Probability in Ancient India: a debate

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: S. Kalyanaraman

Probability in Ancient India: a debate

 

An interesting debate is ongoing between Prof. C.K. Raju and Prof. Michael Witzel on the topic: Probability in Ancient India. This is at H-Net online (Humanities and Social Sciences – Discussion Networks).

Here is the abstract from the draft referred to by Prof. Raju in his message of June 25, 2011: http://multiworldindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/ckr-Tehran-talk-on-academic-imperialism.pdf

 

Ending  Academic Imperialism: a Beginning

 

Abstract: Academic imperialism begins with Western education, which has not been seriously challenged in hard sciences. Colonialism changed the system of education as a key means of containing revolt, and stabilising Western rule. The change was possible (e.g. by Macaulay in India)  just because a large section of the colonised elite had already swallowed the racist beliefs of the 18th  c., that only the West had innovated in science. Those racist beliefs, in turn, were based on a bad history and philosophy of science violently distorted by the  religious fanaticism which overwhelmed Europe from the Crusades in the 11th c. until the 17th c. Therefore, to end academic imperialism it is necessary to take the following steps. (a) Dismantle and expose the falsehoods of this Western history of science. (b) Change also the accompanying philosophy of science. (c) Use this to construct a new pedagogy, particularly in the hard sciences, and demonstrate its practical value,  to dismantle the colonial education system. (d) Dismantle the Western power structure at the level of higher-education and research. 

 

The immediate action items relate to (c) and (d). (1) Help repeat an experiment to test a new pedagogy of the calculus ("5-day course on calculus without limits") based on a new history and philosophy of mathematics, which enables the calculus to be taught very easily, with the help of computers, even to non-math students. (The calculus is at the base of hard science.) (2) Join and contribute to a new society and web-journal for History and Philosophy of Non-Western Science (HAPONOWS), which will not permit reliance on secondary Western sources, so that authors will have to assume that all such material is doubtful and untrustworthy.

 

Kalyanaraman

 

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Probability in Ancient India

by

C. K. Raju 

 

Visiting Professor

School of Mathematical Sciences

Universiti Sains Malaysia

Penang

 The history of Asia is somehow understood in the West in such a way as to *exclude* the history of science,and, by extension, the possibility that the Asian philosophies can ever contribute significantly to present-

day science.

 

However, mathematics in India was not just about the place-value system for numbers and zero and algorithms.

 

Some years ago I showed that the calculus (not the "pre-calculus") originated

in India and was transmitted to Europe where it was not properly understood by Newton et al. (Cultural foundations of mathematics: The nature of mathematical proof and the transmission of the calculus from India to Europe in the 16th c. CE, Pearson Longman, 2007, PHISPC vol x.4). My new philosophy of zeroism, related to sunyavada and the philosophy with which calculus developed in India, has demonstrated advantages over the older way to teach calculus based on the European notion of "limits", and the university curriculum in mathematics is accordingly being reformed in this part of the world.

 

This note is just to bring to the notice of Asian historians that probability too originated in India,  where the game of dice is described in detail in the RgVeda (ca.-4000 CE), though bad translations like those of H. H. Wilson could not capture the spirit of that poetic description. The game of dice also played a key role in precipitating the Mahabharata war (traditional date-3100 CE). The epic clearly has a notion of a fair game, hence some notion of unbiased dice and consequently probability. The game of  dice is related to sampling theory in the romantic story of Nala and Damayanti, where a king knowledgeable in dice (and a prospective suitor for Damayanti) explains to her husband Nala how to count the number of leaves in a tree.

(Sad that romance, like poetry, never mixes with serious science in the West!)

 

Early Indian mathematical texts had worked out the theory of permutations and combinations. More details are in my paper, "Probability in Ancient India" published in the Handbook of Philosophy of Science, vol 7. Philosophy of Statistics, Elsevier, 2011,  a draft version of which is available at

http://ckraju.net/papers/Probability-in-Ancient-India.pdf.

 

One contemporary application is to the frequentist interpretation of probability, which is what is needed for statistical physics, for relative frequency is what can be measured. But relative frequency cannot be used to *define* probability (in a non-circular way), since probability is the limit of relative frequency only in a probabilistic sense. The philosophy of zeroism provides a way out of this paradox which actually arises due to

the notion of "limits".

 

The other contemporary application is to show that probability defined using Buddhist logic (as distinct from Jain logic used by D. S. Kothari)corresponds to quantum probabilities, involved in quantum computing. This part is only for the technically well-informed. (But, then, again, why should it be the norm that historians of Asia need not be technically well-informed?)

 

 

Can Rahul Gandhi become the PM?

Dr Subramanian Swamy's latest missive that Rahul Gandhi can never become PM can be read here.

http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/2011/06/rahul-gandhi-is-italian-citizen.html

What interests me is the medical ground that Dr Swamy has quoted.
I have written my observations on Rahul's and Priyanka's horoscopes in the comment -section of
http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2011/06/from-dooms-day-prediction-to-lunar.html
in which I have expressed that I suspect some ailments for him and also expect him to have medical problems mounting in Mars Maha dasa which is due to start in 6 years from now. 
I would like to know what exactly Dr Swamy is saying about Rahul's medical conditions.


