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The Ayodhya Verdict - Triumph of Truth

In this Kali Yuga - The grievances of millions of Hindus around the world stands vindicated with this landmark judgment.

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"One word of truth is stronger than all the lies in the world." -  Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn (1918 - 2008).

Nirad C. Chaudhuri (1897-1999) His first book, The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian, was published in 1951 and was followed by many others, including The Continent of Circe, for which he won the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize, and Thy Hand Great Anarch!, a second volume of memoirs. Booker Prize winner. Chaudhuri moved to England in 1970.

He wrote about Ayodhya thus:

"That what happened in Ayodhya should not have happened is another matter. But I say that the Muslims do not have the slightest right to complain about the desecration of one mosque. From 1000 A.D. every Hindu temple from Kathiawar to Bihar, from the Himalayas to the Vindhyas has been sacked and ruined. Not one temple was left standing all over northern India. At the beginning of the 18th century the Jesuit priest and mathematician Tippenthaler noticed in the evenings as he travelled from Malwa the flickering flames of tiny earthen lamps placed by the villagers at some risk to themselves. Temples escaped destruction only where Muslim power did not gain access to them for reasons such as dense forests."

Otherwise it was a continuous spell of vandalism. No nation with any self-respect will forgive this. They took over our women. And they imposed the Zazia, the tax. Why should we forget and forgive all that?

What happened in Ayodhya would not have happened had the Muslims acknowledged this historical argument even once."

All Hindu historians are liars. From 1907 onwards we became aware of the Hindu-Muslim problem as regards the nationalist movement. From that date until 1946 every fellow Bengali I have asked and every other Indian too had only one standard argument: The Hindu- Muslim problem does not exist. It has been created by the British.

"The Muslims were the first to invent the thoery of permanent revolution. The communists took over from them. No Muslims can live under the political domination of non-Muslims. Secondly, Muslims divide the world into two: regions of peace and regions of conflict. It is the duty of of every Muslim to bring the latter within the fold of Islam. The Arab equivalent of the caliph is "Commander of the Faithful". And his obligation is jihad (holy war)."

Refer to Islam: Arab Imperialism - By Anwar Sheikh.  Refer to Kashmir Hindus: Forsaken, forgotten for 21 years - By Lalit Koul and Ethnic Cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits: The Nastiest Fascia Of Islamic Terrorism - By Dipin Damodharan  - Refer to the book - Our Moon Has Blood Clots: The Exodus of The Kashmiri Pandits - By Rahul Pandita (Random House India)

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Refer to Video - Democracy in Crisis – Congress : A story of suppression & subjugation

Arun Shourie wrote a book titled "Eminent Historians" (a sarcastic title for the expose on this Cult of Historians). He had suggested - with merit, it now seems - that:

"During the past fifty years, "this bunch of Marxist historians have been suppressing facts, inventing lies, perverting discourse, and derailing public policy" by seizing control of institutions such as the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), the National Council of Educational Research Training (NCERT), large parts of Indian academia, and nearly all of the English-media newspapers and publishing houses."

(source: Eminent Historians: Their Technology, Their Line, Their Fraud - By Arun Shourie).

(Note: This group is not very large - probably over 40 - but it keeps circulating the "Eminence" around for each other. The main characters and protagonists of this Cult of Historians group are Romila Thapar, Satish Chandra, K.M. Shrimali, K.M.Pannikar, R.S. Sharma, D. N. Jha, Gyanendra Pandey, and Irfan Habib. So strong is the hold of these historians on even the publishing industry that Arun Shourie had to self-publish his books because no one would let him publish his books.).

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"In our view, the conclusion drawn by the ASI in the project accomplished within an extra-ordinary brief period and with such an excellence precision and perfection deserve commendation and appreciation instead of condemnation."  - Justice Sudhir Agarwal.

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Those who go under the rubric secularists ('eminent' historians, most mainstream journalists, 'liberals', etc.) have been most upset that the High Court judgement on Ayodhya has accepted the following:

1. The site where the prayers for Shri Ram is presently being conducted is sacred for the Hindus;
2. That a large temple existed at the site;
3. That it was destroyed and the Babri structure built in its place.

This is what the Hindus have been saying all these years, and it is exactly the opposite what the secularists have been saying all these years. The secularists have been responded to a long time ago - yet, they pretend that their position has not been contradicted in the various discussions that have already been held. The Hindu side has been published in journals that are easily accessible to these secularists. The source of information that the Hindus have put their case forward is also easily available to the secularists.

Yet, negation of the history of Islamic vandalism is a feature of the discourse amongst the secularists.

The judgement has challenged the various postions (in the intellectual space) that they are presently occupying. If the truth were to become the accepted paradigm, then they can no longer be parasites in the society. They have been earning their living, often in institutions financed by the people of India, in a lazy manner. They will now have to justify their positions, if they wish to continue to occupy them.

(source: Nirad Chaudhari tells the historical truths - By Ashok Chowgule - hvk.org). Refer to Reject this anti-Hindu education and history - By J G Arora

Watch video - Dr. Koenraad Elst speaks about the Ayodhya verdict -haindavakeralam.com

Ayodhya: Triumph of Truth 

Hindus who have long been culturally oppressed by the so-called secular brigade can at last walk with their heads held high.

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"For too long Hindu nationalism had been cowed; it was now finding its true voice, and this resurgent yearning can only be good"   - V.S. Naipaul (Nobel Laureate) on Babri Demolition.

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If there is a clear winner in the vexatious dispute over the Ram Janmabhoomi, it is Truth (satya), which has triumphed in the face of formidable obstacles placed by cussed political actors nurturing communal votebanks, aided and abetted by an army of rapidly secular (read viciously anti-Hindu) fellow travellers in media, academia, and of course, the west-centric activists/busybodies. The judgment has taken the friendless Hindu community towards closure, even though the verdict divided the land among the Hindu Mahasabha, Nirmohi Akhara, and Sunni Central Waqf Board. The central dome where Ram Lalla Virajman is housed has been given to the Hindu Mahasabha.  

Justice D.V. Sharma further ruled that the building constructed by emperor Babur was built against the tenets of Islam (being a place of dispute) and did not have the character of the mosque (being without minarets). It was constructed over a massive Hindu religious structure as proved by the Archaeological Survey of India; Hindus have been worshipping the place as Janm Sthan (birthplace) and making pilgrimages there from time immemorial.  Justice Aggarwal noted there was no clear evidence when the mosque was built and by whom, but it existed when Joseph Tieffenthaler visited Oudh area between 1766 to 1771. Justice S.U. Khan agreed the mosque was built by Babur, but on the ruins of a temple, and some temple material was incorporated in the mosque.

The greatest vindication at Ayodhya is of the Archaeological Survey of India, whose experts work diligently to excavate and preserve the truth of our heritage in the face of extreme nastiness from arid Lib-Left academicians who grab state funding and western patronage to denigrate India’s civilisation and culture.

Supreme Court direction in 2003, the ASI worked under the glare of a hostile media disinformation campaign, to unearth the truth that recovered the Ram Janmabhoomi as a Hindu heritage and validated Hindu civilisational memory.  

