterlife. Only if the corpse had been properly embalmed and entombed in a mastaba, could the dead live again and accompany the Sun on its daily ride. The belief was so strong that the Pharaohs built enormous tomb and temple complexes and filled them with great riches to ensure a calm and peaceful eternal afterlife.
In October 2007, my wife and I made a pilgrimage to some of these ancient Egyptian monuments that still remain majestically as examples of this ancient belief system - the temples in Luxor, tombs at the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, several temple complexes in Upper Egypt and the grandest of them all at the Pyramids of Giza.
Some consider Ramesses II as Egypt's greatest and most powerful pharaoh. He was born ca. 1300 BC and ruled Egypt for nearly 66 years. He constructed several grandiose monuments - including the rock-hewn temple of Abu Simbel (length: 56.4 m, height 27.5 m, the four colossal statues of the king in front of it - cut from the living rock - are 18.3 m high). He also added to the temple of Amenhotep III at Luxor and completed the hall of columns at Karnak - still the largest columned room of any building in the world. There are more statues of him in existence than of any other Egyptian pharaoh. He used art as a means of propaganda and his victories over foreigners are depicted on numerous temple reliefs.
When he died, the mummified body of Ramesses II was laid in a tomb cut into the limestone rocks in a remote dried-up river valley on the west side of the Nile in Luxor, now called the Valley of the Kings. The tomb walls were painted and sculpted with splendid murals depicting scenes of daily life and offerings to gods. The chambers were filled with treasures – everything from furniture to food, statues of servants, boats and jewels - all that is needed to ensure a smooth and comfortable life into eternity.
Sadly, the ancient gods could not assure him a tranquil resting place or a gentle transition into an eternal afterlife. Millennia later, the modern grave diggers, including several states, invaded the tombs and took away the treasures. The mummy of Ramesses II is now moved to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo along with several mummies of other great pharaohs and queens of the New Kingdom.
Nowadays, thousands of tourists irreverently flock to these galleries every morning - some pause for a few moments to reflect on the glory and grandeur of that bygone era; others gawk and scramble on without ever realizing who these great souls were!
Imagine for a moment - if these great men had the slightest inkling that they will end up in a crowded museum hall as objects of derision and scorn, would they ever have contemplated building any of those magnificent monuments?
Superstition has its value, after all!
Sunday 28 October 2007
Saturday 29 September 2007
Newspapers – Bane or Boon?
“The competition has a new benchmark to look up to” proudly proclaims a series of self aggrandizing full-page ads in the Gulf News, a popular daily published from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The ad gives average distribution figures for the six month period ending March 2007 as 111,734 - quite an impressive number for a small country!
I wish the Gulf News every success in their business. What irritates me is the junk they throw at my doorstep everyday, blatantly disregarding the environmental impact it causes.
I made a scrutiny of one week’s supply of the newspaper – it weighed a grand total of 8.125 Kg! The newspaper comes in several sections – the main paper (60-64 pages) with news, business and sports sections and a tabloid (24 pages). The bulk of the paper each day consists of several advertisement tabloids – Properties (120-130 pages), Freehold (130-140 pages), Classifieds (70-80 pages) and a broad sheet of Appointments (18-24) pages - all of which my wife promptly throws into the garbage as soon as she picks it.
The bulk of the weight is for the advertisement tabloids – it weighs 4.475 Kg or 55% of the paper. A quick calculation shows that they will need an annual supply of at least 47,337 metric tons of newsprint to maintain a daily circulation as claimed. A study by environmentalists shows that eleven standard trees (corrected for metric ton) are required to make a ton of newsprint. That means, a small newspaper like Gulf News alone is causing severe environmental damage and deforestation with the destruction of 527,000 trees every year! The advertisement tabloids alone will consume 290,000 trees per annum! A staggering figure not mentioned in their full page ads. Of course, they will retort by saying that a major portion of the circulation is recycled. Will they ever publish audited figures of recycling? I doubt.
It is true that newspapers generate the bulk of their income from advertisements – subscriptions may not even cover 50% of the cost of newsprint. But shouldn’t there be a balance? Gulf News, like any other newspaper in the world, considers itself very responsible, and occasionally trumpets out articles on environmental issues. If it is genuinely concerned, I believe it is time for them to do a genuine introspection and answer some inconvenient questions. Is it really worth the destruction? How long can we continue at this pace? Do we need the mammoth freehold and property tabloids every day? Can’t we reduce this to once a week? To compensate for the revenue loss, can’t we increase the advertisement rates seven-fold? What is a reasonable ad-edit ratio?
I am pretty sure that Gulf News will not do any of these. Dubai is a booming city – perhaps folks at Gulf News know better. Wealthy subscribers must be scrambling every morning through the freehold and property sections hunting bargain $ 1 million apartments and $ 4-6 million villas! I must be the only stupid subscriber who foolishly assumes that classifieds are sought by ordinary people ferreting out a cheap used car or looking for a low income job as a clerk, salesman or a maid.
My guess is that newspapers like Gulf News will continue to publish their massive editions until all the forests are denuded. Until all the ice in the Arctic and Greenland completely melted. Until the rising sea levels will inundate their offices and presses – unless by then they relocate to higher altitudes!
As for me, I am going to stop the subscription when the current one will expire in a few months time.
I wish the Gulf News every success in their business. What irritates me is the junk they throw at my doorstep everyday, blatantly disregarding the environmental impact it causes.
I made a scrutiny of one week’s supply of the newspaper – it weighed a grand total of 8.125 Kg! The newspaper comes in several sections – the main paper (60-64 pages) with news, business and sports sections and a tabloid (24 pages). The bulk of the paper each day consists of several advertisement tabloids – Properties (120-130 pages), Freehold (130-140 pages), Classifieds (70-80 pages) and a broad sheet of Appointments (18-24) pages - all of which my wife promptly throws into the garbage as soon as she picks it.
The bulk of the weight is for the advertisement tabloids – it weighs 4.475 Kg or 55% of the paper. A quick calculation shows that they will need an annual supply of at least 47,337 metric tons of newsprint to maintain a daily circulation as claimed. A study by environmentalists shows that eleven standard trees (corrected for metric ton) are required to make a ton of newsprint. That means, a small newspaper like Gulf News alone is causing severe environmental damage and deforestation with the destruction of 527,000 trees every year! The advertisement tabloids alone will consume 290,000 trees per annum! A staggering figure not mentioned in their full page ads. Of course, they will retort by saying that a major portion of the circulation is recycled. Will they ever publish audited figures of recycling? I doubt.
It is true that newspapers generate the bulk of their income from advertisements – subscriptions may not even cover 50% of the cost of newsprint. But shouldn’t there be a balance? Gulf News, like any other newspaper in the world, considers itself very responsible, and occasionally trumpets out articles on environmental issues. If it is genuinely concerned, I believe it is time for them to do a genuine introspection and answer some inconvenient questions. Is it really worth the destruction? How long can we continue at this pace? Do we need the mammoth freehold and property tabloids every day? Can’t we reduce this to once a week? To compensate for the revenue loss, can’t we increase the advertisement rates seven-fold? What is a reasonable ad-edit ratio?
I am pretty sure that Gulf News will not do any of these. Dubai is a booming city – perhaps folks at Gulf News know better. Wealthy subscribers must be scrambling every morning through the freehold and property sections hunting bargain $ 1 million apartments and $ 4-6 million villas! I must be the only stupid subscriber who foolishly assumes that classifieds are sought by ordinary people ferreting out a cheap used car or looking for a low income job as a clerk, salesman or a maid.
My guess is that newspapers like Gulf News will continue to publish their massive editions until all the forests are denuded. Until all the ice in the Arctic and Greenland completely melted. Until the rising sea levels will inundate their offices and presses – unless by then they relocate to higher altitudes!
As for me, I am going to stop the subscription when the current one will expire in a few months time.
Wednesday 26 September 2007
An Only Child’s Musings!
If you are a middle class Indian in your fifties, it is unlikely that you are the parent of a single child. If you are in the forties or late thirties most likely you have only one child. Those in the early thirties or about to get married might be pondering what the best is.
Though I do not remember, my wife says that we discussed and decided to have only one child on our wedding night twenty two years ago – a decision about the wisdom of which is questioned even today. There have been times when we have wondered whether we did any injustice to our child by denying her the opportunity to have a sibling. Though she has never asked for a little brother or sister, we were not sure about how she really felt.
She is now grown up, doing her fourth year at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. A recent article in The Hindu extolling the virtues of having many children touched a raw nerve and prodded her to send a quick rejoinder to the editor. I would like to share a slightly edited version of that letter (the original was a tad acerbic). Perhaps it might reassure those of you who have taken the bold decision to have only one child and encourage those of you who have not yet decided. Here it is:
It is indeed a great relief to learn that she is not holding any grudges against us for denying her a sibling! However, I must say that I agree with the author of the article that “raising a single child requires different skills and procedures”. It applies as well to parents raising more than one child!
Though I do not remember, my wife says that we discussed and decided to have only one child on our wedding night twenty two years ago – a decision about the wisdom of which is questioned even today. There have been times when we have wondered whether we did any injustice to our child by denying her the opportunity to have a sibling. Though she has never asked for a little brother or sister, we were not sure about how she really felt.
She is now grown up, doing her fourth year at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. A recent article in The Hindu extolling the virtues of having many children touched a raw nerve and prodded her to send a quick rejoinder to the editor. I would like to share a slightly edited version of that letter (the original was a tad acerbic). Perhaps it might reassure those of you who have taken the bold decision to have only one child and encourage those of you who have not yet decided. Here it is:
Dear Sir,
This is in reference to the article "Just One Child" (Young World, The Hindu, Friday, September 14, 2007).
Not only was the article ill-informed it was also very badly researched and might have been better suited to the temperament in existence in the 1920s. Obviously, the author is unaware of the body of research in existence proving that, if anything, only children seem to cope better with their lives than children with siblings.
In an overpopulated country such as ours, instead of extolling the virtues of having multiple children and cursorily addressing benefits of single child families at the end of that atrocious article, it would have bode well for the readers and for our country to be told that having only one child would be far better than going ahead with more children.
