Mount Kailas and Pyramid Architecture
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Axis Mundi, the centre of the universe, the navel of the world, the world pillar, Kang Tisé or Kang Rinpoche (the ‘Precious Jewel of Snow’ in Tibetan), Meru (or Sumeru), Swastika Mountain, Mt. Astapada, Mt. Kangrinboge (the Chinese name) – all these names, belong to one of the holiest and most mysterious mountains in the world – Mount Kailas.

Kailas mountain rises to an altitude of 6714 meters and is smaller than the nearby mountains in himalayan range but its speciality lies not in its height but in its mysterious shape and radio-active energies by pyramids around it.The area around this great mountain is the source of four life-giving rivers; the Indus, Brahmaputra, Sutlej and Karnali, which is a major tributary of India’s sacred Ganges, begin here.

Two lakes are situated at the base of the mountain. The higher lake Manasarovar (one of the highest freshwater lakes in the world), is the sacred lake, and is round like the sun. The lower lake Rakhas Tal (one of the highest salt-water lakes) is the devil’s lake and has the shape of the crescent moon. The two lakes represent solar and lunar forces, good and negative energies respectively.

“In shape it (Mount Kailas) resembles a vast cathedral… the sides of the mountain are perpendicular and fall sheer for hundreds of feet, the strata horizontal, the layers of stone varying slightly in colour, and the dividing lines showing up clear and distinct…… which give to the entire mountain the appearance of having been built by giant hands, of huge blocks of reddish stone.”

(G.C. Rawling, The Great Plateau, London, 1905).

The Russian claims to have discovered in the Mt.Kailas area the highest ever human-built pyramids were denied three years later by Chinese scientists in the official Chinese Press.

The idea of the pyramid in this region is not new. It goes back to the timeless Sanskrit epic of the Ramayana. Since then, numerous travelers, especially in the beginning of the 20th century, have expressed the view that Mt.Kailas is too perfect to be a totally natural phenomenon, or at any rate give the appearance of human intervention.

Of human construction or not, Mt. Kailas is one of the most mysterious, secret and at the same time one of the most holy and sacred mountains of Asia, if not of the world -the circumambulation of which has for many centuries or possibly many millennia remained a vital pilgrimage, symbolizing the life’s stages of death, purification and rebirth.

What is Bhagwa Dhwaj/ Saffron Flag?

Nowadays Bhagwa Dhwaj is used by a few Hindu organizations with their own modification on it.It is designated as communal by secular forces. Many of them think it as a religious flag, hardly anyone knows about it.

The Bhagwa Dhwaj is the eternal symbol of Dharma .It stands for Dharma, advancement, glory, knowledge, sacrifice and valour. The combination of these six aspirations is Bhagwa.

The flag reminds us of the orange hue around the rising Sun, that dispels darkness and radiates light all around. i.e. to destroy Adharma and establish Dharma. The shape of the Bhagwa has another significance: diversity, acceptance, harmony and mutual respect. The two portions remind us that duality, contrast, inequality, diversity are inevitable. For harmonious existence there must be sharing, respect and cooperation, .i.e. one portion upon other.

Manu, Noah and the Great Flood
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As we compare the biblical account with that of the ancient Vedic account we can note the following features of the flood stories in common between the two accounts.

“Mankind in a corrupt state
Both were commanded by the God
Both Noah and Manu built the Ark
Both stories talk about the great flood
A Righteous man is given Divine warning
Animals were brought on board the vessel to repopulate the world after the flood
The Vessel lands on a high mountain after the flood
Both has three sons
Mankind today descends from Noah or Manu”

Since Manu was the father of all post-flood mankind, so his descended are called Manavas or Manush. In Sanskrit, the name ‘Manu‘ appropriately came to mean “man” or “mankind“.

The English word ‘man‘ is thus also related to the Sanskrit “manu“. If we look into the derivation of the English word ‘man’, it comes from proto-Germanic. Etymologists tell us that this ancient Germanic word ‘Mannus’ is a derivation of the Proto-Indo-European “manuh”. Another Sanskrit form, ‘manusa‘ is closely related to the Swedish “manniska“, both words meaning “human being”. ‘Mannus’ was also the name of the Lithuanian Noah.

The same name may even be reflected in the Egyptian ‘Menes’ (founder of the first dynasty of Egypt) and ‘Minos’ (founder and first king of Crete). ‘Minos‘ was also said in Greek mythology to be the son of Zeus and ruler of the sea.

In Japan, ‘manu‘ became “maru,” a word which is included in the name of most Japanese ships.