(Refer to The Unbearably Sickening Indian Pseudo-secular Press - By Atanu Dey - deesha.org). R efer to Kashmir Hindus: Forsaken, forgotten for 21 years - By Lalit Koul and Ethnic Cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits: The Nastiest Fascia Of Islamic Terrorism - By Dipin Damodharan

The Muslim community would do well to resist overt and covert incitement by badly beaten and bruised secular fundamentalists who could barely conceal their rage in television studios.  

(source: Ayodhya: Triumph of Truth  - By Sandhya Jain - vijayvaani.com). Refer to Indian Media's War on Hinduism - by Swami Jyotirmayananda and Indian media's credibility crisis and Little support for Rajdeep Sardesai's defence of tainted journalists - deccanherald.com

Ayodhya Verdict and History

"When a man has begun to be ashamed of his ancestors and his past, the end has come"- Swami Vivekanand.

Dr. Dipak Basu (    )  Professor in International Economics in Nagasaki University, Japan has written:

Ram as Historical Person

Ram was mentioned not only in Valmiki"s Ramayana, but also in Vyas"s Mahabharata at four places -- Ramopakhayan, Aaranyak Parva, Drona Parva and Dashrath Kathanak. In Rig Veda (10.60.4.4), there is a mention of Iksvaku, the ancestor of Ram and the founder of Ayodhya. The Atharva Veda mentions Ayodhya as having nine gates. The Atharva Veda (18.3.16) mentions the name of Vishwamitra, Vashista the preceptor of Ram, and Bhardwaj.

According to ancient Indian chronology and Puranic tradition Ram was born in the 24th Treta Yuga (Great Age).  The Valmiki Ramayana (Bal Kanda 18.8.9) mentions at the time of Lord Ram"s birth as "the ninth lunar day of the bright fortnight of Chaitra, Punarvasu was in the ascendant and five planets (the Sun, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and Venus) appeared in the zodiacal signs of Mesa or Aries, Makara or Capricorn, Tula or Libra, Karka or Cancer, and Mina or Pisces respectively. Jupiter in conjunction with the Moon appeared in Karka. From these, it is possible to calculate that Ram was born on January 10, 5114 BC, which means to say 7,122 years ago.

Refer to Was Lord Ram really born

According to Vedas, the world is 4.32 billion years old, and man arrived on earth approximately two billion years ago. Man was created on earth in the seventh manmantar of Vaivasvat Manu. The sun, planets, stars, earth, sea, vegetation, flora and fauna were created in the earlier six manmantars. Western scholars now agree that the earth is aged between 3.96 and 4.3 billion years.

Thus, it is most unscientific to rule out Ramayana, Mahabharata and Purana as just myths, but not informal history of the ancient India.

"Whoever has done or willed too much let him drink from this deep cup a long draught of life and youth........Everything is narrow in the West - Greece is small and I stifle; Judea is dry and I pant. Let me look toward lofty Asia, and the profound East for a little while. There lies my great poem, as vast as the Indian ocean, blessed, gilded with the sun, the book of divine harmony wherein is no dissonance. A serene peace reigns there, and in the midst of conflict an infinite sweetness, a boundless fraternity, which spreads over all living things, an ocean (without bottom or bound) of love, of pity, of clemency." 

-  Jules Michelet (1798 -1874) French historian first and enduring impression made by The Ramayana

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Ayodhya controversy could not have taken place if the Muslims acknowledged this historical fact.

In Europe, epics of Homer and The Bible are not considered as myths, but informal history. The ruin of Troy, described by Homer, is already excavated. Israel government made serious efforts to excavate every places mentioned in The Bible to find out its ancient past. In India as well, S.R. Rao, former chief of the Archaeological Survey of India, has discovered the ruins of Dwarka submerged in water off the coast of Gujarat. Japanese ground Radar Company Tojo-Vikas has found out ruins of huge places 30 meter under the ground of Ayodhya.

Thus, it is most unscientific to rule out Ramayana, Mahabharata and Purana as just myths, but not informal history of the ancient India.

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The verdict of the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court agreed on three important issues: Muslims do not have exclusive claim to the site held sacred by Hindus; the ground where the central dome of the Babri Masjid stood belongs to Ram Lalla as has been argued for centuries by Hindus who believe it is Ram Janmabhoomi; and, a temple existed at the spot that was selected by Mir Baqi to build a mosque to celebrate Babur's victorious military campaign in the region. On the third point, two of the three judges also agreed that the temple was desecrated and destroyed to build the mosque; one of them held this to be un-Islamic, a point validated by Islamic theology.

Do the Muslims go to the court to establish their faiths regarding Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem (where the Prophet went by flying to establish the Dome of the Rock)? Do the Christians ever go to the court to establish their faith regarding Nazareth, or Bethlehem or Jerusalem? The Court has nothing to do with the faith. It is a great insult for the Hindus that the court is deciding whether their faith is valid or invalid.          

Swami Vivekanand said, "When a man has begun to be ashamed of his ancestors and his past, the end has come".   

According to the Pseudo-Secularists of India, 62 academics and journalists who have signed a petition against the Allahabad High Court verdict, Ramayana, Mahabharat, Purans are nothing but mythology and the rights of the Mongol invaders are sacrosanct.


Historical Evidences:  

There are enough archeological evidence to demonstrate that the Mosque in Ayudhya was erected by destroying a temple, which was there, and the materials from the temple was used to build that Mosque by Baber, the Mongol invader to India.

Some excerpts from the book "Rama: His Historicity, Mandir and Setu, Evidence of Literature, Archaeology and other Sciences" written by Dr B B Lal, Former Director General of the Archeological Survey of India would prove beyond doubt that there was a temple in the Janmabhoomi (birth place of Ram) area at Ayodhya preceding the construction of the Babri Masjid.

"Attached to the piers of the Babri Masjid there were twelve stone pillars which carried not only typical Hindu motifs and moldings but also figures of Hindu deities (Figs. 2.3).
It was self evident that these pillars were not an integral part of the Masjid but were foreign to it. Since, as already stated, the pillar-bases were penetrating into the Masjid complex, a question naturally arose whether these bases had anything to do with the above-mentioned pillars affixed to the piers of the Masjid. (pp-55)."

"Of the above mentioned three inscriptions, the largest one is engraved on a stone-slab measuring 1.10 x .56 meters, and consists of twenty lines. The relevant part of it reads as follows: a beautiful temple of Vishnu-Hari, built with heaps of stones and beautified with a golden spire unparalleled by any other temple built by the earlier kings was constructed."

Babar"s own voluminous memoirs, "The Baburnama" gives us an insight into the mind and activities of the Moghul / Turkish conqueror. Originally written in Chaghatay (a dialect of Turkish), two English translations of the book are available. The first one was by Annette Beveridge and published between 1912 & 1921.

The second and more authoritative version, "The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor" was translated, edited and annotated by Wheeler M. Thacktson and published by the Oxford University Press in 1996. Babur"s stayed in Ayodhya from April to September of 1528.

