HINDU BRAHMIN CUT OFF FROM GOD AND TEMPLE:

G.W.F. Hegel, German philosopher, in his famous lectures on the Philosophy of Religion(1832) had reviewed the whole human history as a vast dialectical movement toward realization of freedom. In Hegel’s opinion, the reality of history is ‘spirit’ and the story of religion is the process by which ‘spirit’ comes to full consciousness of itself following the dialectical pattern of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. According to Hegel, religion plays a role in the self-realization of ‘spirit’.

According to the laws of Hegelian Dialectic, one concept(thesis) inevitably generates its opposite(antithesis), their interaction leads to a new concept(synthesis) which in turn becomes the thesis of a new triad. The concept of ‘freedom’ is opposed by the problem of ‘dependence’ as ‘dependence’ determines the degree of freedom man has at any given time while he exists in a given environment, a place, while participating in social interactions with members of a social community or inhabitants of that place.

I do not speak about freedom in the context of Freedom of Religion or the history of religion of any given group of people. I speak about human freedom and its relationship with human nature. Liberty and Freedom is the opposite of servitude, or bondage, whether physical, moral, or spiritual. Human ‘spirit’ and human desire for freedom are related not because of religion but because of human nature. Man cannot avoid ‘dependence’ and at the same time, man wants to retain or sustain his free will, his freedom to choose, and his freedom to decide a course of action in response to changes in external circumstances.

In ‘spirit’ man imagines, desires, and seeks freedom from ‘dependence’ that establishes his conditioned existence. Man primarily expresses his freedom in manipulating the dependent nature of his conditioned existence. Man seeks to exist as an ‘Individual’ with ‘Individuality’ while being attached and while surviving on support from an external source.

Freedom and Dependence are the two basic elements of human nature that are perpetually in tension with one another. These are the basic elements of human relationships and human interactions. If religion formulates man’s relationship with God, that relationship is shaped by the degree of tension between the opposing elements of freedom and dependence that each individual person may experience at a given time, and place.

The more man struggles to control or to manipulate his external circumstances, greater will be the gap between freedom and dependence. The resulting stress or tension between two conflicting realities; the distance between freedom and dependence causes separation, detachment, estrangement or alienation.

In human interactions and human relationships, if there is no freedom of action, and if there is no freedom of choice, the interaction and relationship suffers leading to progressive estrangement, separation, alienation, and detachment. If God predetermined man’s external circumstances, and if God is Prime Cause of a widening gap between man’s freedom, and dependence, man’s relationship with his God will be affected by the problem of separation, detachment, estrangement, and alienation.

Just like interpersonal relationships, man’s relationship to his God is influenced by external circumstances of any given place which set limitations, or boundaries of his conditioned existence. The term ‘Free Will’ refers to the power or capacity to choose among alternatives; it refers to the ability to act in certain situations independently of natural, social, or divine restraints.

The term ‘freedom’ refers to the state of not being subject to determining forces,  enjoyment of civil rights like freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of movement, and freedom to seek gainful employment. The opposite of freedom is slavery, bondage, serfdom, servitude, and in modern economic times freedom is often interpreted as lack of equal rights to earnings, remuneration, or salary for physical, or mental labor rendered to an employer. However, it may be noted that freedom is not self-determined as it is always determined by external causes.

WHAT IS DETERMINISM? THE LAW OF NECESSITY:

Determinism is the doctrine that states, everything including one’s choice of action is the necessary result of  sequence of causes.  God is viewed as Prime Cause as God’s Supreme Will is related to superintendence of the whole cosmos and everything in it. Existence of free will has to be reconciled with God’s omniscience, and with divine grace which could be necessary for any meritorious or even bad acts. In Indian tradition it is believed that God foreordained circumstances and destiny of a person according to His Supreme Will.

God may elect or predestinate the circumstances of a person and make a choice on God’s own initiative on the basis of God’s knowing in advance or foreknowledge as to how a person may react or respond to external circumstances caused by His Supreme Will. God has foreknowledge of man’s reaction to His choice. Man may think that he determines his course of action and makes a choice not knowing that God has already known that course of action. God influences external circumstances to provide a particular course of action as  the only option available to meet that contingency.

In Indian tradition, the Law of Necessity speaks of God as Prime Cause and is called DAIVAM, VIDHI, NIYATI, AND BHAGYAM, the Cause which determines man’s fate or destiny.

In Indian tradition, God exists as a personal God. Man’s relationship to his God is determined and is influenced by same factors that act upon man’s social interactions and social relationships. Human interpersonal relationships fail to thrive if they become a source of stress, or tension. If man is left with no option, has no freedom to choose or act, his relationship to his God suffers for not want of faith or belief. Man’s trusting relationship with his God demands a sense of hope, comfort, and reassurance to cope with changing external circumstances.

HINDU BRAHMIN EXCOMMUNICATED FROM HIS GOD AND TEMPLE:

The term “excommunicate” means to exclude a person by an act of member of clergy or temple authority from the sacraments, rights and privileges of a church or temple. Excommunicated person is cutoff from communion with a church or temple which is understood as body of God. It is similar to living in exile when the affected person is banished and has to live away from one’s country, community, and temple, or church. Excommunication need not always be enforced by a decree as it sometimes is self-imposed for an excommunicated person may have no freedom of action or free to choose on his own. In Indian tradition excommunicated person is not invited to participate in cultural events, ceremonies, and gatherings associated with birth, death, marriage, and other events to celebrate religious holidays. I believe that I am excommunicated for I find no opportunity to engage other members of Hindu Brahmin community in social interactions over the last 25 years. It may be traced back to 1989 when I was cutoff from Malibu Hindu Temple in Santa Monica Hills as the presiding Deity has determined a course of action in Santa Monica that reshaped the country in which I live into ‘wilderness’. I left India in 1984 in my quest for Promised Land. I arrived in Ann Arbor, Michigan,United States during July 1986 and I have not found my final destination.

WHAT IS PROMISED LAND?

Promised Land is viewed as a place where one expects to have a better life. In India,  experience of estrangement, separation, detachment, and alienation forced me to make a choice, and the external circumstances allowed me to depart from India in search of a ‘Promised Land’. My desire to live away from India is fully supported by external circumstances sanctioned by my God for I could easily overcome all the obstacles that prevented my departure from India. For example, I spent an entire year(1982-83) to resist a posting order and to obtain Government of India’s approval to resign my Permanent Regular Commission in Indian Army Medical Corps. On January 10, 1984, I could depart from India, the day on which my letter of resignation was sanctioned in New Delhi.

WHAT IS WILDERNESS?

Wilderness describes an uncultivated, uninhabited, waste, barren, empty, wild, arid, and desolate region that is naturally incapable of supporting almost any life. A dry, sandy region like desert brings to the mind an image of wilderness. However in such river less regions, land of drought, trackless wasteland of rock and sand, solitary places, some nomads may venture to occupy it for they have no other choice. Nomad is a person having no permanent home, a wanderer who has no fixed home, an itinerant who travels from place to place for he has not reached his final destination. External circumstances are powerful and in present day, modern urban environment, we find people who have no homes of their own, or people who barely subsist with very few material possessions. Such wanderers do not participate in social actions and interactions while they exist among members of a social community that fully participates in social events.

HINDU BRAHMIN’S SOCIAL SEGREGATION

In Indian tradition, a person is expected to maintain social contacts and social relationships that are consistent with his external circumstances. If a person has to lead a nomadic way of life, that person can live to the best of his ability without any social obligations imposed by cultural norms. A nomad is not required to socially entertain other members of his community and a nomad is exempted from observing Indian traditions that describe the rules of hospitality. A nomad need not provide room, food, and drink or accept the burden of hosting a guest at his temporary dwelling. In Indian tradition, hospitality imposes equal burden upon all participating members; if a person is entertained as a guest at the dwelling of another person, he would have an equal responsibility of treating that person as his guest at the next available opportunity. I cannot accept a social invitation unless I have the same ability to extend a social invitation. It is a natural process that encourages social separation, segregation, detachment, and alienation that is operated by changing external circumstances. It can be explained as a coping mechanism to survive at any given place where opportunities for social advancement are few or minimal.

HINDU BRAHMIN’S MINIMALISTIC EXISTENCE

In Indian tradition, social actions, and social interactions are determined by social position, social ranking, social status, and social occupation of participating members. While it is true in Indian social ranking system a Brahmin may enjoy high-ranking, it is not a passport to give access to unlimited social activity. For example, Indian epic poems of Ramayana, and Mahabharata illustrate as to how external circumstances changed the social life of their princely characters such as Prince Rama, Prince Laxmana, and Pandava princes.

HINDU BRAHMIN CUTOFF FROM HIS GOD AND TEMPLE(MALIBU HINDU TEMPLE IN SANTA MONICA HILLS): IN INDIAN TRADITION, SOCIAL ACTIONS AND INTERACTIONS ARE DETERMINED BY SOCIAL POSITION, SOCIAL RANKING, SOCIAL STATUS, AND SOCIAL OCCUPATION OF PARTICIPATING MEMBERS.

HINDU BRAHMIN’S LIFE IN WILDERNESS:

Man in his thoughts, dreams, and imagination desires freedom of choice, and freedom of action. Such desire for freedom is easily eliminated by man’s external circumstances. Man’s survival in any type of external environment requires operation of a principle called ‘dependence’, the ability to obtain matter, and energy from external source. Man’s desire for freedom shapes his ‘ego’ or self-pride. If man can control, or manipulate his external source of support, it boosts up his ego or self-pride. If man has to survive basically depending upon Divine Providence, his ego or self-pride is subdued, and he is humbled and acquires an attitude called humility. This attitude of humility is expressed in his behavior and actions that can be recognized as ‘Devotion’, acknowledgment of Divine Providence.

HINDU BRAHMIN’S JOURNEY TO FIND DEVOTION WITH DETACHMENT:

Man who has limited freedom of action and choice is forced to detach himself from desires of acquiring material possessions and gets disinterested in his social ranking, social position, social status, and social occupation. Deprivation of freedom eliminates opportunities for social actions and social interactions for man has to separate himself from realities of external world if he has to find peace, harmony, and tranquility while living a life of utter simplicity. This social disengagement or detachment initiates a natural process that destroys man’s ego or self-pride. At the same time, man who is humble, meek and acquired the nature called humility will be able to acknowledge Divine Providence without seeking communion with his God at a House of Worship or Temple. While people with material possessions and material attachments prefer to worship God in Temples they build, a detached person expresses his humility in actions and behavior that can be recognized as devotion.

HINDU BRAHMIN’S ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE:

Hindu Brahmin living separated, detached, excommunicated, and alienated from his social community, leading a life of minimalistic existence, could still hear God’s word as shared in The Book of Matthew, Chapter 4, verse #4: Jesus answered, “It is Written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'” This was a statement made by Jesus when he was forced to experience wilderness and hunger by manipulation of his external circumstances. Jesus was unwilling to find food, and was unwilling to change or influence his external environment to any extent that may go beyond Divine Providence. Tolerance of hunger and thirst is a humbling process to teach discipline and obedience and man simply exists accepting the boundaries or limitations of Divine Providence.

The words that I hear from Book of Matthew connect me to their original source. When Jesus claims, “It is Written”, He is directing attention to original source of words He spoke, The Old Testament Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 8, verse #3: “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”

As Hindu Brahmin I claim that I am cutoff from God and Temple as God has chosen those external circumstances that shaped my detachment, or alienation that allows no room for social actions and social interactions including access to places of worship like Church or Temple.

MAN’S FREEDOM FROM DEPENDENCE – DETACHED DEVOTION:

Man’s existence or lifetime is a constant struggle for man needs support from an external source to keep his life. That support demands man’s connection, partnership, bonding, relationship, or association with his external environment. This dependence on external support generates tension or stress for it directly opposes man’s desire for freedom or independence. By careful analysis, man can understand the true nature of external support contributed by Divine Providence without any concern for man’s struggle to control, to modify, or to influence his changing external circumstances. Divine Providence operates without demanding attachment to faith or belief in God. Its nature is detached, aloof, separate, not involved by emotion or desires, disengaged, disconnected, and indifferent to man’s physical, or mental struggles. Jesus was led into the desert or wilderness. He had no access to food or water. After fasting for forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. And yet, He demonstrated His unwillingness to struggle to alter or change external circumstances imposed by desert or wilderness. Jesus conquered dependence and won His freedom or independence by finding Life that comes from hearing the word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

Jesus demonstrated the need for devotion; a devotion not based on man’s attachment to his external struggle. Man has to sever his attachments to a life that demands a constant struggle with external causes. When detached, man finds a new Life; a Life without dependence, a Life of freedom and independence that flows from the word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. For I am cutoff from my God and Temple, I recognize futility of my external struggle and I have no freedom of choice or freedom of action other than that of hearing the word while my life’s journey proceeds through wilderness.

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada

DIVINE PUMA PUNKU SOCIETY

TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR – THE MYSTERY CALLED LIFE

Stephen Hawking announced ‘biggest ever’ probe into alien or extraterrestrial life. The possibility of existence of ‘intelligent’ life in our vast universe of unknown dimensions tickles imagination of man and yet chances of such discovery are very slim. Time and Space are two immaterial dimensions that impose restrictions on man’s ability to interact with ‘intelligent’ life that may or may not exist in rest of our universe, or ‘JAGAT’ which keeps moving at a great speed that cannot be captured by human imagination. In my view, Stars remain “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and man has no option other than singing, “How, I Wonder What You Are?”

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162, USA
Bhavanajagat.org

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STEPHEN HAWKING ANNOUNCES ‘BIGGEST EVER’ PROBE INTO ALIEN LIFE

LONDON — World renowned scientist Stephen Hawking and entrepreneur Yuri Milner announced what is described as the biggest ever investigation into whether intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe here Monday.

JANE ONYANGA-OMARA, USA TODAY JULY 20, 2015

Left to right: Yuri Milner, Stephen Hawking, Martin Rees, Frank Drake, Ann Druyan and Geoff Marcy attend a press conference on the Breakthrough Life in the Universe Initiatives, hosted by Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking, at The Royal Society on July 20, 2015 in London, England. (Photo: Stuart C. Wilson, Getty Images for Breakthrough Initiatives)

LONDON — World renowned scientist Stephen Hawking and entrepreneur Yuri Milner announced what is described as the biggest ever investigation into whether intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe.

Announcing the $100 million project Monday, the Breakthough Initiatives division at the Royal Society — the U.K’s national academy of science — said it would be “the most powerful, comprehensive and intensive” such search ever to be conducted.

The 10-year project, which will include access to the powerful Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia and the Parkes Telescope in New South Wales, Australia, will include surveying the million stars closest to Earth, and will cover 10 times more sky than previous projects, the investigators said.
In a statement, Milner said the scientists wanted to bring “the Silicon Valley approach” to the search for intelligent life.

At the launch event, Hawking said: “Somewhere in the cosmos, perhaps, intelligent life may be watching these lights of ours, aware of what they mean,” according to the BBC.
“Or do our lights wander a lifeless cosmos — unseen beacons, announcing that here, on one rock, the Universe discovered its existence. Either way, there is no bigger question. It’s time to commit to finding the answer — to search for life beyond Earth.

“We are alive. We are intelligent. We must know.”

Breakthrough Initiatives said that all data from the project will be available to the public, who will be able to add to it and develop their own applications to analyze the material.

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MISSING IN ACTION – INDIAN PRISONERS OF WAR SEE LIGHT AT THE END OF TUNNEL

Special Frontier Force initiated Liberation of Bangladesh with military action in Chittagong Hill Tracts during November – December 1971. Indian Army’s victory in East Pakistan during the brief 1971 War has come with a sense of pain for India has failed to account for Service Personnel Missing In Action. Pakistan is still holding 54 Indian Prisoners of 1971 War and has not formally announced their existence in captivity. I am rejoiced to hear about efforts launched by human rights activists to bring these prisoners back home. May God Speed their efforts and bless them for standing up to defend dignity and rights of Indian Prisoners who have already endured 45 years in prisons away from their loved ones.

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162, USA
The Spirits of Special Frontier Force

After 45 years in Pakistan, India’s ‘Missing 54′ POWs Could Be Coming Home

NEWSWEEK
A 21 hrs ago

A Pakistani flag flies on a mast as paramilitary Frontier Corps soldiers talk while guarding at Karachi District Malir Prison, August 23, 2013.

© Akhtar Soomro/Reuters A
Pakistani flag flies on a mast as paramilitary Frontier Corps soldiers talk while guarding at Karachi’s District Malir prison, August 23, 2013.

Nila Gosh was just eight months old at the time, but her mother has recounted this story many times. There Nila’s father was—hands clutched around the bars of a prison cell, the smart cuffs of his military jacket replaced with a rough sweater, his moustache still neatly trimmed—staring out from a grainy black and white photograph in Time magazine.
The official story was that Major Arskok Gosh had been killed during fierce fighting the year before. Yet there he was, behind bars in a Pakistani prison, and alive.

Time was reporting on the messy end of a bloody 14-day conflict between Pakistan and India; a military disaster for the Pakistani state which saw Eastern Pakistan, later to become an independent Bangladesh, entirely lost.

A clutch of Indian military personnel was captured during the hostilities. The bulk was swiftly released. Yet the so-called “Missing 54,” Major Gosh among them, have never been set free. That war ended in 1971, and the 54 captured Indians—whose existence is still denied by the Pakistani authorities, whom the Indian government seems in no hurry to recover, and whose families still hope will return—are still missing.

Earlier this week, to try to break this decades-long deadlock, two British human rights lawyers, Jas Uppal and Christopher Wing, flew to Delhi to begin legal proceedings on behalf of the families at the Indian Supreme Court. They will argue that the dispute should be taken out of both Indian and Pakistani government hands and passed to the International Court of Justice in The Hague for arbitration. Both India and Pakistan recognise the jurisdiction of that Court, which is backed by the United Nations Security Council.

“The Indian authorities have prevaricated for over four decades and failed to raise the matter at an international level,” argues Uppal, a British Indian of Punjabi origin. “These families have been living in purgatory for 45 years.”

After the war, the exchange of each sides’ prisoners-of-war became a bitter and highly politicised dispute. Ninety thousand captured Pakistani troops represented a third of the country’s ground forces and paramilitary groups, and were only handed back after Pakistan was forced to sign a humiliating peace agreement.

