Anything that has a beginning will have an end too.
Cassini, the brainchild of mankind found its end an hour ago. It was a touching
to hear the Cassini team bidding farewell to their creation that they followed
meticulously for nearly 20 years.
For me, this moment of plunge of Cassini into Saturn
is a reminder of the Vedic mantras. In the Vedic yajnas we make offerings
to a specific deity in order to invoke the blessings of that deity. The
offerings come first and then only the blessings follow. In the case of
Cassini, Cassini received all about the Saturn in the first instance and finally
gave itself as an offering to Saturn – swaha.
Shanaischarāya swāha/ shanascharāya idam
na mama//
This was created for Saturn, was offered to Saturn. This
is for Saturn, not for us!
In the process, Saturn revealed itself to mankind through
this that was offered.
For the scientific community, the gains have been
tremendous through this probe.
For the Vedic culture too, there are gains. Three
major revelations were gained from this probe which I have discussed in the
past.
One is the knowledge about what actually the ‘exaltation
of a planet’ means. Cassini probe showed that Sun’s northern sojourn on Saturn coincided
with the time Saturn is supposed to move towards its exaltation (in Libra) in the
astrological sense.
Saturn, due to its tilt like the earth is
experiencing seasonal changes, with the movement of direct sunlight from north
to south and south to north. North is auspicious in Vedic culture. The
exaltation period of Saturn coinciding with Sun in the northern hemisphere of Saturn
is a valuable and a surprising input for us. Without Cassini probe we would not
have known this. I am tempted to extend this logic for other planets too, for
their exaltation and debilitation signs though I am yet to come across corroboratory
information from scientific probes to other planets.
The second revelation for us is the amazing
formation of a hexagon on the North pole of Saturn, pictured by Cassini.
The hexagon is the basic design of the Yantra of
Saturn upon which 2 triangles are inscribed one on each other. The same pattern
can be formed in the above picture of Saturn’s hexagonal design captured by
Cassini. It is shown below.
What we see as a result is the Yantra of Saturn!
As far as I know the Yantra of Saturn with this
image is directly worshiped as a deity (Saturn) only in Tamilnadu in a temple
at Thiru Erikkuppam near Arni, in Tiruvannamalai district.
This is inscribed on a stone and dated 500 years ago.
The design of the Yantra concurring with the polar
design of Saturn is really an amazing finding from the Cassini probe.
The third revelation is the discovery of
hydrocarbons in Titan (satellite of Saturn) by Cassini. This raises scope for
formation of pre-biotic like chemical substances in Titan sometime in a distant
future. In other words Saturn’s satellite houses seeds of future life!
Mosaic of Titan from Cassini's Feb 2005 fly-by.
This is
an amazing discovery from Vedic point of view, as Prajapati, the progenitor of life
and living things has been assigned to lord over Saturn in the Nakshtra Sooktha
of Yajur Veda!
Today life is present in Bhu loka (earth). As everything
has to come to an end, life will come to an end sometime on earth. This can
re-phrased as – anything created, has to
come to an end, earth would come to an end – not LIFE!
Life is what exists always. We can’t create nor
destroy Life. Life exists in its subtle form everywhere, but when circumstances
become conducive, it gets manifest. There is a continuity of life from one
phase to another or one stage to another. When Life’s presence on earth comes
to an end, it has to move on and continue elsewhere. Perhaps from the same
solar system, it might find a host in Titan and progress along with the flow
and evolve someday in another space and time of the Universe.
Cassini’s core molecules were digested by now by
Saturn, but its legacy has left a trail in our minds too.
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