Version 2.0

 Starting a new life with purpose and direction more in the coming blogs

Mahabharata - History or Mythology

Mahabharata is an epic that a lot of us grew up with, thanks to Doordarshan and BR Chopra. Each character stayed in our minds and represented a facet of who we are. While I enjoyed the TV show it took many years for me to connect with its deeper metaphorical connection with life and universe. And it does not stop there, every time I revisit the story, it offers new meanings and perspectives. All you need is an open and inquisitive mind. Here is an attempt to look at Mahabharata from the perspective of Ithihasa.

From the available sources the lineage of Mahabharata starts from King Pururavas and goes all the way till Janmanjeya - the great grand son of Arjuna. There has been many attempts to put a date for the times of Mahabharata and none has been conclusive. Aryabhatta's calculation arrive at 3rd millennium BC and so does the Jain inscriptions in Aihole, Karnataka. Contemporary scholors find these calculations erroreneous and arrive at 5th millennium BC as the period when this epic happened. Assuming it happened sometime around 5000 BC, we can draw conjectures that the last known Kuru King Janmenjaya lived around 5000 BC and one of the earliest ruler from our recorded history King Mahapadma Nanda walked the earth around 1000 BC. That gives us 4000 years of void except for a few broken pots and drainage system that comes in between, from the Harappa and Mohenjo daro age. 

Thanks to the profanity of the britishers we know more about Harappa's drainage system and less about their culture. Apparently the british party that was incharge of constructing rail roads in Sindh took the bricks and stones from these ancient structures as cheap raw material for their building activities. If not for these idiots I wonder what else we would have uncovered about this civilisation and perhaps a connection to King Janmenjaya or his descendants? Sadly, we will never know. The present day Kurukshetra which is Haryana and Delhi is believed to have been subjected to massive floods following Janmenjeya's rule which forced the Kuru's to abandon that part of the country. 

Here is a visualisation (not to scale) that puts things in perspective.

Thanks to Kannan and Srini for reading drafts of this.

T I M E

Birth and Death are inevitable. Man understood that from the time he started to think. He also observed the changes around him and noticed a pattern. He tried to quantify this by defining a Calendar.

In India from early times, there were 2 references chosen, the SUN and the MOON. Even today there are 2 new years’ celebrated, Chandramana and Souramana.

The Greeks and the Romans had a Calendar based on SUN and it had 10 months. When Alexander came to India, roughly around 300BC, the Greeks were surprised to see that the Indians followed a 12 months calendar. However, when they observed closely, they had to accept that the Indians were right. After the Romans adopted Christianity, they noticed that the season when Christmas occurred changed. Hence, 2 months were added to their calendar, July and August, in memory of the Roman Emperors Julius and Augustus Ceaser. The New Year day was shifted from April 1^st to January 1^st and those who insisted that April 1^st was New Year were termed “Fools” and we still remember it by calling April 1^st the “Fools Day”. If you don’t believe me, just look at the names of the months once again, the 9^th Month is called “September”; but “septa” is the prefix for 7 in Greek. 10^th Month is October but “octa” is the prefix for 8. Similarly for November and December.

Muslims chose the Lunar method for calculating the year. Having originated in the harsh Arabian Desert, there was no discernible change in the weather based on SUN and they resorted to calculate the year with 12 lunar months. However, there is an anomaly to this. 12 months of Lunar cycles is only 355 days. If you notice the Ramzan festival over the past 6 years, you can see that it is around 11 days earlier as per the Solar calendar.

YEAR	Date as per Solar Calendar	Difference
2013	August 7
2014	July 27	11 days
2015	July 17	10 days
2016	July 6	11 days
2017	June 25	11 days
2018	June 14	11 days

Although, this did not have a bearing in the Arabian Desert, this does have implications for example in England. If Ramzan falls on the summer months, the days are long which impacts the fasting duration.

Interestingly, in India too most festivals are celebrated based on the Lunar Calendar. The 15 days between Ammavasya (New Moon Day) and Poornima (Full Moon Day) are named based on the number of days, viz., 1st Padya, 2nd Dwitiya, 3rd Tritiya, 4th Chaturthi.. etc. The Waxing and Waning Lunar cycles are named as “Shukla” and “Krishna” Pakshas respectively. The festivals are named based on those, such as, Ganesha Chaturthi, Krishna Janma Astami, Rama Navami etc.

Now to the crux. All the festivals are celebrated with some traditional dishes. For instance, Rama Navami is celebrated with Panaka (Sweet juice), Butter milk and Kosumbari (Salad dish). This is ideal for the summer season, when this festival falls.