In the Sioux language, it took the form ‘minne’, meaning “water.” Thus, ‘Minneapolis’ means “city of water,” ‘Minnesota‘ means “sky blue water,” etc.

The original Sanskrit word for “ship” is ‘nau’ and ‘Nau-kha‘, which later passed into our English word, navy, nautical, nausea (sea sickness). This word could very well be still another variant of “Noah,” the first master shipbuilder.

It would seem that the convergence between these two ancient accounts is too strong to be due simply to chance. Perhaps one account borrowed from the other? It is highly probable that Noah and Manu were thus the same individual.

In Balinese Hinduism, Barongs represent a special category of demons. Barongs represent the spirits of animals (other then humans). There are some Barongs, like Barong Ket, that the Balinese believe are primarily good in nature. Barong Ket is a mythical creature that has been described as resembling a cross between a lion and a tiger. Barong Ket is depicted, throughout Bali, in the very popular Barong Dance. In the Barong Dance, Barong Ket battles the evil powers of Rangda.

Several Barongs that are believed to inhabit the Sacred Monkey Forest of Padangtegal and are believed to be capable of protecting the Sacred Monkey Forest, against evil spirits, include the Tiger, Boar, and Monkey (which are all depicted in statues located throughout the Sacred Monkey Forest). However, it is also believed that only temple priests have the ability to detect the presence of these Barongs as they wander through the Sacred Monkey Forest.

Within Balinese Hinduism, all Barongs (including Barong Ket) are believed to be capable of harming humans. As such, it is not uncommon for the Balinese to provide offerings to Barongs. Like other types of demons , Barongs are also sometimes believed to be incarnations of a Gods or Goddesses.

It is important to note that there are similar demons called Boothas or Daiyvas worshipped in coastal Karnataka and Kerala.These entity of god are believed to be agressive protectors of Village and ganas of god. As hinduism emphasizes the good and evil ganas belong to same sathvika ganas..

“We shall meet in Babylon”

Hindu Rishi who prophesied Alexander The Great’s Death

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Kalanos also called as Kalyana Rishi(c. 398 – 323 BCE) was a Hindu Sage, through him Alexander came to know of gymnosophists or naked philosophers in India.

Kalyana Rishi accompanied Alexander the Great to Persis and When the Persian weather/travel had weakened him, he informed Alexander that he would rather like to die than live as an invalid. He decided to take his life by self-immolation, a Hindu practice.Although Alexander tried to dissuade him from this course of action, upon Kalanos’ insistence the job of building a pyre was entrusted to Ptolemy.

Kalanos distributed all the costly gifts he got from the king to the people and wore just a garland of flowers and chanted Indian hymns.He presented his horse to one of his Greek pupils named Lysimachus.He did not flinch as he burnt to the astonishment of those who watched.

Although Alexander was not personally present at time of his immolation, his last words to Alexander were We shall meet in Babylon.He is said to have prophesied the death of Alexander in Babylon, even though at the time of death of Kalanos, Alexander did not have any plans to go to Babylon.

Duryodhana is one character in the Mahabharatha who is routinely portrayed as a villain without any redeeming features. Even his famed friendship with Karna comes under a shadow if one were to ask if he supported his ‘lowborn’ friend only to get back at the Pandavas. How authentic was Duryodhana’s love for Karna? Did he really treat him as an equal? Did he really love him as a brother?

But Duryodhana, who bent rules to suit his interests, who took advantage of every opportunity, however unfairly, was one of the few husbands in the epics who did not look at his wife with a suspicious eye, despite circumstances that could have forced him to do so.

Karna and Duryodhana’s wife, Bhanumathi, were good friends. They often enjoyed a game of dice together. Once the two of them were playing a game in Bhanumathi’s chamber with great concentration. Karna was playing very well and it looked like he would win the game soon. He was looking forward to taunting Bhanumathi after his victory. However, Bhanumathi suddenly got up from her seat. Karna thought she was trying to run away from the game and put out a hand to make her stay. By accident, his hand pulled at Bhanumathi’s waist belt and it broke, scattering pearls to the floor. Seeing Bhanumathi’s shocked and terrified expression, Karna turned around to see who she was looking at.

It was Duryodhana, standing by the door and watching the two of them. Karna was aghast. Would his friend misunderstand him? He’d not realised that Bhanumathi had stood up on seeing Duryodhana, the king and her husband, enter the chamber. She was going to greet him, not run away from the game! But in his haste, he’d pulled at her waist belt! What would it look like to Duryodhana? Would he fly into a rage and admonish him for behaving improperly with his wife? Would Bhanumathi have to face his wrath, too? To their surprise, Duryodhana calmly walked into the room and asked Bhanumathi if he should just pick up the pearls or string them together for her as well.

