SCIENCE AND HINDU SCRIPTURES.

 

By K P PASWAN.

This article is confined to Hindus and their holy scriptures in India with greater emphasis on Hindu festivals.

Indian civilization is very ancient and Indian society is highly polarized. Hindu as we know today is the religion of the majority and like Israel Hindus with different names  are the original inhabitants in India and in case of ethnic cleansing in other countries where Hindus have migrated for different purposes, Hindus will have to return to India. There is no way out. Hinduism is a way of life and there is no centralized authority to control and issue guidance for regularization of social customs of Hindus. Like other respected religions no body introduced Hinduism, however certain learned persons devoted their times to understand the nature of universe and the reasons for the presence of universe are given in different scriptures. Their findings are found in Upanishads which have inspired the leading minds of the world irrespective of their religion. Popularly known as Vedic or Santana religion, we find various sects like Shaivism, followers of which worship Lord Shiv, than we have Vaishnavism who worship Lord Vishnu. There are numerous subsects, but they are bounded by a common thread. In South India we find different type of customs and traditions. Except in Kerala where Hindus are most probably not in majority all other states in South India are dominated by Hindus

Kali puja is a festival and a famous temple dedicated to Goddess Kali in Kolkata in West Bengal. Goddess Kali has tremendous power of destruction and reconstruction. Is there any scientific basis for worshipping a deity known for destructive power? ( true Story) In 1998 a nuclear physicist from India was given an audience by Stephen Hawking, the legendary Cosmologist of the present time.  He was wheeled Chaired from an early age as he suffered from Motor Neuron Disease. The doctors in London gave him only three to five years but he died after attaining 74 years of age. Now coming to conversation between the Indian Nuclear Physicist, the Indian scientist asked Hawking if goddess represent the Blackhole which is known for deadly destructive power. Hawking was not taken aback. After sometimes he remarked that Hindu long ago conceived this idea. The conversation was published in leading journals in UK. The Indian scientist after three days boarded a Tristar British airway, came to Kolkata with his family, purchased a particular type of flowers in large quantity and submitted to the Deity in the famous Kali temple in Kolkata. This Indian Physicist in his early forty studied with me in High School. We are not friends, he simply recognized me in an embassy and recognized by face. He narrowly missed F.R.S If he becomes a F.R.S. than he may be second Indian to become F.R.S at a young age after J H Bhabha who become FRS at an age of 35 or 38 Dirac was the youngest F R S (Fellow of the Royal Society).

In fact, major Hindu festival speak for natural forces. My mentor and not teacher in US happen to be a Nobel laureate in Physics, a devout Quaker he has excellent knowledge of Upanishad. Another Nobel in Physics who happens to be a friend of my mentor is also a borne again Christian with wonderful knowledge of holy Vedas. Nearly three years ago I heard him saying in a seminar that “The verses of Rigveda are the flows of time”. As per Stephen Hawking cosmological time is bounded in the past. For cosmological time there is no difference between past and future.  We remember Robert Oppenheimer for his knowledge of holy Geeta. He was father of American atom bomb. But we forget t Werner Heisenberg, His Uncertainty Principles removes the presence of an omnipotent and omniscient deity. He was awarded Nobel in physics for his theory, He  avoided his assassination as he was trying to manufacture atom bomb for Hitler. He was awarded Nobel in physics. Uncertainty principles convulsed Albert Einstein who reluctantly accepted it. But why we remember Heisenberg because of his profound knowledge of holy scriptures of the Hindus, he was trying to know the nature of cosmological time . He tells us that entire Buddhism is based upon a particular Upanishad, Reasons are obvious. Buddhism is the only religion of the world which postulates Death with time in time. This is not Mind boggling. In Buddhism man dies along with his Soul but dead Soul again is reborn. This is also message of the GEETA. In fact it is this nature of time that certain particular physicists contemplates a Deity  with time in different dimension and this concept does not violate the theory of Relativity.

ATEISM AND THE VEDAS

 We all know about S Chandrashekar the Nobel laureate in Physics. He narrowly missed Black Hole  S Chandrashekar‘s theory postulates that beyond certain point a massive star shrinks to zero. His theory was vehemently opposed by Einstein. Any way Chandra shaker was a South Indian Brahmin, a cast much hated in South India just Paswan is the most hated caste in Hindi belt. Chandrasekhar used to call himself a Nastic (Atheist) Hindu but he observed rigorous Vedic  rituals in US and when he died his last rites were performed as per rigorous Hindu rituals. Why he called himself an Atheist Hindu is beyond the scope of this blog.