“India was just so happy with the victory, maybe they were overlooked?” Major Gosh’s daughter Nila observes, “And if they were released now it would be a huge embarrassment for both countries.”

Though Islamabad won’t admit Pakistan holds the missing men, Pakistani state radio stations have on several occasions during and since the war alluded to their existence – broadcasting across the border into India. One such case was Wing Commander Hersern Singh Gill, a fighter pilot whose Mig-21 was shot down over Pakistani territory on 13 December 1971. That same day, the Pakistani military bragged it had captured an “ace Indian pilot”.

Some of the families have been tracked down by former inmates in Pakistani prisons, saying they had spent time with the missing men while inside. Like the photo of Major Gosh turning up in Time, a photo of another missing soldier—Captain Ravinder Kaura—made its way to India, and was published by a local paper in 1972. One family even received a note directly from their missing loved one, smuggled out by a released detainee.

More worryingly, British historian Victoria Schoffield wrote in her book Bhutto – Trial and Execution, that prisoners in a Pakistani jail had heard men being tortured, men they believed to be The Missing 54.

“Their screams and shrieks in the dead of night are something I will not forget,” reads a chilling testimonial. Still, with no formal confirmation from the Pakistani government, decades of not knowing has taken its toll on the families.

“He was so patriotic,” Captain Kaura’s sister says, handing me a framed photo of her brother, handsome and resplendent in uniform, as we sit in her home in north London. The last time she saw him was when he dropped her off at the airport for a flight to the United Kingdom, where she was to marry. “He had already done two tours,” she says, “he insisted on doing a third, he shouldn’t have gone.” Mrs Kaur doesn’t hesitate for a second when I ask if she thinks her brother is still alive—”Of course!”

Yet earlier, when we arranged to meet on the phone, she had broken down in tears. In the four and a half decades her brother has been missing, Mrs Kaur saw her father go blind, then die with his wife in 1982. Her other brother died two years later, in ethnic violence which gripped northern India. Mrs Kaur herself is wheelchair bound, after a car accident. She tells me that when, not if, her brother returns, she will buy him a house in India so he can retire. “I could bring him to the UK, but he fought for India,” she explains.

The families complain the Indian government has not done enough. Eight years after the conflict ended, authorities finally published a list of 40 missing personnel, admitting the men could be being held by the Pakistanis. A further 14 were later added to the list. While Pakistan is probably holding them to make a point or as political leverage, Delhi are not keen to rock an uneasy relationship with its counterparts in Islamabad—with frequent border skirmishes still flaring up.

A formal commission was formed to investigate the cases in 2008, but took four years to even interview the families of the missing. Since then the commission has been unenthusiastic and ineffective. Direct approaches to various senior Army and Air Force personnel by the families have been met with indifference.

“Evidence shows these men were last in the custody of Pakistan. Their government must be held to account too,” adds lawyer Uppal. A date for the final decision by the Supreme Court in Delhi has yet to be set.

• Newsweek

© 2015 Microsoft

WHAT IS CREATION?

The search for another planet that is similar to planet Earth calls for understanding the term ‘creation’. In my view, a created object is original, unique, distinctive, and one of its own kind of object that may not be replicated either using a spontaneous process, or by a deliberate, purposive action. Planet Earth qualifies as a created, original, unique, distinctive, and one of its own kind of object and there is no second celestial object similar to Earth. The recent discovery of Kepler – 452b exoplanet has stimulated interest in possibility of finding a second Earth-like planet in our vast universe. Earth is the fifth largest planet of the Solar System and the only one known to support life. Earth is surrounded by an envelope of gases, mostly oxygen, nitrogen, and water vapor, called the atmosphere. Gravitational forces have molded Earth into a spherical shape that bulges at the equator. Earth’s equatorial diameter is 7,926 miles or 12,760 Km; polar diameter is 7,900 miles or 12,720 Km. Earth is unique for its inhabitants experience the change of seasons caused by tilt(23.5 degrees) of Earth’s equator to the plane of its orbit.

Among celestial objects, stars are luminous and planets such as Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are nonluminous and revolve around Sun or around another star. The other terrestrial planets of Solar System, Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Pluto resemble Earth in size, chemical composition, and density. The ‘Jovian’ planets of Solar System, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are much larger in size and have thick gaseous atmospheres and low densities.

Individuality of each celestial object becomes discernible while studying period of revolution and period of rotation. The planets of Solar System may have shared their births from a same source called ‘gaseous nebula’ and yet they display individualistic variations in the characteristics of motions performed. Man’s life and experience of life is synchronized with Earth’s period of rotation around its own axis, and Earth’s revolution around Sun.

Man exists as a mortal being with lifespan or lifetime as his living functions are operated and are regulated by a precise timing device called ‘Biological Clock’ which may be responsive to changes in external environment such as day, and night. For each planet has its own period of rotation and revolution, the living experience of man can never be the same on different planets even if they have some ability to support some forms of life. Man is a created being for his existence require Earth’s rotational speed, and revolutionary speed to operate changes of intensity of external environmental light illumination while Sun shines all the time.

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162, USA
Bhavanajagat.org

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Kepler-452b: What It Would Be Like to Live On Earth’s ‘Cousin’

Space.com

Mike Wall

© SETI Institute/Danielle Futselaar.

Kepler-452b may be Earth’s close cousin, but living on the newfound world would still be an alien experience.
A group of pioneers magically transported to the surface of Kepler – 452b — which is the closest thing to an “Earth twin” yet discovered, researchers announced yesterday (July 23) — would instantly realize they weren’t on their home planet anymore. (And magic, or some sort of warp drive, must be invoked for such a journey, since Kepler-452b lies 1,400 light-years away.)

Kepler-452 is 60 percent wider than Earth and probably about five times more massive, so its surface gravity is considerably stronger than the pull people are used to here. Any hypothetical explorers would thus feel about twice as heavy on the alien world as they do on Earth, researchers said.
“It might be quite challenging at first,” Jon Jenkins, of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, said during a news conference yesterday. Jenkins is data analysis lead for the space agency’s Kepler spacecraft, which discovered Kepler-452b.

But visitors to the exoplanet would probably be able to meet that challenge, said former astronaut John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. After all, he said, firefighters and backpackers routinely carry heavy loads, mimicking (albeit temporarily) the effect of increased surface gravity.
“If we were there, we’d get stronger,” Grunsfeld said. “Our bones would actually get stronger. It would be like a workout every day.”

The high-gravity environment would probably lead to significant changes in the bodies of Kepler-452b colonists over longer time spans, he and Jenkins said.
“I suspect that, over time, we would adapt to the conditions, and perhaps become stockier over a long period of many generations,” Jenkins said.
Other features of life on Kepler-452b would be more familiar. For example, the exoplanet orbits a solar-type star at about the same distance at which Earth circles the sun.

“It would feel a lot like home, from the standpoint of the sunshine that you would experience,” Jenkins said. Earth plants “would photosynthesize, just perfectly fine,” he added.
Imagining other aspects of life on Kepler-452b requires much more speculation, since it’s too far away to get a good look at. Researchers suspect that the planet is rocky, like Earth, but they don’t know for sure. Kepler-452b probably has a thick atmosphere, liquid water and active volcanoes, but these are best guesses based on modeling work.

Models also suggest that Kepler-452b might soon experience a runaway greenhouse effect, similar to the one that changed VENUS from a potentially habitable world billions of years ago to the sweltering hothouse it is today, researchers said.

Kepler-452b’s star is apparently older than the sun — 6 billion years, compared to 4.5 billion years. It’s thus in a more energetic phase of its life cycle than the sun is; indeed, the star is about 10 percent larger and 20 percent brighter than Earth’s sun. (That means the sunlight on Kepler-452b, while familiar to explorers from Earth, would not be exactly equivalent.)
The increased energy output of its sun might currently be causing Kepler-452b to heat up and lose its oceans — if the planet does indeed harbor oceans — to evaporation, subsequent breakup by ultraviolet light and atmospheric escape.

Such a scenario likely won’t occur on Kepler-452b for another 500 million years or so, assuming estimates for the planet’s size and the star’s age are accurate, Jenkins said. (The stronger gravity of larger planets allows them to hang on to their surface water for longer periods of time in such situations than smaller worlds can.)
“But, you know, we don’t know exactly,” Jenkins said.

So he and other members of the discovery team helped devise an artist’s concept that imagines how Kepler-452b would look if a runaway greenhouse effect were beginning to unfold.
The illustration shows “not oceans, but residual bodies of water that are highly concentrated in minerals after the oceans are largely gone, and you have lakes and pools and rivers left,” Jenkins said.

“It’s a fascinating thing to think about, and I think it gives us an opportunity to take a pause and reflect on our own environment that we find ourselves in,” he added. “We’ve been lucky and fortunate to live in a habitable zone for the last several billion years, and we’d like that to continue on.”

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedot.com, Facebook, or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

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BHARAT DARSHAN – INDIA’S FIRST COMPUTER

I am pleased to share a very brief story about development of Computer Technology in India and use this opportunity to pay my very respectful tribute to Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha who provided leadership in developing India’s capability in Nuclear Science, Electronics Technology, and a variety of allied fields. Under Dr. Bhabha’s eminent leadership, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research(TIFR) added Computer Section as part of its Electronics Instrumentation Group by 1955.

Professor PVS Rao shared with me the story about designing and building India’s first electronic, and digital computer by a team headed by Professor. R. Narasimhan at TIFR’s Electronics Instrumentation Group. The building of India’s first computer is a very significant milestone in India’s development in the field of Electronics to make the country self-reliant. The team initiated work during 1955 putting together several tens of thousands of individual components such as resistors, capacitors, vacuum tubes, and making wire connections. India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru visited TIFR during 1960 and named the computer as ‘Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Automatic Calculator(TIFRAC).

At TIFR, under  Director Professor. B V Sreekantan, a team headed by Professor PVS Rao developed India’s Air Defence Data Handling System(Air Defence Ground Environment System or ADGES) under a plan initiated by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who insisted upon India’s self-reliance in this aspect of using technology to defend India. In this monumental task, 50 scientists, engineers and 70 Air Force Officers worked together. While TIFR played the lead role, work was carried out by Bhabha Atomic Research Center(BARC), Air Force Simulation Center, Electronics Corporation of India Ltd(ECIL), Electronics and Radar Development Establishment(LRDE), and Tata Electric Companies(TEC). I am pleased to post some photo images of events at TIFR associated with development of India’s Air Defence Ground Environment System or ADGES.

I am pleased to add a few photo images of staff members who worked at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research(TIFR) as part of a team that developed India’s Air Defence Data Handling System(Air Defence Ground Environment System or ADGES). My hearty congratulations to Professor PVS Rao and all others who developed India’s Air Defence Data Handling System ‘ADGES’ at TIFR.

At Bhavanajagat.Org, I define Life as Knowledge in Action. The essence of life is about using information in performance of living functions. Human organism is a complex system that receives information, processes information, stores information, retrieves information to perform guided, goal-oriented, purposive, sequential actions. Even if spend my lifetime, I will not be able to list all the functions my human body performs to keep me alive. I appreciate the development of Computer Technology for it helps us to use and handle information with great efficiency.

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada

BHAVANAJAGAT.ORG

Bharat Darshan-Air Defence of India-ADGES Project2

Bharat Darshan-TIFRAC – Bhabha centenary paper2009

ECCE HOMO – BLESSINGS OF FREEDOM

ECCE HOMO – BEHOLD THE MAN – SENIOR ALIEN IS SEEKING BLESSINGS OF MERCY FROM SON OF MAN AT HIS HEARING BY ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGE OF SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION THAT DENIED HIM BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY.

For the first time in U.S. history, Administrative Law Judge of Social Security Administration scheduled a hearing for Wednesday, October 28, 2015 at 19575 Victor Parkway, Livonia, Michigan 48152 to review problem of Serfdom, Slavery, Forced Labor, and Involuntary Servitude imposed by Federal Legislation. She may decide to grant Blessings of Mercy to Senior Alien who is denied Blessings of Freedom. Her decision will determine status of Slavery, Serfdom, Involuntary Servitude, and Forced Labor practiced in modern economic times with connivance of Congressional Laws that disregard Constitutional Principles.

Constitution of the United States is the document embodying principles on which American nation is governed. Since 1789, it is the Supreme Law of the Land, no other law, state constitution or statute, federal legislation, or executive order can operate in conflict with it. The Bill of Rights was added in 1791 to provide adequate guarantees of individual liberties. The 9th Amendment states that people retain any rights not specified in the U.S. Constitution. However, the U.S. Constitution did not secure the Blessings of Liberty to Slaves residing in United States. President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on January 01, 1863 abolished Slavery in the secessionist Southern states or Confederacy as a measure for suppressing rebellion and to deplete Southern manpower reserve in Slaves. The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ratified during 1865 prohibits Slavery, but it failed to fully ban Slavery.

Economic changes and modern employment practices have replaced the traditional agricultural Slave with the semifree Serf from whom an employer can exact labor and other services. Half-Free Serfdom, Half-Free Slavery, Half-Free Servitude, Half-Equal Labor conditions prevail in United States as work and services are provided by natives or aliens(Non-Immigrant workers) under umbrella of protection afforded by U.S. Labor Department. A native laborer or a person deemed to be a ‘Resident’ is “Free” to lawfully claim the right to property, wages, salary, or earnings from his work or labor. Alien or Non-Immigrant workers are not “Free” to lawfully claim their Retirement income benefits paid by Social Security Administration from earnings and contributions lawfully recovered from their wages, salary, or earnings under the provisions of Federal Insurance Contributions Act or FICA. Under the provisions of 9th and 13th Amendment to the US Constitution, Senior Alien requested for this hearing by Administrative Law Judge to ascertain his rights to equal rights and equal protection afforded by the Supreme Law of the Land.

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162, USA
SPECIALFRONTIERFORCE.ESTABLISHMENT22

FREE VS SLAVE. Hearing for Senior Alien at 19575 Victor Parkway, Livonia, Michigan 48152.

				The Spirits of Special Frontier ForceAt Special Frontier Force, I host ‘The Living Tibetan Spirits’ to promote Tibet Awareness.
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ECCE HOMO – BLESSINGS OF EQUAL PROTECTION AND EQUAL TREATMENT

For the first time in U.S. history, Administrative Law Judge of Social Security Administration scheduled a hearing for Wednesday, October 28, 2015 at 19575 Victor Parkway, Livonia, Michigan 48152 to review problem of Serfdom, Slavery, Forced Labor, and Involuntary Servitude imposed by Federal Legislation. She may decide to grant Blessings of Mercy to Senior Alien who is denied Blessings of Equal Treatment and Equal Protection. Her decision will determine status of Slavery, Serfdom, Involuntary Servitude and Forced Labor practiced in modern economic times with connivance of Congressional Laws that disregard Constitutional Principles.

Constitution of the United States is the document embodying principles on which American nation is governed. Since 1789, it is the Supreme Law of the Land, no other law, state constitution or statute, federal legislation, or executive order can operate in conflict with it. The Bill of Rights was added in 1791 to provide adequate guarantees of individual liberties. The 9th Amendment states that people retain any rights not specified in the U.S. Constitution. However, the U.S. Constitution did not secure the Blessings of Liberty to Slaves residing in United States. President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on January 01, 1863 abolished Slavery in the secessionist Southern states or Confederacy as a measure for suppressing rebellion and to deplete Southern manpower reserve in Slaves. The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ratified during 1865 prohibits Slavery but failed to fully ban Slavery.

Economic changes and modern employment practices have replaced the traditional agricultural Slave with the semifree Serf from whom an employer can exact labor and other services. Half-Free Serfdom, Half-Free Slavery, Half-Free Servitude, Half-Equal Labor conditions prevail in United States as work and services are provided by natives or aliens(Non-Immigrant workers) under umbrella of protection afforded by U.S. Labor Department. A native laborer or a person deemed to be a ‘Resident’ is “Free” to lawfully claim the right to property, wages, salary, or earnings from his work or labor. Alien or Non-Immigrant workers are not “Free” to lawfully claim their Retirement income benefits paid by Social Security Administration from earnings and contributions lawfully recovered from their wages, salary, or earnings under the provisions of Federal Insurance Contributions Act or FICA. Under the provisions of 9th and 13th Amendment to the US Constitution, Senior Alien requested for this hearing by Administrative Law Judge to ascertain his rights to equal rights and equal protection afforded by the Supreme Law of the Land.

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162, USA
SPECIALFRONTIERFORCE.ESTABLISHMENT22

FREE VS SLAVE. Hearing for Senior Alien at 19575 V ictor Parkway, Livonia, Michigan 48152.

				The Spirits of Special Frontier ForceAt Special Frontier Force, I host ‘The Living Tibetan Spirits’ to promote Tibet Awareness.
				View on www.facebook.com

BHARAT DARSHAN – THREE GREAT TEACHERS OF INDIA

There are three Indian Schools of Thought that share Vedic Wisdom and its practical applications in daily life. Adi Shankaracharya(c.788 – c.820), Ramanujacharya(c.1017 – c.1137), and Madhvacharya(c.1199 – c.1278) shared these Vedic truths derived from studying the same source materials like Vedas, Upanishads, Gita, and others. Shankara, exponent of ‘Advaita’ or Non-Dualism described The Theory of Maya or Grand Illusion, giving attention to true or real identity of man; an unchanging, immutable, immortal, eternal, and unborn reality that establishes human existence while the human being leads a mortal, transient existence depending on a body that undergoes change in appearance almost every day but for purposes of convenience is divided into three stages like childhood, adulthood, and old age. Shankara claims, in a changing world with natural phenomena, there is an unchanging principle governing all changing phenomena. Shankara describes the truth called “Grand Illusion” and explained the problem of transcending that illusion while man is afraid of his mortal existence and clings to illusion for reality seems to be overwhelming.

Ramanuja, exponent of ‘Visishtadvaita’ or Qualified Non-Dualism, while accepting man’s true identity as described by Shankara, he shows a path to transcend the barrier imposed by grand illusion; the path of devotion to seek union with a personal God. In his analysis, Ramanuja says, God is modified by the orders of Matter and Soul, just like the Soul or Spirit that gets modified because of its association with a living body. For man always exists as a specific Individual with Individuality with no other choice, and for man has no ability to get away from being an Individual with Individuality, God becomes modified into a Personal God. Even if six or more billion human beings choose to worship the same God, that God can only be known or experienced as personal God for man has only subjective experience of his existence while the objective experience of his existence is constantly changing under the external influences of time and space.