Baber wrote, "Chanderi had been in the daru"l-harb [Hindu rule] for some years and held by Sanga"s highest-ranking officer Meidini Rao, with four or five thousand infidels, but in 934 [1527-28], through the grace of God, I took it by force within a ghari or two, massacred the infidels, and brought it into the bosom of Islam ..." (p. 331)
"For the sake of Islam I became a wanderer; I battled infidels and Hindus."
"I determined to become a martyr. Thank God I became a holy warrior." (p. 387)
"Hindustan is a place of little charm. ... The one nice aspect of Hindustan is it is a large country with lots of gold and money."

(source: Ayodhya Verdict and History - By Dr. Dipak Bau - ivarta.com).

Refer to Mother Teresa had plans for Ayodhya: Kolkata priest and Jesus Bluff The Universal scandal of the world - By Hans Atrott.

Without Hindus, there can be no India.'

Freeing India's Colonized mind

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Annie Wood Besant (1847-1933) was an active socialist on the executive committee of the Fabian Society along with George Bernard Shaw. George Bernard Shaw regarded her the "greatest woman public speaker of her time." Was a prominent leader of India's freedom movement, member of the Indian National Congress, and of the Theosophical Society. She was also fundamentally instrumental in freeing the country she lost her heart and sublimed her soul to: India. Besant is an indivisible part of the composite struggle for independent India because she declared most passionately:

She said on India and Hinduism :

"After a study of some forty years and more of the great religions of the world, I find none so perfect , none so scientific, none so philosophical and none so spiritual that the great religion known by the name of Hinduism. Make no mistake, without Hinduism, India has no future. Hinduism is the soil in to which India's roots are stuck and torn out of that she will inevitably wither as a tree torn out from its place.  And if Hindus do not maintain Hinduism who shall save it?  If India's own children do not cling to her faith who shall guard it. India alone can save India and India and Hinduism are one. " 

(source: India: Essays and Lectures Vol. IV - By Annie Besant The Theosophical Publishing Co. London. 1895 p. 11).

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India's Colonized mind and its myths

It was the felicity of the British mind that consigned so much of ancient Indian history to the dustbin of myth, from the treasure chest of history. Not wanting to acknowledge the equality-at the least-of Indian civilisation with that of ancient Greece and Rome, historians of the colonial school (including several indian nationals) have consistently denied the reality of the existence of Lord Ram. It is in such a context that Justice S U Khan has shown himself to be an Indian unscarred by the inferiority complex created by the acid found within the colonised mind.

What needs to be condemned is the attitude of successive governments in "free" India to Sri Ram. Rather than celebrating Him in history textbooks, rather than learning from His life in civics classes, rather than using the logic of His epoch to weave a path through the present, our governments have each accepted the colonial sleight-of-hand and continued to consign Sri Ram to the status of myth. It is an indication of the grip of the colonised mind within our chatterati that so many have expressed shock that Sri Ram could have been taken as an authentic figure.

All citizens of India should rally together to defeat the still-strong vestiges of the colonised mind in our scholastic and cultural life, and thereby prove the truth.

A month ago, this columnist visited Stonehenge in the UK, and saw for himself the care with which this ancient treasure has been preserved and celebrated. Had the British been infected with the acid found in a colonised mind, they would have considered Stonehenge to be a freak of nature, and allowed it to remain in neglect. Instead, they have ensured that it be given an honoured place in the many cultural and historic treasures found in the country that gave the world the Magna Carta more than a millenium ago. Sadly, here in India, no effort has been made to identify and protect the numerous sites associated with Sri Ram. How wonderful it would have been, if we could visit a replica of the dwelling that Sita and He stayed in, while in exile. How much respect for our own heritage would have been boosted, if we were enabled to trace His journey to Lanka, an island where-surprisingly-sites exist that are associated with the exploits immortalised in the Ramayana. Instead, we accept the fiction that Sri Ram was a myth, and that therefore he could not have been born.

It is not accidental that the cacophony against the Allahabad High Court verdict has two strands joined in partnership. One is of course the Nehruvian representatives of the colonised mind, who cannot accept that any person as noble as Sri Ram could have been actually born in this country. The others are the Wahabbis, who are the standard-bearers of the colonised mind within the Muslim community.

What is needed is an organised movement (that cuts across communities) to re-create the sites that are associated with Sri Ram, in the same manner in which the British have protected Stonehenge and the Chinese have (largely) recreated the Great Wall. What is needed is for the nation to understand that Sri Ram is to Indians what Alexander is to the Greeks and Julius Ceasar is to the Romans.

(source: India's colonised mind and its myths - By MD Nalapat - orgainser.org). Refer to India on Verge of ‘Cultural Ecocide’: Sanskrit Scholar
 

Imagined Histories

"While politically expedient, and while going unchallenged in the academically most consequential forums for twenty years, that position has now been officially declared false. It suddenly dawns on them that they have tied their names to an entreprise unlikely to earn them glory in the long run. We may now expect frantic attempts to intimidate the Supreme Court into annulling the Allahabad verdict, starting with the ongoing signature campaign against the learned Judges’ finding; and possibly it will succeed. But it is unlikely that future generations, unburdened with the presently prevailing power equation that made this history denial profitable, will play along and keep on disregarding the massive body of historical evidence. With the Ayodhya verdict, the eminent historians are catching a glimpse of what they will look like when they stand before Allah’s throne on Judgment Day.”    

                                                  - Dr. Koenraad Elst author of Negationism in India

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The court watched a parade of the good, the bad and the ugly

It is correct that in Sikh literature there is a tradition that Guru Nanak had visited Ayodhya, had darshan of Ram Janmasthan and had bathed in the River Saryu.”

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When the history of the Ayodhya movement comes to be written, there will be the inevitable search for heroes and villains.

An exploration of the voluminous judgment of the judge, Sudhir Agarwal, is pertinent in the context of a determined bid by India’s vocal left-wing intelligentsia to rubbish the judgment as a departure from modernity, constitutionalism and the rule of law. In a statement by 61 ‘intellectuals’ led by the historian, Romila Thapar, that includes the cream of the left-liberal establishment and sundry art dealers, photographers and food critics, the judgment was attacked for dealing yet “another blow to India’s secular fabric”.

Refer to Kashmir Hindus: Forsaken, forgotten for 21 years - By Lalit Koul and Ethnic Cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits: The Nastiest Fascia Of Islamic Terrorism - By Dipin Damodharan

At the heart of the fury of the ‘intellectuals’ is the court’s assault on the reputation of the clutch of ‘eminent historians’ which has dictated the ‘secular’ discourse on the Ayodhya dispute. The court questioned the competence of various ‘expert’ witnesses and cast doubts on their intellectual integrity.

In its conclusion, the ASI submitted that “a massive structure with at least three structural phases and three successive attached with it” was located at the disputed 2.77 acres in Ayodhya. The scale of the buildings indicated that they were for “public” functions. “It was over the top of this construction during the early 16th century the disputed structure was constructed directly resting over it.”

The Epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata have both contributed in a big way to enrich the folklore of not just India but most of South east Asia. 

