We and our Customs

Every race/community, in order to survive in this weird world, develops a piece of its culture which is unique from others. Hinduism, oldest religion in world also developed its own unique cultural base, traditions and a philosophy of Life. Cultural identification is needed for recognition and survival.

In Hinduism we postulated 16 sanskars [ceremonies] from birth to death of a man. Many of these sanskars [ceremonies] are out of vogue now. Two prominent sanskars [ceremonies] which are in vogue are Yagnopavit ceremony and Marriage ceremony. Even these two have gone under  modifications.

Yagnopavit:-

It marked acceptance of student by teacher [Guru]. With this child entered into formal education. This education besides imparting Vedic knowledge extended to art and craft also. This ceremony can be compared to Baptism in Christianity. Both boys and girls used to undergo this ceremony. Manu smriti, Harita dharamasutra and Kurma Puran endorse girl yagnopavit. Girls who opted for marriage instead of gurukul did symbolic yagnopavit ceremony on their marriage day. In Kashmir this ceremony is done with some modifications introduced by rishi Logaksha. This ceremony [sanskar] is one of the 16 sanskars a Hindu has to undergo from birth to death in this world. Sanskars are essential for physical, mental and spiritual development of a person. Though ARYA SAMAJ accepts girl yagnopavit, orthodox Hindu canons do not approve of girl yagnopavit. This ceremony is for all Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishya. Bandhayan grihyasutra even mentions this ceremony for Shudras. Age limit for this ceremony was fixed as:- Brahmin 8 years, Kshatriya 11 years and for Vaishya 12 years. Sacred thread worn on this ceremony has three strands. These three strands stand for three goddesses---Savitri, Saraswati and Gayatri, meaning Goddesses of Deed, Word and Mind. Knot [Brahm gand] represents cosmic energy holding three Goddesses. At physical plane three strands stand for our three responsibilities towards Devtas, Pitras and Household. Wearer of this sacred thread had to be pure in thought and in deed.

Today yagnopavit is not done for girls and out of boys custom now mainly in Brahmin community. Ceremony has lost its vitality and is reduced to just social display. This boy even after this all elaborate ceremony is not introduced to Vedas. He is not told significance of holy Gayatri mantra. After ceremony he does not know how many Vedas are there and what they stand for. Not knowing true significance of ceremony boy hangs this sacred thread in bath room and forgets about it. Question comes to mind if that is ultimate fate of this sacred thread ceremony, then why do it at all? Shouldn’t we ask Gurujee to impart us including boy undergoing this ceremony some Vedic knowledge, tell us significance of Gayatri Mantra and its relevance. That way faith can develop in these rituals and guarantee their future.

Marriage:-

This is another sanskar day by day losing its sanctity. Hindus are only community in this world who believe in its sacrosanctity. For Abrahamic religions marriage is just a contract between boy and girl which can be easily broken. In Hinduism there are various types of marriage ceremonies, but most common is matching of horoscopes of boy and girl. After matching of horoscope compatibility of families was assessed .Only after horoscope matching and family compatibility consent for marriage was given. Mahurat [auspicious date and time] for” Lagan” was got from Guru jee . At “Lagan” boy and girl were told significance of marriage and their duties to each other and to family.

Now this Mahurat, importance of marriage, duties and significance of Vedic mantras has been hijacked by video filming of events, Jai Mala [a Rajput custom] and filmy songs. From DAAR Puja to Posh Puja everything is done mechanically. There is no attempt to know true significance of what is being done. Even Guru jee at times is asked to finish mantras fast for some less important social events. No one listens to mantras being chanted by Guru jee. Net result boy and girl do not know importance of marriage and its implications. Marriage is taken as bondage for fulfilling one’s desires. Wisdom of all what was done in past is seriously doubted.

Marriage today is a gala function with big feast. There is exchange of costly gifts [glumut]. No body knows importance of Glumut in past and its irrelevance today. With love marriages on rise horoscope matching has taken back seat. Even it is ridiculed right and left by concerned. A question comes to mind, if we have no faith in horoscope matching, Mahurat etc. then why run this drill before marriage?

Conclusion:--

We Hindus are only community on this planet who doubt and ridicule customs and our cultural heritage. Vedic wisdom is being criticized despite the fact that over 99% of us cannot read or write Sanskrit [language of VEDAS]. When whole world has started accepting Vedic wisdom, we are leaning towards west for patronage. Isn’t it a irony that we criticize without trying to know what is written in holy books!

