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Monday, March 11, 2013
Meteor-hit in Russia -- some thoughts.
This is a belated post on the meteor-hit in Russia, but better late than never.On 22nd February, 2013, a meteor / asteroid of 17 metres in diameter and weighing 10,000 metric tons entered the atmosphere at a speed of 40,000 mph and broke apart about 12 to 15 miles above the Earth's surface and landed at Chelyabinsk in Russia as a fireball around 9:20 am local time.
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/02/15/world/europe/russia-meteor-shower/index.html
This was an unexpected event from space at that time, while the world was actually waiting to watch another asteroid to pass across the earth from the near the sky off Sumatra on the same day 16 hours after this event. Fortunately both of them did not cause any grave havoc. Though the Russian meteor was found to be 30 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, the extent of damage was much less. Compared to this the asteroid-hit that struck Russia at Tunguska in 1908 was more serious as it was supposed to have been 1000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. Though that event continues to be a matter of scientific investigation, the fact remains that not much damage happened to the people and the world as a whole. In comparison the Fukushima earthquake was supposed to have disturbed the earth's tilt by some micro units.
Usually events like this used to fascinate me and I used to dabble something by picking out something from astrology or mythology. But this time I couldn't catch up anything other than thinking that the world is safe! The first thought was that my daily prayer paid well – "Loka samstha sukhino bhavanthu" (Let the whole world / everyone be happy). I never want to hear any suffering for anyone around me. Particularly if it pertains to Space I can never bear the thought of some bolt from the blue hitting someone on the earth. It is because Space and the objects in Space continue to give me an indescribable sense of calmness, compassion and happiness. Anyone who had gone to Space had experienced it. Michael Collins, the first ever man to have circled the earth all alone had expressed how alone and fragile that the earth is going in Space. Sitting here on earth I have experienced it many times just by looking at the sky and the stars. How alone we are in space, but still going safely with Brahman protecting us (the earth) like a cocoon! The image of the magnetic field around the earth that deflects solar radiation gives me this thought of Brahman and the earth as a cocoon.
As a lover of space and an avid sky-watcher, I cannot bear the thought of some object from space smashing on earth and causing havoc. The first ever such incident in my memory was the fall of the Skylab.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylab#Re-entry
I was a teen then, much engrossed in space entities and didn't wish to hear anything bad to happen to space programmes or a space programme to fail and fall down as hell on someone's head. I was keenly following the broadcasts of how the falling skylab was handled so that it would not cause harm to life. Like how I am doing blogging nowadays, I was habituated to writing poetry in my teens on anything that affected me. The hype created on the fall of the Skylab was such that I was worried that it would fall on someone and wrote an "Anthem for an unknown victim" before the skylab-fall. But nothing untoward happened which made me write a "Realisation" (after the skylab fell on the ocean near Australia) that God is near and He would never allow the rhythm of the world go astray because He is Duty-bound to protect this world.
This love of Space and Space objects was one of the things I transferred to my kids. On hearing about the meteor-fall in Russia, they kept asking me what I think about these events and why I didn't blog on these events. I could not think of any astrological connection but what kept appearing in my mind was TIME! Everything has its root in Time. If something were to happen, Time must be conducive for it. So many meteors have gone past the earth or crashed on the earth, but for them to become menacing, Time must be supportive of such a menace. On that Friday, two asteroids had come closer to earth. One of them fell on earth while the other just whizzed past. But nothing grievous happened because it was not Time for a grievous happening to mankind.
Thinking of it, Mahabharata talks about Time as the cause for events at many places. The very first chapter of Mahabharata narrates the importance of TIME as the causative factor for whatever happened as Mahabharata! When Dhritharashtra was aggrieved at the death of his sons, his charioteer Sanjaya consoled him by pointing out that it is TIME that does everything.
"No one can leave the way marked out for him by Providence. Existence and non-existence, pleasure and pain all have Time for their root. Time createth all things and Time destroyeth all creatures. It is Time that burneth creatures and it is Time that extinguisheth the fire. All states, the good and the evil, in the three worlds, are caused by Time.
Time cutteth short all things and createth them anew. Time alone is awake when all things are asleep: indeed, Time is incapable of being overcome. Time passeth over all things without being retarded. Knowing, as thou dost, that all things past and future and all that exist at the present moment, are the offspring of Time, it behoveth thee not to throw away thy reason."
A similar sentiment was narrated by Ved Vyasa when Arjuna reached him after the exit of Krishna. Exactly a week after Krishna ascended to his Abode, sea water entered Dwaraka. Arjuna was evacuating the remaining population mostly of women and children to safer places. But alas, on the way they were attacked by Mlecchas in the land of five rivers who abducted many women of Vrishni clan. They included married, unmarried and pregnant women. There is every reason to believe that the so-called Aryan presence in Iran or the claim of Darius, as the Aryan of the Aryans originated from these women of Royal and excellent calibre of Dwaraka of Krishna. It is Time that had pushed them into the hands of Mlecchas!
