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MAHABHARATA MYTHOLOGY?
Many modern people have the idea, that just because some literature is
very old and describes fantastic events that defy the modern
undertanding of a natural world, then this literature must certainly
be myths and fantasies.
For instance, Mahabharata is one such piece of literature. In
Mahabharata events are described that totally defy our modern
understanding of physics. But Mahabharata was written by Srila
Vyasadeva. Why would an illustrious and venerated sage like Srila
Vyasadeva - the literary incarnation of God - waste his time by
telling adventure stories for kids? There is no good reason to think
that. Only prejudice and modern, atheistic indoctrination would make a
person think that.
Bhagavad Gita is originally a chapter of the Mahabharata. Bhagavad
Gita is the only book in the world in which, someone claiming to be
God, explains in detail about Himself, the soul and the world and how
everything inter-relates.
The reality-description offered in the Bhagavad Gita by Krishna
according to the three modes of material nature is by far the most
ingenious, sophisticated, consistent and scientific explanation of
reality available on the planet. It's a science that can be tested and
verified like any other science.
Note, that Krishna is the only person so far in human history, who has
defined reality as opposed to illusion or unreality. He has defined
real as that which is eternal and unreal as that which is temporary.
Try and ask a modern scientist, what is his definition of real and
unreal, and see how far you get... You'll get some technical mumbo
jumbo that boils down to - but, but it's all chemicals. That's what
you'll get - something that has absolutely nothing to do with the
reality you live in or the reality you perceive.
So to reject the Vedic literature as mythology, just because it
doesn't fit into the Mickey Mouse conceptions of modern man, is no
less than extremely ignorant.
Krishna says:
My dear Arjuna, because you are never envious of Me, I shall impart to
you this most confidential knowledge and realization, knowing which
you shall be relieved of the miseries of material existence. (Bg. 9.1)
This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all
secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct
perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of
religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed. (Bg. 9.2)
Those who are thus bewildered are attracted by demonic and atheistic
views. In that deluded condition, their hopes for liberation, their
fruitive activities, and their culture of knowledge are all defeated.
(Bg 9.12 )
Krishna and Mahabharata : Historical reality
By Desh (Aug. 31, 2009)
Dr Manish Pandit, a nuclear medicine physician from UK is making a
movie on Krishna as a historic figure. Pandit has based his movie on
dates and timelines coming out of scientific based research by
credible evidence based on Archeology, Astronomy and Linguistics,
apart from Oral evidence from Indian tradition. Mahabharat War started
on November 22, 3067 BC. This comes out of astronomical evidence. And
the astronomical juxtapositions are not arbitrary or those that could
happen in any decade or such... but some of them have not happened
since.
They are THAT rare a phenomenon. Saturn at Rohini and Mars at Jyestha
with two eclipses - a Lunar eclipse at Kartik and Solar eclipse at
Jyesth. (these are from Udyoga and Bhisma Parvan).
(1)Amavasya occurs in Jyestha in 19 years
(2) (1) PLUS Solar Eclipse in Jyesth occurs in 340 years.
(3) (2) PLUS Saturn at Rohini occurs ONCE in 7000 years.
So, that constellation in astronomy has NOT occured since Mahabharat.
The date - exact one - when that would have happened is Nov 22, 3067
BC. Update: i found an article which is very well written, which I am
afraid may go away from that site. I have reproduced it at the bottom.
Not only that, but the latter events like destruction of Dwarka (based
on the astronomical events mentioned around that) occur at EXACTLY as
the text says - 36 years later.
Pandit has based his research on work of Dr Narhari Achar (a professor
of physics at the University of Memphis, Tennessee, in the US).
According to Achar, Krishna was born in 3112 BC. However, another
person has used dates and astronomical events to zero in on the dates
of that time, Arun K Bansal. According to him, Krishna was born on
July 21, 3228 BC anddied at 2 pm on February 18, 3102 BC. That is when
Kali Yuga is supposed to have started and Dwapar Yug came to an end.
So, Bansal's dates are a few decades prior to Achar's dates. However,
there are more people who side with Dr. Achar (refer to the article
reproduced below). Here are a few dates that can be identified with
respect to the dates by Dr. Achar: § Lord Krishna, on His final peace
mission, set out for Hastinapur on 26th September, 3067 B.C. when the
moon was at the asterism Revati.