Rahul under Rahu effect:-

http://ghatotkacha.sulekha.com/blog/post/2011/05/congress-mps-allege-rahul-gandhi-under-influence-of.htm

"We can't afford shift to US-style education" - Kaushik Mitter

At a time a section of politicians and uninformed public in Tamilnadu are raising a hue and cry about the new Government's action to stall the ill designed Uniform syllabus policy of the DMK govt, this interview given by Mr Kaushik Mitter puts in perspective the advantages of the educational system in India. The relevant parts of his interview on Indian education is given below. Mr Mitter makes 2 valid points on Indian system - (1) that the entire family works for the success of the ward and (2) rote learning is not bad. In this context, the author also speaks about the cost of Indian education which is very less. When schools ape for western type teaching methods and aids, the cost increases. A glaring example is the school run by MK Stalin' s daughter and son in law, (report given below) where the fees for the KG classes is the highest in the State.

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http://www.deccanchronicle.com/editorial/op-ed/%E2%80%98we-can%E2%80%99t-afford-shift-us-style-education%E2%80%99-285

'We can't afford shift to US-style education'

By

Kaushik Mitter

"I think what's happened in America, the reason it made such an impact is that Americans have begun to realise now that there is something problematic about their system of education. For years they've been accustomed to thinking their education system is the best in the world; now they realise it has very deep problems. I've brought up two children there, they've been through the whole American educational system — and I'm happy to say that they've done very well in that system. But I certainly realise this system is riddled with terrible problems.
I also think the strengths of our system are never properly articulated. The whole world has become so battered and bullied by this constant talk about the excellence of American education by people who have no experience of it, who don't know what it is to bring up children in different places... people automatically accept there is something magnificent in that system and that our system is horrible... And it's really not true.
I've taught at Harvard and at all these places... One of the reasons I really feel relieved not to be teaching any more is that I don't think in many significant respects that the American system works...

Q. You mean in the universities or in schools as well?

A. School education, college education... From top to bottom, it just doesn't work. In some ways it's become like entertainment... When as a college teacher in America you are offering a class, the children "shop" for classes. So which are the classes they're going to take? The classes that are entertaining, the classes where they are marked very liberally. This is exactly what happens: they put their evaluations on their websites so that the students who are following know exactly who are the strict teachers, who are the not strict teachers, and they can game the system very, very well...
Education is not all fun. Education is difficult, but the idea that you have to make education fun at some point becomes self-defeating. You can't make certain kinds of mathematics fun. You can't make difficult things fun. And that's not why you are doing education. Learning poetry by heart is not fun. But it's very necessary to have that poetry in your head if you are studying English literature... I sometimes ask my children: Can you recite a poem? — and they've been to the top institutions in America — and no, they can't.
They (Americans) think that rote learning is bad... But it is such an idiotic idea — what is learning but rote learning? How can you learn the multiplication tables as though it was fun? There's nothing fun about multiplication tables... And learning is in fact 90 per cent rote learning. If you constantly attack this idea of rote learning, it's ridiculous...


If you go to American universities now, why is it that all the departments of mathematics, engineering are filled with Asian students? They come from systems where the rigour is drilled into them from a very early age. If it hasn't been drilled into you from an early age, you have to be truly exceptional. America is a country filled with very brilliant people, and many exceptional students. But the institutional structure doesn't always support them.


Q:Would you say the Indian educational system, with all its faults, still has a few lessons for America and others?
A. This is the point Amy Chua is making — in India and China and so on there is no strict dividing line between upbringing and education — it's your family that is actually providing much of the education. And that you can't reproduce elsewhere. For example, my niece in Kolkata, when she has to go through exams, the whole house shuts down. For two or three months no one will go out, (someone) will sit with her every evening, no one will turn on the TV, literally... the kind of things that every parent in India, every household in India does. Can you imagine this happening in America? It's inconceivable.


Q. There are many in India who want changes in our education system, to bring in Western ideas, an American-style education...
A. That's absolutely the wrong way to go. I'm not saying our system is without faults. There are many faults, many things wrong with it. But there's a lot of stuff which I see constantly being said — from education ministry people and so on, most of whom have no connection with education. I look at it and just laugh to myself... These people have no conception of what they're saying — they are going to destroy what's good in our system and take everything that's bad in that system and end up with the worst possible mess.


When I went from Delhi University to Oxford, I thought I was going into a place where there's so much higher learning, so much a "life of the mind" and it was exactly the opposite... My education in Delhi had been much better than anything Oxford could have provided. I was far ahead of those other students; I'd read all the books already... I knew more than my teachers there, for heaven's sake.


There were also wonderful things about Oxford. It let me explore avenues and byways I could not have done in Delhi, but that was possible because I'd been through this whole rigour... What really worries me is that they are in danger now of throwing out the baby and keeping the bathwater!
One thing that is never factored into the debate here — do people even understand the level of cost involved... For each of my two children I'm paying over $50,000 a year for college education — each year for four years — so at the end on each child you spend something like a crore of rupees on their college education.