It's Time that didn't come to the help of Arjuna when they were abducted. Arjun's military prowess had no match until then. But he found himself thoroughly helpless and weak at that moment. He could not raise his Gandeepa to fight to stop the abduction of these women. It was as though he lost his power when Krishna was not with him. Already they were distressed at the exit of Krishna, at the loss of Vrishni men who killed one another and the loss of their land to the oceans. Life was indeed terrible at that moment. When he lamented this to Vyasa, Vyasa said as follows:
"All this has Time for its root. Time is, indeed, the seed of the universe, O Dhananjaya. It is Time again, that withdraws everything at its pleasure. One becomes mighty, and, again, losing that might, becomes weak. One becomes a master and rules others, and, again, losing that position, becomes a servant for obeying the behests of others. Thy weapons, having achieved success, have gone away to the place they came from. They will, again, come into thy hands when the Time for their coming approaches."
Thinking on these lines, our world is indeed sailing in space alone and against all odds. It is ramming through much of space debris many a times. But if nothing happens to it, it is because the TIME favours it to move safely. The two asteroids passing the earth on that Friday very much had the potential to create a global havoc, but nothing of that sort happened. It is because Time did not favour such havoc at that moment.
But Time had not been favourable at all times in the past. Thinking specifically of meteor or asteroid hits of the past, I can quote 2 instances, one just before the onset of Mahabharata war and another a week after Krishna's exit from this earth.
Just before the start of the Mahabharata war, Vyasa was narrating to Dhritharashtra the unusual events noted in the sky and on the terrestrial plane. It seemed as though the sky had tilted a little, because the planets seemed to have shifted back from their earlier positions. Even Arundhathi, the twin star of Vasishta in the Sapta rishi mandala (Ursa Major), seemed to have gone ahead of Vasishta, said Vyasa. This could not have happened in the celestial spheres, but could have been perceived so for the observer on earth if the earth's position had changed from the usual alignment. This is supported by another observation of Vyasa of the lunar cycle ending in 13 days. The only probable reason for this to happen is to have some asteroid or comet hitting the earth somewhere, thereby changing the tilt or speed of the earth to some extent.
http://phys.org/news126183668.html#jCp
This tablet has been deciphered as follows.
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/chaldea1.gif
It shows a falling meteor or asteroid whose period (based on the sky map shown in that tablet) is said to be 29th June, 3123 BC! The location is said to be somewhere in Austria!
The date is fascinating as it is 21 years prior to the start of the Kali yuga (3102 BC)! Mahabharata war happened 36 years before the start of Kali yuga and there was a detailed description of a probable meteor or asteroid hit somewhere on the earth just before the war started. There is a 15 year gap between that hit and the year deciphered from the above shown tablet. But such a close date makes me wonder whether the asteroid –hit shown in the tablet was the same as the one deciphered from the Mahabharata. Or we may come across such a meteor hit on the exact year of Mahabharata some time in future. I for one would not fault the Mahabharata year, for, we in India have a continuing tradition of calendar that is based on 5 factors related to the position of the sun and the moon on everyday basis, which has its beginning on 3102 BC when Kali Yuga started. The 5 factors are like counter checking devices such that even if one of them is wrong, we would not be having the other factors correct. So it is impossible to say that we have erred in our calendar.
What I wish to point out by citing the cuneiform tablet is that the probability rate of an asteroid-hit was high around the start of Mahabharata war. That hit had a fatal impact on the earth – a case of how TIME determines the events.
The next catastrophe happened 36 years after Mahabharata war. Krishna had left his mortal coils and 7 days after that, massive waves “ resembling a tsunami “ hit Dwaraka and completely submerged it. This also seems to have been caused by an asteroid hit. There exists a scientific study that an asteroid of 3 mile width smashed on the sea floor off the coast of Madagascar. The date, interestingly was 5000 years BP – the time that Dwaraka was swallowed by Arabian sea. The chevrons seen around Madagascar are said to have been formed by a massive tsunami of 600 feet-high waves when an asteroid landed in the Indian Ocean near Madagascar.
Image courtesy of Dallas Abbott
http://discovermagazine.com/2007/nov/did-a-comet-cause-the-great-flood#.UT23fVfsgZI
This hit was supposed to have thrown up debris and dust on the air for about a week. Any disturbance here can be expected to trigger tsunamis that travelled to Arabian Sea. The Dwaraka submergence could have been caused by this (or any) tsunami that originated south of the Arabian Sea and hit Gujarat where Dwaraka was a prominent habitat 5000 years ago.