 COSMIC DANCE OF LORD SHIVA. This is ridiculed by a section or group of incompetent intellectuals. But we have Carlo Rivoli, the most famous Nuclear physicist of France with excellent knowledge of every Veda and the Upanishads. Every year he is missing Nobel in Physics. In the book titled ‘’ The ORDER of Time “he declares The things of the world interweaves dances made no difference rhythms. If the world is held by a dancing Shiva, then there must be ten thousand such dancing Shivas, like the dancing figures painted in the holy scriptures of the Hindus. Echoing the understanding of my mentor Carlo Rivoli declares it is the hymn of Vedas that is itself the flowering of time.

 Once I met a South Indian Brahmin in Texas, out of curiosity pertaining to creation myth and the Vedas, I asked him a particular question. He remained silent and left, his behavior was very friendly. As stated earlier Paswan is the most hated Dalit in the Hindi belt, so I did not expect positive response. After three months we met again in a park. He recognized and called me.  He told me that the Holy Vedas was silent about creation, I already knew it but he confirmed the creation myth.  Once again I had an opportunity to listen to the best brains in a seminar attended by some philosophers with excellent knowledge of physics and some body mentioned the term Manifestation which is the fundamental of Upanishad in other words manifestation is the central theme and not the creation.

 FINAL THOUGHT. If manifestation is central theme of the Universe than what is the Free Will?  ( He was playing and laughing in the morning but he is not seen in the evening , it is because nobody can fight TIME-- SWETASWATRA) than free will has no relevance or is an illusion simply because Predestation is certain.

CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER.

BY K P PASWAN.

 Israel and Hamas are facing each other. Israel is telling the Hamas ‘’ End of Israel means the death of a civilization and the end of Hamas means death of terror’ ’. Survey finds  that an overwhelming  majority of Israeli Jews and  and a sizeable  majority of Palestinians (Hamas excluded) want their own states. Israel is already a sovereign country and will go to any extent to protect its sovereignty. But as one peace plan  after another  has foundered , the voice  calling  for the two peoples  to live as equal citizens  in one country is  slowly multiplying. Once Golda Mair declared that  there was no such thing as the Palestinian people,  In the light of her statements  there are several political figures who want a primer  on de-legitimizing Israel. But that is virtually impossible. The reasons are blunt. Most of the Islamic nations don’t like Palestinians, they  oppose Israel on the ground of religion

 We often hear that WW3 is knocking the door of human race. There are prophets of doom found in every corner of this planet who predict WW3. They predicted WW3 when the Ukraine crisis erupted, now they are predicting world war in the context of tension in Palestine where Israel is fighting the Soldiers of God.

We are witnessing a new global order and multi bio polar politics. Nearly one hundred years ago there were few industrialized countries and more than half of the world was being ruled by European countries. With the collapse of colonial powers, a large number of countries started taking measures for the development of their countries. There were two super powers engaged in what is known as Cold war. It was not a real war being fought with deadly weapons but it was a psychological war. USSR was known as the Iron curtain from which no information escaped.  There were only two Communists empires Soviet Unions and China, both of them desired to expand Communism by force.  It was USSR and certainly not China which was feared and hated by west but the world was hypnotized by Soviet Union ‘s success in exploring the outer space. It appeared that USSR was going to rule over the world. Its extraordinary success in specs exploration virtually eclipsed the failure of the Communist empire in other fronts namely agriculture and pharma. It also appeared that Cold war was not gong to end. But we cannot hide our failures forever. USSR was an Iron Curtain and not the Black hole from which nothing can escape.  Economic recession and failure to improve the agriculture with new technology  did not augur well for the Communist nation.

NO WORLD WAR. There is no point in discussing the collapse of Communism both in Soviet Union and China.  If we look over the Cold war era , we know we escaped devastation . At the time of Cuban crisis  we were really on a hair trigger, and it was only through the responsibility  and good sense of Kennedy and Khrushchev that we avoided catastrophe The nuclear power of the two Superpowers  had the explosive  equivalent of  one of the  U.S air force ‘s daisy  cutter bombs  for each inhabitant  of the US and Europe . Utter devastation would have resulted, had this all had gone off. The threat abated at the end of the Cold War, but looking a century ahead , we cannot  expect the present  political assignments to stay constant. Within the next hundred years , since nuclear  weapon cannot be  dis invented , there is quite expectation that there will be another stand off as fearsome as the Cold war era , perhaps involving more participants  than just two  and therefore more  unstable. Even if we consider the nuclear threat alone, than there is a severe chance , perhaps 50 percent  chance of some catastrophic setback to civilization. Parallels with Cold war is misleading. Modern Russia  no  longer  has an ideology to export. Communism is dead  and Putin has no intention to revive it.  Moscow glistens  with the bright lights of  of consumerism  and Russian companies  continue to  queue  up to list  their shares  on the London Stock Exchange