§ Lord Krishna arrived Hastinapur on 28th September, 3067 B.C., when
the moon was at the asterism Bharani.
§ The full moon and lunar eclipse at Krittika occurred on 29th
September, 3067 B.C.
§ The solar eclipse at Jyestha occurred on 14th October, 3067 B.C.
§ Lord Balarama set out for pilgrimage on 1st November, 3067 B.C.
§ The War began on 22nd November, 3067 B.C.
§ Lord Balarama concluded His pilgrimage on 12th December, 3067 B.C.
§ The winter solstice occurred on 13th January, 3066 B.C.
§ Bhishma died on 17th January, 3066 B.C.
§ The comet Mahaghora appeared at the asterism Pushya in October, 3066
B.C.
Mahabharat dates and Historical Events
Interestingly, the decades when Dwapar Yuga is supposed to have ended
and Kali Yug supposed to have started as per these dates.. were also
the years of some MAJOR climatic shift on earth - due most probably to
major shifts in Solar Activity! Some of the MAJOR things that
happened:
§ Sahara region changed from a habitable land to a barren desert!
§ Glaciers Expanded covering plants.
§ Atmospheric temperatures fell drastically.
This was also the time, when Harrapan Civilization or Sindhu-Saraswati
Civilization is supposed to have began.
Some people believe that Mahabharat was a Nuclear War. Why? Because of
some explanations that defy contemporary knowledge of weapons that
people of THAT time could conceivably have created. Weapons with such
impact could not have been conjured up just out of nowhere..
REPEATEDLY.. in various parts of the text. See below for one such
description of its effects. It is not surprising that even in the
modern world, Robert Oppenheimer, Nuclear Scientist jumped up after
seeing the Atomic blast and cited a similar verse from Gita (part of
Mahabharat).
Now, if you see the extreme climactic changes - creation of desert out
of habitable land in Sahara and drastic fall in atmospheric
temperature as if Solar Activity had changed - it may not be entirely
unlikely, that those climatic shifts may have mimicked a Nuclear
Winter.
Mahabharat is a fantastic epic and one which would have required MORE
than just imagination to write. No writer has ever written something
so completely OUT of whack with his times, mores and thinking... as a
Mahabharat within the context of History as taught in our school texts
suggests. It seems so fantastic that even the idea seems absurd! That
alone - the imagination of a writer 5000 years ago to write something
that (if linera historical progress is taken to be true) ONLY people
of today could have seen/heard/experienced/imagined! Its not just
wishful imagination - as parting of seas et al - but very exact
descriptions of things that happen today and could happen tomorrow.
The philosophy of Gita is hitherto unparalleled in the spiritual
realm. No Saint, prophet, Master, or mystic has covered so many
topologies - Knowledge, Devotion, Action, - with so much mastery. What
I am trying to say is that you cannot get something out of nowhere.
You can only conjure up stuff that is there in your immediate
consciousness.
Fantasies and miracles in knowledge dont make sense to me! An
incandescent column of smoke and flame, as bright as ten thousand
suns, rose with all its splendour. It was an unknown weapon, an iron
thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death, which reduced to ashes the
entire race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas. The corpses were so
burned as to be unrecognizable. Hair and nails fell out; Pottery broke
without apparent cause, and the birds turned white. .After a few hours
all foodstuffs were infected. .to escape from this fire the soldiers
threw themselves in streams to wash themselves and their equipment.”
Reference Links:
1. 'Lord Krishna existed. School texts are wrong'
2. Krishna (b. July 21, 3228 BC)
3. 33rd century BC
4. Pre-historic Nuclear War and ancient Flying Aircraft uncovered
Historicity of Mahabharat
In January 2001, Indian History Congress was holding its Annual
Conference at the Alipur Campus of the University of Calcutta and at
the concluding session of the said Conference the Nobel Laureate
economist Dr. Amartya Sen, while addressing the delegates, said that
Ramayana and Mahabharata do not have any historical value. These two
epics are simply mythology and nothing but poetsÂ’ fancy. He also said
that neither Rama nor Krishna was a historical personality and both of
them were simply mythical. Gandhiji wrote two commentaries on
Shrimadbhagavadgita, Anasaktiyoga and Gitabodha, and in the
introduction of the former work, he wrote, “Generally Mahabharata is
taken to be a historical work.