Our system is delivering an education which in many ways is competitive internationally — and at what cost? It's less than one per cent of that cost. How will our society generate this kind of money for this (American) kind of education? It's ridiculous. Even America can no longer sustain this. Everyone there is talking of the next big bubble being in American education, and I think they're absolutely right...


Do you know what they have to do to put their children through college? People don't realise this here — they take out these loans, and a staggering percentage of American children now come into life with a burden of loans which amount to $200,000-$300,000.
These loans have crippling rates of interest — they can never get rid of these loans, and they are specifically exempted even from bankruptcy claims... So if a person declares bankruptcy, even then they cannot get rid of these loans. For the first 20-30 years of their lives they are working to pay off these loans. Is such a system conceivable here? What impact will it have on the poor and all those who can't afford it?"


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From

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/cities/chennai/rs-24000-fee-kg-stalin-kin%E2%80%99s-school-348

Rs 24,000 fee for KG in Stalin kin's school

Even as the debate rages over the exorbitant fees collected by private schools in Tamil Nadu, the government committee, headed by Justice Raviraja Pandian, has allowed a school here to collect as much as Rs 24,000 as annual fees for kindergarten classes.



This is the highest fee fixed for any school in the state and it happens to be administered by none other than former deputy chief minister M.K. Stalin's daughter, Ms Senthamarai Sabaresan.
According to the government website, www.pallikalvi.in, Ms Sabaresan's Sunshine Montessori nursery and primary school, allowed to collect the highest fee in the state, has its office at 5, Rani street, Dr Seethapathy Nagar, Velachery.



This address also belongs to Mr Stalin as per the affidavit he filed as the DMK candidate for Kolathur constituency in the recent Assembly election.
While Mr Stalin's kin is allowed to charge the state's highest annual fee of Rs 24,000 — perhaps taking into account its high-class infrastructure and world-class facilities — some other schools have been directed to collect fees as low as Rs 1,500.
According to Mr L. Shanmugasundaram, general secretary, Tamil Nadu students-parents federation, the Raviraja Pandian committee had made its recommendations without revealing the parameters that guided its decisions.
"The committee report lacks transparency. We do not know how the committee went about fixing the fees. Some schools, backed by political honchos, managed to get hefty fees sanctioned," Mr Shanmugasun-daram said.
Efforts to contact Ms Sabaresan of Sunshine school to get her version were not successful.

Unusual drop in sunspot activity & some astrological musings. .

A recent article in space.com talks about the unexpected drop in sunspot activity at present. This trend was noticed many months ago which I mentioned in the article titled

Asteroids crossed near the earth – any news from astrology?

In my understanding, the solar system behaves in unison like a single cell. If the Sun is not active now (contrary to the expected activity) , the causes can be anything from its own internal dynamics to an extraneous influence from, say, a planet like Jupiter. I mention Jupiter because the current lull in the sun more or less coincides with the cycle of Jupiter. The cycle of Jupiter which includes 5 rounds of Jupiter around  the zodiac takes 60 years. In reality it takes more than 60 solar years. The space.com article says that a similar lull of the sun was reported 70 years ago. It was around that time a fresh cycle of Jupiter began. The next  fresh cycle of Jupiter is due to begin in 2014 when 'Vijaya' year begins. A deeper look into Jupiter's current position, its activity etc might throw some light on the Sun's lull.

Another co-incidence I have seen is that the world as of now is 'cooling off' - a trend which would continue until 2025.
An article written on this can be read here

Predicting Cold waves.

In this article I have shown how the position of other planets with reference to the signs (specific locations on the sky) coincide with cool times on the earth. Until 2025 the cooling period continues. The space.com article also foresees a less active sun until then.


Yet another reason could be that we are in the middle of two mini Ice ages. In a cycle of  41,000 years, the peaking of Ice age happened about 20,000 years ago. 20,000 years from now we may getting the next peak time. If so, we are in a phase of a  beginning of the next cycle of Ice age. This cycle is believed to be caused by the gradual shift in the tilt of the earth's axis. But there may be other reasons also - one of them being the sun itself undergoing some phases that would contribute to gradual cooling of the earth.


Yet another reason could be that the sun is presently passing through the center of the Milky way galaxy with dense star clusters hindering the cosmic rays. Generally the background matters. The background clusters and skies do contribute to the heat or coldness. In astrology we go by the background such as fiery, watery signs etc.


For example when moon passes through watery signs, there is scope to expect rains. There are many such combinations which I believe have been written down by the Vedic sages after studying the skies from generation after generation - for thousands of years.

Currently a simple parameter itself is enough to say that the cooling of the Sun is temporary but not inimical.

