The True Religion

A religion is an organization or school of thought which tries to define and practice the correct relationship between the Creator and the creations and that among the creations themselves.

If you agree that a super genius is behind all the visible and invisible forces and phenomena in the universe, worship of this Supreme Being is inevitable. Not that God is pleased when He is praised, but prayer will strengthen your inner self.

If you always keep yourself in the shade, you can never enjoy the invigorating caress of the sun. On the other hand, if you move out to the open, you will be surprised how you are vitalized. Similarly, if you worship the Ultimate Being, you will find His wonderful Grace descending on you. God never bothers or cares whether you pray or not, it is up to you to choose.

The three major modern religions- Judaism, Christianity and Islam- are all anthropocentric, that is, they consider man as the crown of all creations. All other life forms and resources on earth were created for his benefit. In fact, it is this short-sighted philosophy that encouraged man to cut down trees, destroy forests, dam up rivers, bore into the belly of the earth in search of oil and minerals.

Hinduism and its offshoots- Jainism and Buddhism- on the other hand, are pantheistic. They believe that all life forms are sacred and equally important as human beings. Mountains and rivers have souls and are therefore sacred. Trees and other living things have imperishable souls and therefore deserve respect. Man is but one of the billions of life forms on earth and, in the cycle of rebirths, you may reincarnate and reappear on earth after death as an animal or a tree.

Looked down upon as primitive and superstitious by the followers of modern religions, Hinduism has, in fact, greater depth and relevance. A true Hindu will think twice before clearing a forest because, for him, trees are live things with souls and to destroy them is a sin.

Religions, modern or ancient, have invariably set rules and codes of conduct, assigning to each person rights as well as responsibilities so that society functions without friction and strife. Apparently, most of these rules of conduct vary from region to region and religion to religion. But in essence, religious rules stand for the dignity of the individual and the smooth functioning of the society.

But conventional religions have miserably failed in addressing the challenges the modern life has thrown up. For example, all religions condemn killing of a man. But no religion speaks against the cutting down of a tree. In the modern day context, the killing of a tree is more heinous a crime than killing a human being in that the former crime affects only a given community, but the latter the whole life on earth. In those far off days, when the founders of religions lived and preached, human life was not as complex as it is today. Therefore, the tenets and codes formulated by them addressed problems faced by a rather primitive society. Priests destined to carry the torches lit by the founders have always been bigoted and selfish people who always stood in the way of progress and enlightenment. Instead of reforming religious principles to suit the needs of changing times, they have always tried to chain society to old customs and ancient practices.

Almost all the dos and don’ts prescribed by ancient religions are, to a great extent, applicable even in the modern day scenario. For example, not much can be withdrawn from the Ten Commandments prescribed by Moses without peril to a modern society. But, much more needs to be added to them so that human life may go on without great danger.

Obviously, the ecological and environmental concerns all the right thinking persons are worried about should be incorporated into the religious principles. People should be warned against modifying nature to satisfy the avarice of man. Nobody has the right to transform the planet to suit the short sighted goals of egoistic people. The planet should be preserved as the Creator fashioned it: any attempt to the contrary is a sin for which the human race will have to face collective punishment.

All forms of life on earth should be given equal respect. In his megalomania and insatiable hedonism, man has already trampled upon the sacredness of fellow organisms. Oceans, mountains, glaciers, rivers, rocks and forests are equally sacred. All the animate and inanimate phenomena in the world are the expressions of the Ultimate Wisdom, and to destroy them and tamper with them are great sins which the humanity will have to answer for.

To worship God is to preserve nature as it is, and to destroy nature will be rebelling against Him as angels did in the Bible account.

I know such preaching will be a cry in the wilderness but it is the ultimate truth: by ignoring it man will be inviting the wrath of the Great Wisdom of Nature.

International Food Security

Till a few thousand years back, man lived as a hunter gatherer, living on whatever the nature produced. During the seasons of plenty, he ate to his fill and, during lean periods, he went practically without food. His main occupation, therefore, was wandering in search of food. A grown up person walked a minimum of fifty kilo meters daily.

A given area, say a few hundred square kilo meters, could support only a few hundred or so human beings. If the number went beyond a limit, the surplus would perish, either out of malnutrition or because of clan wars. The human race, believed to have been originated in Africa, gradually moved to different parts of the world, obviously in search of food or to save themselves from competing tribes.

Man invented agriculture perhaps ten thousand years ago. He started to cultivate plantains, nuts, fruits, grains and roots to ensure steady supply of foods. Instead of wandering in search of foods, he settled down in fertile areas most often near rivers. In fact, the whole of human civilization is a product of his agricultural activity. Plentiful and steady supply of foods obviated the need for incessant wanderings and hunger no longer haunted him as in the past.

Steady supply of foods resulted in an explosion of population. When he depended solely on foods found in nature, human population could never exceed a certain limit. Now that man produced what he needed, he could father and support a larger family. Unmodified nature could never have supported more than a few million people in the entire globe. So, it is obvious that the present human population of nearly eight billion is another product of agriculture.

Until a century back, agriculture meant cultivation for food production only. Moreover, there was scope for expanding areas under cultivation. Around the middle of the last century, it became obvious to scientists and planners that clearing more areas for farming would adversely affect the Eco system. The only way to increase food production was to improve the per acre grain output. Better varieties and systematic agricultural practices like applying chemical fertilizers were recommended. To protect plants from pests, pesticides were invented and lavishly applied.

Insecticides and chemical fertilizers not only eroded the quality of foods produced but also depleted the natural strength of the soil to support healthy plants. Half baked notions of scientists and the avarice of industry were the villains. The scope for further improving per acre out put of grains is next to nil.

Simultaneously, there was shift from agriculture for foods to farming for industry. Rubber and softwoods started to be grown extensively to cater to the needs of industry. Growth of towns, cities and suburbs made great inroads to areas under wheat, paddy and other crops.