Are you aware of any Muslim/Christian who is criticizing his cultural heritage, leave alone religion. Yet we Hindus are ready to criticize our religious customs without trying to find their essence. Any society/nation survives because of its cultural base. Mao se Tung of china said long back, “To destroy a country, just destroy its culture”. Same was done by Britishers and Moghuls who ruled us. Even after independence we are slaves to western ideology. This is intellectual bankruptcy. We have made mess of our ceremonies and religion on the whole, citing freedom of expression as reason. We are ever ready to adopt others customs for petty gains. This shows we are a sick society.

If we have to survive we need to understand Vedic wisdom and significance of all cultural heritage including Sanskars. For this intellectuals have to read Vedas and translate their wisdom in local/ national language. These intellectuals should not trust western translations which obviously are biased and prejudiced. In mother tongue this Vedic wisdom can be easily grasped. This will help us in developing faith in these ceremonies [sanskars]. Once there is faith we will be able to carry these sanskars forward in better and firm way.With out faith these sanskars are going to die in future.

Need of hour is to revisit our past to secure our future. Strong cultural base is backbone of society/community. It should be our endeavor to rebuild our society and culture.All rituals need to be celebrated with fervour and faith ,as they give spiritual resonance to our lives.

Man and this weird Universe

 

This universe we live in has eluded comprehension. Inspite of claims and counter claims by scientists and religious authorities the fact remains that we still don’t know much. Scientists seem to claim that they are about to figure out everything, but these claims remain fairy tales only. Religions seems too dogmatic and many a times irrational.

         Let us briefly go through the current claims of science and Religion regarding this seemingly weird universe of ours.

                 

Universe

Science tells us matter does not exist, what exists is energy. Concept of Big bang is antithesis of science’s own assertion I.e”, From nothing something cannot come”. Big bang is a misnomer as no such bang occurred in past. What happened is expansion of” String” which is continuing even today. There are multiple and parallel universes. Universe at subatomic level is weird. At subatomic level sub atom can be at multiple places at same time, be invisible and can go through solid objects. What can happen to object here, same can happen to its duplicate even being billions of years away---Quantum entanglement. Parallel universe means Tower destroyed in our world will be existing in parallel world. Dark matter which constitutes 85% of Universe is not electron or proton but something different. It is involved in Universe formation and its destruction. There could be dark planets and dark life too. Concept of time and space break at micro level. We only know about 4% of this Universe.

About TIME which is being labelled 4^th dimension science says, “Our past may not be gone, Future already exists”. Time may not be flowing at all. This time is measured by predictable motion of Earth around Sun. It is cyclic and repetitive. Time runs at different speeds. Past, Present and Future depend on motion/time space equation. Distinction is just illusion. Gravity slows time and can be used as Time Machine. Different things happen in this universe at same time. A person from outer space coming towards us can see our past and if going away can see our future. Time moves in forward direction. Vedas label time as subtle energy which came before manifestation of this universe.

     While Vedas state that Creator is both intelligent and material cause of this universe but science attributes this universe to Big bang though at the same time acknowledges some sort of intelligence behind this Creation. Science says Big bang occurred 13.8 billion years back. Earth was formed 4.5 billion year back. Life on earth 2.5 billion year old and modern looking man just 200,000 year old. Did life start on earth itself or was triggered by something?

It is senses which make our external world. Brain does not see this world but receives electric signals from it. These signals are converted into particles, which form images and projects reality out to perceive. We then watch this colorful world inside our dark Brain. Brain is like movie projector and this universe a holographic projection around Earth. The electrons which are building blocks of what we call reality are not solid particles at all but exist as waves. It changes into particle in a specific location in space and time. This universe is 3 dimensional projection of 2D reality behind it. Intelligence which Quantum physics says is behind creation is labelled as GOD by philosophers/ religious peers. These peers have given their own version of Creation.

     Science tells us Earth orbits around Sun. There is no planetary observation by which we on Earth can prove that earth is orbiting Sun----BERHARD Cohen, physicist. Seeing is not believing, our senses can deceive us. Stars we see may not be what they appear to be. Light, time, space and gravity create realities beyond human experience. By the time light from some stars reaches us, they are already dead, so for those stars we see only their Ghosts. We see their light but their body has perished long long ago. When that is scientific reality, how can science be dogmatic?