 These are extreme pessimism, and the survival of civilization depends upon optimism. There are many countries with nukes. A bankrupt Pakistan and a starving N Korea boast of nukes.  Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of IRAN wants Nukes at any cost but for what and for whom? Iran is one of the richest countries of the world, it is an earthquake prone country and is surrounded by Sunnis majority Islamic states. The rulers of archly and conservative Saudi Arabia  in particular have long viewed Iran  as a dangerous rival.

 Egyptians have never forgiven  Iran’s revolutionary leaders for naming a  Tehran street  after one of the assassins of  peace making president Anwar Sadat.

 Iran is openly financing the Sunni dominated Hezbollah, brandishing a Kalashnikov , and speaking in his  fluent classic Arabic  in a Friday sermon  put the matter more bluntly.  Blasting the critics of Hizbullah as  Crilinging hirelings of  the great SATAN that is US he said that Iranian  funded Hizbullah had made the group so loved that  Muslims everywhere  felt , they have participated in it. This claim is not far-fetched. In far off Brunei, the Sultan issued order for  the obligatory performance of special prayer  for the victory of the Hamas. So all over the world certain groups of people support terror based organization. These people also raise slogan against US. The question is whether US alone is responsible for political tension in different parts of of the world? It is doubt full if without US, peace will prevail in the world. In the past century Soviet Union has disappeared and appeared  without  providing solutions to different problems, Putin may be our man of honors but he certainly  cannot be allowed to become the living manifestation of destiny ,target being the entire world, In the same manner China cannot expect to dictate the international politics simply because no country trusts China.  US never played the role of an international policeman. Certain autocrats in Africa and Central Asia have one political ambition and that is how to remain in power. No democracy can succeed in these countries.

With spread of modern system of communication, globalization is the only way to keep the world together but every country has to be very careful of greedy politicians , who want political power at all cost even if it means genocide or horrendous killing of  innocent citizens. War on local issues must not be allowed to cloud the entire planet. There must be check and balance  otherwise Globalization may become a potential weapon of  destruction. 

 

DEATH OF TWO VERMIN

 

By K P PASWAN.

True Story

Before narrating the true story, it is necessary to give a glimpse of Indian society as such type of killings are happening all over the country.

 Apartheid is practiced in India and a group of castes known as DALITS is considered as vermin. This is going on since time immemorial and there is no remedy to erase or remove it. We heard apartheid in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Jews were massacred for reasons best known to Hitler but a tiny sovereign land of Jews survive and continue to survive against all odds.

India was divided on the basis of religion but communal tension and mistrust and hatred between the majority community and Minorities continue to exist, Fact of the matter is that no political party in India can hope to form a government without diatribe against the majority community. Multiculturalism has destroyed US and UK and diversity is playing havoc in India, no body knows whether diversity is an asset or liability in India and general opinion among impartial observers is that it is both an asset and liability. Than there is linguistic chauvinism There is a small state in India.  People of this state believe in false glorification of their language and culture. One of the gentlemen has claimed that his mother language is oldest in the universe.  Second one thinks that his mother language is more than fifty-thousand-year-old, in a way Neanderthals used to speak this language. There is third joker who claims that they have migrated from Indus Valley.  Any way no language in India with script is more than two-thousand-year-old. Anti-Hindi is the cornerstone of the political party in power in that state, but what is Hindi imposition? A few persons fond of anti-Hindi ideology claim that all the Southern States support English as the medium of communication. But the harsh reality is that there is no unity among these southern states. Every state fight against each other. Love for mother language all over the world is understandable. India is a land of many languages, some with scripts and some without scripts. but Hindi is the unifying language of native dialects in Northern India. Hindi is spoken in different parts of India, even in North Eastern parts comprising Manipur Assam and other smaller states, there is no widespread protest against Hindi.

After Ukraine war, UNO is likely to recognize Hindi as one of its official language, There wont be any opposition. It will be an unanimous decision. It will not be considered not as an imposition, it will be an addition.