Whenever Saturn has moved through its exaltation sign, some calm has prevailed on the earth. The lower sun spot activity also has shown that people have remained clam during those times. If the sun spot activity had to keep pace with its normal course, it must be peaking when Saturn transits Libra, its sign of exaltation. These two do not go together. It seems when Saturn has to ensure some calmness on man's attitudes, the sun can not behave contrary to that and hence has mellowed itself down for the time being. To say this in another way, Saturn's present transit across Libra has an influence on sun's activity. When saturn moves through Virgo, Libra etc, the sun becomes less active. We can not ignore the astrological rule that Sun is in debility where Saturn is exalted!


Looking at the mundane predictions by Varahamihira, he too says that the minimal number of sun spots  is good for mankind. The less they are, the lesser are the human sufferings. The world minus Osama and troubles for scamsters might perhaps be some good indicators of this trend.

-jayasree

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From

http://www.space.com/11960-fading-sunspots-slower-solar-activity-solar-cycle.html

Sun's Fading Spots Signal Big Drop in Solar Activity

by

Denise Chow


 A photo of a sunspot taken in May 2010, with Earth shown to scale. The image has been colorized for aesthetic reasons. This image with 0.1 arcsecond resolution from the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope represents the limit of what is currently possible in terms of spatial resolution.
CREDIT: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, V.M.J. Henriques (sunspot), NASA Apollo 17 (Earth)

(The inserted image of Earth is for comparison with the size of the sunspot) 



Some unusual solar readings, including fading sunspots and weakening magnetic activity near the poles, could be indications that our sun is preparing to be less active in the coming years.


The results of three separate studies seem to show that even as the current sunspot cycle swells toward the solar maximum, the sun could be heading into a more-dormant period, with activity during the next 11-year sunspot cycle greatly reduced or even eliminated.

The results of the new studies were announced today (June 14) at the annual meeting of the solar physics division of the American Astronomical Society, which is being held this week at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.


"The solar cycle may be going into a hiatus," Frank Hill, associate director of the National Solar Observatory's Solar Synoptic Network, said in a news briefing today (June 14).


The studies looked at a missing jet stream in the solar interior, fading sunspots on the sun's visible surface, and changes in the corona and near the poles. [Photos: Sunspots on Earth's Star]


"This is highly unusual and unexpected," Hill said. "But the fact that three completely different views of the sun point in the same direction is a powerful indicator that the sunspot cycle may be going into hibernation."


Spots on the sun
Sunspots are temporary patches on the surface of the sun that are caused by intense magnetic activity. These structures sometimes erupt into energetic solar storms that send streams of charged particles into space.


Since powerful charged particles from solar storms can occasionally wreak havoc on Earth's magnetic field by knocking out power grids or disrupting satellites in orbit, a calmer solar cycle could have its advantages.


Astronomers study mysterious sunspots because their number and frequency act as indicators of the sun's activity, which ebbs and flows in an 11-year cycle. Typically, a cycle takes roughly 5.5 years to move from a solar minimum, when there are few sunspots, to the solar maximum, during which sunspot activity is amplified.


Currently, the sun is in the midst of the period designated as Cycle 24 and is ramping up toward the cycle's period of maximum activity. However, the recent findings indicate that the activity in the next 11-year solar cycle, Cycle 25, could be greatly reduced. In fact, some scientists are questioning whether this drop in activity could lead to a second Maunder Minimum, which was a 70-year period from 1645 to 1715 when the sun showed virtually no sunspots. [Video: Rivers of Fire Inflame Sunspots]


Hill is the lead author of one of the studies that used data from the Global Oscillation Network Group to look at characteristics of the solar interior. (The group includes six observing stations around the world.) The astronomers examined an east-west zonal wind flow inside the sun, called torsional oscillation. The latitude of this jet stream matches the new sunspot formation in each cycle, and models successfully predicted the late onset of the current Cycle 24.


"We expected to see the start of the zonal flow for Cycle 25 by now, but we see no sign of it," Hill said. "The flow for Cycle 25 should have appeared in 2008 or 2009. This leads us to believe that the next cycle will be very much delayed, with a minimum longer than the one we just went through."
Hill estimated that the start of Cycle 25 could be delayed to 2021 or 2022 and will be very weak, if it even happens at all.


The sun's magnetic field


In the second study, researchers tracked a long-term weakening trend in the strength of sunspots, and predict that by the next solar cycle, magnetic fields erupting on the sun will be so weak that few, if any, sunspots will be formed.


With more than 13 years of sunspot data collected at the McMath-Pierce Telescope at Kitt Peak in Arizona, Matt Penn and William Livingston observed that the average magnetic field strength declined significantly during Cycle 23 and now into Cycle 24. Consequently, sunspot temperatures have risen, they observed.


If the trend continues, the sun's magnetic field strength will drop below a certain threshold and sunspots will largely disappear; the field no longer will be strong enough to overcome such convective forces on the solar surface.
In a separate study, Richard Altrock, manager of the Air Force's coronal research program at NSO's facility in New Mexico, examined the sun's corona and observed a slowdown of the magnetic activity's usual "rush to the poles."