Man and evolution

Till1859, when Darwin published “on the origin” of species by natural selection, mankind firmly believed in Biblical version of Creation of this universe and Man by GOD. Biblical version means Earth created just in 4004BC [JAMES Ussher].According to Genesis Adam was born In 3961BC, Noah 2705BC and Abraham 1815BC.

 Fossil finds led Darwin to speculate that species evolved by a process of natural selection and mutation. Evolutionary theory means that Man is descendent of APES, an idea totally refuted by religious pundits. Similarities in early stages of development of species led Darwin to believe in common ancestry. Darwin himself had said, for evolution theory to be correct there have got to be intermediate species which have not been found till today. Though evolutionary theory is widely accepted today yet this theory is not provable nor proved. It is interesting to note here that mankind did not know about existence of Dinosaurs until 200 years back when Dinosaur fossils were first found. Dinosaurs are believed to have got extinct 65 million years back, yet we find their presence recorded in various old civilizations. Is Dinosaur story a case of knowledge pilfering by scientists to suite their vested interests?

Anthropologically modern man has its origins in Africa, around 200,000 years back. Homo sapiens is an African species that spread in old world. Homo Neanderthalensis and H.erectus lived in other parts of world outside Africa. Migration of this primitive man to Europe occurred just 40,000 years back and to USA just 15,000 years back. Studies of halo groups in y chromosomal DNA and Mt DNA have largely supported a recent African origin. Splitting of humans from chimpanzee occurred around 4-8mil years back. By tracing mtDNA scientists have come to conclusion that mother of modern humans lived in Africa. They call her  ,”African Eve”. But this African Eve has some problems:-“What about mtDNA of other women who lived during Eve’s time, she could not be ancestor to all who came after/before her time “.  Lastly, why did not African H. Erectus evolve more than Neanderthal to whom it predated by a million year? All this anthropological assertion is based on fossil finds in Africa. If tomorrow we have new fossil finds from other parts of world, this whole anthropological hypothesis could change? Narmada man, 250,000 year old fossil found at Hathnora, Gujarat could be trend setter in such situation?

Human DNA is no exception. We share 40-50% DNA with cabbage and 98%with chimpanzee. ALL humans share 99% of their DNA. In DNA testing only small portion used for testing. While we inherit nuclear DNA from both parents, mtDNA is inherited from mother side only. Nuclear DNA is molecule of life and contains genetic instructions for development of being. There are nearly 3 billion DNA base pairs. By present estimates humans have 22000 genes. By comparing mtDNA geneticists have concluded that last female common ancestor---Called Mitochondrial Eve must have lived just 200,000 years ago.

Man has been trying all through to find answers of this inexplicable universe. Scientists have been probing external world and religious pundits both external and inner world. While Abrahamic religions believe and teach in external GOD, Hinduism has been talking of inner GOD. Hinduism believes that man is Microcosm of God. Abrahamic religions do not stress on knowing Truth but rely on historical revelations through prophets. ABRAHAMIC RELIGIONS HAVE NEVER HAD AN ADQUATE FRAME WORK FOR SCIENCE. But in Hinduism stress is on knowing Truth and there are no dogmas. Hinduism believes Reality has two faces, one which is manifest can be perceived by senses and other is unmanifest which is beyond senses, to be explored by meditation. Modern science should be seen as a new kind of Smiriti, the one that has useful purpose. Vedic knowledge should also be accepted a kind of Smiriti and its usefulness explored. As of now this Vedic knowledge is nearly dumped by scholars.

While Abrahamic religions state   that Creator and Created are two different identies but Hindu’s say Creator and created are one and same. They further state that this universe is superimposition on Creator. Religious notions many a times are dogmatic, nonverifiable too. How does person evaluate benefits offered by religions that await one after death is a million dollar question for religious pundits? Science on the other hand tells us this universe is outcome of Big Bang [String theory] , yet in same breath says its assertions are probabilistic. Science has not been able to produce life out of that which was not life till date.

Heisenberg and Schrodinger acknowledge Upanishad wisdom and its closeness to Q. mechanics. In nutshell what is certain is that this Universe we live in is weird at subatomic level. Both science and religions have their cosmology but not proved one and not provable too.

                  “Is science or religion on the side of Truth?--- only time will tell”.