In Thailand, Ramayana dance-drama is the national dance, an inheritance of the country ancient Hindu past, and the Thai king traditionally models himself on Rama. Indonesia is famous for its shadow puppet theatre depicting Ramayana.

(image source: A Tribute to Hinduism: Thoughts and Wisdom spanning continents and time about India and her culture - By Sushama Londhe  p. 30).

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Without mincing words, the ASI report had brushed aside the so-called Historians’ Report to the Nation authored by the professors R.S. Sharma, M. Athar Ali, D.N. Jha and Suraj Bhan released in May 1991. This document was a plea to the government of India “to include impartial historians in the process of forming judgment on historical facts”. As an example of this “impartial” history, it was argued that “the full blown legend of the destruction of a temple at the site of Rama’s birth and Sita ki Rasoi is as late as the 1850s. Since then what we get is merely the progressive reconstruction of imagined history based on faith”. 

Once the ASI excavations confirmed that the Babri Masjid wasn’t built on virgin land, “impartial” history turned to imaginative history.

There were also suggestions, never proven or pressed, that the ASI had falsified and suppressed data. The court was not amused.

The judge, Agarwal, was “surprised to see in the zeal of helping… the parties in whose favour they were appearing, these witnesses went ahead… and wrote a totally new story” of a mosque under a mosque.

She (Suvira Jaiswal) was articulating the prevailing philosophy of history writing in contemporary India. The courts recoiled in horror at the “dearth of logical thinking” and the underlying cronyism behind the public stands of India’s “eminent” historians. Quoting a British Law Lord from an 1843 judgment, it suggested their expertise was “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” — harsh words that civil society needs to remember on the next occasion the “impartial” historians strut on the public stage.

(source: Imagined histories – By Swapan Dasgupta). Refer to Islam: Arab Imperialism - By Anwar Sheikh

Refer to chapters on Sacred Angkor and Suvarnabhumi. Also refer to Eminent Historians: Their Technology, Their Line, Their Fraud - By Arun Shourie

Comments on the article: "The Historians report to the Nation is an insult to all Indians, and all followers of the scientific method. This is akin to the Creationism and anti-global warming movement in the US, where personal opinion is confused with scientific fact, in this case by people strangely on the right side of the aisle in that country."

"Eminents" of the Cult of Historians are miffed

Coming back to the Ayodhya judgment. What has miffed these "History and Archeology" experts and which has really ticked them off is that the Allahabad High Court and Archeological Survey of India clearly and unequivocally cooked their goose by ordering the excavations at the site

(source: Cult of Eminent Indian Historians and the Ayodhya verdict - Drishtikone).

Dr Koenrad Elst opined that Lord Buddha was never a rebel against the Hinduism, even Sikh religion founder Guru Nanak says, he is direct dissident of Sri Rama. The pseudo-secularists says, "the site which was called as Rama’s birth place is not original one, but Vikramaditya picks any land in his territory and announces it is the birthplace and builds a temple there. After Vikramaditya, the ayodhya was the centre of learning of Buddhists and was a one of intellectual capital of India.

The archaeologist experts have accepted that the Mosque was not in the style of Mughal. In the Muslim documents itself, the name of masjid is written as Masjid-e-Janmasthan. There are many Muslims who accepts the place is birthplace of Ram, says Dr Koenrad Elst. Concluding his speech, he said, according to Islamic belief, if idols are worshipped at a place, it ceases to be a mosque.

(source: Left historians reprimanded - Dr Koenraad Elst - By S Chandrasekhar).

Slap in the face of 'Eminent Historians

"Hinduism has admittedly been the least politically minded among religions; otherwise the history of India would have been altogether different" 

                                                                      - K. Guru Dutt author of Hindu Sadhana.

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"Today I feel sorry for the Eminent Historians" – Dr Koenraad Elst

Regardless of the true meaning and significance of the court ruling on the Ayodhya dispute, one point is clear. It is a well deserved slap in the face of Romila Thapar, R.S. Sharma, K M Shrimali, D N Jha, Amiya Kumar Bagchi, Kesavan Veluthat, Amar Farooqui, Utsa Patnaik and Farhat Hasan and their ilk arguing there was no temple at the site.
 
They will now try to go into hiding but they should be brought before the public and exposed as charlatans. They have been shown as double falsifiers-- The Aryan invasion and now the Ayodhya fiasco.
 
Koenraad Elst wrote in his Negationism in India when the truth comes out these Negationists will not be able to show their faces in public. Let us make sure that this happens by not letting the the public forget treacherous role played by these charlatans and Quislings. Their imposture and false assurances was responsible for much of the Muslim intransigence and the bloodshed. These 'eminent historians' have innocent blood on their hands.

(source: Slap in the face of 'Eminent Historians - By N S Rajaram). Refer to Islam: Arab Imperialism - By Anwar Sheikh

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Ram Ki Nagari, once again

A mosque, a temple and a court verdict in India

It is a sordid tale of conquest, destruction, inter-religious conflict and bloodshed. And India was on edge as the verdict was delivered this afternoon. The remarkable decision was as bold in its breadth and scope, as muted as it was in its final order. The three judge panel--two Hindus and one Muslim--declared that yes, a temple existed at the site before Babar destroyed it and built his edifice incorporating portions of the temple in his own structure. Yes, the site is the exact locus that Hindus have revered as the birth site of Lord Rama since "time immemorial," who was a "juristic person" and was born thousands of years prior. And yes, Hindus have a right to build a temple on the site.

First the basics: In 1528, Zahir-ud-din Babar, the first Islamic ruler of large parts of India, built a mosque on grounds held sacred by Hindus as the birthplace of one of their most widely worshipped avatars, Lord Rama--worshipped beyond India throughout South Asia, and venerated hero of the Hindu epic, the Ramayana. A massive Hindu temple complex at that site was destroyed by Babar to make way for the mosque.

So those are the facts, but as the 8,000 page verdict was sent on to New Delhi, Hindus may sigh with satisfaction even as the press will move on to details of appeals that will be filed and the political ramifications. Churchill claimed history is written by the victors, and India's, ironically, is shaped by a millenium of Islamic and then British conquests. But the facts laid out in this decision add a dimension of veracity to the faith of Hindus usually disputed by India's famously far-left historians. Many have argued that it is the very disenfranchising of Hindus from the historical contentions of their scriptures that fuels disaffection and the fodder for demagoguery.

Lord Krishna and Lord Shiva, along with Lord Rama, are prominent players in the Hindu pantheon. Seek out their most revered temples and sacred spaces, in Mathura where Krishna was born, and Kashi, the holy city of Shiva, and massive mosques built by conquerors still mark the spots. Several thousand temples were destroyed throughout India by the marauding Mongol, Babar, and those that followed him in the 15th and 16th century following the example of Babar's immediate Turk predecessor, Sultan Mehmed II, who was busy laying siege to the Hagia Sophia, the focal point of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Constantinople just a few decades earlier. This is not to say that history must be reversed in every corner of India--far from it. But acknowledgement of an injustice is a necessary first step, and an accomodation long denied to Hindus. The modern Turkish government, after all, had the courage to turn the destroyed Hagia Sophia site into a museum acknowledging a disputed past.