Being an only child, I have, not once in my life, EVER thought even one of those things that that the author seems to think 'only children' habitually muse about. (I did not miss going shopping with a sister and I love shopping with my mom), I have never missed having a sibling and in fact, felt badly for my friends who did have siblings. I distinctly remember my classmates turning sullen and acting out in class after the birth of a sibling and they have always envied me at being an only child. Surely, being a "pediatric counselor", the author might have come across such cases or maybe she only entertains cases of the odd 'only child' who is "sociologically" [sic unhealthy. May be the article was based on Adler's Theory that 'only children' have no rivals for their parents' affection as a result of which they may be pampered and spoiled by their parents, particularly the mother. This theory was disproved in 1987 in a quantitative review conducted by Dr. Toni Falbo who is a professor of educational psychology in the College of Education and faculty research associate in the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin. She has devoted about 30 years to myth-busting, focusing on only children and one-child families. Her exhaustive research has led her to doubt the credulity of many birth order pop-psych books (and articles) on the market these days and also to be the most-often quoted expert in the world on a topic that continues to foster lively debate.
A lot of my friends are only children and none of us has ever missed the presence of a sibling in our lives and in fact, think that siblings would have rather marred our childhood experiences. All of us enjoy extremely strong relationships with our parents and have never felt "crowded emotionally and spatially" My own parents are more like my best friends and we talk about everything under the sun, be it sex, politics or just day-to-day mindless banter. This is something that I can say, more from personal experience that children with siblings do not enjoy. I can't wait for the day that I will have to look after my parents as they have looked after me. They have always, even at the age of two, treated me with respect and have never mollycoddled me.
I think what bothered me the most about the article is that it attempts to discourage parents from having just one child. The author seems to think of it as an aberration. Instead of promoting it, she has turned her article into the various disadvantages of having one child with just a cursory glance at what only children are actually capable of. I would think that being an 'independent, self reliant high achiever" with "sound verbal skills" and an ability to "interact with adults well" and having a "leg-up academically" thereby doing "well at school and later in the workplace" pretty much sums up the well adjusted, successful human being. In 2007, it is no longer the exception, rather the norm to have an only child and I am very sure that I will definitely not have more than one child. But that's thanks to the fact that I don't get influenced by articles worthy only of the trash can.
Yours sincerely,
--
B Krishnan (Ms.)
NLSIU - Bangalore
It is indeed a great relief to learn that she is not holding any grudges against us for denying her a sibling! However, I must say that I agree with the author of the article that “raising a single child requires different skills and procedures”. It applies as well to parents raising more than one child!
Friday 21 September 2007
Will Truth Ever Prevail?
Newspapers in India frequently report mindless violence almost. A stark example is the last week’s attack in Bangalore on a bus bound for Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
A violent and unruly mob stopped a bus with nearly 30 passengers on board, asked the passengers to get down, poured petrol and torched it. Two passengers, perhaps too tired and sleeping inside the bus unaware of the commotion, are charred to death beyond recognition.
Who are the unfortunate victims? Police is yet to come out with identities. Bangalore is the Silicon Valley of India. It is also a popular educational destination with hundreds of colleges and institutes. Everyday, thousands of passengers -students, IT professionals, businessmen - commute between the two cities. The unfortunate victims could be any one – your father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister or friend – perhaps going home for a quiet holiday, or returning after a business trip.
What prompted the mob (eyewitnesses say the mob consisted only of four or five miscreants) to take such a drastic action? Many believe the attack could be the handiwork of Hindu activists in retaliation to the controversial remarks made by Mr. M. Karunanidhi, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
The Government of India recently submitted two affidavits in the Supreme Court saying that there is no incontrovertible evidence to prove the existence of the characters or the occurrence of the event depicted in the epic Ramayana – there is no archaeological evidence to support the claim that a fictional character called Rama built a bridge across the seas to present day Sri Lanka.
The Hindu hardliners promptly accused the government of blasphemy and declared nation wide agitation. Sensing trouble and more importantly loss of votes, the government immediately changed track by withdrawing the affidavits. It suspended two directors of the Archaeological Survey of India and some insiders demanded that Culture Minister Ms. Ambika Soni should resign.
In a shameless volte-face, the Indian Law Minister, Mr. H. R. Bhardwaj conceded that “The existence of Rama cannot be doubted. As Himalaya is Himalaya, Ganga is Ganga, Rama is Rama. There is no requirement of any proof to establish the existence." – Oh! Wait a minute minister! Why did your government submit an affidavit contradicting what you just said that caused the whole hullabaloo?
The atheist chief minister of Tamil Nadu added fuel to fire by reiterating that Rama is a mythological hero and does not have any historical existence and there is no proof that the bridge was constructed by Him. He retorted that “Ram is as big a lie as big the truth of the existence of the Ganges and the Himalayas”.
It is quite natural that any sensible person, inundated ad nauseam with these surreal arguments on tv and print-media, will be quite perplexed and puzzled. What is the truth in all they say? Is there any truth at all?