Madhva, exponent of ‘Dvaita’ or Dualism describes the five fundamental distinctions required for maintaining any existence. Every living entity has to separate itself from its surrounding matter and environment to perform its own living functions. There is no existence without this separation between animate and animate, and between animate and inanimate. At the same time Madhva maintains that transient and changing things are real. He goes further giving detailed reasoning as to why man has to surrender to the Supreme Being with no concern for finding or exploring some ultimate Truth. Man cannot save himself by discovering truth or reality, rather the truth and reality of man’s conditioned existence and world direct man to seek divine refuge or protection. Neither Coherence Theory of Truth, or Correspondence Theory of Truth formulate fundamental basis for human existence that gives man his subjective and objective experience of his living condition called “BEING.” Man literally has no choice other than surrendering himself and ask for protection, shelter, or take refuge described in Sanskrit as “SARANU.”

The truths or facts shared by man’s scientific discoveries cannot overcome the problem of man’s mortal existence. My essence, my ideas, my thoughts, my feelings, my imagination, and my knowing any kind of truth will be possible if and only if “I” exists as “I AM” and not as “I WAS” an entity that ceased its existence.

Science uses precise instruments to gather data, to make observations, and to verify information using experimental models. We are able to use this scientific method of inquiry as our tools, our instruments, and the scientific observer do not experience reality of Earth’s angular, or linear velocity. As such, man and instruments placed on planet Earth do not have ability to overcome the power of Fundamental Force called Gravitation. Man is able to think, imagine, and explore himself and this world and universe for he has unknowingly submitted himself to an authority that governs his physical existence at any given instant in time and space. This nature of man’s conditioned experience can be experimentally verified by conducting a simple experiment in Physics called ‘Pencil in Water’ optical illusion. The pencil appears bent at the interphase of air and water as man cannot overcome power of fundamental force called ‘LIGHT'(or electromagnetic radiation). While man has ability to manipulate the conditioned existence of pencil, remove it from water and verify truth about that pencil, he has no such ability to remove himself from his conditioned existence. Kindly tell me as to what will you do with truth if you know the truth. It is nice to know the rules of grammar, but it will not save man from predicament of mortal existence and Shankara aptly observed, “Nahi Nahi Rakshati Drukun karane.” Nothing can save man as scientific knowledge confirms that man cannot rule or govern cells of his own body for they are independent and enjoy functional autonomy.

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162, USA
BHAVANAJAGAT.ORG

				Bhavanajagat.orgBhavanaJagat is a private organization devoted to the study of man’s status in Nature.
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BHARAT DARSHAN – BHAGAVAN VED VYAS – AUTHOR OF GEETOPANISHAD

In Indian tradition, Ved Vyas is the legendary author of epic poem Mahabharat, Bhagavata Purana, and several other Puranas , son of Sage Parashara, and Satyavati. He is father of Sage Shuka, King Pandu, and Minister Vidura. He is great-grandson of Maharishi Vasishta, and grandson of Sage Shakti. Ved Vyas is a historical person, a contemporary of another legendary person known as Lord Krishna whom Indians worship. As per Indian tradition, Lord Krishna belongs to a time period or “YUG” called ‘DWAPAR YUG.” Apart from being a great poet, Ved Vyas is recognized as a great teacher, a spiritual guide, and a divine personality with exceptional creative writing abilities. He is often recognized as author of ‘GEETOPANISHAD’ for the divine song, ‘BHAGAVAD GITA’ distills the essence of Vedic Wisdom and presents it as useful guide to live daily life experiencing Peace, Harmony, and Tranquility.

In India, there was a suggestion or speculation about some unknown author, who may have inserted into epic poem Mahabharat, his/her poetical work( 700 verses) that most Indians recognize as “Bhagavad Gita” and given credit to Ved Vyas, original author of Mahabharat. It raises issues about identity of author and the methods that people use to know identity of any given person. In both Biology, and Medical Science, identification of individuals or individual entities is very important. Forensic Medicine deals with identification of unknown dead bodies. In common practice, man is recognized by his occupation or actions. A poet is identified by his/her poetical composition, the literary contents of work published.

I took time to study the concepts shared in Bhagavad Gita, and Bhagavata Purana and I could easily identify the similarities of views. In Bhagavad Gita, Lord Sri Krishna spoke to Prince Arjuna. In Bhagavata Purana, in a story popularly known as ‘PRAHLAD CHARITRA’ Demon King Hiranyakashipu spoke to grieving family members following death of his brother. Both of them use the same words and share same Vedic knowledge about life and death.

The poet who composed Bhagavad Gita knows concepts shared by Vedas and Upanishads. For example, we can compare ‘Parable of the Chariot’ or “Ratha Kalpana” of Katha Upanishad, Part III, verses 3 to 11 with Bhagavad Gita, Chapter III, verses 39 to 43. The author of Bhagavad Gita reconstructed Ratha Kalpana and presented his own version and there is subtle difference between those two concepts. I recognize Veda Vyas as author of Bhagavad Gita through literary analysis and by comparing views and concepts that appear in different works in different contexts. We can easily know identity of author by examining his work. To describe identity there is no requirement that I have to be a material witness by being physically present at the time of birth when biological mother delivers that person.

COMPARISON OF AMRITA BINDU UPANISHAD(KRISHNA YAJUR VEDA) AND BHAGAVAD GITA:

“Eka eva hi bhutatma bhute bhute vyavasthitah
ekadha bahudha caiva drsyate jala Chandravat.”(Verse # 12)

Being the One, the universal Soul is present in all beings, present in each individual living entity, and this One entity is viewed as several, different entities, just like reflection of (same) Moon seen in several pots of water.

“Sarva-bhutesu yenaikam bhavam avyayam iksate,
avibhaktam vibhaktesu taj jnanam viddhi sattvikam.”(Bhagavad Gita, Chapter XVIII, Verse #20)

The knowledge of one who sees in every living entity, though divided into innumerable forms, one undivided spiritual nature, that knowledge is to be understood as being in the mode of Goodness. Just like the verse from Amrita Bindu Upanishad, this verse speaks about one single reality pervading all existence.

COMPARISON OF KATHA UPANISHAD(RATHA KALPANA) AND BHAGAVAD GITA:

“atmanam rathinam viddhi,
sariram ratham eva tu,
buddhim tu Saradhim viddhi
manah pragraham eva ca;
indriyani hayan ahur
visayams tesu gocaran
atmendriya-mano-yuktam
bhoktety ahur manisinah.” (Katha Upanishad, Part III, Sadhana, Verses# 3 &4)

Know the Atman(Self) as the Master or Lord of the chariot, and the body as the chariot, know also the intellect to be the driver and mind as reins. The senses are called the horses, the sense objects are the roads; when the Atman is united with body, senses and mind, then the Wise call Him the Enjoyer.

These describe hierarchy, various levels of functional control in a complex system that has different parts like body, organs of sense perception, mind, intellect, and a Master who enjoys because of functional Unity and Harmony of organizational units. In a chariot driven by horses, reins are used as a means of guiding, controlling, checking, or restraining horses. The driver uses reins to control horses to slow them down or stop or to allow them to run at full speed without restraint if required.

“Indriyani mano buddhir asyadhisthanam ucyate
etair vimohayaty esa jnanam avrtya dehinam.”(Bhagavad Gita, Chapter III, Verse #40)

It is declared that the senses, the mind, and the intelligence are the stronghold of this sensual desire(‘Kama’), covering one’s discrimination this enemy called sensual desire deludes the living entities.

“tasmat tvam indriyany adau niyama bharatarsabha
papmanam prajahi hy enam jnana-vijnana nasanam.”(Bhagavad Gita, Chapter III, Verse#41)

Therefore O’ Arjuna, first you must bring the senses under control and directly destroy this sensual desire(‘Kama’), which is embodiment of sin and the destroyer of knowledge and self-realization.

“indriyani parany ahur indriyebhyah param manah,
manasas tu para buddhir yo buddheh paratas tu sah.”(Bhagavad Gita, Chapter III, Verse#42)

It is declared, the senses are superior(than insensible matter) but more than the senses, the mind is superior, but more than the mind the intelligence is superior, and more than the intelligence that which is superior is the individual consciousness(Atma).

“evam buddheh param buddhva samstabhyatmanam atmana
jahi satrum maha-baho kama-rupam durasadam.”(Bhagavad Gita, Chapter III, Verse#43)

Thus knowing the individual consciousness(Atma) to be superior to the intelligence, O’ mighty armed one, steady the mind by self-realization and conquer this insatiable enemy which presents in the form of sensual desire(Kama).

Bhagavad Gita distills wisdom of Upanishads and conveys knowledge that is of practical value and can be used as daily living guide. While Bhagavad Gita avoids analogy of charoit, the author uses the same concept to guide readers to learn The Art of Self-Discipline, a training that develops self-restraint, self-control to shape character and personal conduct that promote orderliness and efficiency in any given field of human activity or work performance.

If I have the intellectual capacity to compose 700 poems and insert them into work done by another person, I will not stop writing. I will be driven by the same creative zeal to compose more poems and keep publishing my works using my name or another name. Bhagavad Gita exposes identity of a literary genius at work, and very few people have such creative writing ability. If any of my readers have doubts about identity of Ved Vyas; you may have to support your view citing literary works of comparable merit and make claim that a different author made insertion of his/her work giving credit to Ved Vyas.

Bhagavad Gita refers to Kurukshetra battlefield as “DHARMA KSHETRA” and the concern of its author is about values, the battle between good and evil. Secondly, the conversation on the battlefield begins with Prince Duryodhana speaking to his guru Dronacharya. Here, the author is carefully suggesting that battle is not decided by relative strengths of parties engaged in war. Prince Duryodhana made an estimate of strength of Pandava Camp and was impressed by strength of Kaurava Camp. But, the author’s concern is about ‘DHARMA’ or right actions and the ultimate success of right over might. Sanjaya was a disciple of author Veda Vyas and the author used his poetic imagination and freedom to confer a special ability to his student to know his thoughts as reflected in battlefield dialogue.

HYMNS IN PRAISE OF MAHARISHI VED VYAS:

Krishna Dwaipayanam Vyasam, sarva loka hite ratam,
Vedabja Bhaskaram Vande Shamdadi nilayam munim.

Vyasaya Vishnu rupaya, Vyasa rupaya Vishnave
Namo vai Brahmanidhaye, Vasishtaya Namo NamaH.

Vyasam Vasishta naptaram, ShakteH poutra makalmasham
Parasaratmajam, Vande Shuka taponidhim.

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162, USA
BHAVANAJAGAT.ORG

				Bhavanajagat.orgBhavanaJagat is a private organization devoted to the study of man’s status in Nature.
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BHARAT DARSHAN – SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF MOTHER INDIA

I am pleased to share the following stories on sons and daughters of Mother India which gives a sense of pride and joy to know about them.

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162, USA
BHAVANAJAGAT.ORG

				Bhavanajagat.orgBhavanaJagat is a private organization devoted to the study of man’s status in Nature.
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ॐ

यो मां पश्यती सर्वत्र सर्वं च: मयि पश्यती
तस्याहम न प्रणश्यामी स: च मे न प्रणश्यति

“He who sees me everywhere, and sees everything in Me, he never gets separated from Me, nor do I get separated from him”
-Bhagwat Geetha Ch. VI verse 30

7 IAS Officers Who Paid A Tough Price For Being Honest & Fighting Corruption

Shubhi DixitAug 31
“Honesty is the best policy.”
We have grown up learning this from our elders. Moral science, if you may. However, in the present world, picking one side from black and white is not feasible. Most of us live in the shades of grey. Why? Because we are practical people who would not risk our lives going in the extremes.
Unlike most of us, the ones who decide to tread the path of honesty saw a tough time. They are smart, intelligent, and educated people. Yet in the real world, it takes more than that to be able to bring a change. Especially when the ones you are fighting are the ones who are supposed to be on your side.
Here’s a story of 7 IAS officers, stood for a cause, fought the system, and ended up paying a tough price themselves:

1. Durga Shakti Nagpal

DURGA SHAKTI NAGPAL, IAS.,

This 28-year-old’s name made a frequent appearance in the news channels in the year 2013. Sadly it was not for the good work that she was doing as a Sub-divisional Magistrate in Uttar Pradesh, but for her stern actions taken against sand mining in the banks of river Yamuna. According to a news report by Mid-day, her crackdown on sand mining was a setback for some political leaders in UP. As a result she was suspended on the grounds that she demolished a mosque wall leading to communal violence. However, no violence was reported in the region. Later, as reported by TOI, her husband Abhishek Singh, who was the SDM in Mathura district, was suspended for inhuman treatment of a subordinate. No details were given in the case. After a series of nation-wide protests and criticization of Akhilesh Yadav government, Durga’s suspension was revoked. She has no been given a ‘harmless’ position as a ‘Officer on Special Duty’ in the agriculture department.

2. DK Ravi

D K RAVI, IAS.,

This IAS officer lived the life Bollywood base their heroes on. Firstpost reports that while he was stationed at Kolar in Karnataka, he was widely popular among the people for being available for them 24×7. He helped them resolve their problems and even participated in their folk festivals. He put a curb on the illegal sand mining that happened in the area and very soon he was transferred to Bengaluru. Since he was more popular in Kolar than many local politicians there, appeals were made to cancel his transfer. While being stationed in Bengaluru, he detected service tax evasion worth Rs 120 crores by many renowned firms. As soon as the news broke out, it is said that he committed suicide. Since there was no motive for this happy-go-lucky officer to end his life, it is being questioned that he was murdered. But who was behind it is still a mystery?

3. Ashok Khemka

ASHOK KHEMKA, IAS.,

His good work has earned him the title of a whistleblower officer. You decide if it is a compliment or an insult. His name became a favorite with the news channels after he his efforts lead to cancellation of an illegal deal between Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law, Robert Vadra and DLF. Firstpost reports that soon after the fishy activities were brought into the news, he was transferred from his department to the transport department. Recently in April, he has again been transferred from the transport department to the department of archaeology and museums. Even though he was transferred in just 128 days, the officials called it a ‘routine exercise.’ Till date, he has been transferred 45 times in 23 years. He was supported by politicians from various political parties such as Anil Vij from BJP and Dushyant Chautala from INLD though later it became clear that they were just making him a pawn in their political games. Ashok Khemka tweeted after his last transfer saying, “tried hard to address corruption and bring reforms in transport despite severe limitations and entrenched interests. Moment is truly painful.”

4. Yashwanth Sonwane

YASHWANTH SONWANE, IAS.,

Being posted as the Additional District Collector in Malegaon, Maharashtra, Yashwanth Sonwane did his level best curb illegal activities and corruption. Conducting 200 raids in under a week, he counterfeited 180 cases of oil smuggling and adulteration. NDTV reports that he was burnt alive by an oil mafia ally named Popat Shinde in Manmad, Maharashtra. Shinde was reportedly working with the oil mafia for over 30 years and Sonwane’s action were causing him and his allies major losses. Before his death, Sonwane had seized 4,000 litres of kerosene and 3,000 litres of petrol from Shinde’s dhaba. Sadly, the price that he had to pay for his honesty and good work was his own life.

5. Shanmugan Manjunath

SHANMUGAM MANJUNATH, IAS.,

Like Yashwant, Manjunath who was an IIM graduate also had to face death in his fight against the corrupt. He was an officer with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and was stationed in Lucknow, UP. He had sealed a petrol pump in Lakhimpur Kheri in UP for selling adulterated petrol. After a month when the pump was functional again, he paid a surprise visit to the pump and was shot dead on the spot with 6 bullets. The Hindu reports that the main culprit Monu Mittal was given the death penalty while 7 others who were involved were punished with a life sentence. A trust was also set up in his name by the IIM students and IOC compensated his family with Rs 2.6 millions. However, no amount of money or punishment can bring back an honest officer who lost his life for just doing his job.

6. Muggdha Sinha

MUGGDHA SINHA, IAS.,

India Today reports that Muggdha Sinha, who was the first woman collector of Jhunjhunu district in Rajasthan, was transferred because of the actions she took against the local mafia. During her tenure in Rajasthan which only lasted till September 2010, she soon became a favorite among the locals. She was like a saviour for them. After her transfer people came out in huge support to revoke her transfer but it did not happen. She later joined as Ganganagar collector. While departing, she left with the statement, “I had not come to the district for serving a select few, but the common man. If this had annoyed the powers that be, I couldn’t help it.”

7. Samit Sharma

SAMIT SHARMA, IAS.,

Samit Sharma is a well-respected man in Rajasthan. He is known as an honest officer among his colleagues and the public. India Today reports that in spite of his good image, he was shunted out in from the post of collector of Chittorgarh in 2010 over a trivial issue. He was asked to fire his clerk who failed to stand up when a Congress MLA entered the office. As a result, he was asked to fire the clerk which he refused to do. As many as 12,000 people went on a mass leave to protest against this government action but the government was callous over the issue and nothing changed. Later in a shuffling that took place in 2014, he was appointed as Commissioner in Invest Bureau, in Rajasthan.
Just because their journeys were tough, doesn’t mean we lose hope and leave the cause. If we all give up, nothing is ever going to improve. If you want to bring about a change, learn from their mistakes, and make them proud by doing something they fought for.

As they say, “be the change you want to be.” Geetha Ch. VI verse 30

BHARAT DARSHAN – ILLUMINATION OF INTELLECT – GAYATRI MAHA MANTRA

What is Intelligence?