People in Northern parts of India think movies means of entertainment, but in a particular state in South India, film stars are like divine deities and movie stars play an important role in political and social life.  South India is notorious for committing atrocities against Dalits who are being called as Vermin. In Northern India, not so long-ago vermin were massacred on large scale but in south India it is worst and frightening. Atrocities against Dalits in both parts of India is being committed by other backward classes who excel in their opposition to Dalits . In North India barring exceptions Brahmins are not found indulged in killing and harassing Dalits but in South India anger against Brahmin is so high that they are openly abused and boycotted.

DEATH OF VERMIN.  Dalits in India are like Vermin hated all over India. Nearly 20 years back this chilling incident occurred. In a passenger train, a Dalit boy of nearly 15 years old was selling peanuts to different passengers. His elder brother was selling betel nuts and other smaller items in another compartment of the same train.  Their parents worked as bonded labors, they were not starving but they were poor. They had no daughter and their two sons were only hopes. Both the brothers were school drop outs. Younger brother sold peanuts to two persons and received the payments. Both of those purchasers belonged to the backward communities infamous for hatred toward Dalits. They come to know that they consumed peanuts sold by a Dalit, one of them dragged the boy while second one whipped out an unlicensed small pistol and shot dead the Dalit boy. The boy died peacefully. As usual the Railway police investigated the case and filled the charge sheet. The Session judge started the hearing. Since the killing occurred in a passenger train, several eye witnesses were supposed to depose. But the most potential witness, the elder brother of the victim never stood in the witness box. No eye witness came forward to support the prosecution and all of them turned hostile.  The Prosecution was behaving like defense counsel. There were enough circumstantial evidences, but in absence of credible eyewitness all the accused were freed. The poor Dalit family who lost earning members were mercifully freed by their owner and out of poverty they resorted to begging.

Life became normal. In a strange twist after three months of their acquittal and it in the month of early September when the monsoon in India is at its zenith and play havoc in certain parts of India, the killers along with their entire family (21 in number) were going to attend a function and were crossing the swelling river in a large Steamer ( mechanized boat), such type of boat is known as  Steamer  which played regularly and there was no question of mechanical failure, but the Steamer in the midst of the river capsized and the two killers along with their entire family  drowned, as per police report there were only three survivors who somehow swam to safety. These three survivors did not belong to the killer’s family. Later on, all the bodies were recovered and identified. People of the adjoining area were taken aback and thronged the nearby temple. Meanwhile the judge who gave the ruling in favour of the accused suffered massive heart attack and died in his chamber, the prosecutor died of mysterious disease. One of the witness who turned hostile committed suicide while second was admitted in a mental hospitable in another state.  Dalits numbering about 70 of that village migrated to Punjab to work there as farm laborers.

 The Dalit boy was not a criminal, he was just a hawker and at the time of selling peanuts he did not know that he was selling peanuts to his slayers.

 A Dalit boy of the area belonging to an educated Dalit family after completing his post-graduation in Kolkata qualified and selected for the top service of India. He evinced keen interest in the case and wanted the reasons why the elder brother failed to appear as the most reliable witness.  Other family members of the Dalit officer occupied important posts in the government, so even after going to foreign country he continued his keen interest in this strange case. With help from local administration in Punjab every Dalit family of the village was rummaged and focus shifted to another city but there was no trace of the boy.

After a gap of nearly ten years and during the time of pandemic a Brahmin who suffered heart problem needed help and the Dalit family contacted the surgeon of Kolkata who implanted the best Pace maker at lower cost. After one year when the Dalit Officer visited his home, the Brahmin and a few elders came to thank the Dalit officer.  He made a strange narration which completely solved the mystery why the elder brother failed to stand in the witness box because he was not alive. According to the Brahmin one of the killers was boasting after acquittal that they also killed the elder boy and threw the body into the river. This possibility was never ruled out but now it was confirmed. Killing of Dalits in India are not uncommon. But there is also improvement in their conditions. Several welfare schemes have been launched and the killing of Dalits on a large scale is not being seen in recent years. But it appears a different kind of Apartheid is being introduced in the name of caste Census

The killing of two Dalits as narrated above is pathetic as the parents of these two boys became beggars and died in abject poverty. Killers also died in the worst possible manner. This narration cannot be the central point of a thriller as there was not a conspiracy. There were no detectives searching for a clue and there was no hero emerging at the end of the true story.

 Werner Heisenberg the founder of Uncertainty principles removes the need for an omnipotent and omniscient deity, this point is open for debate. Every thing including our lives are uncertain.

 So even if there is nothing like a providence, nature has its own way of revenge.

Sun continued to rise  but two innocent and unfortunate boys  are not not there to enjoy the sunrise.