This is indeed a very sad state of affairs for an ancient civilization. India is perhaps only one of the two countries in the world that has adopted “Truth” as the national motto. (The other nation is the Czech Republic whose official emblem states PRAVDA VITEZI or "Truth Shall Prevail").
India insists that truth alone triumphs – nothing else. Period. "Satyameva Jayate" (Sanskrit: "Truth Alone Triumphs") is the inscription embellishing the national emblem, the Lion Capital of King Ashoka at Sarnath. Its origin is in the Mundaka Upanishad - Swami Krishnanada explains the concept of the mantra (Ch III-1-6) very lucidly. According to the learned Swami, “Truth is more than truth-speaking. Truth is the symbol of perfection, a representation of the Divine Being. Adherence to truth means embracing the universal nature of the Reality. Therefore, truth wins a victory everywhere”.
The ancient sages maintained that truth is incontrovertible and absolute truth is synonymous with divinity. The ancient scriptures symbolized the human aspiration to the highest truth, ultimately the Brahman, which represents the power underlying the universe. In Hinduism, Brahman is the ultimate impersonal reality underlying everything in the universe, from which everything comes and to which it returns. Brahman can be called the unknowable, true, infinite and blissful Divine Ground, which is the source and being of all existence from which the cosmos springs.
The Vedic prayers invoked every day in Hindu temples all over the world, exemplifies this essence:
A violent and unruly mob stopped a bus with nearly 30 passengers on board, asked the passengers to get down, poured petrol and torched it. Two passengers, perhaps too tired and sleeping inside the bus unaware of the commotion, are charred to death beyond recognition.
Who are the unfortunate victims? Police is yet to come out with identities. Bangalore is the Silicon Valley of India. It is also a popular educational destination with hundreds of colleges and institutes. Everyday, thousands of passengers -students, IT professionals, businessmen - commute between the two cities. The unfortunate victims could be any one – your father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister or friend – perhaps going home for a quiet holiday, or returning after a business trip.
What prompted the mob (eyewitnesses say the mob consisted only of four or five miscreants) to take such a drastic action? Many believe the attack could be the handiwork of Hindu activists in retaliation to the controversial remarks made by Mr. M. Karunanidhi, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
The Government of India recently submitted two affidavits in the Supreme Court saying that there is no incontrovertible evidence to prove the existence of the characters or the occurrence of the event depicted in the epic Ramayana – there is no archaeological evidence to support the claim that a fictional character called Rama built a bridge across the seas to present day Sri Lanka.
The Hindu hardliners promptly accused the government of blasphemy and declared nation wide agitation. Sensing trouble and more importantly loss of votes, the government immediately changed track by withdrawing the affidavits. It suspended two directors of the Archaeological Survey of India and some insiders demanded that Culture Minister Ms. Ambika Soni should resign.
In a shameless volte-face, the Indian Law Minister, Mr. H. R. Bhardwaj conceded that “The existence of Rama cannot be doubted. As Himalaya is Himalaya, Ganga is Ganga, Rama is Rama. There is no requirement of any proof to establish the existence." – Oh! Wait a minute minister! Why did your government submit an affidavit contradicting what you just said that caused the whole hullabaloo?
The atheist chief minister of Tamil Nadu added fuel to fire by reiterating that Rama is a mythological hero and does not have any historical existence and there is no proof that the bridge was constructed by Him. He retorted that “Ram is as big a lie as big the truth of the existence of the Ganges and the Himalayas”.
It is quite natural that any sensible person, inundated ad nauseam with these surreal arguments on tv and print-media, will be quite perplexed and puzzled. What is the truth in all they say? Is there any truth at all?
This is indeed a very sad state of affairs for an ancient civilization. India is perhaps only one of the two countries in the world that has adopted “Truth” as the national motto. (The other nation is the Czech Republic whose official emblem states PRAVDA VITEZI or "Truth Shall Prevail").
India insists that truth alone triumphs – nothing else. Period. "Satyameva Jayate" (Sanskrit: "Truth Alone Triumphs") is the inscription embellishing the national emblem, the Lion Capital of King Ashoka at Sarnath. Its origin is in the Mundaka Upanishad - Swami Krishnanada explains the concept of the mantra (Ch III-1-6) very lucidly. According to the learned Swami, “Truth is more than truth-speaking. Truth is the symbol of perfection, a representation of the Divine Being. Adherence to truth means embracing the universal nature of the Reality. Therefore, truth wins a victory everywhere”.
The ancient sages maintained that truth is incontrovertible and absolute truth is synonymous with divinity. The ancient scriptures symbolized the human aspiration to the highest truth, ultimately the Brahman, which represents the power underlying the universe. In Hinduism, Brahman is the ultimate impersonal reality underlying everything in the universe, from which everything comes and to which it returns. Brahman can be called the unknowable, true, infinite and blissful Divine Ground, which is the source and being of all existence from which the cosmos springs.
The Vedic prayers invoked every day in Hindu temples all over the world, exemplifies this essence:
Asato Ma Sad Gamaya
Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya
Mrityor Ma Amritam
Gamaya
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti
(Sanskrit: “Lead Us from Untruth to Truth, Lead Us from Darkness to Light, Lead
Us from Death to Immortality, Aum (the universal sound of God) Let There Be
Peace, Peace, Peace."