To make matters worse, some wealthy countries like the US are going on with their programme of producing ethanol from grains so that their dependence on petrol for powering vehicles is reduced. This will further worsen the already grim global food availability.

Modifying plants genetically to produce more and to protect plants from insects is a modern way to fight scarcity and ensure plenty. But, the advisability of tampering with nature’s unerring wisdom thus is a matter of dispute.

It is evident that the food production potential of the planet has reached the maximum possible limit. Trying to further increase it is an almost impossible task.

Let’s examine the ways in which an acute shortage of food, perhaps the most challenging task before governments and policy makers, can be addressed.

The most urgent step should be arresting the growth of population in third world countries. Paradoxically enough, the rate of growth of population is high in economically backward countries. The vicious circle of poverty, grater birth rates, and more poverty is visible in all the poorer countries. Spreading literacy among people with particular emphasis on literacy among women is the first step. In every country with a high rate of literacy, birth rates are found to fall.

Third world countries backed by wealthy nations should, therefore, put in every effort to spread literacy among their people. A small percentage of money spent on the manufacture of weapons will be sufficient to send all the children in the poorer countries to school and ensure universal literacy.

Electrification of villages has been found to reduce birth rates considerably. Here also, the funds needed to electrify villages world wide, will be very small compared with the huge amounts spent on defence.

Government policies should be so oriented that couples are encouraged to have smaller families. Preventing child mortality will encourage couples to have only two or three children.

Food production should be made a more profitable occupation. This can be ensured partly by increasing the price of foods and partly by subsidizing food production. By increasing the price of grains and vegetables, people will be forced to economize the consumption of foods: by subsidizing food production governments can ensure that agriculture is a profitable occupation. Farmers should no longer be tempted to shift from cultivation for foods to more lucrative cash crops for industry.

In every economy, there will be years of plenty and those of scarcity. To bridge the gap between the two, buffer stocks should be created. Buffer stocks will help price lines of foods to be steady while it will ensure equitable prices for farm products.

Unless governments all over the world are careful, the world population especially that in the poor countries, will be in the grip of a horrible shortage of foods, which will shatter world peace, especially now that the world food production is projected to fall on account of the impending changes in the climate patterns.

HOW LONG WILL HUMAN RACE SURVIVE?

The human race is nearly two hundred thousand years old. Perhaps we are the youngest species of all life forms on earth except the fast mutating mono cellular organisms and viruses. All other primates, mammals and reptiles have inhabited this earth for longer periods.
The advent of man on earth was a land mark in the history of this planet and that of the universe known to us. Unlike other animals and life forms on earth, man is the creator of his own destiny and that of the planet itself. Till recently, man has been more or less like other animals depending on the nature for his livelihood and survival. Not that, even now, he is totally independent of nature - but he lives in a transformed environment. Instead of the energy produced by the intake and assimilation of foods into his system for his activities, he has come to depend more and more on the energy released from the fossil fuels. This has tremendously enhanced the scope and reach of his activities.
Plenty in the availability of foods always influences the number of any species. For example, when the bamboo flowers once in half a century in the north eastern states of India, mice and rats multiple in astonishing rates playing havoc to crops. During this period the rodent population explodes owing to the increased availability of food. Similarly, when man invented agriculture, and started farming in organized and mechanical ways, availability of foods improved and consequently human population has reached more than seven billion.
The Wisdom of Nature, which some people would like to call God, is amazingly superior to human intelligence: in fact human intelligence is only a minor subset of the Universal Intelligence. This all-encompassing wisdom has decreed that on the planet earth, the number of such and such species, be it an animal or tree or plant, should not exceed a certain limit. If it does, it will be at the expense of other species. The increase in the number of deer in a given system will exert great pressure on the system. To counter this, the population of predators like tigers and leopards will increase. The triggering factor will be increased availability of prey. If the deer population dwindles owing to the increased predator population, the predators will have less food and therefore, fewer kids. In some cases mothers themselves may eat up the cubs.
It is simple logic that man is but another mammal and if human population exceeds the permissible limit, the limit beyond which other life forms on earth will face irreversible ruin, the Ultimate Wisdom will see that human population is cut down to a reduced level.
Human civilization and technological advancement have made the planet a global village and movement of people from one place to another cannot be stopped. It therefore follows that, if the ultimate ruin or near extinction of human race is destined to be through a pandemic, no force can prevent it. Governments around the globe put up frantic efforts to prevent the spread of the bird flu virus and the H1N1 virus without any result. In a few months the virus reached every nook and corner of the globe. If nature opts to prune down human population to the first century level with a pandemic like the Spanish flu, it is easier now than ever before. Only a few isolated tribes in the deep Amazonian forest or the still uncharted areas in Africa or Asia might survive. Human population will go back two or three millennia both in number and sophistication.
There is certainly some inbuilt mechanism by which both the number and material advancement of human race will be kept in check. It may the climate change. It may be a meteoric shower. A nuclear war or any other momentous event which will send a shock wave around the world triggering the economic time bomb, which will annihilate the present day human civilization.
If Homo sapiens are allowed to multiply and mutilate planet earth for another half century, not only the human race but also other forms of life on earth will vanish for ever. The Ultimate is not likely to allow this to happen. It is likely that scattered and unconnected clans which have not so far got exposed to the comforts of the present day civilization will survive.
Scientific knowledge and technical innovations always depend upon the ideas left behind by past generations. You always step on the shoulders of the stalwarts of the past to attain newer heights. It would, therefore, be impossible for the survivors to reconstruct the sophistication of the present day world.
In other words, the cataclysmic end of the world, prophesied by seers and prophets, is certainly close at hand. In a way, there is some poetic justice in what is going to happen. Human hedonism has reached such a level that man will destroy not only himself but the planet itself if he is allowed to go on ‘progressing’ like this for half a century more.

Islamization of the West, Further Thoughts

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the complete islamization of the West without any jihad. Here are some after thoughts on the subject.