"A key thing to understand is that those wonderful, delicate coronal features are actually powerful, robust magnetic structures rooted in the interior of the sun," Altrock said. "Changes we see in the corona reflect changes deep inside the sun."
Altrock sifted through 40 years of observations from NSO's 16-inch (40 centimeters) coronagraphic telescope.


New solar activity typically emerges at a latitude of about 70 degrees at the start of the solar cycle, then moves toward the equator. The new magnetic field simultaneously pushes remnants of the past cycle as far as 85 degrees toward the poles. The current cycle, however, is showing some different behavior.


"Cycle 24 started out late and slow and may not be strong enough to create a rush to the poles, indicating we'll see a very weak solar maximum in 2013, if at all," Altrock said. "If the rush to the poles fails to complete, this creates a tremendous dilemma for the theorists, as it would mean that Cycle 23's magnetic field will not completely disappear from the polar regions. … No one knows what the sun will do in that case."


If the models prove accurate and the trends continue, the implications could be far-reaching.


"If we are right, this could be the last solar maximum we'll see for a few decades," Hill said. "That would affect everything from space exploration to Earth's climate."


(You can follow SPACE.com staff writer Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow.

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.)

Website for political updates (2G scam: Chidambaram as guilty as Raja)

The new website by Dr S.Kalyanaraman, founder of Saraswathy Foundation and a leading light in saving Ram Sethu, comes up with a lot of political updates.

http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com

A recent update is given here

http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/2011/06/2g-scam-chidambaram-as-guilty-as-raja.html

l

2G scam: Chidambaram as guilty as Raja, claims Subramanian Swamy

Headlines Today Bureau  | Chennai, June 17, 2011 | 12:52

Subramanian Swamy has demanded that Chidambaram should be indicted as an co-accused in the 2G case. After Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaaand BJP president Nitin Gadkari, it was the turn of Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy to level serious allegations against Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram.   Accusing Chidambaram of being involved in the2G spectrum allocation scam, Swamy on Thursday alleged that the minister had received kickbacks and undervalued the spectrum cost. He also demanded that Chidambaram should be indicted as an additional accused in the case and demanded his resignation as the home minister.   Swamy has already moved a special application in the Supreme Court in this connection.   In 2008, licences of 2G spectrum were issued at 2001 prices in a bid to favour some big private companies. It led to a loss of around Rs 1.75 lakh crore to the exchequer.   Noting that Chidambaram was the finance minister at the time of the scam, Swamy alleged that the move to undervalue 2G licenses was a joint decision of him along with then telecommunication minister A. Raja.   "We have evidence now that P. Chidambaram had three separate meetings with A. Raja and decided on to grant 2G licences at 2001 prices. Chargesheet against Raja says that he is guilty because he fixed 2001 prices for the 2G spectrum, so Chidambaram too is guilty now," Swamy insisted.   DMK's Raja and his party colleague Kanimozhi have been lodged in Tihar Jail in connection with the scam.   Swamy also accused Chidambaram of being guilty of promoting businesses of ineligible telecom players. Holding Chidambaram guilty on three counts, Swamy said Chidambaram should be prosecuted and sent to jail.   "We have tape recordings of Niira Radia in which it is revealed that Chidambaram has received kickbacks. On all these three charges Chidambaram is guilty and he must go to jail. Why was this allowed? Chidambaram encouraged it. He is unfit to be the home minister. Therefore he should be removed and he should be prosecuted," Swamy said.   Earlier, Gadkari had told Aaj Tak news channel that he had proof which could embarrass Chidambaram. He said the BJP MPs would soon provide the CBI evidence against him and seek a probe.   Earlier in the week, Jayalalithaa too had slammed Chidambaram for his "fraudulent" election to the Lok Sabha and demanded his resignation. Bharat Today: Updates in BharatKalyan97: 'Ex-CJI could be persuaded to fix judgements' | KG... 2G scam: Chidambaram as guilty as Raja, claims Sub... The long sulk - Ayaz Amir. Pakistan's Chief of Arm... Congress's duplicity What is Sonia Gandhi hiding? Seer was protesting against licences given by Cong... Phone tap reveals Raja told Radia PC got 'a lot of..

From Doom’s day prediction to Lunar eclipse.

This title may be misleading, but I chose this title because I will be writing here what I missed to write throughout the period that started on 21^st May 2011, when a section of people believed that the world will end on that day,-  and ended today when we will be witnessing  a Total Lunar eclipse in a few hours.  Due to some pre-occupations, I could not do active blogging for a 3-week period since 20^th May.  I will write here the topics I wanted to write but could not write.

The interesting topic I could not write in detail was the Dooms day prediction made by one Mr Harold Camping that the world would come to an end on 21^st May, 2011. This prediction did not materialize like many other Dooms day predictions before, simply because, like many other dooms day predictions it was based on unscientific notions of the Bible.  There is a wiki article on this prediction. Since the prediction has not come true, the author has revised the date!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_end_times_prediction

There have been calamities form time to time, but none of them have wiped off Life completely. Hinduism takes a very pragmatic and scientific view of this. There is Pralaya – but it happens on a daily basis, in small areas and in big areas. Every night's sleep itself is akin to a Pralaya. Every fresh day, it is new birth for us. But every wipe-out that happens after a Yuga or Manvanthra is not final. There will be a phase of recuperation and Life will bounce back after some time. The dates of such wipe-outs coincide with some cosmic happenings.

