Modern Science

Question about body and identity
Question about consciousness
Questions about science
Ancient Radioactivity

Modern science claims that anatomically modern man is present on earth only about 100,000 years. Vedic scriptures say that he is here much longer. Book from the Bhaktivedanta Institute now presents new look at the scientific evidence. This evidence has been distorted, the books says.

Authors are Michael Cremo (Drutakarma Dasa) and Richard L. Thompson (Sadaputa Dasa), both regular contributors to the Back to Godhead magazine. Their book reveals surprising view of what is considered a scientific evidence and also of the method the science used to reach its conclusions.

Forbidden Archaeology
Michael A. Cremo, Richard L. Thompson
Badger, CA: Govardhan Hill Publishing. 1994.
ISBN 0-9635309-8-4

abridged version: The Hidden History of the Human Race
Michael A. Cremo, Richard L. Thompson
Badger, CA: Govardhan Hill Publishing. 1994.

Related:
The Sadaputa Digital Channel (YouTube) Drutakarma P. site
Dinosaurs

Question about body and identity

Q: I have become interested in some of the philosophies of your movement. One of my favorite bands, 108, live a Krishna conscious lifestyle. They talk about 'being' and 'body', which confuses me. I do not know what being is but I know what body is. I am a body. Spirit, soul and mind are all metaphysical terms for physical parts of our bodies. What would a mind be without a brain? Every thought and emotion is processed and interpreted in the body. I have realized that I am totally made out of chemicals that value bonding together to form the person I am. If these chemical values leave me and I die, then more chemical values will take place. So in conclusion I think soul is the forces behind the organic patterns that keep me alive. Am I right?

A: This is elaborated on in our books like Bhagavad-gita.

If the life is merely a chemical reaction why to care about it at all? What is the use of law, moral codes etc.? Just taking it to an extreme... This approach leads to nihilism, frustration and suicidal tendencies on one hand and killing and exploiting others on the other hand. All this you can see in today's society which proudly promotes materialism. Unfortunately, because of it our so-called civilization is on the verge of destruction. From this is clear that materialism is wrong philosophy. "See the fruits."

_You_ are not the body because the body is _yours_. You don't say "I body" but "my body". That is the simple test. Then there is an extensive scientific research into the nature of consciousness, mind/body relationship etc. involving the study of out-of-body experiences (OBE), near-death-experiences (NDE) and remembrances of past lives. You can find details in the popular books of dr. Raymond Moody, dr. Michael Sabom, dr. Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross, dr. Ian Stevenson and others.

The living being (living entity, jiva) lives in the material body only temporarily. After death is transferred into another body according to his karma.

Regarding the connection of body-mind-living being I can give you an example of a computer. The gross material body is like a hardware, subtle material body (mind, intelligence and false ego) are like a software, and you, the living being, are their user. While living in the material world, you have to communicate through them, thus resembling a paralyzed person using a computer for his contact with the external world (like Stephen Hawking). When you become cured by a spiritual practice you won't need this "bodily computer" you will live in a transcendental, non-material world in your own non-material bodily form. That is our natural, original position.

Related:

You're not the center of the universe (sizes of planets and stars according to modern astronomy)

Question about consciousness

Q: What is consciousness?

A: Consciousness is a symptom of the jiva, living being. Jiva floats in prana in the heart cavity (Katha Upanisad 1.3.1); movement of prana leads to identification with the body (Srimad Bhagavatam 4.29.71). Consciousness is spread all over the body through blood which also moves thanks to prana.

At present our consciousness is covered by matter. Our goal is to reach the Krishna consciousness, our original consciousness:

Srimad Bhagavatam 3.28.35-36:
muktasrayam yarhi nirvisayam viraktam
nirvanam rcchati manah sahasa yatharcih
atmanam atra puruso 'vyavadhanam ekam
anviksate pratinivrtta-guna-pravahah
"When the mind is thus completely freed from all material contamination and detached from material objectives, it is just like the flame of a lamp. At that time the mind is actually dovetailed with that of the Supreme Lord and is experienced as one with Him because it is freed from the interactive flow of the material qualities."
Purport:
In the material world the activities of the mind are acceptance and rejection. As long as the mind is in material consciousness, it must be forcibly trained to accept meditation on the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but when one is actually elevated to loving the Supreme Lord, the mind is automatically absorbed in thought of the Lord. In such a position a yogi has no other thought than to serve the Lord. This dovetailing of the mind with the desires of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is called nirvana, or making the mind one with the Supreme Lord.

The best means of purification is the chanting of the Hare Krishna mahamantra.

"Krishna consciousness is the highest state of consciousness."
(Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, told by bh. Doug, conversation 750302RC.ATL)

Questions about science

Q: Is Earth flat? According to the book "Vedic Astronomy" by Sadaputa Dasa Earth, actually Jambudvip, is a flat disc but according to Surya-siddhanta it is a sphere. Earth is always described as 'bhu-mandala' and it is comprised of ring-shaped islands.