Madagascar is also the location of early Tamil settlements of the 1st Sangam period which ended 5550 BC (All Tamils must unite to save Ram-Setu.) This hit must have wiped off the1st Sangam settlements and pushed the people to Kumari range (extension of Western Ghats in the Arabian Sea) to closer to South Indian mainland.
In the illustration below, the Mascarene plateau is shown in a green ring near Madagascar. This was submerged about 7000 to 5000 years ago.
The white arrow marks are the route of tsunami waves if an asteroid had hit the sea near Madagascar, as found in the study. The red ring is the area available for settlement during the 2 sangam period of Tamils. This settlement lasted between 5550 BC to 1850 BC (with an approximation of 2 centuries before or after). By 1850 BC (that is the time Indus civilisation came to an end due to earthquakes and the subduction of the Saraswathy river thereby indicating a violent disturbance in the Arabian sea corridor where 2nd sangam Tamils were located) the Kumari ranges were lost to the seas – an information that we get from Silappadhikaram.
The cause of this last catastrophe was tectonic disturbances but the loss of Dwaraka and even the 1st sangam Tamil regions can be attributed to an asteroid hit.
Coming to the theme of this article, we are crossing Space in a comparatively safer Time now than during the Mahabharata and Kaliyuga start-up times. In an amazing coincidence I am writing this article on the day after Mahashivaratri! This day signifies the Cosmic Dance of Lord Shiva by which He offers protection to his devotees from death and destruction. Mayamatham says that worship of any of the dancing forms of Shiva (there are supposed to be 108 different forms of Shiva's dances!) brings in return the immediate death of an enemy. This reminds me of the small but intricately carved Shiva as Nataraja in the dancing form found at the entrance of Krishna's sannidhi in Dakur Dwaraka. Was it consecrated there to stall any future fury of the ocean at Dwaraka? TIME only knows!
***********
http://www.tamilhindu.com/2010/01/adimudi-kaanaa-athisayam-a-dimension-of-the-universe/
Posted by jayasree at 6:10 PM
6 comments:
Redheartkid said...Absolutely great as usual. Not many of us know whay happened after the Mahabharatha war or after Sree Krishna left the earth. HOPE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS TOPIC.
I think after the war, there was not only the desctruction of cities, but also a destruction of a great civilisation that slowly was swallowed by Time to the state it is today and Time may bring back those times back to the worthy
Thank you Madam
March 12, 2013 at 7:31 PM
jayasree said...
//Not many of us know whay happened after the Mahabharatha war or after Sree Krishna left the earth. HOPE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS TOPIC. //
I have written at many places what had happened post Mahabharata. Kindly read the following article.
The below link gives the description of the route taken by Arjuna and the Dwarakans after Dwaraka was submerged 5000 yrs ago. You would find that it would trace the route of IVC culture!
http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.in/2010/07/ivc-was-post-mahabharata-culture-world.html
The Indus culture was a Post- Mahabharata culture of people of dwaraka spreading out to northwest India and starting their traditional jobs. It must be noted that 18 clans left the Gangetic regions and accompanied Krishna when he left Mathura once for all to come to settle down at Dwaraka. Each of these clans were experts in a particular trade. They continued their trade once after they settled in Dwaraka. But they had a hurdle in marketing their products. That formed one of the core reasons for Mahabharata war - a reason to have an economic advantage!
Let me explain. The northern silk route was a popular route that connected North India (Aryavarta) with Central Asia and Europe. Even as early as Ramayana times, this route was in use in some form. Kaikeyi's motherland was there (Kazakhsthan) and Bharata had to travel for a week by a fast moving carriage to come from there to Ayodhya. Bharata later founded Pushkalavathy (Peshwar) and Tjakshasheela (Taxila)on the route mainly to have control and vigilance over this route to Europe.
In Mahabharata times, Duryodhana's maternal home happened to be in this route in Gandhara! That means Kauravas must have controlled this northern route and anyone moving their goods would have to pay taxes to them. At that time Krishna's men in Dwaraka possessed varieties of trading skills and must have been aping to have a control over this trade route.
(cont'd)
March 13, 2013 at 11:41 AM
jayasree said...
In South india, all the 3 Tamil Kings also must be dependent on these north Indian kings for far-off trade purposes. We have ample evidence in Tamil sangam texts to say that Tamils had gone past the Thar desert to regions beyond that (NW India and Central Asia)for trading purposes. They had taken a year to come back on such trading missions.
For them the first stop must have been at Dwaraka through Dakshina pada and from there to Uttara pada (northern route). This explains why the Tamils also participated in the Mahabharata war. Of interest is the participation of Pandyan King Sarangadwaja who sided with Pandavas. (The Cheran king in contrast, supplied logistics to both the sides.).