Hang on… this festival is based on the Lunar Calendar, how can it fall in summer always? This would be a natural question. We already saw that Ramzan, which is based on Lunar Calendar, falls on different seasons.

This is where; we have to respect the ancient Indian wisdom. Our ancestors saw this anomaly very early and they introduced extra Lunar months to compensate. These were called “Adik Mas”. There are 2 extra months in 5 years. 11 days per year for 5 years equals 55 days, add to that the extra day of the leap year, which corresponds to 2 lunar months. This ensured that we can enjoy the Panaka and Majjige on Ram Navami, which falls in summer, even though it is based on Lunar Calendar.

Our ancestors did not stop at this. They also named 60 years. The 60th Birthday is still a very important birthday in a person’s life and called “Sashtiabthapoorthi”. Usually it is celebrated in a grand way. It is said that a person’s horoscope will be an exact match on the 60th birthday to that on his date of birth. 60 is the Least Common Multiple of 12 and 30. Jupiter takes 12 years and Saturn takes 30 years to complete one revolution.

There are many more hidden mysteries around us. It’s left for us to unravel and appreciate them.    

Jai Gurudev

7 Dimensions

I am intrigued whenever I think of the 7 chakras and the kundalini awakening. Who isn’t? I am certain that, each and everyone of us would have had an unforgettable experience in our lives with regards to that.

The 7 chakras are (courtesy google):

In this blog, I want to talk about the 7 dimensions that we live our lives in and would like to bring in the parallels with the 7 chakras and my experiences with them.

When an individual is born, there are 2 chakras which are active, Muladhara and Svadhistana. This I want to draw a parallel to the 2 excretory organs. This function happens from the day we are born. These 2 dimensions, can be likened to the X & Y axes in a 2-dimension graph.

The next logical step for the 3^rd dimension is the Z-axis. This concept is a bit tricky to understand as a young kid. I know how I struggled in my First Semester engineering drawing. This is also the time when we are encountered with the 3^rd chakra, Manipura. All of us would have experienced this when we reach the age of puberty, the activation of our sexual organs.

Today, we all know what is going to be the 4^th dimension.. TIME. This is related to our heart and mind. This chakra, Anahata is the 4^th and its location is the heart.

The 5^th chakra is Vishudda, and it is located at the throat. When we cry or laugh with lot of involvement, usually the throat gets tired. And this is the chakra for feelings. So, the 5^th dimension is FEELINGS.

The 6^th chakra is Ajna and it is located in the centre of the forehead, in between the eyes. When you think, your thoughts come out of here. The 6^th dimension is THOUGHT.

The 7^th chakra is Sahasrara. This is located at the top of the head and it covers the whole head. In our life, this dimension can be likened to RELATIONSHIPS. The first and most important is MOTHER. This signifies TRUTH. Next is Father, signified by TRUST. Third is GURU for KNOWLEDGE. And there can be many… spouse, children, friends, colleagues, strangers… it can go to thousands. Perhaps, that’s why this chakra is called SAHASRARA, in Sanskrit, SAHASRA = 1000.

Scientific interpretation of VASTU principles

As for my first blog, I thought I will share my findings on Vastu.

In the present day scenario, all of us would like to have a house which is most energy efficient. Considering today’s power cost and environmental awareness among all of us, it certainly makes more sense.

The natural energies that are to be taken into account are: Solar energy (for light and heat), wind energy and gravity.

Sun is vital for us on EARTH. It not only helps plants to produce food for all of us, it can also be used as an eco-friendly energy source for our daily needs. These days, it is very uncommon to find a house without a solar water heater. And, as technology advances, there will be many more ways by which we can utilise sun’s energy.

So, wondering why I am talking about SUN in a title under Vastu.. Read on....

We all know that days and nights are caused due to the Earth’s rotation on its axis. Before we proceed, we need to understand, how seasons are caused as well. There are 2 aspects:

1. Earth’s revolution around the SUN.
2. Earth’s axis tilt of 23.4⁰.

The above 2 contribute equally for the seasons to be caused on Earth. For a better understanding, please refer to the figure below (courtesy Wikipedia).

Now, this is the view, from high above. Let us make it more relevant to lesser mortals like ourselves. As is evident, the two hemispheres on Earth have diagonally opposite seasons, due to the amount of sun light that falls on that hemisphere.

Let us see the movement of sun relative to a point anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere. Even though, the sunrises in East and sets in West every day, it is not exactly true. To understand this, a concept followed in the Hindu calendar is very useful. In the Hindu calendar, a year is divided into 2 halves with six months each. One half is called Uttarayan and the other Dakshinayan. In the six months of Uttarayan (mid-january to mid-july), the sun travels in the North direction viz., the sunrise point shifts from south-east to north-east. And, yes you are right, in the six months of Dakshinayan (mid-july to mid-january), the sun travels in the south direction viz., the sunrise point shifts from north-east back to south-east. On the days of Equinoxes, 21^st March & 23^rd September, the Sunrise will be exactly in East and the Sunset will be exactly in West. Let me put it in a diagram. Another point to note here is the angle of the Line of Sunrise will depend on the latitude on the Northern Hemisphere. The closer to the North Pole, the steeper the angle.  In other words, the difference between the longest day (June 21^st) and shortest day (December 21^st) will be more as we move towards the North Pole and least at the Equator.

Sun Rising in the Northern Hemisphere

 

Now, in the month of December, this is winter in Northern Hemisphere, you want to stay in that part of house which is the warmest. (Unless of course, you are ok for a big electricity bill for air-conditioning). Post afternoon, the sunlight will directly fall only on the South and West walls. In the evening, when you want to retire to bed, you would certainly like to rest in the warmest place, which is evidently the south-west corner. You can refer the figure below for illustration.

Sun Setting in the Northern Hemisphere

Another factor to consider is, during Summer, the Sunrise happens fairly early. The north-east part of the house gets really warm early in the morning. This could really disturb your sleep, especially if you had a long and tiring day. Hence, the coolest place under such situation, is the diagonally opposite south-west corner. Hence, the best place to have the Master Bedroom, where the Master of the house can have maximum comfort, is the south-west corner.

The best location for the window of the Master Bedroom is on the South side wall. By keeping the window here, we can ensure that we get direct sunlight into the room only in the Winter months. If it is located on the West wall, the harsh sunlight during the evening will come into the room even during Summer, thus making the room very hot.

It is common sense, that wherever, the Master of the house stays, he/she would like to keep their valuables there. The nearer it is, the safer it is. And how better to name this place than to name it after KUBERA (the Hindu god of Wealth). Hence, the south-west corner of the house is called KUBERA MOOLA.

Since we have fixed the Master Bedroom for the house, next we will see which is the best place for kitchen. We should consider the following:

1. It is a place where food items are stored, hence it could attract insects.
2. It should be warm and ample light should be there in the mornings.

Considering the above, the best place is the south-east corner.  The sunrises in the east and also during winter mornings, the sunlight falls on the south and east walls of the house. The insects which might be hiding will also come out due to the warmth of the early morning sun and can be chased away.

Hence, the south-east corner of the house where the fire god is invoked for cooking, is called the AGNI MOOLA.

Since we have the Kitchen in the south-east corner, the best place to have the bathroom and toilets are the diagonally opposite place in the north-west corner. This corner is called the VAYU MOOLA. In days, when we did not have room freshners, the cooking aroma will be filled in the house and will ensure that the odour from the toilet does not fill the house.

The north-east is called the ISHANYA MOOLA. Ideally, this place should be left empty. There is a reason for this. Since the south-west is the place where you have all the valuables, the entrance of the house, should be as far away as possible, so it should be in the north-east corner. And usually it is also recommended that this corner should be 1 or 2 feet below the house level. That is because, if there is a day, when there is unusually large amount of rain, which might lead to floods, if the north-east corner of the house gets flooded with water, the master of the house can take all the valuables from the KUBERA MOOLA and abandon the house, before it is too late.

So the final plan should like this:

The above is true for any place in the Northern Hemisphere.

Extrapolating the above logic, for Southern Hemisphere the moolas will be as under:

• KUBERA MOOLA: North-West
• AGNI MOOLA: North-East
• VAYU MOOLA: South-West
• ISHANYA MOOLA: South-East

Have you tried to read the word VASTU in reverse order... it becomes U T S A V...

Live in a house built as per VASTU and let everyday become an UTSAV!!

Kannan

kanasu137@gmail.com

Just starting this blog with two of my close friends who are very keen to discuss on various aspects of life. Though we are not sure what exactly are the entire list of discussion areas below are the ones to start with:

Significance of Vasthu in everyday life - Kannan is a expert
Sprituality - Kannan & Madhu seem to be very keen
Ashtanga yoga - I am very keen
Pranayama & meditation - Kannan

We hope to keep this space flowing and moving