Duryodhana trusted his wife and his best friend so much that it did not occur to him that either of them may have been unfaithful to him. It is said that nothing in the world is inherently evil, and it is the way we think about it that makes it so. Duryodhana and the Kauravas are characterised as the very manifestation of evil, with the Pandavas being their anti-thesis. But in this situation, it was Duryodhana who did not have a shred of evil in his mind!

Vedas have described that Gods reside at north direction and one day for them is equivalent to one year for humans.This was based on idea that north pole has six months of sunlight and six months of darkness, which makes it day and night for one year.Varaha Mihir, one the most famous Indian astronomer (around 6th century AD), identified North Pole as the location of Meru in his celebrated work Panch-siddhāntikā.

Indian Historian and Freedom-fighter, Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, in his phenomenal work titled, ‘The Arctic Home of the Vedas‘, written in late 19th century, gives an extremely detailed as well as convincing account based on the literary evidence of various Slokas from Rig Veda and the Zoroastrian Avesta that point to an Arctic Home of the ancient People of Vedic Ancient Civilizations.

Surya Siddantha mentions a Meru in the middle of Earth, a Sumeru at the North Pole and a Kumeru at the South pole.Which means that the structure called Meru stretches from pole to pole and Hell exists at South Pole, just like Heaven at North Pole.

Meru does not refer to a mountain at all but instead is an allegory for the Earth’s Axis of Rotation.Ancient scriptures describe Meru as the Central Pivot of the Universe, sort of like an Axis mundi, and claim that the entire COSMOS revolves around it, with the Sun, Moon and Stars paying obeisance while circum-ambulating the Holy Mountain.

Interestingly there is a Mount Meru in Tanzania, which roughly corresponds to the geographic Center of the Earth.The Mountain is even worshipped by the local tribes as an abode of Gods.In the neighbouring country Kenya, we also find a town with the same name.Another ancient Sanskrit text, the Narpatijayacharya mentions Sumeru as being present in the middle of the Earth, but not visible to humans.

Mottos of the four Indian Armed Services- Derived from Hinduism

A verse from Vidura Neeti (Mahabharata), The secret of happiness encoded using the numbers 1 to 7 .

From altar astronomy to classical astronomy:

Classical Indian astronomy arose after the close interaction between the Indians and the Greeks subsequent to the invasion of the borders of India by Alexander the Great (323 B.C.). The existence of an independent tradition of observation of planets and a theory thereof as shown by geometric altars,
the Rigvedic code, and the VJ helps explain the puzzle why classical Indian astronomy uses many constants that are different from that of the Greeks.
This confirms the thesis that although classical Indian astronomy developed in knowledge of certain Greek works, the reason why it retained its characteristic form was because it was based on an independent, old tradition.
The astronomy of the third and the second millennium B.C. can provide the context in which the developments of Babylonian, Chinese, Greek, and the later Indian astronomy can be examined. It appears that certain features of the earliest Babylonian astronomy can be derived from an altar astronomy
that may have been widely known in the ancient world, but whose records are now available only in the Indian texts.
It also raises the question of an analysis of the altars and monuments from Babylon, Greece, and Rome to examine their designs. Likewise, the references in the Greek literature to geometric problems related to areas
need to be investigated further for their astronomical significance.
Later religious architecture, both in the east and the west, became more abstract but its astronomical inspiration was never hidden. In Europe cathedrals were a representation of the vault of heavens. In India the temple architecture, as spelt out in the manuals of the first centuries A.D. (see, for
example, Kramrisch 1946), symbolizes the sky where in addition to equivalence by number or area, equivalence by category was considered. The temple platform was divided into 64 or 81 squares (Figure 2). In the case of the 64- squared platform, the outer 28 squares represented the 28 lunar mansions of
the Indic astronomy. For the 81-squared platform, the outer 32 squares were taken to represent the lunar mansions and the four planets who rule over the equinoxial and solstitial points. Stella Kramrisch, the renowned scholar of the Indian temple architecture, has also argued that another measure in the
temple was that of 25,920, the number of years in the period of the precession of the equinoxes. Whether the precessional figure was received by the Indians from the Greeks or obtained independently is not clear.

This was the final post on Shulbha sutra ! Hope You liked it.