A: Yes, there are simultaneously these two Vedic concepts. They are not clashing. The one in the SB is describing the Earth and the universe from higher, demigods's perspective, and Surya-siddhanta describes it from human point of view. Sadaputa dasa continues in his research of these topics and recently he made some new revealing discoveries published in the book Mysteries of the Sacred Universe.

Q: When does the soul enter the sperm of a male ('punsam retah-kana-asraya, SB 3.31.1)? According to medical science semen has millions of sperms and any of them can combine with an ovum. If they are moving can all of them have souls? Do the other sperms, which do not combine with with ovum, have to leave the sperm body?

A: In his BG As It Is 8.3, p., Srila Prabhupada quotes from Chandogya Upanisad: "In the process of sacrifice, the living entity makes specific sacrifices to attain specific heavenly planets and consequently reaches them. When the merit of sacrifice is exhausted, the living entity descends to Earth in the form of rain, then takes on the form of grains, and the grains are eaten by man and transformed into semen, which impregnates a woman, and thus the living entity once again attains the human form to perform sacrifice and so repeat the same cycle. In this way, the living entity perpetually comes and goes on the material path. The Krishna conscious person, however, avoids such sacrifices. He takes directly to Krishna consciousness and thereby prepares himself to return to Godhead."

Yes, all the living sperm cells are inhabited by jivas. Science says the sperms after the intercourse live only for few hours and then die. Some research into Ayurveda could maybe reveal more information.

Ancient Radioactivity

ISLE OF AVALON KNOWLEDGE BANK
For ye purfuit of naturall philofophie and afforted obfervationals
(formerly at: www.isleofavalon.co.uk/knowbank.html)

ANCIENT CITY FOUND,
IRRADIATED FROM ATOMIC BLAST
This file shared with KeelyNet courtesy of Bryant Stavely.
Excerpt from the World Island Review, January 1992.

Radiation still so intense, the area is highly dangerous

A heavy layer of radioactive ash in Rajasthan, India, covers a three-square mile area, ten miles west of Jodhpur. Scientists are investigating the site, where a housing development was being built.

For some time it has been established that there is a very high rate of birth defects and cancer in the area under construction. The levels of radiation there have registered so high on investigators' gauges that the Indian government has now cordoned off the region. Scientists have unearthed an ancient city where evidence shows an atomic blast dating back thousands of years, from 8,000 to 12,000 years, destroyed most of the buildings and probably a half-million people. One researcher estimates that the nuclear bomb used was about the size of the ones dropped on Japan in 1945.

The Mahabharata clearly describes a catastrophic blast that rocked the continent. "A single projectile charged with all the power in the Universe... An incandescent column of smoke and flame as bright as 10,000 suns, rose in all its splendor...it was an unknown weapon, an iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death which reduced to ashes an entire race.

"The corpses were so burned as to be unrecognizable. Their hair and nails fell out, pottery broke without any apparent cause, and the birds turned white.

"After a few hours, all foodstuffs were infected. To escape from this fire, the soldiers threw themselves into the river."

A HISTORIAN COMMENTS

Historian Kisari Mohan Ganguli says that Indian sacred writings are full of such descriptions, which sound like an atomic blast as experienced in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He says references mention fighting sky chariots and final weapons. An ancient battle is described in the Drona Parva, a section of the Mahabharata. "The passage tells of combat where explosions of final weapons decimate entire armies, causing crowds of warriors with steeds and elephants and weapons to be carried away as if they were dry leaves of trees," says Ganguli.

"Instead of mushroom clouds, the writer describes a perpendicular explosion with its billowing smoke clouds as consecutive openings of giant parasols. There are comments about the contamination of food and people's hair falling out."

ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION PROVIDES INFORMATION

Archeologist Francis Taylor says that etchings in some nearby temples he has managed to translate suggest that they prayed to be spared from the great light that was coming to lay ruin to the city. "It's so mid-boggling to imagine that some civilization had nuclear technology before we did. The radioactive ash adds credibility to the ancient Indian records that describe atomic warfare."

Construction has halted while the five member team conducts the investigation. The foreman of the project is Lee Hundley, who pioneered the investigation after the high level of radiation was discovered.

If you have comments or other information relating to such topics as this paper covers, please upload to KeelyNet. Thank you for your consideration, interest and support.

© This material is copyright. Reproduction and printing of single copies of this material is permitted if it is done in study, research, quotation and fair play. All further reproduction or any alteration of the text for other uses may be done only by permission of the copyright holder (usually the author). Please acknowledge the author in any quotation from this material

a longer version with pictures
'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds'. The story of Oppenheimer's infamous quote
J. Robert Oppenheimer Explains How He Recited a Line from Bhagavad Gita–“Now I Am Become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds”–Upon Witnessing the First Nuclear Explosion
Did modern science ever prove sastras wrong?

page url: http://www.veda.harekrsna.cz/bhaktiyoga/science.htm

Please support us: