OMG! You Wont Believe Star Wars is Based on These Two Famous Ancient Indian Texts. Read the Truth!

The Jedi in the Lotus: An Eastern Look at Star Wars By Steven J. Rosen

This book looks at the underlying basis of George Lucas' successful film series, showing how it is, in many cases, based on Indic texts, such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Naturally, the market for this book is not only students of Hinduism and Eastern spirituality – my usual market – but also fans of the film series, which amounts to literally millions of people. When the Phantom Menace (the first Star Wars prequel) came out in 1999, it was hailed as the most anticipated movie of all time, and it did incredibly well at the box office. What's more, when the video and DVD were recently released, the sales were unprecedented. Now, the next film in the series is due out this month (May 2002), and fans say that this will be the best of them all. Six months after that, Lucasfilms will release the video and DVD of that film, and two years later, the final installment of the Star Wars series is scheduled for release, meaning that the epic fantasy series will be on people's minds for years to come. I ask those of you associated with the Infinity Foundation to help me find a publisher for this work. Time is of the essence. An outline of my book is as follows: o The introduction reveals the basic connection: It describes how myths are embedded in the consciousness, in the soul, and have therefore manifested in similar ways throughout the world. Ancient Indian myths are perhaps the earliest examples of these world myths, while Star Wars is merely among the most contemporary. The correlations are many, and they will all be explored throughout the book. I look at George Lucas' major influences, from Flash Gordon to Joseph Campbell, and how Indian tales form the central core around which his series is modelled. o In Chapter One, I elaborate on the story of Rama as well as that of the Pandavas. In addition, I outline the chronology of events in Star Wars and show overlapping themes and points of similarity and difference. o Chapter Two explains "the Force," showing its correlation with both Maha-Maya (God's external energy of illusion) and Yoga-Maya (God's internal positive spiritual energy), since The Force has both bad and good dimensions. I will also compare the Force to various manifestations of shakti and to Brahman, the impersonal aspect of the Supreme, for there is much similarity in these concepts. Students of Indian religion will balk at the East-Indian ideas Lucas freely uses when constructing his idea of the Force. o The Third Chapter will explain the underlying message of the Star Wars films, especially its idea that light and dark aspects of reality can be analogized with Nature vs. Machine paradigms. Each film in the Star Wars series offers food for thought regarding the "organic as opposed to the mechanic," and our Third Chapter will look at them all. o Perhaps most importantly, in the Fourth Chapter, I will show that just as Star Wars takes place in deep space, most of the battles in the Ramayana take place in sophisticated aircrafts, and Arjuna, too, in the Mahabharata, is said to engage in many battles while in outer space. The Vimana shastras show that ancient India somehow knew of elaborate aircraft and boasted an awareness of advanced technology. While I point out that much of this may be relegated to the realm of fantasy, it is indeed curious that ancient texts engage these very Star Wars-like ideas. o The Fifth Chapter will elaborate on Yoda's relationship with Luke Skywalker, which is essentially a Guru-Disciple relationship. I will explain their interaction in terms of Indian texts and show how the teacher/pupil dynamic is nowhere as developed as in India. I will also show parallels between India's system of yoga and that which is taught by the Jedi knights. This will lead into an examination of kshatriya dharma, for the the Jedi knight concept is obviously an extrapolation of the codes of India's warrior caste. o The Afterword will sum up the religious components of the film series and explore spiritual elements in many other similar films. In conclusion, I will show that ancient Indian traditions were well ahead of their time, and even today have much to offer the world. Source: infinityfoundation

The moderns of ancient India

Rigveda, Kamasutra, Arthashastra – A rich legacy of abjuring violence against women

Nirbhaya’s rape-murder and the outpouring of protest and anguish that followed invites us to imagine a society in which women are free agents. One which fully accepts that women have the right to make independent decisions – whether in their romantic and sexual lives or in the pursuit of education and work.

A society that discourages violence against women and condemns even marital rape. If violence occurs, society does not stigmatise the woman victim or blame her for somehow having incited the violence but does its best to offer her support and sympathy.

Such a society sounds like a utopian dream – particularly in a country still plagued by khap panchayat judgments ordering gang rape as a punishment for women suspected of “inappropriate relationships” and statements by politicians blaming women for rape. However, we wouldn’t have to travel far in space to find this utopia. We simply need to board a time machine, and jump straight into Rigvedic India.

The Rigveda does mention a rape. The victim is Ushas (Dawn), who flees to a cave, traumatised. She is then befriended by minstrel rishis who track her to her hidden dwelling, and offer praise and support. Singers gather in front of Ushas’s cave praising her radiance and lustre and persuading her to come out, which she eventually does.

In one of the hymns the rapist is punished; an arrow is shot at him. Society did not judge Ushas. It rallied to her aid, boosting her morale and helping her emerge from post-traumatic depression into a happy and normal life.

The society of the scriptures stigmatised neither the rape survivor nor the children born as a result of rape. A father who abandoned such a child was looked down upon, whosoever he might be.

Several Puranic texts chronicle the mighty Brihaspati’s rape of his brother’s wife, Mamata. The child was raised by his maternal grandparents before being adopted by King Bharata. He also became extremely learned. He and his descendants composed the hymns that constitute Book 6 of the Rigveda. While the child prospered, Brihaspati was despised. Mamata was neither stigmatised, nor abandoned by her husband.

In the Ramayana, the Suryavanshi prince, Danda, a serial rapist is exiled by his father to the Dandakaranya forest, where he proceeds to rape his teacher Shukracharya’s daughter Abja. Incensed, Shukracharya curses Danda – he and his entire clan perish.

Meanwhile, the regent discovers that Abja had conceived from the rape. He brings her to the Suryavanshi capital, Ayodhya, with great honour. She becomes queen and her child, Harit, later ascends the throne. Not only did the rape victim and her child flourish; no one questioned their rights to the throne. Illegitimacy carried no stigma.

Besides sexual violence, physical or psychological violence against women is discouraged in the Rigveda, as illustrated by the famous funeral hymn. A woman who lies down, depressed, beside her dead husband is urged to get up and embrace the world of the living – with laughter, good food and song. She is even encouraged to take the hand of a suitor who could be a potential second husband.

Some Vedic women, far from being helpless and victim-like, were very martial. In a famous hymn about Mudgala’s wife, robbers steal his entire stock of cattle. The couple is left with an old bull and a creaky wooden cart with one wheel missing. After Mudgala makes some ad hoc repairs, the couple give chase, his wife holding the reins and driving the cart drawn by the bull. Her skill ensures that they capture all their own cattle as well as some of their raiders’.

Other Vedic hymns mention a woman warrior, Vishpala, who fought at night in the Battle of Khela. Losing a leg in battle did not faze the lady. She got an iron leg made and rejoined the battle.

Leap forward now in time to Vatsyayana and his Kamasutra. Vatsyayana warns husbands (especially in the context of arranged marriages) not to force themselves on their wives: “Women, being of a tender nature, want tender beginnings, and when they are forcibly approached by men with whom they are but slightly acquainted, they sometimes suddenly become haters of sexual connection, and sometimes even haters of the male sex. The man should therefore approach the girl according to her liking.”

Vatsyayana is equally against date rape; he points out that it has similar effects on the woman who is “forcibly enjoyed” by “one who does not understand the hearts of girls”: she begins to hate sex and mankind in general. Again, no disposition to blame women for being raped; the responsibility lies squarely with the rapist.

Nor does marriage give a man an inalienable right to his wife’s person – quite a revolutionary idea when marital rape is not criminalised even in modern society. Both Vatsyayana and Kautilya, the author of the Arthashastra, maintain that wives could resort to divorce (with the option of remarriage) under some circumstances. Thus, women trapped in violent marriages were not without an exit strategy.

It would be ideal if violence against women simply didn’t exist. If this is impossible, the best alternative is a society where a woman’s self-worth and honour are not diminished simply by a crime against her person. Hopefully, we can use our distant ancestors’ social norms for inspiration in moving towards such a society.

The writer is associate professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University

Source: TOI

History and Nationalism: Excerpt from Hinduism and the Clash of Civilization

One of the main purposes of history books, as taught in different countries in the world,…

David Frawley | Indology | 30-10-2015

One of the main purposes of history books, as taught in different countries in the world, is to instill a sense of national pride and honor—in short, to inculcate a sense of patriotism and nationalism. Whether it is the United States, Great Britain, Russia, Germany or China, this is certainly the case today and has been so as long as these countries have existed as modern nations. The lives of great leaders, particularly the founders of the country are highlighted, the continuity of the nation’s history is emphasized, and the importance of the nation in the history of world and the greatness of the national culture are stressed. Students are expected to come away from reading accounts of their history with a sense of national greatness and purpose, not only for the past but also for the future.

However, India is a strange and unique country in which history books are often anti-national in nature. India has largely kept intact the British approach to Indian history devised in the colonial era. Students of such textbooks come away apologetic or confused about their country and its traditions. Textbooks in Marxist ruled states of India like West Bengal and Kerala leave their students with a sense of the greatness of Communism and Communist countries like China or even Russia which is no longer Communist, rather than any real regard for India and its great traditions.

An early 19th-century manuscript of Rigveda (padapatha) in Devanagari.

History books in India try to ignore the dominant Hindu ethos of the country and its history before the Islamic period. India’s greatest historical and cultural document, the Mahabharata and Ramayana are hardly given any attention in the schools. So too, the Vedas, Puranas, Buddhist Jatakas and other prime historical and cultural documents of the country are ignored because of their religious overtones. If they do address India as a nation, it is only India of the independence movement that they acknowledge, as if prior to 1947 India did not really exist. While Nehru is made important, older kings from the Rigvedic Bharatas to Yudishthira of the Mahabharata period to the Marathas of the eighteenth century are hardly mentioned. There is no real sense of any historical continuity to the culture, much less to the country. While Mahatma Gandhi is emphasized, the greater spiritual traditions of India and its great teachers from the Vedic rishlS, Vedantic Buddhists and Jain sages to modern savants like Sri Aurobindo and Ramana Maharshi are not given much attention.

It is true that history should not be a mere instrument of a destructive nationalism and should avoid instilling aggression against other lands and peoples, even when upholding what is valuable in a nation’s history. But this does not require that the national value of historical studies is negated altogether.

The question, therefore, is how the history accounts in India made to reflect and instill a genuine nationalism and sense of the country’s history and destiny. India, after all, is one of the great civilizations of the world, with cultural traditions that have much value for humanity. Such historical accounts must reflect the richness and diversity of Indic civilization, but they cannot ignore its unity and continuity either.

The fact is that you cannot build a nation without creating history books that instill a positive nationalism, particularly in the youth. The real danger in India is not the arising of a chauvinistic nationalism like that of Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy—which are foreign to the mentality and ethos of the country—but a lack of national spirit and historical consciousness that keeps people alienated from their roots and the country divided.

India needs a real nationalism and for this a national sense of history, pride and purpose is required. A true Indian nationalism will be rooted in an Indian ethos of dharma, spirituality and pluralism, but this does not mean there can be no national or historical pride without encouraging communalism in the country. On the contrary, a greater sense of national identity would be the best thing to counter the disintegrating influence of religious, castist and regional interests that are bringing the country down.

Therefore we must ask: Why can’t Indians connect India’s traditional ancient literature, the Vedas, with its archaeology through Harappa and the many sarasvati River sites? Why can’t Indians find national pride in their own history both on literary and archaeological levels? Why should history in India be used for national shame, rather than National pride? Why should history of India place Indic civilization out of India? These are questions that must be answered.

Western and Indic Views of History

The subject of history in the Western context is very different than in the Indian context. In the Western view, history is mainly an account of political events and economic progress, a purely outward affair. In the Hindu view, history is a means of teaching detachment, showing how great kings and kingdoms come and go in the course of time. It has an inner value as a spiritual teaching about the nature of human life and the need for liberation from worldly concerns. In the Western view, history is progressive from the crude beginnings of agriculture and village life moving forward to the present day urban culture. In the Hindu view history is cyclical, with various cultures coming and going over time as the soul seeks liberation from the phenomenal world.

The Western progressive account of history is quite flawed. For example, the first civilizations of the ancient world that we can document—including Egypt. Sumeria, India and China—did not regard themselves as the first but were aware of many cultures and kingdoms before them, particularly prior to a great flood. The civilizations that we regard as the first saw themselves as very old with many antecedents! Yet we pretend that there was nothing before them!

Mauryan building in the Barabar Mounts. Grotto of Lomas Rishi. 3rd century BCE.

In addition, the civilizations of the Third Millennium BCE, like those of Egypt and Harappan/Sarasvati India, had better urban and architectural achievements than those that followed for many centuries. Even Europe had its Dark Ages after the Roman period in which much knowledge was lost. This idea of history as linear progress is clearly not the case. While humanity has progressed scientifically, this is mainly over the past five hundred years.

On the other hand. we see a spiritual decline since ancient times and over the last century we can note a decline in culture, art, music and philosophy in Europe itself, coinciding or even caused by great advances in science.

As India is the only civilization of antiquity to survive the onslaught of time, it is the special responsibility of Indians to discover not only their own history but also that of the entire ancient world. Just as there are unquestioned distortions of ancient India, similar distortions of other ancient cultures also exist. For example, the religion of ancient Egypt, which like that of the Vedas demonstrates much occult and spiritual significance, is similarly dismissed as polytheism, idolatry or henotheism (worshipping different Gods as the supreme God), exactly like the Vedas.

Revamping the way history is taught in Indian schools would be a major step in the direction of a more authentic and spiritually sensitive history of the world. It is a scientific and spiritual imperative, not only for India but for all countries.

[Excerpted from the David Frawley’s book Hinduism and the Clash of Civilization. ]

Source: indiafacts

The answer to life, the universe and everything

SCI-TECH

 |  6-minute read |   01-10-2015

MINHAZ MERCHANT

 @minhazmerchant

Stephen Hawking, arguably the world’s greatest living theoretical physicist, recently stated: “We believe that life arose spontaneously on Earth. So in an infinite universe, there must be other occurrences of life.”The successful launch of space observatory Astrosat by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on September 28 places India in an elite league of nations. The space observatory can “listen” to signals from outer space, including those from intelligent life in other solar systems and galaxies.

Polls conducted in various countries show that more than 50 per cent of people in Britain, Germany and France believe that intelligent life exists in other parts of the universe. According to a recent report by Katrina Pascaul in Tech Times, “A new survey has found that more than one in two individuals in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany believe there is intelligent life out there in space. According to new YouGov research, the majority of the public in these three countries believe that living entities, which have the ability to communicate and do not hail from Earth, exist. Findings show that more than half of Germans (56 per cent) believe this, the most likely to do so among the survey participants. Fifty-four per cent of Americans and 52 per cent of British people share the opinion. The British people who believe alien life exists say the most likely reasons for the paradox are that intelligent life is too far away for us to be able to contact it, and that our technology is not advanced enough for communication.”

Other reports confirmed that Hawking is supporting “the biggest and most ambitious search plan yet (in which) astronomers plan to study more than ten times more space than ever before in and around the Milky Way and neighbouring galaxies in a bid to seek out potential radio emissions that could come from advanced civilisations. The project, known as Breakthrough Listen, comprises a $100 million, ten-year search, launched by the Breakthrough Initiatives group at the Royal Society in London. The research will survey one million stars in the Milky Way, as well as the stars in the 100 closest galaxies.”

As an undergraduate student of physics, the first paper I wrote was on the possibility of intelligent life in the universe. The answer seemed self-evident: the universe must surely teem with intelligent life. The problem is we are Earth-centric. Life in outer space need not be humanoid. The laws of physics are still evolving. Plasmoid life and indeed life beyond anything we can imagine today is possible. The law of probability underscores the reason for life in outer space being a virtual certainty. Here’s why:

1. There are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe.

2. Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, has several hundred billion solar systems.

3. Our sun constitutes just one of these solar systems.

4. Several million, possibly billion, solar systems in the observable universe have planets with environmental, atmospheric and chemical conditions suitable to harbouring life.

Prior to “Time Zero”, the stage when the universe was created, there was – literally – nothing. A perfect vacuum. From that vacuum has emerged everything in the universe – atoms, stars, galaxies, black holes, quasars, dark matter, planets – and, on Earth, life.

At the point of “singularity” when there was nothing, in that fraction of a fraction of a second before the Big Bang that created the universe, lies the greatest mystery physicists and mathematicians like Hawking and Roger Penrose continue to wrestle with. What precisely was the event that created this universe from a perfect vacuum at the point of singularity?

Hawking calls these the most important questions facing humankind: How did the universe emerge at the point of singularity from a perfect vacuum at Time Zero? Are we alone in the universe? And finally, why does the universe exist at all?

This is where science, philosophy and faith intersect.

Within this absolute space-time vacuum (postulated by the Hawking-Penrose singularity theorems based on Einstein's general theory of relativity), an event occurred which no leading scientist has yet been able to fully explain. That event probably involved the mutual annihilation of a positron-electron twin pair carrying identical (positive and negative) charges and mass. The result of this vacuum fluctuation was the Big Bang, the widely accepted theory of how our universe began.

Before Time Zero, during the pre-universe "nothingness", it is hypothesised that constant and instantaneous mutual annihilation of positron-electron pairs occurred several trillion times every second. These multiple collisions cancelled each other out, leading to a perpetual state of zero mass, zero time and zero space – the perfect vacuum. The mutual annihilation of electrons and positrons, however, occurred in unimaginably small crevices of time – 10^-100 seconds or less.

To the observer nothing was occurring: the event started and ended before it could be observed and therefore, as far as the observer was concerned, had not occurred at all. From this nothingness a freak, once-in-a-quadrillion positron-electron pair escaped mutual annihilation 13.70 billion years ago, causing the Big Bang and the creation of our universe as well as a "mirror" negative universe.

Are we alone?

Our nearest solar system is Alpha Centauri. To get there, travelling at the speed of light, would take 4.3 years. Travelling at the speed of the world's fastest experimental spacecraft, Helios II (1,57,000 mph), it would take over 12,000 years to reach Alpha Centauri. Other solar systems are even further off. Galaxies are, of course, trillions of miles away. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains around 350 billion solar systems – many, as NASA's Kepler space telescope confirmed, with orbiting planets like the Earth with surface water, moderate temperature and life-supporting oxygen. Andromeda, the galaxy closest to the Milky Way, is even more massive with over 1,000 billion solar systems. It is around 2.70 million light years away from us. So if electromagnetic radiation originating from a planet in Andromeda began transmitting 2.70 million years ago (the Plio-Pleistocene era on Earth) it would have barely reached us this year.

And in these distances lies the answer to the question: if it exists, why hasn't intelligent life from extraterrestrial planets, presumably with highly sophisticated communications and transportation technology, made contact with us? Humans, after millions of years of evolution from Australopethicus hominids to Neanderthals through to "modern" man, began sending out electromagnetic radiation (in its earliest form as radio transmissions) a mere 125 years ago. Those signals have today scarcely reached the edge of our solar system cluster. Time and distance, both unimaginably vast, explain why no contact has been established with us by other intelligent species.

So while we are certainly not alone in the universe, we may not make contact with other planetary life for centuries. But there is little doubt that one day contact will be made. What shape, form and mode that contact takes is uncertain. But when it does happen, it will mark one of the most important events in recorded history.

All of human intelligence and wisdom, from Aristotle and Aryabhata to the Vedas and Einstein, does not have an answer, however, to the most fundamental question that has divided sages and philosophers over the centuries: Why does the universe exist at all?

As even scientists today concede wryly, God alone knows.

Source: dailyo

Beef Wars

“What’s your beef?” is a common American phrase. It’s a question a person asks someone who talks or acts without reason or goes off on a rant with no purpose other than creating a confrontational situation. This is the question to ask many media and political ranters who have been trying hard to link every incident to Modi.  "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian” said ex-Beatle Paul McCartney who turned vegan long ago. Since they don’t, people put up such pics on SM so others can see:

I have kept the pic small so it doesn’t offend too much. Five years ago, a café owner was ordered to remove an extractor fan because the resident next to the café was offended by the fumes of bacon. This was in England where bacon is a routine food item. For those who are not familiar, bacon is made from pork – from pigs. Do you want me to tell you the Faith of the complaining neighbour? I don’t think so; it doesn’t take Einstein to figure that out. Now, bacon is common food in almost all western countries and for a Muslim to complain about the smell of bacon from a café (where even Muslims were patrons) should be considered absurd. But such is the stupidity of councils and govts that they will pander to the nonsensical victimhood of minorities (read the full story here).

Cow-slaughter ban has existed in many states in India for ages. Some states have adopted that policy in the last few decades. For centuries the cow has been a sacred symbol in India, particularly for the Hindus. Recently, the Maharashtra govt extended the ban to bulls and buffaloes too. The Maharashtra ban on cow-slaughter has been in place since the 1970s but govts never enforced it strictly. There is nothing wrong in respecting the sentiments of Hindus. Consider this – Every hotel, airline and food stalls at airports now put up a sign saying they use only “Halal meat”. Surely, that is not to respect the sentiments of Christians or Jews, is it? It is highly unlikely you will find hotels and restaurants that routinely offer pigs (pork) as food. Will you? Why is it that only Muslim sentiments must be respected over what food is offered and how the animal is slaughtered?

Once the Maharashtra government slapped a ban on sale or possession of beef there were responses from all the Sickular scoundrels. Bollywood reacted (slide show). The usual Sickos in MSM reacted. Others from political parties reacted. That’s how this new beef war started. Earlier, to defy the cow-slaughter ban some morons held a “Beef eating festival” at Osmania University in 2012 which led to violence. Do note, there has been a cow slaughter ban (in then what was united Andhra) since 1977. So why would the authorities allow an activity that brazenly breaks the law? If it offends Hindus, no law is important, one can break it – that’s a social law in India in most states. If these people had eaten beef privately in stealth it wouldn’t have mattered but they wanted to make a public statement. Criminal media passes this and the bigger jokers will even celebrate it like the Monk and the Moron:

The StreetThug wants to eat steak immediately after the beef-festival debate and the Category5Moron wants to eat meat dripping with blood. I doubt anyone cares what morons like these eat – they can eat rats, dogs, insects, bats, snakes. And if they want to break the law and express their defiance even more strongly - they can even eat dead human-beings. These Anti-Hindu thugs just want to keep offending Hindu sentiments and that is all. Govt should usually not make laws over social issues and food habits. After all, I doubt there’s any law that says only “Halal meat” should be sold but everyone is offering that. Isn’t it?  The respect for Hindu sentiments on cows should have come naturally. But most of these people in media and politics who want to kill cows don’t want it to end there – they want Hindus to disappear so that a Chrislamic State can become a reality. You just have to give 15 minutes to Akbar Owaisi (family friend of the Monk and the Moron).

They want Hindu traditions and customs to disappear. They want Hindus to stop celebrating Holi. They ridicule and condemn even Raksha Bandhan. They wantkite-flying to stop because the string sometimes slashes some birds. But they want to kill cows. Someone put it nicely when he showed that these same morons have extraordinary sympathy for stray dogs that are becoming a menace in many cities:

So, the latest round of outrage is over a 50-year old man, Akhlaq, who was lynchedby a mob because there was a rumour he and his family consumed beef. The family denies it and claims it was mutton and that was what was stored in their fridge too. Given the consistent pattern of our media getting news wrong I would naturally be sceptical about the reason for the attack. However, let us assume he was lynched for the reason the reports say. Now, nobody… nobody has to die for eating something. Even if that offends anyone or breaks the law, nobody needs to die. But this culture of madness and killing in UP happens for many other reasons too. But the outrage and the attempt to link it to Modi and Hindus wanting to kill a Muslim is the kind of stupidity that is criminal by our MSM and many politicians. Fortunately, such media-scams aren’t passing anymore, thanks to SM.  

How brazen and stupid can it get? Well, there is Akhilesh Yadav – CM of UP who, instead of assuring strong action against the killers, asks the PM to ban the export of beef. And the entire media carried his ignorant crap like a box of parrots. All it took was for someone to educate this beef-challenged kid:

The beef-export ban is already in place for some time but our UP CM wants to pin the nonsense in UP on Modi. That is the whole game of politicians and media – as if Modi is policing every nook and corner of this country. It is true that there are a lot of social issues that Modi is failing to address but he certainly can’t be a cop monitoring every corner. What are CMs and local police meant for? To talk nonsense when crimes happen in their region? But the overall trick is to bring up some issue to outrage on before every election. Remember the “attack on Christians” fraudulent campaign before Maharashtra and Haryana elections? Well there is Bihar around the corner. So, the already prosecuted Beef-war in progress now becomes a Muslim killed over beef. Hope for the losers is eternal. I am not sure this will work either. What’s their beef? 

Source: mediacrooks

Audio transcript of discussion with S Gurumurthy on Quantitative Easing

America which introduces more cash into system is to finance largely imports at the consumption level but in Japan it is quantitative using is to promote exports they do export financing. For example Abe govt (Japan Government) decides that they would pump in $50 billion a month over the next 18 months.

They will finance the Japanese corporate for their exports, in which let us assume Japanese govt. insists on 60% of the exports to be funded from Japan that is the import content of a project of say in Bombay-Delhi corridor, if they say 60% of the export from Japan and they finance this 60% so they convert this inflation into income without affecting the local economy, so the most important thing is you export your currency virtually.

This is because Japanese is savings driven economy but in America same may not work as it is a consumption driven economy, there you are financing consumption, here you are financing exports, which add to GDP, there you are financing consumption in imports which reduces the GDP so there is a huge difference.

How do you see the Quantitative Easing in Europe?

Quantitative Easing in Europe is again because of the weakening of the society which places burden on the state. Most of the economies except Germany weighed down by the enlightenment aged progressing into atomization of families and society. So state dependency is increased; so in 2006, there was a paper circulated in European Union where they discussed this issue, what is happening because they can’t discuss very directly just as you can’t discuss secularism in India, you can’t discuss limitations on individual rights, nobody has the guts & these is no leadership but China can do it, Japan can, even Russia can do it, none of these Anglo Saxon countries or Continental Europe can do it because they just don’t have the intellectual leadership which can take on present situation as they discuss in a very subtle manner how the families and communities has weaken in the process burden on government has increased.

The government is no more able to discharge the burden. They will be citing Scandinavian countries which are just nothing (in size), they are not even half the cities of India. So this is actually a State-Society imbalance in bearing responsibilities which is reflecting in economies. It is the western economies which are now failing and they are trying to correct it within the scope of system which is not going to work unless a very large part of responsibility is given back to the society and the family which they will say is republican approach. It is not correct having destroyed the family you can not hand over responsibility to weaken the family if you have to recreate the family. What you need is not economy, you need culture, tradition, religion which you don’t have and you need reverence. Modernity actually targets reverence. Actually there should be no reverence for anybody and there is a lot of study on all of these individually.

Paul Woodruff has written a book titled Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue. How everybody is equal teacher and students are equal, parents and wards are equal he says, a huge economical consequences this affects propensity to savings, it affects the type of savings whether equity or fixed rate of return so all these are now to be read into economics. So the only Asian can probably re interpret the economics. it is not possible for Europe. May be America will be able to do it because very large part of America even today is religious.

Sree Iyer

This is what you call middle part of the country; i. e. in terms of the economy what it contributes is overall economy is probably is 20%. This is Pareto principle (80:20) the thing is West Coast and East Coast are the ones that are the engines of America, the middle not so much. If you look at really where the productivity of America happens is usually on the coasts.

Gurumurthy

No, I am not talking about economy, I am talking about sustainability. Sustainability of life model is very different from the contribution you measure in economic terms. So that in respect I believe normative living is the only way economy will sustain. There is no normative living, there is regulated living. Normative living is something which is generated by society, family without the intervention of formal system. Formal system is regulatory, so I think ultimately you have got to align normative life style which we call “Dharma”. Where there is self restraint, nobody restrains from enjoying, you restrain yourself. Modernity says you go out and enjoy, who are you? Who is anybody to question you? These are 2 different paradigms even if they tell we don’t do it that is a sustaining the fact you go out and enjoy the world, the world is open to you for enjoying it. This is the basis of modern economics but why you are not doing it?

Sree Iyer

As a rule it was true… One thing is over last 5-10 years small changes are happening… i. e. if a student is going to college for studies, the student loan debt is so high that he/ she doesn’t have a realistic way of paying back that and then start saving to buy a house. So what is happening amongst all families now is that these students are beginning to come back and live with their parents after they do their under graduate education because there is no other source, in a way it is forced upon them. I am not saying it is true for everybody but there is a trend towards that.

Gurumurthy

These are all marginal developments, how many American students are going for higher studies that is percentage of students going for higher studies?

Sree Iyer

Right now everybody has to do an under grad degree rather bachelors degree. One : Two – That is I would say 50% and the other one which misses out are the single families, minorities or where there are immigrants who have just come in so they are not able to get into the system and so on and so forth. This is still one of the highest numbers in terms of people applying to go for under grad education that is going up.

Gurumurthy

See, there are only 28% of American families having husband and wife living with children “Only 28%”. About 21% couples living without children. Parent family is about 20-21% and balance is all……

If you see the rise of single parent families and children and couples with children there is inverse proportion. One is going up and other is going down. See what will happen after 30 years so ultimately if you say single parent families are unable to educate their children’s single parent family are rising. Can you prove it in economics?

Sree Iyer

They get a lot of breaks, though in the sense if you show aptitude the state underwrites a lot of education.

Gurumurthy

So again, it means you are putting burden on the state. See basically you don’t have a self restraining mechanism which says I will sacrifice for my child unless the parent thinks like that it is burden on the state. Unless the child thinks like that, the burden is on state. So how are you going to generate that spirit that is my duty to take care of their house. You can destroy it but cannot recreate it. This is what I think is going to be a terminal issue in the western model f what is known as “A Methodological Individualism” which is foundation of efficient market theory. The problem is with that you are measuring efficient market theory on the paradigm which is failing.

Sree Iyer

What is your outlook on Indian economy in next 4-5 years? How do you see it progressing?

Gurumurthy

See, India will rise because Indian Entrepreneur spirit is on rise. I am not talking about educated entrepreneurship. India is a paradigm of a Uneducated employer and educated employee. Go to Tiruppur, Ludhiana, Patiala etc.., out of 35% largest exporters one half of them is less than 5th standard.

Sree Iyer

I completely believe you, I studied in Hyderabad in Agarwal High School where attendance at school was optional but attendance at shop was mandatory. 3’0 clock after the class we had to go to the shop for collection.

Gurumurthy

RKR institution campus with 30000 students is owned by a person who is 8th standard pass but he is making business out of education

Sree Iyer

Sometimes I think, not educated also helps because you don’t worry about lot of other things that might go wrong

Gurumurthy

You become insecure if you are educated unless you have a fixed income.

Source: performancegurus

Who are Hindus? And is Hinduism even a religion

Some say that it is a culture or way of life, which has some validity as well.

DR DAVID FRAWLEY

 @davidfrawleyved

Hindu as a geographical concept

The question what is yoga and is it a religion reflects the related question as to what is Hinduism and is it a religion?

Some say that Hindu is only a geographical concept and connotes anything Indian, which would quickly end any discussion of Hinduism as a religion. This idea, however, clearly does not work.

Hinduism is a legally-recognised religion throughout the world and has benefits accordingly, like any other religion, including the right of marriage, non-profit status, and the right to establish religious institutions. Those regarding themselves as Hindus in terms of religious identity constitute the most affluent and educated religious group in America along with the Jews, as recent studies have indicated.

Obviously we cannot limit Hindu as an identity to those born in India, as then Hindus outside of India, including Westerners who have taken on a Hindu religious identity, could not be Hindus. Note the Western-published magazine Hinduism Today, which comes out of Hawaii and is written mainly by non-Indians.

While Hindu may have originally been primarily a geographical term, it definitely has taken on a broader religious and cultural meaning. Mahatma Gandhi himself used the term in a religious sense and regarded himself as a Hindu.

Hindu as Sanatana Dharma

If one looks at the ancient literature, the correct term for Hinduism would be "Sanatana Dharma" or the Eternal Dharma, with Shaivite, Vaishnava, Shakta and other groups as its branches. This would identify Hinduism with the Vedic tradition, but in a flexible manner. Most people in the world today tend to do this, regarding, for example, the Bhagavad Gita as the main scripture of Hinduism, though the Gita as a text is older than the term Hindu for Sanatana Dharma.

A case could be made for replacing the term Hinduism with Sanatana Dharma to reduce misconceptions. But, however preferable, that would take much time and effort to accomplish. Hinduism is a legally and academically-recognised religion in the world and the term Sanatana Dharma is not well known.

Yet Hinduism is not a religion like the dominant Western religions, which complicates the discussion. It has no single or final prophet, One God, scripture, institution or code of belief. This has caused some people to say that Hinduism is not a religion at all.

However, Hinduism has probably the world's largest and oldest spiritual and religious literature through the many vedas, puranas, shastras, tantras and modern gurus. It has numerous temples, deities and monastic orders, probably more so than any other religion. Hindu religious festivals like the kumbh mela are by far the largest in the world.

We can perhaps better define Hinduism as a pluralistic religious, cultural and spiritual tradition, rather than try to limit it to the terms that Western religions originally made for themselves. Buddhism is not much different in this regard and conforms even less to the usual Western idea of religion, as it has no God or creator, which many Hindu sects do.

Hinduism as more than a religion

Some say that Hinduism is a culture or way of life, which has some validity as well. Hinduism includes many aspects of culture like art, music, dance and literature. In addition the term can refer to a way of life like the rules of daily living that many Hindus follow.

Some regard Hinduism like yoga as a science of consciousness. Certainly yoga practices of various types are common in all branches of Hinduism. Some prefer the term Hindu Dharma over Hinduism, to bring out more the connection with dharma.