Luckily we have a select few adherents to this mantra scattered all over the world. They have adopted it in its true sprit! Any guess who they are or which religion they follow?
I am not sure whether anywhere in the Vedas or Upanishads it says “Faith alone Prevails”, but unfortunately, that seems to be the motto of choice of many who proclaim themselves to be the followers of that ancient tradition. How else can one describe the controversy currently raging in India on the Sethusamudram issue?
Thursday 13 September 2007
Did Lord Rama Exist?
A major controversy is blowing up in India. It looks as if it is a godsend for opportunist politicians to capitalize on the religious sentiments of the faithful. It has been brewing in the sidelines ever since the $600 million Sethusamudram project was launched by the Government of India.
The Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project is for dredging a shipping channel through shallow sea between the south of India and Sri Lanka. The channel will link the Gulf of Mannar with the Palk Strait and will allow ships sailing between the east and west coasts of India to have a straight passage, instead of having to circumvent Sri Lanka. This will lead to a saving of up to 30 hours of sailing time. While inaugurating the project, Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India described it as "one of the most ambitious project ever to be conceived in the Indian port sector".
The proposed shipping channel will pass through the shallow sea called Setu Samudram, and through the island chain known as Rama's Bridge or Adam's Bridge. It is a chain of limestone shoals, 48 km long. Some of the sandbanks are dry and the sea in the area is very shallow seriously hindering navigation.
There is a religious dimension to the controversy. Some Hindus believe that Ram Sethu was built by Lord Rama with the help of an army of monkeys led by the monkey god Hanuman. The 'demon king' Ravana of Lanka kidnapped Rama’s wife Sita, and the rescue team of Rama needed the bridge. The epic Ramayana describes the story in great detail and literary style. Hindus attach a great deal of importance to the story, and believe (like any other religious group) all the characters in the story existed in flesh and blood and all events happened exactly as depicted in the epic. So a group of them petitioned the Supreme Court seeking a declaration that the formation known as Ram Sethu is a protected and ancient monument and it should not be demolished while constructing the Sethusamudram channel. The court is now hearing affidavits from all parties concerned.
The period of the Ramayana is considered as Tretha Yuga (more than 1.7 million years ago), but the Ramayana was written around 4000 years ago. So did Rama build the bridge with the help of his monkey army? Possibly not, says a research team from the Centre for Remote Sensing at Bharathidasan University, Tiruchi, India. (Rama’s bridge is only 3,500 years old: CRS).
The controversy has reached its zenith, when the government of India filed an affidavit yesterday through its director of Archeological Survey. It says that the petition “primarily relied upon religious and mythological texts, which formed an important part of ancient Indian literature, but which cannot be said to be historical records to incontrovertibly prove the existence of the characters or the occurrence of the event, depicted therein."
This has angered the Hindus and the main opposition party in India who promptly threatened a nationwide agitation against the government for hurting religious sentiments.
The Sanskrit word Vanara literally means ‘human with the tail of a monkey’, a race of ape-like humanoids’. According to the Ramayana, the Vanaras lived primarily in the region of Kishkindha in present-day southern India, in the midst of Dandaka Forest, where Lord Rama met them during his search for Sita.
Now, what is the scientific basis for the remote possibility of such complex engineering feats nearly 2 million years ago? According to the latest theories in evolutionary biology humans first evolved in Africa and migrated elsewhere. In fact, there were at least three major waves of human migration out of Africa (Humans Emerged "Out Of Africa" Again And Again:
Alan R. Templeton, Ph.D, Washington University in St Louis). The first wave of this migration reached South Asia around 1.7 million years ago, i.e. during the Thretha Yuga period of Ramayana.
A good time-line of human evolution can be found at http://www.archaeologyinfo.com/species.htm . The species that emerged in Africa around 1.9 million years ago is called Homo Ergaster. The website also portrays an artist’s impression of H. Ergaster. However, researchers currently accept that "modern" humans emerged approximately 200-250 thousand years ago only.
For Ramayana to be authentic, in all probability Lord Rama was one among those migrants from Africa. On his way to the south of India, he befriended the Vanaras who inhabited the region. He then recruited an army of them and constructed a bridge across the shallow seas, which now the Government of India wants to break!
Do you think the Lord Rama was a H. Ergaster? I do not think any Hindu will accept that. All available pictures and idols depict him as a handsome young man!
The Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project is for dredging a shipping channel through shallow sea between the south of India and Sri Lanka. The channel will link the Gulf of Mannar with the Palk Strait and will allow ships sailing between the east and west coasts of India to have a straight passage, instead of having to circumvent Sri Lanka. This will lead to a saving of up to 30 hours of sailing time. While inaugurating the project, Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India described it as "one of the most ambitious project ever to be conceived in the Indian port sector".
The proposed shipping channel will pass through the shallow sea called Setu Samudram, and through the island chain known as Rama's Bridge or Adam's Bridge. It is a chain of limestone shoals, 48 km long. Some of the sandbanks are dry and the sea in the area is very shallow seriously hindering navigation.
There is a religious dimension to the controversy. Some Hindus believe that Ram Sethu was built by Lord Rama with the help of an army of monkeys led by the monkey god Hanuman. The 'demon king' Ravana of Lanka kidnapped Rama’s wife Sita, and the rescue team of Rama needed the bridge. The epic Ramayana describes the story in great detail and literary style. Hindus attach a great deal of importance to the story, and believe (like any other religious group) all the characters in the story existed in flesh and blood and all events happened exactly as depicted in the epic. So a group of them petitioned the Supreme Court seeking a declaration that the formation known as Ram Sethu is a protected and ancient monument and it should not be demolished while constructing the Sethusamudram channel. The court is now hearing affidavits from all parties concerned.
The period of the Ramayana is considered as Tretha Yuga (more than 1.7 million years ago), but the Ramayana was written around 4000 years ago. So did Rama build the bridge with the help of his monkey army? Possibly not, says a research team from the Centre for Remote Sensing at Bharathidasan University, Tiruchi, India. (Rama’s bridge is only 3,500 years old: CRS).
The controversy has reached its zenith, when the government of India filed an affidavit yesterday through its director of Archeological Survey. It says that the petition “primarily relied upon religious and mythological texts, which formed an important part of ancient Indian literature, but which cannot be said to be historical records to incontrovertibly prove the existence of the characters or the occurrence of the event, depicted therein."
This has angered the Hindus and the main opposition party in India who promptly threatened a nationwide agitation against the government for hurting religious sentiments.
The Sanskrit word Vanara literally means ‘human with the tail of a monkey’, a race of ape-like humanoids’. According to the Ramayana, the Vanaras lived primarily in the region of Kishkindha in present-day southern India, in the midst of Dandaka Forest, where Lord Rama met them during his search for Sita.
Now, what is the scientific basis for the remote possibility of such complex engineering feats nearly 2 million years ago? According to the latest theories in evolutionary biology humans first evolved in Africa and migrated elsewhere. In fact, there were at least three major waves of human migration out of Africa (Humans Emerged "Out Of Africa" Again And Again:
Alan R. Templeton, Ph.D, Washington University in St Louis). The first wave of this migration reached South Asia around 1.7 million years ago, i.e. during the Thretha Yuga period of Ramayana.
A good time-line of human evolution can be found at http://www.archaeologyinfo.com/species.htm . The species that emerged in Africa around 1.9 million years ago is called Homo Ergaster. The website also portrays an artist’s impression of H. Ergaster. However, researchers currently accept that "modern" humans emerged approximately 200-250 thousand years ago only.
For Ramayana to be authentic, in all probability Lord Rama was one among those migrants from Africa. On his way to the south of India, he befriended the Vanaras who inhabited the region. He then recruited an army of them and constructed a bridge across the shallow seas, which now the Government of India wants to break!
Do you think the Lord Rama was a H. Ergaster? I do not think any Hindu will accept that. All available pictures and idols depict him as a handsome young man!
Sunday 9 September 2007
Is the Church Safe for Children?
Will you trust your children to be alone in a church, a place for worshipping God? Before saying anything in an emphatic affirmation, just dwell on a couple of news items that appeared recently in the press.
“Massive payout for Sex Abuse Victims” screams a headline in today’s Gulf News (page 25, September 9, 2007. This is an agency report from AFP not posted on GN website). At first glance, the headline gives you the impression that it must be a verdict of the International Criminal Tribunal to victims of some conflict zone such as Rwanda, Sierra Leone or Bosnia. It is not! The perpetrator is not any criminal organization or militia! It is the Roman Catholic Church!!!
The church in San Diego, California, will pay nearly $200 million to 144 victims of sexual abuse by its priests! If you are an ordinary “God-fearing” person, this must be shocking news to you – thoroughly devastating, utterly outrageous! See the same news reported by Reuters “San Diego Church makes sex abuse settlement”
The report says that each of the 144 victims will receive $1.4 million each, but does not say how many priests were involved or the priests-to-victims ratio. The church was initially reluctant to pay that much money – their offer was a miserly $95 million but eventually agreed to double it.
Another headline in today’s Gulf News reads “Pope blasts Europeans for not having enough children” (again an agency report not posted at GN website, but can be read at Yahoo News). It says “Pope Benedict XVI blasted Europeans for being selfish and not having enough children in a sermon yesterday in Austria”.
Thanks to Gulf News, I now have answers to some inconvenient questions:
First is the question “Where are those millions?” posed by skeptics about the millions collected by Mother Teresa. No need to guess where those millions are going or why the church is fast-tracking her sainthood!
The second is the Pope's question - Why do Europeans have less children? Isn’t the answer obvious? Either most of the adult European Catholics are victims of past abuse or know too well their churches and priests.
A third question is why are churches in Britain and elsewhere witnessing dwindling parishioners? With no children to go to churches, priests are also dwindling. There must be two reasons for this - a. Which abused child would want to become a priest? b. With no children to be abused, what is the point of becoming a priest?