The Pandyan king sarangadwaja was not interested in siding with Pandavas that had Krishna as the mentor. It was because Krishna had earlier killed the father of sarangadwaja. (Mahabharata says all this) So Sarangadwaja was keen on taking revenge on Krishna. But Drishtadhyumna pacified him and convinced him to be on the PAndava side. What possibly could have made Sarangadwaja to ignore the enmity with Krishna and fight along with him? As he was a king, nothing other than a larger good for his country could have convinced him to side with Krishna. The larger good could be in all probability some commercial or economic benefit available for his subjects. If the northern route came under the control of the Pandavas, all those in their alliance could reap the benefit. The artisans and traders were all in Dwaraka and they had a greater stake in wresting the control of the Northern route and their king, Krishna was supporting Pandavas. That is how the Pandyan loyalty to Pandavas could have been got.
To substantiate this line of thinking, we will see that the entire IVC culture was a trading and commercially active culture. It covered the region from Dwaraka to Gandhara and was busy sending their products to Europe and Central Asia. There were no kingdoms in this culture because there was an overall power centre at Indraprastha which ensured that the trade routes were safe for them. The unicorn moulds of the IVC -found in silver too - were infact the Varaha money (legal tender) which continued till Vijayanagara times.
The IVC culture continues smoothly till natural causes rattled the settlements 1500 years after it started (around 1500 BC). It was at that time Byt Dwaraka was inundated.
(cont'd)
March 13, 2013 at 11:41 AM
jayasree said...
Now read my other article on what happened afterwards.
http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.in/2011/11/agasthya-in-dwaraka-and-vajra-in.html
A complete dispersal of people of the IVC happened. While most of them moved to the Gangetic plain, those in Dwaraka were brought to Tamil lands. The 18 clans with rich expertise in many trades were brought to Tamil lands by Agasthya. It was the same time - the same natural calamity disturbed Kavatam of PAndyans who also entered mainland South India. A merger took place in what is now known as Kongu region. Kangeyam, Muddor kURRAm were the regions where the shepherd communities of Dwaraka and Thennan (southerner) PAndyan mixed up. The Kangeyam bull is similar to the bull depicted in IVC seals. There is a genetic study that says that bulls of South india came from IVC sites!
The Kongu Tamil of this region is not the original Tamil as most of the settlers were from Dwaraka who spoke Kodum Tamil (Apa-brahmsa). The rich tradition of Mahabharata God in this region also testifies their previous regions in Dwaraka and before that in Ganga region. The classification of 5 Thinais of Tamil grammer took shape only after the Dwarakans came here. Tholkappiyam of today was written sometime after they shifted to Tamil lands.
Vajra was their memorable king. vajra was the great grand son of Krishna who was evacuated from Krishna's Dwaraka by Arjuna and was installed as the king of Indraprastha. Vajra was incidentally the grand son of Banasura of Mahabali's lineage. He was located in Mahabalipura which is now submerged.(There were 7 locations one after another into the sea off present day Mahabalipura. Like Dwaraka, this region was remembered and reestablished after each submergence. The reason was Vamana connection to Bali. The submergences must be in the direction of Sundaland (Indonesia))
By this we can say that Vajra can be considered as having had early roots in or near Tamilnadu. The word 'Vajra' in Porunthal pot can be explained by the Vajra connection to Dwearakans who later migrated to Tamil nadu. Their identity with Dwarakan Vels ended by 2000 years ago when the last popular Vel king Paari was killed by the 3 Tamil kings by deceit. By the time of silappadhikaram, almost all the Vel kings (the kshtriyas who protected the displaced Dwarakans)were killed and the artisans became the 2nd class citizens under the Tamil kings. The roots of caste conflicts started then and it is my contention that the 18 castes - all of then artisans) mentioned by Marai malai adigal as backward classes were in fact displaced Dwarakans.
By all these it is indicated that life and civilisation had continued after Mahabharata and we are continuing that legacy.
March 13, 2013 at 11:42 AM
Redheartkid said...
Interesting and fascinating. Thank you once again. You have given an absolutely different perspective about the Mahabharata as well as our history.
It is time to rethink our history as mere mythology or imaginary, but in terms of economics, trade, science etc.
The Mahabharata has made a very drastic change in the history of the world as a whole.
Hope someone will combine such datas and create a marvelous movie, so that our next and the present generation gets to know the true world history based on a single/great incident. Let the Hassans and MKs get hit on thier heads
//I have written at many places what had happened post Mahabharata. Kindly read the following article.//
Actually I have been reading most of your blogs, infact I am addicted to your blog for the last 3 years, the only thing is I forget most of the names, places etc because of confusion. One thing I do normally is I have text file that contains all the links of any interesting topics such as this for future reference
March 13, 2013 at 7:10 PM
jayasree said...
Thank you.