So rather than stereotype Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma in simplistic verbal definitions, perhaps we should just accept the term Hinduism or Hindu Dharma for now - but redefine it in a broader sense as a pluralistic tradition that encompasses religion, spirituality, philosophy and culture. Hindus can choose to practice any part of these, with different Hindu sects having their own emphasis. Even atheists are not barred from being Hindus if they accept the principles of Dharma.

There can be religious or non-religious Hindus, but Hinduism does have an important place among the great religions of the world, whatever name you prefer to give it.

Source: dailyo

India Holds Bill Gates Accountable For His Vaccine Crimes

Christina England

October 5 2014

As Bill Gates faces a lawsuit for the illegal testing of tribal children in India, it appears that his crimes against humanity have finally caught up with him.

A recent report published by Health Impact News has reported that the Gates Foundation has found itself facing a pending lawsuit, due to an investigation that is being carried out by the Supreme Courts of India.

Health Impact News stated:

“While fraud and corruption are revealed on almost a daily basis now in the vaccine industry, the U.S. mainstream media continues to largely ignore such stories. Outside the U.S., however, the vaccine empires are beginning to crumble, and English versions of the news in mainstream media outlets are available via the Internet.

One such country is India, where the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and their vaccine empire are under fire, including a pending lawsuit currently being investigated by the India Supreme Court.” [1]

The Health Impact News article centered largely on a four-page report that was recently published by Economic Times India.

Eager to know more, I investigated their story and discovered that the World Health Organization, the Gates Foundation and two organizations funded by them, PATH (Program for Appropriate Technology in Health) and GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization), have found themselves under fire, after a writ of petition originally submitted to the Supreme Court of India, by Kalpana Mehta, Nalini Bhanot and Dr. Rukmini Rao in 2012, was finally heard by the courts.

The petitioners submitting the petition stated:

“BMGF, PATH and WHO were criminally negligent trialling the vaccines on a vulnerable, uneducated and under-informed population school administrators, students and their parents who were not provided informed consent or advised of potential adverse effects or required to be monitored post-vaccination.” [2]

Young Tribal Girls Tested With HPV Vaccines

The Economic Times India published their report August 2014. They stated that in 2009, tests had been carried out on 16,000 tribal school children in Andhra Pradesh, India, using the human papiloma virus (HPV) vaccine, Gardasil.

According to the report written by KP Narayana Kumar, within a month of receiving the vaccine, many of the children fell ill and by 2010, five of them had died. A further two children were reported to have died in Vadodara, Gujarat, where an estimated 14,000 tribal children were vaccinated with another brand of the HPV vaccine, Cervarix, manufactured by GlaxoSmitheKline (GSK).

Shockingly, the report stated that many of the consent forms used to vaccinate the girls were signed “illegally,” either by the wardens from the hostels where many of the girls resided, or using thumbprints from illiterate parents.

This travesty was not discovered until a team of health activists from the non-government organization SAMA, an organization specializing in women’s health, decided to investigate what had been going on.

According to the report, they were shocked to discover that a total of 120 girls had been taken ill, suffering from a variety of symptoms, including “epileptic seizures, severe stomach aches, headaches and mood swings.”

The Economic Times stated:

“The Sama report also said there had been cases of early onset of menstruation following the vaccination, heavy bleeding and severe menstrual cramps among many students. The standing committee pulled up the relevant state governments for the shoddy investigation into these deaths.

It said it was disturbed to find that ‘all the seven deaths were summarily dismissed as unrelated to vaccinations without in-depth investigations …’ the speculative causes were suicides, accidental drowning in well (why not suicide?), malaria, viral infections, subarachnoid hemorrhage (without autopsy) etc.”

This information is even more shocking when you discover that the organization funding the study was none other than the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, who declared the project a total success.

Kumar wrote:

“According to the BMGF, the WHO, the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, and the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India have all recommended vaccination ‘as a proven and highly effective preventive measure for cervical cancer.’ The project used vaccines that are licensed in India and that have been administered safely around the world tens of millions of times, preventing countless cases of cervical cancer illness and death, ‘maintains a BMGF spokesperson in an emailed response (see GAVI & PHFI create incentives …’”

He continued:

“BMGF’s role in funding the controversial studies, however, has led to many healthcare activists in India voicing their apprehensions. ‘BMGF has to take full responsibility because PATH is funded by them. It is also unethical when people championing the cause of vaccines are the same ones who are also investing in vaccine development,’ said V Rukmini Rao, one of the activists who filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court in connection with the HPV vaccine studies.” [3]

Absolutely, and this is not the first time that these organizations have been caught illegally testing vaccines in developing countries.

Gates Foundation, WHO, PATH, GAVI, UNICEF Behind Chad Vaccine Disaster

In December 2012, in the small village of Gouro, Chad, Africa, situated on the edge of the Sahara Desert, five hundred children were locked into their school, threatened that if they did not agree to being force-vaccinated with a meningitis A vaccine, they would receive no further education.

These children were vaccinated without their parents’ knowledge. This vaccine was an unlicensed product still going through the third and fourth phases of testing.

Within hours, one hundred and six children began to suffer from headaches, vomiting, severe uncontrollable convulsions and paralysis. The children’s wait for a doctor began. They had to wait one full week for a doctor to arrive while the team of vaccinators proceeded to vaccinate others in the village.

When the doctor finally came, he could do nothing for the children. The team of vaccinators, upon seeing what had happened, fled the village in fear.

The original report written in a small, local newspaper called La Voix, the only newspaper to have published the original story, stated that forty children were finally transferred to a hospital in Faya and later taken by plane to two hospitals in N’Djamena, the capital city of Chad.

After being shuttled around like cattle, many of these sick, weak children were finally dumped back in their village without a diagnosis and each family was given an unconfirmed sum of £1000 by the government. No forms were signed and no documentation was seen. They were informed that their children had not suffered a vaccine injury.

However, if this were true, why would their government award each family £1000 in what has been described as hush money?