Intelligence is the cognitive or knowing component that is distinct from affective(emotional), or motivational(drive) components of human behavior. Intelligence includes over 120 specific abilities, highly varied although overlapping skills, and does not describe a single faculty. Many people view Intelligence as a faculty possessed by higher organisms that have abilities of perception, cognition, responsiveness, communication, awareness, and consciousness for they associate intelligence with specialized functions performed by nervous system and organs like brain. However, such a view of intelligence as a mental function or neurological function is not a comprehensive view.
Biology is about studying cells as blocks of life and knowing life at molecular level. Cognitive Science is giving attention to cognitive abilities of living cells, and cells use molecules to identify other living cells, use cognitive ability to identify molecules with which they interact. Viruses, bacteria, and protozoa(unicellular organisms like Malarial parasite) have cognitive abilities, have memory power, acquire knowledge, possess knowledge, and use knowledge to adapt to changing external environmental conditions. In other words, they behave like ‘intelligent’ living entities. We cannot ignore their ‘intelligence’ as it poses a direct challenge to human existence. Millions of human beings lost their lives prematurely because of these simple organisms that use knowledge and information to evade detection and to defeat immunological system that keeps body under constant surveillance to defend it from foreign pathogens or disease-causing agents. While ‘AIDS’ virus alone killed millions of people all over the world, man is still trying his best to fight this virus making a huge effort that involves both time, money, and careful research. Viruses, bacteria, and parasites like Malaria acquire drug resistance for they have ability to recognize these chemical molecules that block their living functions or metabolic pathways. Millions have perished in epidemics caused by influenza and others while vaccines or immunization may provide some relief. Even in the best of hospitals all over the world, patients are dying on account of drug-resistant pathogens or infections which have no easy treatment as they overwhelm body’s protective mechanisms.

Non-living matter has no intelligence. Intelligence exists in all living entities. Physical systems do not apply intelligence in their own operations unless the system is designed by an intelligent entity. For that reason, intelligence has to be viewed as ability to exploit Laws of Natural Science for material benefit of the living, intelligent entity.

Indian tradition guides us to think of ‘intelligence’ as a special ability imparted by God to help living entities to exist by exploiting matter, energy, and other living things present in external environment. The concern is about the ‘source’ or ’cause’ of this intelligence. All of us can view these viruses, bacteria, and protozoa using instruments like microscopes. When you view and obtain photo images, you cannot find any kind of material evidence to suggest that they may have intelligence. But, we have to realize that the most common cause of death in old age is not that of deterioration caused by aging process. Most elderly simply die on account of infections like pneumonia that compromises vital function like respiration.

In my understanding, Gayatri Maha Mantra invokes blessings of LORD GOD Creator(“SAVITA”), the source of Knowledge and Intelligence implanted or innate to living entities. Gayatri Mantra can be used day and night, at any time, as man’s existence faces constant challenges from both known and unknown directions at any given instant. A healthy brain, healthy neurological system boosts up man’s immune system and keeps it vigilant and energetic at all times. I would recommend seeking blessings of Gayatri Mantra before going to sleep as man cannot avoid night and the activity called resting period. As you all know, there is no Sunrise, there is no Sunset, and Sun or “Savitur” shines at all times with same intensity. Sunrise and Sunset are phenomena caused by a powerful influence called ‘grand illusion’ or ‘MAYA’. Reflecting, meditating, remembering, or chanting of Gayatri Mantra transcends the influence of illusion that obstructs man’s perception of his source of Knowledge and Intelligence.

WHAT IS INNATE KNOWLEDGE?

Knowledge is of two kinds; 1. Innate Knowledge, and 2. Acquired or Learned Knowledge. Our concern is not about acquired or learned knowledge which involves a learning process, a knowing process, a cognitive process to process new information. In Science, biological information or genetic information is thought of ‘Innate Knowledge’ as living things primarily depend upon this source of information to perform guided, sequential, goal-oriented, and purposeful actions. Similarly all actions or behavior exhibited by living things are of two kinds; 1. Innate Behavior, and 2. Acquired Behavior.

The most important characteristic that helps to make distinction between living and non-living, or between animate and inanimate is called ‘consciousness’ or ‘chetana in Sanskrit language. There is a fundamental dualism as matter can be sensible or insensible. Consciousness is a biological function, a living function by which a living entity knows the fact of its own living condition separated from an external environment. The knowledge that imparts ‘consciousness’ is not the same as genetic information inherited by transmission of hereditary characteristics. Genetic or biological information is species-specific and during reproduction, each species breeds true to its own species as per the Law of Biogenesis. Consciousness is a characteristic shared by all living things or is common to all living beings. Consciousness originates because of ‘implanted knowledge’ and it can be described as ,maternal inheritance or cytoplasmic inheritance that is not related to genes or chromosomes.

Kindly reflect on these two verses from ‘Aitareya Upanishad'( Commentary on Rig Veda) and its statement, “PRAJNANAM BRAHMA.”

Ye nekshate sruno teedam, jighrati vyakaroti ca
Swadva Swadu vijaanati, tat Prajnana mudeeritam.

Chaturmukhendra Deveshu, Manushya asva gava deshuh
Chaitanya me ekam Brahma tah, Prajnanam Brahma mayyapi.

‘Atman’, Spirit, or Soul is associated with this biological function called ‘consciousness’ or ‘CHETANA’ and makes difference between life and death. In common practice, we announce the fact of physical death as ‘soul departed’. When man or living entity dies, we can always diagnose the fact of death by scientific observation and tests and issue death certificate without any doubt. Even when a person is unconscious or in deep coma, still we can recognize the difference between life and death by conducting tests and eliciting conscious, reflex actions.

Gayatri Maha Mantra gives an opportunity to explore the Divine Source of Energy, Force, or Power that is manifested as Life, Consciousness, Intelligence and Knowledge, characteristic possessions of Living entities.

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada,
Ann Arbor, MI, USA 48104-4162.
BHAVANAJAGAT.ORG

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LIGHT OF LIGHTS – “TAT ASMI PRABHO” – FIFTH MAHA VAKYA – “PANCHAMA MAHA VAKYA” DISCOVERED BY DR. SARVEPALLI ANANTHA PADMANABHA RAO:

Dr. Sarvepalli Anantha Padmanabha Rao, M.S., distilled the wisdom of Vedas, and Upanishads by discovering  “Panchama Maha Vakya” or 5th Great Aphorism that states “TAT ASMI PRABHO.”  India’s great teacher Adi Shankaracharya composed a single verse, “EKA SHLOKI” in Sanskrit to capture essence of the “FOUR MAHA VAKYAS”, Upanishadic Aphorisms. Dr. Sarvepalli went ahead to encapsulate Knowledge and Wisdom or ‘UPADESHA’ of Great Guru Shankara in one short, brief, and precise statement which in Indian tradition can be called the ‘Fifth or Panchama Maha Vakya’.

I am pleased to share an article titled “Light of Lights” published by Dr. Sarvepalli Anantha Padmanabha Rao, M.S. who served for many years as Professor of Surgery, and as Director of Medical Education in the Government of Andhra Pradesh Medical and Health Services. It is important to know the views shared by the traditional thinkers of India. Indian Schools of Thought such as “ADVAITA”(NON-DUALISM) have formulated their theories about true or real essence of man or “SELF”(ATMAN) that may have independent existence while it is totally detached from the Body, and Mind of its thinker. While MYSTICISM is a part of various religious traditions, I am asking my readers to seek “WHOLE ILLUMINATION” by investigating and by exploring the basis for man’s existence in the natural world. Any such explanation, or clarification would  conclude and assert that man needs association, connection, partnership, relationship, bonding, cooperation, assistance, patronage, or UNITY with a source of ENERGY that exists in the man’s external environment. Man cannot maintain fact or reality of his physical existence without Unity( or “ASMI” in Sanskrit) with LORD GOD Creator called “PRABHU.” Dr. Sarvepalli described this underlying unity from his analysis of Shankara’s statement, “Tat Asmi PrabhO.” Further, using introspection, meditation, or contemplative prayer man can illuminate his “Inner World” and seek “Inner Vision”, a vision or illumination that describes the Identity of man’s true or real “SELF'(ATMAN) and its perfect, complete, and wholesome Divine Nature.

THE PHENOMENON OF ILLUMINATION – THE PHENOMENON OF KNOWING:

The term illumination describes lighting or light. It is often used as the act or process of making something clearer or brighter or as a device for doing so. The word ‘illuminating’ or ‘illuminated’ is often applied to a clarification or explanation that sheds light on a subject that needs careful interpretation of information. In Physics, illumination is about intensity of light per unit of area; the luminous flux per unit area at any point on a surface exposed to incident light. It is also called ‘ILLUMINANCE’. However, in Biology, the phenomenon of Illumination requires study of Optics, Photoreception, and Photochemistry. The biological processes that involve the response of a living thing to the Light stimulus need to be stated as Photochemical Reactions which could be energy dependent and involve use of chemical energy provided by molecules of Adenosine Triphosphate(ATP). The Phenomenon of ‘ILLUMINATION’ in Biology requires operation of three conditions; 1. The Source of Light or Lighting, 2. The Object that is Illuminated, and 3. The Observer who has Sensory Perception called Vision, or ability called Photoreception to acknowledge the phenomenon that is observed. Using the nature of photochemical reaction that is observed, living things can be broadly classified into two kinds; 1. Plants that respond to Light stimulus to trap its radiant Energy but have no Sensory Perception called Vision, and 2. Animals(man included) that have Sensory Perception called Vision but do not have ability to trap the Light  Energy. For human existence, we need all those three conditions, 1. The Sun as the Source of Light, 2. The Plants that trap the radiant energy of Sunlight using their ability called Photoreception, and 3. The man or Purusha who uses ability called Sensory Perception or Vision and interprets that Light is God. For man is a rational being, he investigates to find the Source of Light that establishes Sun as a luminous, radiant, celestial object.

The above picture image of a verse from Brihadaranyak Upanishad 4:5:11 helps us to understand nature of vital function known as Breathing and Respiration which is the physiological mechanism that man uses to oxidize food substances and derive energy which he further uses for his physical and mental work. If Vedas and Holy Scriptures are seen as the Source of knowledge, transmission of that Knowledge involves the use of Breathing. If “Knowing” is compared to the phenomenon of ‘ILLUMINATION’, the act of Knowing will only be possible if there is Unity between God, the Source of Knowledge, Knower, the Individual called JEEVA who performs all his living functions because of  Knowledge implanted in his substance that makes him a Sentient or Sensible thing, to establish him as the “Knowing-Self.” The natural phenomenon of Life and Living can be defined as ‘Knowledge in Action’. In Indian tradition the “SELF” or “ATMAN” is source of Inner Light that illuminates entire human body. I am suggesting that the Light called SELF or ATMAN illuminates by making it possible for man to maintain his connection with an external source of energy present in the environment. After having established his living condition or living state, man may find perfect Identity with God through the process called Inner Vision, Introspection, Meditation, or Contemplative Prayers with an attitude of “Whole Detachment” or separation from all things present in the external world. I like Dr. Sarvepalli’s  presentation “LIGHT OF LIGHTS” for it nicely explains the thoughts of Shankara. The Fifth Maha Vakya, “TAT ASMI PRABHO” emerges at end of his analysis of Shankara’s interpretation of the Four Maha Vakyas or Upanishadic Aphorisms. It simply describes the Unity(ASMI) between man(TAT) and the LORD(PRABHU) without which there is no human existence.  Man’s ability of Sensory Perception called Vision, and ability of Inner Vision are of secondary importance as Existence depends directly on the act of Breathing and the LORD or PRABHU is that source of Knowledge used in performing living function of Breathing.

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162, USA
BHAVANAJAGAT.ORG

LIGHT OF LIGHTS

Light illumines manifold objects in varying degrees of darkness; that is its property. Sources of such light may be external or internal to us. Examples of the former class are well-known, such as Sun, moon, fire, various kinds of lamps etc; The latter class, the internal, would be the psychic apparatus of man, comprising the sense organs, intelligence, intuition and above all the transcendental ‘Oversoul’ of R W Emerson the American philosopher. Vedanta too subscribes to such a transcendental super-conscious entity, illumining all, comprehending all and all-encompassing supreme Brahman. Flashes of intuition reveal discoveries which remain obscure prior to such overpowering experiences. Archimedes, crying out ‘eureka – eureka’ and Newton, when the apple fell and the law of gravitation revealed are instances of such intuitions . A deeper mental cloud prevents one from knowing who one exactly is in the ultimate analysis.

There is, in Greek mythology, a river named ‘Lethe’ whose waters, when drunk, would make the drinker profoundly forgetful.. One would forget, who one was, the ‘whence and wherefore’ of one’s own very self. A great philosopher likened our human predicament, to such a state of congenital amnesia, in which we lost our moorings, our “original innocence” as it were. Nescience is the technical term used for this state of primordial ignorance, which is said to cover one’s wisdom, ‘like smoke shrouds the fire or as dust sullies a mirror or as the womb envelops an embryo’ as th bhagavadgiitaa puts it. This is the ultimate darkness which needs for its dispelling, no less a light than that of the ‘Lord’, quoted in the GITA chapterXI-12 ever so stunningly – “if the light of a thousand suns were to blaze forth in the sky all at once, that might resemble the splendour of that exalted Being” – nothing short of an ‘apocalypse’, as it were, a revelation, of something not previously known or realized. Oppenheimer, the nuclear physicist, whose name is associated with the first atom bomb and who was a witness to its detonation.was so awe-struck at the sight that this line of the gItA chapter XI-32 flamed in his mind ” I am the full-blown, the all-destroying Time “. It was an indubitable intimation from the depths of his being and not much later, his intuitive insight was proved right, by the nuclear holocaust, the mayhem and the destruction at Hiroshima and Nagasaki it was cataclysmic in proportion.

To Sankara, that transcendental spiritual genius, is ascribed a one-stanza poem, by name, ‘ekashlokI’. In it, is encapsulated the pith, quintessence of the celebrated “mahAvAkya’s or the four great Vedic statements, called as such in the Advaita Vedanta. They are culled one from each of the four Vedas those statements or rather ‘truths’ are:

a) ” praGYAnam Brahma, (Rigveda) pristine consciousness is Brahman.

b) ayam aatmaa Brahma (Atharva veda) – consciousness in all its apparent transformations is Brahman,

c) “tat tvam asi” (Samaveda)- You are, in essence, that consciousness, the eternal nitya, the unsullied shuddha, the fully awakened buddha, and unfettered – mukta ; the corollary follows that you are not the ignorant embodied jiiva, which you imagine you are.

d) (“aham Brahma asmi ” (Yajurveda) I am indeed that all-encompassing consciousness.

It is with considerable trepidation that I have dared to translate the ‘mahaavaakya’s for fear that they may suffer the ‘noble transmutation from gold to lead’, in the process.

The order in which they are recounted here is not the temporal order in which they occur in the Veda but they seem, to me, to be the order adopted by Sankara in this small ‘upadesha’ work, namely, the ekashlokii ’ As will become clear in the sequel, what is attempted here is not a word-for-word translation of the Sanskrit texts, not even a paraphrase but rather an unfolding of the traditional thought couched in the highly compressed poem.

Before reproducing the Sanskrit verse, a short anecdotal account of the poignant scenario in which it is set, would be well in order, One might be tempted to ask ‘why only one verse-an ‘ekashlokI? Had not Sankara composed his shatashlokI of hundred verses and his upadesha sAhasrI of thousand teachings ? After all, what were the extenuating circumstances? As though in answer to such questions, a story is recounted thus: Sankara, on one of his peregrinations, chanced upon a spiritual aspirant who was in the throes of death. bemoaning his fate of his having ro die before he could get his ‘beatitude’. The compassionate master had empathy with the man’s plight and knowing well the shruti declaration that “he who departs from this world without realising the ‘axara‘, the Imperishable entity, is a veritable wretch a ‘kRRipaNa“, the master devised for him the shortest discourse and the ‘ekashlokI was the result. The verse was composed in a frisky meter named ‘shArdUla vikrIditam’ which has four quarters of 19 syllables each, to enable him to pack all the punch at his command, in a single stanza. This imaginative story illustrates the truth that, when an exceptional master and a pupil desperately thirsting for the ‘saving wisdom’ come together, spiritual enlightenment can not be far behind.

The poem runs as follows :-

kiMjyotistavabhAnumAnahanimeraatraupradiipAdikaM.

syAdevaMravidIpadarshanavidhaukiMjyotirAkhyaahi me.

cakShustasyanimiilanAdisamayekiMdhiirdhiyodarshane.

kiMtatrAhamatobhavAnparamakamjyotistadasmiprabho.

Unless the composition is split up at the right places, it would seem baffling at the first sight, to a beginner. The piece is in the form of a catechism or what in modern pedagogy would be called a ‘one on one’ interactive session. There are five question-answer pairs, one affirmation and one authoritative live-wire exhortation of the teacher and a final total concurrence, by the disciple, after his instant transformation. We shall now proceed with what may, euphemistically, be termed an exegesis of the verse. As will be seen in the sequel, what is attempted here is not a word-to-word rendering in to English, nor even a mere paraphrasing of the work; it is rather an attempt to enter to, and to bring out the traditional import of this Vedantic composition, to the extent my limited faculties permit. Much pertinent digression from the text has been indulged in, in the exposition.

The break up of the verse, is as follows :-

Q 1 :kim jyotih tava ? – what is your illuminator? By this question, the teacher is trying to ascertain a ‘baseline’, as it were, of the pupil’s understanding so as to lead him thence to higher levels. This was a well established methodology of spiritual instruction in the days of yore. It may be noted here that the question is a general one with no adjuncts of time or place specified. The student however thinks the question pertains to daytime and to things within his visual range.

A: bhhaanumaan ahani me – The daylight of the Sun sir. This answer establishes that the seeker has his vision riveted on the external objects – the out-going vision, the so-called ‘paraak pasyati’ concept of the KaThopaniShad.

Q 2 : raatrau ? what after Sun-down ? what illumines then ?

A: pradiipa aadikam– light of the various kinds of lamps which includes illumination from the moonlight, bonfires, lighted torches et cetera; it may be noted that the field being covered is still the outer world.

Affirmation : syaad evam. rightly so my dear; here the guru seems to be saying to himself “ Oh my! your answers are correct as far as they go; but they do not go very far. Here is the next question:

Q 3 Ravi diipa darshana vidhau kim jyotih ? Akhyaahi me – Now tell me what enables you to visualize the objects so illumined by the Sun, the lamps etc.Here the preceptor is shifting focus from the outer to the inner world of the mind. Even the sun, the lamps etc. stand in relation of visible objects to the perceiving eye.

A: caxuH– “My eye, sir, is the perceiving light in this context” Now the student is made to understand the eye as the window to his inner cognitive apparatus – the mind.