When two cultures, one rather ‘primitive’ in the view of the more ‘advanced’ one, are allowed to co-exist, frictions and fears naturally arise in the minds of people belonging to the majority culture. The white people in the West have, over half a century, welcomed fugitives, job seekers, students, and scholars from the third-world countries in Africa and Asia. A good percentage of this great demographic flow belonged to the Islamic faith. Not only because their culture was totally different from that of the host country, but also because the immigrants identified many of their cultural peculiarities with their religion, most Muslims steadfastly refused to be assimilated into the mainstream of social life.

In a democracy votes matter much. No politician can afford to ignore a minority. Therefore, even when the social behaviour of Muslims collided with the accepted norms of social conduct, politicians tried to ignore it. Islets of alien culture, with virtually nothing in common with the mainstream social behaviour, came into existence in different parts of Europe. Into this secluded areas, law enforcement agencies are very often denied access.

The major area of conflict is the treatment of women by Islamic communities. A white woman has complete freedom in her sexual or married life. But among Muslims, the sexual behaviour of a woman is always dictated by the community, that is, by men. This varies from coercion in the choice of husbands, to honour killings. Displaying body parts including the face is taboo and as a result, self esteem among Muslim girls is very low.

As Muslim power and influence in Europe grow and liberal Muslims are browbeaten or suppressed, the reaction of the majority culture is likely to assume harsher tones. Europeans, despite their apparent tolerance to alien models of social behaviour, are capable of extreme cruelty and bloodshed. We have any number of examples before us. Recent Christian- Muslim conflicts in Serbia, assumed the proportion of genocide. What Germany under Hitler did is another example. Six million Jews are believed to have been sent to the gas chamber simply because they were Jews.

Democracy is the only dispensation which will protect minorities anywhere in the world. Though conservative Muslims shun democracy as an unscientific western invention, as long as the West is democratic, minorities, especially Muslims do not have to fear anything.

If islamophobia is used as a clever political plank to grab power by a person or movement, and if democracy is substituted by dictatorship in a major European country, the fate of Muslims in that country will be sealed. The world will discover that all the talk about human rights, freedom of expression, freedom profess and propagate any religion etc are letters written on water. The cultural credentials of Germans have never been suspect for centuries. But they witnessed the massacre of a multitude without a whimper of protest.

It is therefore, in the interest of Muslims in the West to strengthen democracy. The elite and liberals among Muslims have a duty to transform Islam to a modern, peace loving religion, compatible with the mainstream social order. It is the duty of Muslims to free the community from the clutches of bearded and chauvinistic religious teachers with medieval mindsets.

The end time prophesy of Jesus Christ warns of widespread unrest and clashes among religious and ethnic groups towards the close of the prevailing phase of human history. Such bloody conflicts, ruled out as peculiar only to less civilized African countries and communities, can happen in Europe unless the policymakers and Islamic leaders are careful.
(Please also see my posts titled Islamization of the West, Religion and Culture, religion and Conflict and Islam and Terrorism)

Again on the economic time bomb

Economists assume that by the ever expanding spiral of more consumption and more jobs, economic growth and prosperity could be kept on growing.

In some countries, there is a statutory regulation that furniture in offices should be replaced by new pieces even if the old ones could be used for a number of years more. The aim is to promote the furniture industry. During the Great Depression of the thirties, Roosevelt’s exhortation to common people was to spend more. By increasing the money circulation he hoped to increase consumption and thereby bring about economic recovery.

All throughout human history, this has been the story of economic growth: more consumption, more production, and more jobs. Even today, governments around the globe apply this method to stimulate the economy. They pump into the system more funds, causing a spurt in consumption and thereby energising the economy.

There is the story of Pakistani agents dumping fake currency notes in the border districts of India, hoping to ruin the Indian economy. The outcome astonished not only the Government of India and its Pakistani antagonists. The border areas rained with fake currency notes witnessed a brisk economic growth.

We hear a lot about economic stagnation in developed countries like Japan and the US. What is the actual reason? Consumption has reached a peak, so that further increase in consumption and creation of more jobs become difficult.

The economists of all hues assume that further increase in consumption in any economy is possible and a decent growth rate can be sustained. But this may not be possible under all circumstances. On the other hand, it is possible that a sufficiently important but unexpected event can sent back the global patterns of consumption and consequently, job opportunities, to those prevalent a hundred years back. Such a catastrophe has never happened before, because the present level of globalisation and interlinking of world economies is something new. Besides, consumption at the present rates has never before been achieved.

The table below gives the patterns of consumption in Kerala, the South Indian state, now, and a century back. The rates of consumption are not as high as in the wealthier countries, but, definitely higher than those prevailing in most developing countries. However, a hundred years back, patterns of consumption in most parts of the world were similar except in footwear, clothing and housing. Cold climates always called for more sophistication in these areas.

Item	Consumption now	Consumption in 1910	Remarks
Housing	Units built by skilled labour using industrial products	Units built mostly by the user, using locally available materials	Job opportunities created in these areas are tremendous. They are not proportional to the growth in population. The percentage of people engaged in the production of foods has fallen sharply. Food self sufficiency is a thing of the past.
Electricity	Universally used	Use was not known
Footwear	Everybody uses	Only a selected few used
Phones	Almost everybody owns a phone	Use was not known
Clothing	The cost and quantity of clothes used by men and women are on a par with those used by the people in the West. .	Scarcely. Only young women wore upper garments
Transportation	Vehicles powered by petroleum fuels are used for travel and transportation of goods.	People mostly travelled on foot. Vehicles drawn by animals were used in the transportation of goods.
Farming	Most people have abandoned agriculture and those who are still in the profession have shifted to cash crops.	Majority of people were engaged in agriculture

In my previous article on the subject, I pointed out that some great event of global impact may send the demand of most goods as well as stock indices plummeting ruining the world economy. Just imagine the extent of job loses if the economy suddenly slid back to 1910 levels.