The only mainstream news channel to have highlighted the plight of these poor children was a local channel called Tchad, which filmed footage of the then-Prime Minister of Chad visiting the children in hospital.

VacTruth has copies of both reports, along with medical and government documents.

Despite this evidence and VacTruth’s detailed and extensive coverage, including highlighting television footage, once again, the vaccine program was hailed a success. To watch videos reporting the story, see the references at the end of this article. [4] [5]

The groups involved with this project were PATH, WHO, UNICEF, and the Gates Foundation. During investigations, it was discovered that the whole project was being run by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

In a press release, the Gates Foundation stated:

“MenAfriVac is a tremendous success story for the global health community. It is the first vaccine developed specifically for Africa, and it proves that global partnerships can develop and deliver high-quality, low-cost vaccines.

Ten years ago, we invested in the Meningitis Vaccine Project,  an innovative model that brought together PATH, the World Health Organization, African health ministers and the Serum Institute of India today, we celebrate the result: a modern vaccine selling for less than US 50 cents per dose with the potential to end Africa’s deadly meningitis epidemics.

We believe that vaccines are one of the best buys in global health. In January, Bill and Melinda Gates called on the global community to make this the Decade of Vaccines. There is no better way to launch this decade than with a new vaccine that will improve and save lives.” [6]

VacTruth can prove otherwise.

Government Inquiry Holds GAVI Accountable for Multiple Deaths

Despite the fact the Gates Foundation call vaccines “one of the best buys in global health,” a government inquiry in Pakistan has found the complete opposite.

In 2011, the Express Tribune published a story stating that:

“ISLAMABAD: A government inquiry has found that polio vaccines for infants funded by the Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunisation are causing deaths and disabilities in regional countries including Pakistan.

The startling revelation is part of an inquiry report prepared by the Prime Minister’s Inspection Commission (PMIC) on the working of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI). The PMIC, headed by Malik Amjad Noon, has recommended that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani immediately suspend the administration of all types of vaccines funded by the GAVI.”

According to the Express Tribune, the main vaccinations in question were the polio vaccine and the 5-in-1 pentavelent vaccine, which were said to be responsible for the deaths and disability of a number of children in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Japan.

The vaccines were funded by the Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunization (GAVI) an organization financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Children’s Vaccine Program, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, the Rockefeller Foundation, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank.

Writing on the official report, made exclusive to the newspaper, the Express Tribunestated:

“The report states, ‘The procured vaccines are not tested in laboratories to confirm their efficacy and genuineness. This leaves room for use of spurious and counterfeit vaccines.’” [7] (emphasis added)

If this is true, then once again the Gates Foundation has been linked to mass vaccination initiatives using untested, unsafe vaccinations.

The Gates Foundation and WHO Labeled Unethical by Medical Experts

In 2012, Ramesh Shankar Mumbai, an author writing for the Pharmabiz website, reported that two medical experts from India had accused the Gates Foundation and WHO of being unethical.

In his report, Mumbai stated that Dr. Neetu Vashisht and Dr. Jacob Puliyel of the Department of Pediatrics at St. Stephens Hospital in Delhi, wrote the following information in their report in the April issue of Indian Journal of Medical Ethics.

“It was unethical for WHO and Bill Gates to flog this program when they knew 10 years back that it was never to succeed. Getting poor countries to expend their scarce resources on an impossible dream over the last 10 years was unethical.”

Pharmabiz.com reported that Dr. Vashisht and Dr. Puliyel had continued their report by stating:

“Another major ethical issue raised by the campaign is the failure to thoroughly investigate the increase in the incidence of non-polio acute flaccid paralysis (NPAFP) in areas where many doses of vaccine were used. NPAFP is clinically indistinguishable from polio paralysis but twice as deadly.”

Pharmabiz.com continued:

“The authors noted that while India was polio-free in 2011, in the same year, there were 47500 cases of NPAFP. While data from India’s National Polio Surveillance Project showed NPAFP rate increased in proportion to the number of polio vaccine doses received, independent studies showed that children identified with NPAFP ‘were at more than twice the risk of dying than those with wild polio infection.’” [8]

The corruption and deceit by these organizations does not stop there.

The Gates Foundation Blamed for 10,000 Vaccine-Related Deaths

In 2013, yet another report named the Gates Foundation and GAVI as being responsible for multiple deaths using untested vaccinations on children from the developing world.

The report, published on the website Occupy Corporatism and written by Susanne Posel stated:

“It was found out through an investigation, that GAVI was using an untested vaccine; giving this dangerous vaccine to Pakistani children shows the lack of empathy associated with these organizations.

GAVI was blamed for the deaths of 10,000 children in Pakistan when they came in and administered polio vaccines that resulted in casualties.” [9]

As we know, GAVI is heavily funded by the Gates Foundation. [10]

So, what was the name of the organization that investigated GAVI and found them using untested polio vaccinations in Pakistan?

According to the Express Tribune article, which I referred to earlier in this article, it was none other than the Indian government, who, upon discovering the shocking truth, recommended the immediate suspension of the administration of all types of vaccines funded by GAVI. [7]

In a recent radio show hosted by Sallie O. Elkordy, Susanne Posel gave her frank and honest views on the whole sorry mess that we find ourselves in today.

Warning: This report is not for the faint-hearted. [11]

Conclusion

It is difficult to believe that, despite the mounting evidence outlining the many crimes against humanity that have been committed by the Gates Foundation, GAVI, UNICEF and PATH, Bill Gates is portrayed as a hero among many.

However, according to the definition of hero in the Oxford Dictionary, the word hero means:

“A person, typically a man, who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.” [12]

The dictionary I used said nothing about vaccinating innocent, vulnerable children with untested and unsafe vaccinations, causing them to suffer agonizing, untimely deaths.

Source: vactruth