Q4 : tasya nimiilana adi samaye ? If your eyes are shut, what then? The reasons for the shut-down may be many; one may choose to turn a blind eye like Nelson or to give a more noble example, one may actually be blind like Helen Keller. ‘ The word aadi’ in the Sanskrit original in the above question may include a legion instances The guru is taking the student in to deeper waters here, to turning his mind’s eye inward and enable him to watch the gyrations of his own mind

A: dhiiH, sir, it is my intellect that provides me the illumination necessary for my purposes, I can think thoughts that would navigate the scenes for me

Q 5: dhiyaH darshane (kim) ? you are right again my son! But thought is like a spring or a fountain. There must be some faculty to get to its mainspring its source as it were What ultimate light is it that stands as a ‘witness’ or ‘sAxI’ as it is technically termed, to your cognitive equipment?

A: ‘tatra aham ’ sir, Shorn of the baggage of all acquired accretions, appurtenances and appearances – in short, of all objective super-impositions I stand in all my majestic aloofness, and isolation (kaivalya). as ‘Myself’.

The great spiritual warrior in Sankara has finally drawn the bitterest foe of his pupil -‘the beginning-less spiritual ignorance’ to the edge of the precipice. with a view to pushing it over to its final annihilation. With a solemn and apocalyptic, coup de maître – a masterstroke, he is going to deliver the final push the student would be led to his beatitude meaning perfect blessedness or happiness. In devising this stepwise instruction Sankara has trodden the path of the ancient sages, established for ages. The famous dialogue between the sage YaaGYavalkya and Janaka the king in the BRRihadaaranyaka Upanishad chapter iv-3, the kaTha Upanishad III-10 as also the Bhavadgiitaa chapter III-42 have laid down the same rising hierarchical levels of consciousness viz – sense objects, sense organs, intelligence, intellect and the highest of all the PuruSha- the non plus ultra, higher than Which there can be nothing. To use the those very Sanskrit words pregnant with proven meaning – proven to mystic seers of all creeds and climes in their deepest visions down the millennia – saa kaashThaa, saa paraa gatiH. THAT is the summum bonum the last post.

And what may that stupendous, staggering declaration be ? Let us see that in the next line:-

THE FINAL PUSH : ataH bhavaan paramakam jyotiH Therefore my child, you are verily that Light of lights, which the Vedanta asserts in stentorian voice and peremptory tone- tat tvam asi – THAT THOU ART . It is not the denoted dictionary meanings of the words of the scriptural testimony that will bring the peace that passes understanding but the inner experience of the truth which is transforming in nature.

The finish : tat asmi prabho !!! Oh my master I am indeed that Light of Lights because I have just experienced that ecstatic mystic state, by your bounteous grace. It is another matter that experience of that state can communicated in words only after descending somewhat from those Olympian heights. But at all events he has been raised to that dizzy altitude of sage-hood, the memory of which shall stamp its hallmark on every thought word and deed ever-after.

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THE DISCOVERY OF HOMO NALEDI – EXPLANATION FOR MAN’S ARRIVAL ON EARTH

The discovery of a new hominin species in South Africa renews our interest in exploring origin of man. Each species breeds true to its own species and propagates genetic characteristics as per Mendel’s Laws of Inheritance. Our ability to identify a given species is possible because of reproductive history of each species. None of the members of prehuman family can descend into anatomically modern human species as there is no natural cause, there is no natural mechanism, there is no natural factor, there is no natural condition and there is no natural process that can account for such transformation of one species into a different kind of species.

Man’s arrival on planet Earth may have to be explained as a creative event until we can discover a natural operation that can change one species into another species.

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162, USA
BHAVANAJAGAT.ORG

 
NEW SPECIES IN HUMAN LINEAGE IS FOUND IN A SOUTH AFRICAN CAVE

THE NEW YORK TIMES

By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD 14 hrs ago

© AP Photo/Themba Hadebe A reconstruction of Homo naledi presented during the announcement made in Magaliesburg, South Africa, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2015. Acting on a tip from spelunkers two years ago, scientists in South Africa discovered what the cavers had only dimly glimpsed through a crack in a limestone wall deep in the Rising Star cave: lots and lots of old bones.

The remains covered the earthen floor beyond the narrow opening. This was, the scientists concluded, a large, dark chamber for the dead of a previously unidentified species of the early human lineage — Homo naledi.

The new hominin species was announced on Thursday by an international team of more than 60 scientists led by Lee R. Berger, an American paleoanthropologist who is a professor of human evolution studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. The species name, H. naledi, refers to the cave where the bones lay undisturbed for so long; “naledi” means “star” in the local Sesotho language.

In two papers published this week in the open-access journal eLife, the researchers said that the more than 1,550 fossil elements documenting the discovery constituted the largest sample for any hominin species in a single African site, and one of the largest anywhere in the world. Further, the scientists said, that sample is probably a small fraction of the fossils yet to be recovered from the chamber. So far the team has recovered parts of at least 15 individuals.
“With almost every bone in the body represented multiple times, Homo naledi is already practically the best-known fossil member of our lineage,” Dr. Berger said.

Besides introducing a new member of the prehuman family, the discovery suggests that some early hominins intentionally deposited bodies of their dead in a remote and largely inaccessible cave chamber, a behavior previously considered limited to modern humans. Some of the scientists referred to the practice as a ritualized treatment of their dead, but by “ritual” they said they meant a deliberate and repeated practice, not necessarily a kind of religious rite.

“It’s very, very fascinating,” said Ian Tattersall, an authority on human evolution at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, who was not involved in the research. “No question there’s at least one new species here,” he added, “but there may be debate over the Homo designation, though the species is quite different from anything else we have seen.”
A colleague of Dr. Tattersall’s at the museum, Eric Delson, who also is a professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York, was also impressed, saying, “Berger does it again!”

Dr. Delson was referring to Dr. Berger’s previous headline discovery, published in 2010, also involving cave deposits at the Cradle of Humankind site, 30 miles northwest of Johannesburg. He found many fewer fossils that time, but enough to conclude he was looking at a new species, which he named Australopithecus sediba. Geologists said the individuals lived 1.78 million to 1.95 million years ago, when australopithecines and early species of Homo were contemporaries.

Researchers analyzing the H. naledi fossils have not yet nailed down their age, which is difficult to measure because of the muddled chamber sediments and the absence of other fauna remains nearby. Some of its primitive anatomy, like a brain no larger than an average orange, Dr. Berger said, indicated that the species evolved near or at the root of the Homo genus, meaning it must be in excess of 2.5 million to 2.8 million years old. Geologists think the cave is no older than three million years.

The field work and two years of analysis for Dr. Berger’s latest discovery were supported by the University of the Witwatersrand, the National Geographic Society and the South African Department of Science and Technology/National Research Foundation. In addition to the journal articles, the findings will be featured in the October issue of National Geographic Magazine and in a two-hour NOVA/National Geographic documentary to air Wednesday on PBS.

Scientists on the discovery team and those not involved in the research noted the mosaic of contrasting anatomical features, including more modern-looking jaws and teeth and feet, that warrant the hominin’s placement as a species in the genus Homo, not Australopithecus, the genus that includes the famous Lucy species that lived 3.2 million years ago. The hands of the newly discovered specimens reminded some scientists of the earliest previously identified specimens of Homo habilis, who were apparently among the first tool makers.

At a news conference on Wednesday, John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, a senior author of the paper describing the new species, said it was “unlike any other species seen before,” noting that a small skull with a brain one-third the size of modern human braincases was perched atop a very slender body. An average H. naledi was about five feet tall and weighed almost 100 pounds, he said.

Tracy Kivell of the University of Kent, in England, an associate of Dr. Berger’s team, was struck by H. naledi’s “extremely curved fingers, more curved than almost any other species of early hominin, which clearly demonstrates climbing capabilities.”

William Harcourt-Smith of Lehman College of the City University of New York, a researcher at the American Museum of Natural History, led the analysis of the feet of the new species, which he said are “virtually indistinguishable from those of modern humans.” These feet, combined with its long legs, suggest that H. naledi was well suited for upright long-distance walking, Dr. Harcourt-Smith said.

In an accompanying commentary in the journal, Chris Stringer, a paleoanthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London, found overall similarities between the new species and fossils from Dmanisi, in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, dated to about 1.8 million years ago. The Georgian specimens are usually assigned to an early variety of Homo erectus.

THE SEARCH FOR SIMPLER HUMAN LINEAGE

The search for human lineage continues to bring us new evidence in the form of fossil discovery. Evolutionary biologists and palaeoanthropologists tend to describe their findings either as a new species or as a member of a known species. As more and more new species are discovered, the issue of human lineage gets very complex if man’s arrival on Earth has to be explained. A team of scientists involved in the study of hominid fossils discovered in Dmanisi, Republic of Georgia have noticed variations among the hominid fossils and yet concluded that they represent a single species for such individualistic variations are common even among anatomically modern humans.

In my view, individualistic variation is the rule or dictum that operates production of all kinds of living things. Identification of ‘Species’ based upon shared traits is useful for a ‘Species’ always breeds with another member of the same ‘Species’ to produce a new organism that may vary in appearance but shares several of hereditary traits of its biological parents. In other words, a creative mechanism, a creative operation, a creative principle and a creative process always ensures production of new, original, distinct, one of its own kind of Individual with Individuality using ‘The Law of Biogenesis’. Biodiversity may not be explained as consequence of ‘evolution’ in which an organism over period of time descends into a new organism or new ‘Species’.

While individualistic variation is the rule, it will not help us to simplify human lineage and suggest that anatomically modern human is delivered from the pelvis of “LUCY”(Australopithecus afarensis). Man can only be explained as a ‘new arrival’ for no other female ‘Hominid’ species had a pelvis designed for delivering a skull of size and shape that is characteristic of modern man.

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162, USA
BHAVANAJAGAT.ORG

THE NEW YORK TIMES

Skull Fossil Suggests Simpler Human Lineage

By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD OCT. 17, 2013

The 1.8-million-year-old skull was found during a dig in the Republic of Georgia. Credit Georgian National Museum

After eight years spent studying a 1.8-million-year-old skull uncovered in the Republic of Georgia, scientists have made a discovery that may rewrite the evolutionary history of our human genus Homo.

It would be a simpler story with fewer ancestral species. Early, diverse fossils those currently recognized as coming from distinct species like Homo habilis, Homo erectus and others may actually represent variation among members of a single, evolving lineage.

In other words, just as people look different from one another today, so did early hominids look different from one another, and the dissimilarity of the bones they left behind may have fooled scientists into thinking they came from different species.

This was the conclusion reached by an international team of scientists led by David Lordkipanidze, a paleoanthropologist at the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi, as reported Thursday in the journal Science.

A SIMPLER FAMILY TREE?

The key to this revelation was a cranium excavated in 2005 and known simply as Skull 5, which scientists described as the world’s first completely preserved adult hominid skull of such antiquity. Unlike other Homo fossils, it had a number of primitive features: a long, apelike face, large teeth and a tiny braincase, about one-third the size of that of a modern human being. This confirmed that, contrary to some conjecture, early hominids did not need big brains to make their way out of Africa.

An artist’s rendition of what the original owner of Skull 5 may have looked like. Credit J.H. Matternes

The discovery of Skull 5 alongside the remains of four other hominids at Dmanisi, a site in Georgia rich in material of the earliest hominid travels into Eurasia, gave the scientists an opportunity to compare and contrast the physical traits of ancestors that apparently lived at the same location and around the same time.

Dr. Lordkipanidze and his colleagues said the differences between these fossils were no more pronounced than those between any given five modern humans or five chimpanzees. The hominids who left the fossils, they noted, were quite different from one another but still members of one species.

Credit The New York Times

Had the braincase and the face of Skull 5 been found as separate fossils at different sites in Africa, they might have been attributed to different species, a co-author of the journal report, Christoph Zollikofer of the University of Zurich, said in a statement. Such was often the practice of researchers, using variations in traits to define new species.

Although the Dmanisi finds look quite different from one another, Dr. Zollikofer said, the hominids who left them were living at the same time and place, and so could, in principle, represent a single population of a single species. He and his Zurich colleague, Marcia Ponce de Lean, conducted the comparative analysis of the Dmanisi specimens.

Skull 5, which was discovered alongside the remains of four other hominids in Dmanisi, Georgia. Credit Courtesy of Guram Bumbiashvili, Georgian National Museum

Since we see a similar pattern and range of variation in the African fossil record, Dr. Zollikofer continued, it is sensible to assume that there was a single Homo species at that time in Africa. Moreover, he added, since the Dmanisi hominids are so similar to the African ones, we further assume that they both represent the same species.

But what species? Some team members simply call their finds early Homo.Others emphasized the strong similarities to Homo erectus, which lived between two million and less than one million years ago. Tim D. White, a paleoanthropologist at the University of California, Berkeley, called it the most primitive H. erectus yet known, noting that it is more similar than any other yet found to early Homo from eastern Africa, a group of hominids estimated to have lived 2.3 million years ago.

An aerial view of the Dmanisi excavation site (foreground) and a medieval town. Credit Fernando Javier Urquijo

All five of the skulls and skeletal bones were found in underground dens, suggesting grisly scenes from the perilous lives these early Homos led. They resided among carnivores, including saber-toothed cats and an extinct giant cheetah. All five of the individuals had probably been attacked and killed by the carnivores, their carcasses dragged into the dens for the after-hunt feast, with nothing left but dinner scraps for curious fossil hunters.

Dr. White and other scientists not involved in the research hailed the importance of the skull discovery and its implications for understanding early Homo evolution. In an article analyzing the report, Science quoted Ian Tattersall of the American Museum of Natural History in New York as saying that the skull is undoubtedly one of the most important ever discovered.
A few scientists quibbled that the skull looks more like Homo habilis or questioned the idea that fossils in Africa all belong to Homo erectus, but there was broad recognition that the new findings were a watershed in the study of evolution. As the most complete early Homo skull ever found, Dr. White wrote in an e-mail, it will become iconic for Dmanisi, for earliest Homo erectus and more broadly for how we became human.

Dr. White who has excavated hominid fossils in Ethiopia for years, said he was impressed with the total evidentiary package from the site that is the really good news story here. Further, he said, he hoped the discovery would now focus the debate on evolutionary biology beyond the boring lumpers vs splitters, a reference to the tendencies of fossil hunters to either lump new finds into existing species or split them off into new species.

In their report, the Dmanisi researchers said the Skull 5 individual “provides the first evidence that early Homo comprised adult individuals with small brains but body mass, stature and limb proportions reaching the lower range limit of modern variation.

Skeletal bones associated with the five Dmanisi skulls show that these hominids were short in stature, but that their limbs enabled them to walk long distances as fully upright bipeds. The shape of the small braincase distinguished them from the more primitive Australopithecus genus, which preceded Homo and lived for many centuries with Homo in Africa.

A version of this article appears in print on October 18, 2013, on page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Fossil May Rewrite Human Evolutionary History.

2015 The New York Times Company

SPIRITUALITY SCIENCE – SUICIDE AWARENESS MONTH:

September 10 is observed as World ‘Suicide Prevention Day’ and September is ‘Suicide Awareness Month’. To promote Suicide Awareness, I would like to promote awareness of Six Dimensions of Human Being. These dimensions are, 1. Man is a Created Being, and man is constituted as 2. Physical, Mortal Being, 3. Mental Being, 4. Social Being, 5. Moral Being, and 6. Spiritual Being.

Spirit or Soul is vital, animating principle that operates all living systems. Spirituality is about formulating interpersonal, and intrapersonal relationships based upon shared feelings of trust, respect, and commitment.

MAN’S PHYSICAL EXISTENCE   :     

If man is viewed as a multicellular human organism, we may have to ask ourselves the following question. Who or What is the subject that lives because of living functions of trillions of individual, independent cells? Man has to explore the biological basis for his existence in nature. The subjective reality of man’s physical existence is conditioned by his physical, mental, social, moral, and spiritual well-being.     

MENTAL HEALTH – THE MIND-BODY CONNECTION  :

 Mental health is an important component of total positive health when health is defined as not the mere absence of disease, but as a state of man’s physical, mental, social, moral, and spiritual well-being. Physical conditions and ailments affect mental well-being. Mental health and well-being could have important consequences affecting the physical, and social well-being of the man and may even threaten his ability to maintain the biological integrity to survive as a human organism. Mental health is defined as the capacity in an individual to form harmonious relations with others and to participate in or contribute constructively to changes in the social environment. A living organism has a tendency to maintain normal internal stability by coordinated responses that automatically compensate for environmental changes. Claude Bernard had explained this concept of ‘milieu interieur’ as that of “all the vital mechanisms, varied as they are, have only one object; that of preserving constant the conditions of life.” This concept of homeostasis, maintenance of stability and equilibrium is applicable to man’s existence within a social group. A living thing maintains its individuality while being a member of a social group. Mental equilibrium, and mental tranquility is needed to maintain internal stability and for developing harmonious relationships with others present in the social environment. The different constituent parts of one’s personality should work in harmony so that an individual faces life situations rationally, successfully, and happily. The aim of the positive mental health care is to strengthen and develop well-integrated personality by influencing the behavioral pattern of the individual so that psychological situations are controlled by the individual in a logical, and rational manner. The individual while facing challenging life situations must arrive at solutions without disrupting the physical, mental, or social well-being. Mental health comprises the well-being of the intellectual and the emotional components of the mind. The intellectual breakdown of the individual deprives him of logical and rational thinking. The decisions taken will be faulty if the individual is not capable of logical and rational thinking. Such faulty decisions tend to affect the individual’s well-being. Intellectual breakdown is always accompanied by emotional breakdown. Emotional imbalance affects individual’s reactions. The individual may show inability to cope with life situations. The inability to withstand the strain and stress of the life situations could affect the physical well-being of the individual. The aim of this presentation is to understand the nature of man’s essence and existence in the physical world and to use that information to prevent the problem of suicide.     

STRESS AND STRESS RESISTANCE  :     

Resistance against mental and emotional breakdown is built up by the autonomic process of integration of personality. It is the normal process of the growth of personality within the group environs. An individual with a well-integrated personality acquires high resistance against difficult situations. The individual will be able to react healthily while confronting unwholesome life situations. A healthy mind and ability to be moulded in an integrated personality depends upon several factors including the physical, social, and psychological environment in which the individual is growing. It also depends upon the culture patterns and attitudes handed down from one generation to the next. From a very young age, integration of the personality proceeds along with intellectual development  and emotional moulding. Children must be given a better chance to develop integrated personalities with resistance against stress. Stress stimuli generate a chain of psycho-physical reactions strong enough to cause manifest effects. Personalities can be divided into 5 types according to their ability to resist strain and stress to master a given difficult life situation without a physical or mental breakdown. The same psychogenic stimulus may not cause similar reaction in all individuals. Each person reacts in a different manner according to the level of preformed stress resistance.     