But in my opinion, it is not so. I cannot say that Ramayana and
Mahabharata are historical works. They are simply religious works. If
you are still inclined to treat them as historical works, then I
should say that they are nothing but the history of the Self (Atma).
They do not contain what happened thousands of years ago. On the
contrary, they are the reflections of what is happening today in every
soul”.
About Lord Krishna, he wrote, ”Krishna of Gita is the embodiment of
pure and divine knowledge, but without having any physical existence.
By this the Avatar Krishna is not denied at all, but only it is said
that He is mythical”. It is not difficult to understand that all such
utterances of Sen, Gandhi and many other like minded Indians derive
inspiration from the Western interpretation of Indian history. Most of
the Western scholars firmly believe that our ancestors grossly
neglected writing history and what we claim to be our history is
nothing but mythology. So M. Winternitz in his History of Indian
Literature writes, “History is one weak spot in Indian literature. It
is, in fact, non-existent.
The total lack of historical sense is so characteristic that the whole
course of Sanskrit literature is darkened by the defect”. The renowned
German scholar Max Muller, in his History of Ancient Sanskrit
Literature, writes, “No wonder that a nation like India cared so
little for history”. “With regard to history, the Hindus have done
really nothing but romances from which some truth may occasionally be
extracted”, says another Western scholar Major Wilford. These scholars
refuse to accept Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Puranas as historical
works as there are no mention of year and dates of the events
described therein. But people of this country firmly believe that
Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Puranas are their history and not simply
epics or poetsÂ’ fancy. So Dr. S. Kalyanaraman, the director of the
Chennai based Saraswati River Research Centre, says that the
historicity of the events described in Ramayana and Mahabharata is
validated by two evidences: one is based on tradition and the other is
based on jyotisha, or planetary configurations and other celestial
events narrated along with mundane events described in those epics,
which may be called sky epigraphs.
So far tradition is concerned, people of this nation believe that Lord
Rama was born on the day of Ramanavami and Lord Krishna was born on
the day of Janmastami and so on. In fact, there is a long list of such
traditional beliefs such as: Bhishma died on the Bhishmastami day, on
the day of Vijaya Dashami, Lord Rama celebrated the day, with His
army, as the day of victory after killing Ravana and defeating his
army just on the previous day, on the day of Deepavali, Lord Rama
returned to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile and the people of Ayodhya
celebrated the day and decorated their houses by lighting lamps and
the tradition is still being continued; the War of Kurukshetra began
on the day of Gita Jayanti and so on and so forth. It is really
strange that the people of Western Garhwal, now in the state of
Uttaranchal, observe every year the Duryodhana Festival.
There also exists a temple dedicated to Duryodhana where people offer
their puja and many believe that the city of Varanavat, where
Duryodhana tried to burn the Pandavas alive, was situated in that
locality. It is also really striking that people of this country offer
water in memory of Bhishma during shraddha ceremony. The point to be
highlighted here is that, had all these been poetsÂ’ fancy and
mythical, the traditions could not have been continued for such a long
time.
The aspect of celestial epigraph, or planetary positions described in
these epics, particularly in Mahabharata, undoubtedly shows that the
said epics do mention the dates of events described therein, which the
Western scholars failed miserably to understand. In Mahabharata alone
there are 150 instances where worldly events are mentioned along with
the planetary positions in the sky. And, in addition to that, other
astronomical events such as occurrence of an eclipse, or appearance of
a comet, or rare events like shower of meteorites have been mentioned.
A few of such examples may be mentioned below The Udyoga Parva of
Mahabharata narrates that, just before the War, Lord Krishna, in His
final peace mission, went to Hastinapur in the month of Kartika. He
set out on the day when moon was at the asterism Revati. On His way to
Hastinapur, Krishna took rest for a day at a place called Brikasthala,
and on that day the moon was at the asterism Bharani.
The day on which Duryodhana turned down each and every effort of Lord
Krishna to make peace and made the war inevitable, the moon was
resting at the asterism Pushya. And the Lord left Hastinapura with
Karna, on the day when the moon was yet to reach the asterism Uttara
Phalguni. As mentioned above, Karna accompanied Him to some distance
to see Him off and he then described to the Lord the positions of
planets in the sky and expressed his apprehension that such a
planetary configuration stood for very bad omen: such as large scale
loss of life and drenching of blood. Vyasadeva narrated all these
planetary positions in as many as sixteen verses as if someone was
describing it after visualizing them in the sky. It is also well known
that during the War, Lord Balarama went on a pilgrimage to holy places
along the banks of the River Saraswati and Mahabharata describes the
position of the moon during the entire course of pilgrimage.
