From: bkannan@ho12.eng.ua.edu (Balaji Kannan)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: Narrow Hindu Beliefs- was- Ram (Was he Fact or Fiction)??
Date: 15 Dec 1992 00:07:56 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu


verma@pfeast.enet.dec.com (Virendra Verma) writes:

>There could be several reasons. First of all Ramayana is quite
>old, probably, several hundred thousand years old (no kidding
>Jains claim that their religion is about 285, 000 years old).
       ^^^^^

                  You said it!

>Since then, there could have been natural disasters where
>knowledgeable people could have died. Also, this kind of knowledge was

        This is bunkum! 
        [Not the existence of 'knowledgeable' Indians but your theory :-)]

        There is no end to such, "there could have been..."
        btw, why are you so fixated with the existence of knowledgable
        people/brilliant scientists.... in *ancient* India?? Such feel
        -goodism [mythological proportions :-)] will take us nowhere. 
        You could rather devote time writing about modern day Indian 
        scientists, philosophers..... 

>transferred by word of mouth and was given only to ones
>who were disciplined and responsible to use it. I believe in this

      Disciplined and responsible ones are hard to come by, no? :-)
      I agree with you about the oral transmission of knowledge
      in ancient India. But that ain't sufficient proof that
      ancient Indians knew every scientific principle.

>kind of explanation because of a real incidence that happened
>in my own town. I witnessed an incantation of extracting the tooth by
>an entertainer who got that formula from his guru. His guru had
>told him not to use the formula for monetary purposes otherwise
>he would loose the power of that magic formula. He could use it
          ^^^^^
       lose the power and l(o)ose *his* teeth too, maybe :-) And do you
       believe that too since you have seen it with your own eyes??

       [these damned indians are knowledgeable but ain't smart enuff:-)]

>only to help people. This is true and I saw it with my own eyes
>in my home town.

>A second explanation could be that we are getting away from beliefs
>in spiritual powers and are blinded by material success through
>the remarkable success of physical sciences. Our spiritual power

           If that is a lament, pray tell me, why wd you think
           we [everyone else] shdn't get get away from 'spiritual
           powers' if it ain't inherently appealing to *us*?? I am
           not questioning *your* faith in spirituality, but why
           shd that be the 'golden path' for the rest? Is there some
           magic formula here too, so that others may not be blinded 
           by material success.?? :-)

>is diminishing. We are re-inventing the wheel from a materialistic
>viewpoint even though material explanation existed in antiquity.

             Very few would agree with you on that.

>Remarkable decimal system was originated in India, Pythagorous
>theorem was proven by Bhadrayana in 260 BC, the value of pi was
>calculated by Aryabhatta much earlier than any western scientists.
>These cannot be invented without a sound basis that might have
>existed in those times.

             Noone ever took away credit from the ancient Indians for 
             some pioneering mathematical work. If you read the history
             of mathematics, you will see that every civilization
             has had a role to play in this. And yes, there was some
             excellent work done in alchemy. But ser, certainly not
             the scientific 'miracles' that you allude to in every
             post of yours. You gotto be kidding about 'em !

>-- Virendra

bk

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Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, is our destined end or way;
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