Distance Between Sun and Earth in Rig Veda

Yoga At The Speed Of Light And The Meaning Of 108
by Linda Johnsen
http://www.lovearth.net/108.htm
It is amazing how much Western science has taught us. Today, for example, kids in grammar school learn that the sun is 93 million miles from the earth and that the speed of light is 186,000 miles per hours. Yoga may teach us about our Higher Self, but it can't supply this kind of information about physics or astronomy.Or can it?Professor Subhash Kak of Louisiana State University recently called my attention to a remarkable statement by Sayana, a fourteenth century Indian scholar. In his commentary on a hymn in the Rig Veda, the oldest and perhaps most mystical text ever composed in India, Sayana has this to say: "With deep respect, I bow to the sun, who travels 2,202 yojanas in half a nimesha."A yojana is about nine American miles; a nimesha is 16/75 of a second. Mathematically challenged readers, get out your calculators!2,202 yojanas x 9 miles x 75 - 8 nimeshas = 185,794 m.p.s.Basically, Sayana is saying that sunlight travels at 186,000 miles per second! How could a Vedic scholar who died in 1387 A.D. have known the correct figure for the speed of light? If this was just a wild guess it's the most amazing coincidence in the history of science!The yoga tradition is full of such coincidences. Take for instance the mala many yoga students wear around their neck. Since these rosaries are used to keep track of the number of mantras a person is repeating, students often ask why they have 108 beads instead of 100. Part of the reason is that the mala represent the ecliptic, the path of the sun and moon across the sky. Yogis divide the ecliptic into 27 equal sections called nakshatras, and each of these into four equal sectors called padas, or "steps," marking the 108 steps that the sun and moon take through heaven.Each is associated with a particular blessing force, with which you align yourself as you turn the beads.Traditionally, yoga students stop at the 109th "guru bead," flip the mala around in their hand, and continue reciting their mantra as they move backward through the beads. The guru bead represents the summer and winter solstices, when the sun appears to stop in its course and reverse directions. In the yoga tradition we learn that we're deeply interconnected with all of nature. Using a mala is a symbolic way of connecting ourselves with the cosmic cycles governing our universe.But Professor Kak points out other coincidences: The distance between the earth and the sun is approximately 108 times the sun's diameter. The diameter of the sun is about 108 times the earth's diameter. And the distance between the earth and the moon is 108 times the moon's diameter.Could this be the reason the ancient sages considered 108 such a sacred number? If the microcosm (us) mirrors the macrocosm (the solar system), then maybe you could say there are 108 steps between our ordinary human awareness and the divine light at the center of our being. Each time we chant another mantra as our mala beads slip through our fingers, we are taking another step toward our own inner sun.As we read through ancient Indian texts, we find so much the sages of antiquity could not possibly have known-but did. While our European and Middle Eastern ancestors claimed that the universe was created about 6,000 years ago, the yogis have always maintained that our present cosmos is billions of years old, and that it's just one of many such universes which have arisen and dissolved in the vastness of eternity.In fact the Puranas, encyclopedias of yogic lore thousands of years old, describe the birth of our solar system out of a "milk ocean," the Milky Way. Through the will of the Creator, they tell us, a vortex shaped like a lotus arose from the navel of eternity. It was called Hiranya Garbha, the shining womb. It gradually coalesced into our world, but will perish some day billions of years hence when the sun expands to many times it present size, swallowing all life on earth. In the end, the Puranas say, the ashes of the earth will be blown into space by the cosmic wind. Today we known this is a scientifically accurate, if poetic, description of the fate of our planet.The Surya Siddhanta is the oldest surviving astronomical text in the Indian tradition. Some Western scholars date it to perhaps the fifth or sixth centuries A.D., though the text itself claims to represent a tradition much, much older. It explains that the earth is shaped like a ball, and states that at the very opposite side of the planet from India is a great city where the sun is rising at the same time it sets in India. In this city, the Surya Siddhanta claims, lives a race of siddhas, or advanced spiritual adepts. If you trace the globe of the earth around to the exact opposite side of India, you'll find Mexico. Is it possible that the ancient Indians were well aware of the great sages/astronomers of Central America many centuries before Columbus discovered America?Knowing the unknowableTo us today it seems impossible that the speed of light or the fate of our solar system could be determined without advanced astronomical instruments. How could the writers of old Sanskrit texts have known the unknowable? In searching for an explanation we first need to understand that these ancient scientists were not just intellectuals, they were practicing yogis. The very first lines of the Surya Siddhanta, for of the Golden Age a great astronomer named Maya desired to learn the secrets of the heavens, so he first performed rigorous yogic practices. Then the answers to his questions appeared in his mind in an intuitive flash.Does this sound unlikely? Yoga Sutra 3:26-28 states that through, samyama (concentration, meditation, and unbroken mental absorption) on the sun, moon, and pole star, we can gain knowledge of the planets and stars. Sutra 3:33 clarifies, saying: "Through keenly developed intuition, everything can be known." Highly developed intuition is called pratibha in yoga. It is accessible only to those who have completely stilled their mind, focusing their attention on one object with laser-like intensity. Those who have limited their mind are no longer limited to the fragments of knowledge supplied by the five senses. All knowledge becomes accessible to them."There are [those] who would say that consciousness, acting on itself, can find universal knowledge," Professor Kak admits. "In fact this is the traditional Indian view."Perhaps the ancient sages didn't need advanced astronomical instruments. After all, they had yoga.Source: http://www.yimag.org/