For example, one of the scientifically identified doomsday causes, namely 'cosmic impact' did happen according to Hindu Thought when Pleiades (Kritthika star cluster which is by itself a separate galaxy) went past our galaxy about 100 million years ago.  When it happened,  the Saptha Rishi Mandala (Ursa major) was disturbed and the companion stars of 6 major stars denoted by 6 rishis were pulled out.  Only Arundhathi was left undisturbed. My earlier article on this can be read here.

http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2008/08/chastity-and-stellar-links-of.html

 

In my opinion, that was the last time, the earth felt a disturbance in an enormous scale that led to a break-up of the earth and the broken one becoming Mars.  Mars in Hindu Thought is identified as Bhowman or Bhumi puthran, meaning,  the son of earth. Many people think that moon was part of the earth once, but this is disputed by the scientific evidence now. Moon was totally different; or rather a celestial entity of a chosen order from outer space as it signifies manas (mind) of man.  Its origin is comparable to that of the Sun as Sun stands for Athman or life, and moon stands for Mind. So far science has no clues to the origin of moon, but as per Hindu Thought, it must have originated before the birth of Solar system in a place or combination which was crucial for the formation of Solar system.

Scientific predictions of Dooms day go well with the views of the Hindu Thought. Top 10 scientific causes for the Dooms day can be read here:-

http://www.livescience.com/14173-doomsday-scenarios-apocalypse-2012.html

Of the 10 probable causes listed in this site, cosmic impact is close to the Final Day of earth's life according to Hindu Thought. There may have been small and localised catastrophes every now and then caused by  tsunami hits, earthquakes and asteroid hits. But a total wipe –out or sleep mode to Life will be seen when the present Kalpa ends.  The end of the present Kalpa coincides with the  clash with Andromeda galaxy. (wiki article on Andromeda http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_Galaxy ) which is likely to take place after 4 billion years. Andromeda is racing towards us from the south and this perfectly matches with the notion of death and destruction from/ in the South. It is around that time our Sun also will die out a natural death. This encounter with Andromeda causes complete overhaul of the present system and a new alignment will place in a new kalpa. It will take approximately 6 billion years for this new Kalpa to come up with Life. I will someday write more on this when I will be writing on Hindu concept of Cosmos.

In the present write up, in the context of Dooms day predictions based on Bible, we can say with certainty that Hindu Thought is scientific and does not make any prediction of Doomsday as told by Bible zealots.

 

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The next topic I wanted to write was on the Ganga retreating in Varanasi. The retreat of Gangothri is already a news, but the retreat of Ganga in Varanasi is perhaps for the first time happening. People got panicky as this means the oblations and rituals can not be done on the banks.

This causes worries because the Ganga is supposed to remain as a sacred one capable of wiping out sins only upto 5000 years of Kali yuga. Verse 11-4 of Chanakya Niti says, " It is believed that God deserts the earth after 10,000 years of Kali yuga. After 5000 years of the same, the holy waters of the river Ganges desert the earth, After 2500 years the deity of the village departs from there".

The 2500 year cut-off, according to me is the time of Kannagi. I don't consider Kannagi's revenge on common people as dharmic. I will write some time later on the astrological combinations of the revenge which I characterize as the first ever terrorist attack on hapless citizens. The deities of the Directions and villages left when she set Madurai on fire. Until then the deities appeared in person for deserving devotees.  Kannagi episode coincides with 2500 years of Kali yuga. But now after 5000 years Ganga has gone out of reach for common people. I am reminded of this verse by Chanakya when I read the news on Ganga's retreat.  A casualty on the issue on saving Ganga has just happened with the death of Swami Nigamananda. This also makes me wonder whether Chanakya's prediction on Ganga is indeed true.

 

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Another issue I wanted to write was the quiet ways in which the Government is strangulating the freedom of speech on the internet. The technical experts on internet who have been giving valuable information on internet and were cautioning us on internet censorship, have themselves faced the wrath of the government now. Their wordpress blog has been suspended without any notice or explanation.  http://tljind.wordpress.com  However they continue with their other blog http://tlnind.blogspot.com  . The recent news is that some blogspots also have become inaccessible.

This is a cause of concern for all of us having faith in democracy. Personally I am worried  as I have over 1000 posts in this blog and am working in my Tamil blog on Tamizhan Dravidanaa, with 20 + articles yet to be written.  

 

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Another topic that I wanted write was the Uniform education system in Tamilnadu. I don't agree with the Uniform system proposed by the DMK Govt which I view as Uniform minimum education. Infact I don't believe that uniform syllabus would do justice to our children. Each child's capability varies and the children must have the freedom to choose from different systems of education. NCERT provides the bench mark and any attempt to re design the syllabus must aim at reaching NCERT standards and nor less.  I think many of the people who support DMK govt't education system are either not having school going children in their house or are not aware of the standard required to compete at college levels. Already scrapping off entrance exams to medical and technical under graduate stream has started telling on the quality of the students in college. If this trend is allowed, President Obama can stop worrying about competition from Tamilnadu students.