The fate of the world depends on how far the level of consumption may go back in a crisis. If it goes back to 1910 levels billions of people around the globe will be thrown out of employment and the fate of humanity will be doomed. It may take another millennium to regain the present level of industrial production and employment generation.

No government can totally prevent a global catastrophe caused by the sudden shrinkage in demand. However, by ensuring regional food security, much can be done. Food production should be heavily subsidised so that farmers may be dissuaded from straying into more lucrative areas such as rubber and soy cultivation.

Many of the cottage and village industries everywhere in the world used to produce goods with locally available raw materials. Industries using coconut fibres, jute, bamboo plies, etc. gave employment to millions of workers. Surky, a mixture of sugar and lime was used even in building dams. Invention of cement and plastic has ruined these industries. Government policies can revive the old industries ensuring employment to millions of workers in the event of a collapse of the present industrial culture and consequent loss of jobs.

In half a century, we have forgotten, discarded or destroyed the survival methods evolved through millennia and it is impossible to fall back to the old ways overnight. A gradual reinvention of the age old methods may ward off a total ruin.

Mahatma Gandhi advocated for the revival of the rural small-scale industries in India But the intellectuals of that time like Russel mocked the idea. A global crisis will show how prophetic and wise the ‘half clad fakir’ was.

How Safe is Modern Medicine?

Diseases, including the terrific ones like small pox and malaria, are the products of unnatural living, that is, they are the consequences of civilization.
No animal in the pristine forests suffer from disease or old age. They are the curses of man only.

As soon as diseases appeared, man divined cures for them. These remedies were mostly herbal in nature. If you visit a traditional herbal shop in Kerala, India, you will be surprised to find heaps of dried leaves, roots, berries, and nuts there. A concoction of a few of these often aromatic plant products used to cure almost all the diseases known to the local people. There were also mono cures, that is, a single dose of a particular leaf, root, or nut that could effect a miraculous cure of a particular ailment.

All life forms are filled with the Universal Life force Energy, the energy that manifests itself as growth, regeneration and response to stimuli in living things. More than the chemical composition of the ingredients the Life Force in them, cause the healing. For example, when the njavara kizhi, a very effective Ayurvedic preparation in the treatment of acute rheumatism and consequent wasting of the limbs and muscles, was subjected to chemical analysis, nothing other than the usual compounds common to milk and rice was discovered. Still, in practice, the cure brought about by the preparation is undisputable.

In the eighteenth century, Pasteur discovered that many diseases were caused by microbes. Search for methods to prevent the infection of viruses like the rabies virus, and medicines to kill harmful bacteria in the human body resulted in the invention of vaccines and antibiotics.

To alleviate aches and pains and to stimulate retarded body functions, medicines were invented. For quicker action, the practice of injecting medicines intramuscular or intravenous came into practice.

There are only two ways in which foreign materials can enter the human body, the mouth and the nostrils. By piercing the muscles or veins and introducing medicines into the human body is clearly against nature, and therefore, unscientific. Most injections do not kill people but many do. In any case, the number of cases in which human lives are saved are not greater than the number of people killed immediately or gradually by injections.

Most drugs used in modern medicine are synthetic products. Man has lived on plant products for the last two hundred thousand years and, instinctively, human body can assimilate or eliminate plant products. In the case of low molecular weight chemicals, human body is incapable of breaking up or eliminating them. For example, aluminium hydroxide, used as an antacid, is converted into aluminium chloride in the stomach and finds its way into the bloodstream. Human body has no experience and mechanism in expelling this chemical. It may, therefore, get deposited in some part of the anatomy causing unexpected and often catastrophic effects. There are people who believe that the Ulshimer’s disease is caused by aluminium deposits in the brain.

In the desperate and often vain attempt to eliminate drugs from the system, the kidneys are damaged. The unprecedented increase in the nephrological disorders is a direct result of the use of modern medicines. Even the apparently harmless painkiller like paracetamol may damage the liver and kidneys in the long run. The thalidomide tragedy is one of the numerous misfortunes the advent of modern medicine has gifted human race.

Because modern medicine is the contribution of the West, which has had undisputed say in matters relating to science in the last few centuries, and because the political clout of the Europeans during this period was overwhelming, other system like Ayurveda and Acupuncture did not receive the attention and admiration they deserved. Even in India and China, where these great sciences got evolved, these systems of healing were neglected.

For most diseases, effective treatment without side effects is available in Ayurveda. It is high time that people in this globalized era woke up to the dangers of modern medicine and thought about ancient parallel systems of medicine.

Levels of Consciousness

Consciousness can be defined as the awareness of the surroundings. A stone or rock is not aware of the goings on around it: An earthquake or forest fire cannot in anyway influence it.

Plants, on the other hand, have been proved to respond to external stimuli. A man with an axe with the intention to chop down a tree will send a shudder up the tree trunk. In trees awareness of external stimuli like light heat and sound are evident but consciousness is not developed to a high degree.

An organism has awareness of its surroundings only up to a degree that is essential for its survival.

In the animal kingdom, microbes that depend on air or fluid currents for propagation or locomotion can be considered to have zero dimensional consciousness. That is, it is unaware of its movement along the x-axis of the Cartesian coordinate.

Take the case of an earthworm or centipede. It crawls along a surface, and in its progress is aware of the linear distance covered by it. Suppose an earth worm in its progress in a particular direction comes across a pebble on the way. It cannot overcome the obstacle and therefore takes a deviated route. Although it is aware of the distance covered, it is not conscious about the space covered by the original and deviated directions. We can assume that the earthworm has a mono dimensional consciousness.

Consider the movements of a cockroach. It is aware of the distance and area covered by it during expeditions for food or mates. However, it cannot distinguish a man leaning against a wall and the picture of a person propped against a wall. In short, its awareness is two-dimensional. While the area covered by the x and y coordinates is understood by it, it cannot conceive the thickness of objects defined by the z coordinate.

Mammals including man have three dimensional consciousnesses. That is why you can distinguish a picture from the object. To define the position of an object in the space you need to apply x, y and z coordinates. If an animal can distinguish a picture from the object, it has three dimensional consciousness.