The prevailing response for Hindus, then, is vindication.

Babar is a reviled figure in Hindu lore, and now the world knows why. Hindu Americans had long chafed reading modern historical renderings of an "alleged temple" to the "warrior god Ram"; of fawning accounts from the notoriously "pseudosecular" Indian academy of Babar's mosque and their highly "authoritative" claims, parroted in the Western media.

It was astounding that despite copious evidence unearthed by the Archaeological Survey of India, these same historians and politicians refused to concede that Babar had actually destroyed a massive Hindu temple, one of the holiest for Hindus, and built a conquest monument he called a mosque.

Lord Rama is almost always rendered as an ahistorical mythological character set in an interesting epic--the judgment terming him a "juristic person," is given in syntax as clumsy as it is empowering. He existed, Hindus can claim with a legal imprimatur, and his birthplace is as real and important as Bethlehem, the Temple Mount or Mecca. It is a jejune claim that a legal judgement affects the faith of a billion Hindus, but Hindus rarely find their faith corroborated in the cold renderings of history or law.

(source: A mosque, a temple and a court verdict in India - By Dr. Aseem Shukla). Refer to Ram Ki Nagari, once again – By Kanchan Gupta

Ayodhya Verdict leaves ‘secular intellectuals’ aghast

Sagarika Ghose (1964 - ) is an Indian secular journalist, author (The Gin Drinkers) and television anchor calls:

"Lord Ram – a divine encroacher"?

Refer to Kashmir Hindus: Forsaken, forgotten for 21 years - By Lalit Koul and Ethnic Cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits: The Nastiest Fascia Of Islamic Terrorism - By Dipin Damodharan

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Dr. K. M. Munshi  (1887 - 1971)  A freedom fighter, Committee of the Indian National Congress. He founded Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in 1938 with the blessings of Mahatma Gandhi. He ceaselessly strove for cultural and spiritual regeneration. He has drawn our attention to the harm several European scholars have intentionally done to Hindu culture: He laments how the failures of Hindus have been highlighted and how their successes have been consistently ignored:

“It (history) does not give us the real India. … During our school or college career, generation after generation were told about the successive foreign invasions of the country, but little about how we resisted them and less about our victories. We were taught to decry the Hindu social systems; but we have never been told how this system came into existence as a synthesis of political, social, economic and cultural forces; and how it developed in the people the tenacity to survive catastrophic changes.”

(source:  History of Ancient India: Distorted and Mutilated).

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Some of the outburst was predictable. Those whom Arun Shourie dubbed the "eminent' historians were understandably agitated that the High Court judges had the effrontery to discount their 'no-temple-ever' assertions in favour of the evidence culled by the Archaeological Survey of India. Their spirited attempt to reclaim the mantle of sole spokesmen for India's past was understandable. If the courts discount their fatwas, it was only a matter of time before the stifled voices of other historians would make their departmental dominance more fragile.

Also following the script was the apoplectic fury of those who had hitherto been the respectable face of secularist modernity.

Their apprehension was any possibility that the Hindu and Muslim leaderships would cut a deal above their heads and make redundant their franchise to speak on behalf of the minority. For two days and courtesy some TV channels, the secular modernists attempted to whip up Muslim opinion against the judgment and use the community's apparent displeasure to force the Government into using its proverbial "good offices" with the Supreme Court. The overall idea is to build up an intellectual climate so forceful that the Supreme Court would think it prudent to overturn the High Court judgment.

The provocative, self-preservation tactics of the thekedars of conflict—one 'secular' lady said that the Indian state no longer had a social contract with Muslims, an assertion that could well be construed as legitimising terrorism—would have certainly had a disorienting effect had it been backed by community pressure. Without mincing words, the professional secularists are trying to create a fresh communal schism by nurturing minority victimhood. It's a very dangerous game.

(source: Verdict leaves ‘secular intellectuals’ aghast - By Swapan Dasgupta - dailypioneer.com). Refer to Unholy Trio: Nira Radia, Barkha Dutt, Vir Sanghvi - vijayvaani.org

Hinduism - An enabling way of life

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami (1942 -  ) When Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami attained mahasamadhi, his great departure, on November 12, 2001, he designated Bodhinatha Veylanswami, a disciple for 37 years, as his successor.  He was interviewed recently:

Who, would you say, is a Hindu?

My guru Satguru Sivaya Subramuniya Swami would define Hinduism as belief in karma, reincarnation, and the all-pervasiveness of divinity. He would say if you believed in these three essentials, you were Hindu. Interestingly, many people in the West believe in these essentials without being aware of their Hindu roots.

Would Hinduism help us deal with the challenges we face in a globalised world?

Hinduism is providing useful global models. The one we often use is the concept of vasudhaiva kutumbakam — the whole world is a family — meaning that we are to take care of each and every one, regardless of religion, language or region. Like aerobics or any other exercise for that matter, you need to practice Hinduism in your daily life to reap its benefits. Take the example of the Hatha Yoga tradition; followed regularly, it can relieve you of everyday stress.

What kind of daily practices would you recommend?

Our emphasis is on devotional practices. Ideally, people should offer a small prayer in the morning before leaving for work — it's great if the family can pray together in the home shrine; this way, the children acquire the habit of praying daily.

Going to the temple once a week is strongly recommended. In the West, where there isn't always a temple close by, we recommend making the effort to go to a temple at least during festive seasons. You could go on a tirtha yatra or pilgrimage at least once a year. Before going on a pilgrimage, a period of self-purification does one good.

An important aspect of Hinduism is dharma, or virtuous living. The focus of dharma is to uphold the 10 yamas or ethical restraints. They include ahimsa or non-injury to fellow beings; satya or truthfulness; asteya or non-stealing; brahmacharya or sexual purity; kshama or forgiveness; dhriti or steadfastness; daya or compassion; arjava or honesty and straightforwardness; mitahara or vegetarianism and moderation in eating; and shaucha or purity.

Observance of traditional rites of passage, called samskaras are equally important. At these ceremonies, an individual receives the blessings of God, the guru, the family, and the community at crucial stages of life. They include the namakarana, the name-giving ceremony, annaprashana — or the first feeding of solid food, vidyarambha or initiation into education, vivaha or marriage, and antyeshthi, the funeral rites. These have been referred to as the pancha nitya karmas or the five eternal practices by Satguru Subramuniya Swami.

Hinduism is a way of life. It's not confined to what we do in the shrine; it includes everything — most importantly our interactions with others. Hinduism is a free-flowing religion and offers you much that could interest you.

Do you see any change in people's perception of Hinduism?

Hinduism is a misunderstood religion. Two of the commonly misunderstood notions are that Hindus believe in idol worship and in a multiplicity of gods without any one being Supreme. Some of our literature addresses these issues.

The new generation might not have had as much exposure to Hindu tenets as earlier generations have. What would be a good way to revive interest in Hindu philosophy?

We don't run hospitals or schools, but we've been bringing out a quarterly magazine called Hinduism. Today that attempts to share valuable insights of the faith with readers. But whatever we do or write, we cannot replace parents who should ideally be sharing these values with their children, both by example and instruction. We can, at the most, help them to become more aware of the tenets of faith and increase their understanding of scriptures and rituals.