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Other issues:-

Death of MF Hussain – good news

Baba Ramdev ' s fast – He made 2 mistakes which he could have avoided – 1. He must have asked for a single issue. 2. He must have courted arrest when police swooped on Ramlila grounds.

Abdul kalam is seen  in news often – good. He speaks on corruption at all those occasions. I wish he plays a role in anti corruption mood that is swelling now.

Maran to resign? – It is rumoured that TR Balu will be inducted into cabinet to compensate. If so that is good news as that would help in further eroding Congress's moralities.

Finally today's Total Lunar eclipse.

Waiting to see it.

The eclipse happens in the mid-heavens  and totality happens in the 5^th part of the night (of 7parts). For such an eclipse, the predictions are as follows.

 

• ·         Central provinces will suffer, it could mean some trouble to the Central government, but there will be happiness for the people.

• ·         There will be a marginal fall in the price of food grains.

• ·         Herbivorous animals and cows will suffer.

• ·         Ministers and some business men will suffer, so also the household inmates.

I particularly foresee troubles for ministers in the central government. Someone asked about PC's prospects. I already wrote about it in a comment. From his moon sign no trouble is seen. But he does have a malefic combination which will pull him down like A Raja if he his lagna is Scorpio (Sep 9, 1945, Sivaganga) . Since his time of birth is not known, not able to say with certainty.  He is currently running Mercury dasa, in whose house the malefic combination occurs. This heightens the risk factor for him.

At the mundane level, presently the combinations are indicative of earthquakes, landslides that could cause havoc to vehicular traffic and flash floods caused by damage to water bodies or tsunamis. The time around this eclipse has more such probabilities. For details on how to predict these, please browse my old articles on earthquakes.

Another factor of concern is the movement of Venus in papa-karthari since March. Since March this year,  Venus has been moving with Mars and Sun on either side thereby showing propensity for fire mishaps. Now Sun has moved beyond, but Venus still continues to be in papa-karthari with Mars on one side and Ketu on the other. This continues till the month end after which Venus goes away  from the grip of malefics.  Hope the gory incidents involving fire will not be heard so frequently from next month onwards.

Another factor I want to write is that Mars will be moving across Rohini shortly. Rohini is a sensitive star and movement of malefic across that or aspects by malefic on Rohini are said to cause human sufferings. But fortunately Mars will be moving in northern declination.  A similar crossing of Rohini by Saturn was pacified by King Dasaratha who prayed to Saturn with Sani sthuthi. As  a result Saturn moved in the north and spared Rohini.

The crossing of Rohini is called as Rohini Sakata bheda which is supposed to cause human sufferings. But when the malefic move above (north of) Rohini, it does not cause mishaps. However, at the present combination of planets showing higher propensity for natural calamities through earthquake, and Mars positioned in an earthy sign of Taurus aspecting  Scorpio, the West  is likely to be rattled by earthquakes. Himalayan region in the north of India also is vulnerable.

Dr Subramanian Swamy on why we must fight corruption

From

http://www.dailypioneer.com/344984/Why-fighting-corruption-is-important.html

 

Why fighting corruption is important

by

Subramanian Swamy

The entire world is watching as Indians attempt to purge India of corruption using classically Indian means of protest. Hindutva and Sanatana Dharma represent the only viable cures to the cancer of corruption which is destroying the entrails of our civilisation

Corruption in India is now a major concern because of the gigantic and mind boggling amounts illegally appropriated in the Satyam, IPL, CWG, and 2G Spectrum scams. By all objective criteria, India today has by far one of the most corrupt governance. The 2G Spectrum Scam, the title of my new book released on June 11, is the most shocking rip-off of all.

As I have pointed out in the book, my curiosity was first fired by the fraud and forgery that became apparent in the sudden divestment of equity stake in Swan Capital Company by Anil Dhirubhai Ambani, the owner of ADAG who strategically controlled Swan, in favour of the Shahid Balwas-run DB Realty Company, and reportedly on then Telecom Minister A Raja's behest. DB Realty then sold the controlling shares of Swan to Etisalat.

This latter company was considered in a Home Ministry report to be a front for ISI and Dawood Ibrahim. Shahid Balwas was held by the Ministry to be an undesirable person. Yet, Etisalat was allowed by the Union Home Minister P Chidambaram to buy out the Swan Telecom at eight times the price paid by Swan for the 2G spectrum licence. National security was seriously compromised for greed of money. 

I had written to the Prime Minister a letter dated November 29, 2008, for sanction under Section19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act (1988) to prosecute Telecom Minister A. Raja by filing a private complaint before the Designated Sessions Court. Thus began my venture into the 2G spectrum scam. The PM's procrastination led me to the Supreme Court. 