So what is the solution? At least in Britain, the churches and parishes are outsourced to India! Please read “Indians help keep the flock in UK churches” published in the Gulf News on September 7, 2007
“Massive payout for Sex Abuse Victims” screams a headline in today’s Gulf News (page 25, September 9, 2007. This is an agency report from AFP not posted on GN website). At first glance, the headline gives you the impression that it must be a verdict of the International Criminal Tribunal to victims of some conflict zone such as Rwanda, Sierra Leone or Bosnia. It is not! The perpetrator is not any criminal organization or militia! It is the Roman Catholic Church!!!
The church in San Diego, California, will pay nearly $200 million to 144 victims of sexual abuse by its priests! If you are an ordinary “God-fearing” person, this must be shocking news to you – thoroughly devastating, utterly outrageous! See the same news reported by Reuters “San Diego Church makes sex abuse settlement”
The report says that each of the 144 victims will receive $1.4 million each, but does not say how many priests were involved or the priests-to-victims ratio. The church was initially reluctant to pay that much money – their offer was a miserly $95 million but eventually agreed to double it.
A Gulf News report “LA church in record abuse deal” published two months ago, says that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to pay a settlement of $660 million to 508 victims (or $1.3 million per victim). The report also gives a list of payouts within the last five years that exceeds $1.18 billion! More shocking is the total number of victims – 1700!! This is the data from just six dioceses in the US.
- In 2007, Diocese of Sandiego paid $198 million to 144 victims
- In 2007, Los Angeles Archdiocese paid $660 million to 508 victims
- In 2006, Diocese of Covington, Kentucky paid $84 million to 350 victims
- In 2005, Diocese of Oakland, California paid $56 million to 56 victims
- In 2004, Diocese of Orange, California paid $100 million to 90 victims
- In 2003, Archdiocese of Boston paid $84 million to 552 victims
Another headline in today’s Gulf News reads “Pope blasts Europeans for not having enough children” (again an agency report not posted at GN website, but can be read at Yahoo News). It says “Pope Benedict XVI blasted Europeans for being selfish and not having enough children in a sermon yesterday in Austria”.
Thanks to Gulf News, I now have answers to some inconvenient questions:
First is the question “Where are those millions?” posed by skeptics about the millions collected by Mother Teresa. No need to guess where those millions are going or why the church is fast-tracking her sainthood!
The second is the Pope's question - Why do Europeans have less children? Isn’t the answer obvious? Either most of the adult European Catholics are victims of past abuse or know too well their churches and priests.
A third question is why are churches in Britain and elsewhere witnessing dwindling parishioners? With no children to go to churches, priests are also dwindling. There must be two reasons for this - a. Which abused child would want to become a priest? b. With no children to be abused, what is the point of becoming a priest?
So what is the solution? At least in Britain, the churches and parishes are outsourced to India! Please read “Indians help keep the flock in UK churches” published in the Gulf News on September 7, 2007
Saturday 1 September 2007
Saint Teresa – Waiting for a “Scientific” Miracle?
“Mother Teresa's sainthood is just one miracle away” says a headline in today’s Gulf News.
I have no comments on that. To anoint or not anoint the nun a saint is the Church’s prerogative and all indications are that they will do it sooner than later. However, one finds it difficult to understand why it is hard for them to confirm a second miracle.
“One more miracle has to happen for the official confirmation of Mother's sainthood. It should be a medical miracle that defies human explanation” says Sr. Nirmala, who is the successor to Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
Dictionary definitions of the word clearly say that a “miracle” is either “an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs” (http://www.merriam-webster.com ) or “an event that appears to be contrary to the laws of nature and is regarded as an act of God” (Microsoft® Encarta 2004 Dictionary). Of course, the divine intervention in this case is supposed to be performed by the nun who died ten years ago.
A miracle by definition cannot be explained by science. Why then the good sister goes on to add, supposedly with a straight face, “a miracle is studied by the doctors and the entire process is very scientific. Even if it is reported in Kolkata, the case goes to Rome. The theologians decide after a study by doctors". Why sister, why do you need the authenticity of science to validate a miracle that cannot be proved by definition?
Mother Teresa had already performed a “miracle” that was validated by Rome in a very scientific process!! That miracle occurred in 1998, exactly on the first anniversary of the nun’s death. Monica Besra, a tribal lady in a small village called Dangram, some 740 km northeast of Calcutta, was suffering from abdominal pain apparently caused by a tumor. The tumor vanished, when she applied a medallion with the image of the nun. In October 2002, the Vatican recognized the miracle, after a “due diligence” study by its doctors and theologians! And thus devised a simple cure for cancerous tumors!
However, an article published in Time (What's Mother Teresa Got to Do with It? - October 24, 2002) contradicts the miracle claim. It quotes Monica's husband Seiku Murmu saying that his wife was cured by the doctors and not by any miracle. “He concedes that the locket was part of the story of Monica's ordeal but says no one should suppose there was a cause-and-effect relationship between it and the cure. He continues ‘My wife did feel less pain one night when she used the locket, but her pain had been coming and going. Then she went to the doctors, and they cured her.’ Monica still believes in the miracle but admits that she did go to see doctors at the state-run Balurghat Hospital. ‘I took the medicines they gave me, but,’ she insists, ‘the locket gave me complete relief from the pain’.”