GROUP  I  : Highly stress resistant. These persons have a high level of preformed resistance. They also have ability to develop resistance within a short time when exposed to stress stimuli. This group comprises of people with well-integrated personalities with dominant will power and power of endurance. They carry out the task even while under great stress without experiencing any negative consequences. They successfully master the stressful and difficult situation. These individuals live in good positive health and may not have a preexisting disease condition or a predisposition to such disease conditions that may undermine the physical and mental aspects of their health and well-being.     

GROUP  II  : These persons have an average amount of preformed stress resistance. They overcome the stressful situation partially. In the attempt to master the stressful situation and to achieve success the person may suffer from precipitation of internal conditions such as hypertension, coronary artery disease and so on when other predisposing factors are also existing. However, the individual completes the task while facing the stressful stimulus. These persons perform better if they maintain good positive health.     

GROUP  III  : These are persons with very low preformed stress resistance. They still have ability to develop resistance on exposure to a prolonged stressful situation. While performing the task under a stressful situation, they may display psycho-somatic symptoms of the overt stress syndrome.     

GROUP  IV  : These are persons with no preformed stress resistance. They have a very low ability to create resistance upon exposure to a stressful stimulus. These individuals are more likely to abandon the task which may have exposed them to a stressful experience. They would try to escape from stress rather than attempting to create resistance to stress stimuli. If they cannot escape, the lack of stress resistance is manifested in a variety of bizarre symptoms.     

GROUP  V  : These are persons who are non-resistant to stress. They have no preformed stress resistance. They are not capable of favorably reacting to stress producing situation. Their biological existence could be threatened if they are exposed to a stressful situation. They may manifest an overt psychiatric illness apart from the inability to perform a task that could generate the stress reaction. Such individuals must be recognized in their childhood and they must be provided proper environment and psychological counseling.     

The part played by stress varies in different individuals according to their basic personalities. The factors that impact the role of stress include environmental influences, community with its varied backgrounds of culture patterns and life habits. Pre-existent resistance against stress reduces requirement of immediate psycho-physical response. If the problem of suicide is viewed as a stress reaction, prevention of suicide would require promoting the idea of stress resistance.     

THE PROBLEM OF SUICIDE  :     

A man’s right to life is a well-recognized principle. Very often, the law would defend a man’s right to life and would condone the act of killing if it is purely intended for purposes of self-defense. Does a man have the right to kill himself or renounce his life? Suicide is condemned by various societies. Major religions like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam oppose the practice of suicide. Attempts to commit suicide are punishable by law in several countries. In the East, some cultural traditions have glorified acts of self-immolation or of renouncing life to resist enemy or to defend personal dignity, honor, or as an extreme measure of self-preservation.     

In the West, attitudes have been slowly changing. The law may permit euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide under very special circumstances that affect the quality of life of an individual.     

THE PROBLEM OF SUICIDE IN THE ARMED FORCES  : 

 To members of Armed Forces, the problem of suicide is of special significance. The Armed Forces as a military establishment has a very challenging and difficult duty to perform. It has to conserve man-power, keep up the morale of its troops, and retain its fighting abilities and capacities at all times, both during peace and during war. In ethical, and moral terms, Armed Forces believes in the act of killing and accepts inevitability of causing deaths during the conduct of military operations. Armed Forces also actively prepares its members to overcome the fear of death and willingly exposes its members to the risks of getting killed both for the purposes of training and during actual combat situations. A soldier is not expected to kill himself to escape from the stress of his military duty and at the same time he must retain a very high level of motivation to kill the enemy and be willing to get killed in the performance of his task. Armed Forces selects its members with due care and chooses people with preformed stress resistance and further uses training as a tool to build up the stress resistance level of its members. The qualities of valor, duty, and honor define the essence and the spirit of service and Armed Forces members must exist to display their essence. I had participated in the military operations that were conducted in the Chittagong Hill Tracts during the Indo-Pak War of 1971 and I had encouraged men to overcome stress and had promoted the attitude of stress resistance. Kindly refer to my blog post titled ‘The Victory over Death – The Psychology of Warfare.     

THE VICTORY OVER DEATH – THE PSYCHOLOGY OF WARFARE                                                                                                                                                                                     

THE PREVALENCE OF SUICIDE  :     

Suicide has become much more common and it ranks as the second or third most common cause of death during adolescence. Suicide is also most pronounced in the older age. The rate of suicide is greatest between the ages of 35 and 75 years with a peak at about the age of 55 years. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, in the year 2007, suicide was the third leading cause of death for young people ages 15 to 24. Among ages 65 and older, of every 100,000 people, 14.3 died by suicide in the year 2007. This figure is higher than the national average of 11.3 suicides per 100,000 people in the general population.     

THE WARNING SIGNS OF SUICIDE  :     

Suicide constitutes the greatest risk in manic-depressive psychosis . During depression, or mania, the psychotic individual shows no insight into the abnormal nature of his mood. Depression is a major symptom of neurosis. Attacks of depression are characterized by signs that the person has deep feelings of melancholia( sadness ). The sufferer typically looks unhappy, he feels hopeless and worthless, considers his life a torment. The depressed individual may experience a desire to punish himself by self-destruction and may directly or indirectly express such feelings or thoughts.     

The American Society for Suicide Prevention posted these warning signs of suicide, and signs of depression :- Unrelenting low mood, pessimism, hopelessness, desperation, anxiety, psychic pain, inner tension, withdrawal, sleep problems, increased alcohol or other drug use, recent impulsiveness & taking unnecessary risks, threatening suicide or expression of a strong desire or wish to die, making a plan, giving away prized possessions, sudden or impulsive purchase of a firearm, obtaining other means of killing oneself such as poisons or medications, unexpected rage or anger. Changes in attitude, personal behavior could be always discovered and the individual who is at the risk of taking his life could be helped by simple observation.     

THE CAUSES OF SUICIDE  :     

Current research nad thinking on suicide tend to view biological, psychological, social-structural, and social-situational factors as interacting with each other. Sociological theories of suicide usually emphasize importance of either the social structure or the social situations, and the cultural pressures that individuals face. Psychological theories emphasize personality and cognitive factors.     

THE SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY OF SUICIDE  :     

Emile Durkheim in his paper ‘Le Suicide’ published in 1897, had tried to explain the apparent and purely individual decision to renounce life as a product of social forces or ‘social functionalism’. He had introduced the term ‘anomie’ or anomy. Suicide results from the breakdown of social standards that people need to regulate their behavior. A failed society produces in its members a sense of futility, lack of purpose, emotional emptiness, and despair. Anomie is a condition of relative normlessness of a society or social group. It may also mean a state of mind of a person who has no standards or sense of continuity or obligation to maintain his social bonds.     

THE PERSONALITY THEORY OF SUICIDE  :     

The desire to escape depression is the most frequently cited motivation to explain suicide. A personality factor could be involved in persons who believe that suicide constitutes a solution to the problems that they may be facing. The suicide victim’s ideas, beliefs, and ways of thinking have a causal relationship with an underlying personality. The way people view their problems can produce a greater or lesser tendency to depression and suicide.    

THE QUEST FOR AUTHENTIC EXISTENCE  :   

The Existentialists suggest that a person must find a situation in which he finds his true significance. In his Existentialist book, ‘Being and Nothingness’, philosopher and Nobel laureate Jean Paul Sartre divides the being( the existing reality ) into two categories. One category is called being-in-itself(etre-en-soi ) and it may describe the essence of the man, the sum of the intrinsic properties without which a thing would cease to be what it is. The second category is being-for-itself( etre-pour-soi ) which comprises the being that has thoughts, feelings, and consciousness. The being-for-itself exists only when it is supported by the being-in-itself. Existentialists view man in terms of his existing thoughts and actions rather than in terms of his essence. According to Sartre, man’s own existence is always attempting to overcome a radical estrangement between man as the object of scientific study or man himself(etre-en-soi ) and the subjectivity man knows in his thoughts and consciousness(etre-pour-soi ). A man’s life in the world and his social transactions often conceal his true subjectivity. A sense of authentic existence is given to each person when he realizes his true subjectivity as a being that is conscious. Sartre claimed that suicide is a final act of absurdity. Suicide is absurd; for in getting rid of what man is(etre-en-soi ), the true subjectivity of man(etre-pour-soi) also disappears at the same time.   

THE PREVENTION OF SUICIDE  :  

There is no single approach that could be expected to succeed in substantially reducing incidence of suicide. However, it will not be incorrect to claim that suicide is 100 percent preventable. The act of killing oneself or the action called suicide is totally preventable even when suicidal thoughts may not be preventable. If an individual’s mind is engaged in suicidal thoughts, it may not be possible to prevent those thoughts as the thoughts have already originated. I may succeed in preventing the individual from acting upon his suicidal thoughts. As long as man knows his thoughts, and would not let his thoughts overwhelm him, man can lead a normal life even when the mind explores ideas or thoughts about suicide.  

STAY INFORMED AND STAY CONNECTED  :  

To help prevent suicide, I would like to keep the man informed by sharing the following information, and the man must reflect upon the nature of  ‘connection’ that sustains man’s existence in physical world.  

EXISTENCE PRECEDES ESSENCE  :  

Existence is the state of being in the world of actuality. Essence is the most significant part of a thing’s nature, the sum of the intrinsic properties without which a thing would cease to be what it is. What is the fundamental nature or quality that is important or essential to define the true substance of the man? To understand human essence, a human being must be defined as a physical, mental, social, moral, and spiritual being. The subjective reality of man’s existence precedes and defines man’s essence. Existence is the first priority and must be preserved if man wants to define his nature or essence. To defend human existence, the physical, the mental, the social, the moral, and the spiritual well-being of man must be defended. As I have mentioned before, Indian tradition honors the man who may define his moral, or spiritual essence by putting an end to his physical existence. That is the only exception to the rule. The rule is; human existence does not depend upon the contents of man’s thoughts, feelings, desires, emotions, self-pride or ego. Man must always strive to rationally understand and evaluate his thoughts, feelings, desires, moods, emotions, and self-pride and should not act upon them to compromise his existence which is truly independent of such factors that impact human life. If I think that I must live for two hundred years, the thoughts about a long life span would not change the basis for my biological existence. Similarly, if I think that I must kill myself, the suicidal thought does not alter the basis for my biological existence. Suicidal thoughts do not describe human essence. A stress resistant individual would have ability to investigate and reflect upon his suicidal thoughts and trace the reason for such thoughts. Stress is a problem that is associated with identity and individuality. The human person is a multicellular organism and man must know as to how the human organism establishes its identity and its individuality. While man seeks to define his essence in terms of his identity, the organism seeks to identify individuality of the person whose existence the cells of his body tend to support. 

IDENTITY AND INDIVIDUALITY – TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN  : 

Mental health is related to the understanding of identity and individuality. We need to understand as to how identity and individuality is established in the multicellular human organism. My mind may define my identity in one manner and my human organism may establish my identity in a different manner. My mind may seek my identity from my thoughts, intellectual information & knowledge, emotions, and false ego. These four aspects of mental activities or functions are named in the Indian tradition as Manas, Buddhi, Chitta, and Ahamkara. These four mental activities are together named as Mano Chatushtayam or AntaHkaranam. Indian tradition asks people to recognize that the true identity of the individual does not pertain to these four aspects of human brain activities. The attempts by man to establish his identity on the basis of his morphological appearance, anthropometric data, biometric information, race, ethnicity, gender, religion, language, or nation/ place of origin have no biological relevance in terms of supporting the existence of that human individual. Man exists as long as he has ability to defend his individuality and maintains the integrity of the various physiological/metabolic activities that support the vital functions that impart the quality or condition called Life and keeps the organism living. In the human organism, this functional unity is maintained by an anatomical structure called Brain Stem. Man lives as an individual while the functions of the Brain Stem are intact and man dies if  functional activity is not found in the Brain Stem. Man can seek any kind of identity if he could maintain the individuality that the Brain Stem supports. Man is free to change his morphological appearance, can change his sexual identity, can change occupation, speak a different language, change his place of residence, practice a different religion or no religion, and can change the nature of his personal relationships with others while he maintains his individuality as a living organism. A man must be always conscious of his individuality which exists as a distinct entity from his mind and its mental activities. A man could be aware of presence of suicidal thoughts engaged by his mind and yet maintain his separation from those thoughts. A man who seeks to exist as an individual will have no problem in resisting his thoughts, feelings, emotions, and mood changes. Such mental activities would not overwhelm or overpower the person. The problem of stress would not go away. However, man can become stress resistant. Such stress resistance from psychogenic stimuli is the key for prevention of suicide. The man who is facing challenging life situations represents just one side of the coin, and on the second side is represented the man who is maintains his individuality as a human organism. This separation of identity from individuality gives us the scope to make people stress resistant and to avoid the psychological compulsions of suicidal thoughts. When this separation is established, a man would not act in ways that could harm him in body or mind. To promote mental health, to prevent the consequences of mental disease, we need to give the tools to people to understand and define individuality and identity as two separate aspects of the same coin. 

THE ‘SELF’ AND THE ‘KNOWING-SELF’  : 

The living human being could be divided into two categories. One category could be called ‘SELF’ that may be compared to Sartre’s Being-in-itself or etre-en-soi. The ‘SELF’ represents man’s state of existence as the physical, mental, and social being. Both Rene Descartes and Jean Paul Sartre had divided man into two categories; 1. a physical or inert substance that has no thoughts, feelings, or consciousness, and 2. the mind that has thoughts, feelings, and is a conscious entity. Sartre had further named the second as the Being-for-itself or etre-pour-soi which is capable of making decisions and giving man the freedom to act according to his freewill. I do not subscribe to the views held by Descartes or Sartre and I would not seek separation of mind and body into two distinct categories. Man is a multicellular organism; the body cannot exist without a mind/brain and the mind/brain cannot exist without a body which has vital organs like lungs, heart, liver, and kidneys. The body and the mind/brain have to function together. I have also stated my view about consciousness. Please visit the page titled, “I AM CONSCIOUSNESS, THEREFORE I AM” 

I AM CONSCIOUSNESS THEREFORE I AM

Consciousness is not an exclusive psychological function. Consciousness is a biological function that is shared by all living cells which display the attributes such as recognition, sensitiveness, coordination, cooperation, functional awareness, and awareness of external and internal environment and condition. The category that I call ‘SELF’ represents the physical self with various organs and tissues and the mental self which represents mental activities associated with thinking, intellect/knowledge, emotions, feelings, moods, and ego or self-pride. The ‘SELF’ may describe the essence or nature, or identity of the man in terms of the man’s own mental awareness and other people in his environment. The second category that I describe could be called the ‘KNOWING-SELF’. The ‘Knowing-Self’ is aware or conscious of its state and fact of biological existence. It may not always be aware of its external environment. A man who is in a  state of sound sleep, a man who is under the influence of drugs, chemicals, or pharmacological agents like anesthetics, or a person with a head injury loses some components of the function called consciousness. However, a man at all times of his living condition is conscious of his internal condition/environment, maintains the state of equilibrium or homeostasis, and supports the vital functions that define his individuality as an organism. The category called the ‘Knowing-Self’ is related to the individuality and in the multicellular human organism this function is served by the Reticular Formation of the Brain Stem which gives the person the ‘Capacity for Consciousness’. Man needs the ‘Capacity for Consciousness’ to compose the ‘Contents of Consciousness’. In the absence of the ‘Capacity for Consciousness’, man has no ‘Contents of Consciousness’ and could be declared dead if the function called ‘Capacity for Consciousness’ could not be sustained. The ‘Capacity for Consciousness’ is essential for man’s biological existence. The ‘Capacity for Consciousness’ is required for man to exist as a moral and spiritual being. Man exists with an intrinsic ability to discern right from wrong, and exists because of his spiritual nature which gives him the ability to acquire energy for his various metabolic, living functions. The category called ‘Self’ may experience all the difficult, and challenging situations posed by life, and the category called the ‘Knowing-Self’ is not subject to these sensory or mental experiences that impact the ‘Self’. 

THE GOD CONNECTION  : 

Man must recognize that his biological existence depends upon energy acquisition. Man leads energy-dependent existence and must acquire energy from external sources right from the beginning of his life journey from moment of conception. Man does not acquire this energy because of his intellectual effort, or acquired knowledge. The ‘egg cell’ that is fertilized is conscious of its energy dependence and it implants itself into the tissues of the mother who may not be mentally aware of this process called implantation by which the human embryo starts deriving its energy from its mother. This embryo grows and develops into a complex, multicellular organism and continues to derive energy from external sources. This ‘CONNECTION’ between the energy-seeker, and the energy-provider could be called ‘GOD CONNECTION’. Man has no ability to establish this kind of energy acquisition for his survival. If Sun is viewed as the source of extraterrestrial or Cosmic Power, the Solar Energy is trapped by chloroplasts found in the cells of all green plants. This energy is further made available to man by presence of intracellular organelles called mitochondria which are described as the powerhouses of the cells. Man has no direct control on the nature of this ‘Connection’ and its operation. Man simply exists as there is a Provider for his energy requirements. In good health, or ill-health, under all circumstances and conditions, and during all the stages of his mortal existence, man needs this grace, mercy, and compassion to keep himself alive. This is a supernatural mechanism, or a ‘God Connection’ that supports man while he leads his energy dependent existence. Man who experiences this compassion, mercy, and grace that is sustaining his life would derive a sense of joy and experiences the condition called true happiness. A man who has discovered true happiness cannot experience a mood called depression. It is really hard to kill oneself while the man is connected to a source of Happiness. Man must experience this sense of Joy and Happiness and realize its uplifting power to alter any depressed feeling or mood. If pain is an inevitable aspect of human life, compassion is also an inescapable aspect of human existence. If pain is true, compassion is also equally true. I invite people to find Compassion, Mercy, and the Grace of the Divine Providence in their lives. It would be irrational or absurd to break the God Connection by the act called Suicide.      