For example, He set out on the day when the moon was at the asterism
Pushya and returned on the day when the moon was at the asterism
Shravana.
The Mahabharata also mentions the occurrence of a solar eclipse at the
asterism Jyestha and a lunar eclipse at the asterism Krittika, just
before the beginning of the War. It also mentions the appearance of a
comet at the asterism Pushya, on the 8th day of the bright half of the
month of Magha, when Bhishma died. On that day the moon was at the
asterism Rohini and it was the day of Winter Solstice.
The day on which Ghatotkacha, son of Bhima, died, the moon appeared at
the horizon at 2.00 a.m. The epic also mentions the occurrence of a
very rare astronomical event that took place prior to the War: three
eclipses, two lunar and a solar, within a lunar month of 27 days.
There is also another continuing tradition in this country that says
that the beginning of the present Kali Yuga, Kurukshetra War, death of
Lord Krishna and coronation of Emperor Yudhishthira were contemporary
events.
Famous astronomer Aryabhatta in his celebrated work Aryabhatiyam had
accepted the said tradition and used the word “Bharatapurvam” in the
said work very often and scholars agree that he used the word to refer
to such events that occurred before the Mahabharata War. In 1991, Dr.
D. Abhayankar and Dr. Ballabh of the Osmania University calculated
that the present Kali Yuga began on 7th February, 3104 B.C. But it is
now well accepted by the both Eastern and the Western scholars that
the present Kali Yuga began on the midnight of 17th and 18th February,
3102 B.C. And hence it can roughly be said that the Mahabharata War
took place nearly 5000 years ago from now.
Today, man has created a machine called computer which, though most
idiotic, can do mathematical calculations at an incredible speed.
According to a popular ad of a computer company, the calculations
which Johannes Kepler took ten years to complete, can be done today
within minutes, using a computer. It has therefore been possible for
the scientists, with the help of this fantastic machine, to determine
the dates of ancient events with unthinkable accuracy, using the
planetary configurations given in the Mahabharata , as inputs. They
have developed so many software for this purpose and to name a few
are: (1) Planetarium, (2) Ecliptic, (3) Lode star and the(4) Panchang
Software. In 2003, a two day seminar was held on 5th and 6th January,
in Bangalore, on “The Date of Mahabharata War: Based on Astronomical
Data Using Planetarium Software”, and a few of the eminent researchers
who submitted papers were (1) Dr. S. Balakrishna of NASA, USA; (2) Dr.
B. N. Narahari Achar, Department of Physics, Memphis University, USA;
(3) Dr. R. N. Iyengar, Department of Civil Engineering, IISc,
Bangalore; (4) Dr. S. Kalyanaraman, Saraswati River Research Centre,
Chennai and so on.
These scientists agree that there does not exist any contradiction
between any two descriptions of planetary configurations given in the
Mahabharata. Dr. S. Balakrishna has studied the eclipses, both solar
and lunar, described in the Mahabharata and tried to find out the
dates of those eclipses using the Lode Star Software. Generally 240
solar and 150 lunar eclipses occur in a century and during the period
from 3300 B.C. to 700 B.C. nearly 6000 solar and 4000 lunar eclipses
took place, though not all of them were visible from India, or to be
more precise, from Kurukshetra. Out of them, 672 were eclipse pairs,
or both solar and lunar eclipses within a lunar month. Dr. Balakrishna
studied the eclipses those have been mentioned in the text of
Mahabharata. In fact, there are mentions of solar eclipses at 8 places
in Mahabharata, out of which three of them are very important.
Firstly, the solar eclipse that is mentioned in the Sabha Parva. The
second solar eclipse which is mentioned in the Udyoga Parva to which
Karna tried to draw the attention of Lord Krishna when He was
returning from Hastinapur. The third important solar eclipse has been
mentioned in the Shalya Parva, that occurred along with two lunar
eclipses within a month. Many believe that there was a total solar
eclipse occurred on the 13th day of the War, which has been
allegorically mentioned as covering the sun by Lord Krishna with is
His Sudarshan Chakra. The epic Mahabharata has so many other aspects
which common people do not know. Firstly, the epic as we see it today
containing 100,000 verses was not the creation of Vedavyasa. He
composed what was then known as the Jai, containing only 8,800 verses.