Hinduism does not set forth a set of rules of dos and don'ts. Hinduism provides interesting tools that help you access the core of your being. Once you are able to do that, leading a happy and contended life would not seem all that difficult. 

(source: Hinduism - An enabling way of life - hinduismtoday.com).

Japanese couple weds Hindu style in Bodh Gaya

A Japanese couple tied the knot in Bihar's Bodh Gaya, a holy town for Buddhists, in Hindu style to send a message of peace and harmony to the world.

"We came to Bodh Gaya all the way from Tokyo to get married to send the message of love, peace and harmony," the couple said.

Massako Kawada, 31, clad in traditional red saree, wedded 32-year-old Kazenori Araki Thursday amid much fanfare at a temple in Bodh Gaya, about 110 km from Patna. "The marriage was solemnized with the bride and groom taking the ritualistic seven rounds of the fire and the groom applying vermilion in her (bride) hair parting," Shreekant Pandey, a local Hindu priest who conducted wedding, told reporters over telephone.  The ceremony was attended by close relatives of the bride and the groom, some tourists and locals.

(source:  Japanese couple weds Hindu style in Bodh Gaya - ndtv.com).

The Case Against Lord Krishna in Poland

With the rapidly spreading Hinduism worldwide, a nun in Warsaw, Poland, filed a case against ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness). The case came up in court. The nun remarked that ISKCON was spreading its activities and gaining followers in Poland. She wanted ISKCON banned because its followers were glorifying a character called 'Krishna' "who had loose morals," having married 16,000 women called Gopikas.

The ISKCON defendant requested the Judge: "Please ask the nun to repeat the oath she took when she was ordained as a nun." The Judge asked the nun to recite the oath loudly. She would not. The ISKCON man asked permission if he could read out the oath for the nun.  Go ahead, said the judge. The oath said in effect that the nun is married to Jesus Christ.

The ISKCON man said, "Your Lordship! Lord Krishna is alleged to have 'married' 16,000 women only. There are more than a million nuns who assert that they are married to Jesus Christ. Between the two, Krishna and Jesus Christ, who has a loose character? And what about the nuns?" The case was dismissed.

(source: The Case Against Lord Krishna in Poland).

Hindus want Diwali as school holiday in Cambridge, MA

Hindus have applauded Cambridge School Committee (Massachusetts, USA) for reportedly declaring Eid as a school holiday from the next year in Cambridge Public Schools. Well known Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement today, while congratulating the Committee for including this additional holiday, urged it to also add Diwali, the most important Hindu holy day, to the holiday calendar. Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, called it "a step in the right direction". Awareness about other religions thus created by these holidays would make the Cambridge Public Schools' pupils well-nurtured, well-balanced, and enlightened citizens of tomorrow, Zed said and added that it would make District look good also besides bringing cohesion and unity in the community.

Zed further said that since it was important for Hindu families to celebrate Diwali day together at home with their children, we did not want our children to be deprived of any privileges at the school because of thus resulting absences on this day. According to Zed, Diwali, the festival of lights, aims at dispelling the darkness and lighting up the lives and symbolizes the victory of good over evil. Hindus worship goddess of good fortune and beauty Lakshmi, god of wisdom and auspiciousness Ganesh, and mountain Goverdhan on this day. Also on this day, coronation of Lord Ram was held, Lord Hanuman was born, Lord Vishnu returned kingdom to monkey king Bali of Kiskindha, Lord Vishnu and goddess Lakshmi married, Lord Krishan killed demon Narakasur, and ancient king Vikramaditya was crowned. On this day of forgiveness, festivities, and friendliness; families and friends get together for worship followed by a sumptuous and elaborate feast. It is also considered a harvest festival. In 2011, it falls on October 26.

Cambridge public schools had already declared First Day of Rosh Hashanah (September nine), Christmas Eve (December 24), and Good Friday (April 22) as holidays during the current school year. It has 12 elementary schools and one comprehensive high school serving about 6,000 students, and employs over 700 teachers and over 450 support personnel. School Committee, which determines overall School Department policy and budget, is chaired by Cambridge Mayor David Maher; while Jeffrey M. Young is District Superintendent. Oscar winner Hollywood stars Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Walter Brennan; Noble laureate Eric A. Cornell; Olympic Gold winners Frank Hussey, Patrick Ewing, Charles Jenkins; former Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan; are some of the notable Cambridge Schools' alumni. Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about one billion adherents and moksh (liberation) is its ultimate goal.

(source: Hindus want Diwali as school holiday in Cambridge, MA - sify.com).

Sabrimala temple

Sabarimala is where Hindu God Lord Ayyappa meditated. Temple is situated amidst 18 hills in the Sahayadri range (Western Ghat) at an altitude of 914 metres above sea level and four km from The River Pampa. Ayyappa devotees visit the temple after 41 days of vrata. The temple is surrounded by mountains and dense forests. Temples exist in each of the hills surrounding Sabarimala. Devotees must go at least once in their lifetime. Sabarimala pilgrimage is the world’s biggest annual pilgrimage and some 5 crore devotees visit temple every year. Women between the ages of 10 and 50 are not allowed to enter the temple as Lord Ayyappa is a Bramachari - a bachelor.

Sabarimala is where Hindu God Lord Ayyappa meditated. Temple is situated amidst 18 hills in the Sahayadri range (Western Ghat) at an altitude of 914 metres above sea level and four km from River Pampa.

Worship of Lord Ayyappa devotees visit the temple.

Refer to Kerala Christians Prevent Construction of Railway to Hindu Hill Shrine - christianaggression.org and Malabar, 1811: The long road to freedom from slavery - By N P Chekkutty and The St Thomas In India History Swindle

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The important message given at the temple is the ultimate knowledge that you are the God, Tat Tvam Asi in Sanskrit meaning - That is you and this is the reason why pilgrims call each other Swami. This is the same message that was given by Sri Narayana Guru, who is another saint of Kerala who installed a mirror as the idol of a temple. The temple is surrounded by 18 hills, each with a temple. Today, remnants of these temples are visible from the Sabarimala temple.

Tragedy at Sabrimala
Conspiracy to destroy Hindu pilgrimage

On 14-1-2011 around 102 persons were killed in a stampede in an unlit narrow forest road due to lack of proper arrangement by the Kerala government that controls the Hindu pilgrim site at Sabarimala. This is a repeat of history. In 1952 around 66 pilgrims died and in 1999 some 53 pilgrims died in a stampede. Committee recommendations to avoid it were not implemented till now. Hindu temples and pilgrimages sites should be in the hands of Hindus away from the present control by anti Hindu communist and congress governments. Politicians and the contractors linked to the Travancore Devaswam Board loot the income of Sabarimala. There is no water to drink for the pilgrims on the way, or has any facility to protect them from elements, when they have to wait up to 12 hours in the queue. The sacred Pampa river is polluted. There is no facility for prompt disposal of garbage.

Criminal Negligence in Kerala: Four policemen for one lakh pilgrims?