Although mammals have three dimensional consciousness like man, in the case of man, it is much more developed. Objective thinking, abstract reasoning, storing memories of past events or facts for future use etc are unique in man.

Man has three dimensional consciousness of the highest order known in the Universe. This does not mean that man’s level of consciousness is the highest possible level in the Universe. In the first place, three dimensional consciousness in man is of a greater order than in animals. Similarly, different men can have different levels of consciousness.

Is four dimensional consciousness possible in human beings? The fourth dimension is supposed to be time. If a man has four dimensional consciousness, he can see the future, which is hidden to common man. Such people who can prophesy the future are called prophets or seers. Some people are congenitally endowed with the faculty of perceiving things to happen. Some others may be able to acquire such gifts by meditation and spiritual practices.

If you cut a lime into two pieces, the cross section is a plane, a two dimensional figure. If you take the cross section of plane, for example a sheet of paper ignoring its small thickness, what you get is a straight line, a one dimensional figure. Further if you intersect a straight line with another you get a point which has no dimension. It follows that a point with no dimension is the cross section of a mono dimensional figure, and one dimensional figure is the cross section of a two dimensional figure and every two dimensional figure is the cross section of the three dimensional space. It can be argued that the three dimensional Universe as we see it and perceive is the cross section of a four dimensional universe to which a few have occasional glimpses. Similarly, worlds with any number of dimensions are possible. When we deny such possibilities, we are like cockroaches who would deny the existence of a three dimensional world simply because their brain cannot perceive it.

Teleportation, a technique by which an object in a locked up room is taken out without actually unlocking the room can be explained if we agree that a four dimensional world exists. The performer enters the four dimensional world which exists side by side with the three dimensional world. The lock and key apply only to the three dimensional world. So he goes in and comes out with the object and

re-enters the three dimensional world.

Heaven and hell, life after death, and many religious beliefs which atheists deny can be explained if we admit a four dimensional world around us. We reason, positioning ourselves in the three dimensional world, and refuse to admit anything which our limited consciousness cannot perceive. You are asked to measure the voltage of a power line and what you have with you is only a metre scale. Do not argue that that the power line has no electric current passing through it simply because you are not provided with a suitable instrument to measure it.

Adam and Eve and the First Sin

Adam and Eve, according to the Bible, were the first parents. Until they sinned against God by disobeying Him, they lived in the beautiful garden, the Paradise. Satan the devil tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. On the advice of his wife, Adam also ate the fruit, and infuriated by their disobedience, God drove the couple out of the beautiful garden. Henceforth, man was destined to live by toil and die eventually. Originally, God intended the crown of all His creations to live without poverty, hardships or death ever threatening him.

When the Bible was written, this story had probably been in circulation for many centuries in the Middle East. Without any natural barriers to prevent the easy and essential demographic movements in the vast semi arid area, this legend of an era of plenty and happiness had been told and retold down many generations.

Started undoubtedly by a genius, the legend tries to explain the uniqueness of human misery in the whole of animal kingdom. All other animals and insects and plants fit perfectly in the grand pattern of the universe. They have no miseries, worries, poverty, old age, fear of death or disease. Wretchedness, like superior intelligence and perception, is known only among humans.

Undoubtedly, eating of the forbidden fruit is symbolic of something else. Some believe that it was the sexual act. This argument is foolish and absurd. Man, like all other animals, has the sexual instinct and to forbid it is not only wicked but also preposterous. The God that forbids sex is the creation of a perverted or troubled mind.

What, then, was that actually symbolised the forbidden fruit?

Sex was intended as the supreme act and expression of love without conditions between man and woman. Man was of course blessed with the supreme physical, mental and spiritual elevation and pleasure out of the sexual act. But when a man has sex with a woman, and when there is no love between them, the couple are having physical pleasure only, that is, they are indulging in degraded sex.

Man could eat and enjoy the pleasurable taste of fruits and nuts and other edible things in nature. But when he eats to enjoy the pleasure it is something else. You can make a pair of shoes in which your feet are perfectly comfortable. But you are not expected to cut and shape your feet so that the shoes fit perfectly.

The perverted way of satisfying two of the basic needs and gifts was the first sin. In order to have plenty of foods, man started agriculture. Gluttony and sex for physical pleasure only, followed. When man cut the first tree to satisfy his exaggerated needs, he started on a path to destruction from which no going back was possible. Instead of living in nature in harmony with it, he tried to modify it, and mould it to his advantage and fancy.

Man’s level of consciousness dwindled and he has fallen to the sate of an intelligent animal from the state of a god. His wisdom and intelligence are curses rather than assets. Animals in the jungle fare much better than man.

As man ‘advances’ in technology, his soul diminishes in excellence, and most modern men and women are intelligent but soulless animals. The way out of this quagmire is the undoing of human civilization, which is clearly impossible.

The Importance of Yogic Exercises

Human body and mind are, possibly, the greatest wonders in the whole universe, except the partially understood universe itself. With functions and faculties as varied as imagination, intuition, logical reasoning, empathy, and sense of colour, beauty and rhythm, human mind is unique in this universe.

Human body too exhibits peculiarities unparalleled in the animal kingdom. No other animal can make movements as varied as man. For example, he can balance himself on two feet and perform amazing things, almost defying the exigencies of the laws equilibrium. He can swim, dive, climb trees, perform a somersault, stand on the head, and so on. Man’s complex brain controls all such movements, which, in turn, is stimulated by such movements.

In short, when the movements of your body parts, muscles, and joints are wide and varied, your brain works meticulously and in turn, gets stimulated. When the movements are restricted and limited, your brain does not receive the required stimulation and consequently, your mental functions, especially those relating to spiritual experiences, tend to diminish.

Primitive men and women were adept tree-climbers, because, like most other primates, man originally lived in trees. Later, he started to build huts and lived in them but did not forget the skill to climb trees. To collect honey or to pick fruits and nuts he continued to climb trees.

Later, man became a farmer abandoning his life as hunter gatherer. This obviated the need for long journeys on foot and the necessity to climb trees. When the movements of his limbs and muscles became limited and restricted, his brain ceased to get sufficient stimulation he used to get in the past and, consequently, his mental life especially the spiritual leanings and experiences became limited.

Tree climbing and clambering over steep rocks call for coordinated functioning of a number of muscles, which no other activity requires. The feet are turned upward, abdominal muscles are put into action and the thoracic and limb muscles are simultaneously put to use. Settled life in farms took away at least sixty percent of all muscular movements the ancient man used make. In urbanized people, muscular movements are still limited. Ask a town dweller to cross a stream treading on a log laid across it. A simple day- to-day activity for even a child in the countryside, the task is a formidable and often impossible one for an urbanized man.

In India, wise men in the early period of settled life saw the spiritual degradation among people and intelligently connected it to the reduced muscular activity. For those who would opt for higher consciousness and greater spiritual experience, they devised exercises which would simulate the lost movements in the ancient era. They taught their followers the scientific way of regaining the spiritual heights and intuitive wisdom of the ancient man without actually undoing the whole of human civilization.

There are as many as eighty five yogic exercises and their numerous derivatives available. By practising all these, you can cause the movement of every muscle in the body in all possible ways, enhancing the activity of all the systems, especially the endocrine system. The spirituality and consciousness lost to the settled and civilized man are regained while retaining the obvious advantages of modernity.

Asanas, or yoga exercises, are, by no means, an end in themselves. On the other hand, they are only the beginning of the search for realizing the Ultimate Truth. After learning and practising Yama and Niyama which are a set of moral principles, you are initiated into Asanas. As you become adept in Asanas, your mind and body are purified and you become eligible to receive wisdom relating to the Ultimate Truth, which is made possible through Pranayama (yogic breathing), Dhyana (meditation) etc.

Degraded Consciousness of Modern Man

When I was a boy, I used to have severe attacks of a special kind of sinusitis. Acute, throbbing pain at a spot slightly above one or both of the brows on sunrise is the symptom. It persists till the sun reaches the zenith, and thereafter would vanish gradually. Next morning, the same thing repeats itself.

I approached my Uncle, who was a Vydyan ( A practitioner in Ayurveda) He woke me up early in the morning before sunrise, and applied the extract of a kind of leaf with lime on the nail of my right big toe.

I waited for the throbbing pain to appear as usual, but it never came again. I asked my Uncle what the wonderful medicine was and he showed me a climber with pale green leaves. He squeezed the leaves with a little of fresh lime and pressed out the greenish yellow fluid.

How on earth did he know the exact leaf out of the millions of kinds of leaves which would cure my ailment? The ache was on the left brow, but the medicine was applied on the right toenail. There are other simple, surprising cures for many other diseases like kidney stone, tonsillitis, diarrhoea, warts, and even rabies. These are closely guarded secrets handed down from generation to generation.

These cures were certainly not discovered by the trial and error method. The only answer is that, in intuitive powers and in the level of consciousness, the ancient man was far superior to modern man. They lived very close to nature and their worries and cares were fewer. Ancient people applied their conscious minds on fewer matters and their unconscious minds were almost in constant contact with the Universal Consciousness. The Universal Consciousness is the storehouse of all knowledge and wisdom, and ancient people had little difficulty in divining cures for common ailments from nature.

The ancient man lived in nature with few or no gadgets for making life comfortable. He survived by his absolute dependence on nature. The universe is the source and origin of all wisdom, and being a part of it, he inherited such wisdom in abundance. So, the fact that such and such herbs are cures for such and such ailments entered his mind intuitively without the application of the logic of the conscious mind.

As man distanced himself from the lap of divine care and love, he gradually lost contact with the wisdom of the universe. And modern man, urbanized and sophisticated, eating tinned and canned foods, using wheels rather than legs for locomotion, thinking constantly of material pleasures, shutting himself in the cage of inhibitions and egos, is a miserable person.

When did man lose his communion with Nature?

Probably when he settled down and started agriculture. But for millennia thereafter, he maintained his touch with nature, though in diminishing degrees. Modern urbanized man lives by the dictates of his logical conscious mind rather than by the wisdom of nature and the intuition of his unconscious mind.

Sages of ancient India knew of the spiritual degradation faced by man owing to his settled life. So, many of them withdrew into the lap of nature, to pristine forests, and lived exactly as the primitive man lived and attained amazing spiritual heights. Modern man might think that the stories of their supernatural attainments in spheres as varied from spirituality to poetry are exaggerations.

On Meditation

When did you start to have a mind? At your birth? Or when you were six months old? No. You started to have a mind and consciousness right from the moment in which a sperm from your father fused with the ovum from your mother. Since that moment, you started to have an existence, aware of the happenings in the outside world. You heard sounds, shared the ecstasies and anxieties of your mother, and waited expectantly for the return of your father. When somebody threatened your mother, you were afraid.

When you were born, you could recognize the voices of your near and dear ones. Your consciousness was limited of course. The stored up memory made you smile or startle in your sleep. Your consciousness, like your body, was not grown up, but it existed.

When you grew up to adulthood, your unconscious mind, which was once independent and all-powerful, started to be influenced by the thoughts in the conscious mind. Your fears and worries, agonies and ecstasies, hopes and aspirations started troubling it. Your oneness with and absolute dependence on the Universal Consciousness, the Root Cause of All, began to waver. Your wisdom and intelligence, very limited and primitive in comparison with the unlimited vastness of the Universal Consciousness, started to influence the unconscious mind in taking decisions of vital importance, hitherto under the care and guidance of the Universal Consciousness. Your decisions always went wrong plunging you into misery and wretchedness. Your conscious mind troubled and toiled, always in the wrong direction. Happiness is an occasional incidence in the general drama of pain; you would occasionally quote Thomas Hardy.

The unconscious mind will fashion your life strictly in accordance with your own perception of the world. If you think the world a gloomy, dismal place full of wickedness, such a world is in store for you. If you imagine that the people you meet and interact with are invariably villains, you are likely to meet only villains in your life.

Nor is your mind free from thoughts, thoughts of the negative kind, during your sleep. During your sleep, you worry about the future, repent about the past and scheme for the present. Part of these thoughts appears to you as dreams.

If you somehow manage to free your mind of all thoughts, your unconscious mind will once again take charge of your life. You will henceforth meet the correct people, take the correct decisions and your life will be a happy and exciting chain of events.

Meditation, therefore, is the art and technique of emptying your mind of all thoughts. Sit in an erect position, preferably in Padmasan and close your eyes. Try to make your mind free of all thoughts. Breathe naturally and think only of the incoming and outgoing air and count your breaths. Before you reach ten breaths, you will be surprised to find that, in spite of your best precaution, you are thinking about something, most probably about the greatest worry in your life.

Drive out the thought and continue your meditation. Take care that you do not fall asleep during meditation. In a week, if you manage to count a hundred breaths, without any conscious thought entering your mind, you have made good progress.

Level of your consciousness will dramatically improve, and all your dreams will come true. Wherever you go, you will command respect and you will cease to view anybody with envy or grudge.

If you continue practising meditation for an hour everyday, the ultimate purpose and meaning of life will be revealed to you, and you will conquer the division of time as past, present and future.

Dreams, Ancestor Worship and Religions

It is of great interest to analyze the relationship between dreams and ancestor worship, which in turn, evolved into religions.
Man dreams. His sleep pattern is intimately linked with his ability to dream. The events played out in the sleep are far greater in number and variety than the actual happenings in the wakeful state. We forget almost all the dreams we have. But some of the dreams, especially those we have had just before awakening, linger in our memory with astonishing clarity, very often filling our wakeful state that follows with foreboding or anticipation.
Imagine the case of a clan chief who was loved, respected and feared by men and women of the clan. One day he dies. During his life time, he had certain unquestioned prerogatives. For example, he could select the prettiest of the women in his clan as his wives. Or, the heart or liver of the animals hunted down by any member of the clan would have to be submitted to him. These organs of a killed animal were thought to have special powers in increasing a man’s prowess or manliness.
A few days after the death of the chief, one of the younger men, who aspire to be the chief, persuades one of the former wives of the chief to sleep with him. Besides, in the hope of becoming as powerful as the deceased chief, he eats the heart of a boar he manages to kill.
In the following night, the man has a dream. In his dream, the old chief appears before him, angry and shouting, wielding a stone axe. The man wakes up paralyzed with fear. He is certain that, though dead and buried some invisible and perhaps more powerful and knowing self of the chief survives after death. He decides to appease the old chief with suitable atonements. He takes his new wife to the place where the old chief lies buried, and offering flowers and fruits, begs pardon for the inadvertent show of disrespect.
For a while, there is no trouble. But one night, the chief appears again and threatens him. The new chief (he has become chief by now) visits the burial site of the old man again and pays his offerings and obeisance and comes back peaceful and satisfied.
His wife and children and fellow members of the clan accompany him and his awe and devotion spreads in the clan.
Exaggerated tales of the deceased chief’s valour, wrath and blessings begin to circulate not only among his people but also in neighbouring communities with which the clan has social contact.
The new chief also dies, but his devotion to the old chief survives. In a century, the burial site has become a pilgrim centre, and there is small temple there. In another century, the old chief becomes a local deity.
Idols of the chief are made depicting his exploits in love and war. His wife or wives are also deified. Hymns in praise of the god are composed and sung. Tales of favours received through the devotion to the god are numerous. Before going to war or on a mission of love, the blessings of the god are sought.
Philosophers write copiously about the modes and importance of worshipping the god and the metaphysical interpretations of the various rituals and incantations – a religion is thus evolved itself.

The Win-Win Situation

Love thy neighbour, exhorts the Bible. Any ‘good man’ or god-fearing person ought to follow this command, we have been taught. It is good for your soul, which is expected to reach the heaven after death and experience eternal bliss. To love thy neighbour is something in the nature of a concession or grace from your part to your neighbours, especially when they are poor.
But few are aware of the benefits of loving your neighbour in day-today life. If you are a vegetable grower and your neighbour is a cow keeper, you can buy milk from your neighbour and your neighbour in turn, can get fresh vegetables from you. By your constant patronage, if he becomes rich, don’t feel envious: he won’t, at least, bother you with the request for a loan. Besides, you can buy cow dung or compost from his farm with little expenses on transportation.
Your children and your neighbour’s children can go to school by the same car, share the same play ground or swimming pool. Always wish for the welfare of our neighbours: this will pay off in many ways.
So, the biblical exhortation to love your neighbours is pure practical wisdom, which, in modern terms, is the win-win situation in which both the sides stand to gain.
This applies not only to individuals but to communities and countries also. India and Pakistan, two traditionally hostile countries, can double their mutual trade to the immense benefit of both the sides. What China has achieved in a few decades by shedding its belligerent stance vis-à-vis the West, is anybody’s knowledge.
Here is a story, which I hope you will love to read and would ask your children to read. A fable always helps you view things objectively, without bias, simply because the characters are most often animals.

The monkeys and Bees

In a deep forest in the Western Ghats in Kerala, there lived a troop of monkeys. They subsisted on roots, tender bamboo leaves and fruits - and fruits were very scarce in the forest.
There used to be frequent quarrels among the monkeys – mostly on account of fruits. These incessant quarrels became a headache to the Chief of the monkeys. He would have a dispute or two to settle every day and most of these were about fruits. ‘The neighbour stole some plantain fruits, the wife ate up all the bananas meant for the entire family, the husband did not share jack fruits with his wife and children, the children ate pine-apples before they were ripe’ - these were some of the sample petitions the Chief received every day.
In the forest in which the monkeys lived there were very few fruit trees. The Chief knew that the quarrels were due to the scarcity of fruits rather than because of the monkeys' ungodly love for food.
The Chief thought of many ways in which the problem could be solved. No animal in the forest knew anything about agriculture. The swine, the deer, the bison and the elephants expressed their ignorance and helplessness. Besides, some of them laughed at the old monkey for his insatiable appetite for fruits.
Now the Chief thought of the bees. He knew that they were travellers and travel always improved the mind. The Chief decided to seek the advice of the bees.
At first the bees were very sceptical about the intentions of the Chief. But they were very soon convinced of the innocent ambition of the old monkey.
The bees informed the Chief that fruits were mostly found in villages. The farmers grew fruit trees and they would not let anybody steal fruits from their gardens. In forests, fruit bearing trees were very few and the demand for the few fruits was great.
"My monkeys should get a steady supply of fruits of different kinds. How can I ensure this?" asked the Chief.
Growing fruit trees was the only way, said the bees.
But the monkeys knew nothing about agriculture.
The Chief suggested that the monkeys and the bees should jointly undertake the planting the fruit bearing trees.
The Queen of the bees said, "What help can we render in this matter? Agricultural operations involve a great deal of labour. Beds will have to be prepared, and irrigation will be required. We are tiny creatures and we can't share such hard labour."
The Chief said, "We shall manage all the labour. Your duty will be to report to us where the fruit bearing trees grow so that we can collect the seeds and plant them. During your travels you can learn much about agriculture that you may share with us monkeys. You people can build your hives in the plantation. We can't collect honey from flowers; so also you have no need for fruits. You can ward off the jungle thieves. Thus we will share fruit and honey and live peacefully in the large plantation that is in my mind."
Once the bees were convinced that they could be real partners with the monkeys, both in rights and duties, the bees readily agreed. They saw that they could collect honey from flowers without the bother for long trips especially during the rainy days.
The monkeys cleared a large area, burnt the twigs and branches and planted different kinds of fruit bearing trees and plants according to the advice of the bees. When the other animals saw this strange venture, they all laughed. But the monkeys did not so much as notice such derisive laugher.
As soon as the saplings were planted, the jungle thieves began to arrive in groups. The deer and hares came to taste the tender leaves. For elephants the plantain and banana leaves are choicest dishes. They also would flock in not only to see the unheard of project, but if possible, to have a bite of plantains.
But the bees would not allow any body to enter the garden.
“Who are you to stop our way to the estate?" asked Tusker the Rogue bull elephant one day.
The bees replied, "The monkeys and the bees have jointly undertaken this enterprise. The task of protecting the plants is with us. Come in and you will catch it."
The bees advised the monkeys to fence up the plantation, for they were so annoyed by the numerous visitors and thieves. The monkeys did accordingly and a notice board was put up at the entrance:
TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED

The trees grew up very fast. Within a year the plantains and bananas gave out large bunches. The mango trees flowered in the third year and the jack trees and the tamarinds followed. The trees began to give the monkeys fruits and the bees honey.
The bees stopped going out except on jolly trips. The quarrels among the monkeys became things of the past.
The monkeys gave the surplus fruits to goats and cows in exchange of wool, milk or milk products. The swine and the porcupines would come with delicious roots to get fruits and nuts in exchange.
Thus the success in agriculture paved the way for a brisk trade. The monkeys became civilized. The days of poverty over, the monkeys had enough leisure for music and the arts.
But when the old Chief died, things began to change.
The old Chief had a vision and the bees had great respect for him. Occasionally they used to give him bottles of excellent honey - special honey extracted from selected flowers, as a token of their respect and goodwill.
But the young monkeys began to consider the gift from the bees their birth right. The new Chief and the elders in the monkey clan started demanding honey and this strained the relation between the partners.
The monkeys would try to steal honey from the hives. But the reaction of the bees was never as sweet as the honey they produced. The bees would punish the thief then and there. Such isolated incidents ended in widespread enmity between the two parties.
"It was we that planted the trees. The bees enjoy the honey. It is only fair that they should share the honey with us," said the monkeys.
The bees said, "It was we that guarded the estate from thieves. Besides, we arrange the pollination of flowers free of charge. Above all, just think who taught the monkeys to plant trees. In the original unwritten agreement, the monkeys and the bees were partners with equal rights and status.”
One day a group of young monkeys, while trying to steal honey from a hive, was punished severely by the bees. As they fled from scene, their faces had become so swollen that even their parents failed to recognize them at first. The angered monkeys, in retaliation, stoned the hives. Now the bees hummed out in great swarms and attacked the monkeys. The monkeys had to flee from their estate and take refuge in the forest.
After prolonged talks between representatives from both the sides, a settlement was reached. The conditions of the truce were simple - fruits to monkeys and honey to bees.
But peace was short lived. The monkeys thought that they should exterminate the bees to ensure undisputed ownership of the estate.
The bees thought that if all the monkeys were killed they could live in peace for ever in the great garden.
The monkeys collected dried leaves, twigs and husks of coconuts and stored them near each hive. The bees discovered a deadly toxic material from a tree in the forest. The substance that flowed from the bark, if injected into a monkey's body, would kill it instantly.
In a summer evening some of the young monkeys stoned a hive. The bees attacked the monkeys with the poison they had collected and all the monkeys stung fell dead instantly.
The bees attacked each and every monkey systematically with the poison. They were out to exterminate the monkey clan.
The monkeys lighted the hidden hoards of inflammable materials and the hives, without a single exception, burnt out in the raging fire.
The fire spread far and wide and the beautiful garden was reduced to ashes in a short time.
On a tree in the forest, not far away from the garden ruined by the fire of rivalry, assembled a group of bees who had flown out and saved their lives. They were deliberating what could be done now.
Underneath a group of monkeys also were found. Most of them had sustained severe burns and they were groaning in great pain.
An old monkey saw the bees above her hanging from a branch and she said, “This is the end of every war."