Later on Rishi Vaishampayana enlarged it to contain 24,000 verses
which was then known as the Bharata. Finally Sauti, the son of the
suta (the chariot driver) Lomaharshana, gave it present form as we see
now, containing 100,000 verses.
It has been mentioned earlier that just prior to the Mahabharata War,
a very rare event of three eclipses occurring within a lunar month
took place: a lunar eclipse followed by a solar one and then another
lunar eclipse. According to the text of Mahabharata, the solar eclipse
occurred just 13 days after the first lunar eclipse. Dr. S.
Balakrishna of NASA, USA, has searched all eclipse pairs, a lunar
eclipse followed by a solar eclipse after 13 days, that took place
from 3300 B.C. to 700 B.C., using the Lodestar pro-software. He found
that nearly 672 eclipse pairs have occurred within the said period,
out of which 27 pairs have been found to have less than 14 days time
gap. And according to Dr. Balakrishna, the eclipse pair of 2559 is the
best match with the description given in the text of Mahabharata. But
according to Dr. Kalyanaraman, the eclipses occurred in 3067 B.C.- the
lunar eclipse on 29th September at the asterism Krittika and the solar
eclipse on 14th October at the asterism Jyestha. Researcher Dr. P. V.
Holay examined 6 planetary configurations given in the Mahabharata and
concluded that the War began on 13th November, 3143 B.C.
But Dr. K. S. Raghavan and his coworker Dr. G. S. Sampath Iyengar,
using the Planetarium software came to the conclusion that the
Kurukshetra War began on 22nd day of November, 3067 B.C. (according to
the present Gregorian calendar). Professor Dr. Narahari Achar of the
University of Memphis, USA, also arrived at the same conclusion using
the said Planetarium software. Dr. S. Kalyanaraman of the Saraswati
River Research Centre, Chennai, found the estimates of Dr. K. S.
Raghavan and Dr. Narahari Achar correct and, on that basis, calculated
the dates of some other important events of Mahabharata. For example:
Lord Krishna, on His final peace mission, set out for Hastinapur on
26th September, 3067 B.C. when the moon was at the asterism Revati.
Lord Krishna arrived Hastinapur on 28th September, 3067 B.C., when the
moon was at the asterism Bharani. The full moon and lunar eclipse at
Krittika occurred on 29th September, 3067 B.C. The solar eclipse at
Jyestha occurred on 14th October, 3067 B.C. Lord Balarama set out for
pilgrimage on 1st November, 3067 B.C. The War began on 22nd November,
3067 B.C. Lord Balarama concluded His pilgrimage on 12th December,
3067 B.C. The winter solstice occurred on 13th January, 3066 B.C.
Bhishma died on 17th January, 3066 B.C. The comet Mahaghora appeared
at the asterism Pushya in October, 3066 B.C. inally, it should be
mentioned that the said seminar officially accepted that the
Mahabharata War began, as mentioned above, on 22nd November, 3067 B.C.
So it appears that the Mahabharata War took place, not in Dwapara Yuga
but, in the 35th year of the present Kali Yuga. It is not unlikely
because according to the text of Mahabharata, the War took place at
the juncture of Dwapara and Kali Yuga. Last year, (2005 A.D.),
astrologer Arun Kumar Bansal, using computer software, calculated date
of birth of Lord Krishna and it was 21st July, 3228 B.C. So it appears
that during the Mahabharata War, age of Lord Krishna was 161 years. At
the first sight, it may appear to be absurd. But it should be
mentioned here that, according to Hindu scriptures, the normal life
span of human beings is 400 years in Krita (or Satya), 300 years in
Treta, 200 years in Dwapara and 100 years in Kali Yuga. In fact,
during the Kurukshetra War, most of the military top brass of both
Kauravas and Pandavas were more than 100 years old.
To conclude, it should be mentioned here that the discovery of the
ruins of the city of Dwaraka by the renowned archaeologist Dr. S. R.
Rao, under the Arabian Sea, provides another strong evidence that Lord
Krishna and the story of Mahabharata were a reality and not simply
poetÂ’s fancy.
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http://youtu.be/y4F6tkoYZok - Planet Plant
http://youtu.be/e_ejv98XyL8 - Nature
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