Kerala Government is ruled by Anti-Hindu Communists

Tragedy strike again at Sabrimala temple in Kerala.

According to P.T.Thomas. MP, there was a serious lapse on the part of the security agency. 'There were more than a lakh pilgrims in the Pulumedu area and there were just four policemen. The authorities have failed to provide proper security in an area where such a huge crowd was there.' The Kerala Government just wants money offered by the devotees visiting the Temples, but does not care to provide proper facilities and amenities, and adequate security to pilgrims. The same Govt. readily provides all types of facilities and security for Haj pilgrims..

Refer Over 102 dead in Sabrimala stampede

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The present tragedy appears to be a conspiracy to damage the Left parties prospects to get elected in the coming election. The accident is very strange and appears to have caused by a jeep that was pushed to start as its self start failed. The jeep appears to ran over one pilgrim and caused some scuffle. This appears to have caused a stampede, which is difficult to accept. There was a chain that tied across the road that blocks any jeep travel along the forest road that is normally left open by December 10, was not opened. It looks like the moving mass of pilgrims started falling after hitting the chain across the road. The forest area was not lit. There were earlier attempt to discredit the pilgrimage to Sabarimala by the Christians. All said and done, there was hardly any proper arrangement in an area where pilgrims are routinely gathered to watch the Makara Vilakku.

A 2000 year old wood will not survive burial in Kerala’s humid earth and the racket was exposed. Pilgrims have to take a dip in the Pampa river. But the river is highly polluted and the Rs.320 crore Sabarimala Pamba Action Plan under the National River Conservation Programme (NRCP) is yet to be completed. The Travancore Devasom Board (TDB) controls the functioning of all temples in south Kerala including Sabarimala. Government control of Hindu temples means looting by corrupt politicians from all parties and the atheist government staff. This is vividly seen at Tirupati. The late Christian Y Samuel Rajasekhara Reddy put his Christian half brother as TTD chairman and used the TTD funds to carryout sports activities in the name of his Christian parents.

Kerala Govt earns every year from the Sabarimala pilgrimage, Rs.10,000/- crore via sales, taxes etc. Yet Kerala government carryout step motherly treatment to pilgrims and the Sabarimala temple. Kerala government are paid from offerings given by the devotees.

(source: Sabrimala temple - indianrealist.com). Refer to Church sex scandals: A worthless and dangerous report and Priest Sex-Abuse Case Hits Church of Pope's Adviser - time.com and Shock after Dutch priest endorses pedophilia

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Kerala Christians Prevent Construction of Railway to Hindu Hill Shrine

As requested by the State Government, the Southern Railway has decided to abandon the construction of the Kottayam-Erumeli railway line. It was Chief Minister Oommen Chandy who recommended this step in the wake of disputes regarding the acquisition of land. The proposed railway line from Kottayam to Erumeli would go through Christian-majority areas. If the line became a reality, the houses of several prominent people, as well as churches, would be lost. In addition, many plantations would be divided in two. The line to Sabarimala would not in particular benefit those who lost their land. The State Government decided to terminate the Kottayam-Erumeli line, which the Center had approved, after taking such issues into consideration.

Railway Division manager Dr G Narayanan said in a press conference that the project has been terminated based on the State Government's recommendation.

(source: Kerala Christians Prevent Construction of Railway to Hindu Hill Shrine - christianaggression.org).

Sabarimala Stampede a Result of Callousness and Apathy

The stampede at Sabarimala Temple on the occasion of Makar Sankranti has resulted in the death of 102 pilgrims leaving several others seriously injured. The incident exposes the callousness and apathy of the Kerala government which was ill prepared to handle the situation. A number of lives could have been saved had the emergency facilities kept available in anticipation of any such mishappenings. But unfortunately no such arrangements were in place and particularly at the time when a large number of pilgrims were converging at the hill shrine for Makar Sankranti celebrations. No arrangements were made to control and regulate the large gathering of pilgrims who were left unto themselves. It was a criminal negligence which resulted in so many casualties sending a shock wave throughout the nation.

The Kerala High Court was right in taking the state government to task for ignoring numerous warnings on the alarming number of pilgrims that descended on the hillock to witness the makarajyothi. A Division bench comprising Justice Thottathil Radhakrishnan and Justice P S Gopinathan had sought the report from police, forest and the Travancore Devaswom Board officials to ascertain on what led to the massive tragedy. The bench observed that it was lack of co-ordination among various entities that led to the disaster. The Bench recalled its warnings to those concerned and had reiterated the need to have better plan to regulate the huge influx of pilgrims to the temple and said, "The high court also asked the government to furnish the details of the help provided to the injured and those stranded in the Pullumedu route in the forest area after the tragedy."

It is very disgusting to note that while the government everywhere in the country earns lots of money by taking control of the temple's coffers never cares to pay attention to the pilgrim's welfare and comforts. Excepting few shrines, most of the Hindu temples in the country are ill maintained and show their miserable existence. It is high time that remedial steps are taken in this direction.

(source: Sabarimala Stampede a Result of Callousness and Apathy - voi.org).

He speaks Sanskrit like a native

The scientific genius of Kalidas

Kalidas flourished at the court of Agnimitra Shunga of Vidisha as is clear from the Bharatavakya of the play Malavikagnimitra which says that when Agnimitra is ruling the subjects feel secure from calamities. The Bharatavakya is not a part of the play. It is sung after the play is over and even those characters which are dead in the play participate in it as actors and not as characters. So Agnimitra is not praised here by the characters but by living actors who have just performed the play.

This proves beyond doubt that Kalidas flourished at the time of Agnimitra Shunga in 150 BC. There are other arguments supporting this view but this is not the place to go into them. It is necessary to bear in mind the date of Kalidas for viewing the scientific statements of Kalidas in the background of science that is known to have existed in 150 BC.

Imagination is necessary for the poet as well as the scientist, but the poet and the scientist use their imagination for different purposes. The poet uses it for creating beauty while the scientist uses it for describing natural phenomena in a way which helps in predicting and even controlling it. But the two types of imaginations are seldom found in the same person. Kalidas is such a rare person.

The phenomenon of day and night was well understood even in the days of the Rigveda. Hymn 1138 of the Rigveda speaks of the messengers of Vrtra wheering round the parinaha or the globe of the earth. The Aitareya Brahman affirms that the Sun neither sets nor rises, He takes a turn and causes day and night.

Kalidas knows in addition to this that the movement takes place around the Meru or the North pole. I was surprised to note that even some students of Sanskrit do not know that Meru is the name of the North Pole though Bhaskaracharya clearly mentions it while explaining the day and night phenomenon at the poles and even Apte’s dictionary clearly mentions that Meru is the name of the north pole.

Kalidas recalls all this while describing the circumlocution of Aja and Indumati around the fire as a part of their marriage rite. The verse says: "The couple circumlocuting hand in hand around the fire whose flames were ascending, looked like the day and night circumlocuting the high peaked Meru with their limits marked by a common line.

Kalidas says that it is the day and night that rotate around the earth and not vice versa as Aryabhatta said in the fifth century. In this he was following science contemporary to him. But his genius lies in visualising how the phenomenon would appear to an observer outside the earth when he is stationary in relation to the Sun. I have met people who are incapable of visualising that to those who land on the moon, the earth will appear above them and not below.