What did the doctors who treated Monica at the state-run hospital say? The Time report continues “Dr. Tarun Kumar Biswas and Dr. Ranjan Mustafi, who treated Monica over several months, say their patient indeed had a lump in her abdomen, but it was not a full-grown tumor. ‘She responded to our treatment steadily,’ says Mustafi. Monica's medical records contain sonograms, prescriptions and physicians' notes that could conceivably help prove whether science or the icon worked the cure. But the records are missing. Monica says Sister Betta of the Missionaries of Charity took them away two years ago. ‘It's all with her,’ says Monica. A call to Sister Betta, who has been reassigned to another post of the Charity, produced a ‘no comment.’ Balurghat Hospital officials say the Catholic order has been pressuring them to say Monica's cure was miraculous. Calls to the office of Sister Nirmala, produced no comment as well.”
A well documented and scientifically validated miracle indeed! If you are naïve enough to believe the story, the Vatican now has a miraculous cure for cancerous tumors. They must be wondering why oncologists are not prescribing medallions of the nun for their patients to hold three times a day near the tumor. Have faith, the tumor will dissolve in no time! Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy are passé!
Am I dreaming or what? Why are newspapers like Gulf News prominently carrying such nonsense?
If this can happen in the 21st century and people are gullible enough to believe it, imagine what the church could do when most of the world was illiterate!
I have no comments on that. To anoint or not anoint the nun a saint is the Church’s prerogative and all indications are that they will do it sooner than later. However, one finds it difficult to understand why it is hard for them to confirm a second miracle.
“One more miracle has to happen for the official confirmation of Mother's sainthood. It should be a medical miracle that defies human explanation” says Sr. Nirmala, who is the successor to Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
Dictionary definitions of the word clearly say that a “miracle” is either “an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs” (http://www.merriam-webster.com ) or “an event that appears to be contrary to the laws of nature and is regarded as an act of God” (Microsoft® Encarta 2004 Dictionary). Of course, the divine intervention in this case is supposed to be performed by the nun who died ten years ago.
A miracle by definition cannot be explained by science. Why then the good sister goes on to add, supposedly with a straight face, “a miracle is studied by the doctors and the entire process is very scientific. Even if it is reported in Kolkata, the case goes to Rome. The theologians decide after a study by doctors". Why sister, why do you need the authenticity of science to validate a miracle that cannot be proved by definition?
Mother Teresa had already performed a “miracle” that was validated by Rome in a very scientific process!! That miracle occurred in 1998, exactly on the first anniversary of the nun’s death. Monica Besra, a tribal lady in a small village called Dangram, some 740 km northeast of Calcutta, was suffering from abdominal pain apparently caused by a tumor. The tumor vanished, when she applied a medallion with the image of the nun. In October 2002, the Vatican recognized the miracle, after a “due diligence” study by its doctors and theologians! And thus devised a simple cure for cancerous tumors!
However, an article published in Time (What's Mother Teresa Got to Do with It? - October 24, 2002) contradicts the miracle claim. It quotes Monica's husband Seiku Murmu saying that his wife was cured by the doctors and not by any miracle. “He concedes that the locket was part of the story of Monica's ordeal but says no one should suppose there was a cause-and-effect relationship between it and the cure. He continues ‘My wife did feel less pain one night when she used the locket, but her pain had been coming and going. Then she went to the doctors, and they cured her.’ Monica still believes in the miracle but admits that she did go to see doctors at the state-run Balurghat Hospital. ‘I took the medicines they gave me, but,’ she insists, ‘the locket gave me complete relief from the pain’.”
What did the doctors who treated Monica at the state-run hospital say? The Time report continues “Dr. Tarun Kumar Biswas and Dr. Ranjan Mustafi, who treated Monica over several months, say their patient indeed had a lump in her abdomen, but it was not a full-grown tumor. ‘She responded to our treatment steadily,’ says Mustafi. Monica's medical records contain sonograms, prescriptions and physicians' notes that could conceivably help prove whether science or the icon worked the cure. But the records are missing. Monica says Sister Betta of the Missionaries of Charity took them away two years ago. ‘It's all with her,’ says Monica. A call to Sister Betta, who has been reassigned to another post of the Charity, produced a ‘no comment.’ Balurghat Hospital officials say the Catholic order has been pressuring them to say Monica's cure was miraculous. Calls to the office of Sister Nirmala, produced no comment as well.”
A well documented and scientifically validated miracle indeed! If you are naïve enough to believe the story, the Vatican now has a miraculous cure for cancerous tumors. They must be wondering why oncologists are not prescribing medallions of the nun for their patients to hold three times a day near the tumor. Have faith, the tumor will dissolve in no time! Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy are passé!
Am I dreaming or what? Why are newspapers like Gulf News prominently carrying such nonsense?
If this can happen in the 21st century and people are gullible enough to believe it, imagine what the church could do when most of the world was illiterate!
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