[BITList] Wisdom and Scientific Accuracy from mom

[FS]

> just a few thoughts to start the day
      frank
>
>
>     Professor Subhash Kak of Louisiana State University recently
>     discovered a statement by Sayana, a 14th century Indian scholar.
>     In his commentary on a hymn in the Rig Veda, Sayana says: "With
>     deep respect, I bow to the sun, who travels 2,202 yojanas in half
>     a nimesha."
>
>     A yojana is approximately 9 miles; a nimesha is 16/75 of a second.
>     Therefore:2,202 yojanas x 9 miles x 75/8 nimeshas = 185,794 miles
>     per second*
>     *
>     How could a Vedic scholar who died in 1387 A.D. have known the
>     correct figure for the speed of light?
>
>     The yogic tradition is full of such coincidences. Take for
>     instance the mala of traditional beads. Students often ask why
>     they have 108 beads instead of 100. The reason is that the mala
>     represent the ecliptic, the path of the sun and moon across the
>     sky. Yogis divide the ecliptic into 27 equal sections called
>     nakshatras, and each of these into four equal sectors called
>     padas, or "steps," marking the 108 steps that the sun and moon
>     take through heaven.
>
>     Professor Kak points out that the distance between the earth and
>     the sun is approximately 108 times the sun's diameter. The
>     diameter of the sun is about 108 times the earth's diameter. And
>     the distance between the earth and the moon is 108 times the
>     moon's diameter.
>
>     Could this be the reason the ancients considered 108 to be a
>     sacred number? If the microcosm (us) mirrors the macrocosm (the
>     solar system), maybe you could say there are 108 steps between our
>     human awareness and the divine light. Each time we chant another
>     mantra as our mala beads slip through our fingers, we are taking
>     another step toward our own inner sun.
>
>     The Surya Siddhanta is the oldest surviving astronomical text in
>     the Indian tradition, dating to the 6th A.D. or earlier It states
>     that the earth is shaped like a ball, and that at the very
>     opposite side of the planet from India is a great city where the
>     sun is rising at the same time it sets in India. In this city, the
>     Surya Siddhanta claims, lives a race of siddhas, or advanced
>     spiritual adepts. Is it possible that the ancient Indians were
>     aware of the Mayansand Incas?
>     While European traditions claimed that the universe was created
>     approximately 6,000 years ago, Indian sages have always maintained
>     that our cosmos is billions of years old, and that it's just one
>     of many such universes which have arisen and dissolved in the
>     vastness of eternity.
>
>     In fact the Puranas describe the birth of our solar system out of
>     a "milk ocean" ~ the Milky Way? Through the will of the Creator,
>     they tell us, a vortex shaped like a lotus arose from the navel of
>     eternity. It gradually coalesced into our world, but will perish
>     some day billions of years hence when the sun expands to many
>     times it present size, swallowing all life on earth.
>
>     In the end, the Puranas say, the ashes of the earth will be blown
>     into space by the cosmic wind. Today we know this is a
>     scientifically accurate, if poetic, description of the fate of our
>     planet.
>
>

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