Rudranarasimham, Rebbapragada

BHAVANAJAGAT.ORG     

FIFTH MAHAVAKYA – TAT ASMI PRABHO – FUNDAMENTAL DUALISM:

Aphorism refers to a short, concise statement of principle. The ‘Upanishads’ are commentaries on texts called Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda, and Atharva Veda. The Upanishads include four short, pointed sentences expressing a general truth. These Upanishadic Aphorisms are popularly known as ‘MahaVakya Chatushtaya’ or Four MahaVakyas. These four statements are primarily concerned with man’s true or real identity or ‘ESSENCE’ and relate that identity to God’s true or real identity. If man and God have the same identity, we have to reconcile that identity to account for man’s existence in real world as a mortal, physical being. We need to explore the possibility of separation, distinction, or differentiation of two identical entities on the basis of things they do for their ‘EXISTENCE’. The term ‘essence’ accounts for what you are, and the term ‘existence’ accounts for what you do. Existence always precedes Essence, and if there is no Existence, the Essence of entities will not be known. The Fifth MahaVakya, “Tat Asmi PrabhO” is attributed to great Indian teacher known as Adi Shankaracharya, the founder of Indian School of Thought called “ADVAITA” or Non-Dualism. While man and God are of the same kind, the distinction, or differentiation between the two entities is that of degree. Man – God Dualism may account for two different types of existence; man’s conditioned existence, and God’s unconditioned existence.

FOUR MAHAVAKYAS – MAHAVAKYA CHATUSHTAYA – UPANISHADIC APHORISMS: 

Man is a conscious living entity. Life can be defined as ‘Knowledge in Action’ as all living functions involve application of knowledge to perform sequential, purposeful, goal-oriented, guided, predictable actions to provide benefit to the Individual who lives because of those actions. God is the Source of Knowledge and there is distinction between Individual Consciousness and Universal Consciousness.

There is fundamental distinction between Individual Soul(Atman or Jeevatma) and Supersoul or Paramatma. In terms of nature, Individual Soul is identical to Supersoul or Paramatma or God for both share same attributes like Immutability, Imperishability, and Immortality. Atman is embodied soul. Atman is modified by the body in which it resides. The difference between Atman and Brahman is that of variations of existence as Atman is governed by rules for its existence.

Man – God Dualism, Atman – Brahman Dualism is transcended by man – God connection, partnership, relationship, association, bonding, or yoking that brings them together to give a single, harmonious effect. This statement, “Tat Twam Asi” or ‘Thou Art That’ is a truth that derives its reality from fundamental Unity, an operating principle that makes man – God Connection. For all practical purposes, the division, distinction, or differentiation into two separate identities becomes redundant.

Atman – Brahman, man – God Dualism or separation, or division is removed when the Subject called “I” is unified with the Object called Brahman. Atman is Divine and the original source of this Divinity is Brahman. Their Unity is specified by a term of vocabulary called “ASMI.”

Indian tradition recognizes several other ‘MahaVakyas’ and none of them, including the first four(‘MahaVakya Chatushtaya’) give a full description of LORD GOD CREATOR. Upanishadic Aphorisms describe one face of a coin with two-faces. Identity and Essence is one face of a coin and Existence is second face of the same coin. We have to learn about both faces of coin.

Man – God Dualism can be recognized by noting difference between Moon Light and Sunshine. There is an Original Source of Light and Illumination and it is not illumined by any other luminous object.

Atman – Brahman or man – God Dualism is the result of Constitutive – Regulative Dualism. Atman is Brahman for there is Constitutive Unity between the two entities. Between man and God there is Regulative Dualism for God is Ultimate Controller, Sustainer, and Maintainer of entire Universe.

Atman is described as imperishable, immutable, immortal, everlasting, eternal, and even unborn. These attributes can be applied to all chemical elements found in material universe as per the Fundamental Laws of Conservation of Mass and Energy described in classical Physics.

Atman or Jeevatma, or Individual Soul may share perfect identity of Supersoul or Paramatma, or Universal Soul. Man – God Dualism is about ‘degree’, difference in power, or effects of such Power. God is different from man while God created man in His own image. God is different for He is the Supreme Being, Omnipotent, and His Power can reach all places.

Man – God Dualism can be described as separation of Regulative Power. All created things exist depending upon God’s power, or they live in God’s domain and God exists fully independent of power used by all created things. God seems to be telling, ” I am everywhere, and everything is in Me, but still I am aloof.” Lord Krishna, in the Divine Song called Bhagavad Gita, Chapter IX, RajaVidya, RajaGuhya Yoga, Most Confidential Knowledge of the Ultimate Truth, verse # 4 clarifies, ” I pervade all this creation. All things are resting in me, but I am not in them.” This separation of Regulative Power is further explained in Bhagavad Gita, Chapter XIII, Kshetra – Kshetrajna Vibhaga Yoga in verses 12 to 15: “It is called Brahman, the Spirit, and it lies beyond the cause and effect of this material world. The Supersoul is the original source of all senses, and yet He is without senses. He is unattached(“UDASIN” in Sanskrit language), although He is the Maintainer of all living beings. He transcends the modes of Nature, and at the same time is the Master of all modes of material Nature. God is Controller, Master, Sustainer, Maintainer, Preserver, Observer, Sanctioner, and finally Enjoyer of His creation.

God has shared His nature and identity with man and may not have shared His higher Regulative Powers with which He controls all that He created. Man cannot rule or govern his own body while he uses power sanctioned by God to perform actions in material world. Recognition of God’s higher powers will direct man to submit to God’s superior authority.

Man – God Dualism can be explained in terms of chemical identity of a drop of Seawater as compared to the Sea to which it belongs. There is no comparison if the discussion is about power wielded by Sea.

Man – God Dualism can be explained as a difference in degree that can be estimated by measuring salt needed to impart taste called saltiness. A teaspoonful of salt is sufficient to impart salty taste to a cup of water. To make Seawater salty, the amount of salt required is enormous and the issue is about quantity as the volume of water involved is different. Brahman and Atman are identical, share same nature or “TATVA”, and the difference arises from the amount of salt needed if their nature is that of saltiness.

Upanishads are outpourings of Knowledge and Truth revealed by God and man has obtained this Knowledge and Truth. Yet the problem of man – God Dualism persists for man needs Divine Providence to perform a vital function called Breathing or Respiration. While man has access to Knowledge that accounts for his Essence, his Existence still demands God’s Mercy, Grace, and Compassion to make distinction between life and death.

Shankara, India’s great teacher, founder of ‘Advaita’ School of Thought had recognized the distinction between Teacher and his student. Teacher is Source of Knowledge. Student is aspirant of Knowledge. Teacher imparts Knowledge and Student imbibes that Knowledge. On completion of learning process, Teacher and Student are identical in terms of learned Knowledge. That identity in terms of ‘Essence’ does not change the reality of Teacher – Student or Guru – Sishya relationship. Their relationship is formulated on the basis of devotion, aspirant of knowledge and wisdom using an attitude of respect and obedience, submits to authority of teacher, who is the source of information shared in the learning process.   In ‘Eka Shloki’ composed by Shankara, the Disciple or Sishya, or Student finally acknowledges his successful learning of a lesson by addressing his Guru as “PRABHU” or LORD. For God is the ultimate source of Knowledge, the term ‘Prabhu’ or Lord can be interpreted as that of recognition of God’s honor, dignity, and majesty that makes Him as an Exalted One. The statement, “TAT ASMI PRABHO” not only describes Identity or Essence shared by man and God for both have Unity(signified by the term “ASMI”), but also it addresses God submissiveness and reverence. It transcends man – God Dualism by formulating a relationship using Devotion as an operating principle.

MAN – GOD DUALISM – HOW TO TRANSCEND THE BARRIER?

Does Truth lie beyond man’s reasoning power? Man can acquire true or real knowledge about his ‘essence’ and identity from reading holy scriptures like Upanishads. But, man’s reasoning power is not adequate to know the Ultimate Reality as there is fundamental dualism or separation of man and God. While Soul, Spirit, or Atman is an important operating principle to make distinction between living and non-living, or animate and inanimate things, its knowledge will not help man to transcend the difference imposed by God’s Regulative Power. In Bhagavad Gita, Chapter X, The Infinite Glories of the Ultimate Truth or Vibhuti Vistara Yoga, verse # 10 Lord Krishna explained operating principle called ‘DEVOTION’ that will bring man and God together for man cannot know God using reasoning power.

“tesam satata yuktanam bhajatam priti purvakam

dadami buddhi yogam tam yena mam upayanti te.”

To those devotees who are constantly devoted and worship Me with love, I bestow the intelligence, insight, and understanding by which they can come unto Me( which means merging of Individual Consciousness with the Ultimate Universal Consciousness).

Fifth MahaVakya, “Tat Asmi PrabhO” reveals a new principle, a new truth, a new operative mechanism not shared by Four MahaVakyas or MahaVakya Chatushtaya. It acknowledges God as the Supreme Being and addresses God with reverence displaying an attitude called submissiveness formulated by a guiding principle called Devotion.

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada,

BHAVANAJAGAT.ORG

TIBET AWARENESS – TIBET WAS NEVER PART OF CHINA:

On behalf of Special Frontier Force I am pleased to share an article published by ‘The Tibet Post’ which categorically asserts that “Tibet Was Never Part of China.” I thank Central Tibetan Administration(CTA) for releasing their 21-page document which debunks Red China’s claims about Tibet’s status. Red China is a Liar for she deliberately distorts historical information and reinvents history to justify her evil actions.

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162, USA
SPECIALFRONTIERFORCE.ESTABLISHMENT22

Tibet post International

Tibet: News International

HISTORY IS AGAINST CHINA; CTA SAYS TIBET WAS NEVER PART OF CHINA

Monday, 07 September 2015 12:32 Molly Lortie, Tibet Post International

Dharamshala — In response to the most recent white paper regarding Tibet issued by the Chinese Communist Party in August, the India based Central Tibetan Administration has released a 21-page document attempting to set the record straight regarding the historical timeline China has claimed.

While China observed its 50th anniversary of the establishment of the ‘Tibet Autonomous Region,’ the 21-page document entitled “TIBET WAS NOT A PART OF CHINA BUT MIDDLE WAY REMAINS A VIABLE SOLUTION,” was released by Sikyong Dr Lobsang Sangay, accompanied by DIIR Secretary Sonam Norbu Dagpo, DIIR Secretary Tashi Phuntsok and Tibet Policy director, Thubten Samphel.

The CTA revisits the elongating historical claims that China stakes over Tibet. Reminding us that, “the white paper on Tibet in 2004 claims that ‘Tibet became part of the territory of China in the 13th century.’ On the other hand, the Chinese Republican-era scholars assert that Tibet became a vassal state of China during the Qing period (1644-1911). Now, with its latest white paper, China has again shifted the goal post and states that Tibet has been an integral part of China since ‘antiquity’.”

The CTA goes on to refute each of China’s claims, revisiting the history of the region. In terms of the vague ‘antiquity’ that China most recently claims, the rise of the Tibetan Empire was in the seventh century CE, when both the King of Nepal and Emperor of China courted the Tibetan Empire and each offered their daughters to the Tibetan Emperor for marriage.

The first to suggest that this claim to Tibet holds no weight was the former Vice-chairman, of the standing committee of the National People’s Congress of China, who refuted his own government’s claim in 1989, saying, “some historians claim that Tibet had been a part of China from antiquity, some others claim since the time of Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo through his marriage to the Chinese princess. I do not agree with both these views. When you talk about antiquity, there is no time line or if it is from the time of Songtsen Gampo’s marriage, we all know that the first queen of Songtsen Gampo was Nepal’s princess in which case Tibet should be part of Nepal. How can we explain this?”

Going on to counter the claim that Tibet became a part of China during the 13th century, the CTA revisits Tibet’s history with Mongolia at the time. “The Yuan dynasty was a Mongol empire and its ruler Genghis Khan and his successors conquered vast territories in Europe and Asia, including China. By 1279, the Chinese Song dynasty in southern China fell before the advancing Mongols. The Mongols’ conquest of China was complete. Today, China claims the Yuan Dynasty to be its own dynasty and, by doing so, it lays claim to all Mongol conquests, at least in the eastern half of the Mongol Empire.”

However, a Tibeto-Mongol relationship was established in 1240, when a Mongol expedition was launched to Tibet, thus leading to a religious relationship between the Mongol leaders and Tibetan religious hierarchs. It is well known that Kublai Khan embraced Tibetan Buddhism, adopting it as the official religion of his empire. “In gratitude, Kublai Khan offered his Tibetan lama political authority over all Tibet in 1254, conferring various titles on him. This Tibeto-Mongol relationship continued to exist even after the fall of the Yuan Dynasty.”

The dates of these expeditions, relations and invasions fail to match the timeline that the Chinese government claims. “The year of Mongol military expedition to Tibet in 1240 preceded the Mongol invasion of China’s Song Empire in 1279 by 39 years. This debunks China’s claim over Tibet based on the relations between Mongol Empire and Tibet’s Sakya Lamas.” The CTA concludes that even if by transitive property all Mongol conquests were in fact Chinese conquests, the Tibeto-Mongol relationship predated the fall of the Chinese Song Empire.

Finally, in opposition to China’s final claim that Tibet was acquired during the Qing Dynasty, the CTA’s response uses a statement made by the imperial envoy and commander of the Manchu army, General Fu K’angan, to the Eighth Dalai Lama in 1792, showing the nature of the ‘regulations’ imparted by the Manchu emperor after he assisted the Tibetans in expelling the Gorkhas from Tibet. The statement clearly exudes the Emperor’s context as a protector or assister, rather than a ruler ordering his subjects, as the statement ends with, “The Tibetans may, therefore, decide for themselves as to what is in their favour and what is not or what is heavy and what is light, and make a choice on their own.”

Furthermore, after the conclusion of all the history that China claims made Tibet a part of China, it was in 1914 that Tibet signed a bilateral treaty with British India called the Simla Agreement, legitimizing Tibet’s independent status. Mao Zedong himself remarked after the long march that China’s only foreign debt was to the Tibetans for the provisions we owe them.

The CTA succeeded in using the history against China to refute their broken record that Tibet was at any point in history, part of China. The CTA suggests that the recent most intrusion into Tibet’s history is a blatant attempt of the Communist party to doctor history, to literally stretch the truth, in attempt to legitimize their continued occupation of the region, when in reality the history is against them.

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by The The Tibet Post International.

SPIRITUALITY SCIENCE – PHOTOPERIODISM – SEPTEMBER EQUINOX:

Photoperiodism is described as the behavioral or physiological reaction of an organism to changes of duration in daily, seasonal, or yearly periods of light and darkness. The changes in activities occur on daily basis as well as with a consistent pattern when the seasons change. For example, the Autumn or Fall season in the Northern Hemisphere includes the months of September, October, and November. Fall is the season of the year in which many trees change in their appearance; the color of their leaves changes and then trees lose their leaves. Autumn is the season that comes between Summer, and Winter seasons. In the astronomical year, the Fall season is the period between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice. The characteristic of Fall is the beginning of decline in activities of several living organisms to prepare for subsequent changes expected to come in future. Daily periods of light and darkness determine to a great extent when seasonal activities occur. An important prerequisite to the response to light that occurs in Winter and Spring is exposure to short days or long nights in Autumn. This phase of the annual cycle is called the Preparatory Phase. This preparation is important for the subsequent response. Under experimental conditions it is shown that the failure to complete the Preparatory Phase will undermine the organism’s subsequent response to changes in the next phase. Hence, Autumn is a season of preparation for the arrival of Winter and Spring seasons. This preparation has the characteristics of planning, and designing the responses of organisms to forthcoming events in future. This ability to connect the activities of past, and present with activities that occur in future requires operation of an unchanging principle that is not influenced by changes of time. The colorful changes that we witness during  Autumn season would relate us to works of a WholeDesigner, a WholeArchitect, a WholePlanner, and a WholeArtist.

SEPTEMBER EQUINOX – AUTUMNAL EQUINOX:

Equinox(aequus=Equal + nox=night) is the time when the Sun crosses the equator, making night and day of equal length in all parts of Earth.

Photoperiodism was first reported in 1920 when the flowering of certain plants was demonstrated to be controlled by the daily duration of light. The photoperiodic response of plants may actually depend on duration of the darkness. Some of the conspicuous activities of animals closely correlated with certain seasons of the year or with changes in day length are bird migration, reproduction and changes in coat and plumage. In most birds, mammals, and other vertebrates, breeding is seasonal. For species such as brook trout, deer, sheep, and goats breeding begins in Autumn. The light stimulates the release of special hormones from the brain which in turn stimulate the pituitary gland which secretes the hormones that function to control the growth of the reproductive organs. The length of the dark period and the ratio of light to darkness are important factors in determining the reproductive response. Practical applications of knowledge of photoperiodism are common in poultry management, for the length of daylight affects laying, sperm production, and bodyweight of the fowl.

The most conspicuous seasonal change in coat and plumage occurs in those mammals and birds that are white in Autumn and Winter and brown in Spring and Summer.

PHOTOPERIODISM – BIOLOGICAL RHYTHMS AND BIOLOGICAL CLOCK:

Organisms have synchronized their living functions to their rhythmic environments and have become periodic in diverse aspects of their physiology and behavior. Periodic biological phenomena fall into two distinct, different categories: 1. Those correlated with periodic changes of the planet or geophysical correlates, and 2. Those correlated to an internal timing mechanism often called the ‘Biological Clock’. The living things to some extent behave like ‘Living Clocks’; 1. A timing capacity geared to the rhythmic variations of the natural environment, the alternating periods of light and darkness called day and night, and 2. A timing capacity that operates in response to the flow of time as the planet Earth spins and moves without providing sensory stimuli of its motions. Timing information continuously flows in from the environment and no organism can exist under constant conditions of life. All life exists on planet Earth which exists in a constant state of motion as a member of the Solar System which also exists in a constant state of motion. The biological rhythm results in part as a direct response to the environment and in part as an indirect response via the complex clock-timed organization.