Kalidas however anticipates science in places. In the 14th canto of the Raghuvansha Rama says about the calumny that befell Seeta: "Calumny is irresitible. Even the moon can not escape it. What is merely the earth’s shadow is proclaimed as a stain by all and sundry".

This statement is often mistaken to refer to the shadow of the eclipse. But the shadow of the eclipse is transitory. Again it is not regarded as a permanent stain on the moon. Moon’s escape from the shadow of the eclipse is celebrated.

The stain on the other hand is permanent and is widely described as a stain. It is undeniable that Kalidas regards the stain as the shadow of the earth and is NOT referring to the phenomenon of the eclipse.

This shows how apt the simile is and speaks for the poetic genius of Kalidas. But in addition to poetic fancy the simile is a scientist’s theorising which later on resulted in the astronomy of the eclipse. There is no evidence that the astronomy of the eclipse was understood in 150 BC. S B Deelhit’s History of Indian Astronomy does not refer to any astronomy of the eclipse before the period of Aryabhatta, which is 5th century AD.

The above quoted verse indicates how the imagination of Kalidas worked with heavenly phenomena. But heavenly phenomena engaged the human mind in the remotest of periods. Man took interest in things remotest far earlier than in things nearest i.e his own body and mind. Ancient man’s concern with his own soul should not be cited against this statement because this concern was more imaginative and emotional than scientific. But Kalidas displayed the capacity of understanding the phenomenon of perception on the lines of the Physics of light. Note the following verse in the Shakuntalam. The poet is describing the speed with which the chariot of Dushyanta was being driven.

"What is really curved is being seen as straight".

In order to have such an experience one must move with a speed of at least 50 miles per hour. Such speed was not possible in the days of Kalidas.

A little explanation of how such a perception occurs will not be out of place. This is the result of binocular vision. Two rays coming from the object seen to the two eyes make an angle. The nearer the thing the greater the angle. Points on a curved line are at different distances and therefore make different angles at different times in the movement whereas points on a straight line are at the same distance from the observer at different times in the movement. When the difference in the angle is noticed the thing is seen as curved, when it is not noticed it is seen as straight.

As in the psychology of vision Kalidas displays his insight in psychology of the unconscious also. Psychologists did not talk of the unconscious mind before Freud. That was in the twentieth century. But Kalidas not only had a grasp of this idea, he has even used it for dramatic purposes. Dushanta of the Mahabharata is an unprincipled womaniser who uses an innocent maiden just to satisfy his lust and feigns ignorance of the whole affair when called upon to take the responsibility of his own deed. Kalidas and the principles of Dramaturgy in his days did not allow such a "hero". He has therefore employed the sage Durvasa so that Dramaturgy is not violated and at the same time a very powerful and tragic dramatic scene could be presented. It is the curse of Durvsa to Shakuntala that makes Dushyanta forget Shakuntala. The curse erases the memory of Shakuntala but leaves intact all the emotions that could be revived by remembering her.

When he was sunk in such a blank past he heard one of his queens Hanspadika sing the following song:

‘Oh you droning bee, having kissed the mango blossoms with hasty flight you are now perched on the lotus, clean forgetting the blossoms.!

Polygamous husbands are habituated to such taunts but on this occasion Dushyanta felt he is being stung on a soft spot. This made him restless. He tried to pacify himself by the thought that some event in his past birth is throwing up these emotions without reviving the memory of those events.

This is anticipation of Freud two thousand years ago.

(source:  The scientific genius of Kalidas - By NR Waradpande - organiser.org).

7,000 copies of Bhagavad Gita in area hotel rooms

Pull open a drawer in some Houston hotel rooms, and beside your room-service menu and Gideons Bible, you might find a copy of the Bhagavad Gita. The sacred Hindu text is making its way into nightstands across the country through a campaign to spread the scripture and awareness about Lord Krishna, the deity believed to have spoken the philosophical teachings millennia ago.

A local Hare Krishna temple has placed about 7,000 copies of the Bhagavad Gita in more than 100 hotels and motels in the area.

The project has been successful because of the number of Indian hotel owners who are familiar with the text and happy to place copies in their rooms as a way to share the universal truths of their faith. Indian-Americans make up about 5 percent of the population but own about 40 percent of hotels and motels in the country, according to the Asian American Hotel Owners Association. Across Houston and its suburbs, the Bible is about as familiar and accessible as a phone book, but most people haven't heard of the Bhagavad Gita and probably can't even pronounce it.

"It probably will surprise people to see a Gita. We're new enough that we haven't gotten a whole lot of feedback," said Sarvabhauma Dasa, a spiritual leader at the International Society for Krishna Consciousness temple in Garden Oaks, which is helping sponsor the Bhagavad Gita distribution locally. "Some Americans might be less open-minded to some scriptures, but I think Americans are becoming much more broad, and acceptance has really grown. Maybe 20 years ago, the acceptance wouldn't allow it."

(source: 7,000 copies of Bhagavad Gita in area hotel rooms - chron.com).

Hindus selling India for a US trip and visa for their kids

From scholarships and training programmes for officers to promises of Green Cards and jobs for family members, America is doing whatever it takes to build a lobby for itself in India.

The loquacious charm employed by United States President Barack Obama during his India trip is merely one of the many force multipliers exercised by an economically beleaguered Washington seeking to sell New Delhi varied military equipment for billions of dollars, and affirming bilateral strategic ties as a hedge against a resurgent China.

The other more protracted and consequently effective inducements are the raft of scholarships to American universities handed out to the offspring of top Indian politicians, civil servants and defence and intelligence officers, and the patronage extended to Service officers under the long established Military Education and Training (IMET) programme.

So blatant, widespread and generous is Washington’s largesse to the students — facilitating and financing, as it does, their pursuit of eclectic disciplines like the liberal arts, English literature and, even, art and history in leading U.S. institutions — that it is worth asking to what extent Indian policy on a range of issues of interest to America remains ‘hostage’ to the children of a growing number of Delhi’s powerful decision-makers. The scholarship recipients’ list is embarrassingly revelatory.

(source: Hindus selling India for a US trip and visa for their kids - By Rahul Bedi -indianrealist.com).

United States 112th Congress lacking in Hindus

There are more Baptists and Methodists in Congress that any other religious group, but nary a Hindu nor Jehovah’s Witness in sight, according to the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life analysis of the religious composition of the 112th Congress.

Like the rest of the country, Congress is majority Protestant and about 25 percent Catholic. Baptists and Methodists are the largest Protestant denominations. Jews Presbyterians and Episcopalians have a larger representation in Congress than in the country, while Muslims and Buddhists are about roughly equal to their proportion in the general population. 

But those with the least representation in Congress are representatives who have no religious affiliation whatsoever.  Only one percent (six Congressmen) are unaffiliated or don’t specify a religious affiliation, while 16 percent of American adults say they do not belong to any particular faith.

(source:  112th Congress lacking in Hindus and Jehovah’s Witnesses - orlandosentinel.com).

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