Science and Hinduism

I have often wondered the difference between invention and Discoveries....what we call modern inventions are they really inventions or are they actually discoveries...are we discovering them from the ancient past?. Lets consider the following examples

Man imagined that we could never fly and looked at birds at amazement...our British rulers had us believe that Lord Ram could not have flown from Sri Lanka to India and this they were sure of and called it a joke...until the Wright brothers sometime during the late 18th century invented(Discovered?) flying.

We knew from our scriptures that our great Rishis had the vision and images live from any where in the universe, just like todays satellites and televisions..and lets consider what happened during 3139 BC the Time of "Mahabarath War".Sanjaya sat in the palace of Dritharastra and described the war as it happened in the war field live. He obtained this divine ability through Lord Krshn..the concept of television and satellite right there. The concept of Transmission and Television albeit limited to few people. Had Sanjaya got patent on this concept in 3139 BC he could have been a millionaire today

How about the 99 brothers of Duryodhan...must be kidding haa..which comdey club are you from?...how is that possible said everybody prior to 1980 or so when genetic Engineering and Advanced Biology researches invented(discovered?) that you can have not 99 but 1000's of babies created at the same time, now this technology seems to be available to everybody..this ability probably was limited to small set of people during the Mahabarath period.

Was Brahma Astra really Nuclear Weapon??....based in the devastating effects it does seem so...

The distance between the earth and the sun as mentioned in our scriptures..todays scientific instruments find that perfect with the number they come up with.. Looks at this article by

http://www.lovearth.net/108.htm

I will quote plenty more later.. but as science progress the past events in Hinduism are reinforced and on still some aspects science lacks behind ....lets see a few of them..

We are making advances in Genetic Engineering, cloning ..so on..can we produce personalities like Lord Ganesh??.

Some relegions say that man/universe was made 6000 years before BC, hubble telescope puts the age of the universe at 13-19 billions years.According to the hindu mantra..commonly recited in every ritual almost 100 times a day called "Sankalp" which has the term
"Viavaswata manwantarae" The term Viavaswata manwantarae means that we are in the manvantar of Vaivaswat manu.. which is the 7th manvantar..so the preceding 6 and including the 7 the current one puts the age of universe to 155.513332 Trillion Years - Age of the Universe to 6th decimal ...I am sure as science progress they will come close to this number

Its said that when Hanuman flew over the ocean..a demon caught him by catching his shadow. Ever heard of controlling anything by holding its shadow..Amazing is'nt it..

I would refere you to 2 lovely books for more amazing stuff...
http://www.samskrita-bharati.org/books/prideofindia.pdf

and another

"True History and Relegion of India" by Sri Prakashnand http://www.amazon.com/True-History-Religion-India-Encyclopedia/dp/0967382319/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198896396&sr=8-1

More to Come--Intresting that Harry Potter haa!