SPIRITUALITY SCIENCE – EARTH’S ROTATIONAL SPIN – REALITY vs ILLUSION:

Biological Clocks time the Solar Day, the period of Earth’s spin or rotation relative to the Sun. While Earth spins or rotates, man experiences the illusion of Sun’s apparent motion across the path called Ecliptic and exists on the surface of Earth in a state of blissful ignorance of Earth’s Angular Speed, or Linear Velocity.The daily rhythm of about 24 hours’ duration makes it appear as though the organism is keeping track of each day and behaves as if it is a Living Clock. Light appears to be the dominant Phase Setter or Synchronizer of activity pattern during the 24-hour cycles. The 24-hour rhythms are called Solar Day, Circadian, Diel, Daily, Diurnal(day-active), and Night-Active rhythms. Plants show their daily rhythm in sleep movements such as the daytime raising and nighttime lowering of their leaves, and the timing of flowering activity. In man, the daily alternation of sleep and wakefulness is accompanied by many chemical and physiological changes that include the activities of the nervous, endocrine systems, and the liver and kidneys. Daily variations occur in body temperature, in heart and respiratory rates, and in blood pressure and composition of blood. There are daily variations in chemical syntheses and in cell divisions. Living systems display a timing capacity and behave as if they contain a highly dependable clock. The specialized properties of this clock suggest that it involves some unique biological mechanism indissociable from life itself. 

I want to suggest that all natural phenomena require operation of an unchanging condition that gives opportunity to experience the change that is manifested. The change called Day and Night, and the changes called Autumn, Winter, Spring, and Summer Seasons are manifested because of an unchanging condition; the fact of Sun shining with its full brightness 24-hours, and at all times. The rhythmically recurring phenomena called biological rhythms operate under influence of an unchanging, vital, animating principle called Soul, or Spirit which is not influenced by time or external geophysical correlates.

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada

BHAVANAJAGAT.ORG

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BHARAT DARSHAN – DINOSAUR – INDIVIDUAL WITH INDIVIDUALITY

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On bangaloremirror.com

To students of Biology, extinction of dinosaurs is a subject of great interest. Dinosaurs describe a large group of reptiles that dominated Earth for nearly 150 million years in the Mesozoic Era. They came in different sizes, ranging in length from 2 feet to nearly 90 feet and varied in weight up to 75 ton. Their eating habits were varied and are thought to be egg-layers.

Certain life forms on Earth suddenly perished while life on Earth continued to survive without showing any significant damage or alteration of corporeal substance called protoplasm or cytoplasm. The same kind of biomolecules operate living functions and living process involves same oxidation-reduction chemical reactions while individual life forms have their own lifespans. When Dinosaurs lived, each one of them lived as Individual with Individuality even if they all perished as a group. Volcanic eruptions in India may have caused demise of dinosaurs and I am sharing this story as this subject needs careful interpretation of natural events. Every Cause may have its own Effect. If Asteroid Impact and Volcano eruption is the Cause, Dinosaur extinction is the Effect, I want to know as to What is the Cause that compels living things to always exist as Individuals with Individuality while they seem to share a common destiny?

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162, USA
BHAVANAJAGAT.ORG

 Did a massive volcanic eruption in India kill off the dinosaurs?

 By JOEL ACHENBACH December 11, 2014

(Mark Garlick/Getty Images)

There’s a solid consensus among scientists about what happened to the dinosaurs 66 million years ago: A mountain-sized meteorite crashed into the planet and triggered a mass extinction. The debris from the impact has been found in hundreds of locations around the world. Geologists have also found signs of the giant crater, centered around the tip of Yucatan Peninsula.

But there has long been an alternate theory, espoused by a rump caucus of researchers who think they’ve never been given a fair hearing. They believe the extinction was caused, at least in part, by an extraordinary volcanic eruption in India.

This eruption created the Deccan Traps, a geological formation that covers nearly 200,000 square miles of western India. It was created by a flood of basaltic lava, the kind of eruption seen today on the Big Island in Hawaii. But the eruption that formed the Deccan Traps was unusually prolonged and prodigious. All told, the eruption produced about 1.3 million cubic kilometers of lava, which is about 1.3 million times as much material produced by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. The eruption pumped enormous, climate-changing quantities of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere.

Now scientists have found a way to date more precisely the Deccan Traps eruption, and the results are a boost, potentially, for the volcano-did-it camp.
The main pulse of the lava flow began about 250,000 years before the mass extinction event, and ended about 500,000 years after, according to a paper published online Thursday in the journal Science. Thus if the eruption is not a significant factor in the mass extinction, it’s a remarkable coincidence. Earlier attempts to date the Deccan Traps, using less precise methods, had a much larger margin of error, on the order of plus-or-minus one million years.

The lead author of the paper, Blair Schoene, a professor of geosciences at Princeton, said the results indicate that both the catastrophic impact and the more gradual, but extraordinary, volcanic eruption could have been factors in the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.

“Both are potentially really important,” Schoene said. “I don’t know if we can say the extinction would have or would not have happened without both of them.”
One obvious scenario: Climate change caused by the eruptions could have stressed the biosphere and set the conditions for a greater die-off when the asteroid smashed the planet.
“I sort of favor the one-two punch idea,” Schoene said.

Stronger words come from one of the paper’s co-authors, GERTA KELLER, another Princeton professor who has been among the most outspoken proponents of the hypothesis that the Deccan Traps caused the mass extinction. Keller has long maintained that the asteroid impact happened earlier than the die-off and couldn’t have been the trigger. Her work has been controversial, and she has long been viewed as a maverick in the scientific community.

“I think this is a game-changer,” she said of the new results. She said the new dating of the Deccan Traps strengthens the case for volcanism as the “primary cause” of the mass extinction.
“The data is so strong at this point that the momentum is entirely on my side,” she said.

The researchers took rock samples in India and scrutinized them for crystals containing uranium and lead. Crystals of zircon form in magma with trace amounts of uranium inside. The uranium gradually decays into lead. Because the rate at which uranium decays is well-known, the ratio of uranium and lead isotopes in the crystals serves as a kind of clock, revealing how long it has been since the crystals formed.

Lava leftovers may offer clues to dinosaur extinction

Eruptions in India could have contributed to their extinction. Researcher Mike Eddy uses a rock hammer to scrape out fine-grained material from a rock layer within the Deccan Traps, step-like hills formed by lava in India that cover roughly the sizes of the states of Washington and Oregon combined. Around the end of the Cretaceous period, there was a massive volcanic eruption in India. Photo image by Gerta Keller.

Another co-author of the Science paper, Sam Bowring of M.I.T., said what’s important is that everyone now knows more accurately when the Deccan Traps eruptions began and ended.

“I do not think for a minute that this denigrates the role of the impact in the extinction, and I don’t think it proves that the impact didn’t have anything to do with the extinction. But what I think it does, for the first time, is establish with high precision and accuracy that the Deccan Traps began just prior to the extinction and continued throughout the extinction,” Bowring said.

“Whether or not you can say it played a role in the extinction is quite another matter. But at least now we can have a conversation on good temporal grounds,” Bowring said.

The fundamental problem for the hypothesis that volcanism caused the mass extinction is that it doesn’t seem to be necessary. The mass extinction, including the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs, was for a long time among the greatest mysteries in science, but few people view it as a mystery anymore.

Until 1980, scientists struggled to understand why so many life forms abruptly went extinct. Not only did the tyrannosaurs disappear, so did many species in the seas, including most of the species of tiny marine organisms called foraminifera. The Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary, usually referred to as the K/T boundary (the K is from the German word for Cretaceous), is clearly marked in marine sediments by the sudden drop in the size and diversity of foraminifera. Below the boundary, in older sediments, the forams are relatively large. Above, there are only small forams. The evidence points to a sudden, planet-wide extinction event.

Historical explanations included some kind of disease, or the drying up of inland seas putting stress on the dinosaur population, or a supernova irradiating the Earth. But then came the stunning discovery by Luis and Walter Alvarez, father and son scientists, who while studying a clay layer marking the K/T boundary in Italy found striking amounts of iridium.
That iridium, the Alvarezes concluded, came from an object from space that collided with the planet. In the decade that followed, scientists zeroed in on the “crater of doom” at the tip of the Yucatan. Residue from the impacting asteroid, which is believed to have been about seven miles in diameter, has been found in roughly 300 locations around the planet. There are also signs of a tsunami that inundated coastal Texas.

Scientists prefer parsimonious explanations — the simpler the better. Thus many appear reluctant to add the Deccan Traps to a tidy K/T extinction narrative. The asteroid impact appears to be the smoking gun, and any additional element to the narrative could potentially have a grassy-knoll quality to it.

“It’s a remarkable event, it’s a huge impact, and it lines up exactly with the extinction,” said Kirk Johnson, director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and an expert on the mass extinction. “You don’t need anything else.”

David Fastovsky, a geoscientist at the University of Rhode Island, said a coincidence in the fossil record doesn’t imply causation. Asked whether the volcano-plus-impact could have been a one-two punch, he said, “Possibly, but why do we need to do that? We have enough already with this asteroid.”

But volcanoes will not be ignored: The largest extinction event in the planet’s history, about 250 million years ago at the end of the Permian, appears to have happened at the same time as another massive volcanic eruption in Siberia — the Siberian Traps. There was also a huge volcanic eruption in what is now the northern Atlantic Ocean that was coincident with a mass extinction at the end of the Triassic, Bowring said.

“The idea that flood basalts and extinctions are related is not a new idea,” Bowring said. “Easy to say, difficult to prove.”

Another conjecture circulating among geophysicists is that the impact of the asteroid might possibly have sent such a powerful jolt of energy through the planet that it exacerbated the already-occurring Deccan Traps eruption on the far side of the world, and incited volcanic activity in other locations as well. That idea remains in the category of speculation.
The broader lesson here is that science is not a business in which anyone can ever safely say “case closed.” Knowledge is always contingent upon the next batch of data, which could be coming along any day now.

Joel Achenbach writes on science and politics for the Post’s national desk and on the “Achenblog.”

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BHARAT DARSHAN – THE LAW OF CAUSALITY – DINOSAUR EXTINCTION

The term ‘causality’ refers to quality, power, or agency by which one event causes another. Every change in nature is produced by some cause. Causality is the relation between an event called ‘CAUSE’ and a second event called ‘EFFECT’ where the first event is understood to be responsible for the second. The Law of Cause and Effect states that every material effect must have an adequate antecedent or simultaneous cause. According to Aristotle, knowledge of a thing goes beyond its classification and description. Knowledge of a thing requires explanation of Causality, or why it is. Aristotle explained that corporeal things are composite of two principles; 1. Form, and 2. Matter. What is called ‘Matter’ is potentiality, and what is called ‘Form’ is actuality. ‘Form’, and ‘Matter’ together constitute concrete individual realities. For a thing to be known, Aristotle posited four ‘Causes’ or principles of explanation. These are, 1. The Material Cause( substance of which the thing is made), 2. The Formal Cause(its design, its morphological appearance), 3. The Efficient Cause( the maker or builder, or designer of a thing, or a principle that may contain features of its effect, or has power to produce that effect) and 4. The Final Cause( the ultimate purpose or function of a thing).

Natural Sciences such as Physical Sciences and Biological Sciences provide information about physical matter, and living things that exist in our natural world. The purpose of Science is to describe and codify observation and experiences. I like to arrange this information into a meaningful pattern and interpret it to describe reality or truth about life and living things. I apply a reasoning process that involves analysis of basic concepts to determine their consistency. The information about Dinosaur extinction has to be interpreted by examining basic concepts such as ‘Matter’, ‘Form’ and Fundamental Laws of Conservation which account for existence of all things found in natural world.

Dinosaurs reached maximum development during Cretaceous Period or third geologic period of Mesozoic Era. Cretaceous was followed by Tertiary Period of Cenozoic Era. At the end of Cretaceous Period, and beginning of Tertiary Period called K-T Junction, a Major Extinction Event eliminated approximately 80 percent of all species of animals. This K-T Extinction Event happened about 65 or 66 million years ago. While Dinosaurs dominated or ruled Earth, they belonged to two orders, and about 700 species have been named. There is controversy about the number of Dinosaur species that lived. About 350 complete specimens are known. There are 300 valid Dinosaur genera like Stegosaurus, Diplodocus, etc., Scientists believe that there could be 700 more Dinosaur species not yet discovered. To give a perspective, all these Dinosaur species are less than one-tenth the number of living Avian(bird) species, less than one-fifth the number of currently known Mammal species, and less than one-third the number of currently known Arachnid(Spider) species. Life forms perished during K-T Extinction Event and yet it has not stopped emergence of new forms of Life. While individual forms of Life or Species experienced individual death or demise, Living Matter continued to exist as if it is imperishable, immortal, immutable, or even eternal. There is an underlying Principle stated in Classical Physics that may explain as to why Life was not wiped out by K-T Event.

The Fundamental Laws of Conservation

The Fundamental Laws of Conservation describe Principles applied in Physics that certain physical properties of an isolated system remain constant with time. Laws of this type govern Mass, Energy, and Momentum. Each such Law signifies that ‘Nature’ does not change with passage of time. Conservation of Mass implies that Matter can be neither created nor destroyed, that is processes that change physical or chemical properties of Chemical Compounds leave the total ‘Mass’ unchanged. Conservation of Energy implies that Energy can be neither created nor destroyed although it can be changed from one form into another. If Dinosaurs are viewed as things with two principles called Matter and Form, the Form called Dinosaur died and its Matter called Protoplasm survived. Biology explains that living things change under the influence of time. Change is a natural phenomenon that Biology observes all the time. This ‘Change’ which is natural is always supported by ‘Unchanging’ Principle of Nature that conserves some values like mass and energy. Chemical Elements are neither destroyed or created while living things experience individual death or birth.

Prime Cause vs Final Cause

It may be difficult to describe that ‘Efficient Cause’, the maker, the designer, the builder of things called Dinosaurs. It may be equally difficult to describe that ‘Final Cause’, that ultimate purpose for which Dinosaurs lived on planet Earth for about 150 million years. In present day world, a single animal species called Homo sapiens sapiens seems to dominate all other life forms. This Species has not existed during the long history of planet Earth for it arrived during current Geological Period called Holocene Epoch of the Cenozoic Era. During this period, planet Earth also witnessed extinction of a great variety of Mammals like Mastodon, Mammoth, Sabertooth carnivores apart from all archaic species of man. If Extinction Events are random, unguided, spontaneous, and purposeless events, man has to explain as to why Living Matter exists on Earth performing guided, goal-oriented, sequential, and purposeful actions. Dinosaurs missed an opportunity to demonstrate Prime Cause, Efficient Cause, and Final Cause while they lived over millions of years. Can Man afford to miss this opportunity to define his purpose in Life?

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162, USA
BHAVANAJAGAT.ORG

Scientists suggest a new, earth-shaking twist on the demise of the dinosaurs

By JOEL ACHENBACH October 01, 2015.

An illustration of the Chicxulub impact on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, seen from 100 kilometers (km) altitude. (D. van Ravenswaay/Photo Researchers, Inc)

New research suggests that the asteroid or comet that slammed into the Earth 66 million years ago rocked the planet so violently that it accelerated a massive volcanic eruption in India, a double catastrophe that wiped out the dinosaurs and 70 percent of the Earth’s species.

The study, published Thursday in the Journal Science, puts a twist on the consensus explanation of the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period. Scientists have long been confident that a mountain-sized object crashed into the planet, leaving traces even today of a vast crater at the tip of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula.

They’ve also known that massive volcanism in India was happening around the same time, spreading lava across a huge region known as the Deccan Traps. The coincidence of those two events initially hinted at causality, but subsequent dating of the Deccan Traps formations indicated that the flood of basaltic lava began long before the cataclysmic impact.

With the new data, causality’s once again in play. The asteroid or comet didn’t cause the initial eruption, but it could have intensified it, according to the paper.
The Chicxulub impact – named after a town in the Yucatan – created earthquakes of magnitude 11 in the vicinity of the crater, the authors say. Magnitude 9 earthquakes would have been felt around the planet, they say.

The seismic energy made the planet’s crust more permeable. Molten rock deep in the interior began flowing through fractures. As that magma expanded, gasses in the solution began forming bubbles. As with a shaken soda bottle, the results were likely explosive.

“Once that’s initiated, it becomes a kind of runaway process,” said Paul Renne, a University of California, Berkeley geologist and lead author of the new paper.

Lava leftovers may offer clues to dinosaur extinction

Eruptions in India could have contributed to their extinction. Researcher Mike Eddy uses a rock hammer to scrape out fine-grained material from a rock layer within the Deccan Traps, step-like hills formed by lava in India that cover roughly the sizes of the states of Washington and Oregon combined. Around the end of the Cretaceous period, there was a massive volcanic eruption in India. Gerta Keller

His co-author Mark Richards, another Berkeley geologist, was lead author on a study published in April that said the Chicxulub impact, increased volcanic activity and mass extinction may have occurred “within less than about a hundred thousand years of each other.” The latest study reports new measurements that narrow that window to less than 50,000 years.

Major gaps remain in the data, but these events “could have been exactly at the same time,” Richards said. That would then suggest causality and not random coincidence: The object from space could have boosted the rate of lava flows.

The end-Cretaceous mass extinction has been the subject of rancorous debates in the scientific world. Until 1980, no one had a solid theory for what triggered the dinosaurs’ die-off. Then the father-son team of Luis and Walter Alvarez reported anomalous amounts of iridium in a clay layer right at the geological boundary between the Cretaceous and what is now called the Paleogene period. Iridium is rare on Earth but common in extraterrestrial objects. They hypothesized a giant impact, and the discovery of the crater remnants a decade later seemed to close the case.

But the volcanism camp persisted. They pointed out the extreme levels of volcanism at the same time as the impact. Was all that lava irrelevant?

Gerta Keller, a Princeton geologist who has long championed the idea that the volcanism, and not the Chicxulub impact, led to the mass extinctions, said in an email that “there is still the big problem of demonstrating that this impact could have triggered the intense eruptions that led to the mass extinction.”

The new research could point to an eventual reconciliation of the two views, Renne and Richards believe. Both camps could both be right to some degree. First came the blow from space, which incited the blow from the Earth’s molten interior.

“Maybe it’s a paradigm-uniting theory,” Richards said.

Paul Renne, director of the Berkeley Geochronology Center and a professor-in-residence at UC Berkeley, inspects a reddened soil horizon called a red bole between lava flows. (Mark Richards, UC Berkeley)

Joel Achenbach writes on science and politics for the Post’s national desk and on the “Achenblog.”

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