Thereafter, a Bench of Justices Singhvi and Ganguli, by their meticulous reading of the briefs and documents filed and by their crisp orders and directions have changed the national public mood from despair and despondency to hope and expectation. 

This judicial intervention came none too soon. An international watchdog committee conducted a study on the illicit flight of money from India, perhaps the first ever attempt at shedding light on a subject steeped in secrecy, and concluded that India has been drained of $462 billion (over Rs 20 lakh crore) between 1948 and 2008. The amount represents nearly 40 per cent of India's gross domestic product.

The unanimous view throughout the world today is that corruption is no more the inevitable grease or speed money to be tolerated in any system, but a cancer that could cause the death of a society by continuous debilitation — unless it is cured at an early stage.

The Indian financial system also suffers from a hangover of cronyism and corruption that have brought the government budgets on the verge of bankruptcy. This too needs fixing. India's infrastructure requires about $ 150 billion to make it world class, and the education system needs 6 per cent of GDP instead of 2.8 per cent today. But an open competitive market system can find these resources provided the quality of governance and accountability is improved. Obviously a second generation of reforms is necessary for all this. 

One of the worst problems with corruption in India is the creation of "black money"— money that is used in such transactions and is obviously unreported, hence is neither taxed nor is spent openly. It travels to secret bank accounts abroad, or, worse, is used by the corrupt to indulge in gross luxurious consumption and bribery. Such black money stock also creates inflation by enabling easy finance for hoarding of supplies even as the GDP growth rate accelerates. 

Corruption, therefore, impacts on economic development of a nation in five dimensions: 

1. Decisions taken for corrupt motive sub-optimises the allocation of scarce national resources and hence in the long run lowers the rate of growth in GDP. It also encourages buccaneers instead of innovative entrepreneurs. 

2. By the use of bribe money which escapes the tax net and is mostly stashed away in banks abroad or in trunks in safe houses, is deployed in luxury goods purchase, ostentatious life, splurging in five star hotels, real estate, and on partying. This raises demand for luxury production and services, and in turn distorts investment priorities. In India, 70 per cent of the investment goes directly or indirectly to sustain the luxury sector.

3. Unaccounted bribe money is lent to hoarders and speculators who then cause artificial shortages and thus inflation and property bubbles.

4. Since the most in corrupt activities would be in public office, they enact laws to not only to safeguard the booty by lax criminal investigations and prosecutions, but to enable earning interest or return on the bribe money. The invention of Participatory Notes (PNs) and the Mauritius Tax & Capital Gains exemption treaties is aimed at that sordid objective (see below).

5. Corruption enables beneficiaries to involve foreign governments seeking influence and criminal gangs resident abroad to launder money and provide protection. 

The view of Integral Humanism as propounded by Deendayal Upadhaya or what we have for centuries have called as Sanatana Dharma is that a society is healthy only if there is a harmonisation of material pursuits and spiritual advancement in a human being. The social structure called Varna, till it degenerated into a birth-based social cartel, was designed to downgrade wealth as the indicator of status and elevate sacrifice and simplicity as a desirable value. 

But now greed is driving all of us as it has become in the globalisation process. Materialistic progress alone however does not guarantee national security of a nation. What is essential is the character and integrity of its citizens. Hence, besides the objective of acquiring knowledge and getting employment that require cognitive intelligence, the youth must be motivated in other dimensions of intelligence that of emotional, moral and social. 

In the United States, as Business Week has recently reported, these concepts have become highly popular in the corporate world, and have been incorporated in the best-selling books written by Daniel Goleman, Deepak Chopra, Anthony Robbins, among others.

In brief, our National Policy for integrating spiritual values and organisation leadership can be achieved by measures by which we can create a modern mindset in the youth of India, not only to motivate the youth to acquire technical competence, but to develop emotional, moral social and spiritual values that will make that person a self-reliant individual of high character, patriotic, and possessing a social conscience. 

Our goal has to be thus the efficient use of resources, human and physical, hardware and software by an able and human spiritually guided and ethically organizational leadership in a framework of competitive market economies. 

Hence, concisely stated, for a corruption free society to be achieved on a long term basis the Indian economy should be founded on a harmonisation of efficient organisational leadership and abiding spiritual values which we call as Sanatana Dharma. That can be nurtured only bottom up i.e., educate our growth accordingly — to synthesise material pursuits with spiritual values which lauds simplicity and eschews greed.

Ultimately it will also be decided by how we vote in elections. But we need a new ideology to combat the cancer of corruption in our system. For this we need a new breed of Indian leaders-educated, courageous, and rational risk takers. That we can get only if the ethos of our people changes from the purely individualist pursuit of material pleasures and goals, to an integral outlook. Corruption is the cancer today in our society but Hindutva (Hinduness) or Sanatana Dharma imbibed character is the cure. 

The writer is president, Janata Party

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Related article

IIM Professor Dr Vaidyanathan's article on Black money:-

http://www.firstpost.com/business/baba-heres-a-dummy%E2%80%99s-guide-to-black-money-tax-havens-19655.html